11 months

Almost one year - I need to get busy planning his birthday! The highlights

- Carter is starting to understand that objects can go inside other objects. It is very fun to watch him carefully remove a block and then put it right back in the bucket. Really cute.
- He carries around a big truck his grandma brought him that he can also put stuff in the back and take it out and put it back in and take it out and put it back in.
- Loves walking - will take your finger and walk back and forth. Most of the time though he pulls himself up on furniture and then takes off across the room without help. No place in the house is out of reach now - and he loves practicing this new skill all the time. He also grabs onto the Jeep on the ExerSaucer and walks around in circles dragging the jeep with him.
- Carter is a ham - he's totally social. He'll walk up to folks and get right in their face to force them to look at him. He loves playing with other kids and doesn't understand when they get scared (because he's running to them to talk or wants to give them 'kisses' with his teeth!)
- Teething - Is working on his 8th tooth right now.
- Is starting to get adventurous with finger food. Is still very picky about texture and takes some coaxing, but last night he liked to munch on noodles, cheese, peas, and tomatoes.
- Favorite toy is a wooden alligator on a string he pulls behind him walking up and down the hall.
- Talking a lot - now has entire conversations with you in jibberish, he likes to join in on any conversation in person or on the phone, and can say up/down (one word more like p-dow) in addition to truck, dad, mom, dog, annika (an-ka). sometimes will mimic words right after you say them.
- Still not loving the sign language we are working on. Will use all-done but the rest he understands but won't use himself yet. He's already trying to say the words we want him to sign.
- Started to throw temper tantrums when he doesn't get his way. Starts screaming, face all red, body all stiff, pulling at your arm or finger hard and arching his back so you can't hold him. This is going to be fun...

I quit

I've decided to quit Amazon at the end of September. I'm feeling pretty good about my decision to stay home with Carter and focus on our family right now. It was a surprisingly freeing decision - while I could figure out how to make it work and my part-time gig is pretty nice - I choose to step out of the paid work force. I was really scared that if/when I did make that decision I'd close a lot of doors in terms of future opportunities to work on something compelling and exciting. Let's face it - we work in a culture where mom's aren't really valued and taking time off of work for a long period of time is suspect. The other risk is that I've developed an expertise in an industy that is rapidly changing and while I've focused on building a general management skillset - I'll have to sell myself pretty agressively in the future. And of course as soon as I made that decision I got a ton of external director and vp level job opportunities at local companies that were almost too good to pass up. But it was easy in a way because I don't want to work full-time. Carter is way too much fun and having two working parents is really stressful. I'd rather simplify our life and enjoy this time as a family. As soon as I made the decision I felt much better - I'll let the future take care of itself.

I'm also excited about leaving Amazon. I thought I'd miss work more than I did - being on maternity leave gave me some perspective on how crazy Amazon really is. It isn't a fun place to work anymore and I'm ready for a change - I've been working in online marketing at Amazon for almost 6 years.

I didn't anticipate how challenging motherhood is either. Not only am I caring for Carter (nanny), but managing the family finances (CFO), coordinating our activities/volunteering/planning for fun stuff, cooking (chef), running errands, cleaning the house, and taking care of myself has been crazy. Caring for Carter has required me to be the most creative I've ever been. Plus I'm having a blast.

So come October I'll have time to reconnect with friends and take care of my family.