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Gracie pic

Be very excited that I was able to figure out enough html to get this pic posted.
Yes, Gracie is in my shower playing in the water with all of her clothes on. A good substitute for playing in the water, when it’s still cold outside, and she’s going through a phase where she’s afraid of the bathtub.

My first teleseminar!

I just had to congratulate myself on my first teleseminar — yay!

There was a bit of weirdness because only one person was on the call (the rest did not attend since the call was being recorded), but the attendee was a wonderful women who gave me positive, uplifting feedback. I celebrated by taking myself out to lunch, ordering not only a sandwich, but also Chips and a Cookie — and reading a non-work, non-intellectual novel for 45 minutes. How luxurious.
I now sit at the computer, take a deep breath and pause before I start plunging ahead on next week’s teleseminar materials, financial analysis for private clients, paying payroll taxes, and a Get Acquainted appointment with a prospective client this afternoon.

No, it never stops. But, I am making progress.

And the cat’s position has been usurped.

Poor Adia the cat. The famous cat, once the center of the Weinstein household, petted by clients, babied by her mommy and daddy, praised as the most beautiful cat in the world, has been regulated to a new position. No longer the center of the universe and the baby of the family, Adia is now just a cat.

The biggest difference has been how my husband treats her. She was his baby. He was always telling everyone at work about Adia’s latest talents, requiring all to acknowledge that Adia was the supreme cat in the universe. Now, that fatherly pride is requiring his coworkers to acknowledge that Gracie is the smartest and most beautiful toddler EVER (yes, he even demands this of other people with kids …). Adia is just a pet, and is only discussed in relationship to Gracie (does “the cat” like Gracie, does Gracie chase “the cat” - Adia has even lost the privilege of a name in these conversations).

I, of course, feel guilt. I don’t spend the time playing with Adia that I used to — and even worse, I have forgotten to feed her until I am annoyed by her walking all over me (and feed her mostly to stop the harrassment!).

But Gracie LOVES Adia. Gracie’s first word was Cat. She chases her around, tries to hug her, and pets her nicely (most of the time). Adia has a love-hate relationship with Gracie - she loves the attention, and looks at tolerating Gracie’s attempts as an investment in the future — but cannot stand Gracie suddenly screaming at a high pitch to see how high Adia will jump.

Another terror plot foiled?

As I sat down to give Gracie her breakfast bottle, CNN reported that a group of terroists in the UK were arrested — they had planned to carry regular liquids onto flights from the UK to US and mix them to create a bomb. Now, flights in the US are on alert, and no liquids, gels, or key fobs are allowed. Glad that no one in my family is flying today.

This brings up all of my leftover feelings from September 11th - mixed with my mother-bear protectionism of my familiy and my daughter. What a different world we live in. Before September 11th, terrorism was something that did not happen here. Now, I interact with the news in a completely different way — when I watch the conflict in the middle east, I wonder what it would be like if someone was dropping bombs in my neighborhood, and blowing themselves up in my local Starbuck’s. Not that unrealistic. When I fly in a plane, I think about if I did not come home to my family because someone crashed the plane.

All this reminds me - we really do need to finish our estate plan. I am constantly getting on clients (especially those with young children) about not having their estate plan finished — yet we still have not finished our living trust. I do have a powers of attorney, healthcare directive, and a will, but we have not finished the entire project. Took some time for us to make decisions about a guardian and successor trustee — but now that is decided, I need to finish the project and get the documents executed and the trust funded. A major who-doctors-the-doctor problem.

Meanwhile, life goes on. Today’s project is to obtain supplies to baby-proof the kitchen drawers. Gracie somehow became tall enough (overnight?) to pull a razor-sharp knife out of the utensil drawer this morning and wave it around the kitchen. Ack!