Garden of Words

The Baby Factory: The Wall

About eight months ago, Nikole ordered some swank vinyl stencils for the nursery from a French company -- some brown, wavy branches and a handful of blue birds. True to form for us, we've talked an awful lot about putting them on the wall of Thea's room.

Today, we tackled the redecoration project!

The Baby Factory: The First Thanksgiving

We took our little Pilgrim over the river and through the woods to spend the afternoon with both of her grandmothers yesterday. Nikole decked Thea out in a cute li'l dress with festive leggings, and we picked up my mom (Thea's Omie) and headed to Chester for dinner at Nikole's mom and stepfather's house (Mema and Papa Price).

It was a very low-key event, which meant that Thea remained the center of attention most of the day. She enjoyed her traditional (plain) sweet potato while the rest of us overindulged. And then we all plopped down on the floor and watched her roll around the room.

Thea hanging with her Omie.

Racing Mema to the blocks. If only she could actually crawl!

It's me! And my name! And I'm wearing a Pilgrim dress!

I love Thanksgiving dessert!

The Baby Factory: Down with the Avacado!

As the series of photos below demonstrates, Thea had mixed reactions to the mighty avocado. Word on the street is that the green-skinned lump of flesh is so stocked with essentials that man can actually live on avocado alone. But not so our girl.

Almost two weeks into the world of solid experimentation, and Thea has force ranked three foods:

• The Sweet Potato: Thea gives the orange tuber an A+ and sucks them down without much encouragement. They turn her poop a lovely blend of orange/brown. And all that fiber!

• The Explosive Banana: While she likes the taste, and they don't seem to trigger a rash on her hyper-sensitive skin, Thea finds that bananas ferment as they navigate her digestive tract -- and emerge from the other end with a mighty roar. She gives them a C+ for now.

• The Might Avocado: The taste isn't exactly what she's looking for in a wonder food, though she'll reluctantly dig into her avocado paste if her waiter makes enough funny faces. Thea throws a tepid C in the direction of nature's miracle food.

Up next: We'll be testing out apples and green beans in the week ahead. Stay tuned!

This is going to be exciting!

I can almost taste it!

Oh, man. I'm going to hurl.

Recess in the Recession: Getting Clarity, Going into Action

Over the span of two weeks, I've wrestled with and wavered between the notion of a quick return to the corporate world and the idea of starting my own business.

I say idea because it has never been a dream.

In fact, all I ever wanted to do until about five years ago is write. As a former journalist, I entertained dreams of becoming a foreign correspondent and inking rich narratives of my overseas travels. That was back when print media was still king, the Internet was a curiosity and long before I dove into the world of community development, facilitation and leadership coaching.

After walking out of my last place of employment for the final time on November 12, I resolved to be curious and open about my next path. There were several corporate jobs aligned with the work I have grown passionate about, and I quickly submitted my resume. But I also began scheduling dozens of meetings and conversations with people across the community.

Over two weeks, I learned a lot.

One thing I learned is that most corporate jobs in leadership development or organization development in the Richmond region would involve a significant pay cut from where I had been most recently. Combined with the fact that professionally many of these jobs would be a step or three backward from what I had been doing, and you had a difficult sell.

Nikole and I talked a lot about the perception of stability and security offered by corporate work. If that perception had ever been real, it became less real when my 12-year career with my last employer -- engaged at a highly strategic level, and responsible for supporting a dramatic shift in the corporate culture -- vanished beneath my feet. And anyone looking at the economic landscape who feels optimistic about the permanence of corporate support positions is a bit of a fool.

The more we talked, the more I explored, the less certain I became that the fences and whims of a mid-level, tactical role in a corporation made sense.

Which meant an exploration of the alternate path -- going the self-employed route. Don't call me a consultant. I don't plan to consult with people for a living.

Over the same span of time that wooed me away from the promise of a corporate Sugar Daddy, I began to receive signs and signals that I was ready to take the plunge.

Synchronicity, my wife called it. Good timing, I said.

One day into unemployment, I found myself having coffee with one of the region's biggest boosters. We talked, we clicked, we've bounced around ideas by email ever since.

Two days into unemployment, I accidentally attended a meeting of the Virginia Leadership Association, a group of nonprofit community groups focused on leadership development, and met a handful of incredible -- and incredibly supportive -- people.

A week into unemployment, I spoke to more than a hundred people about the role of trust and leadership in our region's future.

A day later, I was sitting in a cafe chatting with the director of one local organization when the program coordinator of a second organization approached and asked if I would speak at their upcoming December retreat.

By the time I made a decision to chase this self-employment path, I had a half-dozen potential chunks of work ready to chase.

Now that I've started down this path, I suddenly realize what an absurd amount of work there is to do before I get to far into the business of doing business. I guess that's why they invented December.

Recess in the Recession: Health Care

When I started working at my last company way back in (Dare I write it?) 1996, they had just raised the premiums for employees from $25 to $50 for individual coverage. It's a private company, and it was small enough and profitable enough back in the day to charge employees next-to-nothing for health insurance.

Over time that changed.

It changed partly because the company grew substantially, partly because health care premiums skyrocketed in the years since I started, and partly because social expectations changed and the company kept up -- employees generally expected to pay more for health care coverage. When I left, I was paying just over $300 a month for medical, dental and vision care for myself, my wife and our daughter.

Two weeks ago, after falling victim to the dreaded reduction in force so popular these days, I began looking at our health care options. They weren't pretty.

Ultimately, Nikole and I realized that we could either continue my coverage from work through COBRA for more than $1,200 a month (and stop paying our mortgage), or we'd need to sally forth and find our own health care insurance.

So we did. We sallied forth. And while we didn't settle on the cheapest policy, we did find one that wasn't much more than what I had been paying.

Because my company agreed to write us a check for two months of COBRA coverage, we could skip COBRA entirely and essentially pay for eight months of coverage. We decided to continue COBRA for one month primarily because I had some expensive dental work that needed to happen, which our new policy won't cover for six months.

As I write this, I realize that there are millions of people without insurance -- including several close family members of mine -- and millions more struggling to pay monthly premiums for the most basic of care. Our situation is different, but it will still be difficult. Essentially, our health care coverage is now the second highest bill we're going to pay each month.

Because we have a seven-month-old daughter who has some minor health issues that require additional care, we believe it's worth the extra outlay. That may change with time.

For now, I think, we're simply relieved to have resolved this one issue.

Recess in the Recession: Setting Up Shop

Exactly two weeks of spinning in the world of unemployment and the pathway seems pretty clear. I'm starting the process of launching my own LLC.

The Baby Factory: Baby Banana Face

Sweet Potatoes = A+. Bananas = C-. Tomorrow, we try avocado.

The Baby Factory: Close-Up and Personal

Happy Family

Worth it all.

The Baby Factory: Pop Pop Loves Thea

Thea and her great-grandfather had some heart-touching bonding time this weekend.