7 months, 1 week

It's been a strange, roller coaster of a week in the Lorenz household-

Pretty much everyone who reads this know that Luke works for a large Fortune 500 company that houses its HQ in Minneapolis (think red & khaki), and if you've been keeping up with the local news, you know that today they announced that they were laying off 1,700 people from their Mpls and Brooklyn Park HQ campuses.  Last week, we found out that big layoffs were imminent, but we didn't know just how close to home this would hit.  Luke has survived other massive layoffs over the years, but this one has been the most terrifying for our family. He had to watch all of his upper management get laid off throughout the last few work days, not knowing what his future was with the company.  He spend the majority of the weekend updating his resume and his LinkedIn profile.  We would joke about how it was our last weekend with any money to cope with the stress of potentially being down to just my income until Luke could find something else.

Fortunately, we found out today that Luke's position is safe (for now), but who knows what will actually be in store for his team.  Any continued positive thoughts regarding Luke's employment would be greatly appreciated.

While having the stress of not knowing whether or not Luke would have a job by the end of today was difficult, Max and the lovely weather made things tolerable.  Through all of this, Max has made us smile, and has helped relieve tension.  Despite losing an hour of sleep on Sunday due to DST, having more sunlight at the end of the day has improved our dispositions, and has allowed us make sure we get more walks in.  Our dogs have been a bit stir crazy, so it's been a relief to either wear Max or throw him in the stroller while we walk.  I can't even begin to describe how much I have missed walking.  right before Max was born, and until I went back to work, I was walking at least 3 miles a day.  When it got dark and cold out, it became very difficult to motivate myself to move around.  Now, I'm back to walking, and I've signed up for Zumba on Saturdays!

Another positive thing from this week is that my dad has had a chance to see Max much more frequently.  He's been over the last two mornings to switch vehicles with my mom, so it melts my heart to see the pictures my mom takes of him reading to Max, and the stories she tells me of him feeding him his pear/cinnamon oatmeal, or giving him his bottle.  My dad never had a son to raise, so I'm happy that I've been able to give him the chance to help raise his grandson.

I can't actually think of many new developments in Max's world from this past week.  He's now working on mastering the art of pulling up on EVERYTHING.  He's learned that if he puts his palms on a glass surface, he can lean into it and manage to still "pull" himself up vs trying to pull himself up using a wall.  He also has started to enter the world of separation anxiety, especially when it comes down to sleeping in his crib.  Little man doesn't realize it, but in just a couple of weeks, it will be spring break, and we are going to make a real attempt at sleep training.  He sleeps great when he's in bed with us, curled up in the crook of my arm, sometimes from 7pm-5am (with one or two dream-feeds), but the bed is quite full with him, us, and the 180lbs worth of dog that weasel their way in nearly every night.

Max attended a staff meeting last week for my night school, and he did a great job being passed around to all of my coworkers, and even spent some time being held by my boss while he finished his presentation.  The only time he made a peep was to alert me that his diaper was wet, and when he was hungry.  I was very proud of him!

I'll try to do a photo dump sometime this week, so be on the look out for a picture post soon!

Enjoy the lovely weather this week!