Tonight, for the first time at home, Abby and Emma are sleeping in the same room.
We were cautious and slightly anxious about the very real possibility of an extended transition period tonight and I suspected that Abby, who was very excited, would keep Emma awake. While reading Red Riding Hood and Little Lisa I was unforgiving about the least infraction. One of the last things I told Abby was that tonight was ‘a good test’ to see if they could be in the same room. I told her that ‘if she was a good girl, and things went well’ they could sleep in the same room sooner than later, with the delivery of the new bunkbed. When Emma looked her way just then, Abby buried her head, hiding in her pillow, and said confidently to my back,

I can do it.

She was right and I needn’t worry.
Only minutes later you could hear Abby cooing

Just lay your little head down. It’s okay.

and then she carefully implored of us (in a way very different from the typical bedtime routine)

Can someone PLEASE come in here and help Emma be Superbaby?

‘Superbaby’ is what we call Emma’s uncoordinated attempts to wrap the blanket as tightly around her shoulders as she can. Somehow the shrink-wrapping soothes her, and she sleeps. If you know Abby, it was the same way she needed a hand to hold.
After the Superbaby assist, we didn’t hear another peep.

Much later, I customarily looked in on each sleeping girl.
This night was different, this night was both of them in the same room.
Tonight, their trusting, haphazard, sleepy sprawls and really just their togetherness, was a Superbaby around my stomach and another layer was laid on the pearl of our family.

The girls, as sisters together, have done that and I like it.

Emma has the advantage of a big sister who has taken swimming lessons.
She is more content in the water than any youngling I have seen.

She likes to lay back in the bath, literally up to her eyeballs, and just hang out there listening to the world through water. If she catches a wave in the nose large enough to disturb her peace she rolls like a gator, face down in the tub, and promptly sits up without so much as a sputter.

Here we see them in their native habitat.

I have been a little bit preoccupied with a lot of other little things that I have put blief in the backseat lately.
Just to keep you up to date I will briefly run through my preoccupations

Redesigning my office
I am simplifying my office in a way unprecedented in the greater Zimmerman household. I have noticed that I keep a decently clean house at work, papers stack up but they are easily re-stacked. I also keep a pretty clean car, a few junky things appear but they are easy to remove. My office and my garage are utter messes. The one major difference I see between my office and these other places is the volume of horizontal surfaces available for ‘stuff’. When there isn’t any left, I create more so I can stack more.
When the space becomes so choked with ‘stuff’ I am left with two options.
1) clean it up (major undertaking)
2) make do with less horizontal space for more stuff
I invariably do the latter based on the requirements of Major Undertaking.
So, my answer is to redesign my office in a way that minimizes un-necessary horizontal space. My thinking is that if I don’t have a place to set stuff down I will either put that stuff away or throw it away. Hopefully I won’t have to get rid of my floor.
My desk and some limited bookshelves are going to have an industrial look. I will post pics when I start using my new office.

Reworking my resume
It is always a good idea to keep on top of one’s primary means of communication with the job world. Never know when you will need it. I am working on an Information Architect’s resume to show how I apply what I know and feel about information access and usability to my mouthpiece. My goal is to be an Information Architect by the time I am 40. Yikes.

Homeowners Association Newsletter
This is a quarterly thing. I enjoy putting it together and the members of the association are thrilled to have it done by an enthusiast/professional.

All Seattle Web Design
Good source of extra cash. Fun work.

Soccer and Biking
Good physical stress relief.

Getting Things Done
I have recently been introduced to an organizational concept called Getting Things Done (GTD). So far the precepts seem tailor made for the overloaded, 21st century, techno-quasi-geek, family-man, Zimmerman mind. Guidelines, hints, and principles are discussed that may be applied in a number of ways to suit your personal style. There are also some accessories such as the Hipster PDA and the Getting Things Done with Gmail (650K PDF), that I am working on integrating into my own day.

I don’t think that my fundamental problem is that I try to do too much, although I might be swayed, but not likely. I am frequently torn between the time I choose to spend doing things that are fun, things that bring in money, things that aren’t fun, and anything family. I think my priorities are most often in order, but following through with my priorities only leaves the time between 22:00 and 02:00 to get any work done. I am getting too old to sustain many nights on 3-4 hours of sleep so I am in organizational mode.

I will keep you apprised of my progress.