To 2010

2010, you were good to us in so many ways. Time together as a family, Little Man officially starting school, Baby Girl turning into a rambunctious toddler, vacation, The Husband and I growing together as a couple.


However, I probably won't remember you for those things, nice as they are. I think I will always remember you for all the health issues, among other things.


And DRAMA. Not people created drama, but the kind of drama that life hands you on a platter and says - "DEAL."


Just to recap: my brother-in-law was in Port-au-Prince during the Haiti earthquake. He was supposed to be staying at the Hotel Montana , but at the last minute was diverted to another hotel which didn't sustain much damage. He lost two coworkers who did stay at the Hotel Montana. It about gave all of us over here heart attacks. Seriously. However, he ended up making it home within a week, and without a scratch on his body. With all of his luggage, to boot. Which seems to be the theme of this year, near tragedy.


After the earthquake, The Husband flew to Miami to wait for his brother to make it to the States. While he was gone, my step mom, who has been my step mom since I was a preschooler, went into the ER. Turns out she had a stroke. She's in her 50s. She spent a few days in the hospital and recovered about 99%, which is terrific. It was just scary, and kind of still is.


A day or two from the time my step mom was released from the hospital, my grandmother, who lives three hours away, was taken to the ER and then placed in intensive care. She remained in the hospital for over a month. We were told on two occasions that she wouldn't make it, and on one occasion we were told to hurry and drive up there as fast as we could if we wanted a chance to say goodbye. Terrible. My mom and I drove the three hours to see her every weekend, and I went alone a few times during the week. This was the reason for my first night away from Baby Girl. I slept in a hospital chair one night. There were trips afterward to help clean grandmom's house and stock her freezer with food. She's doing so much better now, she's still on dialysis, but is hanging in there. Again, and near tragedy.


Then about the time my grandmother was back at home, we found out that my mom had cancer. I wrote about it here. The uncertainty, the surgery, the LONG recovery. She had her six month scan a few weeks ago, everything looks good. She'll have regular scans for the rest of her life, but that's ok. Yet again, a very stressful event with the potential to become a tragedy, but it didn't. I know personally it gave me a few gray hairs.


We had a few months of quiet, during which The Husband's family cam to visit, and we all went to the beach together for vacation. It was a good time, a fun time.


Right after our beach vacation, I realized that I wasn't feeling so well. I was nauseous all the time and severely bloated. After a few weeks of this I went to the doctor and found out that my gallbladder wasn't working and it would have to come out. Not only that, but due to the radioactive nature of one of the diagnostic tests, the anaesthesia from surgery, and then having to take pain meds, I would have to stop nursing Baby Girl. That was a tragedy in and of itself. The surgery went well, the recovery was not fun, but thankfully I'm feeling much better.


Two days after my surgery The Husband had to take Little Man to an ENT appointment, and it turned out that he needed his tonsils out. So...we scheduled another surgery. I still wasn't fully recovered from mine when we were back in the same surgery center. Little Man's surgery went well, and he's sleeping so much better now. His whole mood and behavior have improved, evidently he was very sleep deprived from his enlarged tonsils.


Now my 89 year-old grandfather is in the hospital with pneumonia. They are expecting him to recover, but it's still hard on him. I hope he makes it home soon. Baby Girl has been sick with a cold (which has pretty much been her constant state since I quit nursing, go breast milk!) and she gave it to me (also pretty much consistent with the past few months), so I haven't been able to see him this week.

I don't write this as a "poor me" post, or to lament all that we've been through. When I think about it all together or see it in writing, it truly astonishes me that we've experienced all this in one year. Earthquake, mother having a stroke, grandmother nearly dying, mother with cancer and surgery, surgery for me, surgery for Little Man...it's a lot. We're still grateful, we're still happy, we're taking a big sigh of relief to put this year behind us! Really, we pulled through adversity and we're better than ever. We learned what is and what isn't important. We've grown closer and stronger. Growth may be painful but it sometimes is necessary.

So a year of, thankfully, near tragedies for us. I am well aware that it could have been a whole lot worse. Had any one of these incidences taken a different turn and 2010 would have been a very different year indeed. I am so very thankful that they didn't, and thankful for the good times we had. I'm hoping that 2011 is calmer, quieter, and HEALTHIER!!

Magic and breathing easier

It's December 28th and I just put away the Christmas tree and most of the decorations. I'm not usually so eager to have Christmas put back in the attic, but that tree was taking up precious storage space for toys. While I'm somewhat sad to see it gone, I can actually physically breathe easier now that we have a lot less visual clutter.

Ahh...

I did leave a few things up - the construction paper garland the kids and I made, the half-eaten gingerbread house, a couple of smelly good Christmas candles, and a few twinkly lights. We'll let the kids enjoy the Christmas magic a few days longer.

And on another note, Christmas magic...It's amazing how the littlest things are magical to the kids. Even after weeks of having them around, the twinkly lights and garland bring a big excited smile to the kids' faces. They keep begging to eat the gingerbread house, and I let them pick pieces off throughout the day. It doesn't taste good at all, but Little Man and Baby Girl haven't seemed to notice. Snow globes, I don't even know what to say about those! Grandma Monger gave each of the kids their very own snow globe last year, and this year as well. She wants to start a collection for them. The little ones go crazy for it. Shaking them up, watching the snow fall, listening to the tinkling music. Thank you, Monger.

And yet on another note, Monger left yesterday to spend a few weeks in Spain with the other branch of the family. Can I say that I'm a little jealous? She'll spend several days in Spain, then they're all off to the Canary Islands for a week-long vacation, then it's a few days more in Spain before coming home. Yes, I'm just a little jealous. Not only of the adventure, but of getting to see the family. I would love so much to be able to see my husband's side of the family more than once a year, and for my kids to grow up with cousins as best friends. Maybe one day....I'm not sure what we're going to do for this long without Monger. Little Man sincerely thinks she's going to be gone for two days, not two weeks. He's already asking if he can go over to her house to spend the night, and I'm looking at two weeks without help during the week. It can be done, I know, but Monger helps us out so much! Again, thank you, Monger. It's true what they say, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder."

And that is all I have to say, I'm off to vacuum and settle into a good book!

Best Christmas Yet

What I loved best about this Christmas, and in no particular order except stream of consciousness...

Making gingerbread house, Little Man and Baby Girl eating most of the candy before it could make it onto the house.

Little Man saying "I want that, and that, and that, and that. Mommy, I want ALL of it, everything on here!" (said while waving his arms around to indicate "everything") when toy catalogues came in the mail.

The 90th annual S.'s Christmas Eve party, which for me marks the beginning of Christmas each year. I love, love, love this party.

This year, I made my grandmother's, Memom's chex mix and Chinese New Year cookies for friends, teacher's gifts, and for those that help us every week - the mailman and garbage collectors. It's a tradition of Memom's that I'm helping to carry on for her.

Setting up the Dickens Christmas village this year. Memom gave me a piece for Christmas and for my birthday every year for about 5 years. I was 10 or so when she started, and not excited at all about it. But I love it now, and am so thankful for her forethought.

How my Memom is so close to my heart during Christmastime. I love her and miss her so much. Not a day goes by during Christmas that I don't think of her, it was her time of the year. She loved it so and gave and gave to others.

Little Man was really into Christmas morning this year, I have so many pictures with a genuine, excited, big smile, wide eyes, and a face full of wonder.

Putting Santa's cookies back in the bag, minus a few pieces which were crumbled up on Santa's plate, after the kids went to bed. Anticipating the excitement when the kids noticed that the cookies were gone and all that was left were crumbs.

Fixing up Baby Girl's baby crib with linens. Hot gluing ruffle underneath and knowing how much she would love it.

Seeing Monger cry at one of her presents, a puzzle made from a picture of all five of her grandkids playing in the sand at the beach from summer vacation.

Snuggling on the couch with the Hubs and Baby Girl on Christmas evening.

Missing Little Man like crazy after he went home with his Monger Christmas Day.

Realizing on Christmas Eve that I was content and fulfilled, and I really, truly didn't want for a thing, except to be with my family for the next two days.

Being filled with the spirit of Christmas, so much that it brought me to tears, realizing how very blessed we are in this life.

Actually being able to take our time opening presents on Christmas morning. The kids loved it, Momma and Daddy loved watching it.

Baby Girl and Little Man opening presents together, they literally helped each other open most of the gifts. There was nothing but cooperation and excitement for each other. They love each other so much and genuinely enjoy each others company. I am so thankful they are friends.

Little Man playing Santa, he knows his name, Baby Girl's name, and the words "mommy" and "daddy" by sight.

Little Man getting excited when he found a present with his name. I have a picture of him standing with a big present, he's pointing to his chest, has a happy look on his face, and is saying, "It says to ME!"

For your entertainment

A few entertaining tidbits from the kids...

This morning Baby Girl found some loose change lying around, and I think she liked them, because she decided to put them down the front of her footed pajamas, which she can zip and unzip by herself. So she's walking around jingling, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out where this jingling was coming from. Finally I understood, she's such a cute mess.

Also, her new word is "oatmeal," only it's the word oatmeal like you've never heard before.

"Meatmo."

Yep, she says "meatmo" for "oatmeal." As in, "I want meatmo," or "I ate it all meatmo." Again, she's a cute mess.

And from Little Man, or as we call him lately, "Bubby," (Baby Girl started calling him Bubba a long time ago, and we may be from the South, but I couldn't stomach the idea that a name like Bubba might stick, so we turned it into Bubby, which is a little better.) Anyway, over the last 24 hours or so, Bubby and I have had several detailed conversations about the exact definition of what it means to poop your pants.

Really?

Yes.

I seriously think I might have a future lawyer on my hands, my oh my.

I'll spare all the details, but his definition of pooping your pants differs slightly from mine, and he's trying to convince me that his definition is correct. Needless to say, we've had more than a few pooping in your pants incidences lately. Well, according to me, that is. If you ask Bubby, he's been an angel and has not pooped in his pants.

Nobody prepares you for this kind of parenting situation.

Bubby also now knows how to do jumping jacks, push ups, and sit ups. They are as coordinated as one would think four -year - old jumping jacks, push ups, and sit ups would be. It's ridiculously cute.

A cookie by any other name

Little Man and Baby Girl got into the habit of eating a granola bar every morning for breakfast. For a long time I was okay with it, I mean, it was better than a doughnut or super surgery cereal, right? But we've come a long way on our healthy eating journey, and while we don't always follow the right path, we really, really try to. So I came across a recipe for homemade, chewy granola bars. Granola bars without refined sugars, artificial ingredients, and preservatives, all right! The ingredients are simple, oats, natural peanut butter, coconut oil, and whatever mix of added ingredients you want - coconut, nuts, dried fruit, dark chocolate, pretty much whatever sounds good to you. So I made some - they were delicious. I ate them up. Baby Girl ate them up, too. Little Man, however, didn't take to them. They were "different" from his beloved granola bars, and he didn't like that. I kept offering them to him, and he kept refusing them. So one day I decided to call them something different. Something like,

"Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie."

Guess who ate it right up?

So it's been awhile..

Never mind that I haven't written in months, oops.

This morning the cutest thing happened. We've recently moved Baby Girl into her own room. That's right, Little Man doesn't share his room with her anymore, and neither do The Husband and I. For the first time in over two years I don't have a pack n play with a sleeping baby in it at night. It's bittersweet, but mostly sweet.

Anyway, this morning Baby Girl woke up first, so I went upstairs to get her. She's so cute in the mornings, as soon as she sees you she says, "Hi, Mommy," or "Hi, Daddy." Adorable. So this morning I had just finished changing her, and Little Man walks into her room through their adjoining bathroom. Baby Girl sees him, jumps up, runs over to him, gives him a big bear hug, and says, "I love you, Bubby!"

Little Man just looked at her, but that's besides the point.

I've got a sweet baby girl!

Little Man's Favorite Sandwich

Well, it's very apparent that I've lost my blog mojo. That makes me a bit sad, only because the reason I blog is so I can remember some of the cute, sweet, and funny things my kids do on a daily basis. Well, I'm writing this tidbit down for posterity, so maybe when Little Man is 40 years old we'll be laughing about this - his new favorite sandwich, which is......

Bread, flat yellow cheese (cheddar), and mustard. No ham or turkey, mommy.

I am as surprised as anyone, but he ate it up!