Thoughts about 2010 (two months late)

Note - I started this post at the beginning of January. Guess I should finish it...albeit two months later!

A year ago Lyle and I were the proud parents of a little boy who in many respects was still just a baby. Last year Jack could sit up under the Christmas tree - as I remember we have a photo of him in a Santa suit to prove it - but that was just about it. In a nutshell, 2010 witnessed the growth of our son into a toddler, which has been a life-changing experience, as well as the growth of our family with the birth of Thomas just before Thanksgiving. Here are the highlights of what I remember about the year...



January: We had gone through a bad phase for about two months starting in November where Jack would wake up in the middle of the night and be awake for about 2 hours for no particular reason. I remember just hanging out with him, usually from about 3 a.m. to 5 a.m., because he just seemed so wide awake, and I didn't know what else to do. It was the month of January where we started letting him "cry it out," and this changed our lives radically! It took only three nights, and we went from being insomniac parents to happily-sleeping parents. The first night Jack cried for 25 minutes, and I was miserable. The second night he cried for 10 minutes, the third night for 5, and by the fourth night, he stopped crying as soon as we shut the door. It was like a revelation for us. To give credit where credit is due, I have to say that it was Lyle who wanted us to try this, and he held me to it. My only regret afterward was that we didn't do it sooner.



February: We celebrated Jack's first birthday, and we wondered how a year had really gone by so quickly! Aunt Sarah and her family came to our house to celebrate. Jack also had a party at Primrose, too. The best story about his birthday was that Jack swiped a cupcake from one of the other kids at his party. Their high chairs were right next to each other, and the little boy was just holding his cupcake and looking at it. Quick as a wink, Jack swiped it and scarfed it in his mouth (they were little cupcakes, I should say). The mothers, teacher at Primrose Miss Mays, and myself all got a huge kick out of it, mostly because Jack's appetite was already well-known to his friends. This just proved it!



March: I got my belated Christmas present - a weekend for the two of us (me and Lyle, that is) for a weekend to Charleston. GloMom and JoPop came to stay with Jack. While it was difficult to be away from him for a weekend, it was N I C E to get away for a bit. The only downside was that when we got back, Jack had not only taken his first step, but he was taking about 3 or 4 at a time. I was so bummed to have missed it, but at least I know when it was, since I remember our weekend getaway was March 5-6.



April - June: In April we learned that we were expecting a baby (again!) I think that's why these three months were a blur. We were just in shock for a while trying to absorb the news that - Holy Cow! - before the holidays we'd have two little kiddos in the family to look after!

July: We went to Asheville for a wedding at Biltmore. It was one of Lyle's friends from Arkansas who was getting married on the estate grounds. It was a beautiful outdoor ceremony, the weather was perfect, and we had a night out sans Jack. That was a fun weekend. Later on in July we flew to Texas for another wedding (Lyle's cousin Rachael). There were some record-setting days of heat even for Texas while we were there, but it was good to see the family, and I managed to catch up with some old friends in Houston as well.

August: We began to get super-excited about Amy's family moving to Georgia! Woo hoo! They live in Waynesboro now only a few miles away from Sarah's house. Now we can travel for two and a half hours and see everybody, which is awesome.

September - October: Nothing memorable here, except an absolutely wretched trip to the beach, which I would honestly prefer to forget. Note to self: if you think your toddler is coming down with an ear infection, DO NOT TAKE HIM TO THE BEACH. Other than that fun getaway, the only thing I remember about these two months was that I was tired and cranky a lot as I got bigger. Being pregnant while chasing a toddler around...honestly, it's for the birds. One bright spot was that we started attending the Grove Church just after Labor Day. After four years of searching, I think we might just have found our church home.

November: Thomas Oliver (named after his great granddaddy Mahaffey) arrived on November 10. He weighed in at 8 pounds even, so not quite as big as Big Bubba, but he was also 5 days early, whereas Jack was 10 days late. Everything was so much easier this time...recovery, taking care of baby, knowing what the heck to expect...just everything. He did not look at all like Jack, which was probably a good thing, because I kept wanting to call him Jack at first, anyway! He was tough for the first few weeks, but then settled down into a very laid-back, super sweet baby. We celebrated a very low-key Thanksgiving at our house with Amy's family. We did not have a turkey, but I don't really like turkey, and it's a lot of work considering I had just had a baby about two weeks beforehand. It was a fun day.

December: We celebrated our first Christmas morning with just our immediate family - just me, Lyle, Jack, and Thomas. It was weird to be the only grown-ups in the group, but fun to realize that we're our own little family now and we can make our own traditions. Jack did not "get" the concept of Christmas this year, but he totally got the idea of presents! He loved his racecar set, his tool bench, and his new stuffed dog, appropriately christened, "Big Doggie." Later in the day, we went to Waynesboro to celebrate Christmas again. It was a really fun few days, and we even got snow, which is crazy in Georgia in December! One of my favorite memories from Christmas was going over to Sarah's house one night, and everyone (all 13 of us!) piled on the giant sofa and watched Despicable Me together. It was so fun to laugh together and hear all the children laughing, too. If you can't tell already, this was one of my most cherished Christmases that I can remember in a while.

So...that was our year in a nutshell. Better get it down before I forget it. We are blessed. Life is crazy these days with the children being small, working, taking care of the house, etc. etc, but it is a good kind of crazy. I don't think I would change a thing.