2010 was a whirlwind! There were so many things that happened this year that were impactful in my life.
Zack was born the last day of 2009, so we brought him home in 2010. He has been such a fun and exciting adventure. We've had all the fun milestones of year 1 and it's been s blast. First smile, first laugh, rolling over, crawling, first word (it was Mama :)), solid foods, FIRST BIRTHDAY!, etc.
Going from 1 kid to 2 is so much different. Emma used to get our undivided attention, money, and love. Sharing has been her lesson of the year for sure. I've noticed a huge difference in how quickly she's learning things. For example, she's been able to write her name since she was 2, but didn't learn to write any new words this year. Granted, I can't tell if she's just messing with my head or not, because for the longest time she would count 1 4 6 7 3 5 9 10, and she would laugh, and then all the sudden she started to count right, so I'm thinking she may one day soon just start writing a book or something. Emma also has 4 scrapbooks for her first 3 years of life....Zack doesn't even have one, I'm not even sure we took half of the number of pictures we took of Emma in her first year.
Also in April, Emma turned 3. 3 was definitely the hardest year so far. She can reason like an adult, but is as sweet as a child. That my friends is a dangerous mix. I'm really excited for her to start preschool this year, mostly because she only has 1 friend that she hangs out with right now, and she is completely obsessed with marrying him!
In May we found out my dad had brain tumors. It didn't impact me all that much right away, because he'd had cancer before and my parents told us that he had 2 years, so I thought we had more time. It wasn't until he lost all his hair and couldn't function the way he always had before that I realized there was no way we had 2 years and by then, it was too late to increase quality time, he was too sick to do anything. My dad being sick pretty much blurs the months of May through September. there were a lot of firedrills, running to the hospital, driving to northern AZ because my parents tried to take one last vacation, and it didn't work out. Finally in September I got a call from one of my mom's friends that was the beginning of the end. I decided it was time to stop playing around. Dad was in the hopsital, and he wasn't going to go home, and I knew it. So I went to the hospital, talked to all the doctor's, and finally got up the nerve to tell my mom that he needed to go to hospice, not rehab, and helped her to realize he didn't have much time left. A week later, he died. In that last week I made sure Emma got to say goodbye. She was the light of his life and seeing her loose her Papa John was the hardest thing I've had to deal with in my life. He changed when she was born. He became my babysitter 3 days a week, and everytime she was around, he was so happy. The day I brought her to say goodbye, she crawled up in his lap and just snuggled with him. He wasn't talking anymore and couldn't really communicate, but he wrapped his arms arond her, laid his head on hers and they just snuggled for a good few minutes. I took her to see him 2 more times that week, the last day she saw him, she brought him the cookie bouquet she made (it was the cutest thing I'd ever seen), he of course couldn't eat it, and she was kind of creeped out because he was so skinny, and unable to move, so I decided not to take her back at that point. She knew he was dying and she wouldn't see him anymore, she accepted it. A lot of my family came for the funeral, some of them I'll probably never see again, especially the ones on my dad's side of the family. It was really good to see them all. We spent the next couple weeks after he died cleaning out my mom's house, she couldn't stay there anymore, so she moved in with me. Originally it was just going to be for a few weeks, becuase she was going to move into a condo, but I really didn't want her to live by herself, and neither did she. So she's staying with me until her sister moves out here in a couple years, then they'll get a place together :).
It's really nice having my mom around, she's always been super helpful with the kids, and having her here makes it even better :). I love hanging out with my mom, and knowing that she's not alone takes a huge load off.
I got back involved with the church this year, and started working with the youthgroup again. Camp was a blast and I can say for certain that that is the minitry God wants me in. At least for now.
We decided to become a 1 car family and get out of debt after a huge hail storm in PHX totalled one of our cars. It's been surprisingly easy, and if we ever are in a jam, my mom's car is generally available. Now, all our credit cards are paid off as well as most of our other debt, and we should be all done by the end of the year!
My best friend had her first baby in 2010! I got to go visit them in October the week of her birthday, it was so much fun, and Gabriel is SO cute! I can't wait to see him grow up!
Another best freind of mine moved to Portland this year! It was so sad to see her go, we've been friends since high school and have built a friendship that will carry us through life. She came back for Christmas and we got to have dinner, so that was super fun.
I learned this year that I can be domestic! My sister in law taught me how to make cookie bouquets and I fell in love with them, the last one I made was for my dad's nurses a couple days before he died, I really need to get back into them.....
We had our first Thanksgiving and Christmas without dad, everything wa at our house this year, which totally works for us, since we can have my family and Ben's at the same time. Zack's birthday was the hardest for me, because dad didn't get to see Zack turn one.
2010 was probably the year with the most change for me in a very long time, but life's gotta change, and there's always a reason, and I'm excited to see what 2011 has in store for me :)
Jenni, I love the blog. This is a really great post. You will cherish all the memories you wrote about here in a couple of years when things are less clear in your mind.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing it.
Christie