Saturday, January 3, 2009

It's a New Year: 2009

It's already 2009, if you can believe it. I hardly can.

2008 had it's ups and downs, but overall it was good.
The most amazing thing, of course, was the birth of my daughter in July.

I now have a 9 year old, and a 7 year old. It's so cliche, but the time goes so fast.

Max, my oldest, is such a great kid. He is smart and funny, he's really at one of my favorite ages. He's not a little kid any more, but he's not quite into the pre-teen age. He's still a kid, but his understanding of the world is so much wider and has more depth. He's a lot like me, his interests bounce around. He gets really interested in one subject and that becomes his intense focus for a few months, then it moves on to something else. I'm 31 and I still do that.
This year his main interests have been Zelda, pirates, and Pokemon. He is, of course, interested in other things at the same time, and builds on his interests out of those things.

Miles is now 7, just turned in December. I have to say I am glad 6 is over, from what I hear it's a universally difficult age. He's wonderful, such a sweet, kind child, and he is SO much like his father. He is fascinated with electricity, taking things apart to see how they work, he loves physics and Rube Goldberg devices. He also loves geology.

They are incredible kids, and I love them so much. They amaze me, and inspire me. They are so loving, and caring, and just perfect.

Maddie is 5 months old now, and holy crap! She is just the best baby ever! I am in awe of her every day. She is just the absolute picture of happy baby-ness. She is bouncy, smiles at everyone. She is sitting assisted, still no teeth, has very grabby little hands, LOVES to chew on paper, drools everywhere. She is such a lovely little person.

Chris and I are celebrating 6 years of our relationship this year in February. I am still incredibly happy to have this wonderful man in my life. We have our issues, sometimes more than other times, but overall things are good, solid, and strong. He is the best partner. Just tonight we went out to dinner, and as always, he insisted on holding Maddie and letting me eat with my hands free, telling me he knows I am here all day with her and how he just wants to make sure I have the chance to enjoy my meal without juggling her.
He is also just madly in love with his little girl. He is an incredible father, he loves to show his daughter off, it's adorable. Most of the time when we're out, he just carries her around. I ask if we want to take the stroller. Usually it's a no, I'll just hold her from him.

He is also a wonderful step-parent to the boys, and he is there for them, to tuck them in at night, to put together their fiddly toys (Chaos Tower, criminy!), to play Legos with them for hours, to show them new things, to make them laugh, to take them out to play. They've had their moments in feeling out their relationships with each other this year, and I know step-parent relationships will have their own unique hurdles. I try to let him figure that out as much as possible, and I know they'll grow their relationship stronger and closer in the coming year.
When we got married 3.5 years ago, Chris made vows to the boys as well, and he took those just as seriously as his vows to me. I love him all the more for it.

I was pregnant for over half of the year, and pretty much miserable. I had never imagined such a taxing pregnancy! I am glad I won't ever have to do that again. The end result was worth it a million times over, of course, but yeah, DONE with that noise.
I am now out of shape, by far the biggest I've ever been, and feeling crappy about it. I am having a hard time getting motivated, but I am getting there.

I am home with Maddie for the time being, and I am enjoying it. I am looking forward to getting some things figured out with regards to my future at this point, some plans in place for when the time comes.
I have been trying to teach Maddie how to drink out of a bottle or sippy cup and so far that has been full of fail. She will chew on them, and finds them novel, but honestly has not a clue what to actually DO with them... I'll keep trying, and we'll hopefully get it sooner rather than later. I would like to be able to leave her so Chris and I can have a date, and so that I will have a little more in the way of options for my time.

Ok, enough with the hurf durfing, and on to some pictures!
(ARGH! CLICK ON THEM TO SEE THE WHOLE PICTURE!!!!! They got cut off! Too hard to go back, would have to redo the whole thing and I don't wanna!)















No comments: