Better late than never, right? Now that we're over half a month into January...
I've fleshed this year-in-review post out more than past ones because of how MIA I've been this year. Don't worry, I've included plenty of random pictures/screenshots from off my phone for each month, for those of you who just want to scroll through and look at those. ;)
JANUARY
One of the biggest events for us this month was Doug getting Lasik surgery. He came out of the surgery shaking from adrenaline and said that the pain from the clamps that held his eyelids open was the worst pain he's ever felt. He could not touch/rub his eyes for 3 months while they healed (he used Q-tips to gently clean around his eyes) and also had to wear goggles when playing sports so his eyes wouldn't get hit. Now he's glasses-free!
The other notable event in January was purchasing a Nintendo Switch, which led to both Doug and me spending the majority of our free time playing Breath of the Wild. That game suited my tastes PERFECTLY, so I was completely addicted. It was bad. Fortunately, the obsessive gaming only lasted this month (because then I "beat" the game and was able to move on with my life...)
Not much was new with the kids. We visited the kids museum at the mall in SLC. Nicole started Sunbeams at church, and quickly fell in love with it. Austin started climbing (and getting stuck) on things other than the stairs.
FEBRUARY
Nicole got her first experience handing out valentines to friends in her dance class. I cut hearts out of pink construction paper, she colored them, and then we attached lollipops to them. Nicole LOVED handing those out!
On the flip side... I was in poor mental/emotional health this month. One of the biggest factors: my hormones actually had a chance to bottom out after weaning Austin, since I didn't get pregnant again right away. Apparently my brain does NOT function very happily without those crazy hormones, so I was rather depressive from February-May. I spent a lot of time sitting on an armchair staring at a wall, obsessing over how nobody wanted to be around me, and being VERY short-tempered with my kids. I was worried on more than one occasion that I might need therapy. In reality, I probably just needed to get my hormone levels checked and treated.
The other factor was potty training. Nicole had constipation issues even before we started potty training, and that made the process SO hard. Now she's completely accident-free (both day and night) but I can't even begin to convey how hard the process has been on all of us. I seriously can't even begin to convey...
Austin was diagnosed with RSV this month, and it progressed to bronchiolitis and really messed up his lungs/breathing. He had to spend a week inhaling meds from a nebulizer to help him breathe (10 minutes hooked up to the nebulizer per dose, several times a day), and then every time he got even the slightest stuffy nose since then (which happened every month or two), a wheezing cough would come with it and we'd have to break out the nebulizer again. He actually came to really appreciate his nebulizer and meds; he knew he'd breathe better after using them.
Man, February just kicked our butts. One fantastic thing, though: my exercise habits were on point this month. At least an hour of moderate/intense exercise, 5 days a week. It helped with the stress.
MARCH
March was pretty chill. We started introducing Austin to nursery at church this month (he loved it from the get-go). I finally read my first Brandon Sanderson book (Elantris) and immediately proceeded to the Mistborn trilogy, and then the majority of the reading I've done throughout this year has been catching up on all of Sanderson's "Cosmere" books. I got my hair colored for the first time in my life. The weather got warm enough to venture outside with the kids. Doug was so patient with all the stress/low-hormone-induced mental breakdowns I had. (I kid you not, one moment I would be fine, and the next moment something would trigger me and I would be on the armchair by the window, either sitting in the fetal position and staring at the wall, or sobbing hysterically.) Next time I wean a baby, I'll be on the lookout for the hormonal drop-off.
APRIL
This was a crazy month! It kicked off with my birthday, and I attempted to make a cheesecake for the first time in my life. It was gloriously delicious!
Partway through the month, my 3 college-age siblings came to stay with us for a week between semesters, and my mom drove up with my youngest sister to join us for several of those days. Lots of people. Once they were all gone, I had half a day to get towels and sheets washed before my father-in-law arrived to spend a week with us. After two weeks straight of SO many house guests, this introvert was feeling a little drained! Nicole and Austin were in heaven from all the attention they got..
MAY
Doug and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary towards the end of this month. We kept it super chill: Foxtrotting around the cultural hall of our church building, followed by ordering the thickest, largest milkshakes ever at a local joint (seriously... we ordered small milkshakes, and they were HUGE), and going car shopping in anticipation of getting a van down the road.
I know I never **officially** announced this anywhere online, but... I also found out I was pregnant again towards the end of this month. Nicole caught on pretty quickly because Doug and I were too excited about it to avoid speaking about it in front of her. Fortunately, she didn't spill the beans to anyone. Once I got through the initial "first trimester hormone surge" my mood improved dramatically. I don't think I had any more depressive bouts after June.
Visiting the SLC temple
Riding the carousel at the zoo
JUNE
Nicole had her dance concert this month, which she ADORED being part of. You can read about it in this post. Then she had swim lessons the next week, which she kind of hated. Okay, "hate" may be too strong of a word to use, but she wasn't a big fan. I was at the height of first trimester hormones & mood swings at this point, not to mention my relationship with her was a little raw from the ongoing potty training struggle, so I felt very frustrated with her when her friends handled swimming with no issues, while she clung to the teacher half the time. I felt so bad for my attitude that week and spent the whole summer making amends to her for my impatience. I spent more days at the pool than I had in the previous 5 years combined. By the end of the summer she was swimming around like a pro, and I was much more patient with her.
JULY
We discovered that Austin is kind of afraid of fireworks. We also discovered that he can sleep through them just fine, as long as he has some white noise going. Hallelujah for white noise machines!
July was a chill month. Lots of swimming and splash pads. A trip to the ice rink. Staying inside to avoid the heat. At the end of this month, we took a little family vacation to a "dude ranch" with my mom's side of the family. It was actually rather enjoyable! You can read more about that here.
AUGUST
At the very last minute, Nicole got accepted into a private preschool that we had been on the waiting list for since springtime. After a whirlwind of getting her officially registered, she started her school experience! And of course, since the universe really *loves* me sometimes, I ended up with some type of stomach bug on her first day of school. That didn't stop me from taking her, but you can bet that I felt gross the whole time I was driving the car. Thank heavens for the valet drop-off service they offer so I didn't have to get out of the car.
Did a couple hikes... one of them being with the kids to Battlecreek Falls, despite poor air quality from all the fires.
Oh, I also became an official member of the "Mom Van" club this month! I have to say, though... I love my van. I reeeeally do. The automatic doors are magical, and I love having so much space to store groceries, strollers, luggage when we travel, etc.
First day of preschool!
Nicole swimming along in the lazy river all by herself!
From our hike to Battlecreek Falls
SEPTEMBER
We went to Disneyland again! 2 days in Disneyland, 1 day in California Adventures. It was a love-hate experience, honestly. Partially because I was pregnant and got exhausted SO easily. We'd get the kids settled in bed, and then I'd be out like a light before the 9:30 fireworks even started. I also have the tendency to want to control everything and plan everything out, so I'd go into "grumpy mode" whenever a wrench got thrown in our plans.
Nicole ended up having a melt-down in the park every morning around 9:30 or 10, and another one every afternoon around 3:30. We kept her well fed/watered, so it wasn't a hunger issue... I'm guessing it was because of how exhausted she was! She didn't sleep well the night before we left on the trip, or the first night in the hotel, because she was SO dang excited about going. Add all the walking to that, and you have one ultra-tired preschooler. When she wasn't melting down, though, we enjoyed ourselves. Austin only had one melt-down that I remember (at dinnertime on our last evening). I reeeeally wish we had taken a double stroller instead of the little single umbrella stroller. Lesson learned? Haha.
Nicole's favorite rides were the carousel, Peter Pan's Flight, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Ariel's Undersea Adventure. I'm pretty sure she went on that carousel 6 different times. I couldn't tell you what Austin's favorite ride was; he seemed to enjoy everything equally. I was bummed to miss out on all my favorite "big kid" rides (#pregnancyproblems), but enjoyed the Halloween treats I got my hands on. Doug was a saint and missed all the good rides right alongside me, though he *did* get to take Nicole on Gadget's Go-Coaster.
Poor kid... this was the only nap he got out of all 3 days. He aaaaalmost fell asleep while we were waiting for "Frozen: Live at the Hyperion" to start, but he's got a thing for Elsa, so you'd better believe that he was wide awake the moment the music started.
OCTOBER
This is my favorite month... and I felt like we were dealing with sicknesses for half of it! Nicole got a week-long flu bug during the very first week of the month and had to miss all preschool/dance classes that week. The poor girl was so distraught about having to miss out. She ate barely anything for several days and spent a lot of time sleeping and watching movies.
***Skip the next paragraph if you get squeamish from the mention of blood***
On top of that, I got food poisoning that same week, AND skinned the bottom off one of my toes when I tripped and hit the toe on the step leading up from our garage into our house. Blood everywhere. Nicole had just thrown up right before (in her car seat, yuuuuck) and was sitting in the tub with vomit in her hair while my toe gushed blood into the kitchen sink. I had to wrap the toe up in several paper towels (it was soaked through in a matter of seconds) so that I could hobble over to get my phone and call for help, while making sure Austin didn't come walking through the thick trail of blood I left across the kitchen floor. I kid you not, there were pools of blood, not just drips. Ah, that first week of October was crazy.
***
The rest of the month wasn't so bad. We had a visit from my grandparents partway into the month. We went to Cornbelly's the day before Nicole started throwing up (so we didn't have too much fun because she was dragging her feet that evening, and we didn't know why). We went to Jaker's Pumpkin Patch later in the month, and we had much more fun there because everyone was healthy. We went to the zoo, and made several trips up into Provo Canyon to see all the gorgeous fall colors. We also went to a fun trunk-or-treat activity right down the road from us, and I think we'll make it a yearly tradition. They had a pretty legit little haunted house put together, and Nicole enjoyed it so much that she requested to go through a second time. Atta girl!
We had "Peter Pan" themed family costumes this year. Doug insisted that Captain Hook was too much work/money to put together, so he was Michael instead. He was certainly the warmest out of all of us!
NOVEMBER
I got a ridiculously painful sore throat the day before Halloween, and it lasted a whole week! I woke up on November 1st to discover I had completely lost my voice. Doug's company holiday party was the next evening, so I sat at our table barely saying anything to anyone because any time I tried, they could barely hear me. I felt so antisocial, haha! On the upside, the food was amazing, and we got a free concert from country singer Josh Kelley.
My brothers and one of their roommates came to stay with us over Thanksgiving break. I contributed a handful of homemade dishes for our Thanksgiving dinner with Doug's family. Two pies, stuffing, a sweet potato dish, and rolls... holla!
Oh, and Austin finally got upgraded to a "big boy bed"! Doug wanted to get him switched out of the crib before he turned 2, like we did with Nicole, but I dragged my feet because I was afraid the transition would affect his wonderful sleeping habits. I needn't have worried. He still sleeps 11-12 hours per night and takes a 2-3 hour nap almost every afternoon. When he wakes up, he stays in his bed and talks/sings to himself until someone comes in to get him. Yes, you read that correctly. I don't know how long this magic will last, but I'm not complaining.
DECEMBER
Nicole had been counting down to her birthday since, well, forever. Her very first ever birthday party happened on December 1st with a bunch of her little friends. A dozen kids in one house (with only 3 adults to manage it all) was no joke! The girls all had fun making glow-in-the-dark bracelets, decorating Minnie Mouse sugar cookies, eating donuts, and running around like crazy banshees. Well, half of them ran around like banshees while the other half played with Barbies. Guess which group my children were a part of... hahahaha.
The Christmas season is magical with kids. They got excited over every Christmas display they saw. They quickly picked up on lyrics to Christmas songs. We ate lots of yummy treats. Nicole made sure that we did our Advent calendars every morning.
Nicole's preschool had an open-house-style Christmas party for all the family to attend, and it was there that the kids got to meet Santa. We ate the most delicious soups and got to hear Nicole sing some Christmas songs that she had learned in her music workshop. We visited Santa at the mall later in the month, too. Both times, Nicole made sure to let Santa know that she wanted sunglasses and a new book.
Christmas Eve/Day were a hit. Nicole was so pumped about Santa, which made Austin pumped even though he didn't quite know what he was getting pumped for. The kids decorated a couple sugar cookies to put out, we dined on ham and mashed potatoes (per Nicole's request), and Nicole only came sneaking out of her room "to get water" once.
Then she slept in until 8:00 on Christmas morning.
I wasn't expecting her to sleep in! Austin was awake almost a whole hour before her because a coughing bout woke him up, but he chilled in his room (singing, babbling, and playing with his stuffed animals) for a good 40 minutes before I went in to get him. Nicole was out of bed like a flash of lightning once she DID wake up, though, and she pretty much thinks that Christmas is the best thing ever now. She wished me "Merry Christmas" 3 different times as I got her tucked into bed that night. She's already asking how many days there are until the next Christmas. Ooooh, girl, you're going to need a little patience!
************
My siblings stayed with us for a few days before they headed up to Rexburg for school, which the kids LOVED. Now we just have about a dozen quiet days left until baby girl arrives! SO excited for newborn snuggles!
No comments:
Post a Comment