Accounting

Here we are already, at the last day of 2010. Explaining this to Mateo has been so difficult that I've given up. I guess it's hard enough to understand the changing of days or weeks as a four-year-old, much less months and years, or both at the same time! What he really knows about the New Year is this collection of facts: that we will have chocolate chip waffles and bacon for breakfast, that we will take down our tree and gingerbread house, and that we will turn the calendar to a new page. I guess that's all one really needs to know, eh? Living in the moment and all that.

It's been an interesting year. I've now been home with the kids full-time for almost a year and a half, starting in August 2009, although it's been longer if you don't count the year I worked half-time (ha! at least, that's what the job description said) from 2008 to 2009. Being with them has been wonderful and challenging and amazing and pretty much every emotion in the book. I've never had a job as all-consuming, but with bosses who give kisses and tantrums instead of performance reviews. Or, perhaps, those are my performance reviews!

The kids are flourishing, which is wonderful to see. Honestly, I still have to pinch myself sometimes that we even have kids at all, and the fact that they are two and a half and four just blows my mind. For every person who said so sincerely when they were babies, "Enjoy this time!", that I wanted to strangle, I say, touche! The baby time really does go by so fast, and pretty soon you have these little people on your hands. Anyway, I feel so privileged to be able to be there for all their milestones, big and small, and to be a part of their days every day. I certainly spend a lot of time being frustrated and giving timeouts, but I still wouldn't trade it for anything.

And now for the person who makes it all work, literally: Sacha! Last year, she was busting her butt with a class of extremely challenging kids. By this point in the year last year, she had things rolling along and had gotten behavior management to a science. It's actually a huge testament to her skills that her class from last year is now wreaking havoc in sixth grade. No one can handle them, meetings are being called, extra teachers are being brought in...and all for kids that Sacha had well in hand all by herself last year. She never gives herself enough credit, but she is an amazing teacher.

Starting this fall, she has been ecstatic to have a much more mellow class. This enables her to actually teach more of the time, which is always a good thing. One more good thing she does: she leaves work at work. When she comes home, she gives her energy to our family. At this point, it often means that she takes a nap to refuel herself and Drizzle, but then she's with us and she's with the kids and she's present. I appreciate that quite a lot, because I know many working spouses out there never really disconnect from work.

I've had quite an up and down year personally. I've continued to struggle with anxiety and mental health issues, which has been hard, but most of the pieces of feeling better are in place now and I'm finally starting to feel like I'm on the road back to myself again. On the flip side, I am beyond overjoyed to be expecting another baby. Having #3 has been my dream ever since we had #2 and I can't believe the little one is due in just a few months. I am so excited to hold her and meet her, I can hardly stand it! Mateo and Talia and even Yarn seem to feel the same way. Everyone wants to say hi to Drizzle, to kiss Sacha's belly, to talk about being a big brother again or a big sister for the first time.

This year, as with previous years, we've been blessed with family near and far, old friends as well as new friends, and with more playdates and get togethers than we can count. We could hardly be more lucky in that department. It has seemed that as some friends drift farther away, new ones materialize, and that we're slowly building a community of people we see a lot, people we see occasionally, and others in between.

In addition to that, we've seen my sister more this year than we have any right to expect (thank you, Auntie Edlyn), and my brother and Megan more frequently than we have any right to expect, too. They've spent many a part of many weekends with us, even though the weekends are the only time they have together at this point. Thanks, guys! With my mom coming up frequently for business and family stuff, my dad coming up for football, Sacha's parents coming to visit, my grandma and aunt, uncle, and cousins living in town, and our family going to visit both sets of parents...well, we have a lot of family around us and for that, we are grateful.

Finally, this was a year of a lot of traveling for us! We wanted to prove that we could travel with two small kids before we tried it with three, and I think we accomplished that. In addition to trips to the Bay Area and Washington, we went to Arizona, southern Oregon, and Mexico! The Mexico trip, in particular, was spectacular. And, the journey home was so incredibly difficult that the fact that we made it all in one piece is proof to me that we can do anything now, travelwise.

All in all, with all its ups and downs, it has been a good year. This coming year will probably have even more ups and downs, as we experience the birth of Drizzle and the adjustment to being a family of five...but I'm hopeful that it will be a year full of love, lots of love, and that that's how we will remember it.

With that, goodbye to 2010 and hello to 2011. May you be all we hope you will be.