2010 was quite a year for our family. For Thomas and I, it was our first full year as parents. It was a big change from our DINK lifestyle referenced in the title of this blog. We started this blog because as we look back on the past year, the memories aren't as clear as we'd like that to be. That's due to a combination of sleep deprivation and too many exciting things to remember. Here's a quick recap of some of the highlights month by month.
January:
Thomas went on his first business trip as a Dad. Emily and Connor survived!
February:
Connor started day care. Emily went back to work.
March:
We celebrated the wedding of our friends Jaimee and Jason.
April:
Connor discovered his feet.
May:
Thomas turned 30. We celebrated with a barbecue.
June:
Connor took swim lessons.
July:
Thomas and Connor took advantage of early morning wakings by watching the 2010 World Cup.
August:
We took our first family vacation to Breckenridge, CO.
September:
Emily and Thomas celebrated their 6th anniversary.
Connor progresses from army crawling to regular crawling.
The kitchen remodel begins.
October:
Travel to Atlanta for Elaissa's wedding.
Connor's first plane trip is a success!
November:
Connor's first birthday and first illness.
Connor is a walker!
The kitchen remodel is (mostly) finished.
December:
Emily turns 30.
Connor says some words: "agua", "Mama", "Dada", "uh-oh". (Editor's note: as I typed this he also said "up".)
This is a digital version of a photo book I made capturing the highlights of Connor's first year.
Friday, December 31, 2010
This Christmas
This Christmas we found out that Christmas is really more fun with kids. Especially this kid.
Santa brought Connor his own chair and a toy airplane. He also received many gifts from friends, family, and Mommy and Daddy. But none of those could top the wonders of the Swiffer. That's right. Dozens of special presents, and Connor just wanted to play with the Swiffer. I had taken it out to sweep before the grandparents arrived. He played with it for a good 30 minutes. That's like a year and a half in toddler time.
We had a fun brunch with Grandma and Grandpa Gaffney. Connor slept through most of it but woke up ready to open more gifts. They spoiled him as grandparents do, but he kept playing with that Swiffer. After the grandparents headed off to work, we loaded up for Christmas Part 2 with Grammie and Grampy Gutheinz. Connor had more presents to open from Grammie and Grampy but again he went for that tissue paper.
You may be wondering why we buy him toys at all when cleaning supplies and tissue are so cheap and abundant. He did get around to playing with his toys eventually. After dinner and a nap, he opened his presents from our friends Don and Mary (is anyone else overwhelmed by the amount of presents this kid got?) Rebecca had selected this Fridge Farm for Connor. He loved it. Finally, a toy to trump tissue paper.
He also enjoyed playing with his other gifts but we were too busy trying to make sure that he didn't eat tissue paper to take pictures of those. You can also see that by day four of the Christmas Extravaganza, our cute holiday-themed outfits had been depleted.
Connor's cousin Elliott brought his family over later in the evening to visit. Last Christmas, Connor slept in his sling while Elliott explored the house. This year they were able to play together (or next to each other). They were both thrilled by Grammie and Grampy's Star Wars tree and bobble heads. Connor was playing too hard to wear pants.
By the end of the night, we were all pooped. We headed home to get some rest. Even though it was exhausting, we all agreed it was the best Christmas ever. We are truly blessed in so many ways.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
The first days of Christmas
We had a great Christmas filled with friends, family, and late nights (which means 9:30 these days). The celebration lasted for four days. It was exhausting but lots of fun. Last Christmas we were exhausted with our one month old baby. It's all sort of a blur. This year, Connor didn't quite understand what the fuss was about but he loved all the activity. There was so much going on that I'm going to have to break it in to two posts.
On the 22nd, we spent the evening with Jaimee's family and our friend Nancy. Connor and Lily had a great time. It was Connor's first time opening gifts since he was so sick on his birthday. He didn't really figure out how to open the gifts, but man did he love the wrapping. He loved the tissue paper: rolling in it, throwing it, carrying it around.
This was also the first time Connor and Lily really played together. It was so fun to watch them rolling around in the dogs' bed and playing on Lily's ice cream truck. You can read all about it on Jaimee's blog. The pictures are great!
Our friends Lucas and Michelle were in town for their biannual holiday trip to NM. We spent the evening of the 23rd with Lucas' family and some friends. Connor really wanted to play with Lucas and Michelle's boys, Robert and Thomas. Sadly, he can only toddle where these boys can flat out run. He only got knocked over once before he found a corner full of baby toys and some pretty ladies to flirt with.
By Christmas Eve, we were surprised that Connor wasn't cranky as we headed out for night three of festivities. We spend most Christmas Eves in the Ridgecrest area at our friend Elaissa's party and then with the Romeros for New Mexican food. Connor seemed to be wary of the party guests at Elaissa's but that lasted about five minutes. He was soon running around and grinning at everyone he could see. He took a few minutes off to chug some water and enjoy some Elaissa's famous perogies. I tried to get a picture of the perogie but he stuffed it in his mouth too fast for me.
Before we left we took our annual picture in front of the tree.
At Carol and Vince's place the fun continued...and so did the eating. Connor got to see his cousin Kai. He loves being with big kids. Connor also had a mess of presents to open from all his aunts and cousins. After posole and gifts, we decided to brave the cold weather and walk through the luminarias. Kai helped push Connor's stroller.
We got home very late on Christmas Eve and put Connor right to bed in his Christmas jammies. Thomas and I stayed up to make last minute preparations for Christmas day and open one gift. It was a great night!
On the 22nd, we spent the evening with Jaimee's family and our friend Nancy. Connor and Lily had a great time. It was Connor's first time opening gifts since he was so sick on his birthday. He didn't really figure out how to open the gifts, but man did he love the wrapping. He loved the tissue paper: rolling in it, throwing it, carrying it around.
This was also the first time Connor and Lily really played together. It was so fun to watch them rolling around in the dogs' bed and playing on Lily's ice cream truck. You can read all about it on Jaimee's blog. The pictures are great!
Our friends Lucas and Michelle were in town for their biannual holiday trip to NM. We spent the evening of the 23rd with Lucas' family and some friends. Connor really wanted to play with Lucas and Michelle's boys, Robert and Thomas. Sadly, he can only toddle where these boys can flat out run. He only got knocked over once before he found a corner full of baby toys and some pretty ladies to flirt with.
By Christmas Eve, we were surprised that Connor wasn't cranky as we headed out for night three of festivities. We spend most Christmas Eves in the Ridgecrest area at our friend Elaissa's party and then with the Romeros for New Mexican food. Connor seemed to be wary of the party guests at Elaissa's but that lasted about five minutes. He was soon running around and grinning at everyone he could see. He took a few minutes off to chug some water and enjoy some Elaissa's famous perogies. I tried to get a picture of the perogie but he stuffed it in his mouth too fast for me.
Before we left we took our annual picture in front of the tree.
At Carol and Vince's place the fun continued...and so did the eating. Connor got to see his cousin Kai. He loves being with big kids. Connor also had a mess of presents to open from all his aunts and cousins. After posole and gifts, we decided to brave the cold weather and walk through the luminarias. Kai helped push Connor's stroller.
We got home very late on Christmas Eve and put Connor right to bed in his Christmas jammies. Thomas and I stayed up to make last minute preparations for Christmas day and open one gift. It was a great night!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Connor's first birthday
Connor turned one on November 24th. We didn’t do much to celebrate on the actual birthday because we were preparing for Thanksgiving and attending the Thanksgiving recital at his day care. His birthday party was planned for Saturday. On Thanksgiving evening, Connor got sick. He was a little better but Saturday things took a turn for the worse. He spent the entire day being held by mom. Needless to say, he was not in the mood to party. Rather than cancel the party, we filled a prescription for antibiotics and hoped for a recovery. We had many guests from out of town and didn’t know when we’d reschedule. Many of Connor’s family and friends came to watch him eat cake and open gifts. Instead they watched Connor lie listlessly on my chest. He did rally for a bit. Just in time to celebrate the Korean tradition of Toljabee. I don’t know much about the origins of this tradition but every kid in Thomas’s mom’s family has put on the Korean garb and reached for the item that predicts their fortune. Thomas wore this same outfit when he was one. The items on the table were a pencil, string, and money. The pencil symbolizes intelligence, the string represents long life and the money is (obviously) wealth. After a moment of quiet contemplation, Connor went for the pencil.
We’re hopeful that he’ll use this intelligence to earn his wealth and use it for health insurance to prolong his life.
After the Toljabee Connor made angry faces at everyone while refusing to eat cake and then went back to laying on mom for the gift opening.
A sick baby does not make for a great party but we were grateful for all the people who came to share the special day. The good thing about having a baby born in the week of Thanksgiving it’s easy to find things to be thankful for.
Welcome to our life
Connor just turned one. A year seems like such a short amount of time but so much happened in the twelve months after November 24th, 2009. So much with so little sleep. We find ourselves with a one-year-old baby and foggy memories of how we got here. This blog is our attempt to document important (and not-so important) milestones in our lives. Years from now – when we’re still tired and busy – we’ll be able to look back on the things that we meant to remember but forgot because we had to buy milk.
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