We've been having a lot of fun around here lately, just enjoying life with little girls. On days that Travis goes to work but I don't, I usually open my eyes to the face of a beautiful girl or two asking to snuggle with me in my bed. They climb in with blankets and stuffed animals and snuggle with me until Travis leaves for work. Then we eat breakfast, where Audrey eats an unfathomable amount of oatmeal and raisins, and finishes off the PBJ crusts from the sandwich that Emily makes, all on her own. It's a pretty awesome way to start off the day. Emily and I generally get a good solid chunk of time to snuggle together in the afternoon, and it's really fun to read with her and point out words that she knows. She WORKS hard, though, in her play, writing her favorite letters and words, counting things, thinking hard all the time. She's really hard to keep a step ahead of. I watched Audrey count out three pieces of meat tonight at dinner, and then promptly drop them on the floor. Exasperating, except, what 2YO can count that well?
This may seem like a little, nitpicky thing, but I can see it growing into something that makes my life a lot easier as the girls grow older. They're starting to actually talk nicely to each other in order to resolve conflicts!! In one day, I saw each girl resolve something by settling down and asking the other nicely for whatever it was the other had stolen. It is so satisfying to see that all that endless yammering I do about using words and whatnot are actually starting to show results!
I've already started in with Braxton-Hicks contractions. Baby is really lively at different points of the day, and Emily especially loves to poke my belly and feel her sister wiggling back at her. She has all kinds of ideas about what Baby is thinking or feeling, and it's fun to hear her verbalize all those thoughts. I'm feeling pretty slow and lazy these days, and consuming just a ridiculous amount of food. I've decided that I'm not going to really care about weight gain so much, this time around, although I'm pretty much on track with what I did with my other two pregnancies. It'll be much more satisfying to watch what I eat when I can exercise, and actually feel good about my figure instead of just making it less awful. I'm a blimp - so what??
And apparently it's the way to be. Yesterday, I heard of two more co-workers who are expecting this summer/fall, to go along with two others that I talk with often and several others who I know in passing. We're reproducing like crazy. :)
I spent about an hour this afternoon calling around to other in-home childcare providers, and it is really, really hard to find people. I thought the kicker would be finding someone who takes part-time kids and has openings, but I can't even get people to answer the phone! And a lot of people are either in little, icky-looking houses (according to google maps) or townhouses. So do I put up with the dogs and naptime issues where we're at, or risk switching?? I've got two potential places to check out, so I hope one of them turns out to be perfect. Otherwise, I guess I'll wait until next fall and try calling around again.
Emily has a date with both of her grandmas this weekend. I got them tickets to the Clifford musical show that's at the Civic Center downtown, as gifts for the birthdays they both had in the past week. I figured, what could be better than spending time with my sweet Emily, right? :) She's pretty excited about it, and I think they'll have a pretty good time together.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Whoa, time to update this!
Yeah, it's been a few weeks, huh? It seems like we've been busy, but, gosh, doing what? Just our family routine, I guess.
Yesterday, I spent the day at work presenting a class to other user experience designers at Deere and the company we contract with. It was nice that I had teamed up with two other people to do the class, because we kind of pushed each other to get the class done and well-prepared. It was kind of crazy getting it all ready and I was a bit stressed by it, but it went really, really well and I'm SO happy to be done with it! I'm not at all comfortable presenting anything to any size group of people, even though I think I am a pretty good teacher, as long as I'm not outnumbered, I guess. :) Anyway, now that that's done, I'm actually done with two out of 3 of my year-long goals at work! I can't even remember what the third goal was supposed to be... guess it's time to go on maternity leave, right? ha!
And the other cool thing about work is that somehow I have gotten noticed, and I am being promoted to a senior position! It's not final or official yet, but it's gotten approvals from all the levels of management it needs, and I just need to pass a review by a group that recently formed to review people pursuing a "knowledge path" at Deere. That's me, all knowledge! I'm pretty excited, and only a little bit intimidated. Kinda cool!
So, enough about me. My little beauties have been keeping me very busy on my days at home, too. Audrey has mastered the whole alphabet and is working on lower-case letters. She can count to 5, which is pretty cool. Emily is starting to think about stringing together letters into words. If she knows what the words are, like a book's title or similar, I can ask her to point to which word is which, and she does pretty well at using the letters for clues, and not just guessing. It seems to be a good exercise for learning the whole left-to-right concept, which is funny to think that it must be learned! Audrey is as likely to spell out words backwards as forwards, but Emily is pretty reliable with reading left-to-right, and most of the time writing that way too. I guess since there are right-to-left languages, it's not surprising that it's not an innate thing to know.
Emily is pretty excited about preschool, and I'm hoping she is still feeling that way 6 months from now! That may as well be an eternity for her, you know, and she really doesn't get as much out of her daycare setting as she needs. I'm getting more and more dissatisfied with our current daycare setup, and I figure I'll start looking for something different this summer. There's just too many dogs, not enough outside activities, and not enough stimulation for Emily. They have quiet-time with lights out from about noon until 4:00. It's no wonder that Audrey still needs a pull-up for naptime there, if they're thinking she needs to be lying on her cot for the majority of that time; she's not going to buck the trend to get up to go potty. And they smell like dog!! ugh. My sweet little beauties always smell so BAD when i get home from work. I want to hug them and snuggle them when I walk in the door and then, YUCK. I hope it's a pregnancy-nose thing, and that it'll get better when they can open the windows there to air it out, but, I dunno. There's gotta be something better, right?? Their sitter has been marveling at what my girls know, and how Emily's going to be ridiculously ready for preschool, so it's nice that she's on board with my girls' capabilities. But, shouldn't any teacher or sitter? You don't have to spend much time with them before Emily will start talking like a book and you know there's something special there.
Funny Emily story along those lines: The other night, while she was in the bathroom getting ready to brush her teeth, her foot slipped off the edge of the stepstool and she bonked her elbow and her ribs against the bathroom countertop. Before she could even cry, she blurted out, "I was not expecting that!!!" and then the tears came. It was so funny that it was really hard to console her without laughing - poor girl! Because really, who says that??? Okay I probably do. But, what 4YO says that? :)
As for Baby, she is kicking and thrashing about these days. I know that I'm less in-tune with this pregnancy than the other two, but she is doing her best to not let me forget about her! I am feeling enormous these days, but really I'm not that big. My weight is exactly the same at this point as it was in my previous two pregnancies. I passed my glucose test last week, so even though it would probably be healthier for me to cut out the ridiculous amount of sugar that I eat, I'm not being forced to so I probably won't! But she is so incredibly jumpy, especially in the evenings and as I am going to bed. I know I should be feeling bittersweet about this novel sensation that I'll only get to experience for another 4 months, but it's getting to be exhausting. She has a lot of growing to do before she arrives in May... oof!!!
And no, we still have no name for her yet. It's probably going to be another "game-day" decision. I just hope we come up with something as lovely as we did for her sisters!
Yesterday, I spent the day at work presenting a class to other user experience designers at Deere and the company we contract with. It was nice that I had teamed up with two other people to do the class, because we kind of pushed each other to get the class done and well-prepared. It was kind of crazy getting it all ready and I was a bit stressed by it, but it went really, really well and I'm SO happy to be done with it! I'm not at all comfortable presenting anything to any size group of people, even though I think I am a pretty good teacher, as long as I'm not outnumbered, I guess. :) Anyway, now that that's done, I'm actually done with two out of 3 of my year-long goals at work! I can't even remember what the third goal was supposed to be... guess it's time to go on maternity leave, right? ha!
And the other cool thing about work is that somehow I have gotten noticed, and I am being promoted to a senior position! It's not final or official yet, but it's gotten approvals from all the levels of management it needs, and I just need to pass a review by a group that recently formed to review people pursuing a "knowledge path" at Deere. That's me, all knowledge! I'm pretty excited, and only a little bit intimidated. Kinda cool!
So, enough about me. My little beauties have been keeping me very busy on my days at home, too. Audrey has mastered the whole alphabet and is working on lower-case letters. She can count to 5, which is pretty cool. Emily is starting to think about stringing together letters into words. If she knows what the words are, like a book's title or similar, I can ask her to point to which word is which, and she does pretty well at using the letters for clues, and not just guessing. It seems to be a good exercise for learning the whole left-to-right concept, which is funny to think that it must be learned! Audrey is as likely to spell out words backwards as forwards, but Emily is pretty reliable with reading left-to-right, and most of the time writing that way too. I guess since there are right-to-left languages, it's not surprising that it's not an innate thing to know.
Emily is pretty excited about preschool, and I'm hoping she is still feeling that way 6 months from now! That may as well be an eternity for her, you know, and she really doesn't get as much out of her daycare setting as she needs. I'm getting more and more dissatisfied with our current daycare setup, and I figure I'll start looking for something different this summer. There's just too many dogs, not enough outside activities, and not enough stimulation for Emily. They have quiet-time with lights out from about noon until 4:00. It's no wonder that Audrey still needs a pull-up for naptime there, if they're thinking she needs to be lying on her cot for the majority of that time; she's not going to buck the trend to get up to go potty. And they smell like dog!! ugh. My sweet little beauties always smell so BAD when i get home from work. I want to hug them and snuggle them when I walk in the door and then, YUCK. I hope it's a pregnancy-nose thing, and that it'll get better when they can open the windows there to air it out, but, I dunno. There's gotta be something better, right?? Their sitter has been marveling at what my girls know, and how Emily's going to be ridiculously ready for preschool, so it's nice that she's on board with my girls' capabilities. But, shouldn't any teacher or sitter? You don't have to spend much time with them before Emily will start talking like a book and you know there's something special there.
Funny Emily story along those lines: The other night, while she was in the bathroom getting ready to brush her teeth, her foot slipped off the edge of the stepstool and she bonked her elbow and her ribs against the bathroom countertop. Before she could even cry, she blurted out, "I was not expecting that!!!" and then the tears came. It was so funny that it was really hard to console her without laughing - poor girl! Because really, who says that??? Okay I probably do. But, what 4YO says that? :)
As for Baby, she is kicking and thrashing about these days. I know that I'm less in-tune with this pregnancy than the other two, but she is doing her best to not let me forget about her! I am feeling enormous these days, but really I'm not that big. My weight is exactly the same at this point as it was in my previous two pregnancies. I passed my glucose test last week, so even though it would probably be healthier for me to cut out the ridiculous amount of sugar that I eat, I'm not being forced to so I probably won't! But she is so incredibly jumpy, especially in the evenings and as I am going to bed. I know I should be feeling bittersweet about this novel sensation that I'll only get to experience for another 4 months, but it's getting to be exhausting. She has a lot of growing to do before she arrives in May... oof!!!
And no, we still have no name for her yet. It's probably going to be another "game-day" decision. I just hope we come up with something as lovely as we did for her sisters!
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Audrey's Alphabet, take 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHcuxjuMAUo
Okay, she got them all except J and Q. What a hotshot. :)
Okay, she got them all except J and Q. What a hotshot. :)
Friday, January 20, 2012
Audrey's Alphabet
I tried to film Audrey saying her letters, but by the time I got the camera out, Emily felt the need to pester me with questions the entire time. I couldn't really stop the moment and explain to her why I wanted her to pleeeeeease be quiet, so in the end, Audrey was pretty distracted. But, she does some nice work anyway! I most of all wanted her adorable pirate-style R, but she toned it down for the video - so disappointed. :)
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgtHjHMhFeQ
(I missed her identifying M)
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n77ACNpgKyY
Enjoy!
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgtHjHMhFeQ
(I missed her identifying M)
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n77ACNpgKyY
Enjoy!
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Bragging about Audrey
Audrey has opened the floodgates with talking this week. She is definitely more talk than babble, and it's kind of funny that I have to remind myself to listen for words instead of just nodding along with her gibberish. I'm not going to list out everything she can say, but I am going to take this occasion to go through the things she can do besides the language explosion. It's going to sound really conceited, probably, but too bad!! This entry is more for me to remember her milestones. And besides, my girl is amazing!!
Audrey has known the letter "B" for a couple of weeks and gets all excited when she sees it different places, but in the last few days she's discovered that the other letters around it are significant, too. She can now also identify the following letters reliably: A, O, R, S, Y, and Z. She saw the word "SALZBURG" next to a piece of music I was playing tonight and excitedly pointed out everything except the L and G, since she recognized the U that time, too. The next ones I'm pointing out are the ones in her name and Emily's name, since they're on her wall and on a lot of things we have, so, E, D, I, and L. Tonight, we got out the set of foam letters that are all different colors, and she and Emily had a great time with them! Emily is totally confident with all 26 letters, which is great, but, she'll get to learn them all again in a year and a half when she enters Kindergarten - oh well. Both girls enjoyed me quizzing them for a few minutes, but then Emily just wanted to sort them by color. And how can you argue with that, really? So, both girls had a great time sorting, then mixing them up, then sorting, then mixing them up... I asked Audrey what color each stack was, and she can identify all 6 primary colors, plus, of course, PINK! She also can point out shapes of stars, hearts, and circles - and she draws lovely, complete, round circles, too!
And, the singing. Wow, the singing. I can't even list all the lullabies she can sing, plus nursery rhymes and girl scout songs. They are so on-pitch that you really don't miss the words that she can't sing yet (she gets the general gist of them but she's definitely not saying words). She sat on my lap at the piano tonight and sang beautifully while I accompanied song after song after song that she requested, and then she sat quietly and listened for a few minutes while I played a little Chopin waltz. A lapful of girl AND some piano time - how lucky am I?? I really, really need to get this videotaped before she gets tired of activities like that, and moves on to the next thing to work on.
And of course, she likes to take a moment and arrange her fingers carefully, and then hold them up, saying "I twoooo! I twoooo!!!" And have I mentioned that she seems to just get more and more beautiful?? Her hair is such a crazy amazing color, and her blue eyes just get more and more expressive. She came into my room on Friday morning, and I woke to her tapping me on the arm saying, "Nuggo!" (Snuggle!) Who could resist that, really? Then Emily came running in, all high energy and full of plans and ideas and enthusiasm, and she tried to snuggle too but was too wiggley and ready to get moving, so, that was the start to my day. And then, in the afternoon, I went to my ultrasound and found out:
We're having a girl! Another Sullivan sister! Emily says she'll be a boy until her hair grows long, and at first she said she wanted a brother but now she's excited for another sister. I'm relieved to know in advance because I think I could've named a boy if we had gone the surprise route again, but finding another girl name that's as gorgeous and perfect as the first two we chose is going to be nearly impossible. But now I have 4 months, instead of the few hours that I had with Audrey. Travis is glad that we are ready with a stash of clothes, and I'm relieved that our toys will largely be sufficient. I think we'd have to venture into new territory for a boy, and I'll admit that I'm very much intimidated by superheros and trucks and pretend weaponry.
So, Travis is hopelessly outnumbered, and seems to be quite happy to be that way. Lucky us! :)
Audrey has known the letter "B" for a couple of weeks and gets all excited when she sees it different places, but in the last few days she's discovered that the other letters around it are significant, too. She can now also identify the following letters reliably: A, O, R, S, Y, and Z. She saw the word "SALZBURG" next to a piece of music I was playing tonight and excitedly pointed out everything except the L and G, since she recognized the U that time, too. The next ones I'm pointing out are the ones in her name and Emily's name, since they're on her wall and on a lot of things we have, so, E, D, I, and L. Tonight, we got out the set of foam letters that are all different colors, and she and Emily had a great time with them! Emily is totally confident with all 26 letters, which is great, but, she'll get to learn them all again in a year and a half when she enters Kindergarten - oh well. Both girls enjoyed me quizzing them for a few minutes, but then Emily just wanted to sort them by color. And how can you argue with that, really? So, both girls had a great time sorting, then mixing them up, then sorting, then mixing them up... I asked Audrey what color each stack was, and she can identify all 6 primary colors, plus, of course, PINK! She also can point out shapes of stars, hearts, and circles - and she draws lovely, complete, round circles, too!
And, the singing. Wow, the singing. I can't even list all the lullabies she can sing, plus nursery rhymes and girl scout songs. They are so on-pitch that you really don't miss the words that she can't sing yet (she gets the general gist of them but she's definitely not saying words). She sat on my lap at the piano tonight and sang beautifully while I accompanied song after song after song that she requested, and then she sat quietly and listened for a few minutes while I played a little Chopin waltz. A lapful of girl AND some piano time - how lucky am I?? I really, really need to get this videotaped before she gets tired of activities like that, and moves on to the next thing to work on.
And of course, she likes to take a moment and arrange her fingers carefully, and then hold them up, saying "I twoooo! I twoooo!!!" And have I mentioned that she seems to just get more and more beautiful?? Her hair is such a crazy amazing color, and her blue eyes just get more and more expressive. She came into my room on Friday morning, and I woke to her tapping me on the arm saying, "Nuggo!" (Snuggle!) Who could resist that, really? Then Emily came running in, all high energy and full of plans and ideas and enthusiasm, and she tried to snuggle too but was too wiggley and ready to get moving, so, that was the start to my day. And then, in the afternoon, I went to my ultrasound and found out:
We're having a girl! Another Sullivan sister! Emily says she'll be a boy until her hair grows long, and at first she said she wanted a brother but now she's excited for another sister. I'm relieved to know in advance because I think I could've named a boy if we had gone the surprise route again, but finding another girl name that's as gorgeous and perfect as the first two we chose is going to be nearly impossible. But now I have 4 months, instead of the few hours that I had with Audrey. Travis is glad that we are ready with a stash of clothes, and I'm relieved that our toys will largely be sufficient. I think we'd have to venture into new territory for a boy, and I'll admit that I'm very much intimidated by superheros and trucks and pretend weaponry.
So, Travis is hopelessly outnumbered, and seems to be quite happy to be that way. Lucky us! :)
Friday, January 13, 2012
We know, but you don't!
Finally had my 20-week ultrasound today, at 21 weeks! After numerous phonecalls to my doctor and reminders that I should have it done, they finally got the scheduling ready and it actually worked out in my schedule pretty well. Travis met me at the clinic, and I dropped the girls off at my neighbor's for a couple of hours. Everything was great in the ultrasound - a healthy, beautiful baby, as far as we can tell for now!
Travis and I have been going back and forth about whether to find out the gender this time, because Travis REALLY wanted to know for the first two pregnancies. I assumed we would find out, but he was suddenly reluctant to, for some reason (he won't say that it's because i was right, it WAS more fun that way ;) ). So, last night, going to bed, he still was on the fence. I asked Emily this morning, and she thought that she might like a surprise. As the appointment started, Travis was still undecided, and I would have been happy either way. At the last moment to decide, he gave the GO signal and the tech showed us a key picture saying we're having a...
haha not so fast! Now Trav thinks we should try to keep it to ourselves. There's no way I can do it. I will slip up and use appropriate pronouns with reckless abandon. Or I might find myself calling my mom and blurting it out because I'm excited! Hee hee! I'm sure I'll end up posting it later, but for now you're still in the dark!!
It's been a crazy week and the girls are exhausted, which means they saved their best behavior for the two hours I was away from them this afternoon and have howled the rest of the day. It's amazing what getting enough sleep does for these girls. I've heard amazing things about gluten-free diets, and I wonder if they (and I?) would be less dependent on adequate sleep if I ate less wheat? I've pretty much narrowed Audrey's tummy troubles down to onions or corn (cornbread), so I think I've had enough dietary experimentation for the time being.
Travis and I have been going back and forth about whether to find out the gender this time, because Travis REALLY wanted to know for the first two pregnancies. I assumed we would find out, but he was suddenly reluctant to, for some reason (he won't say that it's because i was right, it WAS more fun that way ;) ). So, last night, going to bed, he still was on the fence. I asked Emily this morning, and she thought that she might like a surprise. As the appointment started, Travis was still undecided, and I would have been happy either way. At the last moment to decide, he gave the GO signal and the tech showed us a key picture saying we're having a...
haha not so fast! Now Trav thinks we should try to keep it to ourselves. There's no way I can do it. I will slip up and use appropriate pronouns with reckless abandon. Or I might find myself calling my mom and blurting it out because I'm excited! Hee hee! I'm sure I'll end up posting it later, but for now you're still in the dark!!
It's been a crazy week and the girls are exhausted, which means they saved their best behavior for the two hours I was away from them this afternoon and have howled the rest of the day. It's amazing what getting enough sleep does for these girls. I've heard amazing things about gluten-free diets, and I wonder if they (and I?) would be less dependent on adequate sleep if I ate less wheat? I've pretty much narrowed Audrey's tummy troubles down to onions or corn (cornbread), so I think I've had enough dietary experimentation for the time being.
Monday, January 2, 2012
2012: Bring It!
http://thebloggess.com/2012/01/the-fight-goes-on/ In case you need more evidence that real life is a bitch. The crazy thing is, everybody happens to be living it, everywhere you look. I think this is the post-30 maturity coming out in me, but I'm looking back on my judgemental, narcisisstic 20-year-old self and am a little disgusted. Yes, believe it or not, I've actually mellowed a bit, and yet am still an opinionated jerk!
This has been a really eye-opening year for me. In my family, 2011 has had close encounters with domestic violence, jail visits, and a family member who died suddenly. If I expand my circle to friends and co-workers, the list grows, including a 2nd-trimester miscarriage, a newborn with severe hearing loss AND cystic fibrosis, and an infant hospitalized with skull fractures after an accident. I learned about a friend who gave up a child for adoption years ago, and continued to witness a friend's life with a child with severe disabilities... and on and on. I am SO fortunate to only have experienced these things by association, and just been in a support role. As I look at my beautiful, amazing family and all the blessings of my charmed life, I wonder when it will be my turn, rather than just experiencing vicariously, and whether I will have the strength and maturity of those I've witnessed battling so far. I am so impressed that all of these people close to me have weathered these things with such poise, and continue to seek the joy that life offers. None of these friends or family has chosen to let their situation define them, or taken the "easy route" now that they have an excuse to be unhappy. I've expressed support and sympathy, but really I admire the strength of each of these individuals and have learned so much. I've enjoyed reading The Bloggess this year, and I sure hope she doesn't think that she requires having personal demons to fight with humor in order to write side-splitting blog entries. I wonder if joy happens TO spite difficulties, not IN spite of them.
So, I guess, all I can do with 2011 is learn from it. I went into this holiday season bracing myself, thinking that at least next year will be better - we'll have a new baby, a finalized divorce for my sister, and hopefully my brother-in-law will be released. We'll be excited about upcoming weddings for Trav's brothers. But, I am honestly very thankful for the holiday I did have, because it was absolutely wonderful, even if not ideal. I truly felt the love of family at every gathering, and spent relaxing time with people I love and admire. I laughed a ridiculous amount, and found great joy both in giving and receiving gifts. I got to be Santa, and experience the delight of Christmas morning for young children. Today, I woke to the sound of giggling sisters snuggling in bed with me, and relaxed and did close to nothing for most of the day - what a luxury! I hope it's a sign of the good things to come in 2012, and if not, I hope I have the strength and wisdom to live life as strongly as those around me.
Oh, and also worth noting - Baby count for 2011 (close friends and family) is a whopping 22!! Welcome to the world, kiddos. We're gonna have a great time!
This has been a really eye-opening year for me. In my family, 2011 has had close encounters with domestic violence, jail visits, and a family member who died suddenly. If I expand my circle to friends and co-workers, the list grows, including a 2nd-trimester miscarriage, a newborn with severe hearing loss AND cystic fibrosis, and an infant hospitalized with skull fractures after an accident. I learned about a friend who gave up a child for adoption years ago, and continued to witness a friend's life with a child with severe disabilities... and on and on. I am SO fortunate to only have experienced these things by association, and just been in a support role. As I look at my beautiful, amazing family and all the blessings of my charmed life, I wonder when it will be my turn, rather than just experiencing vicariously, and whether I will have the strength and maturity of those I've witnessed battling so far. I am so impressed that all of these people close to me have weathered these things with such poise, and continue to seek the joy that life offers. None of these friends or family has chosen to let their situation define them, or taken the "easy route" now that they have an excuse to be unhappy. I've expressed support and sympathy, but really I admire the strength of each of these individuals and have learned so much. I've enjoyed reading The Bloggess this year, and I sure hope she doesn't think that she requires having personal demons to fight with humor in order to write side-splitting blog entries. I wonder if joy happens TO spite difficulties, not IN spite of them.
So, I guess, all I can do with 2011 is learn from it. I went into this holiday season bracing myself, thinking that at least next year will be better - we'll have a new baby, a finalized divorce for my sister, and hopefully my brother-in-law will be released. We'll be excited about upcoming weddings for Trav's brothers. But, I am honestly very thankful for the holiday I did have, because it was absolutely wonderful, even if not ideal. I truly felt the love of family at every gathering, and spent relaxing time with people I love and admire. I laughed a ridiculous amount, and found great joy both in giving and receiving gifts. I got to be Santa, and experience the delight of Christmas morning for young children. Today, I woke to the sound of giggling sisters snuggling in bed with me, and relaxed and did close to nothing for most of the day - what a luxury! I hope it's a sign of the good things to come in 2012, and if not, I hope I have the strength and wisdom to live life as strongly as those around me.
Oh, and also worth noting - Baby count for 2011 (close friends and family) is a whopping 22!! Welcome to the world, kiddos. We're gonna have a great time!
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