Good-bye, 2011!

Hello again. It's been a while. Life has been crazy to the point that I haven't had time to stop, to reflect, to blog.

As we said good-bye to 2011, and I looked through the Shutterfly family calendar that I had made with the pictures from 2011, it just amazed me how much happened last year. In the interest of keeping some sort of chronology of our lives, I am going to list the top 15 events below:

1. Victoria Marie was born on February 22, 2011. I had been put on bedrest due to pre-eclamsia a couple of weeks prior to her birth, but I continued to work until a nurse told me to put my blackberry down. Yes, I was already at the hospital. My mom stayed with us for 2 months and helped us tremendously. We are hoping that she will come back in early 2012 to see how much Victoria has grown.

2. Will became a big brother. Initially, it was a big shock for him, but he has come a long way to become a kind big brother to Victoria. I couldn't be more proud of the way he's learned to be around her. I can now see that he actually enjoys her presence and even found a sneaky way to play with her by teasing her with his toys.

3. I lost all of the pregnancy weight (42 pounds), but, along with that, I've also lost about half of my hair. 60 steroid shots later, I am still trying to stop the hair loss (alopecia areata, to be more specific).

4. I nursed Victoria since her birth and haven't stopped. As she's approaching her first birthday, I will begin weaning her off very soon, but I had never thought I'd be able to nurse her for the entire year. It's an incredible amount of work but the results, both tangible and intangible, are worth more than I could ever express with words.

5. Will graduated from Pre-K and spent almost five weeks (in ~2 week increments) with his dad in New Mexico. It was a big adjustment each time, and we were all worried about how he would be able to handle the change, but he did fairly well, considering the long flights, being in a one-week Autism camp (New Amigos) for the first time, and all the new experiences.

6. Ed graduated and got his Bachelor's of Science in Electronics Engineering! It only took 11 years but he was going to school while being in the US Navy. We had a surprise party for him at the house with lots of good people and food.

7. Ed and I got married. It was a beautiful ceremony and reception at the Meadow Pavilion at Tarara Winery in Leesburg, VA. The weather was perfect, the company was amazing as we had my friends and family come from all over the world, and Will and my Dad walked me down the aisle. I couldn't have asked for more.

8. Will started kindergarten! Not just any class, but he is in a categorized, Autism-focused kindergarten class with an amazing teacher and specialists. What's even better is that it's in the same school where he went to pre-K, so it's all familiar territory for Will, which helps him a lot given the rest of the changes.

9. We went on a 5-day honeymoon cruise to Bermuda! We brought Will and his nanny Meg with us, while Victoria stayed home with Ed's aunt Cindy. It was a great adventure for us, and it was wonderful to have Cindy come and take care of her niece.

10. I had my first year anniversary at GSA as a federal employee.

11. Willie turned 6. We had a small celebration at the house, but it was warm and everyone had a great time.

12. We traveled to Buffalo, NY to spend Thanksgiving with Ed's sister's family. We almost had a major car accident as I drove off the road, but we survived. What a trip that was.

13. Ed left Motorola and started a new engineering position at Philips Health Care as an MRI engineer. Go Ed!

14. We had everyone here at the house for Christmas: Jordan, Will, Victoria and Ed's parents. It was nice to have everyone here for the holidays and to share Victoria's first Christmas.

15. Ed and I had a date night. Yes, imagine that! We had a great 2.5 hour date night at Cookology in Dulles Town Center, cooking a healthy Italian dinner. It was the best "adult" time I've had in a long time, and I actually learned quite a few cooking tips. We will definitely be going back.

All in all, it was a really good year, full of major life changes and milestones. I hope that 2012 will be less eventful, so that we can catch our breath. I hope.

Cheers and Happy New Year!

Christmas 2011

Love Joy Christmas

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The Big Six

Willie turned 6 yesterday! This year, we decided not to have a big celebration (we will do that next year), so we invited just the people closest to Will to our house. As part of the celebration, Ed's friend, Len Robinson, who is a great cake baker, made a super tasty chocolate fudge cake with Clifford the Big Red Dog as the main decoration (Will is into Clifford these days). We also ordered delicious pizzas from La Villa Roma in Leesburg, VA (our favorite local pizza restaurant), and I made Sharlotka (the Russian apple pie).

Will was definitely tired and overstimulated at the party, but that was understandable after a full day of kindergarten and the "lose the training wheels" after school program. With so many people that he loves around him at the house, I think that he just wasn't sure how to divide his attention. But he had a big smile on all night.

Will was especially happy to see his Dad - so much, that he didn't want to let him go... We had to convince him that he will see Daddy tomorrow and go to visit his Nana and Tut for a long weekend. I thought that it was wonderful that not only he remembered his Dad after not having seen him for several months, but he wanted to go with him. Those moments always make wonder if he ever thinks about his Dad and wonders when he will see him again.

So, overall, I think that everyone had a really good time and our little get together was a success. I did not have any expectations (I stopped having expectations years ago), but everything went as perfect as it could. We ate pizza and cake, opened presents with Willie, and had good conversations. Speaking of eating pizza, I just loved how Will dug his teeth into a slice of pizza -- it just looked like something a typical boy would do.. It made me have a flashback of when he would only eat mashed food and refuse to chew. Little did I know then that it's one of the Autism traits, mainly due to an underdeveloped facial muscle tone. I was so happy to see that he doesn't have that problem anymore -- he has come a long way.

Happy Birthday, Willie. You are an amazing little boy, and you make our world a better place every single day. We love you more than you'll ever know.