Welcoming the New Year - Exhaustion and All

2009 was a year full of ups and downs that I hadn't been expecting - becoming a single income family, loads of work stress, and the biggest up (that included some downs) the birth of my second son five weeks premature. The next biggest up was that we got to welcome him home still in 2009. Now, it's lots of exhausted evenings, daytime catnaps and ensuring that we are showering both of our boys with lots of love.

I'm looking forward to 2010 being a year of opportunity, promise and maybe tackling some goals. I need to determine what these goals are first. I know one thing is that I want it to be a year more focused on family, and enjoying every milestone of our second son. I think sometimes this can be lost when you have another child. But K is an exceptional child, and I think he will help us celebrate many of O's milestones. It will also be interesting to see if O's development is true to his adjusted gestational age or if he's on track as though he didn't decide to surprise us all before Christmas.

This year we are registering K for preschool. It's hard to believe that he's grown up so fast. D and I both really focus on making sure our child has been able to enjoy his childhood, with the right amount of encouragement versus pushing him to do too many things. (Sometimes we are more successful than others.) Every day, the kid amazes me more with what he can do. Of course, he's had a few bouts of jealousy with this new brother around, and wants as much mommy time as he can have (meaning very rare mommy alone minutes).

And D, he's been a great partner in the whole adventure of the past year. True, he was the cause of some of the strain, but I don't think I could get through it with someone different. We balance each other out. And when we fight, we tend to know it will be over in less than 24 hours ... and sometimes what the disagreements are about are so ridiculous (just ask my sister.)

Yes, I'm hopeful for the year ahead. I hope everyone has a great 2010 with the right balance of challenges and opportunities.