fourstonesoup.com

2009…2009…Oh, I will be glad to be rid of you.

This past year has been a very trying time for me and my family.  It’s been filled with so many negatives…so much heartbreak, so much stress and angst and wakeful nights of worry and heartache and harsh words.  I have NEVER been so ready to see a year go.  Of course, with the bad comes the good and there have been so many good times and happiness and laughter.

Here is my Year In Review.

This time last year, I was recovering from a minor surgery to remove a benign tumor in my leg while secretly planning a surprise trip to Vegas for my little sister. We had SO MUCH FUN in Vegas and if I could go back tomorrow, I would.  Right around that time, we found out that Bryan was going to have to take a pay cut at work…the upside of this is that he has had an entire year of Fridays off…the bad part is that he didn’t make all that much to begin with and we are entirely dependent on him as our only source of income.  Overall, it’s added to the financial pressure on me to get a job (which has been spectacularly unsuccessful to date) but has been a positive as we have SO MUCH MORE TIME together as a family.  We also got confirmation of what we already suspected…that Drew is colorblind.

We took our first camping trip as a family this year which resulted in an inspired plan to Get Out More, which we did by going to The High, Hiking in the Rain (forest) and a few other such adventures.  Of course, after our first camping trip, we ended up with the flu and pneumonia…but February wasn’t to be outdone by the month of October which saw us with the flu…AGAIN.

Things got a little crazy in the spring when we had some issues of the familial variety–like My Mom’s cancer diagnosis and subsequent surgery, the finalized court proceedings from my little brother’s custody case, and other Family Situations which shall not be spoken of–which led me to the hospital with chest pains and eventually a diagnosis of Chill The Hell Out.  BUT Spring also heralded the arrival of…drumroll…

My Big Girl Camera!

And life was pretty good for a while.  I turned 31, Drew turned 6 and then…

The Dogs.

And subsequently, The Dog.

After that came my little sister’s wedding which was…lovely.  I had a blast with all of my family members and Dawn was such a gorgeous bride.

Drew started kindergarten in August and Malyn started pre-k (and turned 4!) and my life as a stay-at-home-mom suddenly changed in a way that is awesome and fabulous.  I started volunteering at my son’s school a TON, I started taking Spanish and Chinese classes (!) and my house suddenly got a whole lot cleaner.  No thanks to The Dog, who also required a fencing system so that she wouldn’t wander into the road.  Which, of course, resulted in the Worst Case of Poison Ivy Ever (also well-documented here).  And seriously, I have shown a lot of restraint because it ended up being systemic (which I am not even sure was medically possible until I CAME ALONG) and the poison ivy, which rarely ever scars?  And generally goes away after a week or two and a dose pack or shot?  Eventually took a Dose Pack, TWO shots and over a month to ‘go away’ except that it STILL hasn’t completely gone away and has left SCARS all over my arms.  GO ME!  Note for the future, I will probably be the first person to DIE from Anaphylactic Shock from Poison Ivy. Somewhere in there, Bryan turned 35.  Christmas was, of course, stellar.  Filled with laziness, family, friends, fun and COOKIES so no complaints there.

So, WOW, what a year.  Good Freakin’ Bye, 2009.  You had some high points, but mostly, I will associate you with squeezy chest pain, tears, full body drive-you-crazy scratchiness.

The sun is setting on 2009–and the beauty of the sun setting and rising tomorrow is not lost on me.

At least you're ending beautifully, 2009

Our son, Drew, is the kind of child who cannot entertain himself.  He requires entertainment at all times.  Maybe it’s because he was the first born and I had all of my time to give him.  Maybe it’s because he…ummm…lacks a certain childhood characteristic called, er…’imagination’.  Maybe he’s just genetically wired exactly like his father, who will sit in front of the TV until his brain starts leaking out his ears or he falls asleep, neck tilted at a disturbing angle.  I certainly like watching TV now and again but do not carry on quite the love affair that Bryan does.  Malyn, our second child, is MUCH more independent and will frequently walk away from the TV (while it is ON)to entertain herself.  Maybe it’s because she was the second child and therefore largely ignored.  Maybe it’s because she has an active imagination.  Maybe it’s because she’s more similar to me.  Who knows.  But, even from birth, Drew was obscenely fascinated with the television.  We were very strict with his TV consumption, which was largely zero, until he was nearly two and I was pregnant with Malyn and put on bed rest for…oh…about 10 weeks.  A very demanding, active toddler (not in a bratty way, just in a *busy* way) plus having to spend massive amounts of time laying on my left side or sitting with my feet up does not mesh well, so the TV was introduced as a means of survival for everyone.  I suppose it doesn’t really matter now how it came about but given the choice, Drew would choose to rot his wee little brain with TV, video games or computer stuff over nearly anything else.  It’s kind of freaky the way he will zone in so intensely into an electronic device.  We have to restrict his time on these things so we can bolster his IQ back up after he’s spent any time in front of a screen.  We already own a Wii and he’s only allowed to play on Non School Nights (Friday and Saturday).  And he gets ONE TV show after school, which we allow because he goes to a dual-language immersion school (70% of his day in Spanish) and it’s an extended day and the best way for his brain to get a break is to zone into the TV for a little while or else he gets all twitchy from overuse of the gray matter.  And the computer time is limited to about 95% educational software from his school.  And woo-boy does this sound like rationalization.

So you may be questioning our judgment when I say that The Big Gift of the year went to Drew.  A Nintendo DS Mario Bundle.  We had reservations about it up until the moment we decided to screw it and let our 6 year old have the stupid handheld brain rotter–which was probably about on Christmas Eve when there was nothing we could do about it anyway…no way to get replacement presents…

He was pretty excited when he opened it.

Drew, opening the DS

We told him when we gave it to him that he would have ONE day to blow it out of the water…one day to play to his heart’s content before we started limiting access.  So he spent the rest of the morning diligently rotting his brain.

Drew, still playing the DS while Bryan plays Picnic with Malyn's new picnic and food set

And the afternoon…

Still playing

And the evening…

What other presents???

And HOLY COW, that thing is FUN!  When we could pry it out of Drew’s cramped hands, we were instantly sucked in.  It’s got a camera!  And internet!  And fun, puzzle-type games!  Even Malyn was perfectly capable of figuring out the puzzles to get the mini-Marios where they needed to be.

In fact, Bryan and I were discussing the fact that we should start limiting his time right away…so that we can play it.

And we decided that limiting HIS time so we could have time was pretty sad and pathetic so we started contemplating getting one for each of us because God Knows we couldn’t SHARE one or anything.  It might lead to snatching.

Damn you, Nintendo, for your startlingly fun brain rotters.