2010 - Looking Back

I was just sitting here in my recliner, watching my almost-two-year old daughter bounce off the walls -- she's fighting off a nap by trying to stay in motion -- and it occurred to me that this has been a pretty eventful year, 2010. Maybe we always think that when looking back on the previous year... but this one sure seems to have been more full than many in recent memory.

I think it's important to erect mental milestones so that we can look back and see where we've been. Looking back on where I've been helps me to better see where I'm going. I want to go back and document some of the biggies -- partly for my own recollection later, partly so that anyone who cares to can share in our gratitude.

You'll remember I was unemployed when 2010 started... and I stayed that way for the first half of the year. I applied for a great many jobs all over the world; we were ready for a last-minute call for me to move anywhere. We thought we might end up defaulting on a lot of our financial obligations. We were utterly dependent on the generosity of others, and had to let go of a lot of our hopes and dreams.

Aylin had her first birthday in February, and as you who are parents realize, our life largely revolves around her developmental milestones: learning to walk, learning to talk, beginning to identify shapes, colors, animals, letters and numbers. This second year of her life has seen her move from being a baby to a toddler with a personality and a developing mind of her own.

Kristina and I celebrated our fifth year of marriage this year. We're finding that our capacity to love each other has far outgrown anything we knew to be possible.

I got a job with a local company, working as close to home as I can reasonably hope for, at the end of June; that's been huge for us. Though our credit has certainly taken a beating, it's nothing we can't repair with a couple of years' hard work. Since I went back to work, Aylin went back into daycare, and we've been thrilled with our experiences with the new folks who we've entrusted with her. I've lost by working most of the 20 pounds I gained while staying at home with Aylin. My job is far less stressful than the last several I've had, since I'm not in any kind of supervisory role for the first time in five or six years. We've been slowly repairing the destruction inflicted by three or four years of increasingly bad luck on the state of our finances.

Just a couple of weeks ago, then, Kristina had a wonderful new job fall into her lap. It promises to significantly speed our financial recovery, and to provide Kristina with a less stressful place to work. Besides all that, it's given us occasion to revisit many of those hopes and dreams we thought were out of reach.

That's obviously a 90mph fly-by of our last year... but none of us need to ride the whole roller-coaster again, do we? If I were to sum up this year in one word, it would be "grace".

Stuff my kid says...

Yesterday, Kristina was sharing some puppy chow (not the dog food… a Chex Mix candy that her family always makes at Christmastime) with Aylin. Aylin wagged her finger at Kristina and yelled, "NO TOUCH!" We're going to have to work on the sharing thing.

Last night, I was coloring with Aylin at the kitchen table. She says, "Hold on…", hops down, runs around to the other end of the table, grabs a different color of Crayon, hands it to me and takes the color I was using. "Ok," she says.

Then it was, "Just a minute…", after which she did the same thing.

Where do you think she learned those phrases? ;)

Teena's new job

Kristina was so wound up last night, she couldn't sleep. I woke up around 1 am, and she was still awake, so we stayed up chatting for a while. After that, she put together a blog post here. We're very excited, and I'm very, very proud of my wife. Check out the story when you can.

Friend Cleanup

So I've gone on a binge recently and purged many people from my past that I have had absolutely zero contact with except to "re-connect" thru facebook, then have no further interaction. I've also opted to do an information flow block to 98% of the people that I either do currently, or have worked with in the past who I also have no relationship with, but since everyone is literally friends with everyone at work its just easier to accept the friend requests then block them or add them to a list - in this case - that will block them. Reason being that most of those 98% that have either been purged or blocked don't need to know my daily musings, and probably don't care. But most importantly, work and home are very separate for me. If you have the pleasure of working with me and are able to read this, then you are of the privileged few who also have a relationship with me outside of work. Also making yourself someone whose opinion I (may) be interested in.

These days with less and less actual privacy, I'd just as soon keep things closer to the vest. Anymore, the purpose of Facebook for me is so that I can keep up with long distance family easier. Who knows, maybe I'll just decide its not worth it and get rid of it all together... It all just depends on how I'm feeling when/if the mood strikes. But so far, it would seem as though the people purged or blocked have not even noticed. Which, really is, the whole point. If you don't notice me there to begin with, I really shouldn't be there.

That is all.
KM

Quick visit to Bernies

We made a quick stop in Yellville to visit Great Grama Bernie yesterday before stopping in Harrison to hang out with the other Grandparents.

Aylin had a blast in the short time we were there. She loved the doggies (a previous post), especially Buddy. There was lots of "Hi Buddy" accompanied with waving. Bernie also broke out a big blow up Santa just for Aylin which was very interesting. Great Grama Bernie also has an old toy chest with neat treasures and  a child's size rocking chair. Aylin enjoyed playing with all of the stuff in the chest, as well as bringing books to Bernie to read. Although it was a short visit I'm glad we made it out that way.

 

 

Aylin's also figured out "JOE!" and Linda, who for some reason she calls "Bub-ba". She seems to be a lot less likely to be scared of strange men, too; Robert and his buddy Payton were there, and while she was a little unsure about them, she didn't run screaming back to me (Jeff). We figure that's progress.

Coloring: Daddy Only

Aylin asked to color this morning, which she usually wants company for. Which is just as well because we don't need her wandering off with the crayons to color the house. :) However after just a short time of coloring with momma she calls for daddy. Once he settles in to color too she looks over at me, pushes me and says GO! I made her say please first before I complied. Little goober!

The girls with Dad's goat dogs

Buddy (the Anatolian Shepherd you see laying on the ground) was Aylin's favorite. We were all pretty surprised at how he reacted to the girls; Anatolians are naturally pretty standoffish, and Buddy's generally unapproachable. Brad's wife, Kris, has been able to pet him, and now Kristina and Aylin have, too. He'd let me get close to him, but only if there was a fence between us, and only if the girls were right there. If it's just me, or just Dad, he'll stay 10 yards away.

David (the Great Pyrenees), on the other hand, has never met a stranger. He's pretty insistent when he wants some attention, and gets a little too pushy for Aylin's comfort. Buddy's actually bigger than David, but he was always laying down when he was near Aylin. David would get right up in her face and nudge for her to pet him. As far as I can tell, that's the only reason she preferred Buddy.

Jumping to conclusions

Teena texted me today with news that someone from the daycare had called her, saying Aylin had thrown up, but wasn't running a temperature. She also told me that Aylin had thrown up because she'd thrown a temper tantrum after breakfast.

I got all ticked off, of course, because Aylin had been hitting people yesterday, and I saw this as a sign that Aylin was starting to turn into a little tyrant. Based on my understanding of what Teena's told me in the past, I've been concerned that the ladies at daycare were spoiling Aylin. So my immediate reaction was, "We are, by God, gonna put a stop to that right now."

As it turns out, the teacher who called Kristina was a substitute or temporary teacher, and she hadn't told either of the directors -- like she was supposed to -- that she was calling a parent. It also turns out that Kristina just assumed -- incorrectly -- that Aylin had thrown a fit and made herself sick. What actually happened was that she'd been spinning around and dancing like mad to some fun music shortly after breakfast and just spit up a little bit. It also turns out that I've misinterpreted the way the ladies at the daycare are treating Aylin, or -- more accurately -- that I've misunderstood what Teena's been saying about how they handle her.

So, while it's good that Teena and I found cause to sit down and talk about discipline at home for Aylin, we both learned a lesson or two about jumping to conclusions.