The Year in Review, Part I

Resolutions and musings: out with the old ones and in with the new. As said last year, my resolutions were pie-in-the-sky, and I fell short of most. But they were also signposts and guided my way significantly. The biggest deal this year - and perhaps why some resolutions went to the wayside - was family. That is, my family got bigger when our son was born in August. I have to pause at #4: "Travel overseas with 2.5 year old daughter." Well, no, but instead we had another child, and drove to Southern California and back with a three year old AND a three month old. Not too shabby.

Having a second child is different and the same at once. The biggest difference is that there's less anxiety, more sheer work. The impact seems tempered by our already having made room in our lives for children. I think my daughter had to wait for us to make room, and made some of her own in the meantime. There was more adjusting to and around one another the first time out.

Yet much of it is familiar. Diapers and night feedings are back, back with a vengeance and still it feels comfortable and even comforting; I suppose I feel a bit like a professional parent.