It's a New Year

Happy New Year!

It's been a beautiful new year so far. It's like that Anne of Green Gables line about tomorrow being fresh with no mistakes in it and Miss Stacy saying, "No mistakes, yet."

Shaughn had to work today so we made a big breakfast together before he had to leave. Last January, I started making little notes about our life on small squares of paper, folding them up, and putting them in this big beautiful bowl we got from some friends of ours. The bowl, the squares of paper and one of my favorite pens, are all on our bookshelf. Shaughn also wrote notes but not as frequently. I probably didn't explain it very well because this morning as we took turns reading them to each other, he kept saying, "Oh! I didn't know I was supposed to write about that..." But it was so sweet to read out loud our little notes, it's definitely a new tradition that's a keeper. Some favorites:

"Bad new, Melissa! I'm going to eat our son up!"--Shaughn, Jan 28, 2016

"I asked Darry if he could say, 'Mama.' He looked right at me and said, 'mmaba!' My heart just burst wide open." --Melissa, Mar 2, 2016

"New job!" --Melissa, Apr 25, 2016

"We learned that goulash and American Chop Suey are basically the same things."--Melissa, Oct 9, 2016

"Shaughn got me perfume for my birthday. Every time I put it on, I think, 'Shaughn thinks I'm a lady."--Melissa, Nov 4, 2016

"While in bed nursing this a.m. Darry stopped nursing, felt for my face with his hands, gave me a big kiss and then said, 'Yay!' so joyfully."--Melissa, Nov 8, 2016

"Tractor ride with Ronnie. Darry never seems to get cold even when I'm freezing."--Shaughn, Nov 26, 2016

"Darry loves running up and down Jen and Paul's hallway. Acts like Reggie, and runs where he anticipates the ball to be instead of watching it."--Shaughn, Dec 24, 2016


After dropping Shaughn off, I took Darry and Reggie to Woodland Park. It was early enough that I figured most people would still be sleeping off their New Year's Eve. It was pretty cold and icy so I had Darry in several layers. I put his puffy coat on and realized his gloves hadn't made it home from school, but I made do with a pair of tie dye socks.

Darry had so much fun running around and trying to climb over logs. Reggie was surprisingly amazing with his retrieves. Darry has a tendency to just want to run (Ra! Ra! Ra!) without paying much attention to where his adults are. But he was also doing so well running, climbing and staying close. Until he just decided to take off down a hill. Not on a path or anything, just wow! I'm going there now! At first I thought he was going to turn around before he actually started going down the hill but no. So I started running after him, which then got Reggie concerned and running after all of us. Darry ran down the hill, his little legs moving faster and faster and he squealed with delight. Right before I was able to grab him, though, he fell and slid and almost rolled right over. His face was covered in dirt and wood chips and he wasn't hurt or upset until I tried to clean his face off. His face had just healed from a mysterious bump and scratch from school so these new scratches arrived just in time for Darry to maintain his street cred.

Darry got new boots. His old boots wouldn't stay on his feet so we finally got some new ones. He LOVES them. There was a big puddle and I asked if he wanted to splash around and he took off and stomped in the puddle like he had finally found what his life's purpose was. I threw the ball for Reggie who detoured to run in every puddle along the way. When I looked back at Mr. Stomps, I see Darry sitting right down in the puddle. Agh! Reggie runs over and also lays in the puddle. It's freezing out, you guys! So I herd the troops back to the car where I changed Darry who thought the whole thing was hilarious. Naked in the car, what fun! I was impressed that his socks were dry. I felt like such a mom exclaiming, "Darry! You're socks are dry! Your boots worked!"

We came home and made cards and played on his new white board with letter magnets. Darry's asleep now and I'm enjoying the quiet. We've added another day on to his school so he will be going 3 days a week instead of 2. Even though it's been so nice to be able to work from home, it's been more of a challenge ever since Darry went down to one nap. So I'm hoping this will allow me to use some of the free home time to maintain a little more self-care, which took the biggest hit trying to squeeze 30-35 hours into two days of childcare and weekday naps and evenings. So here's to a cleaner house! more books being read! writing more chapters of my book as well as occasional blog posts!

                       Buh                                                                                                   Bye!

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