It's feast or famine on this blog lately! What can I say, work is a little quiet this week and the boys have been sleeping through the night until 7am, leaving me with a little rare and welcome extra gas in my tank!
Ideally I would have written this particular post a week ago but I figure better late than never. I saw something like this on another blog and love the idea. It is so easy to forget how much happens in a year and laying it out like this puts a lot in perspective. 2011 was a big year for us. We celebrated one year together as a family, suffered a serious illness and eventual death in the family, rejoiced in the birth of my niece, witnessed some crazy weather and found a great deal of joy and comfort in each other, family and friends throughout the year. The boys have come so far in the course of 12 months, both physically and emotionally. Almost before our eyes they transformed from squishy babies to little green bean boys - "our haricot verts" as we started calling them in St. Martin!
Here is our 2011 in a nutshell...
January: The boy's first snowstorm, first trip to NH and first stay in a hotel. Our last visit with Gramma before she got sick. Goodbye diapers, hello learning to get dressed.
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What a storm to have as your first snow!
The snow was taller than they were but packed enough so they could walk on top. |
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| Happy to see Doc on their first trip to NH |
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| Visiting with Gramma before she got sick |
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| Sleeping like and looking like babies on their first night in a hotel |
February: Snow, snow and more snow. I turn 43! How did that happen?
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| My 43rd |
March: Gramma is admitted to the hospital. The boys are evaluated for language development and proclaimed “on target” and "impressive" given how little time they have been in the country. I trip and hit my head on the counter and end up in the ER for stitches!
April: The birth of Colette Marie Provost! The boys’ first Easter, our second trip to NH and Mark and I go on our first “date” since becoming parents. Dash finishes his nine month treatment for exposure to TB - that was a big deal for us.
May: Spring joy! My first mother’s day and we plant a lilac tree in honor of the boys’ birth mother. The boys finish catching up on vaccines for years 0-3, also a big deal for us! Dash eats a wild mushroom in the backyard and spends the night in the ER for observation!
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Lilac tree in honor of their birth mother planted on Birth Mother's Day
(the day before Mother's Day) |
: The boys’ start summer school two mornings a week, our beach club opens, another trip to NH for beautiful Colette's Baptism and we celebrate our first “Family Day” in honor of completing one year together.
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| First day at beach club |
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| Playing ball in NH with Uncle DAP |
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| First day of school and first day away from Mommy and Daddy since joining the family |
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| Devouring Ethiopian food on Family Day 2011 |
July: Sunshine and day dream...a lovely and uneventful month. The boys start sleeping through the night on their own and start growing up more than out.
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| Our garden after many hours removing the weeds that had taken over the year before when the boys first arrived home |
: The boys turn four! Mark turns 43! First trip to the American History Museum. We realize that we are no longer worrying about indiscriminate affection toward strangers. We leave the boys with a babysitter other than family for the first time and go on our second "date". The boys promptly
stop sleeping through the night on their own...
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| Family |
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| Mark's 43rd and our second "date" since becoming parents |
September: The boys’ start preschool three mornings a week. Taye develops Bell’s Palsy but recovers quickly after giving Mom and Dad a good scare. We lose my mother-in-law to cancer. Hurricane Irene devistates the tri-state area. What a month...
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| Hurricane Irene damage looking out our front door. |
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Taye with Bell's Palsy (facial paralysis on one side of his face).
At first we thought he was just making a pirate face! |
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| Cousins in their grandmother's chair after the funeral |
October: Our fourth trip to visit family in NH, this time for apple picking at our favorite orchard. The boys’ second Halloween in spite of Halloween being postponed in CT due to a big snow storm. This year there was lots of fun and little fear. Taye runs into a picnic table at school and gets his first (and hopefully last) stitches. The boys and Mark catch multiple colds, which everyone said would happen once they started preschool but we didn't want to believe it...
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| Applecrest 2011 |
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| Brave boy after getting stitches |
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| I flex my artistic muscle on Halloween |
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| Halloween snow |
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| Kids in the hood |
: School Thanksgiving play, Thanksgiving with my Dad, Taye writes his name for the first time, the boys discovery video games on the Wii...
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| Dash writes his name for the first time, albiet upside down. I am overwhelmingly proud, amazed at the perfect upside down writing (if you flip the page over the letters spell DASH as you would expect) and at first was worried about what it might mean. I think this is called mirror writing, which is interesting because the boys are called mirror twins since Taye is a lefty and Dash is a righty. I am grateful for friends who work in early childhood education who tell me at this age this is no cause for alarm. If anyone knows anything about this I'd love to hear your thoughts. |
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| My life's greatest gifts... |
Whew, what a year! 2011 certainly had its ups and downs and we're ready for a new year, which we hope will be a little quieter but no less full of love and amazement. Praying for much health, love and happiness in 2012 for us and for all of you!
9 comments:
What a great year!
According to Selam's pre-school teacher, it means nothing (regarding the mirror writing). At that age, kids are "drawing" letters, and he's just seeing the pictures differently in his head. She said it's normal and not a worry until about 6 or 7. Selam still does it about one time out of ten!
Thanks for the feedback on the mirror writing, Susan. Also thanks for the inspiration for this post! What an effective way to reflect on a year :-)
I so look forward to your postings I enjoy every single word you write. The boys are so happy and all of you are so lucky to have each other. Wonderful family.
Love love love catching up with you and your sweet family!
Eva was so sick with a CONSTANT cold, for about 2 months when preschool started too. ugh!
Very impressive face painting!
I wouldn't worry about the writing either. I teach preschool and it is so common at this age to write it perfectly backwards. There is so much info going into their brains at that age it's bound to get a little mixed up at times! :o)
Happy 2012 to you!
This post is AWESOME! I think I say that everytime I comment...
You are VERY talented, the halloween makeup - WOW!
I might steal this idea... I love it! Mirror writing = TOTALLY normal. Reversals on letters is super duper common in Kinder and even 1st grade! AWESOME job, boys!!
I loved reading about your year and seeing all of the pictures to go along with it! I can't believe how big Dash and Taye have gotten! It's hard to believe it has been two years since we first saw pictures of our kiddos.
What a year! I was particularly interested in the part about "no longer worrying about indiscriminate affection toward strangers"; we brought home our 3 year old daughter from Ethiopia just a couple weeks ago and have definitely seen some of the indiscriminate friendliness -- good to know there's hope for it going away in the future! Your boys are beautiful!
I love your blog-- your boys are adorable. :)
Also wanted to pass along a nomination for Versatile Blogger.
http://baileygardnerfamily.blogspot.com/2012/03/nominated.html
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