2010

Every year, I write a New Year's Eve post that's kind of a "greatest hits" list of the past year. There have been a lot of hits, I must say.

2007
2008
2009

2010 is the year I grew into motherhood. It snuck up on me slowly, during sleepless nights and long summer days. Sometimes it doesn't seem real, especially when I am away from Laurel...and then I look down at the everpresent milk stain on my shoulder, or feel the pull in my back where it's always tight from scooping up the squirmiest 20 pound toddler I know.

I earned my master's degree in reading education. And then got a job teaching math.

I made new friends. People I met as new mamas, but who turned out to be interesting, engaging, fun women who are up for anything. On a 90 degree day in June, three of them joined Laurel and I on an 8 mile hike, and I never heard one complaint even when Teddy and Niam got tired of their carriers and insisted on being held the last mile and a half. We celebrated first birthdays all through the fall and into December and now our babies are toddlers.

I ran my first 5K and 10K, had a blast, and then promptly stopped running.

M learned to bake bread. Really, really good bread. He got a new job and turned over a new leaf. We started a business. He joined the East End Food Co-op board of directors and finished 9th in the 35 mile Rachel Carson Challenge. He powered through another few graduate classes.

Laurel learned to do any number of new things that children learn to do in their first year of life. Most recently, she's learned to climb the stairs upright and unlock the windows (uh oh). She's weaned from breastfeeding but not from taking milk from a bottle. She sleeps for 7 or 8 hour stretches. Her mood is either extremely happy or extremely mad. She's never still, even when she sleeps.

We have hundreds of photos from this past year and instead of documenting extraordinary places around the world, we documented extraordinary moments in home life. I will remember 2010 as the year we were tired as hell, but still managed to get it done.