Monday, December 31, 2012

2012 in Review

This poor blog is nearly defunct. Even though my boys keep on growing and changing, life has been simply too hectic to write about every thing that has happened in the past year. Grant has grown and changed SO much! Liam continues to frustrate and astound! Here are some of the year's highlights - at least those that I can remember...

July: The whole family went on vacation to northern Michigan. While the scenery and location was amazingly wonderful, our children's behavior was not. Our patience was sorely tested. We also celebrated Grant's second birthday (and Laim's 6th)! We held a joint party for both the boys in Hunter Park for family and friends.

August:  The boys and I visited Fort Wayne and stayed with Great Grandma for a long weekend before I went back to work. We had a lot of fun, especially when we visited the Children's Zoo with Grandma. I spent 14 days up north in the field - it was hard being away from everyone for so long.

September: Liam started 1st grade! Although his first day of school was not without turmoil, as there was mass confusion about which classroom and teacher he was assigned to. Thankfully, it was all worked out and he got the teacher that we hoped for.

October: What a busy month! I had a conference and grants to write. But somehow we also squeezed in lots of fun Halloween events and also took a short family vacation to Mackinaw City. This trip was much smoother than the summer vacation. Although I was terribly sick for most of it and Grant wasn't feeling his best either.

November: We visited family for Thanksgiving and stayed with Grandma Kathie. We went hiking nearly every weekend, taking advantage of the glorious fall weather!

December: We had a wonderful Christmas season. We spent some time with both sides of the family before Christmas and stayed Grandma Bev and Grandpa John. The weather finally cooled off in time for a white Christmas. The boys and I played outside in the snow...we plan to go sledding tomorrow!

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Grant: Well Grant is my smiley happy guy, except when he isn't. ;) He is usually pretty easy going, and even stay that way after his second birthday in July. However, in the last couple of months, he has figured out that he too can be a rascal if he wants too. For example, he will often have his Lamby (his favorite stuffed animal) do something naughty, like break his brother's legos. And when you admonish him for it, he will say "Lamby did it". He will also sometimes admonish his bigger brother and yell "naughty bro-bro" when Liam does something he shouldn't be doing.

Grant has learned his colors pretty well and can identify some ABCs. He can also count to nearly 20! He is currently obsessed with Spiderman and spends most evenings wearing his spidy mask from Halloween. Grant also sings a LOT! He will often sing sweetly while he plays, some variation of twinkle, tinkle little star.

Liam: My eldest has grown up quite a lot in the past year. At this time last year, we were worried that he would have to repeat Kindergarten. Now he is doing well in school, especially math, which was problematic last year. Part of his success may be owed to starting medication to help with his ADHD tendencies. While I had wanted to stay away from medicating my child, his behavior was becoming more and more problematic and our household was suffering because of it. In the summer, we initiated a referral process to seek out other ways of helping Liam. After a long wait and several visits and tests, we were able to start him on some medication around Thanksgiving. The change has been dramatic in some ways and subtle in others. Overall, I do not regret doing it, since it has helped us become a happier family.

 Liam's likes are pretty much the same as they have been. He is obsessed with Lego and anything star wars. He also likes super heros. He has become a very talented Lego builder. He can assemble very complex sets rather quickly. Even more remarkable, he can build his own creations - some of which are thoroughly impressive, such as the submarine that he built this month.

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2012 has been a year full of ups and downs. While we've had a lot of opportunities and fun events, I've worked so hard at my job that I feel like I've missed out on a lot of things, including sleep. But thankfully, my children, my husband (and myself) are resilient and we seem to pull together as a team when it matters. In fact, I'd say that we are a well-oiled machine, even with our problems.

I love my family more than anything and I hope that 2013 will bring good things our way!