La saison de Noël (The Christmas Season)

Wow. I can't believe that I haven't really written since school started. Having Gabe, moving to IL, not having our own home, then moving into our new home, starting the school year with a new course and languages to teach, different schedule, and many changes, and starting a grad program caused much of the last year to fly by like never before. It really has been a blur. I will say that although we are crazy busy, I'm enjoying being back at Parkside. I feel like I have adjusted to having 2 kids and although some things are harder, we feel our family is perfectly rounded out. We definitely do not plan to have any more. We are at the point where we want to just want to invest in and enjoy our 2 children. If we had more, we don't feel like we could meet the standards we have for ourselves in the different areas of our lives. Stella and Gabe are both delicious and so much fun! Stella will be 3 in February and is not any less mischievous. If there's something to get into, she still wants to get into it. She is so smart, so she figures out how to get what she wants. We are still working on potty training. She still has accidents every now and then. She still wears a diaper during the night. I see a lot of me in her, but I'm told I wasn't quite as curious and into stuff. Her language is impressive and hilarious. Every day she says something new, and it's so cute. Gabe is a little over 8 months and is a smart, strong boy. He is still exclusively nursing, has been eating cereal since 4 months, baby food since 6 months (most of which we make), and recently we have been giving him real food like cheerios, avocado, tilapia, and green beans. He goes to sleep at 7pm, and usually wakes up around 6am. He naps at 9am and 1pm. He sits up and scoots around like nobody's business. He gets on all fours sometimes and rocks, but isn't crawling or pulling up yet, which is FINE with me. He's a sharp one and turns a lot of things into a game. He says "Dada" for Joel and a different sound for Stella. For me, he just fusses and comes to me and tries to crawl up me. He recognizes the sign and word for "milk." Monday, he started signing "more," and this morning he waved a couple times at Joel when Joel waved and said, "Hi!" That's just a little earlier than Stella. We're also working on "all done" and "bye-bye." He has his 9 month appt at the end of January, so I'll report on those findings. He is wearing a few 6-month clothes, some 6-9, a lot of 9-month, and more and more 12-month. He has long arms, which is the main problem.

The pic of Stella above is before her surgery to remove a white crayon wrapper she put up her nose at the babysitter's. The doctor didn't have to cut, just put her under. She threw up that night and spiked a 102.9 fever, but all was well after that. That was an expensive crayon experience.

The babysitter put on a Christmas program 12/10. It was so cute. Gabe just observed. They performed many songs with actions, recited Bible verses, and had speaking parts. We recorded it, and it was really precious. We attended Gia Hart's 3rd bday party the Saturday after school got out for break. It was a fun way to enter into the holidays. We also went to Heather and John's annual Christmas party and had a really good time.











We technically had 5 Christmases, although our personal Christmas was super fast and uneventful because we had to rush to the next Christmas celebration. We celebrated Christmas Eve with my family, Christmas day with my mom's side and that evening at Joel's parents', and the day after Christmas with my dad's side. We had a lot of fun, but 2 celebrations in 1 day with 2 kids 2 and under is too much. Hopefully that won't have to happen again. Sadly, we sang no Christmas carols anywhere, but I did get my game fix with my dad's side and my immediate family and Sonya, the one and ownya.

The above picture is the evening after I had my right thyroid gland removed 12/28. If you remember, I had a thyroglossal duct cyst removed 3/08, and from a CAT scan, they found a thyroid nodule. It had remained stable and was no big deal. I had an ultrasound in Sept., and it had grown, so I had a biopsy in October, and the biology of it had changed and they couldn't tell for sure if it was cancerous. My doctor was 90% sure my nodule was benign, and it was. My mom, sisters, and Sonya stayed with me for several days afterward, which was helpful and made things more fun:) I've been off this week from school for continued healing, and because my voice is still weak. It'll be hard to project my voice next week teaching 5 classes of mostly 30 kids a day, but I'll make do somehow. I still can't take as big of breaths as normal due to throat swelling and maybe my stitches. My voice does not have its normal stamina. I have no idea when I'll really be able to sing again. I actually had to decline singing in a wedding in February because of this uncertainty:( Here are some fun videos from December below.