adios, 2014

2014 was one of those sneaky kinds of years that comes on highly anticipated and takes off in the night without so much as a lipstick smear on the mirror. i craved 2014 like a sleep deprived new mommy craves an ambien and a night nanny - hard! henry was tiny, healthy, and perfect, but soooo demanding of my time between the hours of 24/7 that i really thought i was losing every stitch of remaining sanity i'd held on to through his pregnancy. joey and i saw eye to eye approximately 2ish days of the week, and the other 5 (or was it 10?) were spent battling over important things like 'your coat is on the couch, again!', 'the pillow doesn't go there!', 'you'll never understand, your boobs aren't taking over y.o.u.r. life!'.

2013 saw shades of me that were straight hideous and confusing, and i looked into 2014 with love-sick, rosy goggles. and she shined. she really did. even when we were in it, neck deep in blown-out diapers and daycare drop off. it never got boring. 2014 was full of the kind of glamour and riveting excitement reserved for the tired and weary. our curtain call every morning was henry's squirmy bottom in the monitor as he vocalized his ripe entrance, and every night the lights dimmed with henry's stage right exit, his companions (bottle and lucky parent) wrapped snug around his pinky finger.

we said goodbye to 2014 at 11:15 (although huck blew a precious kiss to the old year at 6:27 on the nose, because he's nothing if not ornery on less than 12 hours of beauty sleep), and we were ready. because every new day is a better one, and every new year promises so much to look forward to. blindly optimistic? rarely. naive? always! we'll take it 2015, throw us a good one.

see ya, 2013

how could i not be eternally grateful for a year that brought me this guy?

so this year, 2013, will forever go down as one of my favorites, despite it's aggravating challenges and soul-challenging hurdles. this year made us grow, in all facets of our lives, and for that i suppose i should feel nothing except blessed. because we were. undeniably. yet i'm counting down the hours towards a brand new year, a clean fresh start where we can really do this thing. 2013 sort of took the wind out of us. we lost a little sparkle and grew a whole lot of doubt. nothing a little henry spirit couldn't fix though, and he's taking us in to the new year with vibrancy. this new year is dedicated to being the best mom in the world for henry. if there is nothing else i've learned in the 7 weeks huck's been around, it's how insignificance life's minor hiccups are in the scheme of it all and how monumental the presence of people we love in our lives really is. so for this new year, that's the theme. focus on the important stuff, leave the rest behind.

huck will learn to talk this year, even more than he's already uttering. he will learn to walk and find his favorite solid foods. he'll go to daycare and make his first best friends. he'll fall even deeper in love with his hilarious daddy and (god-willing) crave snuggles with mommy with the enthusiasm he has today. he'll learn what grass feels like between his tiny toes and probably taste the grainy dirt beneath the green blades a time or two. the most magical thing of all is that there are so many millions of other ways henry will surprise and inspire us in the new year as he grows into himself. and i can't wait!

happy 2014! i hope this year is your year too!