2011: A Year of Firsts and New Experiences

The Pensacola Pelican Drop Pelican

Here we are at the end of 2011.  At some times during this past year, the days have seemed to fly by; at others, time seems to have been moving soooo sloooowly.  But slow or fast, the time has passed.  It's time to close the book on 2011 and prepare for 2012.

At the end of 2010, I blogged about the year in a post entitled "The Obligatory Year-End Blog Post."  The title, of course, was to make a joke of the fact that pretty much every blogger of any kind writes a New Year or End-of-Year post.  But after putting a lot of work into my blog this year, updating and formatting and improving and writing more often, I've come to see that blogging isn't such a joke.  Even if no one else cares to read my writings, I've learned that writing is my therapy.  Any time I've had a bad day, a good day, a boring day, a challenging day, or any other sort of ordinary or not-so-ordinary day, I can use my blog as a place to chronicle the events of Kaleb's and my life.  And on particularly emotional days, writing is more cathartic than crying, more of a release than talking, and more comforting -- and healthier -- than all the standard comfort foods.

Originally, I had planned to wait and post this on New Year's Eve, but I've decided to go ahead and post a little ahead of schedule.

And so, as we launch into 2012, here is my look back at the past year:

I've finished a third full year as a single woman.  As recently as four years ago, it would have been inconceivable that I could go three years without a "man" in my life, and I certainly would never have believed that the single life would be preferable to dating!  It's not that there are no men in my life; I have my Dad, a number of friendly and intelligent men that I work with, and my very closest friends are, as ever, men.  Add to this list the most important Little Man in my life, my son Kaleb, and it's clear that much of the love and friendship in my life comes from men.  And even though my dearest friend, Jack, sends me flowers and other little tokens of love, it's still not the same as if I were trying to maintain a romance along with everything else I have going on in my life.  It's really nice not having that sort of pressure.

On the friendship front, some friendships have faded and some have been rekindled. I've made some new, wonderful friends, and some long-time friendships have been surely cemented into definite permanence.  With the help of a select few trusted friends, I have cleansed my life of toxic "friends" and others who were bringing unnecessary stress into my life.  I'm lucky to have a wonderful core group of friends who support me and love me as I am.  You all know who you are.

Birthday cupcakes!

We started the new year with Kaleb's 2nd birthday, complete with cupcakes from his Grammy.  They were heaped with blue icing that ended up all over his hands, arms, chest, and every bit of his face from his hairline to his chin.  They must have tasted pretty good, judging from how hard he worked to stuff one into his mouth whole!  Turning 2 is kind-of a big deal, I suppose.  It meant he wasn't a baby any more and was starting down the road to becoming a Big Kid.  I didn't have any specific, defined goals for the year except to keep Kaleb growing, developing, and learning on track for a kid his age.  I'm already a pretty proud mama, so I didn't see any need to push Kaleb toward anything in particular.  It's more fun watching to see who he's becoming on his own, and I look forward to even more growth and changes.

At the Frank Buck Zoo with Pookie!

In Late April, Kaleb and I went on vacation!  It was his first plane trip, and he was an absolute angel during the entire ride!  He got to sit in his very own seat on the airplane, with a special seatbelt we ordered that's just for small kids riding on planes.  Our destination was Gainesville, TX, just barely south of the Texas/Oklahoma state line.  The primary reason for our visit was to visit Kaleb's paternal grandfather, Bill, who is called "Pookie" (rhymes with "cookie") by all his grandchildren.  Pookie had moved back to Gainesville, near much of his family, in the summer of 2010.  Because Bill is a good friend to me and a wonderful grandpa to Kaleb, we were both missing him, so Gainesville seemed the perfect place for a visit.  Kaleb got to go to a zoo for the first time and meet several of his paternal relatives he'd never met before.  While we were there, we got to stay on the family's 100+ years old cattle ranch, and Kaleb was fascinated by the cows.  Also, Kaleb and the farm dogs were equally fascinated with one another, and because the dogs were about double Kaleb's size, he got "lovingly" knocked down and licked more than once!  It was a great week, and I'm glad Kaleb got to make those family connections!

105.9ºF on my front porch, June 4, 2011!!

Now that I'm working in the public school system, it means that I have 10 weeks off work each summer.  Since finding a job this past summer would likely have earned me no more income than what I'd have had to spend on daycare, I instead took Kaleb out of daycare for the summer and we had a summer of adventures.  I outfitted my minivan with a portable kiddie potty chair, a set-up for impromptu picnics, plenty of outside and water toys, and a spot sized just right for a little boy to take an afternoon nap.  It was a very hot summer, but on the days when the heat wasn't dangerously high, we ventured out and spent entire days at some of Pensacola's wonderful parks and playgrounds!  We'd play in the mornings; sometimes we had the playgrounds all to ourselves, and sometimes Kaleb made instant new friends with random children that were already there playing.  When the good playgrounds were too crowded, we'd find a quiet park and make our own fun with the kickball or other toys in the van.  We'd have a picnic mid-day from the cooler that lived in the van all summer.  After a nice picnic lunch, Kaleb would nap in the van while I caught up on my reading.  Post-nap afternoons might mean a trip to the National Naval Aviation Museum aboard NAS Pensacola or the T. T. Wentworth, Jr. Florida State Museum, both of which have great (and air conditioned) play areas for kids!

The higher jets at the Splash Pad!

One of the places Kaleb enjoyed the most this summer was the Splash Pad at Plaza de Luna!  It's a spectacular place for free fun on hot summer days!  The Splash Pad is a grouping of dancing fountain spouts, which rise to varying heights that are just right for every age of child.  Kaleb always got excited when we started getting him dressed in his swimsuit because he knew it meant a trip to the Splash Pad.  He loved running around in the water jets, chasing whatever random kids were there playing...or being chased by those same kids.  The little plastic beach pail that lives in our van became a favorite tool for collecting water that Kaleb would try to splash onto me; unfortunately for Kaleb, he rarely got the directionality right and most of the water would end up being poured down his front.  But he didn't care. The water felt good.  I'm so glad to have discovered this wonderful Pensacola attraction, and I'm sure we'll be there again and again this coming summer as well!

Tracking Potty Successes!

Perhaps our biggest achievement this past summer, and the one that makes me the most proud, was our 8 weeks of marathon potty training!  When school let out in early June, Kaleb had already been 3 weeks without a wet diaper at night.  He had essentially done the overnight training by himself.....at barely 2½ years old!  I couldn't have been more pleased that he was ready for potty training so early.  So, as soon as the summer started, we dove straight into full-time potty training.  For the first couple of weeks, we did Pull-Ups at night and when we were away from the house and made the immediate switch to "Big Boy" underwear at home.  Once the Pull-Ups stopped getting wet, we moved him into Big Boy undies all the time.  It took a few extra weeks for the #2's to consistently happen in a potty, but it did eventually become the norm.  Our potty training efforts were greatly aided by the consistency afforded us by having a potty chair in the car wherever we went and one at his Grammy's house as well.  When "they" say that consistency, persistence, and patience are the keys to potty training, they're right!  I was so happy to be able to re-enroll Kaleb in daycare fully potty trained school started again this Fall and I had to go back to work.  And I think it's safe to say that the daycare workers were pretty happy too, even though there have been a few isolated accidents.

Playing in his "fort" (under the front desk).

During the couple of weeks before the students came back to school, I had the opportunity to go up to work and earn come Comp Time by helping out in the circus that public school offices turn into just before school begins.  Since it wasn't quite time for Kaleb to return to daycare, and since I wasn't officially on the clock at work, Kaleb got to go to work with me.  We packed a bag with crayons and race cars and DVDs to play in my laptop.  Kaleb was so sweet and well-behaved and quickly won over the office staff, administrators, and teachers at my school.  He played and stayed out of the way in a "fort" he discovered under the front desk of the main office.  He even took naps each afternoon on the cot the nurse has set up in the clinic.  I don't know many 2-year-olds who could manage to get invited back to spend time in the front office at a public middle school!

My "Scary" Skeleton!

When October rolled around, people started asking me what Kaleb was going to be for Halloween.  Initially, I didn't plan to do anything with him for Halloween, since I wasn't sure he was really old enough to be concerned about the holiday one way or the other.  But, then my younger brother found this adorable sweat suit (pictured @ left) and bought it for Kaleb.  A few days later, an old friend called and invited me to a Halloween Bar-B-Que at the volunteer fire department where her husband volunteers and where she donates lots of her time.  I thought it might be fun -- I've missed the Fire Department atmosphere these last few years -- so Kaleb and I went, and we both had fun.  Then, that same friend invited Kaleb and me to join her, her husband, and their 5-year-old son for Trick-or-Treating in her mom's neighborhood on Halloween night.  We went, and Kaleb proved himself to be truly fearless, marching right up to every door regardless of how spooky the decorations were.  He had a blast, and all of us parents had lots of fun watching the boys.

Checking out the airplane's insides.

In November, we went out to NAS Pensacola to watch the Blue Angels Homecoming Air Show.  Kaleb was fascinated by the static aircraft displays as well as the planes flying overhead.  He played in the bounce house, got airbrushed tattoos on his hands, and chowed down on chips and hot dogs; for a pre-schooler, it was better than the fair!  Kaleb's always been pretty excited whenever he has seen an airplane in the sky, but that was only amplified by the close proximity of the planes flying overhead all day preceding the Blue Angels' exhibition flight.  Kaleb tromped all over the grounds of the event with us, and I was surprised that he kept up with us as energetically as he did.  But, eventually, he wore out.  After we had finished a picnic-style lunch, Kaleb laid down on his Grandpa's jacket on the ground as, using my purse as a pillow, proceeded to take a 45-minute nap right there on the ground -- on a bright sunny day, surrounded by thousands of strangers, with aircraft flying constantly overhead, and a huge tower of speakers less than 50 feet away!  I can't help but be jealous that he could manage to sleep in such a raucous environment.

Testing out the new Big Kid bed for the first time.

A few days before Christmas, Kaleb hit another big milestone.  We disassembled the toddler bed and gave it away, replacing it with a twin-sized "Big Kid" bed complete with Toy Story character sheets!  My Dad and I worked on the bed and got it put into his room and rearranged all his furniture while he was away at daycare for the day.  He came home that day to a brand-new room!  He was pretty excited, and we spent the evening sitting in his bed off and on, testing it out and checking out the new sheets and headboard.  I hadn't realized that he didn't fully grasp the situation until it was his bedtime later that evening.  As I was tucking him in for his first night in the new bed, he looked at me, surprised, and said "I really going to sleep here?!"  And he did sleep there, all through the night, and has every night since.

Showing off the Christmas T-shirt.

This was the first year that Kaleb was old enough to really be aware of what was going on surrounding Christmas.  He was hearing the stories and learning the songs at daycare.  He was asking questions, and I had to decide how to answer them.  That's one of the toughest things about parenting: answering the questions honestly, yet without destroying the magical spirit of the holiday.  After we put up the Christmas tree, Kaleb's first thought every morning was to race to the living room and push the button to turn on the tree's lights.  Once the presents began to appear, wrapped, under the tree, Kaleb asked daily if he could open them.  He just didn't understand why he had to wait!  On Christmas morning, he opened up packages with new books, new bath toys, some race cars and a dual spiral track to race them, a bed spread set with Disney's Cars characters for his new bed, and bunches and bunches of Lego brand Duplos.  It was quite a collection for a kid, and he's lucky to have so many relatives who love him and sent him holiday gifts!

Side-by-side pictures, taken 1 year and 1 day apart with Kaleb sitting in the same chair in both.

All-in-all, it's been a pretty good year for Kaleb and me.  We've had lots of fun and learned a lot of new things together.  And I'm learning more and more about parenting with each passing day.  While there have been many changes for us this year, they have been more about activities than appearance.  In my year-end blog post last year, I showed a side-by-side image of how much Kaleb's appearance had changed as he aged over that year.  I decided to do the same again this year, and discovered that it's not so much his appearance that has changed.  Yes, he's several inches taller and several pounds heavier.  But overall, he doesn't look much different.  Most of the changes have been in the new skills Kaleb has developed.

Here we go into 2012.  I'm excited to see what the year has in store for my little family, as well as for my extended family and the families of my friends!  2012 will see the a Presidential election, and so far I'm pretty disappointed with the candidates I've seen put forth.  Time will tell, and I'm trying to maintain some optimism that my vote will be for someone other than the candidate I deem to be the Least of the Evils.  I hope that something in the political climate will begin to bring the economy back on track.

Back in ancient times, the Mayans created a calendar that will end this year.  Many people have made a big deal of this, claiming that the world is going to end before we see another Christmas.  Personally, I think it's another bunch of hullabaloo like all the anxiety surrounding Y2K that turned out to be no big deal.  I'm not worried, and I'm not making any special preparations.  Then again, I suppose none of us know for sure, right?  We'll all just have to hold our breaths and wait.

So, bring it on, 2012!
                                  I'm ready for you!

In closing, I'd like to send all my family and friends a blessing for the coming year. It's not something I wrote, but something I read and thought was wonderful and decided to repost here last year and again this year for everyone I know:

May peace break into your home and
May thieves come to steal your debt.
May the pockets of your jeans become a magnet for $100 bills.
May love stick to your face like Vaseline and
May laughter assault your lips.
May happiness slap you across the face and
May your tears be those of joy.
May the problems that you had forget your home address.
And may 2012 be your best year yet!

What about you?  What are you looking forward to this year?  Any resolutions?