A Year in Review

Wowzers, a year has past since the day that Thomas was born.  The time really does seem to pass by in a blink and then as you sit and reflect all the hard times, the nights of not sleeping and illnesses seem to fade away. 

Thomas is already a year old.  How do you measure a year with your first child?   There are so many things that have changed in our family this year, some major, some minor.   I feel like my words cannot do justice to my feelings and emotions of this past year. 

For Mike and I, Thomas has completely changed our world for the better.  I look at life with a different lens and could sit for hours watching Thomas learn and play with his friends, animals and his daddy.  I love teaching him new things and then realizing that he does know _________.”

It has also changed how I look at and feel about my husband.  I love Mike in a completely different way.  When we met, I loved him for the man he was and father he could possibly be.  Now I look at him with our son and he is one of the most amazing fathers I have ever seen.   As Thomas grows, his bond with Mike continues to become stronger, more playful and these two will someday be best friends like Mike is with his dad and brother.  I am a very lucky mother and wife to have these two to call my own.

As a Mother, I have learned many different things in this year.  I have learned that my heart can love more than I ever thought possible.  I have found that I can operate on much less sleep than I ever thought I could, let’s be honest I haven’t slept longer than 6 hours in 365 days.   With just one hug I have learned that I can change Thomas’ world and kiss and love his hurts away.  I have survived the first year of  nursing a child, 365 days of providing nourishment and comfort for him.  The sacred bond that Thomas and I have from nursing is something that I will forever be grateful we were able to accomplish.   I have found that I am able to multi task so much more than I ever thought I could.  I have learned that to be called a mother is more than delivering a child, it is putting that child before your needs on a daily basis and never looking back.  I have learned that no matter how many babies are “sleeping through the night” or taking a bottle, no amount of rationalization or bribing will make Thomas change his determined mind.   Finally, I have learned that after 41 hours of labor NOTHING seems too hard physically to accomplish :-)

Thank you to everyone who has been a part of our first year as a family.  Thank you to Mike and to Thomas for choosing me to spend your life with.  I love you and our family more than I could ever think possible.

Looking back on how Thomas’ physical appearance has changed along with all his successes each month was heartwarming.  Below are my 2 favorite pictures from the day we met our son.

Marco Island 2011

Our family was invited down to spend time with Mike’s family in Marco Island.  A week on the beach with family, I couldn’t book our tickets fast enough :-) 

We had a great flight down to and back from Florida.   The trip overall was great and as relaxing as it could be with a sick baby and trying to sell a house :-)

Mike, his dad and grandpa were able to get a few bonding trips in.  Monday they went off shore fishing.  This was a first for Mike and his grandpa.   They caught a wide variety of fish, and Mike caught a 180 lbs nurse shark.   Wednesday they went on “the alligator walk” where they go into the Everglades on an old logging trail to see what they can see.  Thursday they went out for backwater fishing.

Thomas was a sick little guy for our entire trip.   The Friday night before we left he had a little fever, but then Saturday was feeling better and didn’t have a fever.  We packed extra diapers and hoped for the best.   The little guy was doing ok on Sunday and Monday, but Monday night he went from normal to extra clingy and was sick.   With one trip to the ER early Wednesday morning, 3 puking on his mom episodes, and more diaper changes than I care to admit we official had a little guy who felt just plain icky on his first Florida trip and birthday.  It was so helpful to have Mike and his parents around to help take care of Thomas.  I also loved having maid service :-) 

We were able to go to dinner at some yummy restaurants: Snook Inn, Davincci’s, Quinn’s and Cafe de Marco.   Thankfully we had understanding family with us, but it was a nightmare having to try to have our sick baby at dinner.   When he needed to rally he usually did but Mike and I had to work hard to maintain order.

Thursday we went to Davincci’s for dinner to celebrate his    birthday. This was so special as the year prior this is where Mike’s family all toasted his arrival.    The birthday boy was not on his best behavior but we are sure he figured it was his birthday and he would cry if he wanted to!  After a switching to a cooler seat and taking off his shirt he settled down and was ready to dig into his cake. 

All in all it was a great week, even with a sick baby.  Next year we have told Thomas if we are lucky enough to be invited back he is not allowed to be sick.

Thanks Grandpa and Grandma Laschen for everything we had a wonderful time, minus the sick part!

The Village

What a fun little place The Village is.  It is a play area and restaurant in one.  Thomas and I met up with Lilli and Allison for a date and as you can see it was a lot of fun.

Hanging Out in Seattle

Here are a bunch of pictures from when Thomas and myself were “stranded” in Seattle to find our house. Seattle is rainy, but the “Sun Breaks” are amazing and we took those opportunities to get outside.

Thomas will probably learn the song “rain rain go away” very quickly, nonetheless, he loved sitting by the french door and watching outside.

Spring had also sprung in Seattle and the cherry blossoms, daffodils, tulips and other spring flowers were out and beautiful. We can’t wait to get to Seattle!

Isn’t it wild how green it is. There is moss and green everywhere!

Thomas loved “helping” with the laundry. In fact he helped so much that it made it next to impossible to get any folding done with him around. He also had a “thinking step” he would sit on this step and play and then still would turn around and go backwards to get to the lower level.

We also made our first official trip to Ikea in Seattle to scope out stuff and get ideas for our new house. Thomas had a blast and loved walking in the warehouse area. He also tried frozen yogurt for the first time and enjoyed that as well.

Our New House

As many of you know by now our “house hunt” in Seattle was not nearly as seamless as I thought it was going to be!

Looking on the Internet starting in January, Mike and I were convinced we wanted to live on the “East Side.”  The East side is suburbia, there are yards, big builder built houses and a lot less city feel.  After 2 days looking, although we were impressed with a few of the yards, the homes were lacking appeal.  They were very similar to what we live in now, but were much more expensive.  So we went back to the drawing board.   We then started to look in the city, a completely different standard.  We gave up square footage and a yard, to be close to things to do and charm.  The hunt was on.

In total we went out 5 days looking (2 only Mike, 2 only Thomas and I, and 1 as a family) each day we went out we saw between 10-15 properties.  Our realtors, who were amazing, went out and previewed over 75 properties and finally after loosing a house in a bidding war (the other people paid much more than the listing price) we found a great little place to call home.

The market in Seattle is W.I.L.D.!!!!  It is so unexpected because if you are like me you think that the housing market is down…well not in many areas in Seattle.  (There are also areas that are down).   We were lucky to find this house which is priced very similar to our current home!  Surprised?  Mike and I were too when we started looking!  It was a hard adjustment looking at much smaller homes with a lot less “features.”   We are confident that will a little love this house has a lot of potential.  We are looking forward to turning our rough diamond into our spectacular home.

We are in an area called Ballard.  You can read more about the area by clicking here.   It is a fabulous area with a lot of places for us to explore as a family!

Now comes the part I dreaded…the actual figuring out how to get a toddler, giant dog, two cats, and us there in one piece with all our hair! 

Here is your tour! 

Quack Quack

A few blocks away from our “vacation home” there is this little pond with a lot of ducks.  They have it pretty good, the neighborhood kids feed this ducks well!   We made several trips to “feed the ducks.”  Thomas enjoyed staring at the ducks, throwing them food, and even can make a semi-quack sound.

A fish filled day

We headed down to the Piers in Seattle to head over to Pike Place Market.  This is the one thing that Mike and I always thought of when we thought of Seattle.   On our way down we stopped and had lunch.  While at lunch we noticed that Thomas started to watch the boats coming in and out of the harbor. 

Then we were off to the market.  After something caught my eye and begging Mike to let us get it, we were proud members of the Seattle Aquarium :-) 

I have to admit I am so excited about this purchase.  Not only is it something fun for us to do as a family, we can bring a guest with us for free each visit AND it is about all of the animals that inhabit Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean.   I never thought I would be living so close to the ocean, salmon, killer whales and sharks!   Can’t wait to visit the aquarium and watch Thomas learn and grow every visit!

Then it was off to the market, our original destination.  It was what we were expecting: lots of people, fish and cameras!  After navigating the crowds and finding some yummy food for dinner we headed home.