Reflecting on 2011

So much happened in 2011! Tate learned to roll over. And sit, crawl, stand, dance, give high-fives, give kisses to his stuffed toys, and sleep through the night. He got his first 5 teeth. He learned to say his first words (variations on "da da," something that sounds like "open" and "open this," and sometimes something that sounds like "all done"). He started to understand us too. Now when we ask him if needs a new diaper he just crawls down the hall and sits in front of the door to his room. Although whenever anyone asks him to point to Mommy he just looks at them blankly. We'll have to work on that one. He also took his first trip on an airplane, and we had our first family vacation.

We had a lot to celebrate this year. Tate turned 1 in August. Brad turned 40 in December. I'll have to post some photos of that one sometime. I actually let my parents babysit him for the first time so that we could go out and celebrate with a night of Whirlyball and other mischief (turns out Liar's Club is just as much fun as I remembered). My Mom had trouble lowering a sleeping Tater into his crib and dropped him the last little bit or so, smacking his head on the side of his crib. He cried, kept them up, and my Mom now has to go to PT for her injured back (lowering him into his crib aggravated a previous injury). It may have to be another milestone birthday before they offer to babysit again, but we really appreciated it.

We had sad times too. We had some people close to us go through a number of health challenges. We keep them in our thoughts and pray for better days ahead. And I still miss my grandmother very much and think of her often. I still can't believe that last year was our last Christmas together. It hit especially hard on Christmas Eve when I would have normally gone to the candlelight service with her at her church. It still makes me happy, though, that there is a part of her in Tater. And in me too, now that I think of it.

I remember back at the end of 2008 when I seriously considered writing a the following Christmas letter: "Dear friends and family, 2008 can suck it. Love, Brad and Sandra." It makes me very grateful for the past year.