In January we visited my mom and stepdad and I came back to work only to watch my former Ogilvy colleagues announce their joblessness on Facebook.We endured the sights and screams of a local indoor water park and I went to Las Vegas by myself twice in February and March, first for a work-related convention and then to speak on a panel of mombloggers.
Josh and I flew to New York City for a friend's wedding and ate our way across Manhattan, and a few weeks later Josh and Z took a daddy-daughter trip to visit his sister in Leeds, England.
April highlights included my first ever clothing swap party, Bring Your Kids to Work day and another trip to the Big Apple, this time to start planning P&G's Team USA Olympic sponsorship.
In May A claimed Stella for her BFF (they're still thick as thieves). We celebrated Mother's Day with an unnecessary overnight at Starved Rock State Park, delighted in the reopening of our local playground and rocked out at the WSMS 2oth Anniversary block party.
June brought me to the sexiest strip mall nightclub in Dallas and to the local pool, where I inavertently took a bath in baby shit. I turned 33 and Z became a reader--at the tender age of 4!
In July Josh and I celebrated our 10th anniversary and A's second birthday. I answered pointed questions from Z about human reproduction and spoke with a Channel 2 reporter about the blogola and the mommybloggers who accept it. (You can find the televised interview here.)
We road-tripped it to Omaha, Nebraska for a family reunion in August, where I learned I'm related to the Omaha Steaks people and A potty trained herself. We also did a little local tourism, spending a day on the beach on Chicago's lakefront and enjoying one last trip to Kiddieland before the beloved, old-time theme park closed for good.
Z started her third and final year at WSMS in September, doing a full day (8:30-2:30) of academics. Having mastered reading over the summer break, she quickly accelerated into learning parts of speech (the kid can identify nouns, verbs, prepositions and the like!), mathematics and geography. She also started an extracurricular art class, which she's really enjoyed.
October brought multiple Halloween costume changes, H1N1 vaccines for the kids and the mini kitchen remodel we'd been dreaming of since we moved here in 2003, while November featured Z's fifth birthday party (an almost-sleepover hosted at home) and our long-anticipated trip to Australia. It was a bittersweet time for pet ownership as well; we said goodbye to Silver and Tallulah and brought home a new, kid-loving kitten, Oscar.
In December I flew to Los Angeles to do research and took the family East to see our relatives (and try on my wedding dress). In one busy week, I attended two holiday parties, interviewed the creator Yummie Tummie, jumped up and down on the glass ledge on the top of Willis Tower and saw three movies--The Princess and the Frog, Up in the Air and Avatar.
Still reading? Then you get to hear about my New Year's brunch. The one that 64 people RSVPed for. More than 50, but less than 60 showed up for bagels, mimosa, fruit, muffins, spinach strata and overnight French toast, but it was actually completely manageable. Fun, even. I just may make this an annual event!
Looking back on this year-end summary, I'm realizing I spent a fair amount of time on airplanes and in airports--and I'm not even including three overnight trips to Cincinnati.
Photo taken by Z 2 days ago
