When a Mommy and Daddy have read some parenting books and think they’re ready for toddlerhood, their 2 year old sets out to show them they don’t know the meaning of ready. Hijinks ensue.
Well, well, well, 2024. You certainly warped time for us, didn’t you?! I mean, in the way that leaves us feeling the sudden dizzying pelt of whiplash… I honestly have no better way to describe it. Not in a bad way, just in a …WHOA way. We knew change was among us, carried over from the leftovers of 2023; we knew the “threenager” stage was looming for us as well; we knew we would likely bite off more than we could chew (that’s just our style); and we knew we didn’t know the half of it.
This will end up being a longer letter this year (ahem, it is Kelsi’s turn to write ;))… and that seems fitting for just how much seems to have happened this year. We wrestled with many a pendulum, as life continues to give all of us. Many blissful joys, many irritating challenges. Sweet and sour. Periods of great sleep and those of not near enough sleep.
So even though I just wrote that whole bit about how we “didn’t know the half of it,” I DO know that dizzying spells usually lead to falls… but I guess if you’re going to fall, you might as well hope for a trust fall, right? And the only trust-worthy trust fall I would ever attempt is one with the *minimum* of three people involved.
With two – where one is presumably the ‘faller’ and the other the ‘catcher’ – you stand a higher chance of you both landing on your face or toppling into a giant mess. With three, there is at least always a net or a lean-to to brace against. That being said, a toddler maybe wouldn’t be the most reliable part of such a trust fall. But one day, Henry certainly will. And there were indeed some days this year when Henry absolutely had the power to just sit and hold my heart. And other days when Nick absolutely let me lean on him when Henry and I just weren’t seeing eye-to-eye. What a marvel our little family of us three has made.
I played a bit more into this trust fall myself during this past year. Some of you may recall that in September of 2023, Nick and I made the decision for me to cut back my hours in the pharmacy world to allow me to pursue more. More time with Henry, more self care, more house projects, and even more dreaming. While I continue to work as needed at the hospital, I took a leap of faith to explore something else I love: organization. I acted on a whim to cold-call someone with high prestige in the Louisville area to ask about the world of professional organizing. A phone call and a coffee date later with the one and only Pinky Jackson, and I was hooked!
Dabbling in this new arena, I have been learning from the most beautiful soul along the way, and I simply can’t speak enough to the magnitude of a difference this makes, not only in every single client’s life, but in my own life as well. It is a very rewarding endeavor and one that I hope to share with anyone who wants to know more!
I am eternally grateful for the flexibility I’ve been imparted to better balance my work and my life. So much of this year would have never been possible without it, and I have been hard-pressed by the fast paced life with a toddler to know I should never take this time for granted.
When Nick and I went back through our photo collection of memories from the past year, we just shook our head in disbelief. There were things that happened that we could have sworn felt more like an entire TWO years ago, not just several months ago.
Parts of this year were very much a fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants… we were in utter survival mode for the first half, in all honesty. We seemed to lose all control of our calendars, weeks flew by in a blur, we lost sleep, and we forgot how many rules we tried to instill in our home for an almost-three-year-old, only to daftly have them thrown back in our face like leftover spaghetti.
Surviving one trust fall naturally makes you trust the next fall. Thus, Nick and I continue to have big dreams. This past summer over one fancy, childless dinner, Nick shared a most brilliant idea to build a songwriting application. Somehow, maybe after a couple drinks at dinner, or maybe because we for once found ourselves having an uninterrupted adult conversation, he let me name this venture and get involved… And alas, we are co-preneurs! The company we started is called EverPress Studio, and we named his application “BridgeNotes.” You can see what all he has been building at mybridgenotes.com! We are both still learning what it means to be entrepreneurial together. Meanwhile Nick is still rocking it in his role as a Senior Software Engineer with Paramount+. He says it’s been the best career move so far!
It’s a wonder we had time for anything more this year. A few of our most significant highlights from the year: we demolished our deck and put in a patio in February, which we put to good use over the summer. In April, I helped my college BFFs plan a fun girls’ trip to Savannah, GA. In May, Nick performed his 12th year at Abbey Road on the River, and Henry was his #1 (or #2) fan in the crowd. This quickly led to a guitar and stage performance obsession for Henry, which we were sure to capture on video. In June, we said a heart-wrenching goodbye to our beloved cat, Harry Potter (Henry still tells us that he misses his kitty). That same month, we also made a decision to leave Henry’s daycare because it wasn’t the right fit. Henry and Mommy got alot of time at home together over the summer. August brought change and adaptation for Henry as he started at a new pre-school. Later that month, Nick and I were rewarded with our one and only much-needed mini getaway for the year, just the two of us. We stayed at a lovely AirBNB cabin at Paradise Lake in Ohio, and we daydreamed about the business, read books, enjoyed gluten-free farm to table dining, and pampered ourselves as much as we could. Henry stayed at his grandparents and proved that toddler sleep never happens anywhere like it does at home.
When Autumn approached, we made a decision to be very intentional about how we filled our time together to make the most of our favorite upcoming seasons. What started off as a sort of self-preservation “joy police” turned out to be the very thing that protected our peace, made us reconnect with that joy, and in turn made us more delighted parents.
In “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” Douglas Adams narrates that the directions for how to fly are to fall and then simply miss the ground. With the trust that only a child can have, Henry did just that… Despite alot of change in his world, losing a pet friend, growing faster than his parents could keep up with, he absolutely SOARED this year. His vocabulary seemed to have quadrupled; his understanding and conversational skills took off; he got his hands dirty and explored more; he felt more; he grew more; he learned more; and absolutely, told us “no” more. While the adjustment periods were challenging, Henry has amazed us in his personality and has become quite the social little man!
He even still surprised us with some firsts this year: our first ER trip, first dental visit, first attempts at potty training, first bike ride, first antibiotic need, and the first time he didn’t cry visiting Santa! <3
We’ll spare you the details, but in September we tackled potty training. Henry relieved us of having to change diapers anymore. We eliminated his reliance on pull-ups by pretending to throw them away. We do not claim to be experts. We, in fact, think this was one of the hardest parts of our year. But we did it together, and Henry showed us just how capable he is.
By October, Henry’s obsession with fire trucks was at peak levels. So in addition to being a fire fighter for Halloween, we planned a small birthday party for him at the Anchorage & Middletown Fire Station. He could hardly contain himself around all of the emergency vehicles. He got to sit in all of them, and even turn the lights on the fire truck.
As we’ve reflected, there was a very clear divide between those times that felt like a blur and the times that felt carefully and intentionally curated. So finally, the book end to this year is that intentionality made for the best immersion. That something we hope to take away for years to come.
It is undeniable: this was the year the magic happened! In that magic, we received our very first unprompted “I love you, Mommy” and “I love you, Daddy” from Henry… quite possibly the best gift yet. And the way Henry lit up at the Fire Station for his birthday, the way he posed and smiled with Santa… thank goodness for those moments. That is what breathed life into us, and made every meltdown or spaghetti mess worth it 🥲
Our reflection is probably the most valuable thing we can have year to year. One thing is clear: Nick is overdue for a guys’ get-away weekend. So, friends, LET’S PLAN. I’ll ORGANIZE it 😉 And… in hindsight, 2024 was maybe not the year to NOT have a planned family vacation… Here’s to more intentionality for planning for 2025 for us, for you, and for yours! Cheers!