A Decade In Parenting

#1 Every kid needs a picture with antlers. #2 Durango, CO #3 Not real spiders #4 Partners in Crime

This morning someone suggested that I start a blog. That was my first clue that too much time had passed since my last blog entry. So, one of my New Year's resolutions will be to be more consistent with my blog. Here goes nothing. No really, I mean this resolution could be dead and gone within a week. I'm horrible at this stuff.

11 years ago I was in my early twenties. OK, maybe not too early, but not exactly late. I was young and fancy free. Not sure what "fancy free" means but fun to say and slightly poetic. We came and went anytime any place. Heck, we even bought a black convertible. Speaking of black convertible...I remember feeling so sick and miserable waiting for our fiance agent to work a small miracle with our income and lack of credit history. I had been feeling sick for 7 weeks or so, but I was pretty sure I had a bug. Who cares anyway? We are young and now is the perfect time to buy a convertible (at least this is what we told my parents.) Long story short, yep, I was preggers. Telling everyone was fun but met with several odd responses. My mom asked "how did this happen?" I was not sure if she needed me to answer or if she was completely caught off guard, but odd moment to say the least. My friend Tammy, with whom I saw almost everyday, cried. Not a happy cry, just a 'my fun time with you is over' kinda cry. Eventually, we all rolled around to the idea of my parenting a child. Scary for all involved.

After a long night of putt-putt and Mexican food on New Years Eve, I settled in for the night. We celebrated the big millennium starting, and we were thankful that we had power, water and our computers were all working. Around 1am is when my life began to change. After many hours of laboring, pushing and getting to see how the vacuum and forceps felt, my child was out. I can still remember starring in complete confusion and amazement at this perfect child that they pulled out of me. Wow, that beautiful baby was mine.

In just 10 short years he has said his first word, took his first step, made friends and advanced in his education far beyond expectations (obviously, from his mother.) I can't wait to see what the next decade has in store for us. I love you Andrew!