2011 restrospective
so the biggest thing in 2011 was the arrival of my wonderful baby boy! in fact, since (i believe) he was conceived some time around Christmas 2010, i basically spent the entire year either pregnant with or getting to know my boy. the pregnancy was hard (quite bad nausea throughout most of it, and a horrible and scary experience with kidney stones about 2/3 of the way through the pregnancy) and the birth was long (30 hours) and pretty painful...but we ended up with, honestly, the easiest, most amazingly well behaved baby on the face of the planet (as far as i'm concerned).
he started sleeping through the night at around 2 months old and continues to do so (he's averaging about 10-11 hrs. a night of uninterrupted sleep). he's super mellow most of the time, and he's such a *fun* baby to be around. he's recently started babbling quite a bit and it's pretty easy to make him giggle by tickling or otherwise teasing him. he's also gotten really snuggly, and loves to just cuddle with me for long periods of time. i know he's probably not always going to be that cuddly, so i'm savoring every last bit of it while i can. he's also recently become very interested in toys - particularly in soft plush things that he can snuggle with. he has two lovies right now -- one, a soft giraffe blanket called "bayem" and the other a tiny plush kangaroo wearing a shirt called "giraffe." he's also getting big so fast -- he's already up to (i estimate) about 17 lbs. and 25 1/2 inches long...such a big boy! he's wearing 6 mo. size clothes already!
the other significant thing this year was quitting my awful job. i was so miserable there, and stressed out beyond belief. getting pregnant and wanting to stay home (at least for the first few years) to take care of the baby came at a pretty good time, as i was just about to bail for sanity's sake anyway. best decision ever, and i feel SO lucky to be able to stay home with Ben and hang out with him all day and get to watch him grow.
overall it was a challenging but otherwise good year. i look forward to 2012 and watching my boy grow ever more amazing every day!