Goodbye to 2020

 It is time to say goodbye to the fastest slowest year of my life.  I know people have a lot of feelings about 2020 and how ready they are for 2021.  I thought it'd be good to take a minute to look back on 2020 and all that it brought us.

I was listening to a podcast recently where they talked about how they think of 2020 as starting in March, that it's hard to even remember the things that happened in January/February as part of this year.  And it's so true, but here's a few things that made up our pre-pandemic 2020...

*We found out we were having a BOY toward the beginning of the year and got to work getting ready to meet him

*We took Cooper bowling-- he had talked about this and asked about this for a long time.  And I'm really glad we did this before COVID.

*I went on a weekend getaway with Erin for her birthday.  We rented a house by the lake and enjoyed a couple of days of reading, chatting, resting, and not discipling kids.  Another thing that in hindsight I didn't realize would be as important as it was since it was one of our last extended times together before the pandemic and before she moved across the country!

*We went to Oklahoma for David's cousin's wedding at the end of February.  So thankful for a chance to see so much family at that time.

We decided to do one last family of 3 trip to go to the Big 12 Basketball tournament and see both of our teams play.  I will never forget stopping for lunch on our way to Kansas City and being at Chick fil A reading the news that COVID19 (did I even know that's what it was called then?) was now being classified as a pandemic.  We kind of shrugged and said "okay" and kept driving.  As we drove into town we started hearing word that other games were being cancelled.  Then we heard that the Big 12 tournament wouldn't be allowing fans at the games.  We spent our first night of the pandemic in a hotel unsure of what was going on or what we were even doing.  We got up the next morning to drive back home, not knowing that was where we'd spend the rest of 2020 ;)

The rest of 2020 brought a whole lot of family time.  Including...

*David working from home for the past 10 months.  Breakfasts and lunches and dinners together.  Slower mornings together.  His job continuing to provide for everything we needed in this crazy year.

*Lots of playtime for Cooper.  I've said it before, but it has been amazing to see his imagination at work now that he has so much time to just play at home.  I always thought we needed lots of activities (playdates, MOPS, Bible Study, etc.) to keep both of us sane, but it turns out he's thrived being home.  We've had some rough patches of course, but he really enjoys slow days where we don't leave the house.

*Splashing, bike riding, hiking, sitting, and exploring outside.  So much outside time.  In September I started tracking our hours outside as part of the 1000 hours outside movement and we hit 100 hours right before Christmas.

*A new sweet baby boy.  Miles is just the center of all of our affection.  Watching him and Cooper love each other is one of my favorite things.  And as much as this year didn't look anything like I thought it would, I am so thankful for the surprise of getting to spend so much time at home with him enjoying his newborn days instead of constantly being on the go.

*School at home.  Cooper and I had a lot of fun with Superhero School and Christmas school this Fall.   It's been fun watching him learn memory verses and new skills.  I gave him a choice and we decided to take a break from "school" in January, but it was a fun memory of 2020.

*COOPER IS POTTY TRAINED.  I really didn't know if this would happen.  We started potty training right after last Christmas and gave up in March right before Cooper turned 3 when it was a battle every day.  We decided to wait until after baby brother was born and over the summer Cooper started doing a lot of it on his own and then with a little structure from us it all clicked.  

*A trip to Colorado.  It was such a refreshing thing to be able to get out of town together and social distance in the mountains.  

And so much more that I'm sure I'm forgetting about.  

It has definitely been a year to remember and I'm hopeful that looking back I will remember all of the sweet times we had with our family staying home.  Goodbye 2020 and all that you taught us, here's to 2021 and more days staying at home ;)

Christmas Fun

Despite all of the things that are different about this year, we still had a great time celebrating a month of Christmas.  Here's a few glimpses of our month. 

My friend gave us this baby Santa hat and Cooper found some antlers, so he decided Miles should be in the bassinet for Santa's sleigh and he pushed him all over the living room.

The boys wore lots of Christmas pajamas, including this matching set of "Ninjabread Men" from Grandma.

We went to the Arboretum at night with my family to celebrate my birthday and took this little reindeer along.

Cooper's favorite part is the "pa rum pum pum pums."  He could watch the 12 drummers all day long.  He had his drum with him to drum along.

Here are our homemade pajamas.  Cooper is wearing his brother shirt that I made him last year and Miles is wearing the "little" shirt Cooper wore 2 years ago!

We celebrated Saint Nicholas day by making gifts for our neighbors.  We decided to forego food gifts this year and we made some stovetop potpourri kits.  Cooper ran them up to the doors and had fun delivering them.

We also decided to do stocking gifts on Saint Nicholas Day.  I'd seen that idea on a blog I follow and thought it was a fun way to spread out the gifts this year.

We found some Christmas decorations to walk around and take pictures.

We celebrated Grinch day.  Cooper is still very into the Grinch, he loves reading the book and listening to the Boris Karloff version on Amazon music.  We also watched the old cartoon as well as the newer cartoon movie this year.  On Grinch Day we had some counting, letter, and science activities that related to the Grinch story.  We also had grinch muffins

All dressed up for Christmas Eve.  Our old church, Woodcreek, hosted their Christmas Eve services outside so we decided to take the boys.  It was only Miles' 2nd church service, which seems really weird considering how often we were at church a year ago.  We were grateful for an opportunity to worship in person on Christmas Eve in a setting that felt pretty safe to us.

Christmas morning.  We got Cooper a set of wooden train tracks and he enjoyed adding to it and driving the trains on it.

Miles' big gift was this recycled jumper that brother used as a baby.  Miles is a big fan!

Our church's kids ministry provided free Jesse Tree kits and a devotional book this year and we really enjoyed going through it every night at dinner.  We put the last ornament on over Christmas breakfast.

The pure joy on M's face cracks me up.  We love our bapron bibs!

So thankful for this month with our family!

Months of Miles: 7 Months

 Diaper Size: 5

Clothes size: Some 9 months, some 12 months

Things you love: your brother, being talked or sung to, peek-a-boo, eating, teething toys, your thumb, being outside, rolling all around the room, sitting up, talking.

Things you don't love: being put down alone, waiting to eat in the mornings (if I try to change your diaper first you lose it!), 

Milestones:  You are sitting for long stretches of time now and seem so proud of yourself.  You still roll all around and you do well on tummy time.  You don't seem to have any interest in trying to move forward on your tummy or arms, but I'm fine with that and I know it will come soon enough!  You are also eating a ton-- still some purees and I've started giving you various steamed fruits and vegetables and you gobble them all up!  You've also been babbling a lot more this month--especially the "m" sound!

Miles, you light up our life!  All of us would do anything to make you smile or laugh and you reward us with big smiles and giggles frequently!  You love your brother and watch him intently.  You also still only have eyes for mama a lot of the time.  It's been so fun watching you play more and more this month and also watching how much you love all the food you're trying!  We're so thankful for you and the brightness you've brought to our 2020.  I love you my little Miles-a-moo!