The Birkett's 2010 In Review

It's time for the annual year in review.  As a family we were blessed with a fantastic year.  We'll look back and remember it fondly. It will probably be the last year we'll get to travel as much as we did (thanks to free flights while under the age of two!).

This year was such an exciting time for Anderson - we saw him figure out how to stand by himself and just as fast as he could stand he started to take his first steps. From there it never ended he was quite the proficient walker by the time his first birthday came around.  Although he's been fast in terms of the physical activities Anderson is still catching up in terms of verbal communication. We've been seeing some great strides and feel he is on the cusp of just exploding in this arena.

Lake Tahoe
(Anderson is on mom's back)

2010 saw us heading on the road to some fun and exciting destinations.  We a started the year in Tahoe where Anderson got to see and touch the snow for the very first time.  Mom and dad hit the slopes (mom literally hit the slopes...a lot) and then mom headed to the casinos with Kelly for a little gambling.  What can I say, mom loves herself a little craps. Right before Anderson's first birthday we headed to sunny Cabo San Lucas for a makeup vacation. We were originally scheduled to go before maternity leave ended by a pesky hurricane got in our way. Ce la vie! It was a fantastic place to get away, short flight and no hassles in renting a condo with a pool. I think we're going to frequent it more in the future. Memorial Day brought us to sunny Maui for some QT with G-Pa, Grammy and cousins Hannah, Jesse and Griffin. The pool was the biggest part of our day, every day. Next on our agenda was London in August.  We were worried about the 10+ hours flights and the time change but Anderson was a champ! Mom and Dad were able to enjoy the trip and wedding festivities and Anderson was able to enjoy his week with Poa Poa. Finally Anderson rounded out the year in NJ - a week with Nan. During this trip he took his first ride into NYC and checked out the major tourist attraction - Times Square.

In between all of this traveling mom and dad worked really hard. After approximately 7 years Brian said goodbye to Yahoo! and headed off to a start-up: Trubates.com Bri loves it and is energized by the work he is doing as the VP of Business Development.  Dawn is still with salesforce.com and really got back into the saddle at work - having to travel to Seattle, Spokane, Paris and Toronto throughout the year opening new offices and rolling out new AWS programs for the company. Luckily the hard work has paid off - we purchased a new house in San Mateo! There's plenty of room for Anderson and possibly more! We hosted a few events already -Halloween Trick or Treating and Christmas Breakfast/Dinner.

WS Victory Parade

I've saved the best part for last - 2010 was the year of the San Francisco Giants.  We once again had our season tickets and were able to experience the most amazing end of a season and playoff run. It was beyond our wildest expectations. 

We look forward to all the blessings 2011 has to bring!

An early Christmas present...

care of the S.F. Giants.

2010 World Series Trophy

The streak is over

We made it almost 19 months without a trip to the ER, but that officially ended today.  Anderson is fine, nothing a little extra TLC won't help. Luckily, it didn't involve blood, puke (that comes later) or any other bodily fluids.  Anderson took a very hard fall and knock on the head at about 6:45am today. Now we're used to Anderson taking tumbles and hitting his head here and there, and hard ones at that. Today was different though. It sounded different and he fell backwards - his feet totally slipping out from under him and the back of his head hit the hardwood floor. He was pretty dazed and was having a hard time keeping his eyes open. Bri and I made the decision to have him checked out. We figured better safe than sorry.

The ER wasn't packed and we were seen right away. The diagnosis was just what we expected and wanted to hear - he hit his head pretty hard and probably knocked the wind out of himself but he'd be just fine in a day or so.  Technically it's a concussion. Unfortunately he did develop the one side effect of a head injury - vomiting. Gross. We're lucky that we've never had to deal with this yet either. Another streak down the drain.

Besides today's bad luck Anderson has been great! He's added a few words in quick succession and we think this may mean he's on a roll in terms of progressing on that front.  Halloween was fantastic! Anderson was a zombie and got the hang of trick or treating by following his cousins. 

His stats from his 18 month appointment are:

• Height: 30" (although I think this is a bit off as it matched his 15 mo appointment)
• Weight: 22lbs 13oz

What does this mean? He's a happy, healthy little guy. Emphasis on little.

Since the last blog, we moved house. This time it's permanent. We love our new place and can see it as a good place to grow as a family and put down roots. 

The day we got the keys to our house!

Changes abound

It has been a insane month in the Birkett household.  Insane in a good way though.  First, Brian decided not to follow his group to Monster.com when it sold by Yahoo!.  Brian is now the VP, Business Development for a start up called Trubates - a site similar to Groupon but instead of a deal a day you search for what you want and they are on the site for more than a day.

Secondly, we decided to buy another house.  We having been renting the house Brian grew up in for the last year and half because we didn't have room to live as a family of 3 in our 1 bedroom condo in the City. Bri and I were casually hitting up open houses to get a feel for what was coming online and one thing led to another. We're scheduled to close on the house on October 5th.  It's pretty amazing - we'll be located on the keystone of a cul-de-sac and it has 3bedrooms, 2 baths, great flow for entertaining, a huge backyard. Behind the house is what is called a "Hidden Park". There are 6 cul-de-sac that lead up to this park, unless you live in these "Lanes" you'd never know about it.  In fact, our back fence has a gate that leads out to the park letting you out right in front of the tennis courts.  Why buy a house with all of that when the city can maintain it all for you! We still own our condo and thank our lucky stars for our amazing tenant! I hope she never leaves (or at least not until the market returns a bit).

Third, I have been gone for half the month. (insert tiny violin here).  Bri and I had plans for months to go to the inaugural game of the NY Giants at their new stadium. It then turned out to be right in line with a trip to Paris I had to take for work (rough, I know). At first I was excited. A whole two weeks away to sleep in and recharge my batteries. Then as it led up to say goodbye to A I could feel the sadness creep in.  What was I thinking! I don't mind the diaper changes, tantrums and tears - especially when they are followed by a hug, smile or belly laugh. With my trip winding down I've realized it was good but Skye is certainly no substitute for a hug & kiss from my two favorite men. Plus "table pour un" is no fun at all. I'd much rather be in the City of Light with them both.

So tomorrow I take the 12 hour flight back to SFO and start the craziness of packing and moving.  Bri and I will be celebrating our 5 year wedding anniversary amongst a sea of moving boxes. So romantic - at least we'll be together.

First Class Traveler

It's been almost 6 weeks since our last blog. Time flies when you're having fun!  At the beginning of the month we traveled to London for a week.  Bri and I attended a wedding of a close college friend and brought along Bri's mom, Sunny, so we could enjoy ourselves without having to find babysitting services. It was a great decision. I'm not sure we had been out that much in years, forget about just since having a child.

Anderson was champ and continues to travel without a hitch.  The 10+ hour direct flight to London was long but he was very well behaved there and back.  The hardest part of the trip was the first day. We left SFO at 1pm and arrived at LHR at 7:30am.  Needless to say as the day progressed we were exhausted.  We thought we could just put Anderson down for a nap at his regular time, but no he was having none of that.  Mom and Dad struggled the most with this no nap situation. Then like clockwork he went to bed at 7pm.  It was a great trip - too bad Anderson won't remember any of it when he grows up!

In other news, Anderson now runs. Mom, Dad and Evita are tired. Evita, however, needs to start running. She's been getting a lot of extra food courtesy of A throwing it off the side of his highchair. Needless to say Evita is a little chubbier than normal. Anderson still doesn't talk much, in fact there are some words he was saying before such as "anana" (banana) that we haven't heard in a long time.  It concerns me a little bit, but then again the words he does say - dada, daddy, doggie, hi, more - have become very clear and refined. He still doesn't call me anything..boo. At this point I'd take him calling me lady. Pity party over - he runs to me to give me hug or belly flops on me if I'm laying on the floor. He's a ham and cracks me up.

Dear Sleep, I love you and miss you...

Bri and I really hope we can see our friend sleep really soon. After the past few sleepless nights (last night being the worst, a Sunday no less) I have a major bone to pick with the tooth fairy.  I understand that teeth are neccesary but having four molars work their way out in varying degrees at the same time is not fair to parents but really not fair to Anderson. The poor guy is miserable at night. It's weird, during the day he's been drooling like crazy and chewing on everything and anything but at about midnight it's clear they are making their move. To top it off after a near sleepless night A's been getting up as early as 4:45am ready to go for the day and play. Oy Vey! Poor baby and mommy. I would say poor dad but Bri's been away for business some nights and will be headed to Vegas for business this week.  He's getting a few good nights of sleep mixed in there. Lucky guy. We'll be heading to the doctor's on Friday to see what his stats are but I'll be sure to ask about this crazy teething and sleep patterns. I realize we've been blessed to have a 12 hour a night sleeper since he was 4 months old, but I've been spoiled and want it back!

In other news, A is 15 months old today. How cute is the picture to the left? The weather has been great these days so we try and spend as much time outside as possible. For a few reasons, it tires him out, Evita gets a break, our house doesn't get trashed and there's so much to do in the Bay Area! The town we live in has a great large park that has a Japanese Tea Garden, ball field, large playground and an old school train ride.  A was a little too small to sit in it himself, so I had to go along for the ride.  Rough life.  We're headed  across the pond to London in two weeks and tkaing Anderson with us. He's been good on planes thus far, but I pray a 10+ hours flight doesn't push it.  I'm hoping we bump into Gwen Stefani and her kids in one of the Hyde Park playgrounds.  Maybe her kids will want to be best friends with A and we'll start having playdates in the U.S. ha ha ha.

Full Speed Ahead

I was thinking the other day that I might actually be more exhausted now than I was a year ago with a newborn.  It may have to do with the fact that I work full time (and long hours lately) and have a walker on my hands. No joke, Anderson is in to EVERYTHING. Somedays I can't wait until meal time because he's strapped into his chair and can't run around for a good 20-30 minutes.

We went to Maui with Bri's family and had a great time. We've been taking Anderson to swim 'lessons", it's really singing songs while in the water, and found that it paid off.  He loves the water and will cry if he sees a pool and con't go in it.  More importantly he really enjoys swimming under water back and forth to mom and dad.  It's super cute! While we were in Hawaii Anderson got to spend 10 days with three of his cousins.  He also started to vocalize a  bit more than ever.  After his one year appointment we started signing three words - milk, more and all done.  In about two weeks he really got the concept and started signing back. It's amazing. He also has a few words - da (Bri), doggie, anana (banana) and hi. He's a very social kid and waves hi to almost everyone if we're in the store.  I was at the playground iwth him the other day and a person walked by with their dog, he waved hi and then picked up speed saying "doggie, doggie" while charging after the dog.

The biggest change that we've seen since his birthday is that he's lost the "baby" in him.  In what seemed like an overnight transformation he's more little boy than ever.  Maybe it was the haircut? Or the walking/running?  It's slightly sad but also exciting.  I once had a co-worker tell me that it only gets better as he grows up and you know what, she was right. 

Happy Birthday, Anderson

Our baby has turned 1! I'm in shock at how fast it all happened.  His stats for his birthday are:

Height: 28.5 inches (born at 19.5")

Weight: 20.0 lbs (born at 7.7 lbs)

The great news of this is that he is out of single digit percentiles too! Way to grow, little man. 

Yesterday we celebrated his birthday with a little party at the waterside park a few blocks from our house.  The sun was shining, family including our nieces, nephew, close friends and their children were all there to help celebrate in style.  I attempted and succeeded in making Anderson a cake that looked like a turtle. It was perfect (minus the missing east coast family) and he had a ball.  For his actual birthday today, Dawn took the day off of work to spend it with Anderson.  Anderson got to go to the park and play with his cousins and then headed to the doctors for his well baby checkup and shots.  

The past month has been very fun and full of excitement. Shortly after the last blog post (as in one day), Anderson decided to give crawling the boot pretty much. He's walking all about and getting more and more steady on his feet everyday.  He's fairly reckless and just take spills that you would think hurt.  I guess not because he just dusts himself off and gets right back at it. We also traveled to Cabo San Lucas Mexico for a little R&R.  It was actually the trip we planned to take before my maternity leave ended but that pesky little hurricane got in the way.  We has a good time and learned that Anderson HATES the sand.  He saw it and cried.  We eventually coaxed him into sitting in the sand without crying by letting him play with a rinsed out Pacifico bottle - on day 3. 

What else is there to say? We're in a daze of happiness. He's just so freaking amazing it sounds corny to put it into words.  

Here's Anderson's first picture with Julius (1 week old) and his most recent one taken today.

 

11 months old

The weather in the Bay Area has been sunny, warm and all around gorgeous for the past week - and Anderson's disposition matches this, as usual. Did you expect me to say anything different?  I don't have any growth stats for this month as we don't see the pediatrician again until his birthday. However, I know for a fact he had a bit of a spurt this month. He is a solid little boy.  The past month has been great; besides the growth spurt we've seen more and more jumps in his physical and mental abilities. 

While he still needs just even the smallest items to push himself into a standing position, once he's in that position you need to watch out.  Just yesterday he penguin/drunk sailor walked from the window in his bedroom into the office to squat down and torture Evita while she was trying to eat.  Not once in this little journey did he lean or hold on to anything, nor did he fall.  Watch out! I don't yet consider him a walker because he prefers crawling at this point but he can most definitely walk. We bought him his first official walking shoes at Stride Rite, but have only tested them out once.  He does not like wearing shoes and will barely stand up when he's in them so we're going to try and make an effort to get him used to them.  Anderson does have some pretty cool kicks he recieved as gifts such as some Nikes, Pumas and Chuck Taylors - I can't wait until he is ready and willing to rock these great kicks.

Other than walking he's working on babbling.  He may have picked up the chatter bug from mom.  He still doesn't come close to saying anything and doesn't really even say ma or da yet, but I do think he is talking about something when he babbles.  He has cute little arm motions when he "talks" so you know there is something really important being said.  He also mimics a lot; especially if you make the "Indian" whooping sound.  The kid has skillz when it comes to that.  Anderson cracks us up. He'll randomly start doing it in the car, so we sit in the front seat and do it ourselves and he'll repeat it back.  Yup, forget words or even smoke signals, us Birketts communicate by tapping our hands to our mouths while making sounds. He also has 6 (?!) little chompers.

So I guess it's time to start planning the first birthday party.  I hope the weather stays just as nice in the next month.  We're planning on keeping the party to a small handful of family and close friends outside at a park. I think I might try and whip up a little adult party to celebrate our survival of this first year.  Anderson will also get his passport stamped for the very first time right before his first birthday on our trip to Mexico. It makes me giddy just thinking about it.  His passport is locked away at the bank right now, but his picture is from when he was maybe three months old.  I can't wait to see it.  I believe one of Bri's fingers makes and appearance since he coldn't even sit up at the time. So fun!

Happiness in a Jar

Bri and I like to believe we are cultured people. We enjoy traveling and experiencing different foods. Personally, when I think comfort food I think of a hot plate of Chicken Vindaloo over rice. Bri might think Panang Beef from Thai II. As our solid food journey with Anderson continues we've found ourselves asking, when can we introduce cinnamon, curry, how about cumin etc...? Well I've been consulting my favorite baby food website: www.wholesomebabyfoods.com and adding in what I have on hand. Anderson doesn't seem to have any food allergies so far (*Knocks on wood*). Lately you can tell A prefers finger food over purees so we're trying to find a balance. This is proving hard to introduce some foods because I'm just a bit hesitant to give my 10 month old a little cut of spicy vindaloo off my plate.

Well I've hit the holy grail of baby food at my local Whole Foods Market! I've been making most of A's food from scratch, save for the WM Yogurt and Oatmeal. Occasionally for convenience we use Earth's Best Stage 3 dinners and even they were starting to seem limiting in their flavors. For some reason I decided to see if WF carried jarred baby food and guess what- they do. Not sure why it was a surprise to me. They carry the Earth's Best and to my surprise much more variety than I have seen before. I was ecstatic to see they had some asparagus - A loves this but its really hard to find a nice looking bunch this time of year. When I do find one I steam and feed it to him so this was great to see in a jar. As I was stocking my cart with new EB flavors (who doesn't like a short cut for dinner now and then, right?) a jar caught my eye. Could it be? No way. Yes! My eyes did not deceive me, right there was a jar of baby Dal. I look around and I see not just Dal, but Thai, Japanese, Eastern European and Polynesian. I grabbed up some Dal, Thai and Polynesian to start. I can't wait to go back and try the rest. Last night Bri fed Anderson the Dal to great success. He loved it! It smelled just like the Dal you would order in and Indian restaurant - lentils, cumin, yum! Even better news - it's all organic. I did a google search and it looks like it may be only available in No. Cal and the Pacific Northwest in stores, but you can order from Amazon if interested.

Check 'em out!
http://www.worldbabyfoods.com/

Our Must Have Items

NOTE: I'm not sure what's going on but the formatting for blogger has been awkward.  Apologies.

I've been meaning to put a list together of our must have items for some time now, but I'm finally getting off my butt to do it.  There are two reasons 1.) I didn't want to forget if/when we have another kid and 2.) because some great friends and family (yes, plural!) are exepcting a little bundle.  I think two are due in the same week.  So exciting! These are the items we wouldn't hesitate to purchase again. Without further adeau here is the Birkett's List of items. 

Mom's Gear:

Gilligan & O'Malley Nursing Tanks from Target

Palmer's Stretch Mark Lotion

Massage after Birth (if your hospital offers this I highly reccomend!)

Beer!

Medela Freestyle.  Great for occasional home use and work.  The size is great. I can't imagine having to tote around the huge pumps that have to stay in their bags.  I got a great price from http://www.milksmile.com/   It was considerably less than the stores and they gave free shipping. They do not post the price on their website, you have to call to get it.  I can't rave enough about them.  The man on the phone told me about Premie nipples for our bottles to help get Anderson off the bottle and then through them in for free. 'Cause god knows pumping every 2 hours for 5 weeks is a nightmare! *shakes fist at the darn tongue tie*

Dr. Sears' "The Baby Book".  Best reference material I have in my library.  I thumb through it to see what milestones I can expect, what he says about certain types of diaper rash and there was even a little post about tongue tie.

Baby Bargains - good book to weed out all the crap baby gear out there.  Just trust your gut on what you think you're going to need.

Newborn:

Swaddle Me - in fleece and cotton

Soft-sided carrier: We have 3 - Beco, Ergo and Bjorn (we only paid for 1). I prefer the Beco or Ergo over the Bjorn.

Angel Dear Lovey.  We have two, one for home and one for daycare (and a spare just in case one gets lost)

Dr. Brown's Bottles

Footed Sleepers

Sleep Sacks - we didn't know about these for some time

Pack n Play -  we used it as the bassinet in our room and it has traveled with us to several locations.

That's it for those early days. The Lovey didn't really come into play until about month 3, but we kept it on our bed to acquire our scent for some time.

Baby Gear:
*some of these items were not used until he was a few months old, but I'm only including items we used all.the.time*

Space Saver High Chair
Lamaze Mirror or any Lamaze Toy to be honest
Books, Books, Books and Books - we read at any chance we can get.
Music Table
A good tummy time mat.  
Diaper Cream from Target - no joke it's good stuff and considerably less than the name brand stuff.
Target Diapers - when we use disposables we use these.  He wears them at daycare too. Best price around and we don't have many issues.  Just use a size larger than you would in other brands. 
We have two strollers - the Bob Revolution and a Maclaren. Both are very different and we like them.

We have been blessed and were gifted and handed down several items such as a swing, a vibrating chair, an exercise saucer, the jumper etc.. Anderson didn't LOVE these items like other babies we heard have.  Yes, he used or uses them, just not make or break with us.  Borrowing or being handed some of these were key.

10 Months old

He looks thrilled to have his picture taken doesn't he? Ha. He is cut from my cloth - A doesn't like being woken up. This past week he was waking up all by himself really early (5:30 am, early) and I was getting nervous. Luckily it was short lived and the past two days he's been waking up around 6:30 or so.  Either way, he doens't like having his picture taken when he's still sleepy.

I think he hit a bit of a growth spurt in the last few weeks.  He seems taller.  Not huge, but significantly taller. He's wearing 6-9 month clothes and doesn't seem to be close to growing out of 9 month pants anytime soon.

If you've seen the post below then you know that Anderson took his first 3 steps in his 9th month.  He doesn't repeat it too often, but every now and then he'll take a step towards me or towards the couch.  He doesn't stand on his own yet from squating, only if he can pull up on something but I get the feeling that is his next milestone. Anderson has pretty good balance, now it's just a matter of leg strength. No words at this point, still babbling and it consists mostly of da da da. Although I think he might be starting to really connect da with Brian.  On a rare occasion he says ma ma ma, but I don't hold it against him; Anderson reaches out for me when he really wants to be comforted. :-)

Anderson is a fast crawler and is always on the go.  It's non-stop when you are with him.  I look forward to meal times every now and then, just becuase he sits in his chair and can't move around!  He's eating a lot of table foods now.  Meatballs have been a hit.  I usually cut one up and toss a spoon full of yogurt on top and he gobbles it up. This month was significant in the fact that Anderson weaned from breastfeeding. After all the struggles and problems I'm proud to say we made it to 9 months and one week!  If I wasn't working we may have been able to have kept up at least one feeding to his first year, but we were both ready. 

So I can't find spell check on my updated blogger, hmmm. I'll try and proofread later, but right now I should get back to work!

First Steps!

Yes you read the correctly, tonight Anderson took his first three steps.  CRAZY! Bri and I were in disbelief when it happened and then proceeded to call everyone we knew.  We are those parents apparently. Ha! 

Here's how it all went down.  As you may have read we have a blog for Anderson (www.anderson365.com) and I like to shoot a picture a day. They're not too exciting, but that's our life. Well Anderson's latest trick this weekend was to stand all by himself. He does it in spurts and you can tell it is quite the little core workout for him  He'll go a few seconds and then is pretty tired and won't do it for hours and if he does repeat standing it is for about 2 seconds at most.  Anyhow, he was standing for a few seconds and Bri grabbed the camera. Low and behold just as Bri was taking the photo of him STILL standing he took one step and then two more in fast succession.  He didn't fall but continued to stand and then lowered himself down. 

So while this picture looks like he's just standing, it's the beginning of his very first steps! AWWWW.

In a blink of an eye

And like that 3/4 of a year has past. I feel like a broken record when I write these monthly posts but I really can't believe how fast time has gone by.  I'm amazed every single day.  Anderson had his 9 month well baby check up on Friday and I'm happy to report he's gaining weight at a normal rate again.  He's still a pretty small guy, and I think compared to the average baby his age he looks more like a 6 month old. We'll take it though as his clothes are getting some good use. He now weighs in at just under 17lbs.  A is eating a bunch of solids now and the Dr. gave us the go ahead to eat anything but nuts or shellfish, he especially wants him to really go at it with the finger foods and allow him to pick off our plates (in small bite size portions) So be it! This weekend alone he had his first sample of pizza, scrambled eggs and some of dad's chicken parm.  He does usually eat really healthy, I swear. We're not trying to start him off on a bad foot. Pasquale's is a hard place for him not to be able to sample the pizza - it's a Birkett family tradition.

Anderson has a huge personality. He is so freaking happy. Smiles, laughs and plays.  He has a little music table and now has even started to dance/butt shake when he presses the buttons and songs come on. Its a rare day when he really cries.  The holidays were a bit of a challenge only because he missed a few naps in all the excitement.  He still sleeps approx. 12 hours at night, so you're not going to hear much more than happiness from his parents.

So what's he been up to?  He's working on some more teeth; a top tooth (not the center ones but next to it) has broke the surface but is barely visible and we can see that the same one on the other side might make an appearance in the very near future. Anderson also stands up (using an object to help) and cruises a small bit.  Oy vey! Our daycare provider thinks he might be closer to walking than we are prepared for.  I'm a bit selfish and hope she's wrong.  I want him to hold off on that skill for a while. Otherwise he's really no longer my baby. Plus, I don't know of any babies that have walked without the aid of a pusher or walker before a year old, so I hope he follows suit.

On another note, poor Evita.  She's just not herself lately and I think it has to do with Anderson's new found mobility.  She's on edge until about 8pm every night and is quite the yappy dog these days.  If you make a noise by putting something on the counter - she barks.  Wind outside? She barks.  Baby crawling after her, hand reached out to pet (grab) - she barks and cowers.  Poor Poor little lady.  So we're going to give her some down time next month and go away for the long weekend.  :-) Evita will get 3 nights of being completely spoiled at doggie daycare/boarding sans baby.  They love her there and we love them.  She even gets to sleep in bed with them just like she does here at home.  Yup, and we pay them for this.  Ha, I guess it's better than taking her to the Wag and she gets just a typical dog run.  That's not her idea of a vacation.  At the same time Anderson will hopefully be getting his first glimpse and feel for the snow in Tahoe! No skiing/boarding for him for the next few years, but I will be sure to let him get a feel for the snow - if only for the super cute photo op.

A new blog

I'll continue to update this blog as normal and as time permits but I have added a new blog to keep up with.  The new blog is more of a project and less blogging per say.  It's called Anderson 365 and I'm going to upload a photo a day for 2010.

Happy New Year!

The Birkett's 2009 in Review

How time flies. It feels like I was just writing our 2008 in review and anticipating the arrival of Anderson. So much has happened this year - good and sad.  As usual Bri and I didn't stop traveling, but it's the first in recent memory we didn't use our passports. However, that was not for a lack of trying.  We were all set to head to Mexico with Anderson and friends in September when hurricane Jimena struck. The silver lining is that we *think* we are scheduled to go in April (need to check on that) and Anderson has his first passport.

We started the year off by taking a short babymoon over to Oahu.  Bri and I haven't been to that island in about 4 years and had a great time hanging out in the sleepy North Shore and walking a long beach to come across the "Lost" beach set among other things.

Of course the biggest event of 2009 for us was the arrival of Anderson.  We've been enjoying these last 8 months adjusting to our new life of a family of 3.  He is such a joy to be around. We're also very lucky that we have a sleeper.  Sure the first few months were brutal, but just around the time I was headed back to work Anderson decided to grace us with 12 hour sleeping. His naps always the best, but I'll take him sleeping from 7pm - 6:30/7am every night over a good nap. Our daycare provider may beg to differ.

While we didn't head out of the country we did do our fair share of traveling.  Anderson spent about 3 weeks total in New Jersey on two separate trips. The lucky little guy flew 1st class on his first ever plane ride and once more on another flight.  I wish Bri and I could say we've flown 1st class on 50% of our flights.  The year was filled with other happy moments: Abby was married to Travis in August down the shore in a beautiful ceremony, the Toy family relatives threw Anderson a wonderful Red Egg & Ginger party, my mom made several trips out to CA to visit Anderson,  Bri threw me an awesome 30th birthday party complete with lobster and we've been blessed with many family and friends who we care about deeply.

Shortly after Anderson was born, my Uncle Mike passed away suddenly.  He was a wonderful husband, dad, uncle and friend.  My Aunt and cousins have handled his passing with more grace and strength than can be imagined.  I'm sure as 2009 wrapped up they were none to happy to see it pass by because of this and other challenges presented to them throughout the year.  The year did, however, end on a good note for my family - Michael, my cousin, proposed to his awesome girlfriend Jenn.

That's it, a very brief wrap up of our year - 2009 was more than we could have hoped or expected.  We've witnessed our child being born and go from little more than a "blob" (to quote Angelina Jolie) to a sweet little baby boy who changes daily in front of our eyes and can't even being to imagine what the next year will bring.