This week

Nothing too important is going on, just lots of little things with Christmas approaching with remarkable speed. But I feel like I need to capture some little things, like:

• Having all three nieces (the ones who have been born, anyway!) overnight last weekend. Fun was had by all, especially when I took the four older ones to the Woldumar Christmas party and they danced their little hearts out.
• Nellie and Annie performed in the church Christmas show.
• We had the annual Wacyk Christmas brunch at Christie's Bistro - this time with Emily's future in-laws!
• Nellie sang and spoke Spanish in the school Christmas show last night, and was an angel in the live nativity today.
• DJ learned "so big!" and finds new ways to make us laugh every day. He pretends to lay down and sleep, or puts things over his face and makes us find him. He copies our sounds and intonation, and plays the "uh oh" game in which he throws his bottle or cup on the floor repeatedly. And he is beginning to stand on his own...I think walking is just around the corner. 
• The semester is winding down, although it seems like the workload actually picked up. I'm looking forward to a break at Christmas, though there's lots of baking and shopping and wrapping to do before then!

Other stuff

Here are a few other silly pictures to show what we've been up to.

Our "thankful tree." It was fun, and we missed it, so now we have the "thankful snowman." Pictures to come. :)

Grandparents Day at LCS. Maybe my favorite picture ever!

Annie's picture of Kevin 

Annie's funny face

Kev brought out the original Nintendo, so the girls are having fun with Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt

Moms

Moms are good at making Thanksgiving dinners, and taking their kids down a notch (in a good way, of course).

After reading my last post, my mom's response was, "really, Jamie? Eighty-seven percent? You haven't even gotten to the teenage years yet."

So let me clarify--I have 87% figured out how to keep Nellie alive and not crying. In terms of actually raising her...maybe 24%? And when it comes to DJ, the numbers drop rapidly. If that kid lives to see his first birthday, it will be a miracle. Yesterday I found him sucking on something. Turns out it was an outlet plug. You know, the ones I ran to Meijer to buy last week because he keeps sticking his fingers in outlets. It seems he knows how to get them out.

Growing up

Someone asked me recently when I knew I was truly grown up. There are, in fact, a few moments burned into my memory.

1) Kevin and I left for a cross-country trip during the summer of 2005. We'd been married for a year and a half and were planning to make some babies soon (it would take a couple of years, but we didn't know that yet) so we decided the time was right. Kevin took a leave of absence from work at Men's Wearhouse and we took a month driving through Colorado, to Oregon, then Montana, and back through the U.P. The first night of our trip, we'd been driving for 19 hours and had made it to Estes Park. But the Coleman national campground guide misled us and the campground we'd planned to stay at was nowhere to be found. As I recall, the name had changed or something. Anyway, as we drove, and drove, and drove through the darkness, seeing deer and elk at the side of the road, I remember thinking, "there is no one here to help us. Mom and Dad are not figuring this out while I sleep in the backseat. We are it. We have to find something. This is the new vacation." We eventually found a campsite, and the rest is history.

2) The first day we came home from the hospital with Nellie, someone muttered those words I'd heard hundreds of times before from a person holding a crying baby: "I think she needs her mommy." They passed her over to me and of course, I took her and tried to appear competent. But really, I was thinking, "nononononono you don't get it. I do not know what to do for this baby. I don't even know this baby. Wet? Hungry? Uncomfortable? In pain? I have absolutely no idea. They should not have let me leave the hospital with this child. But - I guess the buck stops here. No one else is going to mother her. I have to do it." And, of course, I figured it out eventually. I'd say I've 87% figured it out.

3) This year, I hosted Thanksgiving--really hosted, as in, I made the turkey and some other stuff--for the first time. Last year I hosted but it was a potluck and my dad made all the hard stuff. This year was technically a Wacyk year, but my parents went to visit Laurel and Dave and everyone else went to their in-laws (or almost-in-laws), so we got to have dinner with Kevin's family. And since John's in the U.P. and Lisa doesn't cook turkey, plus we're nicely centrally located and, you know, living in John's house, we offered to host. I was alternately excited and terrified, because I'd never made turkey, stuffing, gravy, or mashed potatoes (I know, it's weird), all of which I was now responsible for, plus the cranberry sauce and cornbread. I felt like a grown-up buying the turkey, but that was the easy part.

Luckily, I had help. Pam came Wednesday to help clean and play with the kids, and John was home by 9:00. Sarah and Lisa brought lots of delicious vegetable dishes. There were relatively few mishaps. I did try to pull a leg off the turkey thinking it was the neck, and the turkey was still a little frozen Wednesday night even though I had put it in the fridge on Sunday. It took hours to make the gravy, and seriously I ended up with buckets of the stuff. DJ was up all night Wednesday night, plus I had to get up at 5:30 to get everything ready and into the roaster by 6:30. BUT--in the end, it went well! And I found out that when your mom's around, it's easy to revert to a child-like state, but when she's out of the state and it's all on you, you really can cook a Thanksgiving dinner.

20 minutes in the life of DJ, as captured by Annie

Here's a taste of what life is like with DJ (read: busy!) Annie took all these photos on Thanksgiving - probably while I was cleaning!

Getting into the beer

Hi Annie!

To the baby highchair

"DJ, With Foot"

On the move

Down the hallway

Hop on the bus

Oh, yup. Here's me tucking in Bitty Baby

Grabbing him to keep him from crawling under the table

Gotcha!

A Year of Thanksgiving

I discovered the "activity log" feature on Facebook, which let me look back on some of the highlights from the past year. It also helped me remember how very much I have to be thankful for, even though overall it seemed like a pretty hard year. I actually remember pulling on to our street on the way home from the hospital with DJ, thinking, "how am I going to do this?" But somehow or another, we did it. We're here, we're happy, though a little disheveled.

Here are some things to remember:

• DJ arrived late, but safe and sound. I sent the following message to our families on December 27th at 10:00 p.m.: "Here's the scoop - for those of you still awake tonight! We are scheduled to start induction at 9:00 am tomorrow. I will call at 6:45 to confirm whether or not there is actually space in labor and delivery. I'm feeling really nervous about it (maybe an understatement), and my doctor is willing to try some non-drug methods first so it could be a long day. At this point, there is also still hope that I could go into labor naturally before then - please pray for that!! But if I know you are praying through the whole night and day (not constantly - sleep!) then I will be more peaceful..."  They didn't know that immediately before I sent the message, I basically had an emotional meltdown. Anyway, I went into labor at 10:30. 
• In the days, weeks, and months since, we've been showered with love and help from friends and family. For example, we enjoyed weeks of delicious meals from church friends. My dad painted the extra bedroom this fall so that we could (finally) give DJ his own room and enjoy a little more sleep and privacy. Kevin's parents babysit so I can go to class or we can go on an occasional date. And the list goes on.
• We survived a Very Sick Winter, including a long weekend when both Kevin and I both had some flu or strep that had us near death. It's one of my biggest fears--both parents being sick--but we made it. Again, we depended on the help of family. My dad even left work in Flint early on Friday to drive us to the doctor, since we were both too sick to drive. Okay, I have to stop thinking about that. I think I had managed to block it out.
• After a thankfully brief hiatus, DJ started taking a bottle again this spring.
• We took two family vacations to John's, one over the 4th of July and one in October. I'm thankful because we have family in a very lovely and interesting place to visit, and because both trips were very nice relaxing oases in the middle of otherwise busy and relatively stressful times in our lives.
• Lots of good things happened for family members, like Laurel's successful surgery, Dave graduating from grad school and getting a teaching job, and Emily graduating from college. Also, TWO new nieces to be welcomed this spring and a new brother-in-law to be welcomed...sometime TBD.
• Annie made it through a scary concussion from falling from the counter to the ceramic tile floor. Some of the worst hours of my life we spent waking her up through the night praying she'd be okay in the morning...and she was.
• After 8 solid months of studying, I took, survived, and passed my comprehensive exams!
• There were other good work-related things...we presented at two different conferences this year, I got to travel to Philadelphia and Berkeley and it worked out to take DJ and Kevin/Mom, and our proposal to AERA was accepted so I get to go back to San Francisco in April!
• Nellie got two scholarships, which sealed the deal in sending her to LCS. We don't have anything against Grand Ledge, but we do love Lansing Christian and her teacher, Mrs. Herwaldt.  

I knew a year ago that it was going to be a hard year, with extra studying, my first year of teaching, and a new baby. Looking back helped me remember some of the big and little ways we have been truly and greatly blessed. We are so thankful!  

Happenings

Maybe the title of this post is a little misleading, since nothing much is happening! Well, I shouldn't say that. Lots and lots of little things have happened, like:

• Kevin got a deer! Two thumbs up for a freezer stuffed with meat.
• I passed the written part of comps! I haven't really been announcing it, because I still have the oral exam on Thursday, but the papers were the biggest hurdle so I am super thrilled to be done. Still studying for three more days...
• DJ is pulling himself up, climbing stairs, and moving fast. Things have gotten infinitely more complicated around here.
• Nellie is practicing for the Christmas show at church, which means we're listening to Christmas music in the car all day, every day.
• We had the first kindergarten parent-teacher conferences. Nellie is on track, and has "a kind heart and a sweet smile," according to her teacher. Hopefully she'll bring out that smile at her picture retakes on Wednesday. :)
• Annie moved up to the intermediate gymnastics class, and is loving every minute of it. She got the "most courageous" award two sessions in a row, so we're proud of her, of course! She's very into cooking and taking care of her baby dolls right now.
• DJ spent a long day hunting with Kevin today for the first time! I hear he did great. I, on the other hand, am definitely going crazy. Without him here, all day long I've imagined I hear him talking or crying. This might be the first time ever that I've been home without him here.
• DJ continues to sleep better - he's slept through the night several times, and only gets up once most other nights. There was one rough night at Pam's when he didn't sleep more than 5 minutes at a time because he was so sick, but we're on the tail end of that. First round of colds for the season - check!