Good-bye 2008

Is this for real that 2008 is now over? ummm...hmmm. Wow. I can't believe how fast it went.

Overall it was a great year with many happy moments. Mostly because over the past year we have witnessed the miracle of watching our 6 month old baby grow up into a little big man 19 month old toddler. He's such a special kid. Always happy spirited, active (very active), smart, and has a great loving personality.

Let's see how well my mommy brain can recollect the year for ya. By January, Bradyn was 8 months and cruising furniture with lots of confidence. So we were in for an early walker and rushed around baby proofing the house. January also marked the "official" date that I gained a new sister. :) My brother and his wife went to the courthouse to make it official and were expecting a child in June.

The beginning of February marked Bradyn's first REAL steps at the early age of 8 & 1/2 months! He was so happy to be mobile. It was a whole new world for him (when we left the gate open) And not even a week or two later he discovered the stairs. He loved to crawl up them. His preference was still crawling because he could get there faster, but day by day he walked a little more.

Then came March when Bradyn really started talking a little more than just baby coos. The first words out of his little mouth were "dribble dribble dribble dribble" How appropriate for the month of March as we are huge fans of March Madness and had been watching quite a bit of basketball. We even thought it would be silly/fun to put all of the team logos on pieces of paper and let Bradyn choose his own bracket. LOL That's a fun little tradition we plan on keeping. What can we say, we are basketball freaks.

Springtime was fun because that was Bradyn first real chance to interact with nature. He loved exploring the new textures of the grass, sand, and water. It was so cute to see his initial (almost disgusted) reaction, then watch it turn into a familiarity. He loved smelling flowers, playing with bugs, and carrying the basketball around the neighbor's court.

May was the munchkin's 1st birthday! Wow.. I can't believe how fast that first year went. All of Bradyn's biggest fans came to a backyard "Ducky" party to celebrate. On his actual birthday, Chad and I took him to Chucky Cheese, and he LOVED it. His favorite was the little wack-a-mole game, but he also like the little cars that he could ride.

The summer was jam packed with camping excursions with Grandma Netter, playtime at the parks, walks/wagon rides on the trail, Bradyn's 1st White Sox game, swimming at the pool, and a Maz Family vacation to Myrtle Beach. Chad's entire family (Brothers, sisters-in-law, and parents) all rented a beach house for a week and enjoyed the sun & surf.

In June, I became an Aunt for the second time. My brother and his wife had Kyleah Nicole on June 4th. June was a big month for them as they also had their wedding ceremony & reception later in June.

July & August included Bradyn's extreme uncertainty of fireworks, absolute obsession with hot air balloons, busses, bubbles, lawn mowers, and making his funny duck face. I also found out around that time that I was going to be an aunt again. Chad's younger brother Kyle & his wife Laura are expecting.

September brought quite the rainy month and we spent some time drying out a very wet flooded basement. I could have done without that event...but it was part of the year. Bradyn really hated being couped up inside during those times and quickly learned to say, "rain rain, go away". September was also a happy month as my cousin Kristin got married. We were all so excited that she decided to have her wedding back home so we could all be there. It was so wonderful to see some of my cousins that I have not seen in years. It was an emotional, yet very fun and happy wedding.

September started a very hectic time for me at work this year as my counterpart went on maternity leave right at the beginning of Budget season. (Damn I hate being an accountant) Anyway, September through ...well pretty much now... I was stretched just about as thin as I could have possibly been stretched. I guess what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger huh?? I found myself travelling a lot, and in between work trips, I worked many long hours, many nights even leaving work to go have dinner with Chad and Bradyn, put Bradyn to bed, and then headed back into work until 10:30 or 11pm. I somehow figured out a way to half function on sometimes 4-6 hours of sleep back to back days, weeks, months. But I choose not to talk too much more about that because hopefully those days are behind me after this week and they aren't such happy times of 2008.

October brought Bradyn's 2nd Halloween... He picked out his own costume (sorta)...he was Elllllllvis. He had such a fun time ringing the door bells and we even had him saying his own version of "trick or treat" which sounded more like "tickle tickle". He also loved the pumpkin farm, though he was more interested in "UH OH" ing at the busted pumpkins that picking out a good one. We also carved a pumpkin this year, but Bradyn didn't want to have anything to do with the "ucky" pumpkin guts. The pictures of the disgusted look on his face while mommy pulled them out are just priceless. Once it was all carved and clean, he sure did love it.

While away on one of my work trips in October, my best friend Renee had her first baby. So I became an "aunt" again. I consider Dean my nephew because Renee might as well be my sister. How exciting, but how oh so bummed I was that I was clear across the country when she went into labor! Turns out she asked me to be Dean's God Mother, so that make 2 God babies now :). I'm so honored.

November and December brought many fun family gatherings for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I even found out I'm going to be an aunt AGAIN. As Chad's older brother Dustin & his wife Kristin are going to have another baby. (They already have Zach who's 4.5 months older the Bradyn). Christmas this year was a blast for Bradyn. He was very much into all the pretty lights, presents, and Santa (from a distance). He had a blast tearing into the presents and made the cutest excited faces at his presents.

Throughout the busy year we had raising our little man, we managed to still find time to spend with friends. Plus, the grandparents LOVE baby-sitting! We made time for evenings out at the bars with the buds, played in a dodgeball tourney, baby showers, birthday parties, a weekend or two in Chicago, attending the Booster Benefit, sports leagues around town, and of course ringing in the New Year.

I am so blessed to have such amazing friends and believe it's important that no matter how busy you get in the day to day routine that you take time out and spend a few moments with your friends. They keep you grounded, refreshed, and help keep memories alive because the remeniscing times and laughter that come along with that are priceless.

2008 was a good year...I'm sure I forgot something... I told ya, mommy brain. I understand now how easy it is for an organized person to become so scattered, and how easy it is for the memory to fade. Don't be sad if you're reading this and I haven't mentioned some big key event. It's definitely not that it wasn't important to me, it's that I've got 10,000 things going through my head and I just need a little nudge nudge to remind me. ;)
Good-bye 2008.

Welcome 2009...