You know you're a good parent when...

... the first thing your son says to you when he wakes up in the morning is,

"Mommy, sniff my toot."

11 Things I learned in 2011

In no particular order, 2011 taught me the following (among many) lessons:

1.  Dads can be very supportive through pregnancy loss.  In the end of September, when I had my most recent miscarriage, my Dad called me almost every day to see how I was doing.

2.  I don't know what I'd do without the love and support of Angie.  Just like my dad she checked in on me on a daily basis during the rough patches this year.  I love Angie for selfish, she's my best friend reasons, too.

3.  My fertility issue is not getting pregnant, it is staying pregnant.  Since October 2010 I've had four (confirmed) miscarriages.

4.  Losing a pregnancy and your home all in the same week is much more of a blessing than one would expect.  The challenges that each present can help in the process of healing the loss of the other.

5.  Starting a new engineering firm, even when there is plenty of work, is far less lucrative than I would have expected :)  And far more stressful.  I figured I'd be doing this by now...

Oh, Scrooge McDuck!  How on earth did you dive into gold coins without severly injuring yourself?

I'm teasing, of course.  I just wanted a good excuse to make a reference to Scrooge McDuck :)

6.  When children start to develop verbal skills, they say some of the best things you will ever hear in your life.

"Mommy, this blanket is pissing me off."

"This house is making me sad, I want to go camping."

"Mommy, you my best friend."

7.  The Great Book says that the value of a virtuous woman is far above rubies.  The value of family is far above that... by several orders of magnitude.

8.  Laughter truly is the best medicine.

9.  Being in the delivery room when a new baby is born, no matter how much you love the mother, or how excited you may be for her it is extremely difficult when struggling with fertility issues.  I cried for an hour in the bathroom of Angie's delivery room after her son was born.  Not one of my more proud moments in 2011. 

10.  No matter how hard you try, you can't look cool with bangs when you are outside in the wind.

11.  I've got a lot of growing up still to do...  That is why I still feel so young, I suppose.  It is just all that immaturity I'm still carrying around :P 

Last Christmas as we said our good byes after dinner at my grandparent's house my grandfather gave me a big hug and whispered in my ear that he felt that 2011 would be a great year for me and my family.  I felt immense comfort at the time because my grandfather is an amazing man with great faith. 

I have thought many times over the year about what he said.  Many times I've wondered when the good things would happen dammit.  For the most part, though, I've understood that good things aren't always delievered in the form of great wealth, the ruddy cheeks and hope of new babies, or answers to all of my prayers.  Struggle is the best way to develop strength, and strength is damn good, too :)  Just as my good friend John Locke once told Merry the Hobbit Charlie Pace.

Cheers, or "chink" as River calls it, to the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012.