In our Christmas letter last year, Rhianna was very pregnant and approaching her due date, leaving us to wonder if our baby would make a debut by year's end. On December 19, 2010, at 38 weeks and 5 days, we welcomed Arlo James to our family! Arlo's birth went just as we'd hoped and planned, and it was an experience we'll cherish 'til our last breaths. It was pretty spectacular.
To say that parenting has changed our lives would be a woefully inadequate, unfit statement. It has been a wild, stunning metamorphosis--exciting and exasperating, full of joy and juggling, and jam-packed with more love and silliness than we ever expected. Each night when we go to bed we bemuse that we couldn't love Arlo more, that our chests simply will not accommodate these ever-expanding hearts of ours. And then we wake up the following morning and find ourselves wrong. This love? It's logarithmic. (See here, here, here, and here.)
After 11 weeks of maternity leave, Rhianna returned to work at Mary Washington Hospital in March. For three weeks. And then quit. You saw that coming, didn't you? We didn't. Well, not at first. In some ways, the decision to leave her job was conflicting, but in other ways--bigger ways--it was abundantly, brightly clear. (You can read a little about that here.) Staying home with Arlo has been a true gift, and we have zero regrets about the decision to become a single-income family. Totally, unquestionably worth it.
Nick now has fancy new letters behind his name: MPH. He graduated from Old Dominion University this year with his masters degree in public health. Woot! Shortly after concluding his grad program he began researching employment to put his new degree to the test. He was offered a job with Boeing in South Carolina, but received a better offer from BIS Frucon in Missouri. Given that we have family in Missouri, the decision was a no-brainer.
In October we moved to Cape Girardeau, MO. We still have our house in Fredericksburg and will likely start organizing efforts to sell it in 2012. We're slowly getting to know our new hometown. We like our neighborhood, we enjoy Cape's abundance of parks, and we love the library. We've managed to find a favorite coffee shop where the owners now know Arlo by name--just like our old java joint in Fredericksburg. Some days we really miss Fredericksburg. Every day we really miss our family and friends in Virginia. So far, Missouri has been good to us. Even the Cardinals welcomed us by winning the World Series this year. (Don't they know we're Braves fans???)
We totally dig having the Watkins branch of the family tree so close! Nick's sister, Hannah, lives here in Cape Girardeau as well, and it has been a treat to have a family member close enough to just drop in for a visit. We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Watkins crew in St. Louis this year--a fun first for us--and we're looking forward to sharing Christmas with them this year, too.
Arlo just celebrated his first birthday! Our
We celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary this year! Like, whoa. It was a low-key, relaxing affair. We spent it staring at and cuddling the combined effects of our DNA. So, you know, coolest anniversary ever. :)
And while we added to our family, we also said goodbye to parts of our family over the last year too. We lost our beloved first dog, Edison, just a few weeks after Arlo's birth. We miss that surly, bilious old chihuahua every darn day. With the interstate move we also bid farewell to two of our feline friends: Monk joined the family of our friends, the Infingers, and Evie is now bringing lots of spunk to Rhianna's Mom and Dad's house. We've got Jordan, our Westie, and Birdie, our cantankerous calico, with us in Missouri, warming the foot of our bed each night, per usual.
So, that's the year in review for the Mathias-Watkins bunch. Happy New Year, friends! We hope your 2012 rocks!
Love,
Rhianna, Nick, & Arlo
No comments:
Post a Comment