Von Badinski Christmas

Oh my, its been 3 weeks since I posted. Need I say, we have been busy?
So here is an update on our Christmas.

Nic visited Santa at the mall and, well "visited" is kind of euphemism here. He actually saw Santa, approached Santa, and then decided Santa was scary and proceeded to scream his festive little head off. Later that day at a Cost*co he "visited" Santa again in the same way he "visited" him the first time. Oh well, we tried. If I had managed to get a picture of the "visit" it would have matched the picture of my "visit" to Santa years ago. If you think about it though, Santa is a little scary; big man with a beard dress in an odd costume, wanting you to sit on his lap. Under any other circumstances we would tell our children not to get within 50 feet of a person like that. I don't blame you Nic. You may also feel the same way I do about clowns.

Despite not telling Santa what he wanted, Nic received many presents. He got a football, toys that make noise, toys that move, toys that "bark", toys that roll across the floor, toys that he is still too young for and that doesn't include all the stuff he got for his birthday. So much in fact that he can sit on the living room floor surrounded by his toys and give them about 2 minutes of attention each and play for a good amount of time. Got to love the toddler attention span!

Nic saw an aunt, an uncle, a grandma and grandpa, numerous cousins, some second cousins (I think that is the technical relationship) and some other in-laws of various relationships.
It's interesting that prior to Thanksgiving I look forward to the disruption in my schedule for the holidays. I get tired of the usual schedule and want it unusual for a while, but by the time Christmas is done, I am ready to get back to the usual.

Today is New Years Eve! Yippie, we are going to PAR-TAY! OK, maybe not. I think we will have a toast, play with some toys and give a round of kisses and hit the sack - possibly before midnight.
Tomorrow we will welcome 2009 and a whole new set of wonders and amazement from the super baby!

Second Cake

The practice with the first cake paid off for Nic as he ate and smeared and ate and smeared cake very well at his party. He has cake in his hair (thanks Rachel), he has cake on his bottle and his arm and everywhere else within his reach!
Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us and for all the presents that Nic is thoroughly enjoying. We all had a wonderful time!
If you haven't done so, take a minute to scroll down to the first picture and then scroll back up. It's amazing to see Nic grow through his first year.

Reflection

A year has passed since Nicolas was born so it is time to reflect.
Here are my thoughts (in no particular order) on this past year.
1) This year has brought the most dramatic and wonderful change I have ever experienced.
2) Nic is a genius.
3) Pregnancy and childbirth was the most wonderful experience I have ever had. It still gets me emotional when I think of his head coming out (yep, I said head coming out - it was amazing).
4) My home has gotten messier with each addition (cat, husband, dog, child) and each year I care less about the mess.
5) I can see how motherhood isn't for every woman.
6) I must have had a lot of time on my hands before I had Nic.
7) No matter how tired I am when he wakes me up in the middle of the night, I still love to kiss his sweet little face.
8) The jobs that pay us may be important (some more than others), but this is the most important job I will ever have.
9) My weekly e-mail about my baby's development said "toddler" today - eek, I have a toddler!
10) If you hurt my child...well I won't put it in writing, but you know...
11)There is no love greater than this.
Thank you to everyone who helped me get through this first year. Thank you for keeping up with us. We will continue this blog into the next year and many after.

Happy Birthday Nicolas!

Yesterday was Nicolas' First Birthday!!!!!
We were so busy yesterday we didn't get time to post so we must do it a day late.

Tomorrow is his birthday party! I will post pictures from that later. We did already have a pre-birthday cake for him at my mom's house over Thanksgiving so he has experienced the hands into the cake part. With that practice he should be ready to dive in mouth first!

Let's Be Thankful!

I was home for Thanksgiving this past weekend (home is Indianapolis). Thursday morning I went out for a run through my old neighborhood and reflected on the years that have passed and all that I have to be thankful for. As I ran I was thankful for the fact that I could go out for a run; thankful for my health and physical capacity. I ran past my good friend Sara's old house and was thankful for her still being my good friend after 30 some years. I looked at the house next to her old house and thought of how I heard that family had fallen apart with divorce and drugs and un-timely death and was thankful that my family did not go through that. I ran past other houses and thought of the friends and families who used to occupy those houses and where they were now. I ran past the house of the guy I liked who was older than I and really hot and the girl I played with whose house seemed to grow on its own (little house - now big house on top of the old house). I ran past my mom's neighbor's house whose daughter was killed by a drunk driver and whose mother died of cancer and her father had remarried and his new wife died of cancer too and her neighbor whose son died of a brain tumor and she later died of breast cancer and if this seems like a run on sentence......... it is. I ran and thought and ran and thought and was thankful for my family. I wondered how the big neighborhood got so small. I ran past the house where I used to babysit where the house had roll down metal protective barriers on the windows (I thought that was totally cool when I babysat). You all know that my father died of cancer 3 years ago. Maybe another child that was a child when I was a child in that neighborhood thinks of that when they run past my mom's house.....
I am thankful for my son, my husband, my mom, my brother and his wife, my friends, my in-laws, my time in Indiana and Georgia and North Carolina (Illinios and California too). I am thankful that I am her today to tell you all of this and have the life I have. I may not have everything I want....but I have everything I need. I love you Ted and Nicolas!!!!!

Let's Be Thankful!

What Do You Want To Do With Your Life?

They ask us this question early on. High School Guidance Counselors try to help us plan our careers when we are 17. How can we know? I often wonder what Nicolas will be.

When I was 17 I wanted to be a doctor, a plastic surgeon actually. Not just to give women bigger boobs or less cellulite or fewer crows feet (though a trade-out with other doctors would serve me well now), but to fix things that really needed to be fixed. At 19 I switched into Exercise Physiology and loved it. Over the years and through my career I have loved the path but often have not loved the work.

Today I came back to what I love. Before I got to typing I was surfing the net for more information on the conditions that some of my clients suffer and how better to help them. As Ted and Nic lay sleeping on the couch, I could have crept into bed and gotten a head start on sleep, but I was compelled to learn more. As the day has gone on I have been more and more inspired to find new ways to help them work through their physical obstacles and become the person they want to be.

The mother of one of my clients (the client is suffering a debilitating neuromuscular disease) waited for her daughter in the lobby as we trained. Afterwards I went to talk to her to let her know how well her daughter did and how great an attitude she had. The mother, having previously looked heartbroken, looked surprised and pleased at that. Her daughter is 2 years older than I am.

It just made me see even more how every day of their lives, no matter how old they get, we wish and hope and ache for our children.

I hope that Nicolas gets to be everything he wants to be. He is tough, but sweet; smart and mischievous and becoming an amazing little man!