Another year is wrapped and it’s difficult to grasp just how quickly it went by. 2021 was spent in various degrees of lockdown – just like 2020 – and adjusting to “the new normal,” but with science and the vaccines on our side, we were able to do a few more things.

Notably we stole away for vacations to Tahoe and the Russian River. We traveled on a plane for the first time since NYE 2020; back to Canada to see Mike’s family and some of our closest friends. Cam has been able to meet a lot more family and friends, and although most of our visits are still outdoors, all of his grandparents have been able to snuggle him this year!!

Mike and I are both still working from home and, with a lot of flexibility and patience, managed to keep Cam home with us for the entire year. Thank goodness for supportive jobs/companies and GRANDPARENTS! We’ve continued our home renovation – slowing chipping away at the seemingly endless list of things to do – and, although not fully complete, truly love our little home. Cam moved into his own room earlier in the year, after we painted most of it and attempted to wallpaper one accent wall…

We spent our first night away from Cam. I won an award at work (which, for some reason, feels uncomfortable to mention but I’m fighting through and marking it down in history here;). I (finally) started investing money in the stock market. I kept a big, beautiful plant alive for the entire.year. I made some new mom friends at a local park and am still amazed at the intense bonding being a parent can spark in people.

We had a neighborhood taco party mid summer that I still think about – such fun! Halloween was also another great success on our street this year. Mike & I love being apart of this sweet community that always looks out for each other and also knows how to party.

I’ve read exactly 2 books this year, which is a record low (waaaah), but have also fallen in love with audiobooks and the We Can Do Hard Things podcast, so don’t feel completely intellectually out of touch (or am I just saying this in the hopes that I believe it?). I think I’ve done a decent amount of yoga and walked one mile almost every day, which I am counting as a win given that I have a small child!

Cam moved back to our room in October when my in-laws came for an extended stay. He will go back to his room after they leave but for now, Mike and I are spoiled with extra baby cuddles in the early morning hours. I know Cam waking up in his crib next to us, shouting “mama, mama” until we scope him up and snuggle him cozy in-between us in bed will be lifelong favorite memory of mine.

In a far more materialistic update, I finally made the switch to a completely white bed set – sheets, pillowcases, duvet cover – and I am loving it. It feels like we are sleeping in a luxury hotel every night. Plus a cute baby. 🙂

It’s been a whirlwind of a year. Mostly spent at home, sometimes feeling so slow and tedious, we didn’t know if we could stand another afternoon in the confines of these walls… although, looking back, even those memories have their own charm. Like the hot summer day when we couldn’t think of a thing to do so we sat in our camping chairs with our feet in Cam’s baby pool. That was it. That was the activity of the day. Something so mundane it might not have even registered on my memory scale if the world as we knew it hadn’t been so hazardously flipped. But here we are. Thankful for each breath and every memory; mundane to momentous.