Bidding adieu to a decade (?!)

As Jeff & I were enjoying a (rare) moment of quiet in the car a few nights ago, 2 kiddos peacefully snoozing in their car seats behind us, he sipped his extra large hazelnut coffee (skim milk, no sugar), took my hand in his, and softly asked me,
"Can you believe that the decade will be over in a few days?"
Umm, say WHAT? It honestly didn't even occur to me until I heard it out loud that we are about to bid adieu to the busiest, most chock-full, exhilarating, life-changing 10 years that we will (probably) ever experience together.
So now, in no particular order, allow me to take a trip down a 10-year memory lane and recount just a few of the events that have comprised a decade.

-I graduated high school & began college
-Jeff graduated high school & began college
-I met my birth-mother (and slew of siblings!)
-experienced college & everything it had to offer. (yes Bush, I even inhaled.)
-lived through 9-11-01...and I remember exactly where I was, what I was wearing, and sitting glued to the TV for hours upon endless hours. That day seemed to move in painful, surreal slow motion.
-started dating Jeff
-traveled to Spain-- met all of the Spaniards to whom I am related. What an unbelievable, life-changing trip....would love to go back with my own kiddos someday soon
-took trips to Dominican Republic (note to self: great place to visit, NEVER drink the water though. This includes using their ice in a drink.) & Aruba (<---amazing!)
-got engaged!
-planned a wedding
-purchased our first new car(s)
-Jeff scored an unbelievable job, at which he's been incredibly successful
-got married!
-got pregnant!
-found out about the pregnancy in the middle of the blizzard of '05 in NYC. It was magical!
-bought our first home. (got completely screwed-- but we're all the wiser for it!)
-welcomed Ms. Ava into the world (after 26+ hours of labor, 3 hours of pushing, and an emergency C-section in a pear tree)
-wrote a bunch of great children's books; came painfully close to having them published, only to have it fall through the cracks. Ouch.
-survived the terrible two's!
-watched more Teletubbies and Max & Ruby than I ever would have thought humanly possible
enjoyed all of Ava's firsts: smile, tooth, giggle, word, birthday, trip to Maine, ballet class, dance recital, soccer game, sleepover, etc
-got pregnant again
-welcomed Mr. Gavin into the world
-lots more that my exhausted brain is probably forgetting due to lack of sleep and it being 1 AM.

In conclusion, thank you last 10 years for being incredibly exciting, for keeping us on our toes, and for creating a foundation for a beautiful life ahead. At the very least, there's certainly never been a dull moment. A solid marriage, a house that we've transformed into a home, and 2 beautiful healthy children-- not a bad way to commemorate a decade.

Happy New Year's, and many happy, healthy years ahead!

A very Derderian Christmas DAY 2009

A very Derderian Christmas EVE 2009

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you will look back and realize they were the big things."

Gavin unwilling to 'Go Green'

So Gav's culinary repertoire continues to grow on a weekly basis at this point. He has mastered, and loves: oatmeal, applesauce, pears, peaches, bananas, sweet potatoes and squash. Today we decided to try something new- PEAS.
How'd it go? I believe the pictures speak for themselves.

The kiddos and Mr. Claus 2009!

Gav was obsessed with his beard...and Ava just kept asking me why "Santa at the other mall looked way different last week?"
All in all, the line wasn't too atrocious (less than 30 minutes) and there was no screaming, so I'd call it a success!

If this attitude continues into her teen years, Daddy will be a happy man

Aves walked into the bathroom tonight to wash her hands, incidentally while Daddy was in there giving Gav a tubby. She quickly glanced down at her cherubic, happy, cooing, babbling little brother and remarked in a disgusted tone,
“Ewww, penis."

Lost my little roomie...

So it's official, last night was Gav's first night in his crib, in his room. ALL by himself. Gone are the days of peering over the side of my bed at him all hours of the night, to see him gracefully sleeping in his bassinet; hearing every little breath & hiccup & noise all night long. No more reaching over to feel his warm chest rise & fall "...just to be sure." (don't judge this until you are a parent.) I will miss waking up to the most smiley, happy boy looking up at me with those beautiful, blue "Good mornin' Mamma!" eyes. Maybe it's the fact that he will be the last of our babies to ever use the bassinet, and thus the last time we will ever have a baby sleep at our bedside. Maybe it's the 5-month post-partum hormones kicking in. Or maybe it's all of the above...Either way, despite the tears I shed and the ambivalence I had about moving him, we all made it through the night. And the silver lining? Look how "unhappy" and "not comfy" he looked this morning when we all went in to say good morning to him together.

Jeff is, apparently, the funniest man alive. Just ask Gav.

"...but the children say he could laugh and play..."

What better encapsulates the blissful abandon & utter magic of childhood, than a day in the snow building a snowman?  Think hard about this for a minute. Typically, children don't have much power or control over their lives, since their days are more or less dictated to them; when to get up, when to go to bed, what to eat, what to wear, and so on.
But take a snow day-- a magical, whimsical, beautiful, enchanted, blustery, cotton-ball white, no school today, snow day. Now tell a child,

"You have the power to go outside, and create a man out of this white goodness. And also, if you put a hat on him, he will come to life!!!"

Whoa. Back up for a minute here. You're tellin' me that I am forced to eat oatmeal for breakfast if Mom says so....forced to wear those ugly red shoes if Mom says so...forced to go to school when she says, go to bed when she says, brush my teeth when she says, even go potty when she says-- But today, for one day only-- I have the power to create a man out of snow?!

The concept of this, to a child, has got to be mind-blowing.  And Ava is certainly no exception.

So, after begging us (nonstop) from 7-9:30 am to "please go out and build a Frosty?" Jeff finally agreed....add 30 minutes for the obligatory scarf-hat-mittens-boots-snowpants-longjohns-coats-earmuffs debacle, and they were (finally) out the door.

About 1/2 hour later, she rang the doorbell (it's hard to open the door with cold, wet mittens on!) and implored me to come see her "Frosty." And since I can't resist an adorable, barely-able-to-move-her-appendages four year old with crimson cheeks & a runny nose at my doorstep,

I threw some slippers (yes, you read that right- I absolutely ventured outside, in the snow, in slippers!) on and ran outside in the blizzard for a few snapshots.