What a year!

Welcome, 2010!!!! Not surprisingly, I think it's a good time to reflect on the year we've had. It feels strange saying this in the midst of our national economic downturn (and with the recent loss of my grandma, Nannie) . . . but overall, we've had a wonderful year here in the Genisio household.

Brian recently decided to accept a job at SRT Solutions, a local software consulting company that's right in downtown Ann Arbor. He'll start on February 1st, and he's very excited about this new direction that his career is going to take. Plus, he gets to work right downtown, just down the street from the Arbor Brewing Company and Sweetwaters! :) (You can tell that I'm excited about entirely different things with regards to this job--location, location, location! Brian would probably be focusing on something else were he writing right now.) I suspect that he might add more about this in an upcoming blog post.

I took a few steps forward in my own various work roles, too. I became a Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator back in April when I passed the national certifying exam, and just in the last couple of weeks I sent off my completed application to earn certification as a birth doula from DONA International. The certification process for that included lots of reading, quite a bit of writing, attending classes, and receiving evaluations from families, midwives, doctors and nurses who watched me in action, doing my doula thing. I hope to hear soon what the outcome is for that.

I'm writing this in advance of Maia's birthday, and I'm going to be doing a more full reflection on her year tomorrow in the context of a birthday post. Let's just say that we're most certainly NOT dealing with a toddler around here anymore. Her language includes many very grown-up turns of phrases like "I sure do!" and "Thank you, thank you very much," she's in an official full-size bed in her room now (no bed rails), and we haven't touched the stroller in our garage in months. Of course, there are still goals ahead of us (ahem, potty training), but our little girl isn't so little anymore. She's definitely a preschooler rather than a toddler! :)

There will be much more to come this year, for sure. For now, Happy New Year! It's time for us to start preparing our house for the arrival of Maia's friends and family for her birthday celebration on Sunday. First on the list: take down the Christmas tree.