Bidding farewell to 2013...a year of change.

As 2013 quietly slips out, I am taking a deep breath of relief but also gratitude for all the experiences it has given us. It has been a year of dramatic change and emotion for our family and at the end of it, we are stronger, as well as pretty petered out.
Tony turned 60 in June and we celebrated this event with a new dream car for him...the jaguar fondly referred to as "Big Kitty...but also decided to take a weekend away as a couple for the first time in many years. He and I enjoyed seeing "Tommy" in Stratford, indulging in wonderful food and drink, taking long walks along the river admiring gardens and wildlife. It was invigorating to be away from the demands of life for a few days, and we vowed to make it a more regular treat for ourselves. His much anticipated step down from the chief of OB position occurred in November with some mixed but mostly positive emotions and a gift of more self care time for both of us. Him being home with the kids in the morning during the getting ready for school rush and piano practicing triggered some changes including moving the piano to the sunroom thereby separating the instrument from the main house...to protect the sensitive ears of dogs and aging parents and generally improving all of our moods at the start of the day.
Feeling the effects of gravity launched me into anti-aging mode this year. I've always been an active person but the demands of a 5 and 10 year old while working long hours required more energy than my body seemed to be able to produce. The idea of working out at the end of my 16 hours of effort seemed counterintuitive but I committed to getting back to running, bought the gear, the outfit, and promptly crippled my feet with plantar fasciatis within two weeks. A trip to Orlando followed this injury and a week of wandering through the parks left me desperate for one of those motorized scooters that the senior seemed so comfortable on. I had a decision to make...allow myself to slide into aging and let the kids push me around in a chair, or get my act in gear and push back. And so since March I've been pushing weights around at the gym with my very buff husband and can honestly say that I feel better than I have at any other point in my life. And so I enter 2014 feeling strong and doing something I never would have imagined for myself: weight lifting.
Lily and I sat in our pediatricians office this year with him debating whether to put me on Prozac or her on Ritalin and finally deferring the decision to a pediatric specialist who works with ADD kids. It was reassuring for us to finally have a tangible explanation for her shocking lack of short term memory and the hours of homework she and I would endure each evening. And so it was Lil that went home with the prescription and this has changed her life and experience of school dramatically. She has become a true athlete, taking ribbons at track and swim meets and we are a busy household getting her to practices 4 times a week. Tony and I are awed that this little child with severe malnutrition and rickets that we took into our family 8 years ago, has developed such resilience and strength. Despite that, Lil would claim that the highlight of her year was getting appendicitis given that she was treated to "room service", unsupervised television and a diet of pure sugar during her hospitalization. When the doc asked her if she was ready to come home she said, "No thanks, I like having my own tv."
Grace continues to amaze us earning the nickname small-but-mighty. She has learned to swim but clearly was not interested in competing with big sister. When her normal gait involved cartwheels and somersaults, we elected to try her out in gymnastics with a local former olympian coach. Two months into kindergym classes I was taken aside and the coach informed me that little Grace has significant potential and please would I consider shifting her into pre-competition with 6 hours of practice a week. This took me completely off guard as Grace is our little piano playing, homework loving, mad scientist nerd...you know, the kind of kid one expects to adopt from China. When she is a at gymnastics, she loves it..."please mom can I stay all week", but later its "I don't have time for gymnastics...I have school work to do." And so our little Grace is facing the dilemma of deciding what is really important to her and making some serious choices. Santa did bring her the much anticipated microscope for Xmas and she has spent most of the Xmas holiday setting up her lab experiments and examining bugs.
We've had wonderful travels this year, to Florida, Calgary and the Rocky Mountains, Tony to England and he and I out to Vancouver for a conference. We've spent time with old friends, family, colleagues from years ago, and witnessed my Goddaughter marry in the foothills of the Rockies. We feel so lucky to have the privledge of good health and the resources to travel and show the girls the world.
We've had an unwelcome frequent visitor in our lives this year..cancer. Our dear neighbour Uncle Tom died of oral cancer last spring and my sister Annie was diagnosed with breast cancer in the summer. Our friend Francis battles on with colon-liver cancer, and this year his wife Amanda was diagnosed with breast cancer. Tony's Mum had a series of hospitalizations with heart issues and ultimately needed a pacemaker. At the end of this year everyone seems to be doing ok and battling on and we are helping as much as we can. But my message to cancer is this: I am raising kids who will find you in the lens of their microscopes and will discover ways to beat you! We are taking gobbs of vitamin D each day to fuel our immune systems against you and are cutting out your life force: sugar and smokes. We are having our mammos and PSA's, chest Xrays and colonoscopies to find you in your infancy and we are telling everyone we know to do the same. So hit the road cancer...find another planet to pick on.
The house is quiet now. The kids are in bed and our bottom heavy Xmas tree (we let Grace decorate this year) shines brightly in the window. The dogs are curled up on what used to be a new sofa and my kitchen/Grace's lab looks like a bomb hit it. Tony and I will fall asleep long before midnight and awake to a new year, and a celebration of Grace's 6th birthday. We are healthy, we are together, and every day is a gift. Its all good.
Happy New Year to All.