Year in Review: 2013

So this is my obligatory end-of-year post, in which I attempt to end things on a high note (or at least recall all the best moments over the past 12 months). I'll be honest, 2013 and I aren't parting on the best of terms, but I'm hopeful that 2014 will be a good year. And I can't complain too much about 2013, considering I got to visit no fewer than six countries (France, Turkey, Spain, Switzerland, England, and Mexico, plus Russia and America), made new friends all over the world, saw my besties several times, spent quality time with my family, watched my awesome little boy grow and learn so much, and, oh yeah, got pregnant with another little boy. And even though my writing isn't going as well as I'd like, I DID pen another novel, and that's got to count for something, right? Plus I got to know a lot about myself, everything from how much I despise dill (trust me, once you've been served dill on everything from sushi to pizza, you'll be done, too) to how much I love traveling alone (when else does a mom get to finish an entire novel in one go?).

Rather than ramble on, I thought I'd share photos of some of my fave moments of 2013. I hope you all have a very happy New Year's, and here's to an even better 2014!

In January, at a children's shelter in Russia, where a little girl named Irina stole my heart.

In February, hanging in Paris with my favorite people.

In March, when my twin sister Sarah and best friend Kim came all the way to Yekat.

In April, cavorting on the beach in Spain.

In May, spending the day with this guy at a bird sanctuary outside of Yekaterinbug.

In June, eating the BEST THING EVER in Gruyere, Switzerland.

In July, strolling through Hyde Park with this gorgeous lady.

In August, enjoying some fresh air in Binghi.

In September, stealing a few moments in DC to confirm baby #2 (and snuggle with baby #1).

In October, watching my gorgeous sister Amy marry the love of her life in Chicago.

In November, spending time with the love of MY life in Cancun.

In December, sledding with my crazy 4-year-old Jack.

And now, at 24 weeks pregnant, bidding 2013 a fond farewell!

Foreign Service Fridays: Do Your Homework

Lessons were learned the hard way this week on Most Eligible Family. Fortunately, John comes home tomorrow for a few weeks, and I'm really looking forward to having face-to-face "private" conversations in the same time zone. I hope everyone has a fabulous pre-holiday weekend!

And the Winner Is...

Sorry for the delay in the giveaway results! I've been pretty busy with Jack (who now refuses to nap - I guess I should be glad I made it four years) and just trying to get used to a new routine in Montana. It's amazing how much more time I had when I was working... Fortunately, Jack started preschool today and I'm hoping a few free mornings a week will give me the chance to get back into blogging and writing. Also, John is coming home this Friday, which means I won't be a single parent anymore (not for three whole weeks, anyway!). Thanks for bearing with me during these crazy past few months.

So, without further ado, I'm happy to say that the winner of the $20 Amazon gift card is:

SHAUNA!!!

I will email you with your prize ASAP! Thanks to those who commented. I love you guys!

My 100,000 Page Views Giveaway!

Sheesh, with this major blogging break I haven't quite hit the 100,000 mark as fast as I expected! The good news is I'm at 99,915 page views, and I'm calling that close enough since I should be at 100k by tomorrow!

So if you'd like to win a $20 Amazon gift card just in time for the holidays (or slightly late for my fellow Jews), please leave me a comment with your email address or some other way to contact you if you win. This is just my small way of saying thank you for following and taking the time to read this blog over the past several years.

Mommy Mondays: It's A...

Boy!

Wait, what?

That's right, we're having another boy. Despite what my supposedly psychic half-sister, and pretty much all my friends and family, and even the crazy lady in the park in Miami told me, baby #2 is most definitely a boy. In fact, "definitely a boy" were the exact words of the ultrasound tech. She carefully typed out "IT'S A BOY" on the screen and gleefully pointed out the scrotal sack, just in case it wasn't obvious that we weren't having a daughter with a tiny third leg.

It's a little late now to pretend I wasn't hoping for a girl. After all, it's not something I've ever been shy about putting out into the universe. I have wanted a daughter since I was a little girl myself. I know some people will think I'm petty and selfish for having a preference of the gender of my child, although personally, I think it goes without saying that above all else, I - and every other parent on the face of the earth - want a healthy baby. And I am so grateful that this little guy seems to be developing right on track and has all his parts (and I do mean all of them).

But one of the things you guys tell me you appreciate about my parenting posts is my honesty, and while I realize many of you might not understand my feelings, I wouldn't be true to myself - or any of you - if I said I wasn't pretty sad about the fact that I'm not having a daughter.

Just in case you're wondering, I do understand how this whole chromosome thing works. I knew the odds were 50/50 and I certainly wasn't guaranteed a daughter. But as much as I tried to prepare myself for the possibility of another boy, there was a part of me - has always been a part of me - that simply believed I was meant to have a girl. Not because of the dresses and the tea parties and the dolls and the prom and the wedding (although I do want those things, so, so badly), but because I really wanted the opportunity to raise a happy, secure, confident girl. I never envisioned a future without a daughter. It just didn't seem possible. To be honest, it still doesn't. (Although as the saying goes, "balls don't lie." Or was that "ball"...)

The day after the ultrasound, when I was in the car with John and his brother, they started discussing their best Christmas ever, most notably the go-kart they received. "Is he old enough for a dirt bike?" Mike asked. "Or maybe a quad?" "He's definitely almost ready for a go-kart," John responded (somehow managing to ignore the "not on your life" look on my face). And while I am so happy that John will get to relive his favorite childhood moments with our sons, it was also a painful reminder of the things I won't experience with a daughter. Several people have said to me, "There's always the third," and I appreciate their optimism. But I don't think a third is in the cards for us. My sanity has always been hanging on by a rather precarious thread. Two boys will probably stretch it even thinner. A third would break me for sure.

So while I know I should be celebrating the impending arrival of baby boy #2, a part of me is mourning the baby girl that wasn't meant to be. I love Jack more than I ever thought was possible, and despite the fact that it seems highly unlikely I could ever love another boy that much, I'm 99.9% sure I will. Who knows, maybe I have a latent soccer-mom gene that will kick in in eight years or so. Maybe we'll adopt a daughter some day, or maybe one day I'll wake up and realize I'm okay without one. (Sure, that hasn't happened in the past 33 years, but you never know.) Maybe a life full of superheroes and dragons will prove to be a lot simpler than one full of Barbie and Bieber.

Besides, I never really liked the color pink very much anyway.

A Quick Traveling Re-cap

Some of you may recall my crazy travel schedule from a Facebook post a ways back. Some of you may have thought I was insane. Some of you were right. So far our whirlwind trip has been wonderful, but I do feel a bit displaced. We had a great time at my sister's wedding in Chicago (seriously, it was amazing and beautiful and I can't wait to see photos!), but between the 30 hours of travel, jet lag, illness, and Jack's night terrors caused by exhaustion, we left Chicago slightly more bedraggled than when we arrived (and that's saying something). I had some bleeding in Chicago and was fortunate to have four sisters around to insist I rest, but any mother of a three-year-old knows there is truly no rest for the weary.

Then we spent one night with Sarah in DC, the rest of the week with my amazing friends Mark and Lauren in Maryland, another week with my other amazing friends Courtney and Peter in Rhode Island, then three nights in an apartment in DC, and now we're in Sarah's house for the week. I canceled my plans to visit even more awesome friends after I had some more bleeding when I left Rhode Island last Friday. Fortunately I had an ultrasound and everything looks just fine, but I figured my body was trying to tell me something.

Of course, I'm still flying to Miami on Sunday, then Cancun for a week, then back to Miami, and then to Montana. (Despite what my body is telling me, I refuse to miss my child-free week in Cancun.) But aside from all the madness, things have been pretty fabulous here in America. It's finally sinking in that I don't have to go back to Russia, and that I can slowly ease up on stuffing my face with American food since I will have it at my disposal for quite some time. I feel so lucky to have so many wonderful friends (and family members) willing to host Jack and me for a few weeks! All in all, it feels pretty darn good to be home (even if "home" doesn't really exist at the moment).

Things I Love Thursdays: There's Going to Be a Baby

When we found out I was pregnant, we knew we were going to need a little help breaking the news to Jack. I did some scouring for books that were about the actual pregnancy, not about being a big brother or having a new baby in the house (we'll get to those later I'm sure). I also wanted something cute, because I'm shallow like that. When I stumbled across There's Going to Be a Baby by husband-and-wife team John Burmingham and Helen Oxenbury, I knew I'd found just what I was looking for.

This book might be a little abstract for younger children, but for a 4 or 5-year-old, I think it's just right. The mom explains to her son that a baby will arrive in the fall, and then answers some of the little boy's questions about the baby. Most of the pages depict the mom and son on various outings, imagining what the baby will be when it's older. At first, the boy isn't thrilled with the prospect of the baby. When he imagines the baby as a zoo keeper, he muses over the possibility of the baby being eaten by a tiger. I guess this might be off-putting to some people. I found it hilarious.

Another page shows the boy standing up in his bathtub, announcing to his mother out of the blue that the neighbor's baby threw up all over the carpet. I love the humor in this book, and the illustrations are adorable with a vintage feel to them. The images of the baby performing his various imagined activities - banker, chef, sailor - are cute and silly, and Jack particularly likes looking at them. He also likes that the little boy wants to name the baby Spider Man.

By the end of the story, the boy begins to warm up to the idea of the baby, and I always get a little teary-eyed on the last page (granted, I'm pregnant). I was surprised by how well Jack responded to the book. He wants to read it almost every night, and he's memorized some of the questions and refers to the book when we talk about the baby - the last line is something like, "We're going to love the baby, aren't we?" and Jack has said multiple times that he wants "to love the baby." Ultimately, I feel somewhat indebted to this book for helping Jack get excited about the baby, instead of denying its existence all together like he was at first.

If anyone has any must-have reads for soon-to-be siblings, please share in the comments!

Writing Wednesdays: NaNoWriMo and My First Giveaway

Many of you know that National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo) is just around the corner. Last year I participated and ended up with a shiny new novel at the end of November. It was so much fun and I really enjoyed doing it, even if I never ended up querying the novel (I entered it in a few contests and received some requests, but several agents suggested I switch it from third person to first person, and I'm in the process of doing that now, although I have other projects I'm more focused on).

Unfortunately, my crazy travel schedule for the month of November means I can't participate this year. I'm disappointed - it's such a great motivator, and there's nothing like drafting. But it just isn't in the cards. Instead, I'm going to take the month of December to finish a novel I started before moving to Russia (you may remember it - it's based on a Russian fairy tale). I needed to actually live in Russia to do the novel justice, and now that I've spent over a year here, I feel ready to really buckle down and write it. I already have the first 60 pages and a solid outline, and I'm looking forward to tackling this one. Plus, with a baby coming in April, I figure I need to get in all the writing I can before then.

In other news, I'm rapidly approaching my 100,000 page-view mark. I know that's not really a big deal, but it still feels like something worth celebrating, and I'm long overdue for a giveaway on this blog! So, when I get to 100,000 page views, probably some time in the next two weeks, I will be giving away a $20 gift card to Amazon! I know many of you aren't writers or avid readers necessarily, so you can spend the gift card however you want. You don't even have to be a follower (although I always appreciate it). People who want to participate can simply leave their name and contact info in the comments and I'll pick someone at random. I promise I'll give a heads up when the day approaches.

In the meantime, I'm leaving Russia (forever, most likely!) the day after tomorrow, so I'm pretty frazzled, but I'll try to blog in the coming weeks (especially for the giveaway). And if anyone else plans on drafting in December and wants to join me, let me know!

Mommy Mondays: Morning Sickness, the Biggest Lie Ever

A few weeks ago, when I was in the throws of morning sickness hell, I turned to John and said, "The worst thing about the first trimester is the fact that I can't complain about it on Facebook."

John looked at me and asked, "Really, that's the worst thing?"

To which I replied, "Well, no, the worst thing is morning sickness. But it would make me feel a lot better if I could bitch about it publicly."

Morning sickness is a big, fat lie. Because if you've had it, you know that "morning" really doesn't come into play. It should be called "all-day nausea," or maybe "the pregnancy plague," because it's like having the damn stomach flu for two months (or longer for some people; I can't even fathom what it's like for the women who have hyperemesis gravidarum - at least that has a suitably serious title). If you're extra super lucky like me, it gets worse as the day progresses, so that you end up running for the toilet at 1 a.m. Yay!

I had morning sickness with Jack, and it sucked royally. But this time has been way worse. At least last time I could go to Trader Joe's and buy the few things that appealed to me (I remember one bizarre trip where I came home with a can of Spaghetti-O's, a box of lime popsicles, and a cantaloupe). Here, though, my pickings are slim. I craved the same sorts of things: anything cold and refreshing or doughy and tomato-y, but it was much more difficult to procure them. I also have a serious aversion to garlic and roasting vegetables, which I can't recall having last time (although I don't recall John being obsessed with those things four years ago, either).

I also don't remember having dysgeusia last time, or what I like to call bad-taste-in-mouth-at-all-times disease. Nothing I ate could get rid of it. I read somewhere that vinegary foods like pickles help (I wonder if that's where the cliche of pregnant women being obsessed with pickles comes from...), but wouldn't you know it, we didn't have any freaking pickles. I can't blame Russia for that, at least. We just didn't have any. And of course, with all-day nausea comes fatigue, weight loss, and a general inability to function, which is WAY worse when you have another kid to take care of. 

But perhaps the actual worst thing about the first trimester is that men don't understand morning sickness at all. I get it, it's hard to fathom that brushing your teeth or swallowing a pill can actually cause someone to vomit, but I'm not sure how much proof John needed. Apparently more, because he has been shoving vitamins and supplements at me like a dealer. I even found proof online that it's okay to eat whatever you can stomach during the first trimester, but John was undeterred in his quest to get me to drink green smoothies and take eight spirulina tablets a day. And despite me having to hide out in our bedroom every time he roasted anything, he persisted in his nightly broccoli and brussel sprouts (*vomit*) routine. 

Fortunately, I'm finally feeling better. Last week I was able to eat fairly normally, and this week my appetite is really kicking in. Which is great, considering I'll be in America on Friday. First stop, Chicago for Ann Sather cinnamon rolls, followed by Baked and Wired in DC (I was too sick for cupcakes the last time I was there - can you even imagine?), whatever is good in Rhode Island, bagels with tempeh bacon and cream cheese in Norfolk, an early Thanksgiving in Miami, and all the guacamole and virgin margaritas I can handle in Cancun. Second trimester, here I come!

Foreign Service Fridays: Some Thoughts on Pregnancy and the Foreign Service

Today at Most Eligible Family, I attempt to explain some of the reasons I'm leaving Russia (in one week! Eeek!). Have a wonderful weekend all, and wish me luck with packing!