2012 in Review

2012 was one heck of a year for us.

Beautiful. Surprising. And crazy. I think I can handle a year like this every few years, or so:)

When January opened I was looking like this:

and eagerly awaiting the arrival of the little munchkin we called "bunny."

Ellie/bunny wasn't due until Feb 15, so I planned on getting organized and packing my hospital bag exactly two weeks beforehand, on Feb 1. The problem was, on January 31 in the middle of the night, Ellie decided to make her appearance unexpectedly early. And my labor was unexpectedly fast. Which is how I spent a good chunk of my labor dictating a birth plan and packing list in between contractions (and a little bit of yelling. Ahem.)

But, in any case, on February 1st, two weeks before her due date, at 12:12 pm sharp, Ellie made her way into the world!

We spent February getting to know her and falling in love with her.

Not to mention filling up her closet with lots of PINK!

In March, we had a little "meet the baby" party for family, and celebrated the Jewish holiday of Purim. I started to feel a little more back to normal, and went back to work while S spent his paternity leave watching Ellie.

We started to feel like a real family:

April was momentous. We kicked off Pesach (Passover) by checking our house for crumbs of leavened bread:

And then we wound up buying a new house!

In May, we watched our peanut grow,

and renovated like maniacs.

June brought our move to the new house

and July lots of fun times settling in to this new life:

and seeing family.

August brought Ellie's first trip to the shore!

and meeting baby friends!

We vacationed in Montreal in September, and had a blast!

Our little girl grew and grew....

And spent a lot of time getting stuck under furniture:)

When November came along, we were trying to recover from Hurricane Sandy and stay warm.

December brought grief over the Sandy Hook shooting, and joy over Ellie's first Chanuka:

It's been quite a year. Reliving it makes me awed at how much has changed, and glad that after all this change, I feel so happy and settled right now.

What was the highlight and lowlight of YOUR year?