I recapped 2018 in this blog post.
I recapped January - March 2019 in this blog post.
I recapped April 2019 (the month we added a new baby girl to our family) in this blog post.
I recapped the rest of 2019 in this blog post.
Now to finish this recap, I will recap 2020, the BEST year ever...not! 😝
2020 Recap: So we all know this year sucked...hard, but there was also plenty of good things in this year, so I'll make sure not to be a Debbie Downer with this post...promise!
I started 2020 saying goodbye to these awesome people (Not shown: Manny and the Trach Team). I left the Airway Program after 2.5 years to go to Clinical Research. I wanted to branch out and learn new areas of nursing, but it was definitely a bittersweet move. These are my new digs below.
9 months - Zoe has 6 teeth. Says hi, mama, and dada. Signs for "milk" and "all done." Still a big fan of food. Cruising all over the place and has started to climb. She definitely keeps us on our toes. Mia will tell you that she didn't realize being a big sister was going to be SUCH hard work. Ha!
My parents had been telling me for quite some time that Zoe looks like me and I just never saw it. I think she is her sister's twin, but then I saw this side by side of us and I totally see it in our eyes, nose and ears for sure! I finally got one!! Mia is absolutely her daddy's twin.
In February, Mia turned SIX!! We had her party at Small Pockets in their tea room with her kindergarten classmates. She looks so grown here!! 😢
After the tea party, we went home and had family over for snacks and cake. This would be the last time we would see our family for a LONG time.
Mia had her first taste of selling Girl Scout cookies, what an experience! She even got to do a few booth sales.
Getting ready for the 100th day of school.
So...then March 2020 happened and as we all know everything changed. Mia was actually sick the week before Spring Break and missed a lot of that week as well. Then Spring Break never ended. We took everything in stride and we made the best of the time together.
Our local cake lady, Tiers by Alex, had some DIY cake kits that we took advantage of.
Mia: "Is the store out of toilet paper?"
Me: "Yes"
Mia: "What else is it out of?"
Me: Lists what it's out of
Mia: "But, do they still have bacon?!"
Me: "Yes Mia, don't worry, they still have bacon." 😆
Zoe was living her best life with her mommy back home. She did not adjust well to me being at work Monday - Friday with my new position. With my previous job, I worked from home a couple days a week. So working from home all week was her dream come true!
In April, Zoe turned ONE! She really and truly is a wild one. On her birthday, she started to climb on top of the furniture by herself. She is talking a lot more. She loves food and prefers savory over sweet. Zoe LOVES her big sister and wakes up looking for and calling out for her. Instead of saying Mi-ah, she says "ah" for Mia.
🎂: Tiers by Alex
We had a Zoom birthday party for her.
Easter 2020. Our local moms group had a map for the houses that participated in this "egg hunt" where we drove around looking for the eggs.
Spring 2020
This hammock swing was my 10 year work anniversary gift that I picked from the catalog. Mike built a swing set for the girls and we finally hung it up! I love this thing!
For my 33rd birthday, I broke out of the house and had some time to myself in nature.
I also made a pit stop to Target for the last box of wipes.
We ended the night with to-go Margaritas. One of the best things to come from quarantine.
In May, my baby brother graduated at the very tip top of his class and plans to head to UT Austin in the Fall. SUCH a proud big sister. 😊
Extended Spring Break...
Mia made her own Wonder Woman accessories with toilet paper rolls, such a creative girl!
Mother's Day 2020. Mia made me this flower ring! 😍 Such a trendsetter!
Virtual School came to an end for Mia and we had a reverse parade to say good-bye to her kindergarten teachers. I fought back tears at how kindergarten ended for her. Thankfully she didn't know any better and she was just so happy to see her teachers.
Ms. Porras and Ms. Welch. They were amazing and I am so thankful for the time Mia DID have with them.
The end of virtual school meant....extended, extended Spring Break, Ha! I kid I kid. Summer 2020.
We tried to keep Mia busy with several virtual Girl Scout camps/activities. She earned a ton of badges from it!
In July 2020, I started heading back in to the office since they started slowly opening research studies back up. Most days I still worked from home.
So...also in July I had two weeks of extreme fatigue and GI symptoms. Mike also started having GI symptoms. Since I couldn't knock it and I was showing signs of dehydration I went to the ER for fluids and a COVID test. Turns out I was PREGNANT!! I definitely cussed when the doctor told me...I was SHOCKED to say the least. He congratulated me and I asked "for being COVID negative or the pregnancy?" and he said..."both." Ha!
Wrapping up Summer 2020 with my baby girls. This was another very ROUGH pregnancy with a lot of nausea and EXTREME fatigue, so we took it easy towards the end of the summer.
So...funny story. Mia found my beanie babies in the attic and got them out. I went into the attic to put the storage box back and I sure did fall through the floor. I fell up to my hip and had some pretty gnarly cuts and bruises. I'm not allowed in the attic anymore. 😆
First Day of 1st Grade!! 🎂: Tiers by Alex
So...Zoe was so determined to get cake that she climbed the bar stool to get on top of the counter to get a piece. 😅
Mia's 1st grade teacher. Virtual Dual Language was NO joke!
We had been living through major house renovations during the pandemic, but I put up the white flag once they demolished our kitchen. We went to a couple of Air BNBs to escape the renovations.
One of them had a pool. Look at that face, HA! She wasn't expecting it to also cover her nose.
The other Air BNB was on the lake. We had it for labor day weekend, so we invited family over to celebrate my brother's birthday and finally get some family time!
Since I was close to my sister's salon, I also visited her to have my first hair cut of the year. I cut off about 14 inches!! I don't have a picture of us together, but my sister and I were pregnant together!!
After
We really enjoyed walks by the lake during our stay.
With the weather cooling off, we were able to start heading back outside.
In Late September, Mikol and I decided to pull Mia from virtual school and homeschool her. I really wanted virtual school to work. I really wanted to support public schools. I know the teachers were doing their absolute best! Unfortunately, virtual dual language was just not working. We were spending 7-8 hours a day on virtual school with so many tears. Since Mia was in dual language, it was another layer of complexity. In kindergarten, they only taught her to read in Spanish, so I felt like she was getting further and further behind in English, especially basic phonics. On top of that she was bored with the math. We felt like she needed a more personalized approach to get her where she needed to be, so we dove into homeschool.
Let me tell you, the amount of curriculum choices is absolutely astounding and was by far the most overwhelming part of homeschooling. Once we chose our curriculum (we went with The Good and the Beautiful for her core subjects) everything else just fell into place. Mia had some very big, strong feelings about not being at her school anymore, so we did a week of deschooling to help with the transition and that helped SO much! When we were ready to start, she was absolutely ready to start school back up...with her new teachers.
We eased into Science with fun unit studies. The first one we did was a pumpkin study.
We went to a Monarch way station at our local rose garden during their migration. It was so amazing to see so many butterflies.
With homeschooling, baking has been an awesome go-to for an impromptu math lesson.
Taking the class pet for a ride, HA!
Our next science unit was seeds, plants and flowers. We dissected and planted seeds.
Geography
In October, we found out we would be welcoming a THIRD BABY GIRL!! Mikol is extremely outnumbered! The dog and the guinea pigs are also girls. 😅
We celebrated Mikol's 36th birthday in October! This cake is SO him! 🎂: Tiers by Alex
Fall 2020
Our local library has "take it, make it" bags with crafts that Mia has been loving.
Fall mini photo session at A.W. Perry Homestead Museum.
Halloween 2020. Zoe was an elephant and Mia was Mal from Descendants. The Disney Movies Zombies and Descendants took over our Disney + this year. We had another map from the mom group that showed where the candy bags would be so we were able to have a contactless Halloween.
Twins!!
18 months - Zoe has the most expressive eyebrows and everyone who meets her thinks she is "just so serious." She's really not...she's extremely goofy, she's just slow to warm. She is her sister's shadow and wants to do everything Mia is doing. She's a great eater and has a mouth FULL of teeth. She has no fear and is always testing her physical abilities.
Homeschooling Mia is definitely one of the best things to come out of 2020. Before we pulled her from school, reading usually ended in tears and she dreaded logging into virtual school. Now she is thriving. She reads everything she comes across and is more confident with reading. She will do impromptu science experiments. She can create and learn at her own pace. She willingly wants to learn more about math and telling time. It's definitely not all rainbows and sunshine, but we have really enjoyed it. I'm grateful for this time with her and all that I'm learning alongside her.
Fun fact I've learned: Did you know that pinecones close when they are wet to protect the seeds inside?!
She built a maze for her guinea pigs.
With virtual school came the need for Mia to have reading glasses. The doctor said it's been pretty common this year with all the virtual learning.
With three car seats in our near future, we have officially outgrown my Nissan Leaf. We bought a new to us Toyota Highlander! She's so pretty. Also, I had to buy gas for the first time in 4 years! 😱
Thanksgiving 2020 was super lowkey. We had lunch with just the four of us at home. Shout out to Central Market's chefs!
We put up our tree after our meal.
Winter 2020
This was the first year we did 24 days of Christmas books, Mia loved unwrapping the book everyday.
Grace is 11 years old this year!! With my big belly and Grace's senior status, we make a great walking combo. Usually on the way back home, we stop by the neighborhood park and take in the views.
We also added two Guinea pigs to our crew this year. Alice and Chocolate. Mia has been begging for one for years. She had one in her pre-k class. This is a picture of Mia showing them some guinea pig accessories on the tablet. 😆 We've learned a lot about guinea pigs. We found out there are very social creatures and in some countries it is illegal to only have one.
Since we were hosting Christmas this year, we got the house ready for guests. The girls really enjoyed getting the backyard ready with this giant leaf pile. I also went into decluttering mode and got rid of SO much stuff. It's so nice to have less!
Christmas Prep continues with a cookie kit and giant inflatables.
Mia went to Art at the Park to get some time away from the house. She said she was nervous at first but at the end of the day, she was hoping the car that was pulling up wasn't us so she could have some more time with her friends.
Christmas Eve - We hosted a backyard campfire at our house with tamales, hot cocoa and s'mores. We also did a virtual gift exchange (we had already mailed the gifts to the recipient). The weather cooperated and it was a fun get together!
Christmas Day
Both of the girls got scooters. They ride them all over the house now.
On Christmas Day, we met up with family at the movies. We rented an auditorium and watched Elf. It was Zoe's first time at the movies, so of course we bribed her with pizza and candy. I also got to meet my baby nephew for the first time!
Look how cute and little he is!! 😍
Playing with Christmas presents. It was all fun and games looking at the prepared slides until we got to one of a dog's stomach and Mia was like...hold up, how did they get this??!
Mia got a playdate with a friend Christmas weekend as well. She had a great holiday break!!
New Years Eve was a gloomy, rainy day. As if it was trying to wash away 2020. We had a game and movie night at home with junk food, it was great! I also had to make sure to get one more F bomb in before the end of the year...cocoa bomb that is. 😏
There you guys have it, we are all caught up!! FOUR years later, NBD! I just didn't feel right going into a new year with a new baby and not getting caught up. Nothing like good ol' nesting and pregnancy urges to kick you into gear! Thank you for reading along! Cheers to 2021!
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