Happy New Year!
I figure I have to start out with that instead of a traditional “Christmas” card. However, in lieu of our current situation, I am excusing myself being timely. Now that I’ve started with apologies, I have great wishes that this finds everyone doing well and thriving in the New Year. We hope that your holidays were filled with joy, purpose, and mostly fun!!
As with last year’s letter, I thought I would start out by telling you all that we are, once again, going to be adding to the Headley family. I know, it may seem crazy to add another one but we just love little ones around our house. On January 14th we pick up our new puppy. She’ll be 8 weeks old and ready to come home. She’s a golden retriever/standard poodle mix. The hope is to have a great family dog with no shedding. Abigail’s so excited. She adores animals like no other.
This past year has been exciting in many ways. Our second daughter Collette Marie Headley was born on the 20th of May—all 9 pounds and 4 ounces. She’s a wonderful treasure. What a breath of happiness and joy she brings to everyone around her. I could probably count on one hand—okay, maybe two hands, the number of times she has cried in her 7 months of life. She adores her big sister and has the biggest laughs with her. She’s trying hard to learn to crawl, and it looks as though it may come soon, along with her first teeth.
Abigail turned two the day after Thanksgiving. She’s far beyond 2, however. She’s smart beyond belief—a blessing and a curse. She’s been speaking in sentences for sometime now, and they’re only getting more and more complex. Joel and I love carrying on a full conversation with her, but we also love the silence of baby Collette. Abigail truly enjoys having a little sister around and is very good to her. She moved into a bunk bed when Collette was born and is already excited for the day Collette gets to join her.
Since leaving the graduate program at the U of A, Joel’s been substitute teaching while looking for a “real” job. Late in October, just for fun, he applied for a job at Google. As it went, he interviewed with them and then was asked to start the next day. Since then life has been crazy. We’ve been back and forth between the Bay Area and Tucson quite a bit but finally are back in the Bay Area for good — or so it seems. Google is a wonderful company to work for, and Joel loves his job.
I quit working after I had Collette and now stay at home full-time with the girls. I love being at home and find that it’s often busier and more stressful than a day at elementary school. But there’s a lot more love for my kids :0) The move has been crazy, but I’m really glad that Joel’s found something he enjoys doing. Overall, our holidays were great. I hope that all of yours were just as wonderful.
