As 2011 comes to a close, we wanted to share a brief review of what we're up to.
This has been a whirlwind of a year for us. We’re still living just outside of Washington D.C., and had our third child at the end of 2010. This meant that we needed to move out of our two bedroom home and into something with a bit more space. We also got a minivan, and suckered Aunt Chelsey into spending the summer with us to help us regain our footing and sanity. We were sad to leave our little place on Veitch St., where we were surrounded by good friends with compatible children, but have been happy on our new street and in our new home. The new location also has kids that are the right age, two parks within walking distance, and a slew of friendly new neighbors who like to throw block parties with swimming and coolers full of steamed Maryland crab. So there’s that. One thing that is missing is the nearby 7-11, thus our donut intake has definitely decreased.
Kim
continues to work as a nurse at George Washington University Hospital. She is
part of the float pool, meaning that she gets plugged into whatever floor is
missing nurses on a given shift, and crucially, that she gets to make her own
schedule. This allows me to be at home with the kids while she works, usually a
night shift three times a month. Kim and I have spent the last two years team
teaching the 9 and 10 year olds at our church, which has been a lot of fun.
When she’s not bringing in the bacon or singing in primary, Kim spends all of
her time making great memories for our kids, shaping them into humans. She also
attends a regular dessert making group, plans incredible birthday parties,
stalks half the known world via their blogs, and falls asleep during every
movie we watch.
I
just finished my fourth year working with John Snow, Inc., a firm that carries
out health projects around the globe. At this point, half of my job is spent on
a malaria project that delivers drugs, nets and test kits to 18 countries. The
other half of my job is in a new position running a center dedicated to using
mobile phone technology in health projects for gathering and reporting health data.
I continue to travel quite a bit, which is rewarding, but tough. I spent 10
weeks out of this year in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Ghana and Mozambique. I
attained the dubious honor of “Platinum Medallion” status with Delta, and I’ve
run out of space in my second passport. Our kids are accruing an impressive
collection of coins, dolls and knickknacks from the far side of the world. We
thank heaven for video Skype calls. I am also fairly certain that my iPhone is a
culminating achievement of mankind.
Megan
(6) is in the first grade, and is running the show. Since day one, she has
maintained the lead in earning tickets for being good in her class, and
recently depressed the “good ticket” market by cashing in her stockpile for a
photo album. We read The Magic Treehouse books most nights, trading off pages,
and she has become an expert at pronouncing unknown words so slowly that I
can’t help but give her the answer. Megan has written more than a dozen letters
to Santa over the course of this year, and assuming she can remember everything
she’s asked for, she is going to be very disappointed come Christmas morning.
Megan is the sweetest 6 year old on the planet, always helping her brothers, telling
terrible jokes and getting perfect marks on her math tests.
Henry
(3) couldn’t care less about good tickets. He continues to ignore entirely the
fact that he has a neuromuscular disorder, preferring instead to rock out. Henry
loves puzzles, Angry Birds, Dora the Explorer, wrestling everybody and not
eating. He has a plethora of adult women caretakers (physical therapist,
occupational therapist, speech therapist, preschool worker, nanny, swimming
instructor) who think he is the cutest kid ever, and he dances like he’s got a
tom-tom in his soul. His bus driver told me the other day, in all seriousness,
that he has an incredible singing voice. Why would the bus driver even know
that? Henry thrives on Carnation instant breakfast and my exasperation.
Eli
(1) is our first fat baby. He doesn’t care that our lives were already packed
with more personality than we could handle, he pushed on in with his own. He
likes to cuddle, refuses to say anything besides “SQWAA!!”, and will eat
anything. Like orange peels, dish soap, hand sanitizer, plastic, dust bunnies
and my fingers. Despite what seems genetically feasible, Eli has dark hair and
dark eyes and a space in his front teeth you could floss with a shoelace. He
has us on a rotation where Kim must snuggle him before bed, I must snuggle him
around 11 pm, and Kim has to snuggle him at least one more time before the
morning. The wrong parent attempting to snuggle him at any of the predetermined
times will receive a straight arm to the face, and a lot of “SQWAA”ing. He is
so darn huggable.
We are incredibly blessed, and are loving this time in our lives. We hope this post finds you well, and that you have a wonderful new year.
Sincerely,
Mike,
Kim, Megan, Henry and Eli
Frost
