The Christmas Letter 2006

Holiday greetings from the Milewski family!

Needless to say, EVERYTHING has changed for us over the past year.

We started the year busy with preparations. We took all the necessary childbirth and parenting classes. After the baby showers, we put together all the baby stuff and washed all the tiny clothes. As my belly got bigger and bigger, we were glad to be busy with school and hockey so that the wait was more bearable.

The Badgers decided to make life a little more interesting by making it to the National Championship game--one week before the baby's due date! The tournament was in Milwaukee (which was better than Albany, Boston or any of the other recent Frozen Four locations) and Todd had his cell phone out on the press table and a back-up plan for coverage of the game just in case. Luckily, the baby cooperated and stayed put and made her daddy's life just a little easier.

I worked until our due date, then started leave so I wouldn't have to be on my feet so much. I'll leave you to read the whole story about the labor and delivery in my other blog posts. :)

Megan was born in the early morning hours of April 22. We were able to spend a lot of time with her in the early months. It was the hockey off-season so Todd was home often. My maternity leave happened to work out so that I didn't have to go back to work until the end of the summer. We had a very fun summer doing lots of things as a family. My cousin Marissa even stayed with us for a few weeks to help out.

Megan amazes us every day with her abilities and personality. She is very smart and, of course, adorable. (Of course, I'm probably biased!) She sleeps through the night and is a very good eater. She sits up well and sings and babbles. Her latest thing is dancing. She loves music and when she hears a song she really likes, she starts to wiggle and "clap" with a giant smile on her face. She likes all of the foods we've offered her so far.

Todd's back on the Badger hockey beat once again, although he's a little less busy than years past. He is not writing the column for USCHO anymore. I think he sometimes misses it, but I think the opportunity to spend time each morning with Megan before he takes her to the sitter's is well worth it! He really likes the "daddy time."

I'm still teaching 2nd and 3rd grade bilingual, but I've scaled back on the extra things I was doing at school so that I have more time with my family. I also have a teaching partner this year. This has posed some challenges, but all-in-all, it's been much better for the students and me than being isolated.

While every aspect of our lives has been changed since the baby was born, they've all changed for the better. We're looking forward to a very special holiday season...and as with everything else, it's all about Megan! :)