You get a lot of these sorts of retrospectives on this date every year, and as I sit and type this out I wonder just how much I’m going to publicly muse about.

The year started not with a bang, but a whimper. We had just successfully hosted Christmas for both my family and The Wife’s family (not in conjunection, but serially), so January started off as being a resting period after the holidays. We also FINALLY (or so we thought) completed a basement remodel after a gruelling 8 months for what was supposed to be a 6-week job. I recall that I caught an especially nasty cold/flu from my brother-in-law just as work started back. Yay.

The rest of January into February was not terribly noteworthy. We had one last remodel drama regarding the heating element in the bathroom floor (which is STILL not working quite right). The Wife was solidly into her 2nd trimester and work had its own dramas, much of which aren’t terribly interesting to the casual reader, I suspect. Life as a 1-child household seemed fine, though our Son didn’t so much have a “terrible two’s” period as one famously hears about. About this time, the child-rearing stress had much to do about what we were going to do about his pre-schooling. Much like my sister before us, we only applied to a single school for our Son and waited to see what would come of that.

March rolled around and there were 2 things to get excited about – the launch of the Sony PSP in the U.S. and enrollment decisions for our Son’s preschool. I was a launch day geek for the PSP, though I did NOT wait in any sort of line to get one. Turns out, it wasn’t all that hard to get one. And our Son got waitlisted to his pre-school. That generated a bit of angst, and I must say the enrollment process for ANY preschool is a bit baffling. What, really, do you have to go on when it comes to a 3-year-old child?

April rolled around and the Tax Man taketh away. The year prior we got some kind of obscene refund, but the pendulum swung the other way this year. I have to admit to being baffled by the tax process. It was in April that I also took my first business trip in a while. I was sent to The Hague to visit a bigtime customer of the company. It was my first trip to Holland, and I was pleased to have been able to go and see places like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Delft, Scheveningen, etc. Pictures of said trip can be seen here.

May rolled in and our 3rd, 36th, and 32nd birthdays were celebrated, though not with our traditionaly family party. The Wife was now in her 3rd trimester and there was no partying to be done! So we had a private family party for our Son with the promise that next year’s birthday would be an even bigger bash than normal. I bought the Wife a 4G iPod only to see it evolve in very quick succession over the next few months. Damn you Steve Jobs!

The big highlight of the past year, of course, has been the birth of our Daughter in June, and just in time for Father’s Day! I had forgotten just how nice it was to have an infant around and am already regretting that I did not enjoy the time as much as I could have with our Son. Of course, I suspect one never truly gets to spend the kind of time one would like. Anyway, her birth and the subsequent weeks I spent with her on paternity leave was truly wonderful. I cannot find the words for how I feel when I see her smile at me.

July and August came and went mostly with work stress, though we did spend a nice week up on Orcas Island with the Wife’s parents and sister. Oh, and our Son did get into his pre-school, though only part-time (60%). And what better time to throw in yet more change than to start him in pre-school at the beginning of July? He was a real trooper about all that. I’m very proud of him.

September rolled in with Paternity Leave and I got to stay home with our Daughter full-time and also have our Son 40% of the work-week. Let me tell you that when you have 2 kids, it is in your best interest to get out of the house as soon as you possibly can. I was never so motivated to get out of the house by 9am as when I had both the kids. Nothing is worse than a 3 y.o. who is stir crazy and bored. Even with that, the weeks I spent at home with kids seemed to go by too fast. I had the best time being at home with them and I have never felt so calm with myself and my family as I was when I was on leave.

And…… oh hell, even I’m starting to get bored of this post, so I’m just going to end it here. The rest of the year came and went, and much of it had to do with work angst intermingled with playing with my kids. I had some grand vision of going back through and adding my own commentary to the more global events of the year, but I just can’t be bothered to spend the time at this point.

Welcome to 2006.