2011 Year in Review

It feels like it's been a busy year but I can't really account for much of it. The 'recently read' list on the side of my blog is about 15 months out of date (and I don't think I'll fill the gap). Time to restart it though, I think. We saw few movies of note this year and almost nothing 'must see'. At least nothing that I can remember.
I guess this year was spent just living with the kids. I worked part time all year, something I haven't done since leaving home. This meant that I got to spend simply a ton of time getting to know my children. Also got so spend more time with the FP Gal, which is clearly a plus. On the downside, I now feel very disconnected with the outside world.

Best book I read this year? That's a tough one. My Hugo reading fell off, or at least fell out of order. And the reviews dried up completely. The best one was probably 'The Vor Game' by Bujold, but the most enjoyable was probably 'Blackout/All Clear' by Willis. I also really enjoyed 'The Hunger Games' by Collins. For the first time in many years I didn't read any Booker prize books. Not sure why; it just didn't happen. There were two notable non-fiction books for me. The first I've mentioned already, 'How to Read a Book' by Adler but the second one caught my imagination more. It was 'The Long Way' by Bernard Moitessier, one of the sailors on the first round the world race. The book deserves it's own post and who knows, it may even get one. Suffice it to say, he was an interesting man.
I've looked through this list and as far as I can tell we only saw two movies in the theater this year. We saw 'The King's Speech' back in March and the last Harry Potter movie in July. That's it. Looking through the list there were at least three or four other movies that I wanted to see. In other words, what an awful year for movies!

So back to the kids. 2011 saw DF's first steps and a full blooming of his personality. He's talking quite a bit now, even singing from time to time. He has opinions and preferences and somehow has become a huge daddy's boy. I'm proud and a little awed by the responsibility!
Relia just keeps getting more and more adult. She still throws the occasional tantrum but you can sometimes see the wheels turning as she tries to keep control. She plans ahead, tries to find solutions and even develops schemes. Relia is becoming very, very smart. Both in terms of knowledge collection but also in how she puts things together. I could hardly be prouder.

Of course next year will bring new challenges and another bundle of joy. I think back to where I was ten years ago and it seems like I've come impossibly far in such a short period of time.