When I was a teenager, I had this idea of how my life should turn out. Just the essentials – my family life, my work life, my home life, all that kind of thing. 2010 is the year that the final details fell into place. I can honestly say that my life is now what I've always wanted it to be. So, you know how sometimes you spend so long wishing for something, and it finally arrives, and you find it's not what you'd thought it would be after all? Then again, sometimes you find it's exactly how you thought it would be and it's just wonderful.
The last piece I'd been missing was a job, specifically a job I enjoyed where I felt respected and valued. I started that in April, having been recommended by one of my lecturers, almost exactly a year after being laid off from my previous job. It meant a pretty significant pay cut – 20% on a full-time basis, and I'm only working four days a week, so 35% overall. But they're flexible with my study, I can work from home fairly often, and most days I'm home in time to put Ryan to bed. Really, just to be doing work I enjoy makes it worthwhile. (Fortunately, when we bought our house, we left a large margin against the limit the bank was offering, just in case our circumstances changed.)
We moved into our own house in 2009. It still doesn't have much of a garden, but we're nicely settled here. It's a good location, close to the train, shops and Ryan's childcare. We have good neighbours as well. All up, we've settled in well.
I'm still studying too. Just one subject a semester now. I'm enjoying the pace, and even made a couple of friends, two Chinese students (well, part friendship, part mentor relationship). After feeling that I'd been stagnating in my last job, the degree has helped a great deal to refresh my skills.
Now, on to the important matters. Wallybee is still quite wonderful. Raising Ryan together has only brought us closer. Her current job may not survive 2011 (it's reliant on govt funding, which expires this year and may not be renewed), and she's thinking of moving into primary school teaching. Her parents (who were such a help with Ryan for his first year) were supposed to be back by now, but her mother had a bad fall and broke her wrist. They're now thinking March.
Ryan goes from strength to strength, so much more engaged with his environment, always trying to puzzle out how things work. Childcare tells us that he lives up to his name with the other kids (in Chinese it means 'kindness'. He's walking confidently, and has a vocabulary of two words – 'shoe' (perhaps not coincidentally, it sounds quite similar in Chinese), for both shoes and socks, and 'nana' for bananas (his favourite food). He does also say 'mama' and 'daddy' – just not specifically to Mummy and/or Daddy. Or necessarily to other bipeds. He understands many more words, like nose, ear, nappy and penguin. You know, the essentials.
It’s been a good year. Fingers crossed that 2011 lives up to it.