Happy New Year, everybody!

We celebrated ringing in the new year with some friends at home, and I'm very happy to say that it turned out to be a great little party. At least, everyone seemed to be having a good time, the first guests arriving at 7 p.m. and the last leaving at 3:15 a.m. (Actually, Carlos left the next day, but being that he was in from Cleveland and all, that was to be expected!) Jason and I watched the ball drop with 10 other people, amist the clatter and clang of horns and noisemakers and Dick Clark on ABC. People talked, played Balderdash, Magic, Boggle and spades, and ate what we had first thought of as a considerable spread of food, only to see it decimated by 1 a.m. We've never held a successful party before, and with Kiddo on the way, it will be a long time (if ever!) before we can do so again. So looking back on that night, I get all sorts of happy. :-) (The kicker had to be when my friend Colleen looked at the fruit tray and the cracker/cheese/pate tray, both carefully arranged by me only a couple hours prior, and asked if I'd purchased them. I swear I was beaming.)

So with a new year, comes new responsibility. Oh yeah, I'm talking about the kid, but not the obvious, post-birth duties. I'm talking childbirth classes in March and April, more doctor appointments, further nursery preparation, scheduling of baby showers (OK, so that one's fun!), and the one I dread most: Searching for childcare. Apparently you're supposed to do this sooner rather than later, but I have this vision of The Baby Room in most daycare centers looking like a smelly little baby farm. Think "kennel" rather than "care." :-P Hopefully I'm woefully wrong. Private daycare would be better for an infant, in my opinion, but not knowing anyone around here makes it difficult. I can answer newspaper ads, but I still don't know these people from any other ax-murdering, child-molesting, baby-shaking, all-in-all jackass down the street, y'know? It's scary as hell, and to think that I need to possibly get my child on a WAITING LIST for somewhere terrifies me still yet. No wonder so many moms just stay at home, and if we had the financial stability for me to do so, I'm beginning to think I would.