Thank goodness for Amazon Photos, because without it, I’d have trouble remembering the highs from 2019. The LOWS are pretty easy to remember. So, let’s dig in.

January — For my husband’s birthday, he wanted to do a mini road trip to Portland, OR. This was the first roadtrip for our daughter, who was a few weeks shy of 4 months old. She did awesome. We stopped by the Tillamook Factory and my almost 3-year-old had quite a few tantrums.

February — One word sums up the month – Snowmageddon! Holy crapola! I am a SoCal girl. I only know how to deal with the sun. Rain — I can handle. That’s why I moved from SoCal to Seattle, right?

But snow — tons of it — for many days, that was a different story.

I had never been snowed in before. I had two little kids under the age of 3, one of whom was not even 6 months old. My husband worked in downtown 30 minutes away. Since the buses weren’t making stops, he eventually took the car and stayed at an Air BnB for a few days. That left me snowed in with little kids for a few days. It was rough!

Fortunately, we survived. My older kid had fun playing in the snow. We weren’t even prepared. I know we live in a different world now, but I had to put him in the only snowsuit I had that could fit him — pink and blue with bunnies on them. I was gifted this snowsuit from a friend for my daughter to wear in a future winter. Luckily I had something or no fun in the snow would have been had. I didn’t have any snow gear either. I tried layering up and using my rain shoes. I destroyed my Ugg boots walking in the melted snow. Lesson learned. Note to self and others: Ugg boots are NOT made for snow, despite looking comfy cozy for cold weather.

March — Every spring it’s been our tradition to see the Cherry Blossoms at the UW Quad. Yeah, I know that is a tradition for many local families. However, for someone who didn’t grow up with traditions — or going out at all for anything — it’s something I always look forward to. This was our first time bringing our daughter, whose name in Japanese translates to “flower.”

Again, one of my “memories” of the day is my older kid having a tantrum. Screaming and crying, probably enough to shake the cherry blossoms off the trees. Although I’ve weathered many tantrums, it still felt embarrassing.

April — Yours Truly had a milestone birthday. I treated mahself to coffee, and chicken and waffles at a local shop, Watson’s Counter, in Ballard. The food was good, but the two things I remember most — Not a stroller-friendly place and tips area already included in the cost. It’s a tiny place, so I kind of felt shocked that I had to tip when the wait person walked about two steps to get the food to the table. Yeah, I am a cheapskate who’s never worked in food service, except for working in the kitchen of a friend’s chocolate shop.

My little buddy turned 3. They say the “2’s” are terrible, but “3” is best summed up as “terroriffic.” The tantrums ramped up and made my 2019 HELL. More about that later.

My sister came to visit for her nephew’s birthday. It was her first of 2 visits last year. If I had known the shitstorm that was coming in 2020, I would have cherished this visit even more.

May — My newly-minted 3 year old got his first haircut. For a long time, I was getting annoyed that he was starting to look like Mowgli from The Jungle Book. Pair the long hair with his tantrums, he looked like something coming out of a Japanese horror movie. That time had come for the big SNIP.

Nothing could have prepared me for the tears! No, not my son’s tears — MY tears! I had been warned by other moms that the hair “is not the same” after that first cut.

I didn’t believe it. I mean, I shave my legs, and while the hair grows back seemingly thicker, it doesn’t seem to stay that way.

Well, the lady we went to was quick! Before I could whip out my camera to take the momentous first blade against a strand of hair — POOF! — the hair had hit the floor.

My son wasn’t fazed. His eyeballs were glued to the lady’s iPad. He also opted not for the kiddy chairs. He chose one of the chairs at the rinsing bowl.

I must admit, while the haircut looked decent, I was already holding a mental funeral for those chopped off locks. Yes, I came prepared with a Ziploc baggie.

My sister and brother-in-law came to visit. They stayed nearby, which was nice. My brother-in-law was very good about bringing food for me while my sister who was on “vacation” worked from their hotel. It felt nice to be taken care of.

They had planned on visiting us the same time the following year around Memorial Day. Hah. Joke was on all of us, I guess.

June — Half way into the New Year, I got into a fender bender. I was only about 5 minutes from home when the car in front of me decides to back up into the right lane from the left lane. He hit my front right fender.

I was driving and my two kids were in the back — sound asleep.

My effing Mama Bear instinct came out and I was basically screaming “WTF! WTF!” The other driver pulled over but never ONCE looked my way. Luckily, I was able to flag down a cop who was at the stoplight on the street we pulled over on.

It was definitely the most stressful thing to ever happen since I’ve had kids. I had a lot of people tell me to sue the other driver. I had the insurance company tell me “You should have honked your horn.” It was an effing nightmare.

For a while, I was nervous about driving, especially with my kids in tow. Fortunately, I was not found at fault. My carseats were replaced (with my nudging) by the insurance company. The car was fixed.

July — For the second time in the year, we had a visitor! This was some streak! My brother-in-law came by, though he stayed at a rental instead of with us. We went to dinner at a Japanese place in Wallingford and I met a friend of his from college. His friend is also a mom and lives a few minutes from us. I was so excited to think I could make a new mom friend.

My brother-in-law, our family and his friend’s family had dinner together at a local Thai restaurant. The food is so good, I cannot wait to go back. It’s been nearly a year already, and I still haven’t been back. Sounds about right.

Anyway, although I have messaged his friend for potential playdates a couple of times, I think it’s best to say I’ve struck out. I have not seen or heard from her in a while. Each time I’ve contacted her, there was some reason she couldn’t hang out. Whomp Wah.

August — The month — and the subsequent next few months — can be summed up as “Hello, Blue.” The blue refers to the boys in blue — our local police officers.

Summer is my least favorite season. It’s hot, which makes me agitated. Add a three year old to the mix, and it’s the perfect shitfecta.

My yelling went out our window and into our neighbor’s ear. They found it fitting to call the cops on me. It was another stress added to an already stressful year.

August did have a highlight — Visitors. Again! This time it was my mother- and father-in-law. It was SO nice having them here. My husband and I were able to have our first date night since our daughter was born.

Unfortunately, my daughter hadn’t pre-approved. So, she definitely made it known to her grandparents (and parents via phone) that she needed to be consulted before such decisions were made. If I had one penny for every tear she cried, I’d be a freaking gazillionaire.

My husband and I had a good time, though. We had some drinks and went out for dinner. For a few hours, there was a sense of normalcy that I haven’t felt in about 5 years.

September — Another month of “firsts”! My son was going to start school, so he had to go to the dentist. I was — again — nervous for him. We’d read Curious George Goes to the Dentist to help him prepare. My daughter was 11 months old at the time, so she definitely got a leg up on her brother.

We went to a pediatric dentist referred to us by a friend of mine. The staff and doctors are WAY child friendly to the point it made me wonder “What are they really hiding?” So far, I haven’t found any dirt on them. *Thumbs up*

The next anxiety inducer for me was my son’s first day of school. The nice thing was my husband and I could stay with him — for the whole day or for however long we could. At first, I was really apprehensive. Things were not going as smoothly as the teacher made it sound.

When things went NOT according to plan, I questioned if I wanted my son to continue going. My Type-A personality could not handle the chaos. After a few weeks, though, my son settled in and I appreciated the quiet time while my son was in class.

October — Mom brain is working, I see. Aside from not being able to take my kid trick-or-treating due to me being sick and the neighbors calling the cops on me AGAIN, I couldn’t think of any highlights. But there was a highlight, if you can call it that.

My daughter turned 1 year old! I bought her a cake from a Japanese bakery. I felt bad that NO ONE was here to celebrate. When my son turned 1, my in-laws came out and we went to the zoo and had a celebration at home.

For numero dos, it was a kind of small cake with much less fanfare. Maybe she prefers it. I don’t know. I just know as a mom, I felt a lot of guilt.

November — This might or might not have been a month the cops weren’t called on me. I can’t recall after losing count. The only highlight I can remember is going out to take our pictures with Santa.

There was definitely a meltdown involved. My son — again. We managed to get a couple of decent pictures, though.

December — We started the last month with a redux of the beginning of the year. We again went to Portland. I can’t recall why. I think we just needed to get away from here. This was the first year we didn’t visit California. Part of me is kicking myself, but I am no fortuneteller.

We stayed at the same place that we had stayed at in January. It was fine, until we got back home. My husband received an e-mail from the hotel manager. It seems one of the other guests suggested that we had damaged their car (we didn’t). We happened to see this guest as we were about to leave. Yes, she definitely had damage to her car; we did not. I was livid that the manager would even suggest this.

I immediately decided that we aren’t staying there ever again. However, now that 5 months have passed, I might change my tune. Given the stay-at-home order we’re in, I’d probably go to a roach motel just to get out of here.

And so that was 2019 in a nutshell. If I thought 2019 was a bitch, 2020 has so far said “Hold my beer.”