2010 - Year of Change

I hope everyone has had a great start to 2010! The new year brought a couple of big changes to The Spence house. John and I are creatures of habit, so change can be difficult. Kyle is a little more "go with the flow" so it isn't as difficult for him. Hopefully, for his sake he will stay this way and not take after his Mommy and Daddy...LOL! In this post, I will only discuss one of the changes so the post won't be too long and hopefully discuss the other in a post tomorrow.

At the end of December the company John worked at for 14 years was purchased by another company. The company he worked for was a rather small company and the new company is a much larger company, based in Helsinki, Finland. With this change, has come travel. Since we have been married, John has only traveled once for an overnight trip, which was pre-Kyle, so travel is definitely not something our family is accustomed to. His first trip was to Boulder, Colorado for a week in the beginning of January. Kyle and I managed just fine except for one stressful situation, but in the end everything was fine.

John's second trip was to Helsinki, Finland. This was a seven day trip and quite a a snowy, cold adventure for him. Unfortunately, the week consisted of work, work, and more work so he wasn't able to sight see as much as he would have liked. I do have to say they have some absolutely delicious chocolate so I did get something good from his trip...LOL. My parents came to spend the week with Kyle and me which certainly made me feel more comfortable since John was out of the country. He already has another trip planned in March, but it is within the United States and only for three days. I have a new found respect for families who deal with plenty of travel on a regular basis. It isn't easy, but with many jobs these days it is a necessity.

Through John's work travels we have a new best friend named Skype. It is totally awesome that we can video chat with each other...makes it a little easier and best of all it is FREE!! Kyle isn't quite sure what to think of seeing Daddy on the computer screen, but it is so cute when he kisses and hugs the computer monitor....it is priceless!

Today's Guest Author...

Hello out there to everybody in the "Blog World" (as my wife would say). As a matter of introduction my name is John (a.k.a the "Husband" and the "Daddy"). Lindsey has asked me on several occassions to write a guest post for "My Little Munchkin" (actually, I'll say it's our blog since it's about our boy and I'm tasked with most of the "cropping" duties; I have to steal some credit somewhere). Anyway, here goes nothing. I'm very happy Lindsey started the blog and I think she does a remarkable job keeping it up to date with Kyle's progress and activities. I'm not sure how she finds a subject to write about each day; especially, with a two and a half year old to keep up with. I guess now that I think about it, a two and a half year old does provide a lot of "subject matter" and "photo ops", especially since he is such a "little munchkin". I'm a software developer (by day) for a small company here in St. Louis. I develop web applications to display data collected by our weather stations (I know... I know... I can hear you screaming "GEEK!"). Over the last several months and especially the last few weeks, my work schedule has been crazy. No traveling or anything complicated like that, just working long hours. Anywhere from 10 to 12 hour days, six days a week. Needless to say this has put a crimp in our family time. Luckily, there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel (hopefully it's not a train) and the first phase of our project will be winding down in the next week. Thank God. It's been a difficult few weeks to say the least because we enjoy doing everything together. Whether it's just Lindsey and I doing yard work, taking Kyle to do something fun, or just running errands as a family, it's very important to us to do as much as possible together. I know we are very lucky to share that time together and there are a lot of familes out there that would kill to have the time we do have together. I guess I can't complain too loud; we're just spoiled. There have been a couple days this past week where I haven't really seen Kyle since I've left before he woke up and he was asleep before I got home. He woke up during the night twice this week and I went up to change him and put him back to sleep and couldn't help but wonder if he has thinking "Mommy, that strange man was here again to change my diaper in the middle of the night, is he the diaper fairy"? It does make it a little easier while I'm at work that I can check out the blog to see what I'm missing during the day (love those pics). I also got a cool digital photo frame for my birthday last month and I enjoy taking a break and watching the pictures of Mommy and Kyle go by on my desktop. Not quite like being there though. I do realize I'm putting in the time at work for my family and this is a short term (hopefully) inconvience, but it is still hard. There are a lot of families out there that do this day in and day out and I take my hat off to each and every one of you. I'd also like to thank my wife for putting up with this craziness and hanging in there. I truly love you for all you do for our litle family. I'll close with a few pictures (it wouldn't be KyleSpence.BlogSpot.com) without art. Hopefully, I'll be asked back to contibute again.

The Little Munchkin Himself Mommy and the Munchkin this past winter