2017:  A Retrospective
 
Highs:
* Will got tubes put in his ears and his language ability skyrocketed immediately afterwards.  At the start of the year he was speaking in isolated words and a few two-word combinations.  Now, I can have whole conversations with him.
* Daniel’s reading ability took off at the end of the year.  He’s now reading unfamiliar books with little to no help.  I’d place him as approaching (or even on) a first-grade level, and he still hasn’t started kindergarten.  He’s past where I was at his age, and I wound up being an English professor!
* I completed my coursework, took care of my language requirement, and passed my comprehensive exams for my Ph.D.  All that’s left now is the dissertation.

Mixed blessings:
* This summer, we drove four hours to a beach.  Genevieve screamed the whole way.  We wound up only getting an hour on the beach, then Genevieve screamed the whole way back.
But that single hour on the beach was golden.

Lows:
* Daniel got his tonsils out.  Much unfun was had.
* Several of our friends moved away.
* I injured my knee and separated my collarbone from my shoulder and had to take several months off from playing sports.