The first half of this year was like winding up a spring, and the second half was about letting it loose; pulling inwards and preparing, then A-‘s birth in February and an explosion of learning and activity.

This time last year, I was heading into the second trimester of pregnancy. As nausea and vomiting receded, I regained a little energy. I helped W- tile the laundry corner and the bathroom in the basement. I sewed diaper covers and wet bags from PUL, and serged flats from thrift store flannel sheets. I filled the freezer with lasagna and lumpia.

When fatigue returned, I retreated into hermit mode: long walks, lots of video gaming, and generally luxuriating in the quiet and the autonomy. I got a lot of practice in saying no and going with what I felt comfortable with, and I found out that I liked it. =)

I used some of that time to sort out my tech, too. After finding out that Krita had all of the sketching features I needed, I switched back to Linux and started tweaking my setup. I won the Toronto Public Library hackathon with a tool for visualizing library search results on a map. I wrote little scripts to stalk videos at the library, check grocery flyers, visualize data, and automate other things. Also, John Wiegley asked me to start summarizing Emacs community updates, so I put together Emacs News: a filtered, categorized list of links from Planet Emacsen, Reddit, and other sources. That and consulting have been handy ways to keep a toe in the technical waters.

Consulting-wise, I turned over most of my tasks, and the team's doing way better than I could have with my much fuzzier brain. I'm still working on migrating some old code into a few add-ons for them, but fortunately they're super-accommodating in terms of time, and other people take care of the bits that require more attention or coordination.

I'm so glad I experimented with making my life more flexible in terms of time and energy. My time stats show that childcare now takes up ~34% of my time these days, or 57 hours a week. I still manage to get a little more than eight and a half hours of sleep, but it's a bit more broken up and less under my control. Still, I don't feel exhausted or too stretched out. Discretionary time is down to about 2 hours a day (which is still pretty good!), although that's mostly just after she goes to bed, so that affects what I can do. I've been using it for keeping my journal up to date, and doing a little writing or coding when I can. I do a few hours of consulting a week, too. Anyway, lots of things are on hold. Past Sacha decided this was an excellent use of time, and I agree. It's worthwhile and temporary. =)

Thanks to A-, I've been learning more about health and public resources. She was born with left-eye microphthalmia, with no vision in that eye, and she has adapted well to the prosthesis that will help her skull grow symmetrically. She also has a ventricular septal defect (a hole between two parts of her heart). It's not quite large enough to clearly need surgery, but not small enough to rule surgery out, so we'll just have to wait and see. Abnormal results from her liver ultrasound turned out to be a benign hemangioma instead of cancer (whew!), so that's one concern off our list for now (although I think we'll need to monitor it with an annual ultrasound). W- started parental leave in June, and that's been wonderful for both the big medical things as well as the little moments and memories.

What's the difference between 32 and 33 for me? There's A-, of course, and the host of changes that accompany her. I've got a deeper appreciation for W-, and for various things (libraries! health care! the Internet! people!). I've had a lot of practice in equanimity and Stoic philosophy. I've seen lots of preparation paying off, and I have new plans to put into place. I'm learning a lot, and I'm looking forward to even more.