2021 Year in Review

Wow, has it really been over a year since I posted? I have to admit I haven’t been paying attention to the blogging world, though I’m still reluctant to get rid of my blog. I like having it in case I feel like writing something or recording memories! Speaking of memories, let’s see how my 2021 was…

Personal Life

With Ada being born in December 2020, I started 2021 still on maternity leave. I often get asked if it’s easier or harder this time around, and it’s a mix of both. It’s easier in that we know how to care for a baby now, but it’s harder because there’s 2 kids now!

Though it’s a bit stressful, it’s also been really fun. We thought we knew how things would go since we went through it with Talia already, but they are still two different people! We can already tell that Ada’s personality is different than Talia’s, and their milestones have been different. It’s been really interesting to see. It’s also been nice to experience the early cute stages again, especially since Talia is 3 years old now and is definitely in the “three-nager” phase. (What is “three-nager” you ask? Think of an independent and rebellious teenager and apply that to a 3 year old!)

As for schooling, we had Talia in online Chinese toddler classes, but we could tell she just wasn’t engaged in it. She was also getting really bored at home, and we felt she needed some in-person interaction. We ended up enrolling her in in-person Chinese toddler classes at a school that took COVID precautions very seriously. She ended up loving it! When Talia turned 3, we transferred her to a Chinese-immersion preschool (which also required masks), and we think it’s been really good for her so far.

On some sad news, my grandpa passed away from COVID in April. He was getting to the point where his home helpers could no longer care for him, so we transferred him to a nursing home. Though he was vaccinated, he still tested positive for COVID about a month later and passed away the same day at the hospital. My grandpa lived a long life, had Alzheimer’s, and his health was failing, so I knew we didn’t have that much longer with him. However, it still weighs heavily on me that this was the way it happened. I wish it didn’t have to be this way.

Work Life

I returned to work after my 4 months of maternity leave and got back into the swing of things. Work was still “work from anywhere”, which meant that going into the office was optional, so I stayed remote. I was mostly happy with the way things were going until around September, when I learned of some upcoming changes I wasn’t really in agreement on.

After staying 14 years at the same company, I finally looked into changing jobs, for real this time. (I had looked in the past, but never went through with it.) I decided I couldn’t go back to office life, so I looked for other companies that were also fully remote.

I applied to a couple places, one of which is a company where some former coworkers are at. A couple of them actually asked me to join them a couple years ago, but I didn’t make the move at the time. Fortunately, they were still really interested in having me and pushed me through the interview process quickly, and then I got an offer!

At the end of October, I switched jobs for a company in the healthcare industry, also as a Director of Engineering.

Hobbies

Due to going through baby life again (and also having two kids now), my hobbies mostly took a backseat in 2021. I did do a bit of cosplay! For Halloween, I made costumes from Raya and the Last Dragon for myself, Ada, and Talia. (I’m Raya, Ada is Noi, and Talia is Sisu.) I didn’t quite finish mine, so I plan on continuing work on it. I’ve been writing up details on my cosplay blog if you’re interested!

The other hobby I kept with is toy photography over at Tiny Teabox. I took a couple breaks during the year from it, so I’ve taken far fewer photos, but it’s still a hobby I enjoy and want to keep up with.

Other Notable Events

• Like many others in Texas, we were stuck in our house because of the snowstorm in February. We got very lucky because we never lost power nor water. (We think we might be on the same grid as a nearby hospital, so they never cut ours.)
• We started house hunting to move about 15-20 minutes north of where we are. Unfortunately, still no luck!

And that’s a wrap on 2021! I hope 2022 will be a good year for all of us. Since I’m not as active here, you can find me on social media instead: Twitter | Instagram.