In 2011 I Resolve To...

As I sit here with my bottle of wine completely emptied, I'm reminded that I still need to set goals for myself for this year--so here goes!

I hate being late.  HATE IT.  I think it is incredibly rude and disrespectful. 

So then why is it always happening to me?? 

I'll tell you why--it's because I hate waiting almost as much as I hate being late.  My hatred of waiting is why I try to calculate EXACTLY how long it will take me to get to there if I hit all the green lights and don't need to stop for gas under normal driving conditions, and then I add about 30 seconds to that time in the interest of being early.  When it gets close to my scheduled time to leave I think to myself, Oh, I still have five minutes to spare!  I could make one more phone call/send one more email/pluck my eyebrows/squeeze in a quick workout.  And then of course five minutes later arrives and I get up to leave but first I need to run to the bathroom, and fill up my water bottle, and find my keys, and should I try to squeeze in just one more email??

Now I'm in my car, pulse beginning to elevate over the fact that I'm stopped a red light when red lights were not factored into my plan, but now that I'm just sitting here waiting maybe I could shoot off that email I didn't get a chance to send?  Draft a quick blog post on a Taco Bell napkin?  Google something??  AGH!  I'm just sitting here not doing anything and this damn light is making me late!  The light turns green before I can even finish alphabetizing and prioritizing my list of things I could be doing while stopped at said light, and I'm on my way.

DAMMIT, I forgot to factor in parking time!  And I've got the 4" heels on today instead of the 3" heels--I should have added at least another 30 seconds! 

Finally I race into the meeting attempting to sound sufficiently breathless over my dramatic stiletto race to the conference room, apologizing profusely saying, "I'm so sorry I'm late!  The traffic/weather/parking lot was horrible!"  Followed by, "I'm so sorry to keep you waiting."

While this little voice in my head adds, But better you than me. 

AGH!!  SO. NOT. COOL. DUSTY!

So disrespectful!

So rude!!

My days of being late are over.  My new plan is to calculate exactly how long it will take me to get to there fifteen minutes early.  I will then embrace that damn waiting time iPhone time by checking my personal email, browsing my Google Reader, chatting with my friends, and Facebooking.  Fun things.  Things I want to do.  Things much better than waiting.  I'm going to be so early to meetings that I'll be oozing punctuality and respect.  People are going to think I was late for the last meeting I'll be so damn early for the next one. 

So there you have it.  That is my goal.  In 2011 I resolve to be on time.  Other goals for the year include running 400 miles, and finding more time for blogging, but I'm pretty sure the punctuality one will be my biggest challenge of the three.  I don't have an exact plan for how I'm going to determine whether or not I'm successful at this goal, but I'm pretty sure I can whip something up at my next red light.

Weekend Wear

One thing I've discovered since toting a toddler around town is that you don't want to overdress for it.  You can work up quite the sweat!  This was about a 30°F day which made long sleeves and a warm vest the perfect combination for an afternoon of running errands with Kate. 

Navy thermal tee:  Gap
Gray & white striped tee:  Gap
Faux fur vest:  Gap Outlet
Scarf:  New York & Company
Jean Leggings:  Gap
Boots:  Bear Paw
Tote:  Coach

Kate: 11 Months

Personalized onesie made by Amber from The Cotton Cupcake Shoppe!

It's almost the end of January and I realize I still haven't published Kate's 11 month post yet!  Luckily I take good notes on all her adventures so it's easy to remember the details.  One of the biggest changes we've seen in Kate this month is her increased desire and happiness to play independently.  She'll easily play for 20 minutes, 30 minutes--sometimes even an hour!--all on her own, just as happy as can be.  Of course G and I still hover in the wings, because even though she doesn't need us to entertain her, we still find watching her to be our favorite form of entertainment. 

Kate falls more and more in love with her books each month.  She has always loved being read to, but now she is starting to sit down and flip through her books on her own, babbling as she turns the pages and pretending to read.  She even knows to turn the book around if it's upside down!  She is so much fun to watch!  She enjoys her books more than her toys lately, so that's what we'll toss in the diaper bag for her to play with when we're out and about.  Here's a video of her "reading" in her carseat on our way home from lunch one day:



I mentioned last month that Kate lost a lot of her speech after her cleft palate repair, but I'm happy to say she's been quite the little chatterbox lately!  G and I have been so thrilled to hear her voice again.    She's also been giving the most glorious, slobbery open-mouthed kisses.  Oh it melts my heart!  I ask for "kisses please?" and usually she just moves her face a little closer to mine so I can give her a kiss, but sometimes she surprises me by attacking my face with that big slobbery open mouth--and she doesn't let up either!  She'll hold her little mouth--open as big as she can get it--on my cheek, nose, forehead, neck, etc. for as long as I let her, which is usually only a few seconds before I erupt into laughter and start smothering her in kisses instead.  She is so much fun! 

Another one of her fun things to do is "Sooo Big!" which her Grandma Pam and Grandpa Steve taught her.  We ask, "How big is Kate?" and she throws her arms up in the air as we reply, "SOOOOOO Big!"  She just loves the reaction it gets!




More big news this month is that Kate is getting more confident standing on her own, and her balance is getting much better.  She also had a big teething month and popped through her 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th tooth--four teeth all at the same time!  Those were not our favorite days, but thank goodness for bibs and teething rings!

Kate's 11 Month Stats

Bedtime: 6:30pm.  We had been trying to gradually push Kate's bedtime later to 7pm so we'd have more time with her in the evenings, but after a couple of weeks it became clear that she still needs her earlier bedtime.  Once we returned it to 6:30pm she began sleeping a lot better again.

Wake Up Time:  6:30/7:00am. 

Naps: Two naps per day for approximately 3 hours/day.

Bottles: We weaned Kate from her daytime bottles this month, which surprisingly was a piece of cake!  She's now down to just two 7.5oz bottles per day--one when she wakes up and one at bedtime. 

Meals/Solids: Breakfast at 8/8:15am, lunch at 12:00pm, and dinner at 5:15pm.  We also introduced snacks this month which replaced Kate's daytime bottles.  She now gets a snack when she wakes up from her morning nap, and another snack when she wakes from her afternoon nap.

New Foods:  Tomato, grapes, fish, cranberries, mandarin oranges.

Developmental Milestones & "Firsts":  First Christmas, and first New Year (although there was no way that little girl was staying up until midnight!).  She is standing on her own, and now has 8 teeth.

Favorite Toys:  Thanks to Christmas, Kate has lots of new favorite toys!  She loves her Chatter Cookie Monster and her Chatter Elmo (they both get big laughs!), her Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn Activity Table (the laptop is a big hit; she loves to open and close it), her Fisher-Price Learning Home that she got from Grandma and Grandpa, her B. Zany Zoo activity cube, and any book she can get her little hands on!

You Know You're Overwhelmed When...

...your upcoming vacation feels like just one more thing on your never ending to-do list. 

Happy Birthday Kate!



Personalized onesie made by Amber from The Cotton Cupcake Shoppe!

 
Today is Kate's 1st birthday and we have been having SO MUCH FUN celebrating!  I look forward to telling you more about her big day once I recover from all this planning, decorating, cooking, and cleaning--not to mention the hangover I'm sure to have as a result of too much champagne!  Until then, here's a slideshow I made highlighting photos from Kate's first year.  We watched it during her party and it was such a tearjerker looking back at how much she's grown during her first year! 

Happy birthday beautiful girl!

Kate's First Christmas

Despite both G and Kate being under the weather, Kate still had a really wonderful first Christmas.  We went to G's parent's house on Christmas Eve for their annual family get together, spent the night, and that's where Kate woke up on her very first Christmas morning!



Who needs Santa when you've got Daddy's wallet!





Admiring Grandma Pam's Christmas tree.



Back to our house for the rest of Christmas day...

Kate playing with her B. Zany Zoo Activity Cube.

Let's see what else is under this tree...

A Baby Signing Time video?  This is my favorite Christmas EVER!

My 2010 Resolutions

Happy New Year everyone! 

It feels a little bittersweet saying goodbye to 2010, which was without question the happiest, richest, fullest, hardest, best year of my life. 

While I wasn’t 100% successful in achieving all of my resolutions for 2010, I still think I did a pretty damn good job.  Let’s review:

Resolution #1:  Give birth to this baby.

Mission accomplished.

Resolution #2:  Survive the first year of parenting without making any major mistakes that would permanently scar our daughter for life, leading to her one day becoming a stripper, a contestant on a VH1 reality show, or a Republican.*

I’m considering this another resolution successfully accomplished.  We made it through our first year of parenting without any trips to the ER, divorce court, or rehab, and so far it looks like Kate is a well-adjusted soon-to-be toddler.  She fusses just enough when I try to undress her that I’m confident she prefers to keep her clothes on, and unless VH1 does a reality show related to Baby Signing Time or Elmo I don’t see her hitchhiking her way to L.A. anytime soon.

Politics have completely dropped from my radar since having Kate, but I did manage to catch President Obama’s speech on TV when he came to our city in the fall.  I turned on the TV while Kate was playing in the living room and she paid no attention to the rally…until Obama started speaking.  Once she heard his voice she stopped what she was doing and gave him her full attention.  I’m just sayin’…

Resolution #3:  Run 400 miles.

Yeah…that didn’t happen.

I only ran 174 miles in 2010—not even half of what I was shooting for. 

I could make about a million excuses as to why I fell short with this goal, but for the most part it boils down to this:  I refused to do anything that didn’t revolve around Kate during her awake time, and when she was asleep running wasn’t my top priority—it wasn’t even in my top 10. 

It would have been nice to meet this goal, but I don’t regret the choices I made to prioritize other areas in my life over it—most notably spending as much quality time with Kate as I could.  So what if I’m still a little flabby around the middle?  Kate’s first word was “Mama” and that makes it all worth it! 

How did you do with your 2010 Resolutions? 

*Apologies (again) to my Republican friends.