New Month's Resolutions: January

Happy New Year, friends! I am feeling lots of hope for 2016 -- what about you? Like last year, I am going to make attainable monthly resolutions rather than lofty year-long resolutions.

Before I get into my resolutions for January, I want to review 2015 a bit. That photo collage above is my year in review according to my phone (and a couple from friends' phones). Back in 2012, my Windows phone was considered a smart phone, but now that it's so old, it's a dumb phone. Anyway, it takes horrible pictures, so I hardly use it for that, but I did take some, so here goes:

2015 brought us lots of trips to IKEA (yay for cheap soft serve and kids eat free days), Hunter's first professional hair cut at Isaiah's barber shop (before and after), a pregnancy announcement, Montessori training, trips to the farmers' market, lots of trips to the park, lots of Hunter and Henry time, a trip to Sicily, a baseball game night with the family, many visits to the zoo, trips to the pool, summer preschool co-op, trolley rides, walks around the neighborhood, a kid-friendly wedding, pizza nights at Regents pizza (a treat after every prenatal appointment!), a new baby, brother-sister time, babywearing, and baby faces! It was a great year full of changes for our family. Hunter grew up a lot and seemed to become a chatterbox overnight. We made the most of our summer spending lots of time outdoors and giving Hunter lots of "only-child-for-now" time. Then we welcomed a precious baby girl, and now our family is complete. 

OK, so how did I do with my December 2015 resolutions?

Establish some new holiday traditions. Hunter and I decorated the tree together and made a gingerbread house on Christmas Eve. It was lovely!

Get into the spirit of the season. I think we did a great job with this one. We did almost everything on my list: see holiday lights (while drinking hot cocoa), take a photo with Santa, and visit the zoo at night. The only thing we didn't do was play in the snow, but there is still time for that.

Reflect on the year and finish Paloma's pregnancy book. Well, the reflection didn't happen in 2015, but it's here, so there. The other part of this goal I am moving to this month.

As for January 2016, here is what I plan to do:

1. Walk or do crunches (or both) daily. I really want to get out every morning after dropping Hunter off at school and take Paloma for a long walk. We both could use the fresh air, and I could use the exercise. It has been and will be rainy all this week, so we won't be going out, but instead I will do crunches or a yoga video or a Zumba video. The crunches are actually an order from my midwife -- something about a muscle needing to fuse back together postpartum, I didn't really pay attention to what she said, which brings me to my next goal... 

2. Listen better. This is pretty simple but important. I realize that I have missed many details because when someone is talking to me, my head is pretty cloudy. Some call it mommy-brain, but it's just a lack of focus. I will not multi-task while on the phone. If Hunter is talking to me, I will stop what I am doing, look him in the eyes, and give him my attention. When Isaiah is explaining one of his projects, I will really listen.

3. Finish Paloma's pregnancy book. It's just a couple of pages to write, but I really want to get it done.

So that's all for now. I really want to keep things simple so I can actually cross stuff off my list this year.

Here's to a great year!

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