The 2008 Resolutions

“Another year, another chance”. That was the saying I saw written on a church’s message board when I was driving last week. I thought that was a really good way to look at the new year – another chance for me to be my best and make it a great year.

Here are some of my resolutions:

1. Quit obsessing about how much weight I need to loose.
2. Loose the last 10 pounds by April 1.
DAMN IT – See #1
3. Be outside more and inside less.

4. Blog at least once a week (I would say twice, but I don't think that's going to happen).

5. Stay in better contact with friends and family members through phone calls and e-mail.

Ellie’s resolutions are:

1. Quit getting upset when mom leaves the room.
2. Learn to crawl.
3. Willfully eat solid foods.
4. Sleep through the night – every night.
5. Learn to swim…

And that’s what she did this weekend! Ellie can check off Resolution #5 because she had her first swimming lesson on Saturday and loved it. I thought she might like the water because she has so much fun splashing during her bath, and I was right. She kicked and splashed around and even stuck her face in the water by herself three times. I don’t know if she meant to do it, but she didn’t mind it. At the end of the lesson, the instructor told me she thought Ellie had done well enough for me to dunk her. So I did and she didn’t cry at all. I think she was a little shocked, but she was back to smiling in a few seconds. The best part about swimming is that Ellie went home and took a two hour nap. We’ll be continuing lessons through February. I think it's really important to introduce kids to the water early so they don't freak out later.

While Ellie napped, I boxed up all of our Christmas decorations and then I made good on my Resolution #3 by taking Ellie outside to play in the yard because the weather was so nice this weekend. She’s constantly grabbing the leaves and grass and shoving them in her mouth so I have to watch that. When Lee got home from working, we went on a long walk. She’s thisclose to crawling. She’s scooting around, but just can’t coordinate her arm and leg movement. Other big news is she’s officially cutting her first tooth. It’s on the bottom left side. She’s drooling all over herself and will chew on anything you give her. She didn’t have anything to chew on during her walk on Saturday so she took off her sock and gnawed that. It stayed really nice on Sunday so took a picnic lunch to the park.

She was getting a little spoiled (I know – spoiled? Ellie? Never) at bedtime because I was getting her to go to sleep before I put her in the crib. If she would wake up, I would pick her up and rock her back to sleep. After I did that for an hour one night, I told myself things were going to have to change. So now if she wakes up when I’m putting her down, she’s has to get herself back to sleep. Last night that took about 30 minutes. I go in and pat her and tell her it’s okay at 15 minute intervals, but I hate hearing her cry so we just turn up the TV. Just kidding. She also woke up twice last night, but got herself back to sleep both times and we didn't have to go in there. I think some of that may be her teething because I had to give her some Tylenol on Friday night to get her back to sleep. But the way... as you can see on the right, Ellie can hold her own bottle now. Holding her own bottle + drinking formula = very happy mommy.

Ellie actually is doing a little better with the solids and ate about ½ jar of peas and ½ jar of bananas on Sunday. My hope that she does continually better on her Resolution #3 and we have less faces like this when she eats:

By the way, my friend Whitney just started her own blog, so send her some love!