New Years Resolution to Swim in the Water and not Drown

So it is the New Year and typically I do not set New Year's Resolutions, personally I don't like them. One of the reasons that I don't like them is that every year when I started high school swimming season they asked us to write our goals for the season. I viewed this as the same thing as a New Years goals. We had to put a time on it for a particular event, etc. I hated that. I don't know why because quite honestly I never had a huge committment to my highschool team as I also swam for a YMCA team almost year round and a summer team. Perhaps I was bitter about it because I don't think I enjoyed the highschool team. Practice was at 5 am, yes that is right. Getting up at 5 am in highschool isn't exactly what I considered fun. Luckily since I also swam for another team, I only had to go 1 or 2x a week. But swimming is what I did and I did/do love it, just not that particular team. In anycase I also became a little more ticked off when they gave us our little pieces of paper to write our goals down and 90% of the swimmers started writing immediately. I always, thought, what the heck?? Have they thought about this all day. Of course I did always enjoy the random person near me who quickly wrote swim in the water and not drown.

So I have thought about it and I think that one of my goals is going to be to Swim in the Water and not Drown. It has alot of meaning if you think about it. Basically I am viewing it as getting through life day by day and not letting the little (or big) things get you down. My husband needs to think about that perhaps, okay alot of people need to work on that. It isn't easy. Right now I am dealing with an unknown that I am trying to just relax about and not let me get it down. My school, okay only my wing, has been severely damaged by a water pipe that burst. We are off next week and the damage to my materials is unknown at this time. I know some of the things are lost, I know that some of the materials that I have created in the past are destroyed. Nothing I can do about it. I also know that my classroom was the least damaged in that hallway so I am glad about that. I know that getting things back together is going to be hard. I also know that I may not have any days off the rest of the year, again nothing I can do. So I will wait and see.

Okay so typically I should tell you that if someone asks me for New Years Resolutions I give the following type of responses-

Eat less chocolate
Eat healthy
Exercise alot
Drink less beer

Okay, sounds reasonable except the humor in this is that I don't like chocolate, I am a health nut, I am a marathon team coach, and I hate beer with a passion.

So here we go with some New Year's plans- I say plans and not goals because I am not going to stress if these things don't happen.

Update my blog more frequently
Watch Less TV (which I am proud of the fact that I have been doing this for awhile)
Take 30 min. for myself daily
Use my crockpot at least 5x a month
Buy new black shoes- I should take a picture and you will understand, I hate buying shoes
Spend 1 day a week staying late at work so that I don't have to bring work home
Spend less on Groceries
Exercise more- okay, I do exercise but not as much as I used to and I miss it
Praise my dear hubby more
Go on 12 dates with my hubby without Celia, can be at home when she is asleep or out
Complete 1 home repair a month

So leave some comments about your New Year's Resolutions.

A Year in Review

January

We celebrated Granny's birthday and you started sitting in your big girl booster chair. We started cloth diapering this month, yeah!! No more red bum for little Celia!

February

We went to visit Emmett and Katie for their birthdays. We also cheered Mom Mom up after her knee replacement surgery.

March

We celebrated St. Patty's day with no heat! It was fixed fast enough but it was a chilly St. Patty's day. You started really loving our library storytime! Oh and guess who crawled and is crusing along the furniture??

April
You wore the sweetest pink velveteen dress and white knit stockings. Remember those stockings. You started getting very, very, silly this month and it was super cute. The baby monitor was your favorite thing.

May
Beautiful Mother's day pictures. We are having fun with our small playgroup and still enjoying our friends at the breastfeeding group.

June

We went on vacation and you saw the beach for the first time!! Oh.. and Mommy started a blog!! Your favorite thing in the world was your little green ball.

July

Brush, brush, brushes... We thought that we kept losing your brushes. However little Miss smarty pants pulled out three from a hiding space when Mommy was searching and searching for one of your brushes. Little Miss Celia has become very, very chatty. She has perfected apple, da da, and ma ma. She is signing away too. Guess who has two new teeth?? You and not a peep of complaining.

August

Guess whose walking??? That's right you are little girl. You would have been walking much earlier if you hadn't been a scaredy cat. Mommy and Daddy both caught you taking steps but you didn't want to show off until August. It only took you a few days and you were off. Mommy was so thankful for that as she returned to work at the end of this month, big sob. You got your first illness, from Mommy, on her second day of work- the stomach bug... Ugh, Mommy felt so sorry for you and all she wanted to do was cuddle all day long but she had to go to work. So Mom Mom took over. Oh 2 more teeth little one without a complaint again.

September

You started daycare and boy do you love it!! You were a Chatty Cathy prior to going daycare but your language just takes off. You have your own little friends- Olivia (Ahh!! is what you call her), Mae Mae, and Addy in your class. Mommy thinks that her students are going to kill her but she is happy that you enjoy school. The teeth keep coming and you are still an amazing teether.

October

Halloween. Boy did you like going house to house with your little trick or treat bag. Well daycare has been great for you but you have been sick. Not primarily from daycare, but from Mommy bringing germs home from work. No new teeth, you get a little break!

November

Mom Mom gave you a new (to you) coat and Mommy got you a new hat. You are so, so into shoes now. "Shoe shoes" is what you say when you see them and you insist upon wearing them all around the house. Your feet are still tiny (the size of a 9 month old) but growing slowly. You are 21 lbs and 29 inches- 15% for both.

December

Goodbye 2008. We had a great Christmas in Lancaster but we missed Granny. You especialy loved the stroller and cabbage patch doll that Grandpa and Grandma gave you. We then went down to Virginia to see Aunt Vickie, Uncle Jack, Katie, Emmett and your favorite- Mom Mom. There are not many people that you prefer over Mommy however the entire time it was not "Mommy" that you called, it was "Mom Mom" actualy you yelled "Ma Ma" for her. You were not too fond of her cat Thomas but when you saw him you said "Meow". Your language is so amazing, over 40 words. You dance and chant "Hey Celia" which cracks us up. You have said some sentences "I see Celia" and "I see a dog". Oh and also you are saying "Oh shit"... Really you are and we are not proud, perhaps that is another blog post. You know most animal sounds and are eager to show them off!! You love to give hugs and blow kisses. You love your books, especialy "No David". You are such a big girl that we gave up sippy cups this month, now we are moving on to straw cups. Oh and remember those stockings?? Remember them, the ones you wore when you were 4 and 6 months, they still fit... Your short little one! Oh well I love you tiny, I wish you would stay there forever. Mommy is back to thinking that her students might still do her in, but she thinks they are alot of fun too!!

So that is that, Celia's year in review.

Some Prayer/Thought requests

Sweet Granny

A Friend who lost her Mother

A family who is dealing with a 2nd child who has cancer- a 10% survival rate

Baby Stellan who is doing better but still needs some thoughts

My students' parents when I tell them that we have no school next week due to a massive water pipe bursting.

Pete who doesn't believe he is getting up tomorrow with Celia while I sleep in for the first time in months, changing her poopy diaper, and feeding her breakfast.

Christmas

As you can see from the picture, getting a Christmas photo from Celia was very interesting. It took awhile and she was very funny with the whole process. At one point I gave her a Christmas book to hold, I thought that would look nice in a photo. Well she really got into the book, so much so that I couldn't see her face! She had fun hanging upside down, climbing, lifting her dress... I had to edit the final photo because there was a spray of spit coming out because she was making some wild noise. My daughter is hilarious.

This is such a change from last year. Celia is able to help (okay slightly) with making ornaments and cookies. We had a great time with her friend Amber, making ornaments. Celia got a bit tired of it quickly but entertained us with her loud talking and feet propped up on the table.

So I follow alot of blogs, it is my entertainment. Well I came across a recent story that is heartbreaking and the family certainly needs some prayers.

Here is the link http://www.maxeyweb.com/

Basically this family lost their baby girl to cancer, she had two different types of tumors. They had another baby girl and were living their life, likely thinking that there is a slim chance that they will have to go through something like that again. Well sadly their 2 month old baby girl was just found to have a brain tumor and a spinal tumor. The chances of this occuring in two family members is unheard of. Luckily they were able to remove most of the brain tumor but their still remains the spinal tumor and a long road ahead.

I have added some new blog links, check them out. I will write more later. I have done some holiday baking and gift wrapping this weekend. I am wiped. Two days of work remain before Christmas break and I am so ready.

Thankful

My family has so many things to be thankful for, really. In this horrible economy, we both have jobs that pay the bills. We can afford a sweet daycare in which everyone genuinely loves our little girl. Our little girl loves that daycare so very much that she looks out the window and asks "school?". She doesn't want to go home on some days!! Not only that but I know that I can give some credit to daycare for her advanced vocabulary and social skills.

We are healthy, goodness I want to say knock on wood. But the truth is that besides catching little colds, stomach bugs, etc. we are healthy. We have a cozy home with heat and water. We are doing fine. As of next week we will also have someone who cleans our house once a month. I feel frivolous for this but it will give me a week (okay maybe 2 if I can stretch it) of relaxing about cleaning. Pete doesn't understand why we need one. Okay we don't need one, I want one. I want to have a week in which I can cuddle Celia and play with her in the afternoons and not have this nagging feeling that I really should be doing something around the house.

We have a wonderful extended family that we don't get to see enough but we at least get to spend the holidays with them. My Mom has been so amazing since Celia has been born, we literaly would not have survived without her. She has been helping with Thanksgiving prep this year and with Celia. Not only that but she is giving Celia her Christmas gifts now so that she can watch her play with them. That is so sweet. Celia loves the gifts but really she just wants "Mom Mom" and she is satisfied. Pete's family (sadly his sister has to work) will be joining us for the feast tomorrow.

Celia had her Thanksgiving holiday show today and my Mom was able to go and see it. Celia was a chef and had a little shirt on that said "Kiss the cook". She sat in one of the buggies but my Mom said that she really would have liked to have been able to dance and join the older kids.

Okay well Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Anyone up for Black Friday shopping? Mom and I are off for some shopping on Friday, Celia is staying with Pete this year. Last year she was comfy in my Moby wrap while we shopped. Last year I was getting up at least 3x a night to nurse her for an hour each time!! I watched so much Fresh Prince of Bel Air... It is on at any hour of the night.

MENSA

The MENSA logo is on because I know that my daughter could be a member, she really could. However I don't believe in those sort of things so we will not be testing her at this time. So why do I think Celia should be in MENSA.

Well the following things.

She has an expanding vocabulary that includes the words- school, daddy, mommy, car, snack, splash, good girl (the phrase), Milo (My oh is her lovey that she sleeps with), Shoes, Shit, baby, Mom Mom, awe, up, diaper (diappy).

There are probably somemore.

Oh wait you noticed the 4 letter word she says, that will be explained later.

Okay well the biggest clue to how smart she is came this evening while we were reading one of her books. Celia pointed to a frog and I said, "Oh you see the froggy". Then I said "I see the ducky" and Celia put her finger on the duck. I said "I see David" and Celia put her finger on David. I then said "I see the froggy" and she put her finger on the frog. My daughter is a genius. She has even stopped eating my hair (okay she has cut back, but my hair is tasty).

We also played again today with a small squirt bottle. She tried to stick it in my mouth like I was a baby. So I started to cry. Everytime I cried she put it in my mouth. Now she could have just wanted to shut me up but she followed it once with a hug and an "awe" so I am thinking she was playing along. Now granted after the hug she basically lost interest in feeding me and insisted upon "na" or nursing.

Okay back to the shit. Yes my daughter said shit today, it was clear and it was my fault. Celia smashed sweet potatoes and a quesadilla together then dropped multiple pieces on the floor. I said "shit" because it was quite the mess. She then dropped one more piece and said "shit", then smiled. Nice, real, nice. The word wasn't repeated the rest of the evening. Since my Mom has a habit of saying "oh shit", I am blaming the situation on her. I blame it on her simply because I heard it so much growing up because she primarily said it when we were lost and well if you know me, you can guess that we were always lost.. So "oh shit" is drilled in my head that shit comes out easily. And of course the mother is always blamed...

Celia did talk to Mom Mom on the phone today. She was quite a chatterbox today after school. She talked to daddy and said Da Da and she said "ma ma" for Mom Mom.

My classroom is still about the same. Things are likely getting better but between the dragging kids by their feet to the bathroom, learning puppetry to gain their attention, and being the entertainment of the cafeteria I am exhausted. But... I am having fun. I like the group despite their craziness. It is an adventure. I will survive the year, beyond that I am not sure. Celia loves daycare so I go through the day with a very good feeling because she would actualy prefer to be then anywhere else on somedays (honestly!!). If she would only nap longer for them situation would be perfect.

Another year

So that is what I was doing this time last year. I think if I remember correctly that I ate my birthday meal either with Celia nursing or somehow she was attached to me. I do remember that I was either camped out on my bed or on the couch because Celia really would only sleep on someone and when she wasn't sleeping she wanted to be held. So now, a year later... Okay, she is still nursing when she can and she still would rather be in my arms then anywhere else. I was told by many people, enjoy it now because when she is walking she won't want to be held. Hmm... still waiting for that... She has been walking for awhile now and there are times where I think Celia wants to permanently glue herself to me so I can't possibly put her down. Thank goodness for my Ergo Carrier and the Moby Wrap. I retired the Moby over the summer but now that it is getting Chilly I think it needs to come out again! As for sleeping.. It took her awhile, a long while, but she is taking naps and has been since she was 8 months old. Thank goodness. She has even been better about naps at daycare even though I think she is the only one that takes a morning nap.
Life does change so much in a year. Since I have been back to work, my year off seems like a complete blur. The lifestyle is so different. I can't say that staying at home was easier. My life now is more stressful and rushed but it is so different. I think that staying at home is more difficult because there are no breaks. I get to go to the bathroom now by myself (that is while I am at work and when I can sneak out to go to the bathroom) and I get to take my 20 min. lunch by myself. My students are exhausting, oh my goodness are they exhausting!! But at the same point I haven't had this much fun with students in awhile.
Celia continues to love school. In fact she cries when she has to leave. That makes Pete and I feel so loved!! But the situation has made it so that I don't really worry at all about Celia while I am at work. I know that she is having a great time and she is learning things.
So I had a plan at the beginning of the school year that if I wasn't happy by the end of October that I would give my 60 day notice. I think that I will stick it out for the school year. We need the money and once I sort through all of the paperwork and get my classroom fully organized, things should be a little easier. Oh and if I can turn Pete into a cleaning machine that would help. Anybody know the name of a good hypnotist for that???

Sick Sick Sick

Okay so we knew that daycare would cause Celia to become sick more often and we knew that I would start to get sick more often but who knew it would happen at the same time. Oh and who know that I would be the one to get Celia sick and not daycare!! A student of mine started with this horrible cold at the end of last week, then another started getting a runny nose, then... You get the picture. So I wasn't suprised when Wednesday I had a little tickle in my throat that turned into a knife in my throat by the evening. I am glad though that it explained why on Tuesday even though I got a great night's sleep that I felt like a complete zombie.
In anycase Wednesday when Celia came home from daycare she fell asleep while nursing and couldn't be woken up. She just didn't want to and wasn't going to be disturbed. So she slept for about 45 min. and I figured it was because she didn't sleep well at daycare. That night she woke up with a very stuffy nose and by morning she had a slight fever and a very stuffy nose but was in a playful mood. So we did what great parents do, we pumped her with tylenol and sent her to daycare. Okay, okay... she was fine- dancing, playing, eating just had a 100.8 temp which is low for a baby. I had a temp of 101 and I went to work. We weren't totally awful, as I was not feeling perky at all I volunteered to be the one to take a half day. So I picked her up at noon and she was playing. She took almost a 3 hr. nap and seemed fine when she woke up except was totally pissed off at her nose (because it was so stuffy). By evening she had a 102 temp and was dragging, as was I. This cold totally sucks... no actualy it doesn't suck anything it totally does the opposite, clogs you up. I felt like someone had beat me up so I can't imagine how Celia felt. We both went to bed and woke up feeling much better except that we still have colds. Celia's fever returned this evening but just low grade for her. Pete took a half day and stayed home with Celia. So Celia got a good nap in at least.
We did decide to infect the neighbors this evening. We just thought, what would make a good birthday present for their 7 year old?? Okay, we didn't touch anyone and we tried to stay away. It is Celia's buddy Amber's birthday party so we took her gift over, visited for about 20 min. and then left Pete there. Pete had fun. Celia absolutely loves Amber. Amber came over one afternoon to deliver a package and Celia went up to her, I think gave her a hug if I remember correctly, then waved goodbye to me and was going to take off with Amber. Celia does frequently give and accept hugs from her buddy.
So what is Celia doing new?
Well her 1 year old check up stats are : 18 lbs (almost 19), 28 1/2 inches
She is making the fire engine sounds for her fire truck car
Her book of wisdom still remains a favorite toy
She loves, loves, loves clothes. No not to put on, to hold, lay on top of things, babble to, etc. I think they were her favorite birthday gift.
She has made friends at daycare, including her teacher. In fact in the morning she gets very excited when she is told it is time to go to school!


Oh and a side note. I have a friend at work that just found out today that she is not pregnant. Okay, that is sad, but in her case it is so sad. She had talked to me about her own infertility journey and it was certainly longer then my own. They have been trying for 4 years, exhausted finances, exhausted her physically, and exhausted her completely emotionally. She tried IVF a few weeks ago and was hopeful that it worked. She and I talked, I shared my symptoms of hyperstimulation and my short infertility journey. I was so hopeful for her. In anycase when she told me I started to cry, I stopped myself, but it surprised me because I am not an emotional person. She of course said that she didn't have anymore tears left and I don't know how she has gone on for 4 years. But looking on the upside, they are going to adopt. They have already gone through the process, classes, home visit etc.. Now they are on a new journey. No matter if you struggle for a month or many years, infertility is the most frustrating and emotional draining experience. In anycase, I am keeping her in my thoughts. It also really confirms my desires that we don't have to go through that the second time around whenever we decide that time is.