Happy New Year

Wow, when I went to write that title it already knew what I was going to write (guess I haven't gotten any more original since last year).

Well, Happy New Year to everyone, may you keep some of your resolutions (maybe not all, but hey, put some easy ones on the list too).

My resolutions:

* Enjoy my daughter every day
* Remember to tell my husband how much I love him constantly
* Spend more time with my dad before we lose him
* Start our plans for remodeling of our new house (get at least one room done)
* Go out to more parties with friends

and the ever famous theme:
* Lose all the weight I gained while pregnant

Still kickin'

Left for San Francisco on the 20th and just made it through the Christmas festivities in one piece.

Got to catch up on some work and will be back to record all the fun stuff for posterity. Our horse and carriage ride, my daughter's amazing haul of goodies (glad I cleaned up just before), the insane amount of food I ate (how I blew my diet by gaining back 5 pounds of the 25 I lost), our family party, our separate friends party and why though I haven't gone grocery shopping for two weeks I have enough food to feed us for the week.

Some great talent

We successfully donated toys

My car was packed full of bags and boxes of toys and clothes (some of my clothes too). Some items I saw in the garage and knew I would never need. A few things that I passed in the house and realized I didn't have any good reason to keep and so on.

We then drove to goodwill and gave it all to them. They were very happy and graciously took everything (though I don't know if they will actually want all of it).

I feel a little proud in that this is the first time I have dropped off an entire car load (and this is an SUV we are talking about - something else I have considered changing for environmental reason, though I love the car) to charity.

MLO hasn't missed anything as she still has more toys around than she could possibly play with. I did hide a few more toys thinking that we can either "discover" them later or maybe they will end up in the next car load.

Another good indicator, I haven't missed anything I sent away yet either.

Presents under the tree

Last year every single present under the tree was pulled out by MLO and she stood on them (as soon as I figured this out, had to pull out some that this wouldn't work with).

So I was a little worried what she was going to do this year with them.

We wrapped a bunch of presents (none for MLO, those are still hiding) and put them under the tree while she wasn't home.

She came home and saw them and yelled, "presents!" Grabbed the closest one, took it to our coffee table and tried to open it. I had to take it away and explain that the present wasn't for her, she would get hers later.

The next day she saw the presents, went running over and I was prepared to wrestle them away. She stopped, touched one of the presents, looked at me and said:

"Present?"

I nodded.

"Not for me?"

I nodded. She nodded back, smiled and walked around the tree looking at all of them.

Though the same drill is repeated occasionally, all presents are now safely sitting under the tree.

I don't need to cry

So we are going through the phase of MLO pushing the envelope to see what she can get away with and what method makes it so she can get away with more.

I have been just trying to talk her out of it (though she did get a time-out once) and have told more than once that she doesn't need to cry when she wants something, just needs to ask.

Well guess what her new favorite phrase is (title of the post might have given it away): "Mommy, I don't need to cry, can I have..." fill in the end with all sort of things.

Funny thing is we haven't had any sign of tantrums in awhile. She cries when something happens and she is tired or hungry, but otherwise she is back to being an angel.

And I always tell her she is absolutely right, she doesn't need to cry.

Cleaning out the toys

In preparation for the Xmas haul I have decided to handle old toys and clothes.

This means confronting those bags of clothes I have been storing. There are some items I will want to keep for future babies or because of sentimental reasons, but now would be a good time to turn them into a charity as well.

This also means deciding which toys she won't really miss (or the ones that drive me the most crazy) and donate those as well. MLO isn't rough on her toys so they are all in good condition to donate.

Because come Christmas, her room will get all filled up again.

MLO did something really cute

She did, just the other day, we were all in the car and it made us all laugh.

Problem is, I didn't take a note or anything and I can't remember what it was.

What is worse, hubby said we needed to write these things down and I reminded him of my blog and said I would put it in here.

I am thinking and thinking and my eyes are crossed and my nose is all wrinkled up and I can't remember.

So sorry :(

Happy Hanukkah

Christmas lights

MLO loves the Christmas lights, she wants to go out walking every night to see them.

A neighbor of grandma's has a HUGE display with airplanes, trains, Santa sleigh, deer, and so much more. MLO loves going out and seeing that one whenever we are at her house. She is very respectful of other people's lawns though and we just had to tell her once that we couldn't go touch them she was fine with pointing them out over and over again.

I put up my decorations last weekend and she has to go touch all of them when we come home. I have two light up Christmas trees and about ten red candy canes along our walk way that she love to run up and down hitting each one.

Her favorite is the snowman who she says has stars in his belly (the way the lights shine through the plastic when you are close to it looks like stars). It is the last one she visits and she can sit by the snowman forever. I eventually have to trick her into coming into the house.

My husbands family is Jewish so we are also doing Hanukkah stuff, my family does Christmas, so our house is an interesting mixture of both traditions.

I love Christmas, mostly because of how it changes so many people into much more kind and loving beings. I love the smiles and the warmth the season brings and how much people give and treat each other with respect.

You are so cute

I have said this to MLO a few times, but she is now saying it to me.

Last night she came running over to me and gave me a big hug and said, "You are so cute."

I laughed and said "I love you", she let go smiled at me and said, "you love me".

I am loving this age and how she keeps learning so many things, especially the cute things!

Favorite bed-time book

MLO has acquired a favorite bed-time book, it is One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.

This means I have read it to her every night over the last month. I tried hiding it but she would just reject every book I offered and state "fish book". So I would finally pull it out and read it again so that she would go to sleep.

I am really starting to hate fish.