I will not forget about this one – we have a long history that I won’t give up. This blog will be the everything else blog it has always been, but the only kiddo related entries will be the letters to the bean. I have been trying to figure out how to focus my blog writing without giving up my dear sixofclubs – so had to jump on the band wagon.

Now you can read me over here too – NextMommyOfTheYear.com. It is a tongue-in-cheek title in which other Mommies and I know that we are doing the things we swore we would never do, fixing the mistakes of our parents and making all new ones. We may not be the Mommies of the year, but our kids are still happy and healthy – in spite of our best efforts.

It finally snowed outside this month. You have been very excited about making a snowman and finally it snowed enough to stick. It snowed overnight, so there were about 4 or 5 inches by morning. We got bundled up and ran outside. I was quite worried that this Mommy from the desert had a lack of snowman-making skills, but as it turns out, it was the “wrong kind of snow” – I am still not clear on what that means, but I couldn’t make the snow into a ball to even get started. Thankfully, you had a ball just knocking snow off everything and making snow angels.

You are having random memory recall now. For example, you (randomly) one day, recalled every detail of our experiment day in which we removed the M’s off of M&Ms. You said “We did a “speramint” (aka, experiment)! My friend shared his bike! I liked it!”

Your friends at school are a few months older than you, which means they are going to go to pre-school next year. But, in that cute way you have, you didn’t get the words quite right. You say: When I turn 4, I get to go to “pretty school” And when I turn 5, I get to go to “garden school”. I have been trying to find out what happens after that, but so far, you don’t have anything more to add.

The dirt from daycare continues. You have now started to fill your pockets with dirt and rocks. I cannot express to you how much I love this new habit (because I don’t). But, you play outside the way kids should and you come home happy and worn out. I can’t complain. (Don’t judge the dirty purple coat in the picture – I swear it gets clean regularly)

Potty training is going well. Still no “#2′s” at home, but all in all, going well. On the last day of this month, you even got yourself dressed. I picked out the clothes, but you took off your pajamas and dressed yourself – everything except the socks.

In the comments, post your answers and another good question.

1. What is your favorite word?

2. What is your least favorite word?

3. What turns you on?

4. What turns you off?

5. What sound do you love?

6. What sound do you hate?

7. What is your favorite curse word?

8. What profession other than yours would you like to attempt?

9. What profession would you not like to do

10. If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?

Which part of the brain most describes the toddler in your life?

OK, I am not really “old”, but I felt it after trying snowboarding last weekend. I took the lesson. I fell, then fell. Then fell. This continued for the length of the lesson. As a matter of fact, the only time I made it only 1/2 way down the lesson “slope” (aka, slight hill they teach toddlers to ski on) is when I was actually going backwards. I never did figure out how to turn around or really do anything other than fall. Four days later, I can walk up and down stairs without remembering every time I fell. The bruises are still there, but they are healing.

In all honesty, I did have fun. It was VERY hard and I gave up and switched to skis after my lesson. I was not about to spend the rest of the day trying to do something on my own that I could not do with professional supervision – except steeper hills. It was fun, and I will try it again. After I forget how many times I fell. OUCH!

3 years old is bringing out an attitude that I was expecting at 2. It’s as though the big hairy “terrible two’s” is to woo us into believing it isn’t that bad. Then three happens. All I have to say is WTF??

OK, it isn’t ALL bad. There is still a lot of great stuff, but this month the attitude has been a doozy.

To start this month, we started with your birthday. Because you are my girl (and I do love birthdays), you got two parties. The first with all of Daddy’s and my friends (and your friends too), then another with your friends. You got some great gifts that you love, but the biggest hit was a Princess dress up outfit (as seen in the photo). It comes complete with tiara, clip on earings, a “dress” (aka, skirt) and a purse to carry (what else?) cookies (plastic cookies that were not that interesting before, but now is the only thing to complete the princess ensemble). We have come to an agreement that you can wear it after you eat, and before you play with anything else that is sure to get all over it. This thing is not made well, not sure how many trips through the wash it can handle. I appreciate your cooperation in keeping it as clean as possible.

The next biggest topic for this month is that poop is an issue for you. There is some block in your brain that refuses to let you poop in the potty. You will only do it with a diaper. Even worse, this was a challenge for a while also. There was a period of a couple of weeks in which you didn’t want to poop in the potty, so you just went on strike from pooping. At all. Of course that didn’t end well. Daddy and I spent those two weeks trying to convince you to eat the natural laxative foods. Convince a kid who won’t eat much of anything at all. That also didn’t end well.

Finally, we got to the point where you would poop with regularity, but still refused to go in the potty. So we thought. It seems the at home potty is problematic, but the one at school is totally fine and you poop there all the time. I ask again, WTF?? We are stumped about how to handle this one, since trying to convince you ends in pooping strike, so if you could just fill us in on the problem, that would be great.

Speaking of the digestive system – you are eating! Not a ton, but with regularity. I will choose to ignore the fact that when I stopped obsessing over your food intake (because doc said you are on track and growing perfectly), you started eating as I expect a 3-year-old kid to eat. Instead, I am going to credit our superior parenting skills. (go with it, it is better that way.)

I was also really hoping that you would give up the binky. Daddy and I have discussed various methods of getting you to give it up with the lowest amount of drama. You only get it in bed and to date it isn’t effecting your teeth – but I now wish I made you give it up at 1 like the doc suggested. This is going to be much harder than I planned. The plan we developed is that you can exchange the binky (which babies get) for freedom (we will remove the baby gate from your door while you are in there). You are VERY excited at the prospect of being able to come into our room any time you want – but not excited enough to give up the binky. We are even using peer pressure against you. We know which of your friends have given it up and remind you of this at every opportunity. When you are a teen, I will appreciate your lack of willingness to bend to peer pressure, but for now, it isn’t working for me. If you have any tips, that would be grand. I am not against bribery with M&M’s.

Back to bragging. This month there were HUGE strides in your writing/coloring. You can color a picture in the lines (when you choose to – which is not always the case) and you can write the first 3 letters of your name and the last several. You can read 6 “sight words” in addition to recognizing your name, Mommy and Daddy. You can type your name (when we let you touch the computer) and I am certain you are a genius! You also drew a picture of Daddy. It had a circle for his head, eyes – something like a nose, and something like a beard. Not only a genius, but an artist – I am so proud!

On weekend mornings, you are usually found making breakfast with Daddy. Two weeks ago, you measured all the dry ingredients of pancakes by yourself. Your favorite activity is still swinging  and you will swing for as long as someone will push you. I look forward to the time when you will be able to swing on your own.

This month had a lot in it. Daddy and I love you more than you know and we wish you the best. If you can help us out a little in the attitude and pooping departments, that would be great.

Love, Mommy

If you are not already aware, I don’t like beer. I could be more precise with reasoning, but it doesn’t change that fact.

However, I married a brewer. A pretty good brewer (according to the public and actual critics). So whe he opens his brewery, I would like to have a beer at his opening (without the “eww” face). To do this, I had to find the gateway into craft brewing. For me, it was Woodchuck Hard cider, spring release. It tastes like a pancake in a bottle.

I am still working on finding a beer I can drink with regularity… but I have cider to keep me entertained on the journey.

I would love to attribute it to something better than “Facebook” – but no idea where it started. I thank you, whomever you are.

Miscellaneous Resolutions

• Volunteer 100 hours (hopefully some w/ the kiddo)
• Try 10 new fruits
• Bake 10 new recipes
• Blog more regularly. This will happen and in the next month I should have more focus to the blog and moving in that direction.
• Read 6 books: This may not sound like much to you, but last year I joined a book club to make sure I would read and I thought I’d read all 12 books. I read 4 books. I still have the same book club and have upped my number, but I am a realist. So far, one down; the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Under the “Healthy Resolution” category, I have…
Along the lines of the Lazy man, I am going to take a year to…

• Walk/Run 100 miles (including actually running the 4 miler)
• Bike 200 miles
• Swim 20 hours
• Losing weight (my resolution nemesis)

Card Worthy
When I was writing my Christmas letter last year, I realized that I didn’t do much that really rated telling people about in the Christmas letter. This category is dedicated to having something good to write about “Card worthy”. To do this, I resolve to take 12 trips to do something exciting and fun. Even just something new – as long as it is “card worthy”. If one trip encompasses many things, it will only count as one. This will force me (I hope) to actually get out there and live life. Some things I have in mind for this are…

• Going to West VA Gorge and explore the place I’ve been thinking about for 5 or 6 years
• Ski black diamond (life list item)
• Beach trip in which we rent a house. While there, I want to take surfing lessons (life list item)

What goals do you have for this year?

Last years resolutions: Check (mostly)

• I lost some weight, but really… it was negligible.
• I found a job that I love
• I cleaned most of the closets, but the undone room is still undone.
• I kept up with getting rid of things and we now have less stuff (except kid stuff – big pile, but waiting to see what friends want)
• I got air conditioning in the house!
• I took a vacation and I took Bean to the beach
• I even ate more fun fruit and and kept up with writing it.

I kept up with other mini-life lists as well.

• Complete a lazy-man: I lost track of this. I probably hit the run/walk and swimming, but I didn’t come close to the biking… trying again.

• Volunteer for 200 hours in a year: Again, I lost track, but pretty sure I got this one.

• Try something new every week until the end of the year. I didn’t keep track, but if I count all the weeks and all the new things and average it, probably. I definitely didn’t do something new EVERY week.

• Make an entire week’s dinner in a day (and actually eat the dinners): CHECK! I have some this a few times and LOVE it.

• Bake 10 new recipes (I only did 10 because there are only 17 weeks left in the year) Well over. Found new favorites, too!

• Reduce my wardrobe to ½ its current size (Yes, finally get rid of the clothes I swear I will wear, but never do.) I reduced, but not by 1/2. Will keep up with this as well.

http://sixofclubs.net/2011/01/03/resolve-isnt-that-a-stain-fighter/