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/

Admittedly, the “experiment” was more – look and see what this does. But the scientists were 3, so we let it slide a bit. We did these “experiments”…

- One that I didn’t know about at all, that was pretty cool was the color symphony in milk. Here is that picture.

- My favorite was making the “M” from M&M’s float – here is our picture.

- pan of baking soda and the kids added vinegar. The grown up scientists got vinegar with food coloring (no need to try out how well it stains)

- The at home lava in a cup (we used green food coloring), but I didn’t know this worked with just salt. I’d heard about using Alka Seltzer, but we didn’t have any on hand to try it out)

The one we didn’t try (didn’t have the right soap) is the exploding Ivory soap. We will be trying this out…

I would recommend these things to do for you, if you have young ones. Or if you are just around the kitchen table drinking with friends.

I am a big fan of list of 52 things to do (one per week for a year). My first addiction was 52 adventures (still linked to my blog roll even through 52 acts of kindness and now I find that it is back! Woot!)

Now I found a new one – 52 smiles. Similar to the idea of 52 acts of kindness, this one gives some focus to each week.

Do you have any “52″ ideas? All of this is leading toward my resolutions (still working on them)

As usual, mine will include weight loss (I am really tired of this one). To go with it is going to be leading a healthier lifestyle that will include moving and reaching other goals (similar to lazy man). Of course I will not forget the blog in this year’s list.

The ‘ole blog was getting dusty, so I am playing with it a little bit. I may even have more focus. I may even post with some regularity (no… that can’t be) The “focus” isn’t really all that new, but I am going to use the categories more (see links on top of the page). Let me know what you think.

Since your last birthday you’ve been having tea parties with your toys. This month you got to join Mommy for a real tea party. You were really excited at the idea of it, but when it came time to actually sit with adults, you found other things to do.

Your desire to have a birthday got stronger. We’ve been having a countdown of sorts for a while and finally the last birthday of your Godfather came and went and you knew that your birthday was next. Every day for two weeks we got a notice that your birthday was coming. I wondered what you expected to happen when you actually turned 3, but you certainly had big plans.

Developmentally, you are still really smart, a good thinker, potty training is going well (except that whole refusal to poop thing) and you still won’t eat. I am learning to embrace this until a doctor tells me otherwise. I promise it is better than before, but that is all I can promise.

Now – on to the Christmas season and you. First, you loved the “Aaa-bent calendar” (aka, advent calendar). Each day you would ask what number we are so you can open that drawer and find a chocolate treat. Each day I would explain who Santa was and how he was going to come visit if you were good. As the month went on, this got better. Eventually you were genuinely excited about his arrival. We made Christmas cookies with your friend and you decorated with about ½ a bottle of sprinkles per cookie. Later we made a gingerbread house and you were all too happy to put candy on the house with lots of icing (sampling a few along the way). It was a great looking house, but we made sure not to actually eat the slobbery side.

Much to my amazement, you actually took a picture with Santa on our first visit! OK – you took a little coaxing, but it was done on the first visit. I LOVE these pictures and will want one every year. I hope you continue to get more comfortable with it.

To continue to confuse Halloween and Christmas, we went to a costume party with our dear friends. You got to dress up as Tinkerbell again and I was a pirate. I was excited to be able to go as a matching costume, but you didn’t seem to get it. Eh, maybe next year.

Daddy and I went so far overboard with presents that we actually had more than enough for Christmas, your birthday. We have a few things reserved for future gift-giving occasions. The big hits for gifts this year were a huge doll house from Daddy and I and a princess doll that Santa got for you. You drag this poor doll around by her hair and all the old toys are new again by making them characters in the doll house.

Finally preparing for New Year’s and your birthday you were SOO excited that I don’t think you slept much.

You are finally three years old (big girl, dontcha know) and we love you more than anything in the world.

Love, Mommy

Dearest Bean,

This month you spent reinforcing to us that you loved Halloween. A small reason could be that you still had candy at the end of the month from your huge bounty on Halloween evening. This was proven by you still shouting “Happy Halloween” several weeks later. You made Mommy proud.

This month you have had great progress in potty training. You are spending several days a week at school without a diaper (except nap time). We are thrilled with this, but because you have this progress in the forefront of your mind and because you like to use these terms with great frequency. You love to talk about poop. All the time. Sometimes Pee is fun to talk about, but mainly poop. Not that you will do that for us at home on the potty. Ever. But apparently you do at school and all your friends are doing it (go peer pressure!) it is a topic to discuss all the time at home. You have proven that you have great control because when we try to catch you at a time we know you have to “go #2”, we take you to the potty and you will refuse to go. So much that you actually had a problem with constipation this month. NOW I get why prunes are such a popular food for toddlers… I never got why, now I do.

Also related to potty training, you are focused on your body parts. Particularly those people don’t discuss in mixed company. However, we refused to come up with fake names for the body parts. A vagina is a vagina, etc. You focus on it so much that sometimes it is confused with the state in which you live.  One morning you looked out your bedroom window and proudly said “I live in Vagina.” It is moments like this that remind me why sometimes the hardest part about being a parent is not to laugh. I failed at this task and you began to repeat it. Over and over again.

In other developmental news, you still love puzzles (always have). Daddy got you a regular puzzle (I think it was an 18 piece puzzle) and you mastered it after Daddy showed you how two pieces worked. You took a little time to figure it out, but it was mastered within an hour. Because of that, we found other puzzles for you that were designed for kids 4 or 5 or older and you figured them out. Of course WE know you are a genius, but it is nice to have this reinforced from time to time.

There is a great petting zoo nearby where we went to feed the animals. You fell in love with the overly friendly camel and thought the sheep and house cat were great. You were less than impressed with the albino wallaby – maybe later in life you will understand how unusual this is. You did squeal with glee when you were feeding anything that would actually eat out of your hand. Thankfully the animals were used to high pitch squealing (or are deaf) and they stuck around.

Thanksgiving came and our houseguests included a boy around age 6 who taught you how to play hide and seek. I think this was my favorite part of your learning. Since then, you have been playing with your dolls (I wonder how skilled they would be at finding if they could move on their own.) You did avoid eating (as usual), but overall it was a great dinner. On Black Friday you joined us for local festivities and you were so excited to see the Grinch! You were even willing to take a picture with him. Santa you won’t take a picture with, but the Grinch you will… hmm. I think you are my kid.

With Thanksgiving over, we decorated for Christmas. As we decorated, everything started to click. You were so excited for Christmas to come that it made Daddy and I so much more excited about Christmas with you.

We can’t wait for Christmas with you and so much more.

Much love,

Mommy