Monday

New Year's Resolution

I haven't decided yet what my new year's resolution will be. I have only followed through with one resolution in my life - to stop drinking soda. That was way back when in Jan. 2011. I didn't specifically mention it in that post, but part of my cutting back processed foods was to stop drinking soda. I did not learn how to shoot a gun (still haven't).

For this year, I'm debating between the top two (I'm guessing) of all time resolutions: lose weight and clean up financially.

Obviously, I need to lose some weight - still carrying around 20lbs extra from my pre-baby weight. But I need to make a resolution with something tangible. Like lose 10lbs by March 1. Or no more sweets, but I know that's not something I can live with forever. Heck, I'm constantly pinning cupcake ideas right now for the baby's first birthday party!

The other one is more of a challenge. Our financial situation is about to get ugly when my husband's unemployment benefit runs out. So I'm not sure what my resolution will be. Maybe keep a zero balance on the credit card, no matter what. Or save a certain amount every month. No eating out for lunch - which would probably help both of these initiatives.

What is your resolution?

Thursday

11 months and our dog is a butthead

Whoops! I didn't post in an entire month. What can I say? The holidays and end-of-the-year projects took over my life.



Tomorrow, my little guy will be 11 months old. We are already planning his first birthday party - CRAZY. This year has been insane. I posted it on facebook a while back that this year has been simultaneously the best and worst year of my life. Obviously the best for the blessing of my healthy, happy baby boy. The worst because of my back and all the struggles that have come with a ruptured disc, surgery and slow recovery.

I still haven't fully recovered but found out in early December that I will not be having surgery again soon unless something drastic changes in my situation. I still have some random pains every day, but my neurosurgeon wants to hold off on surgery again unless I'm in constant pain. I see him again at the end of January so hopefully he will give me the freedom to pick up my hunk of a son again. It will have been five months of his 12-month life at that point that I have not been left alone with him.

About him - he's walking like crazy now and starting to almost run. He'll take about 4 or 5 quick steps and then trip. He's getting bumps and bruises like nobody's business. At paw-paw's house he smacked into a large flower pot that gave him a pretty good knot/bruise over Christmas and also had a scratch on his nose - those made for some nice photos. :)

He's still sleeping through the night from about 830pm-7am and takes at least one nap a day. Sometimes two if we are lucky. He pretty much refuses to eat any veggies but does like green beans from a can and still loves any fruit or meat (except pot roast...) including fish. He is transitioning to 18-mo pants and has been wearing 18-mo shirts for a while. His shoes are size 5W, but are not very roomy already.

Today, while my little man was running around the "baby-dome" area of the house, he was chasing the dog. The dog decided to get snippy and semi-growl/snap at the baby's hand. The dog has never shown interest in the baby or even pretend to like being around him, but I was really hoping he would eventually come around to the idea of another person in this house. The idea of the dog biting my son scares the bejeezus out of me and the husband is even more of a worry-wart than me. Tonight was the first time we started talking about getting rid of our 8-year-old pug.


It makes me sad to think of not having General, but at the end of the day, he's just a dog and quite frankly, is replaceable. The baby is not. What if we can't have another child for some reason? Right now, he's the only child we have and we need to protect him.