New Year's Resolutions

Happy new year, friends and family! Before I update you all on the last month, it's time to share the annual new year's resolutions.

For myself, I resolve to write blog updates 3 times per month. I have two other resolutions that are a bit more personal, but I figured I'd share this one so I'd be more likely to do it. For Romelie, she resolves to eat three meals a day with only a couple of snacks, rather than snacking constantly throughout the day and picking at her lunch and dinner. For Cori, she resolves to sleep in her bassinet instead of in bed with me, thus ending our co-sleeping arrangements. So far, Cori's winning on the follow through; she's been sleeping in her bassinet for the past 4 nights. Good job, baby girl!

On to updates. It's been a while, so I'll try to remember everything. First, we continue to introduce Cori to wonderful friends. Lauren got to meet her while I was on maternity leave, and I got to hang out with my old friend from college, Alex, who was in MN for work. It was awesome to see him and made me ridiculously nostalgic for college as my closest college friends are very far away on the map. Molly and Erika, I know you both read this thing...love and miss you both daily.

As you may have figured out, I'm back at work full time. However, I did take a little mini-break a few days before Christmas to fly out to Chicago with my mom and the girls to visit Paul and Carrie. We were able to stay at the apartment of some friends of theirs who were out of town, so we didn't have to pay for a hotel. We saw Carrie's production of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and Paul's production of "The Importance of Being Earnest" while we were there. Excellent plays, both, and lots of fun to see them both in leading roles.

Because we were there through Christmas Eve day, we also got to celebrate Christmas with them, albeit a day early, which we weren't expecting to be able to do. And of course Paul got to see Cori and spend a little more time with her than he did in her first 24 hours of life, so that was another bonus.

We flew back on the 24th and went to Christmas Eve services at my church. It's been probably 12 years since I went to a candlelight Christmas Eve service. I love it. I love the candles, I love the music, I love the hugging and the "Merry Christmas"ing. Good times.

Then came Christmas day! Romelie totally gets the concept of presents, by the way. No question about it. She clearly wanted to tear into every single present as quickly as possible, but she exercised enough self-control that we did, in fact, open gifts one by one. Romelie got some fantastic toys, clothes, books, blankets & pillows, etc., and Cori got a few similar things as well. Since I'm terrible at sending Thank You cards (my dad has encouraged me to do this since I was a kid, and I'm still lazy about it), please know that we are very grateful to all of you, even when we don't get to spend the holidays together in person.

We then did the whirlwind Christmas of visiting family, stopping over at my Uncle Larry's, my Uncle Mike's, and my dad's home to eat some delicious food and wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I was especially grateful to my cousin Michael, a ninth grader who kept Romelie entertained for about an hour playing Lego's (he's a big brother, and a good one!), and to my dad who kept Romelie overnight so she wouldn't have to spend any more time in the car and we could get the house organized post-presents.

To finish off the new year...I had my post-baby appointment with Dr. McEvoy, and I'm all healed and back to normal. Well, not counting the 40 pounds I still need to lose...but all healed up from childbirth, at any rate. I have also (overshare! Don't read if you don't want to hear about birth control from me!) had a copper IUD implanted. Apparently they are a 99.9% effective, non-hormonal birth control method that last for 10 years. I wanted to avoid anything hormonal like the pill since I had breastmilk supply issues with Romelie and my doctor indicated they could be related, and I wanted something incredibly effective since at this point in my life, I do not want to have any more kids, and I don't really see that changing in the future. Yes, family and friends, I'm sad that I won't get to have any sons, but even if I had a third kid, that wouldn't be a guarantee, and the girls I have are pretty adorable (see picture), so I think I'll quit while I'm ahead.

And finally, we had a nice, quiet New Year's Eve at home. Romelie slept soundly in her big girl bed, Cori slept her first night alone in her bassinet peacefully, and Chason and I relaxed in the basement. I forced my lazy self to stay up until midnight, after which I promptly went to sleep.

Happy New Year everyone. Let's make it a good one, with enough sleep for everyone.