Today the girls and I were off to my Dad's for our final Christmas celebration. Christian still wasn't feeling well today, so he stayed home and rested while we were off partying. The girls were up and down all day. They would play and seem perfectly fine for a while, then look like they were absolutely miserable for a while. Very strange, but I didn't want them to miss out on spending the day with their cousins. Our family was blessed with a ton of really great gifts, again, and it was so nice spending time with my sisters and their families.
After some food, gifts and catching up, we were on our way home. We just took it easy the rest of the night. I was pretty bummed about our lack of exciting New Years Eve plans. We used to have such a blast, every year...from fancy dinner's out, to laughing the night away with friends at a local bar, to the year we REALLY did it up and rented a limo with all of our friends. It was always such an exciting night, that I really looked forward to...but we haven't done anything the last few years. There's always next year...right?
In the end, I was laying in bed before the ball dropped. We got a pretty bad storm this evening, so the satellite kept going out and it was driving me nuts. The girls were up and down all night anyway thanks to the wind and the surprise fireworks that went off at midnight.
Here is my little 2011, year in review, along with some photos from today's celebration.
January started off with Olivia turning 2, and a wonderful Golden Birthday party at home, with some of our closest friends and family members. We couldn’t believe she was already two, and all of the amazing things she could do. Amelia started to sit up on her own, and the love/hate relationship between the girls really started. The more Amelia could do, the more Olivia wanted to interact with her. But, that interaction wasn’t always so good. Amelia was finally big enough to move into the big tub with Olivia (still in her baby tub though). The winter from hell raged on…this January, it snowed EVERY day, but three days. It was beyond crazy. The month ended on an incredibly sad note, we had to put down our sweet cat Frank, and it’s still hard to even think about.
February was a very big month for Amelia. She started on solids – and I started my journey of homemade baby food. She also started crawling and weaned herself from the pacifier (YAY!). Amelia continued sleeping horribly, her reflux and colic still in full effect. She had her 7 month weight check, and had actually gained some weight, but was still only in the 5%. We celebrated Valentine’s Day, had the girls’ 2 year/6 month photo shoot and took Olivia bowling for the first time…she loved it!
March was very exciting…we entered Amelia in a local “cutest baby contest” and she made it ALL the way to the final round. We didn’t win, but it was very fun to be involved in it. Amelia started pulling up on the furniture, and could stand on her own for a few seconds. We started the process of transiting Amelia to her crib, but she still woke during the night, and would usually end up in bed with me at some point. The girls started to really play together…Olivia started to actually share her stuff with Amelia, and tried teaching her how to do things. Amelia finally got her very first tooth, and we ended the month celebrating Christian’s 27th birthday.
April was still a pretty crazy month weather wise. Some days were spent outside, some days we still got snow. This was literally the winter that would not end – November-April – ouch. We were able to get a few walks around the neighborhood and trips to the park in though. We finally started venturing out in public as a family of 4. This probably sounds ridiculous to a lot of people – but with all of Amelia’s issues…colic, reflux, extreme clinginess and general unhappiness, it was a rough 6-7 months. We didn’t dare venture out too often. We were finally able to start taking her out on short shopping trips this month, and it felt great! Amelia had her 8 month weight check, and was back down in the 2%. She also started cruising the furniture, and standing up from sitting all by herself, and she was consistently sleeping through the night (though, not 100% of the time quite yet)! Olivia got in her final teeth this month, her 2nd molars and, unfortunately, experienced her first trip to the ER with an extreme case of the stomach flu. We ended the month celebrating Easter in many wonderful ways, from Easter Egg Hunts, to Easter Bunny visits, to Dying Eggs to a surprise photo shoot!
May started off with a bang, with the death of Osama Bin Laden. Quite a chapter in American History, that’s for sure. Our family kicked off the month with some Potty Training madness. Olivia TOTALLY rocked it, and took right to it – still so grateful for that. Olivia started to become very aggressive with Amelia, and it just got worse and worse as the month went on. Amelia had her 9 month check, and was back down in the 2% for weight, but the doctor officially gave us the all clear, determining that she is just genetically small. She was following the same curve, consistently, and was developing well, so he didn’t want to focus on that anymore. Amelia also learned how to climb the stairs this month, AND took her very first steps! We celebrated Mother’s day, and unfortunately said goodbye to Christian’s sister and nieces again, as they moved to Mexico. We finally had some pretty good weather by the end of the month, and started some gardening, and even took in our first trip to the zoo for the year!
We started June with our annual trip to Grand Ol’ Day. Always a good time. We also started off the month with my first real dose of single parenting as Christian spent a week working in Wisconsin. Surprisingly, it went pretty well! We celebrated my 28th birthday, and I received a layoff notice thanks to the looming Government Shutdown. I experienced my first REAL concert, Taylor Swift, with tickets I won on the radio. Olivia hit another huge milestone this month…transitioning to her toddler bed! We celebrated Father’s Day with our annual trip to the Twin’s Game. We experienced one of the hottest June’s ever, a legitimate heat wave, getting up to an actual temperature of 102!
July started off on a bittersweet note…with me being laid off from work for 3 weeks. It ended up being a blessing in disguise…lots of time spent with my girls, I was spoiled with it in fact. We had lots of 4th of July fun…town festival, fireworks, BBQ, parade. So much fun! The heat wave continued all month, getting up to 120 degrees one day (which includes A LOT of humidity)! I took the girls on their first trip to the Aquarium, and we went on our very first family vacation to Duluth. We had the time of our life! Amelia turned 1 this month, which is so hard to believe still, and at her 1 year check-up was in the 10% for her weight! Moving up!
August marked another bittersweet milestone…I started the month off no longer pumping, and by the end of the month, Amelia had fully weaned from nursing. I was so happy, proud and excited to have made it that full first year, formula free. While I was happy to hang up my pump, I still to this day miss that connection. We finally had a break in weather this month, and spent a lot of time outside. We went from the winter that wouldn’t end, to the summer of scorching heat. Very strange! This month brought many fun family events…a trip to the zoo, a local family festival, we checked out the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, and we had our 2.5 Year/1 Year photo shoot. So many fun memories. Christian ended the month on a bad note, getting his wisdom teeth pulled. Ouch!
September was a pretty exciting month. We went to our sole Vikings game of the year (which, was probably a good thing – it was not a good year for the purple and gold). And, a couple of my wonderful online friends came to town with their families for a weekend visit. We went to the State Fair, the Mall of America and just hung out, getting to know each other. I was so sad to see them go, but it was amazing getting to meet them in person! We also took our annual trip to the Apple Orchard this month, and spent the rest of that day in Stillwater with the girls. My obsession with Craigslist started, and I’ve been a selling machine ever since! Christian and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary, and we attended a bunch of birthday parties this month. I also attended another concerts, a different, more intimate concert, which I again won on the radio – Andy Grammar and Colbie Callait. SO COOL! We ended the month with some of the most amazing fall colors I’ve ever seen before.
October brought another family trip to the Aquarium, and our annual visit to Sever’s Corn Maze. The girls had SO much fun there – it gets better and better, every year! I was very excited to take my own little trip to Chicago to spend the weekend with some more of my wonderful online friends this month, and I had such an amazing time. We had some pretty wonderful fall weather this month…spent lots of time raking, jumping in leaves and getting the yard ready for winter. We also took in many Fall/Halloween activities – a visit to the pumpkin patch, carved some pumpkins, went to the local Halloween Festival and, of course, trick or treating with our little black cat and “princess” witch. Olivia got to meet Mickey and Minnie Mouse at the Mall this month, and I marked 2 years of being smoke free!
November was a pretty relaxing month. We had some pretty great weather, other than one little snow storm, that unlike last year, did not stick around, so we spent a lot of time outdoors still. Amelia had her 15 month check-up, and shot up to 35% for her weight! Amelia started learning to feed herself this month, and was actually quite impressive with her utensils. We celebrated Thanksgiving and definitely had so much to be thankful for. We ended the month by kicking off the Christmas season…we put up the Christmas tree and made our usual visit to the Holidazzle Parade and the Macy’s display.
We ended the year, of course, with Christmas chaos galore! From our month of visits from Buddy the Elf, to the girls’ special video messages from Santa, to building Gingerbread houses and backing Christmas cookies, to our visit to Santa at the mall and checking out the Holiday Lights in the Park, and, of course, our many amazing Christmas celebrations with friends and family. It’s such an amazing time of year…it seems to come quicker and quicker, every year, but goes by just as fast! We only had a very small amount of snow this month – none of which stayed around…no white Christmas for us! I took Olivia on her first trip to Disney on Ice, and took her to the Mall to meet Cinderella one afternoon. This month, I also attended my 10 year high school reunion. Crazy!
2011 was really an amazing year, and I’m looking forward to 2012, and welcoming it with open arms. I’m ready to spend the year focusing on myself, and getting myself back in shape and in a healthy lifestyle. We’ll be working hard, chipping away at our debt, and should be excitedly debt free by the end of the summer. Starting a new year is always so exciting – you just never know where you are going to end up!
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