2014 Resolutions: July to December

And we're back with my resolutions for the second half of the year!



Marriage:
- Celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary. The traditional gift is fruit or flowers, so we want to get a real painting featuring one of those things to start our very own art collection. We're planning to stick to a $100 budget. Right now, I've been eyeing the work of Emily Jeffords and Hilary Butler on Instagram lately. And I just stumbled upon this one on Etsy...

- Finish reading Brideshead Revisited together. We started reading Brideshead Revisited aloud together last fall when Maggie was a newborn and we spent our evenings on the couch cuddling a baby. Now that she has an early bedtime and we can be productive in the evenings again, that's pretty much what we always do (and then end the night with our sitcom + dessert ritual).

- Go on at least three dates. We already have two date nights planned for July (our anniversary and a soccer game with Adam's department) and we hope to plan two more over the next several months. Probably for Adam's company Christmas party and sometime in September/October?

Claire:

- Actually place picture books on hold for her at the library. Usually when we go to the library, I just look for my favorite authors (Tomie dePaola, Kevin Henkes, Mo Willems, etc) and pick out five or six books for the next week or two. It's time to branch out! I have a flyer from our library with the 100 best books for toddlers, so I think I'll start there. And I've started writing down all the picture books Janssen recommends on Instagram, since I generally love the adult reads she chooses.

- Do a basic art project with her at least once a week. I'm talking really, really basic here, like watercolors or finger paints. She loves doing that kind of stuff, but we rarely do anything more than crayons or markers. She usually goes to bed later than Maggie (as long as afternoon naps keep happening) so that window between their bedtimes seems to be the best art time for us.

- Get her potty trained, except for naps and nights. I'm planning to start potty training in September, when Claire is two and a half. Ahh! I want to hold off on naps and nights for a while though, because it would be great to keep her contained in her crib until she's three.

Maggie:

- Celebrate her first birthday. We plan to throw her a little party and make a video of her first year. I'll sew a banner and quilt for her. The question is, should I do the same pattern as Claire's or try something different? I'll also make her a photo book of her monthly pictures and stats.

- Get her weaned. After struggling a lot with Claire thanks her time in the NICU, nursing Maggie has been such a positive experience. She'll be 14 months by the end of the year, though, and I think I'd like to be done by then. C-sections make avoiding necessary for us and avoiding is a whole lot easier when your regular cycles are back.

- Transition her to just an afternoon nap. I'm hoping Maggie will be ready to switch to just one nap a day around 14 months as well. We'll be able to get out and do so much more in the mornings!

House:

- Improve the landscaping in the front and backyards.  I think you'll probably remember that our yard could use some serious work. It stays light outside pretty late here in the summer, so we finally have time to do yard work while the kids are asleep. Since we're just renting, we don't want to spend a lot of money on landscaping though. We'd also like to acquire some more outdoor toys. Two balls and a bucket of sidewalk chalk aren't really cutting it.
- Hang art. We're all unpacked now, but we don't have a single picture hanging on the walls. That will change by the end of the year! We actually have less empty wall space than our old apartment, since we have so many more windows. Not exactly a bad problem to have.

- Get a oval coffee table. Our current coffee table is pretty banged up. Claire also got a black eye from it's corners twice when she was first learning to walk. It wasn't as bad as it sounds, but still something I'd rather not repeat. So before Maggie's walking, we'd like to upgrade to a more kid-friendly oval coffee table instead. Maybe this one from Ikea?

Crafts:

- Make a play kitchen. Way back in January, we bought a $20 entertainment center at Goodwill to turn into a play kitchen. It's currently in the garage with all our wall art stacked on top. So once that's all hung up, we hope to start on the play kitchen, for either Maggie's birthday or Christmas. We've vowed that if it's not happening for Christmas, we're just going to Craig's List it and buy one instead.

- Make doll bunk beds. For either Maggie's birthday or Christmas (whichever one doesn't have the play kitchen), we're planning to buy two of these doll beds from Ikea, paint them a fun color, and bunk them. Claire has a doll quilt that's a smaller version of here's and I'm planning to do the same for Maggie.

- Make Halloween costumes. Since Halloween is ten days after Maggie's birthday, I'm looking for something easy. Maybe Wizard of Oz characters? Claire could be Dorothy and Maggie could be the lion (I'd definitely buy Maggie's and probably Claire's too). Adam and I could pretty easily pull something together to be the scarecrow and the tin man.

Health:

- Join the Y and go at least twice a week. I'm planning to join in August, when our summer finally calms down. Adam gets a free gym membership through work and we picked the Y because it was the only one around with free childcare. It's $50 a month to add the rest of us. I've wanted to join since we've moved here and now I actually have a chunk of time where all my kids are old enough for me to feel comfortable leaving them in childcare and I'm not heavily pregnant!

- Actually make lunch for myself. I'm usually so focused on getting the girls down for a synchronized afternoon nap that I don't end up eating my lunch until they're asleep. Which is fine, actually, because it makes me prioritize reading a chapter of my book. (I like to read, but have to set certain times throughout the day to do it, or it won't happen.) But, I rarely have the energy to make myself something good for lunch and end up having an apple with peanut butter instead. And, surprise, surprise, I'm hungry again a few hours later.   

Faith:

- Do a good job of leading mom's group at church. Honestly, I'm not so much the leader as just the facilitator who makes sure to send reminder emails and put announcements in the bulletin. But I want to do a good job, regardless. When Maggie is old enough to start going without a morning nap, I'd like to go to morning Mass before play group. Adam can take the bus to work right from church, so he should be able to join us too.

- Make Thanksgiving and Christmas meaningful for Claire. This is the first year Claire will start to get what Thanksgiving and Christmas are all about, so I want to make it meaningful for her. We'll start pretty small though. Maybe we'll write down something we're thankful for each day of November leading up to Thanksgiving. And do a Jesse tree or unwrap a new (library) book to read each day of Advent. I bought a 12 Days of Christmas ornament set and book on clearance last year, so I'd like to do that each day of the Christmas season and celebrate Epiphany somehow.

Adventures:

- Visit a Seattle attraction at least once a month. We want to take the water taxi to Alki Beach sometime this summer. In September, we'll probably go to the state fair, in October we'll go to the pumpkin patch, and in December we'd like to get a real Christmas tree for the first time. (Although I'm worried I might be allergic since I tend to be allergic to nature in general.) I know Claire and Maggie would get a big kick out of the aquarium too.

- Maybe visit my family in China? My Dad, who's an engineer at a big oil company, received a temporary assignment to Shanghai for three years. They just wrapped up year two. We were planning to go to China next May for Scott's graduation, right before they moved back. But, they just got word that they'll most likely have to come back in December instead (which is a major bummer because Scott will have to finish his last semester of high school somewhere else, I mean, the same high school he went to in ninth grade, so it could be worse, but he'd much rather stay with all his friends in China at this point). We're crossing our fingers that they'll actually be able to stay for the whole school year, but if not, we're hoping to visit them in November or December. My sister (who's already visited them there) generously offered to watch Claire and Maggie for the week.