January

January brought Jonathan’s 31st birthday on the 2nd.  Happy birthday to my wonderful husband!  I love him more today than I could ever have imagined loving anyone.  He is so funny, totally inappropriate, super sweet, and the best daddy in the whole world.  Really, he is.  He loves his little girl more than anything.  It is so cute to see them together.  I love him for making me laugh, keeping me on my toes, and making me want to become a better person each and every day.  He is so encouraging and is truly my best friend. 

This month has also brought an adults-only night out downtown for Jonathan’s work party, a new membership to the Jewish Community Center (a.k.a. “The J”) where I can work out while Haidyn plays at the kid’s zone, a playdate with Joseph, and a new class at the Parkway Early Childhood Center for Haidyn and me.  We’ve also started taking advantage of the wonderful library near our house.  Why haven’t I done this before?!?  It has a great children’s area with toys, kid-sized furniture and of course tons of books.  They even have a whole section of board books that Haidyn and I have been checking out.  It’s a great place to go on a cold afternoon.  And luckily no one gets upset when Haidyn squeals in the kid’s section.  (Or walks around pushing all the books back as far as she can on the shelves.  If you’ve been there and noticed the sections like that, it was us.  I apologize.)

  Joseph came over to play one morning, and they had a blast.  They literally entertained themselves for two hours.  I didn’t even know what to do with myself!  This was the only picture I got on my camera – lunch.

A new year is a great time to reflect, and I’ve been doing a lot of that lately.  I have thoroughly enjoyed this year with Haidyn and feel so incredibly blessed to spend so much time with her.  At the same time, I think I allowed myself to get “lost” in being a mom.  Sometimes I wonder who I am anymore.  My resolution for this year is to find more balance – between being a wife, mom, sister, daughter, and friend.  And to find myself again.  To do things I love and not feel terribly guilty if I need a little time away to do them.  To be okay with letting the house get dirty if it means we get to have more fun.  And to seek out those things that fulfill me mentally, physically and spiritually without becoming completely drained.  I’ll let you know how it goes!

I’ll leave you with a couple pictures of our ornery one-year-old on family pizza night:SO BIG!This is gonna be fun to clean up   Still sweet under that ornery exterior