Wednesday 2 January 2013

Christmas 2012

McKenna's birthday falls a couple of weeks before Christmas. Being her first birthday, she wasn't overly excited about it, and she already has more than a lot of children, so this year we decided to give her birthday presents to a local charity that passes them along to needy families at Christmas. While everyone thought we were being very generous, secretly we were just too cheap to buy replacement batteries for the 5,000 electronic toys she was guaranteed to get. Her birthday came and went with a party at a local daycare (which she hated), gifts from us (which I ended up unwrapping), and a birthday dinner (which she threw to the dogs). My daughter is truly a gift.

Over Christmas, on the other hand, she seemed to really come out of her shell. She played with her older cousins (as much as a 1-year-old can), ate cheesies by the fistful, and actually helped with the unwrapping of her gifts. This was also when she really got the hang of walking - she saw all of her older cousins running around, and something seemed to click, and she started walking independently that night. It was pretty neat. Experiencing Christmas through the eyes of my daughter was truly amazing. Her excitement over unwrapping a new Bubble Guppies story was contagious, her giggles when she first crawled through her inflatable play tunnel were adorable, and her favourite part of Christmas... unwrapping the packs of squeezable fruit. Words cannot express how much that kid adores pureed fruit packs. Although we didn't get to spend it with our families, we created some new traditions with our precious daughter. It was truly a Christmas to remember.

My 2013 Resolutions

1. You know that old saying "Shit or get off the pot"? Well, I resolve to shit. What I mean by that is that I resolve to stop whining about wanting to lose that last bit of weight. Unfortunately, bitching doesn't burn as many calories as it ought to, so back to the gym I go.

2. To be more present with my daughter. Too often when she is playing quietly with her toys, I am reading, watching tv, or cutting my toenails, instead of connecting with her. Those damn toenails are guaranteed to grow back, but I will never get that time back that I could have been spending with her.

3. To accept that "good" is good enough. The house will never be spotless, there will always be dishes to wash, and clothes will continue to get dirty. Instead of stressing and apologizing over the state of my house, I resolve to relax a little. Twenty years from now, McKenna won't care whether or not I vacuumed her room every day (I do!), but she will care about the quality time that she spent with me.

4. To take care of my daughter's mother.When I eat a Super-Sized Bacon Deluxe Combo with extra cheese five days in a row I'm not just affecting my health, I'm affecting my daughter's future.

5. To laugh more.