The First Post of 2010!

It is 2010 and I feel good. Great, actually! Yesterday was a very typical New Year's Day for me; it is admittedly my least favorite day of the entire year. We always leave our decorations up from the day after Thanksgiving (or a bit earlier!) until New Year's Day. That always leaves January 1st a bit of a downer...the parties are all over and the fun is coming down and being packed into boxes. It is never a great day for me, but it was even tougher this year because Colin was cognizant of what I was doing and asking over and over why we were taking down the beautiful lights and Christmas trees. It was a rather blah day. Today, however, is a new day! I liked waking up to the fresh clean house and the bright winter sunshine coming in through the windows. I found myself making a mental list of new household items that I would like to get for the coming year and thinking about re-doing one of the extra bedrooms as a playroom for Colin. I feel initiative washing over me, the type of which can only happen at the beginning of a new year; a fresh slate. I sat down at the computer with my cup of tea (Jer is out of town for work and I am too lazy to make a pot of coffee for one person) and began checking email while Colin watched Olivia. He walked into the office, holding his bowl of dry cheerios and a serious face. He wanted to tell me something and began forming his words. "Mommy, I dropped Cheer-we-woh's on the couch...but...I....um...I picked them up....and...um...I picked them up and put them in the bowl!". I got down on his level and hugged him hard, thanking him for picking them up so nicely. Watching him standing there in the hallway, concentrating very hard on telling me his story using all his words and forming a perfect and complete sentence was a wonderful moment for me. It reminded me how far we have come since 2009 began and Colin was still saying only a couple of words. He is such a little boy now in comparison and I find the change that occurred in one short year to be awe inspiring. I can't help but think about how different things will be next year at this time and wonder what amazing new things I am up for, but can't fathom now. I think that big things are in store for our family this year...I feel it!

I also want to get back to my original blog style, which was more day to day updates about the little mundane things we do. My goal in starting the blog was to record the small stuff that we forget so soon and relive it down the road when my children are long past trips to the library for story time and runs to McDonald's for nuggets and playtime. As I get busy, I tend to blog about the big stuff and write big picture "philosophical" kinds of things that are important to me, but I get away from the little stuff. SO, let's get back to boring, shall we? :-) Colin is going through a stage that baffles me at the moment...he hates getting dressed. HATES IT. He screams and flails around every single time that I try to get him dressed. It has gotten so distressing that on occasion we don't make it out of the house until after his afternoon nap, simply because I am so loathe to go through the dressing process. That is not a good thing. Spending the day in pajama's is fun every now and then, but I can't get into that habit. Life is better when we are active and busy, so I need to power through. Once we go through the kicking and screaming of getting dressed, he calms down and things go back to normal. It seems strange to me, but I figure that it is just a stage. He also fights diaper changes with a vengeance including the same kicking and screaming. I think potty training may be around the corner, but I continue to be on the fence about starting it. I keep looking for the clear and obvious signs that he is ready, but they remain elusive to me. He does not mind having a dirty diaper in the least and shows absolutely no interest in the potty or using it. We have had the fluke moments of success, but those are rare and not consistent. I thought to leave it up to Colin and not set up for disaster by starting him on my time clock instead of his, but I think we will go ahead and try it regardless this spring. I think about this a lot!

In other news, I got the worst haircut of all time two days ago. My lovely long layers, which I spent a YEAR growing back out, are now hacked up and look almost exactly like this:
Looking like Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett in 1982 is not what I was going for. To make matters worse, it only looks like that on ONE side...the haircut is an uneven shambles with one side clearly and horribly longer than the other. I have spent the last 48 hours in a ponytail and trying desperately to will time to rewind so that I could run from that girl and her scissors. It is only hair, I know, and will grow out. I have an appointment with the salon manager on Tuesday for her to hopefully fix the crazy lopsided haircut (free of charge, of course) but I know that fixing it will mean that I will be right back in a short haircut, which is exactly what I did not want. I am so upset about it. Last February, I got a heavily layered (but good) haircut that I immediately did not like and wanted to grow out. I spent almost a year doing so, and thus had a mess of split ends that needed a simple trim. I am really unhappy that one year later, I am right back where I started. Probably even SHORTER since the hack job on the right side of my head starts way up top. Lovely. I am trying hard to stay positive, so...Happy New Year, friends! :-)