Our New Year

Resolution
It's simple - my new year's resolution is to get back to blogging.  My hope is to do it at least 5 times a week but we'll see how it goes.  This is the 1st resolution.

My 2nd resolution, which anyone who's been to my house will say is definitely in need, is to declutter & purge so we can actually do stuff at home.  While I've been home for Christmas vacation, we've kept the living room fairly clean which has allowed Cameron to crawl all around and explore the place but has also allowed us to play games in the living room and color and have fun.  We even played "Cars Trouble" on New Years Eve waiting for the ball to drop, the boys loved it.  "Superhero Memory" was another fun time this week.  All made possible by decluttering the living room enough to have clean floor space on which to play.  So next up, cleaning & purging in the boys' room, our room & the kitchen.  We have so many toys, most of which are broken or missing parts, that all need to go and so many clothes that are out dated and/or never worn.  Why do we keep these?  Yes, it was a favorite dress - but I'm not going to wear it again so it has to go.  The kitchen is full of mis-matched pots/pans & bowls & pie pans, etc, and we use the same ones ALL the time.  We keep gadgets thinking we'll one day use them, but if we haven't used it since the 1st time we took it out of the box, it has to go.  We need space for homework & baking with the boys & playing games so declutter is on the agenda.

Tradition
As our usual, we all stayed up to watch the ball drop last night.  In the past, Alex has fallen asleep at 11:45pm but this time even he made it the whole time.  I thought Cameron was going to pass out at 10:00 with his bottle but his ears are hurting him a bit (pretty sure he has an ear infection - either that or it's just teething pain making him clingy) so when he finished the bottle and almost fell asleep by himself, he instead demanded I sit with him & rock him.  He lays his cheek on my cheek as we rock - so sweet.  Then when he's soothed enough, he'll move his head to lay on my shoulder or something - that's usually the sign he's ready to let me put him to sleep.  However, the boys & Steve were playing Trouble and that was too entertaining to allow those tired little eyes to go to sleep.  This suited me just fine as I prefer to let us all ring in the new year THEN go to bed.

The only problem with this tradition is that today - New Year's Day - was Sunday meaning we had to get up for church.  On the plus side, we did have breakfast at church & Ethan's class was having a PJ party so I was letting Alex go in his PJs as well which cut down on our getting ready time.  Even the after church nap though hasn't gotten rid of the lack of sleep cranky's the boys seem to have.  Ethan & Alex are pushing each other's buttons and making each other cry and then 5 seconds later helping each other & playing with Cameron.

Things to work on (but not calling them resolutions)
1)  Get Ethan to school on time - he's been 2 minutes late to school enough times that we've gotten a letter on truancy from the school (even tardies count towards truancy).  This must stop & it will.
2)  Get Alex to eat when it's time to eat.  Alex always has some reason why he doesn't want to eat what we're having - even if it's his favorite food.  Then he'll be hungry an hour later.  New rule - if you don't eat when it's time to eat, you don't eat till the next meal.  That's not really a new rule, it's just that we plan to enforce it now.
3)  Get Cameron to eat more than just sweet potatoes & bananas & pears.  He's seriously got to branch out and so far, he's having a screaming fit with any other options.
4) Chores - both boys now have a "chore chart" - there are actual chores like picking up toys, loading the dishwasher, putting dirty clothes where they go, putting their clothes away, etc.  But there are other things they need to work on like for Ethan getting "green" at school (or better) & for Alex listening & doing what he's told (a major problem for him).  They can get a sticker for each thing they do each day & if they get 30, 40 or 49 (7 chores, 7 days of the week) they get different levels of rewards.  Hopefully this system will work for us.  Ethan at least is anxious to do his chores now so he gets the stickers.

From Ethan:  Hapee Nu Yeer! (he told me how to spell it)
From Alex:  The ball dropped, it's a new year - YAY!

I think that's enough for this post.  Hopefully you'll hear from us again tomorrow.