end-of-year meme

(from Laura and Jen)

1. What did you do in 2006 that you’d never done before?
I had a baby!

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Well, for the most part:

• Paint family room (check)
• Paint master bathroom (low on the priority list… never got around to it)
• Paint resurfaced areas of deck (check)
• Pay off all credit card debt (we paid off half)
• Welcome our first child into the world! (check )
• Stay home with baby for first 6 months (still have a month to go)
• Find good babysitter/day care (does my mother count?)
• Lose most, if not all, of pregnancy weight by end of next year (I lost 44 lb of the 51 lb I gained, so yay!)
• Get new, better-paying job after maternity leave (still looking)
• Continue to grow out hair so I can donate it to Locks of Love in 2007 (I just chopped it all off a few weeks ago… after all the postpartum hair loss, donating my hair when it’s the thinnest it’s ever been in my life didn’t make much sense anyway!)

As for any resolutions for 2007… to be a good mom and a good wife, to find a job, to take a vacation, and to lose these last 7 pounds or else just get over it and be happy with myself.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Quite a few online amigas did (Crystal, Julie, Emily, Stephanie, Andrea). And friends in Hungary (Peter, my husband’s best friend since childhood, and his wife Krista) had a son about 6 weeks before we did.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, thank goodness.

5. What countries did you visit?
Just the US this year.

6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?
A VACATION!

7. What date from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
July 18: the day Oliver was born, the hardest and best day of my life.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I think giving birth definitely qualifies!

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not paying off all our credit card debt, thanks to some major unexpected expenses (the roof/kitchen ceiling water damage being the biggest one, around $1500 in repairs).

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I had the flu, twice—first when 5 months pregnant and later on Oliver’s 1-month birthday. I rarely get sick so this was unusual for me. And I guess the only injury I had was a small tear during childbirth. That was enough!

11. What was the best thing you bought?
A breast pump. That is the only way I kept breastfeeding for 6 weeks. Let’s just say, my son’s nickname is still “The Hoover.” He was using slow-flow nipples until this week (finally upgraded to medium-flow) because he sucks so darn hard!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My husband. He held my hand through labor and stayed with me the whole 48 hours in the hospital; he took off two weeks from work to help me after Oliver was born; he worked (still works) hard so I could stay home with the baby; and despite working full time and being in law school, he is ALWAYS there for us. He even does Oliver’s first feeding on Saturdays so I can sleep an extra hour. He is a wonderful friend, husband, and father, and I love him more than ever. OK, I’ll stop there.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
A former co-worker & my former boss.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Baby stuff and bills.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Oliver, of course!

16. What song will always remind you of 2006?
“The One Who Knows,” a mother-child song by Dar Williams. (Time it was I had a dream, and you’re that dream come true…)

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
happier or sadder?
Exponentially happier.

thinner or fatter?
Actually, as of today, I only weigh 1 lb. more than I did a year ago (I had gained 6 lb by the end of my first trimester around Christmas).

richer or poorer?
Financially, poorer. But in every other way, we are stinking rich.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Saving money.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Complaining.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
We went to my parents’ as always for Christmas Eve/Day. It was challenging but very special because it was our first Christmas with Oliver.

21. Did you fall in love in 2006?
Every single day, with my husband and my baby boy.

22. How many one-night stands?
He’s stuck with me 365 nights of the year!

23. What was your favorite TV program?
Gilmore Girls (continued addiction), 24, and Grey’s Anatomy (new addictions)

24. Do you dislike anyone now that you didn’t dislike this time last year?
Hmmm… no.

25. What was the best book you read?
Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth. THANK GOD for this book. Being a first-time mom, I knew next to nothing about napping schedules/night sleeping in babies. I credit this book for having my baby sleeping 10-11 hours through the night since he was 10 weeks old!!

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Dar Williams.

27. What did you want and get?
A 100% healthy baby!

28. What did you want and not get?
I haven’t found a new job yet.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Pride & Prejudice.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 28 one week after my husband did (his is October 23, mine is October 30), and we celebrated at our house with our family on the Sunday in between.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
An epidural that worked.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006?
Fashion? Ha! Try tee shirts and sweatpants until Oliver was born, and now it’s pretty much the same thing. I do dress nicer when I actually leave the house, but most of the time, I wear stuff that I don’t mind getting drool/spit up on!

33. What kept you sane?
My husband, my parents, my siblings, and my friends.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Colin Firth (Mr. Darcy!)

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
In Ohio, we finally passed a law that prohibits smoking in most public places. Yay! Now, if they can just enforce it!

36. Who did you miss?
I missed George during the semester when he was in law school three nights a week and didn’t get home till 10:00.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
OLIVER!

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006?
Good things come to those who wait. Even if that means being pregnant 11 extra days.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
“All that I am, all that I ever was, is here in your perfect eyes, they’re all I can see.” (from “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol) It really sums up how fulfilled and blessed I feel when I look at my son. ♥