Welcome 2011...

... and I'm back. Without too many details, 2010 was not the greatest of years, as you can clearly see from my lack of bragging blogging. It could have been worse, but we certainly had our share of low moments.

On January 1st, I looked back into my computer files at my 2010 resolutions only to find 5 very vague, meaningless "things" I wanted to accomplish, that I did not accomplish. Even more reason to be bummed about 2010... now I accomplished nothing. In retaliation, I decided I would not make a list of 5 vague things and hide them away in a computer file for a year only to forget about them by January 3rd. I have changed my New Year's Resolution strategy...

I have made a list of 50 things I would like to accomplish this year and will publicly announce them and hold myself accountable. This can't go any worse than last year... right? As a check and balance, I will reevaluate the list in June and make changes. Hopefully I will be able to look back on 2011 and be able to actually tell myself what I accomplished.

I challenge you to jump on board, make a list of things YOU want to do this year and hold yourself accountable.

Update...

Uh, so... it has been a while. We've gotten really busy with William's recovery, work, Jerry traveling all over Florida for boat shows and more work! Now we're in the process of relocating... phew. As for William's recovery, he has recovered perfectly. We just had the three month check-up and you would never even know he had surgery. There isn't even a scar. It is amazing what modern medicine can do! A huge thank you to Dr. Flack and his team.

As for other news, William is now a professional walker. He also has a big case of, what I call, the "whiny ones". Others call it separation anxiety. I think it is a lot more than separation anxiety, I think it is communication anxiety. He knows what he wants but can't necessarily say or do it... which leads to frustration. I was not warned about this stage. I thought I was going to have a pleasant smiley boy until about 18 months when the word "no" is learned, understood, and uttered at will. It's not that bad, Jerry and I have actually taken some amusement from it. It is our goal to not give in to crying or make a big deal out of it. We hope this will eliminate future tantrums. *fingers crossed*

For all of my friends who think William is the cutest thing ever, he is. But here's a small glimpse of what can happen if I put him down and he doesn't want "down". There are absolutely no tears, so don't feel too bad for him. Also notice how fast the crying stops when he hears his daddy... the little booger!

Is it wrong that I think this is the funniest video I have!? I'll be playing this video at his graduation party in 2017. =)

A Standing Motivation

About a week and a half ago, William had surgery. He was born with a very minor form of a birth defect called hypospadias. In fact, it was so mild we only knew we had this issue when he peed on his doctor at birth. I guess even embarrassing moments have benefits. Anyway, I had been pretty much pushing the issue to the back of my mind as much as I could because I couldn't bear to think of my little guy going under the knife and anesthesia. We had to wait until William was at least six months before the urologist would even consider surgery which was, unfortunately for us, right around the holidays. We scheduled to have the surgery the first week of January, but as luck would have it, we caught a nasty cold between New York and Florida and had to reschedule. So, finally, we're all fixed! Literally. 

Cutest baby in a hospital gown EVER.

I think the surgery was actually worse on Mommy than on William. He did SO wonderful. He was even bouncing around a little bit in the hospital before we left. He did sleep most of the day when we got home, but it was to be expected. He didn't even cry. Not even once. The only issue we had was changing the diaper. We had to be quick and clever and gentle all at the same time. With a squirmy baby, it was not fun, especially since we had to make sure it was changed every two to three hours. So not fun.

Charlie making sure William is okay.

There were a few tears the day after when the pain medication wore off. Not to mention the difficulty crawling. He was a professional crawler before the surgery, then he had to find alternate means of transportation because he was too sore. When he would try to crawl he looked like a drunken spider. It hurt me a bit to see him sore, but on the plus side, he had the motivation he needed to start gaining confidence walking. I think it was much less painful for him to stand and scoot around than to crawl. As a result, I think we'll be walking a bit sooner than expected. I'm not so sure that's a good thing for Charlie and anything we have yet to baby proof!