27. move
Is 2014 a year for more walking or more running?
A little bit of both! I don't want to get ahead of myself, since it's only January - but so far, it's been a cracker of a January. I've done 11 runs in January. I've completed four weeks of the Couch 2 5K program. I've run a 5k on the treadmill. I've MOVED. It's been a wonderful beginning to the year. That said, I don't want the year to run away from me too quickly; the last 10 months have already disappeared WAY too fast. I'm more than happy to walk through some of it, so that I don't miss a single moment of Georgia growing up!
28. spark
What creative thing do you do that lights a spark in your soul? How will you create more sparks in 2014?
This little girl is the spark in our lives. Everything we do, we do for her. {Sing that to the tune of Bryan Adams, if you like.} Watching her learn new skills is such a treasure. This afternoon I was playing with her on the floor - hitting a few keys on her xylophone toy. She grabbed the stick from me & smashed out a few notes of her own, to which I clapped & cheered; the grin she gave me was priceless. She was so pleased with herself! We'll keep doing fun things, letting her experience new events, and introducing her to new places this year, which will be great fun.
29. retire
What will you retire from your life in 2014?
I'm trying to retire my old bad habits - being lazy! But really, I'm trying to focus on the year ahead & not worry so much about the years gone by. The future is more important than the past. Bring it on! :)
Double digits - ermagerd! This is nuts, man. Georgia is 10 months old & is cruising towards her first birthday.
Goofing off with her daddy.
This month Georgia has:- Grown! At her last weigh-in, she clocked in at 8.8kg (65%) and 72cm tall (73%) - meaning my little shorty is officially getting longer than she is heavy. We always had the opposite until now. I noticed that her legs and arms looked like they'd grown in the last few weeks - and they most certainly have.
- Cut her top two teeth - bringing them to a grand total of 4 now. She's also started grinding her teeth together in the last few weeks, which is a noise that I will be happy to NEVER hear again. It's awful!
- Taken off! Nope, no crawling yet - but the girl can cross a room quick smart! She does a combination of roly polies, dragging, butt shuffling & pulling. We lost her behind the lounge & in the kitchen the other day; can you tell we're still not dealing with a crawling baby full time yet? :)
- Gotten LOUD. Seriously, is 10 months a loud stage? We are constantly yelling - happy yelling, cranky yelling, shouting & babbling at the top of her lungs. This place is super noisy.
- Begun eating finger foods each lunch time in her big girl high chair. She's still not too sure about this whole feeding herself nonsense though; half the time she spends her lunches mashing the food into the tray, and the other half of the time she's cramming EVERYTHING in her mouth all at once.
- Started to wave to people - we make a habit of telling her HI! or BYE! with a big exaggerated wave of the arm, and she's starting to copy it. It's a little bit cute.
- Been sitting up really well, and getting down onto her tummy by herself.
- Saying mum, mama, dad, dada & beginning to say 'hey' & what I swear sounded like 'cat'.
- Been busy smooching up to her little baby friends. Lots of fun play dates this month!
24. dare
What will you dare to do in 2014?
I'm daring to hope. Hope that the future is going to be bright; hope that we can continue to raise Georgia to be a happy & healthy little girl; hope that the year brings us some lovely surprises. Hey, a girl can dare to dream, right?
25. cull
What items are sitting on your to-do list? When will you do them?
My to-do list this year was to focus on my hopes & dreams {in lieu of resolutions for 2014} - and I'm working on them! 6 books in 2014, move more & blog more, and get cooking! Things are already in motion & I'm really chuffed. So far, I'm trying to do them already - the real task is going to be keeping them going throughout the year.
26. transfer
Think about everyone in your life - what do you want them to have this year?
I want them to have HAPPY moments. It's going to be an amazing year for a lot of my friends and family members - 1st birthdays (Georgia + her baby friends), 30th birthdays (me!), 50th birthdays (mum!) & we all deserve to enjoy every moment that's ahead of us. I still can't believe that January is almost over; 2014 is going to fly!
21. read
What do you want to read about this year?
I just want to read, in general. ;) I'm working on it! But honestly - I'd like to read about more success stories. I want to read tweets/blog posts/emails from my long-term TTC/IF friends with good news. I still read along the forum posts from my fertility clinic, to follow along with those who have graduated, but also those who are still there. Hopefully we can have more positive stories to read about this year; everyone deserves the chance to be a parent.
22. guide
Do you have a quote/motto/saying for 2014?
Move. Just move. Even if it's a little bit. Move! And if you can go a little bit further - even better! I'm trying so hard to work with this - and guess what? This morning, I ran my first 5km. 5km! This coming from the person who, 25 days ago, was barely exercising at all. Move, move, move. I can totally do this!
23. discover
What was something new you discovered in 2013 from a friend? What do you want to share with others this year?
I discovered the joy of solid foods - thankfully, I have some amazing mama friends who were my gurus. Talking me through purees, mixes, snack foods & combinations to start Georgia on - it was so welcomed, because I was a nervous wreck before starting, particularly when it came to finger foods. {Choking, gagging, ERMAGERD.} I'd like to share any parenting advice or helpful tidbits that I learn over the year with other folks, to pay it forward.
18. secure
Are you happy with who you are today, compared to who you were a year ago?
It's so cheesy, but I LOVE who I am today. I love being a Mum, I love having time to focus on home & family. I feel like I'm the same person, but different. I don't have the energy for time wasting, and I feel like life has thrown a few curve balls at us for a reason - to shape the years to come, perhaps? Either way, I'm happy. Happy is good!
19. build
You get to build something this year - what is it?
I'd like to build a strong routine; and I'm getting there. Mon/Wed/Fri are exercise days - just for me. Monday nights are our family nights. We have a great little morning routine that we've built, and I love. Those things are really important to me. But physically? I'd like to build a washing line outside. We never bothered with one before, since Spencer was a destructive puppy & would have probably yanked all of our clothes off the line. I do all our washing and hanging indoors, which is fine - but it means our front room has turned into a laundry room. My poor visitors are greeted with hanging knickers as they walk in the door! ;) It's fine for us now, but as time progresses, it's getting harder to fit all of our + baby's washing there, so that's a goal for us this year.
20. believe
It's 2014: what do you believe in?
I believe in science. I believe that without it, we wouldn't have our little girl. I believe that she is worth every cent of the money we 'spent' to help bring her into our family. I believe that she's a special one, this kid; totally meant for us. I believe that when the time comes to attempt trying for #2 {& if we're lucky} she'll be an amazing big sister. I believe that she's one of the funniest, cutest babies on the planet - but then, I'm slightly biased there!! :)
16. watch
What movie(s) did you see in 2013 that you would recommend to a friend?
Probably 'The Hobbit'. I love, love, LOVED the Lord of the Rings trilogy - I'd read the books and really enjoyed them. But as for the novel of 'The Hobbit', I just couldn't get into it. When hubby wanted to see the first movie, I wasn't too keen. I was about 30 weeks pregnant at the time, and didn't think my bladder would last the full session, let alone actually enjoy it! I was pleasantly surprised. We also saw the second Hobbit film at the end of the year, which was just as good. I'm keen on attempting the book again, just to see if it's a little less difficult this time around. Definitely worth seeing, if it's your thing.
17. breathe
How did you make space + peace for yourself in 2013? How will you increase that in 2014?
Taking a bath! I love our spa in the en suite, but it's a luxury I didn't make much use of while TTC or Pregnant - and then didn't have TIME for with a newborn! I've taken to having one at nights once Georgia is in bed, and it's been glorious. Never underestimate the power of bubbles. Lots of bubbles.
Taking a break from my #weverb-ing for a Georgia update! My little lady is 42 weeks old.. soon I'll stop counting in weeks & start focusing on months. Just 10 weeks until we celebrate her first birthday. How crazy is that?
We've been plugging away at her sleeping routines, and she'd been kicking butt recently - until the last few days. We've gone backwards in the day sleeps; I'm blaming teeth, even though I can't see any new ones yet. There's a tiny lump near one of her top front teeth, but it's nowhere near ready to pop through yet. I hope it is just teeth, because I'd hate for our hard work to be stuffed again. Nights are still good though, thank goodness.
How's your January looking so far?
13. cultivate
What creativity or talent did you cultivate in 2013? What do you want to enhance this year?
I didn't feel particularly creative this past year - really, I probably only got my design pants on when it came to picking how I wanted Georgia's nursery to pan out. I am really happy with how it ended up, and I STILL love going in there now. We have a few additional canvases to put up on the walls, but otherwise, it's stayed quite the same - and I think it will for a while yet. This year, I'm trying to write more - not always here, but in journals too. I'm really hoping to foster my talent of super-fast-book-reading too, but having a baby has really changed that! Instead, I'm sticking to my goal of trying for 6 books this year. I'm still plugging away through #1...
14. share
You've been asked to give a 2-minute presentation on 'my biggest lesson of 2013' to a group of friends/colleagues/family members. Share!
The biggest lesson of 2013 was about patience. I could give a million spiels about how becoming a parent has changed my life, but everybody knows that by now! When you're trying to fall pregnant, patience is your worst enemy. When you're working with a known infertility cause {like PCOS and/or male factors} getting in to see a specialist and working out a plan of action can take forever. And then even MORE trying, and waiting, and disappointment - ugh. Patience is just... crap. It may be a virtue, but it's crap. I'm just saying. ;) In 2013, we waited for the baby to arrive - but this time, I was patient. She could come when she was ready to come. All that said, this time it was HER that was impatient, since she decided to surprise us early over the Easter weekend! Good things did come to those who wait{ed} - and so now, we wait for the next challenges, like Georgia's milestones - all we need is a little bit of patience - she'll crawl when she's good & ready to crawl. ;)
15. emulate
Is there someone you want to emulate in 2014? Why and how?
When I grow up, I want to be like my Nanna. She was always really kind and cheerful; she tried seeing positives in most things. I tend to get into worst-case scenario mode & I'm NOT the most delightfully happy person all of the time, but I'm working on it. Having Georgia has helped there! I miss my Nanna so much, it makes me smile to remember her. While I'm thrilled she held on to meet the baby, I'm sad that Georgia won't get to know her in person like we did. I hope that by trying to be more positive and SMILEY like she was, she'll get a little bit of Nan through us.
I love hitting the shops - and it's something I've had to scale back a bit since becoming a SAHM with Georgia, what with one income and all.
I was recently approached and asked to join the Target Australia Blog Hub team, and was thrilled to find out that January's area of interest was BABY. What a perfect opportunity for Breathe Gently!
I had a few ideas on what I wanted to focus on while I was shopping in-store, but I also wanted to see if inspiration struck me while I was wandering the aisles. I came away from today's challenge feeling chuffed at my finds.
Without further ado, let me highlight some of the goodies purchased from my local Target store during today's shopping adventures. :)
My First Volley pre-walker shoes & Summer Fiesta Story outfit
The baby department is one of my first places to hit when I shop at Target these days. Georgia spent her first three months wearing little other than wondersuits & footed onesies from there! The first thing I discovered while wandering the aisles was a lonely little elephant plush toy - it was so cute, but looked a little out of place just sitting on a shelf on its own. I took it to a price check scanner & discovered that it was part of a set, so off I went, on a mission to find the other half. There was a whole wall of these beauties - as well as the elephant toy, the bundle contains a quilted reversible play-mat. There is also an owl & a fox option, but what can I say? The elephant caught my eye! In similar colours, the waffle knit blankets are great when we're out and about, so I popped those in the trolley too.
Reversible Cot Quilt/Playmat With Plush - Elephant & 2-pack waffle wraps
Another random find was in with the developmental toys & looked like it would be right up Georgia's alley. The O-ball roller is lightweight and nice and tactile - and best of all, can be used either a rolling walker, or as an individual ball. Since we don't have the space for a full sized walker on wheels, this will come in handy when baby girl decides to get her walk on. For now, Georgia was fascinated with the ball, shaking it & rolling it across the ground. It's a hit!
Oball Roller toy
We have a pretty strict bedtime routine with Georgia, which works most days that we're at home. After dinner and a last play, hubby is in charge of bath time! They both love this ritual, so I thought I might try and find a few things from the baby care department to help spice it up a little bit. She is sitting up on her own in the bath quite a bit, so the Safety 1st bath spout guard {aka the cute whale} was exactly what I was looking for. The foam letters and numbers are bright & colourful and will be great fun; perfect for her as she grows older. Bath time for babies is fun.
Safety 1st Whale & Baby Spout Guard & Munchkin Bath Letters & Numbers
And finally, a somewhat related baby purchase that caught my eye as I was headed for the check-outs. You might be wondering why these paper dinnerware sets feature in this post, but I'm planning ahead. You see, Georgia is turning 1 in a few short months - and the loose 'theme' we've decided to go with is BRIGHT rainbow colours! Since it'll likely be a backyard bbq party, these paper sets will do the job well! Loving these cheerful patterns.
Target 109 piece paper dinnerware set
All in all, I'd say this was a pretty productive shopping trip - Georgia's a very lucky girl & I'm a very happy mama.What have you been shopping for lately?
Disclosure: This post is part of a collaboration between Target Australia & Breathe Gently. I have been provided vouchers to purchase goods & have been compensated for my time spent on the project. If you're interested in finding out more, or would like to partner with Breathe Gently in the future, please email me.
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