Year we go again

[j4]

Happy new year, friendslist! I'm sorry I completely failed to do an LJ Christmas card this year. I didn't even manage to use my LJ Christmas icon. Here's a belated Christmas photo (yes, I know it's after Twelfth Night):



I'm sorry I've also failed to send 'thank you' notes to all the people who gave us lovely presents. I will say a big THANK YOU now & I will try to email you all soon.

We spent Christmas itself and a couple of days either side with my parents in Leicestershire (including a day trip up to Bramhall to see my grandma), and then spent a few days after Christmas with addedentry's parents in Bristol. Img was mostly fairly well-behaved but was obviously getting more and more twitchy with all the new places and people and changes to her routine (such as it is -- we're not very good at routines at the best of times) so we were glad to get back to Oxford just before New Year. We didn't exactly stay up to see the New Year in, but Img did wake us up at about 12:05 (possibly having been woken up herself by the fireworks outside). Seemed a bit daft saying "Happy New Year" to someone who hadn't even been alive a whole year yet, but she didn't mind.

Obviously Img didn't really know about Christmas, either, but she seemed to enjoy trying to eat lots of wrapping paper or rip it to shreds; she also got some lovely new toys which she obviously likes -- the bright-coloured stacking cups are fun to knock over (and bang against each other), and she also seemed surprisingly keen on a big floppy doll (I didn't think they got into dolls until later). She also enjoyed the food at Christmas, which may have played a part in the fact that she managed to gain 2lb between mid-November and January. :-)

I don't have any New Year's resolutions this year; there are things I'd like to do before I go back to work in March, and things I'd like to do at some point this year, and things I'd like to do some day in the future; but at the moment I'm really just concentrating on surviving from day to day (or maybe week to week). I'm still finding it really difficult (as anybody who follows me on Twitter will know) because of the sleep -- or rather the lack of it -- and while I think some things will get easier, other things will surely get harder to make up for it. I can't remember if I made resolutions last year either, but I don't want to look back at them because I suspect I won't have succeeded in any of them. I did, however, manage to keep reading lots of books, which is practically the only resolution I've kept for long enough for it to become a habit.

I hope you all had lovely Christmases and I hope 2012 is shaping up well for you so far.

Comments

[jackiesjottings.livejournal.com]

Happy New Year :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

(This reply is really more of a reply to things from twitter, which may be a breach of etiquette, I'm not sure! Feel free to delete if you wish.)

I'm sure you're absolutely pig-sick of people having well-meaning advice on dealing with a screamy baby, but as I'm given to understand I was a horrifically screamy baby I asked my mother if she had any tips. She thought for a moment, then said the best thing she'd done for coping with me was going back to work :) (Didn't make me any better, but meant I was someone else's problem for a couple of days a week, and stopped her from doing serious damage to either herself or me.)

Oh, and her other advice was to ignore everyone's advice ;) Other people with babies are not looking after your baby and have (I quote) "no bloody idea".

It's lovely to see a picture of you both looking smiley, and to hear that there's also lots of good stuff happening.

[hilarityallen.livejournal.com]

As above, this may be hideous breach of etiquette. Anyway, I too was horrifically screamy baby (to the extent that neighbours would come round to check my parents weren't killing me - and they have a large detached house with lots of space round it). I had to be in contact with a parent at all times, and be talked to. Or sang to. Or something. Um. Basically, I had a near-constant desire to be stimulated. I think the good news about this is that it is possible to get past the screaming phase eventually. But as venta says, babies are individuals, and thus while Standing On One Leg While Singing Marseillaise Backwards may work for someone, it's certainly not going to work for everyone :)

The pic is lovely, and I'm glad you're managing to read lots of books.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

Happy New Year, and thanks for the lovely photo

[emperor]

Happy new year :-)

[rmc28]

Happy New Year and what a lovely photo of you both :-)

[ewx.livejournal.com]

HNY l-)

[k425.livejournal.com]

Happy new year! You both look lovely!

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

That's a lovely picture of the two of you! Was good to see you in Oxford :D

[tortipede.livejournal.com]

Beautiful picture :)

[vinaigrettegirl.livejournal.com]

She will end up as Chancellor, or some kind of mega-CEO, or Queen of the Universe. I have rarely seen so formidable an expression on so young a face. You are both gorgeous, also and too.