One Quarter Down, The Rest Of The Year To Go

So, i thought seeing as we are one quarter of the way through 2009 ( god, already! ) that i might quickly review how my goals for the year were going. AS it turns out, i think i'm doing pretty well!

Continue the gym/health kick: Ok, to be fair, this one has slipped a little in the last month. I was away from home for two weeks so i didnt make it to the gym at all - i did go for a few walks after work, but going for a walk just doesnt make me feel the same. And i've been sick with the latest icky bug the past week and, consequently, havent have only been to the gym once in the past week. However, its not like i have stopped going because i couldnt be bothered anymore, which would mena a big fat FAIL on this goal. NO, its only been circumstance that has stopped me, so i'm going to give myself a 6/10 on this one thus far.

Spend as much time with my neices as possible: I'm going to give myself a pass mark on this one. Admittedly, since the arrival of Mr Gil to my scene i have not been as frequent a visitor to my brothers house as i once was, but all the time i do spend with H and BellaBoo is quality. BellaBoo is three months old now ( ah, how convenient for her to have been born on New Years Day ) and she is a chubby-cheeked little cherub with fluffy brown hair. She gurgles and laughs now, so you can pull funny faces and make her laugh, as opposed to pulling funny faces and just looking like an oodball. H seems to have gorwn closer to me since Bella's arrival - i think both being the oldest we have a thing going on, because i know what she's gona experience being the oldestof the brood. I've tried to pay her a little more attention than Bella sometimes to make sure she doesnt feel like the baby has " stolen " everyone away from her. That makes me a good aunty right ? 8/10 on this one.

Try saying " yes " more often than " no " : Yep, this train is definately still on the tracks. In fact, i credit how much i'm enjoying my new relationship with Mr Gil to the fact i am more open to saying " yes ". We met online, and he didnt have a picture on his profile - in the past, i wouldnt haven't struck up an email " relationship " without having seen a picture first.... but i this time i said " yes ". When he invited me to roadtrip with him to meet his nephews not soon after we'd met, i could have freaked right out..... but i said " yes ". Even the fact i ignored the so-called dating rules and went on a handful of dates with him inside of two weeks was me sayign " yes ". And look where its got me ? For the happiness i'm exeperincing right now, i give myself a resounding 10/10 ! Yay me!

So there you have it.... the three month review. At this point i would also ( appropriately ) like to wish everyone a Happy Eatser however your spending it ( catching up with family and attending Mr Gil's 10 year school reunion ). Please remember that chocolate is your friend, but even friends can turn enemies if you get too much of them. Safe eating everyone!

Isnt she lovely? Isnt she won-der-ful ?

So there you are everybody - the very proud Aunty Amy and little Isabella. Or Bella, as she is already informally called. Its not the best photo ever but at least she's awake and we're both looking at the camera. That was taken this afternoon, so lets call it an official portrait of me and Bella when she is four days old. She's too, too cute! Let me show you a close up:

Aww, look at her! She has this cute little mohawk thing going on and a sweet, little, perfectly formed nose. Sure, she looks kind of grumpy in this picture but you probably would be too if it were 35 degrees celsius outside and because you're only four days old you have to be bundled up in a blanket. It would make you kind of grumpy, and kind of sweaty, but thats not the point. The point is Bella is a cubby cheeked little cherub and i think i will have to control myself from kidnapping her and keeping her in room.

But isnt the way all proud aunties feel ?

A Belated - Happy New Year!

So a Happy New Year to all of you peoples out there. Hopefully you all found yourself in the company of good people in the countdown to 2009, and with a bit of luck hopefully you got to kiss at least one of those people. I got me a little New Years peck from an old school friend of my brothers which is not exactly what i had in mind, but hey - i'll take what i can get.

By far the highlight of my New Years was .... the birth of my neice! Welcome to the world little Isabella Grace. Yes, thats right regular blog followers, the impending new baby ( who was due on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day mind you.... ) finally arrived at 2:23am on New Years Day. Happy New Years to everyone in my family. And not only did she finally arrive, but she happened to be the first baby born in our region for 2009. How cool is that ? She gets to be in the local paper and, thus, will go down as part of local history. Bella is totally going to be famous when tomorrows addition comes out! Hopefully i'll be able to post a picture tomorrow, or at least give you a link to our local newspaper, if you want to check out my gorgeous new neice for yourself.

And now, for the part you've all been waiting for - or at least, the part you've been expecting: my resolutions. I've never been the type to sit and make a very specific list of what i want to achieve. I know some people think that putting your EXACT goals on paper and sticking them on your fridge/closet/bathroom mirror is a great way to self-motivate; I, however, am of the opinion that if you leave your goals as general as possible, you wont be disappointed if you couldnt do EXACTLY what you wanted, but you'll appreciate what you did do. Does that make sense ? For example, if you say " I want to save $5000 by the end of the year " and at the end of the year you only have $4500, you'd probably be a little letdown, wouldnt you ? But if you made your resolution " I'd like to save as much money as possible during the year " well, $4500 doesnt look so bad, does it ? So, in the spirit of leaving myself open to all possibilities and not tying myself to one specific thing, here are the three things i want to achieve during 2009:

1. I resolve to continue the gym and health routine I started in 2008. During the past year, I managed to not only start regularly going to the gym, but i kept it up. I've fallen off the wagon a little in the past two months, seeing as i've been a little under the weather, but i am pysched to get back into it. And, not only do i resolve to continue the gym going, but i also intend to push myself just that little bit harder when i can, instead of resting on my laurels.

2. I resolve to spend as much time as is possible with my neices. For the record, that would be H who is now 3, and the previously mentioned newborn Isabella. I like to think i'm a great aunty ( i was going to say good but you know what ? I'm actually GREAT ) already, but i know their have been times in the past year or so that i could have asked if H would like to do something with me, or times when we have been playing and i've given up the game just a little too early. I know she " loves my guts " - as she's just become fond of saying - and want little Bella to be the same way. I want to have the loving, nurturing , " My Aunty Amy is the bestest! " kind of relationship that i've never had with any of my aunts or uncles.

3. I resolve to say " yes " more often that I have done in the past. No, I havent been to see " Yes Man " with Jim Carrey. The truth is i've kind of come to this conclusion on my own - i've kind of missed out on a tonne of stuff because i said no. I said no because i didnt know anybody else who was going to be there; I said no because i was too tired or too lazy to make the effort to go; I said no because i was afraid how things would turn out in the end. Now i'm thinking even if things dont turn out all that fantastically, at least thats an experience right ? I've had a great 2 weeks over this holiday period because i've said " yes ", even when i would only know one person at birthday drinks, or two people out of 40 at a bbq - if i'd listened to the old me, i wouldnt have gone. And i wouldnt have rocked as hard as i did! I've made at least one new friend ( who may be a mother of 5 but she's pretty neat ) and a handful of acquaintances in only two weeks - imagine what i could do in a whole year of saying " yes " ?

And thats about it for now. I was thinking of doing a couple of " Best of " lists - say, my top 5 best movies of 2009, for example - but i've been too consumed by baby cuteness to think that much. Give me another week and i might have come up with them....