Our BIG Girl!

I knew I should've waited to post that last update. When I picked Mo up from school yesterday I found out she's moving to the older toddler room! It's official starting in February but she's spending a little time every day in there already to help her transition... and apparently loves it. Her teachers said when they tried to take her back to her old room yesterday she started crying so they just let her stay in the new room. She's moving up with 4 of her buddies from her current class so she'll have familiar faces but she's getting along with the older kids in the new room too. The only main difference with this room is that they're on sippy cups 100% but Mango is already really good with her sippy's.

Saying goodbye to holiday eating!

I can't believe how big and independent she's getting. I miss my tiny baby but I LOVE her toddler personality. While she's still very chatty with her baby babble we can start to pick up some definite words: "hello", "hi" and she's loves to wave to everyone. This morning she walked me out (I leave early and Bill takes her to school a little later), waved to me at the front door, blew me a kiss and then shut the door.  her teachers at school have told me that she's Miss Personality there, chatting with everyone, happy and dancing all the time.

As for everything else, we have some big changes coming this year. Mo is also going to have a new cousin this year and subsequently won't be the "baby" anymore, at least on the McKinney side. I have a few other friends embarking on new pregnancies, second pregnancies and second pregnancies with twins!!! I foresee lots of babies in 2015.

And I'm not one for resolutions but I did read this article on Surviving as a Working Mom and I definitely want to put a few of these tidbits to (greater) use... especially the "It's OK to Say No" one. Also, my own personal "it's ok to eat after 8pm so I can hang out with my daughter and not worry about also getting dinner made by x time", which goes perfectly with "sometimes seamlessweb is your best friend."

A healthy-ish dinner... Jonathan Waxman marinaded skirt steak with quinoa and a spinach salad

A couple things I've also found that help me stay organized/goal-focused that I'm loving this year are:

• LearnVest- a great way to manage money, set goals, and stick to a budget. I'm obsessed- and as a so-so Mint user, I find LV much less cluttered and annoying, also all of my and Bill's accounts can be tracked there versus only a handful with Mint (or tracked manually, no biggie for me). Also, it's free (unless you really feel you need a paid service, in which case they have those too).
• TimeHop- perfect for anyone who has a kid and/or takes tons of photos for social media. It's amazing to get almost daily updates on what we were doing with Mo last year, how my pregnancy was progressing the year before and all the cool single things I did going back year before that.
• Waze- As we get closer to owning a car, living in the 'burbs, and looking at commutes, this app is great! Also basically saved us anytime we've been on a car road trip (DFW, Cape Cod). It's a crowd-sourcing traffic app so we can get a good idea of whats going on up to the minute when we get on the road.
• Sweetgreen- This year I'm trying to be REALLY good about bringing in my lunch whenever possible, and yes, a $10 salad is ridic, but these are amazing salads/grain bowls. And so filling that I usually turn it into 2 meals. If there's a Sweetgreen nearby, brave the line and check it out. My thoughts are if I'm going to shell out $ for lunch, I want it to be healthy, fresh and delicious and Sweetgreen fits the bill on all counts.