January...ugh.

So I've been pretty bad about posting since Christmas...we got so busy, then got caught in the lull of winter. We can't go outside, so we sit in the living room pulling toys out and putting them back and pulling them out again. We have been pretty active with the MOMS club here, which is a major improvement over last winter. Evelyn gets to go to play with other kids her age with the MOMS club activities a couple times every month, and I get to go do things with other moms once or twice a month. Last week we piled into one of the other mom's van and drove to the giant Goodwill in Lancaster to do a bin dive, which was actually very fun. When the Goodwill wants to get rid of extra stock, they dump it in the bins in the warehouse and you can sort through them for stuff and everything costs 85 cents apiece. So I got some pajamas for Evelyn (for when she's like, 4, but they were super cute so I couldn't pass them up!) a few old sweaters that I'm planning on using for a craft because they're shrunk to the point of felting, several sweaters we can actually wear, and a handful of old ties for crafts that were 50 cents each. I think I spent about $9.

In Evelyn news, we're currently dealing with some serious separation anxiety. Especially at bedtime. We let her cry herself to sleep for the first time the other night because she kept wailing every time we walked out of the room, no matter how much time we spent calming her down. She is getting very good at entertaining herself when she's awake, and I like to sit on the floor with her and show her all the things she can do with her toys or reading her little books (which, at this point, she would rather chew on). I showed her the other day how to put her toy rings in a little plastic bin and take them out one at a time, and now I'm finding all kinds of non-ring toys in that little bin:P She likes to walk around the house holding our hands. She can ALMOST stand up in the middle of the room, she just needs a little more confidence.
She's totally adjusted to the whole milk now, which is much friendlier to our wallets than the formula had been. She's back to feeding herself her bottles, and had been eating very well until this last weekend when she went on another eating strike. So...we've been trying to give her things she can eat herself, but sometimes those things just end up thrown around the room.

One of our resolutions this year is to start eating better. You know. More veggies, less processed foods. So I've been doing more cooking, trying new recipes, and trying to keep healthier snacks around the house. So far this week we've made tacos (with vegetables mixed in!), salmon/salad/crab dip and bread, and burritos with whole wheat tortillas, fat-free refried beans, and low fat cheese. I actually made enough burrito filling for 40 burritos, which we've wrapped up and frozen for when we need a quick meal (like when Tim is on the road during dinner time twice a week--he can heat these up and take them with him to cut down on fast-food restaurant stops). And just adding more fruits and veggies and cutting out some of the processed foods we had been eating, I've lost 1.5 lbs. I've barely been exercising (because someone's naps are a little unpredictable and I have other things that need done). So far, so good:)
In terms of exercise, I have been getting a couple of workouts in with the Just Dance game I got for Christmas last year, and once the weather starts warming up, I'm going to start the couch-to-5K. There's something called the Color Run in Philly in July that I would like to do, so long as I can get up to where I can tolerate running for 5 kilometers:P I'd like to do some of the local races around here as well, and hopefully that will keep me motivated to keep moving:)

So that's our new year so far:)