I was having so much fun participating in the 2012 Extravaganza, but then the holidays came along and totally cramped my style. So this week along with my recap of October, November, and December, I will be playing catch up with July through September as well. I promise this won’t make my post extra long because my life is pretty boring. One of the most exciting non-baby related things that happened to me this month was that I got a new pair of pants. So yeah. That should tell you something.

Let’s begin…

July – September 2012

Unless you count that beach trip that I barely remember from June, we stayed relatively local this summer. During the week, I worked. On Saturdays I had Betty all to myself and would take her various places. We got a membership to our zoo, so I took her there a lot. She wasn’t really aware of anything that was going on around her, but it was nice to get her outside to walk around. Except for the day that it became about 110 degrees outside. That was not so fun for any Betty, mom, or zoo animal that was involved.

My husband has off on Sundays, so we would do family things on those days. A couple times we went down to my family’s house on the Bay. Betty had her first toes-in-the-sand experience:

Much like McKayla, she was not impressed. She also dipped her toes in the Bay, which I did not get a photo of because I was too busy with the massive meltdown that ensued.

In September, she turned 6 months and we had some fabulous pictures taken by my talented photographer friend.

October 2012

I LOVE HALLOWEEN! Though my days of dressing up in trashy costumes are long gone, I was still so excited for October this year for a whole new reason! Our month was spent visiting pumpkin patches:

Decorating our very first pumpkins:

Our first time on the swings at the park:

And of course the PERFECT Halloween costume. She was a magical unicorn, natch.

A hurricane hit our area a couple days before Halloween, and we were so lucky that it didn’t dampen any of our plans. We took her to Zoo Boo at the Zoo, which was chilly and a little damp, but she loved it. And she went for her very first Trick or Treat!

She got lots of Junior Mints. I ate them all.

November 2012

We discovered Port Discovery, which is an AWESOME children’s museum in the city. We went there a few times. Betty learned to crawl and after that it was even more fun!

We celebrated her first Thanksgiving. Dinner with with my family this year, which was fairly low-key with delicious food and good company. Just as we do every year, we put up the Christmas tree on Black Friday and then the next week, we took Betty to see the lights on 34th Street in Charm City. She LOVED it. How could you not?

She met Santa for the first time:

And loved him too. I swear I have the friendliest kid.

December 2012

Still in progress, but this month has been wonderful to say the least. I got to drink wine. I won a 40″ TV at our office party. The world didn’t blow up on the 21st. Betty had such a wonderful first Christmas. We visited with lots of family and did a lot of driving around, but she was so pleasant the whole time and met many new people. All of whom obviously loved her to pieces.

We had some unplanned weather on Christmas Eve!

We don’t often get White Christmases in this area, so I adore the fact that Betty’s had one for her first.

A Christmas morning picture:

With my help, she did really well with the unwrapping and seems to love all her gifts. One of her big presents that was promised to me for Christmas Eve delivery still hasn’t arrived, but I will leave that gripe for another day.

We will close out this month (and this YEAR!) with a child-friendly New Year’s Eve party at our friend’s house. I’m sure we won’t make it to midnight, but it should still be a lot of fun!

Goals & Hopes for 2013

These are so tough for me to think up. I don’t know if I can come up with 5.

1) To be the best mom that I can be to Betty. I want her to smile and have fun every day. I always want her to know how much I love her, even on the hard days.

2) I need to learn how to cook. My husband has always worked late and most of the time it is just Betty and me in the evenings. When it was just me, it was so easy. I could just throw a Lean Cuisine in the microwave and be done with it. Then when she was smaller, it was still easy because she had bottles, and then store bought purées. Now she is starting to eat table food for dinner and most of the time I’m at a total loss for what to prepare for her that is healthy, but also easy and fast because we don’t get home until around 6pm. Babies can’t eat Lean Cuisine pizzas and I really shouldn’t be either. A big goal of mine right now is getting together a recipe list and starting to meal plan so that she always has something good to eat in the evenings.

3) We are buying a house this year. This was also a goal in 2010, but we decided to continue renting for a variety of reasons. Now we are buying. Betty needs a yard to play in and a playroom and my living room needs to stop looking like a daycare.

4) I want to be the best person that I can be every day. Not just to my daughter, but to everyone I come in contact with. The world is a crazy place right now that could use some more kindness.

5) And just because I need one more…I’d like to lose 5 pounds. That shouldn’t be so hard if I could just stop eating all these damn cookies.

Many thanks to Mrs. Match, Mimi, Emmy Mom, CA Girl Lourie, Nicole, and Janette for hosting this 2012 Review! It was a lot of fun and I’m realizing that my life isn’t as boring as I thought.

My new pants are still awesome though.