Resolutions and Stuff Like That

Geez Louise.  2016.  How can it be 2016 already?  Time speeds up every year, I think. Especially now that that means my babies grow up faster and faster, I'm not really okay with it.  Just this morning, I was noticing how Cora is losing her baby belly.  She's getting long and lean. This is heartbreaking to me.  What's next? No more baby cheeks?  Waa.

My babies won't be babies much longer.  Because of that, the new year sucks.  But besides that, it's looking to be a pretty positive 2016.  I realize it's only the fifth now, but I'm already making and keeping my resolutions.  And I was suuuuper sleepy last night after a Star Wars film outing, so that's saying something.

My resolutions are three:
1. Do Yoga, at least a little - every. single. day.
2. Speak more kindly. So long, sailor! I want to clean up my language and lower my tone. I can't say I haven't sworn at all or raised my voice, but I'm working on it.
And 3. Read from the Book of Mormon every day.

I bought myself an 1830's replica Book of Mormon (like the initial printing back in Joseph Smith's day, without verses or footnotes or any of that), and I've been loving reading it.  It reads more like a novel, which allows me to get into it more like a novel.  I'm really enjoying the stories and burning through them much easier than I ever did the verses, etc.  I hope this continues to be the case.

So there you go.  Resolutions.  Derek has been doing push ups and crunches every night, so maybe that's his resolution.  James is working on being more positive/happy, which I'm thrilled about.  He's the sweetest kid but can get so serious and negative about things.  I think it's the Type 4 in him.  And Jolie is working on sleeping with Baby Waa snuggled up on her chest. Ha. We aspire to greatness, we Andersons. Cora isn't working on anything, pretty sure.  But hopefully she'll work on going to bed without a humongous fight. This is new, and it majorly sucks. Last night I threatened to take away Mew (her blankie, no idea why she calls it Mew, but that's its name).  That seemed to do the trick.  We may have to go that route in the future.

I really want my girls to learn how to happily and quietly get to sleep.  Jolie plays and sings and is just overall a pretty bad sleeper.  She always has been.  It seems to have gotten worse and not better as she's aged.  Some nights she's up until 1am, crying and frustrated by not being able to sleep.  Her anxiety/insomnia is inherited from me, pretty sure, and it stresses me out big time.  I need to talk to her doctor about it.  For Christmas, she got a Hello Kitty boombox (CD/radio). We found a Christmas harp CD that sounds very lullaby-ish, and she's been playing it quietly at night.  I think that's helped. She's also finally learning how to read books (she's been dying to for years now, especially due to her bookworm brother). I snagged a stack of those I am Sam primer readers that she should be able to read on her own without much trouble and gave them to her to keep in her bed.  Listening to happy harp music helps keep the scary monsters away, and reading helps tire her little brain. The combination may be working.  Fingers crossed.

Well this rambling's been fun, but I should probably go.  Ashley, Elli and Nora are going to come play for a while.  And Ashley's going to shellac my poor, damaged fingernails (stupid Star Wars). I love that they (Jon and Ash, not my fingernails, ha) live close by again. We always say that we live in the valley to be close to family but then rarely see family at all!  We're working on fixing that. Resolution number four??  Okay. Time to go. Adios.