Happy New Year!

Last year we barely made it to 9pm at Ed and Erl's house before having to pack up and go home - at that time, I was easily in bed by 9 every night while Tim fought Ellie for another hour before she gave in and went to sleep. This year, it's a different story. Not that we made it to midnight, or that we could lay Ellie down in a pack and play and have her go to bed at our friend's house, but hey, at least this year she had a friend her own age to play with at the party.

Our friends Cara and Colby invited us over to their house for dinner and fun. Their daughter Clare is a few weeks away from turning 1. When Cara first started coming to Friday mom class, it seemed like Ellie was SO much bigger and older, and then all of a sudden, BOOM, they are the same age and little best friends. Clare has just started taking a few steps at a time, and Cara jokes that it's because she hangs out with Lexi and Ellie and is sick of crawling after them.

Dinner was delicious and amazing, and we had a few glasses of champagne - why wait for midnight? After dinner, we tried to play Trivial Pursuit, boys versus girls. We didn't get to play an entire round because we hit pumpkin hour for little pumpkins, but let it be said that the girls were beating the boys when we hung it up for the night.

Oh, look how helpful the nuggets are being. Thanks ladies.

Ellie walked out on to their little patio and then started taunting Clare from the outside. That's Clare's sippy cup, of course.

Oh, what? Me?

We went to bed before 11 last night, because we'd had enough bubbly, and didn't want to stay up and watch Ryan Seacrest on tape delay. Then at a few minutes to midnight, our little friend woke up crying, so I went to lay down with her for a few minutes (she pretty much instantly goes back to sleep - she just wants to be spooned for a minute.) So as 2012 dawned (and fireworks went off) I had a sweet little auburn haired girl with her head tucked under my chin. And by 12:03, I was back to my own bed with my sweetheart, giving a fat cat belly a quick scratch.

This morning, we had some delicious pancakes, and unlike last time, Ellie knew what was good for her and ate the pancakes as offered.

So, in short, 2012 has been treating us quite well so far. It's amazing to think how much happened in 2011 - how quickly our lives and our baby friend changed. I can't wait to see what kind of nonsense she gets into this year.

So excited to help sweep the front stoop.