Dear Mia: Part 8

You are 14 months old now.

I think you understand most of what I say to you at this point, which means all these months I've been wondering if you understand what "no" means, now I can answer that you do, even if you play dumb 99% of the time. I'm on to you.

Every day you are saying more and more words. Just for my own records, here are the words you say now (although I may be the only one who understands them): Mama/mommy, Dada/daddy, Nana, Papa, Elmo, water, puppy, buddy (we refer to your stuffed animals as "buddies"), night-night, shoes, socks, hat, up, down, off, more, meow, doggy, woof woof, hair, nose, eyes, arm, knees, ball, baby, apple, airplane, moon, pizza, Mia, Kassie, Lulu, poo poo, potty, Abby, read, hi, splash, bye, car, no, ready, glasses.

You know your own name which is the happy accident of giving you an easy name. You look at yourself in the mirror and I ask "Who is that?" or I ask you what your name is and you say "Me-yaaaaa."

If you can't say a word you just won't even try. We'll coax, "say Timmy!" over and over and you'll just stare at us, then we say, "say Mia!" and you'll parrot back "Me-yaaaa."

You are still an early bird, waking up at 6 or 6:30 every morning. I never thought I would consider 7am to be sleeping in, but here we are. You wake up with boundless energy, and I cannot even fathom all the other parents who claim their 1 year-olds occasionally sleep until 8. I would be convinced you were dead if you slept that late. 

Now that you are sleeping through the night like a normal human being and are generally fun to be around, the question of when to have another baby enters my mind. Sometimes I think, what if you are awesome enough all by yourself? Maybe I don't need another one. Maybe I want to focus all of my love and devotion on you. I always thought that if I had one kickass kid I would obviously want another one, right? But you are so amazing that I'm afraid of having anything to distract me from you. Obviously I KNOW that the "something" distracting me from you would theoretically be another kickass kid, but I have not met that kid yet. I have not fallen in love with them yet, so I can't quite get on board with it.

I watch videos of when you were a chubby baby and I thought that would make me yearn for another newborn to snuggle, but all it makes me want to do is go back in time for 5 minutes to snuggle you again. At this point I don't want ANOTHER baby, I just want to relive YOU as a baby again.

The idea of going through those first few months with a newborn and ALSO having a toddler makes my palms sweat. But sometimes I close my eyes and remember the moment I first saw your face or the first time I heard you laugh and I have this twisting in my stomach that tells me I KNOW I will do it again. I just don't know when.

You still undeniably have my eyes, but as your face becomes less the round cherubic face of a baby and more the lean face of a child, the fact that you are your father's daughter is overwhelming. You look less and less like me and more and more like him every day. The eyes are mine, but everything else about you is him.

Your hair is the lightest shade of brown (the longer it gets, the lighter it seems, and I cannot believe that last summer you had dark hair and that I was convinced you were going to be brunette) and your eyes are still the same dark blue as the day you were born, but now they have the faintest flecks of brown around the pupil. I'll give it until your second birthday until we really determine what color they are.

You love to dance and listen to music. You turn in circles to "Ring Around The Rosy" and clap your hands to "If You're Happy and You Know it." We've been going to a music class on Wednesday mornings where you shake maracas and march around the room. You mostly just love to be around the other children...

You LOVE other kids. You stare and point and laugh in their presence or often you walk right up to another kid and just stand right in front of them as it seems this is your understanding of how to make friends.You try to share your toys with unsuspecting kids who may not want to play with you, which almost breaks my heart with how pure and unashamed the action is and because I want EVERYONE to want to be your friend.

You love to give kisses. You kiss everyone I tell you to. You give your dad a kiss, then turn your head to me for a kiss, then back and forth. You kiss your stuffed animals then pretend they are kissing each other. I had no idea a kid so young could pretend things like that, but you also like to pretend to give your babies bottles (it's amazing how girls are little mommies right from the beginning) or you pretend to put sunblock on me as I put it on you or you hold objects up to your ear like they are a phone and say "hiiiiiii."

We finished breast feeding on your birthday. I was so worried that it would affect your nighttime sleep, but you could not have possibly cared less. I am confident that it was the absolute right time to stop now. You had gotten so wiggly and you would pinch me and slap me, I can't imagine still doing it at this point. And now you are chugging whole milk like a champ.

You love Elmo more than life itself. Nothing else captivates you like putting Elmo's World on TV. I have nothing to expand on here, I just figured it was worth noting for my own memories.

You still love being outside. You love to go to the playground and climb to the top of the slide. The anticipation of going down is more fun for you than actually sliding. But you go down holding my hand. You love to swing and play in the sandbox. You love playing in the water. I can't wait to take you to the pool and the beach this summer because you don't mind getting your face and head wet and you don't care how cold it is. You just want to be in the water. You take my hand and put it in saying "posh (splash)."

You are in a phase where you love climbing and jumping too. You have a skinned knee at the moment, and I see many more in our future. You love to get up in my bed and just throw yourself around. You are not a delicate flower. You fall down and get right back up again, and I admire that so much about you.

Mia, you are rough and tumble. You are feisty and strong-willed and independent, but so so sweet, and I love you with such intensity it could knock my off my feet. I remember hearing before I had you that having a child was like having your heart walking around outside your body, and that is exactly what this is like. I am vulnerable with you out there in the world, but I couldn't be more happy and proud to watch you grow and learn and dance to your own beat. I never want you to stop doing that. Not ever.

Dear Mia: Part 7

3/14/2012
Oh Mia Jane, you are the most stubborn person I've ever known. When I tell people this they snort. They snort because they are under the delusion that I am the most stubborn person they know. And your dad is no push-over either. Our genes seem to have collided into this super power of bull-headedness - You.

You have decided after months of being a great sleeper that you no longer want to sleep. Ever. At all. Under any circumstances. Unless maybe you are in direct physical contact with me. Which is obviously not always doable. You have somehow completely lost the ability to put yourself to sleep. Where did this ability go? I may put out fliers, plaster it on the side of milk cartons, for that it how much I miss it. My baby is broken. Is there somewhere I can get an upgrade? This model is out dated. She seems to think it is LAST March.

I write this in the hopes that it won't be long before I can look back on this and think, "aw, I remember that week where I was seconds away from getting my tubes tied, so sure was I that I would never ever put myself through this frustration again. It wasn't so bad. It was just a phase. And look at what a good sleeper she is now!"

You are currently in your crib going on 1 hour of standing and crying and possibly falling asleep standing up and then banging your head on the crib rail, waking yourself and crying all over again. I am at a loss.

3/28/2012
I am not even going to address the above rant, for fear of jinxing anything. I will just say that I am well-rested at the moment. That is all.

Mia, you are 1 year old today. How did this happen? Some days I am addressing myself as "mommy," and immediately wondering, "How am I someone's mom? Who allowed that to happen?" And then some days I am having some memory of a day before you were born and subconsciously injecting you into that memory, for I feel like you have been here forever.

We had your birthday party this past weekend. Everyone who loves you showed up and acted enthralled as you devoured an entire cupcake in record time. I can't lie and say I wasn't proud in that moment. This family loves sweets and you are no exception. You were a bit overwhelmed by all the hubbub, but you kept it together pretty well, even taking a nap in your crib while the bigger kids where outside taking their aggression out on a pinata.

I went over the top with decorations and cupcake baking. I love showering the people I love with attention in this way, and I can't wait until you really understand what birthdays are all about. Watch out, I might go a little crazy.

I am in the midst of weaning you from breastfeeding right now. We are down to one nursing a day, right before bedtime. I am nervous about giving this up, for fear it might mess with your sleeping, but I plan on stopping some time this week. I can't believe we made it a year. It was so so hard in the beginning. I thought about quitting so many times along the way, but I'm so glad I didn't. But I am so ready now, and you haven't seemed to miss it much, just requiring a few extra snuggles throughout the day, and chugging milk laced with drinkable yogurt (I knew you wouldn't just make a smooth transition to milk, my picky, stubborn girl, but we are working on it).

The weather was unseasonably warm the last few weeks and you have loved being outside. You toddle up and down the driveway chasing your ball. You pull grass out of the yard, and whenever you see our 4 year-old neighbor Kassie come outside you drop whatever you're doing to walk to her. You love going for walks and to the playground. Last summer I was so excited for this summer to see how interactive you would be, and it's only spring, but it's totally living up to my own hype!


Neat Party Tricks at 1 Year-old:
- You say "hat," "book" (more like "buh"), "ball" ("bah"), "shoe" and "dada" (rarely do you say "mama") in correct context
- You call anything in a cup "water" ("ah-too").
- Whenever you see me holding a plate or a cup you say "hot," because often I am holding you and a plate or cup of something hot and have to tell you not to touch, it's hot.
- Whenever someone says the word "cold" you say "burrrr."
- You try to put your shoes and socks on yourself, and you bring my shoes to me and try to put them on my feet.
- When we tell you it's bathtime you toddle off the the bathroom, and when you are undressed and ready for the bath you try to climb in by hitching one leg up as high as it will go.
- You sign "all done," and I've tried to teach you the sign for "more," but I think you have interpreted it was waving to yourself with your right hand.
- You can identify your belly, your mouth (by opening your mouth wide and sticking out your tongue), your hair, your feet, and sometimes your nose and ears.
- You dance by swaying side to side. You jump by bouncing up and down with bended knees. You rock your baby dolls and give them kisses.
- When Daddy leaves for work in the morning you wave to him from the front door then whine for a few minutes, then when he comes home at night you shout "Dada!" which must just be the coolest thing ever for him.
- You know that cows say "moo" and monkeys say "oh-oh ah-ah."
- You know the dog across the street's name, Cuddles (although you say "Duh-doos") and that dogs go "woof woof," but now you call all animals Cuddles and say they go "woof woof."

A year ago I couldn't have imagined how you would make my heart grow over the last 12 months. I couldn't have imagined what a neat little person you would become. A year ago I looked into your shrieking face and I knew I loved you, but you were still a stranger to me. Now, you are the sweetest, silliest, most wonderful person I've ever known.


Happy Birthday, gorgeous girl!

Dear Mia: Part 6

You are 11 months old today. How did that happen? Just yesterday you were a little loaf I could put down in one place and you didn't move an inch. Now you are all over the place. You have finally figured out that walking is an adequate way to get around. And if you fall down you crawl like the your butt is on fire. If anyone leaves a room you are in, even if there are still 10 people left in the room, you follow them. Because they must be going some place fun. I knew it would be exhausting chasing you around all day, (and it wouldn't be nearly so if you would just learn to listen when I say "no," as you empty every book off of my shelves) but I love watching you stomp around the house and you are so dang proud of yourself. I wouldn't trade it for that little loaf any day.

The other day your dad was getting you undressed for your bath while I was running the water, and he put you down and told you to walk to the bathroom. Holy cow, a little tiny naked lady who's just learned to walk stomping down the hall may just be the cutest thing I've ever seen. I have burned that image into my brain. I never want to forget it.


You, my dear, are a picky eater. I had no idea a baby could even be a picky eater. And I can find no discernible rhyme or reason to the things you like and dislike on any given day. You refuse any green vegetable except puréed green beans, so you have a jar with dinner every night. I'm a little worried I will have to send you off to college with a box of 4 ounce jars of puréed green beans to get your quota of greens every day. The only foods you'll eat without a fuss are: goldfish crackers, yogurt, cottage cheese, hummus, beans, bananas and grapes.


You have begun to really communicate lately. You seem to understand a lot of what we say. You follow simple commands. When I say hi to you, you wave. When I say the word "clap" or any word that sounds like it, you clap. When I tell you daddy's coming home, you look at the door and sometimes crawl over to it to look out the window. If you are playing and get frustrated with a toy, you take my hand and put the toy in it as your way of asking for help.

I'm pretty sure your first word is "hat," which sounds more like "hot," and is accompanied by either putting your hand on your head or trying to put your hat on your head. You repeat sounds a lot, but this is the first word I've heard you say independently while identifying the object.

It is just so awesome to feel like this relationship is not just so one sided anymore. I am not just talking for the sake of hearing my own voice all day long.

Your favorite activity is by far looking at your basket full of books. You love to sit and look through them yourself. When you want to be read to, you hold a book out to me, and I ask "do you want me to read this?" and you give a big smile and scramble to get into my lap.


I've been wondering since I was pregnant whether you would be left handed like your dad and me. It's kind of like a science experiment waiting to see. When you first started sucking your thumb, it was your left thumb, but now you have no preference. You suck both thumbs. But you seem to hold things with your right hand more often, so we will have to wait and see about that.

You are a rambunctious little thing. You are no shrinking violet. But you are also so sweet and snugly, especially when you are tired or hungry. You'll let me hold you against my chest while you suck your thumb, and I lap it up. Oh, my girl, I have to remind myself that there will come a day when I won't be able to bury my face in your neck any time I want. I wonder if my own mother still longs to kiss my neck whenever she sees me. I can't imagine there will be a time when I don't want to go crazy kissing your face. We have years of neck nuzzling left, yes? (Just lie and say yes)


You continue to sleep pretty well at night. You'll go weeks of sleeping until 6:30 (which seems SO luxurious these days), and then something will wake you up at 5:30 one day. After that we spend weeks getting you back to sleeping that extra hour. Let's just say I pretty much hate everything before 6am, so while we are currently on an "off" week of waking at 5:30, I am not too happy.

With the good comes the bad though, and you have begun throwing monster tantrums when you don't get your way, complete with screaming, crocodile tears, and back arching. The Terrible Twos may find you put out with the garbage. The whining already has me wishing myself deaf.

You show affection and frustration by head butting. Twice I have thought you must have given me a bloody nose with the power of your love. You head butt the cats and other babies at story time at the library. And when you get frustrated with something you sit on the floor and bang your head on it. Obviously, we are working on this. Gentle is not a word you understand just yet.


I am planning your first birthday with as much care as I put into my wedding. I am so excited about it. Excuse me if I make this more about me than about you, but the more birthdays you have the more they become a celebration of whatever age you're turning and less an actual celebration of the anniversary of your birth. So, on the first anniversary of your birth, I want to remember where I was a year ago, the last time I felt you swimming in my belly, the first time I looked into your face. The joy, the pain, the frustration. Next year, and all the years that follow March 28th will be your day. We will celebrate you turning 2 and 10 and 25 (eek!) by looking forward, but this year I just want to reminisce a little bit and see how far we've come, because March 28th wasn't just the day you were born, it was also the day I became a mom.

Added Square Footage

Earlier this week we finally made a big change to the house, one that will hopefully make it feel quite a bit bigger. We got carpet installed in the basement and, in a game-time decision that I think makes all the difference, up the basement stairs.

This is what we were dealing with before:

Since the stairs are open they really are kind of part of the main living space. Even though they were hardwood, they were looking beat. I considered refinishing them myself, but uh, it's not like I'm flush with free time right now.

Notice Tesla at the top of the stairs in this pic.

Oh, my eyes. That's ugly.

And here's how it looks now:

So warm and lovely.

And notice Conrad in the top of the stairs in this pic.

At the end of the hall is the laundry room and storage. The second door on the left is a bathroom where we also had new vinyl floors installed. We're still doing some work in there, and it will probably always be an eyesore, but I may just man up and post pictures eventually, because it's definitely an improvement. I was scared to even go in there when we moved in.

So eventually this space will be a play room/workout room. We have to move the treadmill back in and Jeff's bike trainer. It probably won't ever be "pretty," but it will be nice to have more room for Mia's toys that are cluttering every other corner of the house.

Life at the Moment

I had that last post saved in my drafts for a few weeks before I posted. I thought just typing the words that Mia was sleeping through the night was enough to tempt fate, but no, apparently you actually have to hit " post" before you upset the God of Getting a Good Night of Sleep, because now my daughter has decided that the hours of 10:30pm and 1:30am are a wonderful time to scream her fool head off. And I want to die. The end.

I got inspired by Pinterest again to do a little art project for the entryway (the wall over the table used to look like the last photo on this post and I never really loved it).

I was first inspired by this photo:

(originally from Me Oh My)

And then I liked the one contrasting stripe from this photo:

(originally from from Ohdeedoh)

And so I came up with this:

I quite like it.

Is it bedtime yet?

Dear Mia: Part 5

You are almost 10 months old now, and I'm not sugar-coating anything when I say the last 8 weeks or so with you have been so much fun. You started consistently sleeping through the night (yes, I am aware that now that I put this out there I am begging the universe to slap me upside the head, but I feel the need to record this milestone), and it has made a world of difference in your attitude.

You are such a happy baby.


You think everything is funny (Most notably: sneezing, shoving various toys into my mouth, and watching daddy throw things in the air and catch them). You interact with everyone and everything. You babble to yourself almost constantly, then chuckle at the silly things you say. You wave. You clap. You give high fives.

This has made me fiercely protective of your sleep schedule, something your Nana judges me for, but I really don't care. I see the positive difference in both of us that getting a good night of sleep makes.

We celebrated Christmas with your dad's family in Buffalo. You, of course didn't sleep well at their house and were up at 5:30, which made the day rough for both of us. But you loved wrapping paper, and you got showered with gifts. You were also able to eat the same foods we were eating for dinner; some potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, and cheese. It is a lot of fun to be able to feed you from my plate and you give a satisfied "mmm."


Your favorite food is definitely yogurt. When your dad is eating some in the morning you clamor to get close to him and look up at him like a dog begging at the dinner table. When he shares with you you squeeze your eyes closed and smile like you've just taken a bite of the most decadent dessert.

You are getting better with strangers. You seem to do better with women than men, and you seem to read their energy before deciding whether you'll be cool with them or not. Calm, friendly women are your people. If someone comes at you with too much excitement and attempts to pick you up in the first 30 seconds, you will never forgive them. I get it, you just need a bit to warm up to people, then you will charm their pants off. Some of Daddy's family has a really hard time understanding this, but I think that's their loss that they won't take the time to get on your good side.

I've said before that you have my eyes, and I've always felt something oddly familiar about looking into them. Then a few weeks ago I was sitting next to your crib as you fell asleep because you had a cold. You were curled up against the side crib rails to be as close to me as you could, and all I could see of your face was the bridge of your nose and eyes, and suddenly I realized what was so familiar about your eyes, they are my little brother's eyes, and now that's all I see when I look at you. You look like uncle Tim did when he was a baby, and it makes me so nostalgic. In some ways I feel like he was my first baby, and then I remember that he is almost 20, and boy, does time fly. It feels like just yesterday I was singing him lullabies and putting him to sleep.


You are a morning person through and through. We struggled for weeks just to get you to sleep past 5am, but you wake up so damn happy! And your dad says it's his favorite part of the day when we bring you into our bed in the mornings to snuggle.

I know I've said it before, but I find it necessary, as I think it is an integral part of your personality, to point out again how you go from 0 to 60. One morning I watched you on the video monitor as you were sleeping soundly on you belly, the next moment you were up pulling yourself to standing on the side of the crib. No stretching or eye rubbing, just straight from sleeping to raring to go.

I don't want to brag, but at your 9 month appointment your doctor went on and on about how advanced you are. She said it was weird because you SEEMED like a 1 year-old, but in the body of a 9 month old. I honestly don't know if she says this to every parent, but I sure do love someone other than myself going on and on about how smart you are!


Speaking of bragging, I told your dad the other day that I need to find some balance between bragging about you and downplaying your achievements (for lack of a better word). Because I think it's something that will come up over and over throughout your life, and I'd never want you to think I'm not proud of you. And I NEVER want you to hide your light. I want you to shine as bright as you dare.

You finally starting crawling a few weeks ago. I thought you might go straight to walking. You cruise from couch to coffee table then crawl to a toy, pull yourself up, etc. you can get where ever you want to go now.

Right after you started crawling you took your first steps, on New Years Day no less. And you have continued to stumble from me to daddy and back again. One day you will figure out what this ability means and you will be off and running.

Watching you stumble toward me with a huge smile on your face is one of the most exciting things I've ever experienced. THIS is why people have children. THIS is why we put up with the sleep deprivation and tantrums and wiping someone else's rear end. Before I had you I didn't know this emotion, this heart-bursting elation. There is not even a word for how much joy you bring to my life.

2011 in Review

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before? Birthed a child. Had major surgery in order to birth said child. Nursed said child. Fell head over heels in love with said child. Went to Cincinnati, and promptly wanted to move there. Took a Zumba class. Cooked new foods like quinoa and bulghur.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don't really think I made any last year. For 2012 I think I'll go on record to say I'd like to be a better friend. I don't think it always comes naturally to me, so I need to try harder. I'd also like to make more friends. Maybe more mommy friends for play dates. And losing this baby belly pooch would be pretty awesome too, but I'm not going to aim too high.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Me! And a friend had a baby boy a few weeks after me.

4. Did anyone close to you die? Jeff's grandfather died in early March.

5. What countries did you visit? I think it will be a long time before I'm visiting any foreign countries.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011? More caffeine! I gave up coffee because it seemed to be affecting Mia's sleep, and I miss it so. This spring, when I finish breastfeeding, I am going to be an incredibly caffeinated woman!

7. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? March 28th - Mia's birthday. Every other date pales in comparison.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Aside from carrying, birthing and keeping Mia alive, I would say it was breastfeeding. It was so hard for us at first. I thought about quitting many times, but I'm so so glad I didn't.

9. What was your biggest failure? Not making sure Mia took a bottle. It's not so bad now that she only nurses 4 times a day, but it sure would have meant a lot more freedom a few months ago.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Injury in the sense that I had a c-section, and it really fucking hurt. I did not heal as well or as quickly as I would have liked. I was essentially bed ridden for about 2 weeks, and in quite a bit of pain for 6 weeks.

11. What was the best thing you bought? A new car to replace Jeff's 11 year-old Nissan. I was the one driving it at the end and Lord, was I embarrassed by it. It sounded like a diesel truck, the power windows and locks were broken, it made a loud knocking sound with every sharp left turn etc, etc, etc. Second best thing we bought was a new washer and dryer to replace those that I believe may have been original to our house. Which was built in 1954.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Jeff's. During the 2 weeks after Mia was born he had to take care of all 3 of us, and he just... DID IT. I don't think I changed a single diaper for the first several days. In the hospital while he brushed and blow dried my hair for me, and I thought, "This is love."

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Jerry Sandusky & Bernie Fine

14. Where did most of your money go? The mortgage.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Mia!

16. What song will always remind you of 2011? probably Adele - Someone Like You or Chris Brown - Look at Me Now or Florence & The Machine's Dog Days Are Done. We listened to those songs a lot in our house.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

a) happier or sadder? Happier! Oh so happy.
b) thinner or fatter? Thinner.
c) richer or poorer? Richer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? The only thing I can think to say is "sleep," but what difference would it make to me now if I had slept more? Maybe I wish I'd exercised more?

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? I guess I wish I'd nagged less.

20. How did you spend Christmas? In Buffalo with Jeff's family.

21. Did you fall in love in 2011? I fell so in love with my girl, and so much more in love with her amazing dad.

22. What was your favorite TV program? Probably The Good Wife. It's the one I am most excited to watch every week, and one of the few that Jeff and I both enjoy. But, let's be honest, I'm also excited when there's a new episode of The Real Housewives of Wherever in my DVR. And Top Chef, I love Top Chef.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? No, can't say that I do.

24. What was the best book you read? I burned through The Hunger Games series. I also loved Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones. And Bossypants was hilarious.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? I knew of Adele before this year, but her music had never moved me the way her new album has.

26. What did you want and get? A healthy, fiesty little girl.

27. What did you want and not get? I wanted my stomach to magically shrink back to how it looked when I was 16 and for my stretch marks to disappear overnight. I'm still waiting.

28. What was your favorite film of this year? I think I watched like 3 movies this whole year. We cancelled out Netflix account because we were basically donating $15 dollars to them every month, and we haven't seen a movie in the theaters all year.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 29. We went out to dinner at my favorite Italian restaurant. Then the following weekend my family came, and we had cupcakes and Thai food.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Hmm... Maybe if Mia had slept through the night from day one? It's been pretty damn satisfying other than the lack of sleep.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011? Yoga pants, sweat pants, and pajama pants, all covered in spit up.

32. What kept you sane? Jeff.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Josh Charles

34. What political issue stirred you the most? The legalization of gay marriage in New York state. (Stirred in a good way)

35. Who did you miss? I miss my family so so so much. They aren't that far away (and obviously I saw them tons this year), but I yearn to live close to them. I daydream of living so close that we could just pop over for a random weeknight dinner or have my mom babysit anytime we want. Someday?

36. Who was the best new person you met? Mia.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011. I learned that I am a lot stronger and a lot more patient than I thought I was.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
I can't come up with one, and I don't feel like putting off posting this until I do.