Welcome 2012!

Firstly, Happy New Year to you all. I've blogged before about 2011 not treating us very well and, to be quite honest, I'm not sad to see the back of it. I'm feeling really positive about 2012 though and I've been thinking about what I'd like to see happen for our little family. They aren't resolutions, more a few hopes and thoughts for what is to come.

I'd love our family to get a little bigger. We've been thinking about a new baby for a while and I'm hoping 2012 will be the year. I'd like, at the very least, to be pregnant by the end of the year so we shall see. I'd love to see Bud with a little brother or sister and to welcome another wonderful little one.

I think 2012 will see some changes for Bud. I'm planning to tackle the dreaded potty training in the summer. He will be 2 in April and I'm hoping that the warmer weather will mean that he can run around with no nappy on and we shall see how he goes. He is a clever little boy so I'm hoping it will be quite a painless experience but I view it with quite a large amount of trepidation. I've heard so many stories now, I just need to formulate a plan and go for it! I'm also hoping Bud will self wean within the next few months. Our breastfeeding journey has been an easy one, I've been so lucky that Bud and I took to it easily (after the dreadful first week), and the time we spend nursing now is still a special time for us both. He loves feeding and I can't really imagine him ever giving up voluntarily so I may have to look at weaning him myself. I'm sure that this would be a traumatic experience for him and I really don't want to put him through that. We've been doing great with the sleep training lately so I'm hoping that this will continue and, sooner rather than later, I will be able to put an awake child into his bed and leave him to go to sleep on his own. We'll be converting his cot bed down into a bed this year and I'm sure that this will make me feel like my little boy is growing up even more.

Red Rose Daddy has recently had a promotion at work and is really enjoying his new position. I'm hoping that this will continue for him, and that he may finally be offered a permanent contract. He has also booked a place in the Manchester Marathon for April so we will all be going out to support him in his run. He loves running but hasn't entered a Marathon since before Bud was born so I am really pleased he is getting back to something he loves.

For me, I'm getting used to being a Stay at Home Mum. I love being at home with Bud and I don't miss work in the way I used to. I loved working with my old team and still miss spending time with them but I'm feeling at ease in my new role now. I'm loving my blog and the new world it has opened it up to me. Obviously I'm going to continue and I'm looking forward to the challenge of Project 366. I'm planning to continue seeing as many bands as I can, I'm aiming for one a month again, and am every excited to have booked tickets to go and see my current favourite, The Vaccines, in Blackpool in May.

As far as the wider world is concerned, we are a family of sports junkies and we are all very excited to see the range of sporting events which will be staged in 2012. A home Olympics is such an exciting prospect for me. I've always adored the games and, somehow, I never really thought we would host them again. Sadly, we didn't manage to get tickets as Red Rose Daddy was made redundant a week before the ballot opened and we really couldn't risk tying up money in that way, most people who tried seemed not to have been lucky anyway so we probably wouldn't have been lucky anyway. We are planning to visit London during the games though, and will hopefully attend one of the free to view events, I'm thinking the Cycling Road Race. The Torch Relay will be passing through our home town and we will turn out to see it pass by.

What are your hopes and plans for 2012?