It’s Day 1 of NaBloPoMo – and I’m back blogging after almost a year off since last year’s month-long blogfest.

I always like to start the month off with a little recap of what I’ve been doing for the last year, besides sneaking off to Target and single-handedly keeping Amazon in business.

A year in review.

December

As always, it was a busy holiday season. We decided that we would indeed introduce the Elf on a Shelf into our home (more on that guy in another post). As predicted, I thoroughly enjoyed finding new and interesting places for his shenanigans. I’m looking forward to threatening my child with no presents spreading that holiday magic again this year!

In true Little Mister fashion, he SLEPT IN on Christmas morning! Bright side: it gave Mr. KK and I a chance to make tea and coffee and sit in quiet for a few moments before the craziness began.

We have never been big fans of going out on New Year’s Eve; I think we’ve stayed in the last 10 years. Mr. KK will mix up some adult bevvies, I’ll cook up a tasty meal and we’ll play games and watch my all-time favorite reviews of all the people who died in the last year. Since Little Mister joined us, we’ve had the same plan, except our gourmet dinner includes pigs in a blanket and faux countdown at 9pm. But…we still have fun!

January

I jumped on the Instant Pot bandwagon. Mr. KK bought me one for Christmas (unlike some women I LOVE getting kitchen stuff for Christmas! Bring on the appliances and gadgets!)

I’ve mostly made soups (split pea, chicken, tortilla), artichokes (revolutionary!) and buffalo chicken.

February

We tried swim lessons, again.

And, once again, our child took swim lessons from land:

That was about as close to the pool as he got. Each week he would sit there and watch the class. One week he dared to put his feet in the water (!) and the swim instructor pulled him in the pool. The parents around me started to cheer and clap (as they, too, watched him watch swim lessons for weeks). Little Mister, however, was NOT having it. He started to scream and cry and when she put him back on the tile he looked directly at me and yelled: “I am so ANGRY right now!” Then he stomped off to the women’s locker room, with as much dignity as possible while wearing a rubber tube around his midsection.

Bonus points for him being able to express his feelings?

March

Perhaps the biggest news of the year, was that we added to our family! Meet: Rocco!

Rocco is a shelter dog, and we rescued him when he was just 3 1/2 months old. I was home alone one Friday night, throwing back cabernet and scrolling through Petfinder (like all the cool kids) when I came across his face. I immediately texted the link to Mr. KK who distractedly responded, “He’s cute!” Which I translated into, “YOU MUST GET THIS DOG RIGHT NOW.”

Fast forward two weeks from that fateful night, and I picked up this little 7-pound fur baby. And we haven’t looked back since.

You can follow his antics on Instagram @therealroccomars

April

Milestone birthday for me.

Moving on.

We also discovered the Little Mister’s love of roller coasters! Who would’ve thought this shy child who wouldn’t participate in swim lessons would become a coaster junkie??

I think Mr. KK and I squeezed our adult-sized bodies into this rickety kiddie roller coaster 5 times that night. My back still hasn’t recovered.

May

It was a good year for beer. Lots of new, high-octane hoppy releases from some of our favorite breweries. Now that I’m up in Boston so often, it’s easy for me to pop over to one of our favorite breweries and grab whatever’s new.

This was a Quadruple IPA.

Not double.

Not triple.

QUADRUPLE.

And it was delicious. Smooth, hoppy, no bitter after taste. And not to sound pretentious, but it drank like a double IPA.

Summer

We took our usual family vacation to Maine, where Max fall in love (that’s a post in itself!) There is just something about the southern coast of Maine in the summer. Between the food and beer scene in Portland, and the beaches in Cape Elizabeth, and that laid-back summer state of mind, it must may be the most amazing place on earth.

September

If you know me at all, you know that if it involves a trip to Target, I’m down. And if it doesn’t have anything at all to do with Target, I will force fit that sh*t.

Because LM’s Grandmothers ruined Target for me, I now have to have “the toy talk” before we head to the Happiest Place on Earth. Armed with the understanding that we were only getting a backpack and a lunchbox for school, we strutted around the store show off our Toy Story stuff:

And see that yellow price sticker? That’s CLEARANCE, kids.

BOOM.

October

The Little Mister turned 5! I’m not sure how that’s possible, because it feels like just yesterday we were given the side-eye in a Virginia hotel when we stopped for the night with a 3-day old baby.

If the objective of the day was to keep a big smile on Little Mister’s face, then mission accomplished. We rented a bouncy house, and Little Mister jumped in that thing from the minute it was inflated at 8:45am until they came to take it away at 5:45pm.

I spent a little time jumping in this thing, too. And I’m embarrassed to say that I was WINDED after a minute of jumping.

And that my legs were sore the next day.

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There you have it – the year in review.

Get ready, folks. In the next 29 days I’ll write about my latest food obsession, college before technology, getting old and being told you’re old, and Little Mister’s thoughts on where babies come from.

Happy reading!