I am not much of a resolution maker usually. Unless you count the one I make every year, since high school: to exercise more (or at all) and eat healthy. As 2011 came to a close, I couldn’t help but think that this should be the year I actually make, and stick to, some resolutions. The big resolution I wanted to make is unfortunately not really in my control, so I thought long and hard about the resolutions I can make that I can control and here’s what I came up with.

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I was the executive editor at Honey when I got the call from a colleague: Parenting magazine was looking for an editor and if I was interested in the position, he’d put in a word for me. I enjoyed editing profiles and fashion stories about Mary J. Blige, Nia Long and Beyonce at Honey, a now-defunct entertainment magazine for young women of color, but I was also a young mom of two little girlpies, and the idea of working at a magazine that celebrated babies and mothers—and respected working moms by letting them actually see their kids at night—was intriguing.

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I forgot how hard this was. Even when you know it could be worse? It’s still hard. Take a look at this picture from Christmas. Do you see what those eyes and those dark circles underneath are saying? They’re saying I AM SOOOOOO TIIIIIIIIIREDDDDD.

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On April 13 and 14, 2012, KMT The Learning Group presents, Child Development & Learning, a two day conference with internationally recognized child development experts Dr. Gabor Mate and Dr. Gordon Neufeld.  Joining Dr. Mate on stage, Jennifer Kolari, best-selling author of Connected Parenting: How to Raise a Great Kid, and You’re Ruining my Life, (But Not Really) will help address and respond to tough issues surrounding, ADHD/ADD, Bullying, Attachment Base Theory, Parenting and much more.

It’s time for my yearly parenting resolution. Of course there are fifty things I could and should make resolutions about but I try to stick to one per year in order to keep myself from feeling like a complete and utter failure. I have resolution ADD and can barely keep my brain focused on one goal, let alone fifty.

This year, as a mom, I’ve decided to focus on food.

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I realize the yuletide dust has barely settled (we’re still in our Christmas pajamas here) but I want to poll you guys quickly on the gift-giving-to-your-kids’-peeps thing. It’s something I like to obsess about every year—did I give enough? too much? was my gift appropriate?—and, because I’m still thinking about it, I’d love to know where you all stand. And where you draw the gift-giving line.

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Remember this post from last week? Well, forget it. Exactly what I didn’t want to do, I did. I ran around like a crazy person the first couple days of Hanukkah to grab last-minute gifts for Preston. But rather than getting eight big gifts for each night, we went with one, and several smaller gifts (the equivalent of stocking stuffers), so he had—and still has—something to open each night, after we light the candles and sing Hanukkah songs.

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Last we spoke, I was having some reservations about the whole Santa thing. It was great to read your comments on that post; I’d had no idea other parents shared any of my doubts in that department. After considering all of your thoughts, Aaron and I officially decided to casually skip over Santa this year. And after finishing the last of our late-December work projects, we decided to get on with Christmas!

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