Reflections on 2012

Another year draws to a close, so I thought it would be nice to take a look back over 2012 here on Mama.ie. It’s been a busy year here – I posted 175 new posts, and there were approximately 69,000 views of posts on this site over the year, according to a very snazzy report released by WordPress.com. Thank you to everyone who visited, and especially to everyone who commented on posts over the year. It’s always lovely to get feedback on something I’ve written, so I really appreciate it.

The top five most visited posts on this site during the year are a little surprising:

1. In the Night Garden Live – written January 2011, and still my most popular post.
2. Cancelling Netflix – written in May 2012.
3. Building a craft table – written in June 2012.
4. Product Review: Petite Star Zia – written in March 2011.
5. Tayto Park – written in June 2012.

It’s funny to see what people are reading about, especially when I realised that two of my most read posts this year were actually written the year before.

One of the things I love most about blogging is looking back at the year gone by and seeing what I was blogging about each month. It’s a real trip down memory lane for the year.

January: Time for potty training

January 2012: This was the month when we started potty training (Let the potty training begin), and when I discovered a great blog called The Mama’s Hip, all because Four Live treated Niamh, the blogger in question, appallingly and ambushed her over extended breastfeeding. For the first time last year, I lamented that we don’t seem to be able to live and let live when it comes to parenting choices (Four Live attacks extended breastfeeding)

February 2012: Early in the month, I had a little rant about the public reaction to a protest against Facebook removing breastfeeding photographs from people’s pages (Breastfeeding is bad for my health). February was also the month when we established Board Game Club (Boardgames for everyone), a regular get-together with our friends to play games, drink some wine, and catch up.

March: A refreshing day at Offset 2012

March 2012: We attended Offset 2012 in March and really enjoyed it (Recharging the batteries at Offset 2012). And a long weekend spent visiting grandparents resulted in one of my favourite photos of the year of Little Man (Gotta love long weekends).

April 2012: Oh yummy – how could I have forgotten this. A lovely afternoon out with my mother (Afternoon Tea for Two). Thanks to a prompt from Circus Queen, I reflected on our baby led weaning journey (Baby Led Weaning Two Years On). But unfortunately mostly I remember April because it was the month when I had an early miscarriage just two days after finding out I was pregnant. I didn’t blog about it directly, preferring to ignore it because I thought I was okay. But a couple of weeks after it happened, the stories of women being forced to travel to the UK to seek terminations for medical reasons were in the news, and I wrote my reaction to it (Incompatible with Life). Now when I look back and re-read that post, I can see that I wasn’t okay yet at all.

May: Saying goodbye to Freddie

May 2012: May was the month when we had to accept that our goldfish Freddie had grown too big for our fish tank and rehome him in a pond instead (Bye Bye Freddie). We had a lot of fun this month entertaining Little Man with lots of crafting activities, including a home-made volcano (Craft: Volcanic Ventures).

June 2012: A couple of my blog posts in June were thanks to my fellow Irish Parenting Bloggers – Mind the Baby shared her birth story (Mind the Baby’s Birth Story), and I wrote a guest post on toilet training for Kate Takes 5 (Guest Oracle: Toilet Training). My favourite post from June, however, was about our craft table (Building a craft table). It took quite a bit of work, but we just love it!

July 2012: July was a month of good intentions. I got a few weeks through the 30 Day Shred (Halfway through the 30 Day Shred) – of course, then I got knocked up and suddenly such strenuous exercise really wasn’t a good idea. The rest of the month was a blur of early pregnancy queasiness coupled with a delightful dose of tonsillitis. But it finished up with one of my favourite conversations of the year with Little Man (Let’s walk to October).

August: The Irish Parenting Bloggers Group gets its own badge

August 2012: The Irish Parenting Bloggers Group got its very own badge this month (The Irish Parenting Bloggers Group). What can I say about this group – it’s a group of wonderful women who are blogging their way through family life and parenting. When I originally set up the group, I had a vague idea of how it would be a nice way to network with other bloggers and gather a few tips and tricks about writing and using WordPress. But I completely underestimated what the group would turn in to. It’s a support for so much more than blogging – a great place to turn for parenting advice, or just a good place to vent whenever the need arises! Thank you ladies – you are definitely one of the high points of my 2012. August was a fairly quiet month otherwise – early pregnancy was taking its toll on me and I was keeping my head down! We did take a nice trip to the Tall Ships Festival, which we really enjoyed (Tall Ships Festival, Dublin 2012).

September: Time for our special announcement!

September 2012: Finally we got to make our announcement! (Some news!) And I kicked off my pregnancy journal.

October 2012: I took part in the Irish Parenting Bloggers Blog March against cuts to child benefit (You do the Maths). And as my pregnancy progressed, I started thinking about how misleading it is to frame breastfeeding as a choice. (Breastfeeding is not a choice)

November 2012: Little Man unexpectedly got rid of his soother at the start of this month (Bye Bye Dodi). The story of Savita Halappanavar shocked me to my core, and I joined a number of other bloggers in calling for action (It’s time to legislate). The month ended on a high note though, when we discovered to our surprise that we are expecting a little girl! (A sweet surprise)

December 2012: I was very quiet on the blogging front this month. I mainly blogged about my pregnancy – my aches and pains (Pregnancy: Week 21), my anomaly scan (Pregnancy: Week 22), bouncing on my birthing ball (Pregnancy: Week 23), my first visit to the MLU (Pregnancy: Week 24), and the week we picked a name for our little girl (Pregnancy: Week 25).

Quite a year! I rounded out the year by meeting some of my fellow Irish Parenting Bloggers in the flesh yesterday: Awfully Chipper, Mind the Baby, Proper Fud, and And The Baby (who’s currently on a blogging break). Hopefully next year, I’ll get to meet a few more from our group, which has grown over the year, and now includes 30 bloggers!

Happy New Year everyone! Wishing you all the very best for 2013!