Put on your Party Hat

Cuz if you keep reading you're going to be in the middle of a huge pity party. Today was one of those runs that makes you ask yourself why in the hell you are doing this. My run today just sucked. Why, you ask? Oh don't worry. I have bullet points for you. Let me just preface this by saying that today is the 5th day that Tim has been out of town skiing with his buddies and I'm just worn out and cranky. There's a reason that parents come in sets of twos. I realize that lots of people deal with husbands that work a lot or travel for work, etc. so me having to parent alone for a week is not the end of the world. It really doesn't make it suck any less, though. And let's all not forget that Tim is not working. Tim is off having fun with is friends while I'm at home eating all 3 meals a day one-handed and standing up.

Anyway, back the topic at hand. Why my run sucked today:

1. The weather - It's just cold and crappy and overcast outside. Normally the weather really doesn't bother me but if it is pretty and sunny outside it can really lift my spirits and turn a bad run into a good one (or at least just make me enjoy being outside). Today was just not one of those days.
2. Snow - There's still a surprising amount of it on the sidewalks. I spent most of the first 2 miles having to dodge large snow drifts and stop to walk over ice patches. It just really screws up my groove and, consequently, my breathing and gait get all out of whack. I struggled with a cramp for the first few miles and I'm quite sure it was due to all of the snow navigation.
3. Ankle - My ankle was bothering me from mile 3 on. This sucks for 2 reasons: first, it just sucks to run with your ankle bothering you and two, it just put me in a not good place mentally because now I'm starting to get worried that I'm injured. Ankle pain (in this same ankle) is what tipped me off that something was wrong a few years ago when I found out about my lovely stress fracture. So in the middle of the 3rd mile I stopped to stretch it. This brings me to my next bullet point.
4. Dead squirrel - When I stopped to stretch against a telephone pole I almost stepped on a dead squirrel. EWWWW!
5. Hills - So the running group did a killer hill on their run yesterday (the run that I had to miss because Tim was out of town, which is further reason why I'm in such a pissy mood this weekend and about this whole run in general) so I wanted to get some hills in to be sure I didn't miss out on the "training opportunity". But I gave myself more hills than intended. I don't usually run more than 4 miles around here so I really had to stretch to get the 7 and had to run some areas I've never run before. One stretch I knew was hilly, but driving hills is very different from running them so I didn't totally anticipate what I was getting myself into. Basically, mile 3 and mile 5 were nothing but gigantic rolling hills. I had to run up about 7 huge hills during my run today. Well, I ran 6 and walked 1... Which brings me to...
6. Walking - I very rarely walk when I'm out on runs and it, frankly, just pisses me off when I do have to walk. But I had to walk today. I was just mentally not in a good place and was hill-ed out. I ran up what I thought was the last huge hill and came over the crest only to be faced with this:

So I walked.
7. Lonely - I like doing shorter runs on my own because it's nice to just clear your head. Anything over 4 miles, though, and I get really bored. I know I'm going to have to get over this if I'm going to run long distances, but it still sucked to go it alone.

Overall I did a 10:18 pace which isn't too bad considering my Debbie-Downer mood, ankle issues, and all of the hills. Not to mention avoiding all the snow.

Oh well. Tomorrow is another day and Tim comes home tonight. And now I'm going to go plan a 5 day trip for myself... That's only fair, right?

random...

So here is a video of Will that Tim took of him laughing at his butterfly toy (what else?). I just love his little belly laugh! It's the cutest sound!



And here is a picture of me in my new running shirt. The running group gives out shirts for each of the training groups. This is this year's shirt that I got last night (prior to doing 6 horribly boring 1 mile loops since there's STILL snow on the sidewalks so we weren't allowed to do a normal route). Pink generally is not my favorite color (although it seems like the majority of women's running gear seems to come in black, blue, or pink so I tend to wear a lot of it by default) but the shirt is cute. I love the little pig! Notice my very realistic running pose...

Will's New Trick

In Loving Memory of My Scarf: February 16, 2010 - February 17, 2010

Good news: I finished knitting my scarf. Yeah! And it came out pretty well if I do say so myself.

Bad news: I gave it to Tim and he left it out on the couch when he went to bed. Apparently it looks like a gigantic cat toy to Molly and Mia because we woke up to a mauled scarf. It has snags in so many places it's really no longer wearable. So much for all of those hours of knitting I did. That's kinda the story of my life, though, so I shouldn't really be surprised. Who am I kidding? Tim wasn't ever going to wear the damn thing anyway.

So rest in peace, my orange friend. My first attempt at knitting. Your life was a short one, but we had some good times.Like when Tim reluctantly wore you so I could photograph the two of you together:




Or when I donned you and posed for a picture even though I had just returned from the gym and looked like hell:

You will be missed. But not by Tim who is counting his lucky stars that he will not have to provide photographic evidence of having worn it on his ski trip next weekend.

XO XO

My Valentines


The Mini-Valentine is not sleeping well again. It's so frustrating! Also, this week he has started consistently rolling from belly to back. As soon as you plop him on his belly he immediately flips. Not much progress on going the other direction as of yet, though.

Watching the Snow

Sven

Our friends James and Viki bought this outfit for Will. It is really cute, but every time he wears it I feel like his name should be Sven for some reason.

Speaking of Scandinavia, we have been buried in snow for almost a week now. Two big snow storms in a row. I think we've gotten a total of 8 or 9 inches at this point, and poor Tim has been out on that snow plow more times than I can count trying to keep the driveway clear. I've had to do both of my last two runs (including my 5+ miles over the weekend) on the treadmill, which has sucked beyond belief. Better than risking an injury, though, I guess. I also had to miss my stroller class last Friday. It's just making for a serious case of cabin fever. I did have book club on Saturday night which definitely helped. It was a lot of fun catching up with my book club girls. Book club is about the only night out I get every 6 weeks or so and it's much needed.

People are ridiculous about the snow, though. I did my normal weekly grocery shop on Monday afternoon (I usually try to go on Sundays while Tim is home so I don't have to take Will, but just didn't get around to it this weekend) and the place was PACKED. I couldn't figure out why so many people were at Kroger on a Monday afternoon and then I remembered that the 2nd round of the White Death was coming that evening. Dun, dun, dun!!! I mean seriously, people. What is wrong with you that you are SO low on supplies of food in your house that you have to run to the store and stock up on the off chance that you may not be able to leave your house for like one day? This is Cincinnati, not Michigan, for god's sake. There's hardly a risk you're going to be stranded for more than a day or so. And if you don't regularly keep enough food in your house to survive for one day you've got bigger problems than running out of milk.

Will is now starting to reach for people and he wraps his arms around your neck and squeezes like a hug when you pick him up. So cute!

Sitting Up

So Will's been on the verge of sitting up on his own for over a week now, but I was waiting to call it true sitting up until he didn't topple constantly. Tonight I sat him up and he played for a good 20 minutes like that. He's even able to catch himself with his arm (to a degree) if he does start to go down. There's still definitely some falling over (for instance when he gets irritated with something and arches his back, subsequently flinging himself backwards onto the floor - good times), but I think it's pretty safe to say that he's sitting up. Yeah!!


This is about the only physical milestone he's had any interest in reaching, I think because he didn't like laying down as he couldn't see around as much as he'd like. All the other stuff (rolling over, scooting, trying to get up on all fours as a precursor to crawling) he wants none of. He can roll fairly easily from front to back, but only does it like once a week. And other than the mysterious back-to-front roll which we think occurred, but which no one witnessed on Christmas Eve he has yet to roll the other way. When I put him on his stomach for tummy time instead of trying to roll or lifting himself up he plays for a few minutes with the toys in front of him and then he just lays his head down and mumbles to himself. It seems like there's a lot of stuff going on in his head, but just not a lot of physical stuff yet.

Speaking of stuff going on in his head, he is getting to be quite a little pistol. He actually throws little fits now when he's not getting what he wants. Like if he's done playing in his exersaucer or on the floor and you don't respond to his fussing quick enough he starts screaming, grunting, stomping his feet, and arching his back. Then as soon as you pick him up he's all smiley and happy. Tim says he's manipulative. If he's doing this at 6 months god only knows what the terrible twos will bring...

I also think he's about to get his first tooth. I can feel a little sharp tooth on his lower right side and can see a little bit of white under the gum. Hopefully it will pop out soon.

As for me, the last 2 group runs we've done a 9:40 pace. Tonight I did just under 4 miles on my own and did a 9:50 pace. I'm really excited about this because it means that my normal, not pushing myself pace is now at a sub-10:00. Yeah! There will definitely be bad days when I'm slower than that and I'll probably run a lot of group runs faster than that (since I tend to push myself there) but this gives me a good idea of where my average is. And it's right where I want to be. Now all I need to do is be able to do this mileage without getting hurt. And if I get faster, great. If not, I'm perfectly happy where I am.

6 Month Checkup

17 pounds 7 ounces - 50th percentile
27 1/4 inches - 75th percentile

Healthy and doing well. He got 3 shots today: the prevnar (combo DTaP, Hib, Polio) as well as both flu vaccines (regular and H1N1). Plus he got the oral rotovirus vaccine. He did really well with the shots. Cried during, but calmed down really quickly once I picked him up and gave him his pacifier. Hopefully he won't have any side effects from the flu shots. I'm not worried about the others since he's had those before. He has to go back in a month to get 3 more shots: the 2nd installment of both flu shots plus the pneumochocal (sp?). Next checkup isn't until 9 months, though.

Pears

Now that we've exhausted most of the veggies we're moving onto fruits.