Hooray! My Baby is Back

Will has been nothing short of a nightmare for several weeks now and he finally returned to his normal, happy little smiley self today. It was such a relief! I was really getting worn out. And I missed my little buddy :-( Everything was such a fight. Here is a sample of what my last few weeks have been like. This is lunch yesterday and represents a typical meal in our house as of late:


Reactions to diaper changes or simply being put down in general were similar. And this face is a happy one compared to what I encountered when I tried to put him down for a nap. The only successful napping occurred on my lap. So I was getting no break. He was sleeping relatively well at night at least. All I can figure is that it was teeth. Which is not encouraging because we've only gotten through one tiny little tooth and there are still many to come. It's so hard too because I know that he must really not feel well if he's acting like this because he's usually such an easy going baby. I've heard from several people that these Teething Tablet things work really well. Both stores I've tried have been out of them, though. So frustrating! It's hard enough packing up the fussy little man and getting him out of the car and into the store. Then to find that they're out of what I'm looking for. So frustrating! I'll have to make sure I find some in the next week or so so that I can be prepared for when tooth #2 decides to make an appearance.

Anyway, it's a good thing that he was back in good spirits today because I'm not feeling so hot myself. My stomach started really bothering me last night for some reason. It feels like the same weird stomach issue I was having last fall (which kept me from doing the Reggae Run). Last night I was practically writhing on the couch in pain. It's like I feel like I have to throw up but can't and I feel really gassy and bloated. Not fun. And what's less fun is that this week is the first really nice one we've had in awhile and I haven't really felt good enough to get out and enjoy it. I was supposed to run last night but that went out the window when the stomach pains started. This afternoon Will and I went to the park but that was about all I could muster. Hopefully I'll be better for my runs tomorrow and Saturday. I'm sure that my ankle is appreciating the extra rest after the race anyway.

8 Months & 9.3 Miles

Today was a big day in our house. First, Will turned 8 months today. He's getting to be such a big boy! His favorite pastime currently is sitting on a stool in front of the window and watching the cars go by. He likes to yell at the buses and trucks. And pedestrians. Yes, walkers, runners, and bikers watch out because Will is watching you and he is yelling and waving his arms wildly. It's kind of like having a little yappy dog in the house when you think about it... Still no interest in attempting to crawl, but he is starting to scoot on his butt a little bit when he wants to get closer to toys. The tooth still hasn't popped up enough to be picture-worthy. More big news is that he learned to clap today. It is too cute! It's the first thing he's ever done to mimic us (usually he just looks at us like we're crazy when we try to get him to do things). I'll post a video as soon as I can get one.

Also today I ran my first 15k (9.3 miles). That's the longest distance I've ever run. (From now on pretty much every long run will be a new long distance.) I felt pretty good and ran the whole thing at a respectable pace. I was definitely wearing out by the end, though. And when I think that the half Pig means running for another 40 minutes or so beyond what I did today it wears me out just thinking about it. We still have over 4 weeks of training left, though...

My ankle held up. It's sore now, but I've been icing it and trying to relax. No swelling or anything, which is good. I went to see the orthopedic earlier this week but that was useless. He basically told me to come back when it's actually broken. This from the same guy who gave me a lecture 2 years ago about running for too long on the stress fracture. Whatever. So I have an appointment for a week from tomorrow with a friend that's a physical therapist. Hopefully we can get somewhere.

My friend Chris came to cheer us on (his wife Karen was running with me) and took a picture of us around mile 4:
















Here we are afterwards with our medals. These are all the ladies I run with:














And here's Will being very interested in my medal:

Baby Teeth = Big Pain

Will finally got his first tooth. Yeah! It hasn't come in enough to be easily photographed, but when it does I will post a pic. Right now it's only a little white razor just above his gum. Boy is it amazing the havoc that tiny little thing can cause... And while I'm excited that he's getting his teeth I'm definitely not excited about the drama that we have lived through to get to this point. The last few days (and nights) have been quite trying for me. The little man has been pretty miserable. I started to figure something was up a few days ago when his nose started pouring like a faucet. I thought it was weird that he could have a cold since he hasn't really been around many people lately, especially anyone with a cold. But you never know. He didn't have any other symptoms, though, so I started thinking it may be tooth related. I've been blaming pretty much every out-of-the-ordinary occurrence with the child on his teeth for several months now, though, and no teeth had arrived (this particular one has been sitting visible just under his gum for a month or so now) so I didn't let my mind wander too far down that path. Then I felt around with my finger on Tuesday and what do you know? A little sharp tooth was poking out.

I've been giving him Tylenol and using Oragel, but he's still been in a lot of pain, I think. A few times when I've fed him solids he's started screaming and crying, I think because the food is stinging his gums. He's in a pretty good mood during the day, but once he gets tired he doesn't deal with the pain well and can't get to sleep which makes him more tired and more cranky, etc. It's a vicious cycle. So I've been having real trouble getting him to sleep at night (which is not usual for him because he's always gone to bed really easily) and at naps. It's very unfortunate because he was FINALLY getting a pretty good sleep routine (sleeping through until 5am, napping in his crib during the day, etc) and that's all pretty much gone to hell. He was up 4 times last night. Hopefully he'll get back on track once he feels better. I just feel so bad for the little guy. And this is only the first of many to come :-(

Also, as a side note, ever since he got this tooth he has completely stopped taking a pacifier. I mean, this is good in that I'm not going to have to pry the thing out of his mouth when he's 2 years old. But in the meantime it makes it a lot more difficult to soothe him and get him to sleep...

The Heart Mini Marathon is this weekend. It's a 15k (9.3 miles). I did my 8 miler with my running buddies last weekend and felt great (except for my ankle) so I'm starting to feel more confident that (assuming my ankle holds out) I really can run this 13 miles (in less than 5 weeks, yikes!!!!).

Come out to the zoo, zoo, zoo!

Yesterday was my birthday. I am now officially in the last year of my twenties. I have no idea where the hell the last 10 years went because I very vividly remember being 19 as though it were yesterday. Earlier this month also marked Tim and me being together for 8 years. It will also be 8 years since I graduated from college this May. Wow, do I feel old. Don't get me wrong, I'm not upset about how old I am or freaking out about it or anything. It's just kind of surreal. And if my 20's have gone this fast then I'm sure the 30's are going to speed by even faster.

So the weather yesterday was absolutely gorgeous. It's always kind of been a running joke for me how horrid the weather on my birthday always is. It always seems like a week or two before we will get our first taste of beautiful spring weather but by the time the 19th rolls around it's back to 30 degrees and rainy or snowing. So the fact that it was high 60's and sunny was the best birthday gift ever. Will and I went to our stroller fit class first thing in the morning. A few of the girls there had gotten me a card and some chocolate, which was so sweet. Then we came home and I ate lunch and watched Xavier play in the first round of the NCAA tournament while Will napped (they won!). When he woke up the three of us went to the zoo. It was a lot of fun. Will, of course, showed no interest in the animals whatsoever (he spent most of the afternoon trying to grab and eat the fence posts), but it was nice just to be outside and get some exercise. And Tim and I got some ice cream. Yum! Here's a few pics (none of which actually indicate that we are at the zoo, oddly enough):

Here's Will sitting like a big boy in his stroller as we set off for some zoo fun:



















With Daddy in front of some animal I don't remember:




















Playing with Mr. Butterfly on the way home:


When we got home Will took his afternoon nap while Tim and I had some wine outside on the back porch and then we all went to dinner at Olive Garden (swanky, huh?) where Will was a VERY good boy. And thumbs up for Olive Garden's free birthday cake. I was pretty impressed.

Tim surprised me with some flowers and got me a card and a running store gift certificate. Overall, it was a great birthday. Tonight we're going to Mom and Dad's to celebrate with the fam. We're also celebrating my sister's birthday tonight since hers is on Monday. Should be a good time.

Wheeeeeee.........

The weather today was beautiful and I wanted to get out and enjoy it. I opted against going for a walk because I'm trying not to do too much on my feet on non-running days because my ankle is STILL not doing so well. I decided it would be fun to take Will to the park. So I changed (I had been a little over-dressed for fun at the park because we met Aunt Rachel for lunch today), fed Will, changed Will, put on his coat, loaded him in his car seat, packed the diaper bag, etc. (all of the 400 things you have to do to get ready to leave the house with a baby that always end up taking 3 times longer than you anticipate) and off we went. In the less than a mile drive to the park he fell asleep in the car. I'm not even kidding. So I had to turn around and come home. There are so many times that I want the child to nap, that I NEED the child to nap and he just won't nap. Or he sleeps for 20 minutes. But not today. Nope. Today because it was beautiful and I wanted to go to the park he falls asleep on a 3 minute commute and proceeds to sleep for over 2 hours. Meanwhile, I watched TV and knitted near an open window so I could at least pretend to be outside enjoying the weather.

Anyway, he finally woke up around 5:30 just as Tim was coming home. So Daddy got to come to the park with us, which was nice. So I guess it worked out for the best anyway.

Will got to play on the swings for the first time. As you can see, he was not totally sure that this was the best idea Mommy had ever had.



He's been much better this week than last week (which is good because I was about to have a mental breakdown), but the time changed this weekend so we're still dealing with that a bit in terms of schedule.

Also, I've stopped listing new foods on the blog because he's been trying a ton more fruits and I can't even keep up. We've done pineapple, apricots, etc. I've also been trying to get him to eat some meat for a few weeks but that never goes well. He gags and acts like he's going to die whenever I feed it to him. I've tried tricking him by hiding it in vegetables he likes, but that doesn't work either. Gagging ensues. I figure he'll stop gagging when he's ready. I'll just keep trying. We're also trying to get the hang of the sippy cup. He mostly just wants to chew on the spout, though, so that's slow going. I've also started giving him Puffs (which are little baby cereal things that dissolve really quickly) so he can start getting the hang of finger foods. He LOVES them. They are like baby crack. He's not coordinated enough to pick them up for himself and put them in his own mouth, though, so he just opens his mouth and yells for us to feed them to him. It's really pretty funny.

The Knitting Saga Continues...

So I've been working really hard for the past few weeks knitting Will a hat. This was one of the reasons I wanted to learn to knit, so I could make my little man a hat. I looked online for a long time at patterns to find just the right one. I really like the one I picked. In the pictures online they had sewn buttons on for decoration so I even went to the craft store and bought some little blue buttons to sew on his completed hat. I really wanted it to be perfect and it's my first time knitting in the round so I even started the thing over like 4 times so that I could get the ribbing around the bottom just right. And before I started I was a good girl and checked my gauge. I was a bit on the small side but not so much that I felt it was worth loading the baby in the car and going back to that damn knitting store again to buy a bigger set of needles. The hat was supposed to be a 6-9 month size, which he's on the bottom end of, so I figured it wouldn't be a huge deal if it was on the small side. But as I was knitting the thing it looked kind of big to me. It was really hard to tell for most of the time, though, because it was basically in the shape of a triangle on 3 knitting needles so I couldn't really try it on him or anything. And once I became fairly certain that the thing was going to be too big I was already so far into it that I decided to go ahead and finish it. Well, let's just say I underestimated just how big it was. Because now it's finished and it's just ridiculous:



And just in case that photo doesn't quite show off the gigantic proportions well enough:



I didn't even bother to put the cute little buttons on :-( And, for the record, now that it's done I re-checked the gauge (because I thought maybe the whole knitting on 3 needles thing caused me to loosen my stitches) and it's pretty damn right on to what the pattern says. So apparently the people who made this pattern have children with freakishly large heads. I'm just sayin...

I'm trying to be positive about the whole thing. I mean, our cold weather days are numbered at this point (it was 65 degrees today!!) and at least this way he can get a full season out of it next year. Here's the thing, though: I don't think it's going to fit him next year either. In fact, I'm not sure this hat is going to fit the child until he has chest hair. Because the reality of the situation is that the hat's even loose on my head. And it's not like I can even give it to an adult to wear because the thing's too short for an adult head. It looks like a beanie on Tim. And what adult would wear a hat with a big stalk thing poking out of the top anyway? Oh well, some day I will knit something that will actually be usable...

In running news, my ankle has been really bothering me this week. Not just when I'm running, but when I'm walking around the house. This is not good. I've been icing it and stretching and it's still not helping. So I skipped running group last night, and didn't run tonight (even though it was GORGEOUS outside), and don't plan on running tomorrow. I'm even going to skip my stroller class on Friday to rest it some more and to go see a friend who is a massage therapist to see if she can help (she's convinced she can help but there's not much she can do if this happens to be the beginning of another - dare I say it - stress fracture). What a time to get injured. Right when the weather's getting warmer. Gee, thanks God. Let me run my ass off in the freezing cold and snow and do a gazillion miles on the nightmarish treadmill and then as soon as the weather gets nice and all I want to do is go outside and run (because this is why I started running in the first place - to be out in weather like this) let me get injured. Wouldn't that just be my luck? Also, I think we all know that if I don't get to run this half marathon it's not going to be pretty. Oh well, we'll cross that bridge when/if we come to it. For now, I'm just resting and crossing my fingers.

Also, Will has been quite a challenge this week. He does this every month or so for a few days, but it seems like it's lasting longer than normal. Constantly fussy. Cries when I put him down. Screams if I don't immediately respond to the crying and pick him up. I have a big pile of work to get done and haven't been able to get to any of it. The house looks like a bomb exploded in it. I have a ton of errands to do but have been afraid to leave the house. I don't know if it's a growth spurt or a tooth or he's just starting to have some separation anxiety issues... Whatever it is it sucks. And it's sucking the life out of me. But tomorrow is a new day. Maybe he'll wake up and be his old self.

10k PR

The running group did the Strides of March 10k for our training run this morning. It's so funny how your perspective on distance changes as you start running longer distances consistently. 10k is the longest distance race I've ever run and I've only done two of them (the last 2 Thanksgiving day races). It was such a big deal to me to train for and run those races. Now that I've been running 6+ miles consistently for the past few weeks, though, it really didn't seem like a big deal. It was just another training run. I did have a goal for myself, though, different than other training runs. I wanted to do it in an hour or less. When I did last year's T-Day race 3 1/2 months ago it took me 1:06:41. Two years ago it took me 1:02:13 (10:01 pace). Today's race took me 1:00:05. (That's my watch time. The race wasn't chipped so my official time was almost a minute longer because of the lag in reaching the start line.) Five seconds over my goal, but I'm still really happy with it. That's a 9:41 pace. That may not sound like a big difference from 2 years ago, but shaving 20 seconds off your pace for 6 miles is a big deal. Now, I would definitely say today's course isn't as challenging as the Turkey course. But a PR is a PR, damnit. Also, I had a baby 7 months ago. So I'm patting myself on the back today. Plus, I'm definitely improving my pace overall which makes me happy. Now if only my ankle would stop hurting...

7 Months

So I promise that I did not forget that my little man turned 7 months the other day. It's just taken me this long to get around to uploading his bear pic which, of course, is a necessity for the blog post. Also, there's really not a whole lot of Will news other than the fact that he has now become very skeptical of cameras, as evidenced by the half-assed smile in his picture. I felt lucky to even manage to get this one as he looked like a tiny serial killer in many of the others. Case in point:



He is a lot more vocal all of the sudden in the last week. He's always been such a quiet thing, making little quiet coos. Now he's started babbling and yelling a lot. It kind of came on gradually so I hadn't really noticed that much, but when Tim came back from his trip he was amazed at how many more noises Will was making and how much louder he was. He also says "Mama" now. Of course, this is just random babbling and not like he even knows what he's saying, but it's still cute.