Where the penguins waddle

I signed up for the Houston Half-Marathon!!!!

(allow me a moment… WTF WTF WTF?!?)

Ok, so I’m nervous, scared, excited, and also proud. I said I was going to do something and I followed through. I even have a training plan and have done 3 days of it so far (2 25 minute runs, 1 3 mile run, and threw in a toning workout for good measure). Not a lot I know but hell, I gotta start somewhere!!

I ended up paying more to run then I thought I would because it seems a lot of people in Houston think running the 1/2 is a good idea. They added 4000 new slots this year and still sold out of their ‘regular’ slots iin under 13 hours. However…

seems most of the new slots are tied to a charitable donation program. Yup! For a small fee of $350 on top of the registration fee, I would be allowed to torture myself.

I looked at the list of organizations and thought ok, maybe this one…maybe that one…but for some reason it was hard for me to think of putting $350 (and mind you a helluva lot of running) into something I didn’t feel passionate about.

And then I saw it…the American Diabetes Association. If you didn’t see my Facebook status back in March, I lost a colleague and friend to diabetes. He had only been diagnosed for 3 months when he felt strange during a recruiting event. He slipped into a diabetic coma and unfortunately, passed away shortly thereafter.  He kept me grounded on more than one occassion, so I’m hoping that his wonderful spirit will help push me one more time.

Chris Carter – you are missed!

Brian discovered that Nate had a loose tooth about a week ago.  That in and of itself hit me like a ton of bricks.  This is a milestone along the lines of walking, first words, and first booboos to me.  A BABY TOOTH is ready to break free from my little boy’s gums in order to make room for an ADULT TOOTH.  His ADULT TOOTH.  wow.

So we went through the week with no drama, I didn’t talk about the tooth, but checked it from time to time.  I didn’t wiggle it too much as I didn’t want it to fall out just yet.  Plus anyone who knows me knows that putting off until tomorrow is a-ok in my book.

Tuesday I sent Nate off on a trip with his grandparents with explicit instructions not to let his tooth fall out.  I hoped it would stay in place for the next 3 days.  Nate told me with his 5 years of wisdom that he would try but ‘it just might come out mommy, and I wouldn’t want to swallow it in my sleep!’.

Wednesday morning came ‘the phone call’:  ‘Mommy, I was playing with it and it didn’t hurt or anything when it came out!’

hold me…

cj: mommmmyyyy, I want some milk pleasse!

lil’ e: eeehhhhhh!!!

me: ok, let me get lil’ e his milk first, then I’ll get yours.

cj: but I want my milk first!

lil’ e: EEEHHHHHHHH!!!

me: I know, but lil’ e is the baby, let him go first.

cj: but I’m the girl!

Nate's big day

This weekend, Nate graduated from his pre-K4 class. As with most things that motherhood brings, I had always been cynical of the many levels of graduation that the kids have these days…he graduated from his first day care’s 8 week program, and yeah, it was cute, but no big deal. Each transition to a new class brought about a twinge of ‘this is happening too fast’, but nothing big. On this Saturday however, I found myself a lot less cynical and a little more humbled by how my kids have changed my outlook on life.

his hat was too small anyway

posted on the wrong blog the other day – oh well! Only problem is now everyone (all 5 of you!) knows I’m doing the 1/2 marathon! guess that means I need to keep running.

so anyway, yes, I’ve fallen off the NY resolution wagon, it’s not out of laziness believe it or not. It’s the not wanting to be anywhere near my computer when I wasn’t working – which for the past 4 months has been about 12 hours of my day. It was an insane period that I don’t want to relive EVER, but there were some highlights in my personal life!

February: VACATION! I’ll get some pictures posted here soon (you’ve probably seen them already if you’ve been on FB), but let’s just say that it was absolutely fantastic! Turks & Caicos will be revisited by us at some point. The Beaches resort was the way to go for a family vacation and we soaked up every ounce of fun that we could from there. We were having so much fun with the kids that we never took advantage of the day camps available – it was really one of those ‘once in a lifetime’ vacations that I hope we are lucky enough to replicate.

March: The boys hit some milestones – Tater the big ‘5’ and Ethan officially left his baby-ness behind when he turned 1!

We had a ‘race’ themed party for Nate and despite a rainy day we managed to entertain 20 kids nicely. The kids painted cars in the garage and played with ALL of his cars in the area of our house that should be our dining room but since there is no furniture, it is often a race track. The sun thankfully poked out long enough to let the kids bounce on the trampoline before cake and presents. All in all – a fun day for the tot!

After the ‘set change’ from race cars to cupcakes, we had a family party to celebrate lil E’s big day! He made a tunnel on one side of his cake so we were able to share the other side – mighty generous (and neat!) of him! He was taking steps on that day, but still couldn’t be persuaded to go it alone. That happened 2 weeks later. His first steps were sideways and then it was like he realized they could move in a different direction – he took the steps then plopped on down. He stood back up and then repeated it over and over. Papa has since named him the little penguin…which, of course everyone knows I was bound to have one!

April: With the worst day of my working life behind me, we moved into April hopeful that my work-life balance would actually exist. It got better, but the scale was still definitely off. The drama just kept coming…my unread emails multiplied like rabbits overnight and each issue had so many legs to it. Thankfully, the last week of the month was a sign of some relief and although I’m still busy, I’ve got some of that ‘life’ back – which means I’m not needing to check my work inbox every night or over the weekend – hooray!

ok, so that’s gotten everyone caught up, so now I’ll work on keeping up with that resolution…in smaller, easier to digest bits! 🙂

I’m down a bit more today – hooray! Total %age is 1.12% for round 3.

On a side note, in reading the posts I noticed that we’ve all been struggling this round a bit. I admit I am not happy with the results I’ve had. But I also realize if I hadn’t been focused on weighing in every Monday, I probably would have gained a ton (I tend to ignore the scale if I’m not eating well, not exercising, etc). My goal of getting down to my pre-preggo weight with Chelsea (lowest of the 3) is still within reach before my birthday as a result!

And it’s official – as long as I can secure a spot, I’m doing the 1/2! 🙂

This week is the ‘week of the countdown’ to our vacation in T&C. Yesterday my sister’s family and our parents made it down there – got the text ‘Drinks are on me!’ – beotch!

So Nate is beyond excited for everything, BUT he remembers how his ears hurt as we descended during our last flights. He said that gum didn’t help him (because he couldn’t swallow it – good point) and he needed something else. So we decided on jelly beans. M&Ms were a close 2nd, but I’ve been there/done that with them…it was not pretty.

Chelsea keeps talking about ‘go to BEACH!’ and (in her cute little cookie monster voice) says ‘we see Cookie Monster! we see ‘Grober’! …and of course there’s Elmo. I think she’s going to be in her own little toddler paradise!

Ethan – I’m just happy he’s overall healthy! He wakes up in the morning w/ snot everywhere, but once I clean him up and take the torture bulb to him, he’s good for the day. Fingers crossed it stays that way!

So now I just have to pack up the 3 kids (can’t wait until I don’t have to make room for formula, baby food, and 2 sets of diapers!), my stuff, and make sure I have all of our travel documents and passports! Easier said than done, but since there is a fruity drink in paradise waiting for me, I won’t panic if I forget my toothbrush.

So this week had some interesting moments – I’ll work backwards and start with Ethan first this time because…

The little dude finally figured out that instead of stretching his arms out and pulling himself around the room, that his KNEES could be used and he could actually CRAWL!!! yay for lil E! Not only that, everything is being pulled up on now and he’s getting steadier on his feet. We play a game where I go ‘aahhhhhhhhhhh BONK!’ and w/ the bonk, I sit him on his booty. It only takes him a time or two before he ‘bonks’ his own booty down and he’s so proud of himself for figuring out my timing!

CJ – heavens is she getting cuter! This week she actually played with her lone Barbie doll – mainly by undressing her. Mom- not sure HOW you put up with us and all of the ‘changing of the Barbie’s clothes’. This Barbie just has a bikini and let me tell you – it’s already getting irksome! CJ still plays trains and cars w/ big brother too though- she’s well balanced! She is now asking for piggy or pony tails more often, or when she’s not in the mood, she’ll just say ‘pretty hair please’ 🙂

Tater this week told Brian he wanted to marry me. Brian alerted him to the fact that he already beat him to that and, if he hadn’t, he wouldn’t be here (in as general terms as possible of course). Tater, not liking that answer, came to me directly and I of course as gently as I could told him that it was a lovely thought but that I was already married to daddy. His response melted my heart: ‘But you’re the bestest one to marry ever!’ I shared that he needed to find someone his own age- to which he asked about a girl in his class. I told him, ‘right idea, but let’s talk later…much later…’

This weekend, Brian and I are heading out of town for a night away to celebrate our 7th anniversary. I can’t believe it has been 7 years, but then again, I can’t believe my Tater tot will be 5 and my lil’ E will be a toddling ‘E’ in a few months either!

That is my new year’s resolution – to spend 15 minutes a week writing a post to remember what the kiddos did that made me laugh/pull my hair out/cry/etc.

The New Year has started off pretty well so far.

Tater is getting more curious about things every second it seems. The ‘why?’s have started in earnest and although they drive me crazy, it is definitely fun to see how an almost 5 year old’s brain works.
Some greatest hits:
‘why does day come after night?’
‘why doesn’t night come first?’

CJ – wow – our ‘golden girl’ has really hit the two’s hard. She can go from hot to cold faster than Nate can ask ‘why?’. Her sweet moments are so HEART-MELTING:
-running out to meet me as I finish my run (talk about motivation to finish strong!)
-snuggling and her ‘I love you’s
-her mimicking = I say ‘let’s put on your shoes’, she says ‘put on shoes?!’

Lil E – he’s almost mobile – watch out world! He is now doing what I affectionately refer to as his ‘seal-crawl’ across the floor (sounds included!) and has started cruising around the table. Still not sure if he’ll crawl much, but he’s definitely already increased our nightly round up to ensure he doesn’t find a random choking hazard (not sure how that could happen…rolling eyes…)