It's a dog lick baby world

My performance review is not going to be good

2012-02-23T20:30:00.000-05:00

Generally, I feel like I do a pretty good job at this parenting thing, but some days can make me question that. Today started at 4:30 am with Faith sobbing in her crib. Her molars have been bothering her and I think the Motrin had worn off. I wasn't able to get her calmed down and back to sleep until 5:30am, but my husband's alarm goes off at 6am, so we weren't in luck for getting much more sleep.

The day went pretty much downhill from there. She sobbed for 45 minutes because she didn't want oatmeal or a banana for breakfast (which are normally a big hit with her). She ended up face down on the couch sobbing onto the leather upholstery while half watching me to see if I would react. Initially, I tried to distract her, but she was dead set on being mad, so eventually I just let her be and she got over it in time to eat half of my breakfast.

Mommy, you are an awful food sharer!

We ran for 4 miles outside and the nice weather seemed to help her mood a little, at least until we got home and I had the audacity to offer her sub par food choices for lunch. Faith has decided to become a yogurtarian, hopefully only because of teething, but that's one of the only food items I was able to get her to eat.

I read that yogurt is a super food

After yet more Motrin, she went down for a good nap and I ran 6 miles on the treadmill to bring me to 10 for the day. Once the little monster woke up, I took her to the park. The playground is the best place for grumpy teething toddlers because who can be mad when there are swings?

When I brought her back home, she refused all food for dinner except yogurt and Pirate's Booty, so I'm getting an A+ for child nutrition today. Dairy and carpet fuzz are the two food groups of the day.

It wasn't all carpet fuzz, some of it was your hair

Faith has even been taking out her grumpy mood on the dog, so I've had to say "No hitting the dog with drum sticks!" multiple times today. I don't normally feel bad for the dog, but after the headache I've picked up from this day, I'm sure she has one too.

I told you that you should have gotten another dog instead

At least Peanut has the comfort of Faith's toys:

This ape understands my hatred of legos everywhere

They do have things in common: they both have to deal with Faith sticking her fingers up their noses.

Stuffed gorilla boogers = toddler caviar

Hearing the kid fuss all today is both exhausting and frustrating. It's frustrating because I hate that she's in discomfort and I can't do anything about it and also...because it's frustrating to hear whining all day. At least my husband was nice enough to shift his school work schedule to come home at normal time (instead of staying late at work to do homework). Faith is always in a better mood when he's around, but who can blame her? He's pretty fun.

This has been one of those days when I'm glad being a mom isn't a traditional job with performance reviews because my short drooly boss would have been making a lot of negative notes today. Also, this has also been a day where running 10 miles has been the least exhausting part.

If you're on the fence about having kids, please disregard this Debbie Downer post. They are a special gift make each day special...so special that sometimes they have to wake you up hours before dawn so you can enjoy it more.

It's probably because I smell

2012-02-22T20:18:00.000-05:00

I love almost every aspect of staying home with my kid, except for the challenge of trying to find other mom friends. Don't get me wrong, I have a great group of friends who are also moms, but none of them have kids close in age with Faith. I feel like I need a Match.com for finding other moms. That has to be less awkward than trying to hit on them at the park or story time.

Me: So...how old is your little girl? (This is the parental equivalent of "How about that weather?")
Random woman: Oh, she's 19 months. You?
Me: She's a year and a half!
Random woman: My...she's so tall.
Me: Yeah, my husband is tall.

I literally have this exact conversation over and over again...and nothing ever comes of it. I just don't know how to take it to the next level. It's like dating, but more awkward somehow.

Oh Mommy, you are so embarrassing to take out in public

I was hoping that by attending story time at the library that I would meet moms with kids Faith's age and we could do fun things like play dates, but that hasn't actually happened yet. The trouble is that when you put a group of people together because they have offspring in the same age range, chances are that the parents don't have much in common. I think I hit rock bottom today at story time when I purposefully sat by a woman in workout gear because I felt like I had a chance with her. This is starting to seriously sound creepily close to dating, right?

Mommy, now it makes sense that you had to marry a guy with a head injury

The sad thing is that I've met some really cool moms through the running club with kids in the right age range, but they are lame and have jobs. Also, my neighborhood is full of fun people, but most of them are lame with the "having a job" thing too. Maybe I should start a subset running club for unemployed moms (or stay at home moms if you want to be politically correct). We could arrange group stroller runs where it takes us 15 minutes to make it one mile because everyone has to keep stopping to retrieve sippy cups and unwrap snacks. Sign me up!

Ok, hit me with your tips on "taking it to the next level" for friending (not an actual word, but Facebook as taught me that it is) strange women?

Lessons learned: Running edition

2012-02-21T20:21:00.000-05:00

For some things, it just takes one bad experience for me to learn my lesson and for others, I never seem to learn my lesson. This applies to many parts of my life, so that also includes running.

Some lessons that I learned after just one time:

Never put a Gu in my sports bra. During my first marathon I was carrying my Gu packs in my jacket pocket but I got hot and dropped my jacket at the halfway point. I didn't have any pockets, so I put one down the front of my sports bra and held the other 2 Gu packs in my hand. I ended up never taking the sports bra Gu and 13 miles of having it in my sports bra resulted in a bloody mess. Those foil packets will cut you!

Just not in your bra

Turning my head to talk while trail running. It only took falling once while doing that for me to learn it's better to just talk louder and keep my eyes on the trail.

I have a much longer list of lessons that I never seem to learn:

Body Glide should never be used sparingly. Especially when running a 50K with a hydration pack in July.

It's like a vampire with carpet fangs attacked me

Signing up for crowded races when I hate running crowded events. I don't know why that lesson just can't sink in for me.

I will never love people enough to enjoy this level of togetherness

What I eat the day before a run matters. I always think "I can handle it!" as if I can will myself to handle whatever shit I feel like eating at that moment, but in reality it's better for me to really watch my fiber intake. I had a series of bad runs with GI issues and I finally realized fiber was to blame. No fiber = happy system.

My kryptonite

Hills are always worse to think about running than to actually run. I always dread them and when I see one ahead of me I doubt that I can run up the whole thing, yet I always can. My brain hasn't caught on that my legs are perfectly capable of carrying my body up the hill.

What running lessons are you learning over and over again?

Random Observations from the weekend

2012-02-20T19:45:00.000-05:00

I found a new (to me) website called "Meme Generator" and I plan on explaining everything now with a meme. My friend Brian made these two lovely memes to explain my failed weekend getaway.

We got about an inch of snow last night and the kid wasn't a fan.

Mommy, who left this wet mess in MY yard?

Daddy should find a job in San Diego, this is bullcrap

Faith might not have been a fan, but Peanut had enough enthusiasm for them both.

Yes, my dog uses the one tree in our yard as a chew toy. As my husband always says: "This is why we can't have nice things".

Mommy, why can't we have a normal dog?

I ran with a bunch of speedy people from the running club today and I realized that they have a gear that I just don't have. I ran 7.75 miles with them and then they shifted gears for a 8 mile tempo at a 7min/mile pace and it was enough to make me laugh to see them speed away from me. Peanut was so mad that we fell behind, but once we finished up with 10.25 miles for the day, she was too tired to complain anymore.

When my in-laws come to visit, they usually bring something for Faith and this time they outdid themselves. Behold, the ultimate grandparent gift:

Mommy, can I keep him?

I shall call him Cornelius

The Planet of the Apes had a happy ending, right?

Watching her carry around that stuffed ape that's bigger than her is hilarious. When we laugh, she finds comfort in her ape friend.

You're the only one who understands me

Are you like Faith and hate the snow or like Peanut and go NUTS in the snow?

Coon on a Cold Tin Roof

2012-02-18T20:35:00.000-05:00

My husband and I are home early from our weekend away at a bed and breakfast in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia...for a somewhat unusual reason. No, the kid didn't get sick and no, I didn't go crazy without the internet and demand to return early. To explain what happened, let's start at the beginning:

Driving most of the way to the B&B was fairly easy. It took about 4 hours and it was a really pretty drive.

I love how my husband hates when I drive so I don't have to take a turn

The directions said the inn was at the end of a windy road. We drove up a mountain on a windy road, but then we realized that wasn't the road that they meant. The actual road to the inn was very rustic:

Is it normal to sweat this much just sitting in a car?

Pick up truck + hair pin turns = lots of cursing

We finally arrived at the B&B:

Please note the tin roof, that's important for later

For full disclosure, my husband and I aren't really "B&B people" and prefer the sterile anonymity of a hotel. I have stayed at many B&Bs in my time because my parents liked them for family vacations, so I have a fair amount of comparison to work with here. It seems fitting that the innkeepers at this B&B didn't seem to enjoy their job either.

When we arrived at 5pm, we had asked for a "snack basket" to be available for our room since it was 2 hours until dinner and we figured we could munch on it the next day too. When we checked in, they told us that we couldn't have the basket because we'd ruin our appetites for dinner. Seriously. Only at a B&B would they refuse to sell us a $25 snack basket because we can't be trusted to be reasonable adults who won't ruin our dinner.

Once the dinner happened (also at the inn), the food was mediocre at best. It wasn't cheap and my beef short ribs were fairly chewy and bland and it came with a couscous salad that just didn't go (don't I sound like I've been watching a lot of Chopped lately? Because I have). I didn't finish all of my food and then the chef/innkeeper came out after and told me that it was a good thing that they didn't let me have the snack basket because then I would have eaten almost nothing. Oh good, I was worried that dinner wouldn't come with a side of judgment.

Once the awkward dinner was over, we went back to our nice room.

Fire! Burn! Fire!

We tried to make a fire but failed miserably, mostly because we only had four lame logs and no kindling. As we were trying to fall asleep, we heard something outside. We didn't think anything of it and I slept really well until something jerked me awake at 1am. At first I thought it was the baseboard heater, but then as I lay in bed, I heard the "scurry scurry" sound of a mouse right near my head. It startled me, but I realized that it was outside. Then I heard the sound of something much larger scampering on the roof and it sounded like it was trying to get inside the room.

At this point I woke up my husband and once he heard it too, he didn't even think I was crazy. Off and on for the next 5 hours, we were trying to go back to sleep only to be startled awake by scampering feet and animal noises on the roof. It sounded like it was more than one animal up there and they were chasing each other around. Finally when the sun came up, the animal noises stopped, but then we realized that having the roof above the kitchen was a horrible idea.

We felt like zombies at breakfast and told the innkeepers that we had barely slept and couldn't stay in that room for another night. At first the woman tried to insist that it was just squirrels, but squirrels are diurnal and don't stomp on roofs at 3am. I really appreciated that her first reaction was to argue with me and try to use her homeschool education to outsmart me. Then both of the innkeepers were just like "Well, we can't do anything about the critters" and offered that we could move to a tiny room in one of the out-cabins, but my husband is a tall guy and he wouldn't fit in the bed in that room. At this point we were both ready to just get out of there, so that's what we did.

When we had checked in, our room had this shiny silver notebook (like the kind a 7th grader uses as a diary) that people used to write about their experience. Everyone said "This was SO RELAXING and we had the best time ever!!" and as a tribute to the book, we commented several times in the middle of the night as we listened to the "critters" playing on the tin roof: "This sure is relaxing!"

My husband wouldn't let me write in this book

On the plus side, we had a nice time driving home and stopped at a great kabob place in Fredericksburg, VA and lamb makes everything better. My husband and I definitely got a lot of bonding time this weekend and a nice shared sleep debt.

Let's bond over sleeping 12 hours for the next vacation, ok?

I was a little mad that my husband wouldn't let me write in the room guest book because I even had a great idea for it:

2/17

5pm: We just arrived and it's so quiet and rustic here! We're really going to relax here!

9:30pm: We are hearing strange sounds outside. I'm scared.

2am: Oh god, I think the coons are finding a way in.

3am: Please tell my daughter I love her. I can see their eyes now.

Now, wouldn't you laugh to read that in a room guest book at a B&B?

This picture sums up this whole post:

Nobody knows the trouble I've known....

Off for the weekend!

2012-02-16T20:39:00.000-05:00

This weekend my husband and I are doing something pretty wild and crazy: we're driving 4 hours away and spending two days at a bed and breakfast in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia! We've only been away from Faith for that long once, and that's when I ran the JFK 50 and 9 hours of running really took my mind off worrying about Faith. My brother-in-law and his wife gave us a gift certificate to this B&B at their wedding as a best man present for my husband, but we keep procrastinating on using it. We realized that it was going to expire soon, so we decided to go away for a Valentine's Day weekend.

Our first plan was to leave Faith with just a few bowls of kibble, but then we decided to ask my in-laws to come and babysit instead. They have taken care of Faith overnight before, so hopefully she won't give them a hard time. Normally she just abuses them in a typical grandchild way: making them re-read the same book for upwards of an hour. They have so much more patience than me.

Read it again Grandpa...this time with feeling!

This B&B is pretty much in the middle of nowhere and our activity choices are pretty much limited to hiking. For some reason, my husband doesn't enjoy hiking with me. I don't know why, I'm really fun on the trails.

How could not want to hike with this?

I'm guessing no hiking will actually end up happening, but hopefully I can talk him into a nature walk. We did come up with a rainy day plan of driving 45 minutes to the nearest town with a movie theater. We haven't gone to a movie together in a really long time...maybe since before Faith was born?

We are leaving after lunch tomorrow and then coming back Sunday morning, and since this is a weekend of time with my husband, I'm leaving my boyfriend "Mr. Runn Ing" at home (plus my paramour "Com Pu. Ter"). My husband has Monday off for President's Day, so I can do a long run then and I won't have to deal with trying to run in a strange (mountainous) place and coordinate with the breakfast schedule of the B&B. This place isn't close to anything and I'm not one of those people who brings a Vita Mix on vacation for a breakfast smoothie.

A "Be Jealous of me" moment: not only did my in-laws drive 2 hours to our house this afternoon, they also brought a full course dinner for tonight of meatloaf (so good) and sugar cookies (to die for) for dessert. If that wasn't enough, they even pretend to like Peanut so we didn't have to board her for the weekend. That's some family love right there.

Do people avoid hiking with you and/or complain that you walk too fast?

B&B stays: Love or hate?

Plotting to take over the world

2012-02-15T19:36:00.002-05:00

I have a confession to make: sometimes I think Faith has an inner monologue like Stewie Griffin from Family Guy. Maybe it's because they both have big heads and propensity for giving a stink eye, or maybe it's just that I've watched way too much Family Guy. Most of the time, I imagine her as nice Stewie.

When she goes into the other room to play with blocks by herself, I usually assume she is also plotting evil for the rest of the day. Last night was a hard night because Faith was up and screaming at 1:50am and then didn't settle back down and go back to sleep until almost 4am. I think she had bumped her busted lip in her sleep, but I don't really know since all I heard was "WAHHHHHHH"

I wasn't feeling too well rested this morning, but it was a beautiful day outside and I really wanted to go out for 4 miles with the stroller and dog. Some baby constipation issues delayed us (so much drama), but we eventually made it outside. Then the strangest thing happened: silence.

Faith didn't make a peep the whole time and I didn't have to stop once! This hasn't happened since the days when she would sleep the whole time. I finished my run almost 15 minutes faster than normal, but in fairness I did cut out her "toddler run" time too. I was afraid of her taking a spill and busting open her still puffy lip. I even thought she might be asleep during the run until I heard her laughing at the dog's ears blowing in the wind. The dog was actually lagging behind a little today, but I just made her run faster. That'll show her for stealing my chocolate.

I have no idea what happened to make Faith so well behaved for the stroller run. I can only assume she was busy with plotting to take over the world while I was running. Or plotting on how to get her money back from the dog.

Once the kid went down for her nap, I ran 4.25 miles on the treadmill and enjoyed an episode of Buffy. I'm thinking of adding this as a poster by my treadmill (Brian and I made this, we are so talented and politically correct)

If you've been seeing a ton of these on Facebook and other places, then you might also appreciate this one:

If you could make your own version of this meme, what would be your topic?

Here's an example (but it's lame because none of the moms are wearing workout clothes)

Blood, sweat and tears

2012-02-14T20:19:00.001-05:00

Today started out innocently enough. I came downstairs and found this waiting for me with a musical card (Faith's favorite):

You can't eat flowers

Faith was playing with her toys and I was procrastinating on going on my stroller run (as usual). Finally I started to get everything ready to go for a run, a process that makes both Faith and Peanut very excited. I put the dog's leash on and then as I reached for Faith's coat, she decided to run as fast as she could to the stroller. Step, step, BAM! Toddlers fall all the time, but you always know when they actually hurt themselves.

I picked her up screaming off the floor and checked her for injuries. At first I couldn't find anything, but then I noticed blood in her mouth. I thought she knocked a tooth out, but as I was mopping up the blood as it poured down her chin, I noticed her puffy lip.

The first rule of Baby Fight Club...

I pretty much lost my shit about this because Faith has never had a bleeding injury before and I had a hard time getting it to stop bleeding. I called my husband and he was able to talk me down from my panic ledge. I tried to ice it, but Faith wasn't going to let that fly. She didn't want a fudgesicle either and I didn't have any kid friendly popsicles...due to it being the middle of winter and all.

After 20 minutes of crying and then quietly watching The Wiggles, Faith seemed to feel better and bee lined for stroller and started crying again and tried to get into the stroller. I didn't want to go too far from the house, so we just did a quick 2 mile run in the neighborhood.

Nothing keeps me from my run!

After some Motrin and time, she was able to eat lunch without crying and she went out like a light for her nap. Nothing makes a mother feel better than when their kid who fell and hit their head wants to take a long nap...yeah.

After I put her down for her nap, I came downstairs and didn't notice anything amiss. I went to use the bathroom for all of 3 minutes and I heard Peanut doing something bad. Turns out that she can open a chocolate box and likes to eat my favorite: the coconut cream:

See the drool marks? Yeah, I'm stoked to eat the rest.

During that nap, I ran 8.15 miles on the treadmill and did a little weight training just to spice things up a little. After her 3 hour (!) nap, Faith was in a much better mood and was able to enjoy her Valentine present.

His mane is the most delicious part

This lion is for ME?

I love him SO MUCH!

Never leave me

So, that's the story of how my Valentine's Day involved blood, sweat and tears. Yes, I might have cried a little with Faith too. Or maybe it was sweat, it's hard to tell because I was sweating like I was running an 8:00min/mile pace in August because I was positive I was going to have to take my blood-soaked kid to the ER (apparently the dog isn't the only drama queen in the household).

How was your Valentine's Day?

No walks and no runs

2012-02-13T16:26:00.000-05:00

Make Peanut something, something. Go crazy? Yes, that's it!

If Peanut could write, our walls would look like this

The dog hasn't been for a run since Thursday and I'm getting confirmation that my hypothesis that I don't like my dog when she's not exhausted is holding true. Peanut's default isn't "good dog"

I have the devil on one shoulder and the other shoulder is empty

Today was my rest day from running and I also took the kid to toddler story time at the library, so the dog didn't even get a walk this morning. I don't normally put her in her crate when I'm just going out for an hour or two, mostly because I know she will just sleep the whole time we're gone. Sometimes she doesn't even bother to get up off the couch when I come home, so I have to go find her instead.

When we got back from the library this morning, I noticed what looked like blood on the carpet. I was freaking out that the dog had re-injured her paw, but then I found a wrapper. Turns out that she climbed onto the kitchen island and snatched a Little Debbie frosted Valentine's Day brownie that I was saving for Faith to have tomorrow. The mixture of red sprinkles and chocolate look just beautiful on our white carpeting.

Yesterday she stole some of Faith's food and the day before that she ate a bunch of unshelled peanut's from my 5 Guys order. I guess she's decided that if she can't run, then she's going to find happiness in excessive eating. Maybe she's upset that she was up a pound when we were at the vet (which I still don't understand how that is possible). Or maybe, just maybe, she's just a bad dog.

I eat because I'm sad and I'm sad because I eat

The food thievery is in addition to her usual going out in the yard and harassing the neighbors while pretending to not hear us call her and the endless pacing and whining. They are predicting snow for tomorrow morning, but I might be inclined to just strap on the weather shield for the stroller and run anyway so I can have some peace and quiet...from the dog at least.

Also since I'm already throwing the dog under the bus here for acting out, let's make fun of her funny looking feet. Don't her pinky toes make it look like she's about to sip a cup of tea?

I am a high class lady

At least Faith hasn't been giving me a hard time about not going for a run since Thursday. She got plenty of run time at the library this morning. It is next to impossible for me to keep that kid seated for an entire kid's book. I swear those librarians find the longest ones possible! Even I find my attention wandering, which doesn't bode well for my offspring. I can't help it, I really don't care how the duck gets its foot from out of the muck or whatever fucking contrived situation the book is describing with forced rhyming. Most children's books make me want to put a pencil in my eye, but Faith seems enthralled so I deal with it. It still beats making PowerPoint presentations at a desk job...unless you're one of those people who really love PowerPoint. I worry about you.

Maybe I should be writing my own children's books. I have a feeling they would go something like this one, hopefully also narrated by Samuel L. Jackson:

Faith would dig this

What was your favorite book as a toddler (if you remember) or what was your kid's favorite book? Faith really likes Sandra Boynton books (especially the "Opposites" and "Belly Button" books) and of course her Animal Sounds book, which she also thinks is delicious. Mmmmm cardboard.

How long does it take you to go crazy without a workout? Do you steal food like Peanut in protest of forced rest?

Things you can't unsee

2012-02-12T20:23:00.001-05:00

After I blogged last week about the dog's foot issue, I took her to the vet. As background, I worked at a veterinary hospital for almost 2 years in high school and I have assisted in many surgeries, so I don't get grossed out easily. I thought about trying to "take care" of the dog's foot at home, but I hate even clipping her nails (she's such a drama queen of a dog), so I took her in.

Verdict: the vet thought it was a spider bite that got infected, which made me feel a little better because I thought that her foot swelling was somehow connected to her running, which would make it my fault. The vet decided to just release the wound right there because it was full of pus. I really thought they would have taken her in the back or something, but nope...they just did it right there in front of me. I'm going to file that experience under "Things you can't unsee" because that was way grosser than I had anticipated. She was really happy when they were done, so she was either in less pain, or just liked the attention.

I'd let them cut my foot every day for some of those liver treats

Since the dog needed to rest and let her foot heal up (and NOT get reinfected), I left her home from my long run yesterday. She wouldn't have enjoyed it anyway because it was pouring rain or pelting snow the whole time. The weather report said it would only rain/snow until around 8am, but that was a total lie.

I wanted to do a long run yesterday because I haven't had a long run since November, with the exception of that trail 16 mile run last month. I organized my neighbors and some running club people and despite the weather, we had a great turnout. One of my neighbors is training for her first marathon (even if she claims that she's not sure yet) and was planning on running 18 miles for the first time. Since misery loves company, I joined her. We started an hour before everyone else, then ran 9ish miles with them and then only had a little bit to finish on our own. This is mentally the easiest way (for me) to do a long run, so even with the weather it was a fun morning. The pace was easy and we ran in a different neighborhood, so the time actually went by really quickly and before I knew it, we ran 18.1 miles and got to go home and dry off.

This was one of those long runs when you feel great the rest of the day. I credit two things to this: no GI problems at all for the run and I didn't take a Gu. I know this sounds ridiculous, but if I take a Gu, it kills my appetite for hours (even the caffeine free ones) and not eating a ton after a 3 hour run makes me want to just lay on the couch and not move.

Since I was feeling good, we decided to go to Lowe's to buy a new toy storage system. Faith's toys seem to take over our house and our current system just wasn't working. Unless it was 5 minutes after I just put the toys away and lined everything up neatly, the corner of our living room normally looked like this:

Faith said the penguin made this mess

We found a cute shelf thing at Lowe's, so we bought it and my husband assembled it today. They should have noted on the box: "Normal assembly: 20 minutes. Toddler-assisted assembly: 45 minutes"

Daddy? Daddy? Daddy? Whatcha doing?

Mommy, Daddy won't share his toys.

If you're wondering what happens if you hammer in front of a toddler, here's a short video:

After I finished laughing at him trying to assemble this with Faith's help, I did take her in the other room and force her to play blocks with me until he was done. Then I had her help me put all of her toys away in our new system. Now we even have a "puzzle bin" and a "musical toy" bin and I (shhh don't tell) moved a bunch of toys that Faith hasn't played with a lot (or just really annoyed me) down to the basement. We can go visit them on a rainy day.

So many toys for just one kid, I know

The old toy corner used to be Peanut's corner, so we gave it back to her.

Who are we kidding, she sleeps on the couch

Other than rocking the kid's world with a new toy system, I also ran 4.25 miles today just to shake out my legs after yesterday's run. That brings my weekly mileage to 55.5 miles, which is pretty sweet for someone not following a training plan. I'm really just enjoying just running as much as I want each day (which admittedly is pretty close to how I ran during 50 mile training).

Mommy you should be training to do my hair better than this

Are you good at assembling new furniture? I normally don't do it, but I was pretty good at assembling baby stuff like strollers. The Graco stuff was the worst because the instructions were just pictures, no words other than "CLICK!". So helpful.

A Lego box hat kind of day

2012-02-09T19:45:00.000-05:00

When you spend your days with a short, drooly person, everyday is pretty exhausting. Some days are worse than others and today was one of those days. Everything I did was making Faith pitch a fit, so the morning felt like it lasted 16 hours. I do what I can to entertain the kid, but I'm not going to stand on my head just to make her laugh. I feel like that's just giving her a false view of what the world will be like and she needs to realize that adults have to click their own internet links to find things to make them laugh.

I do try to be a good sport about things, so when Faith decided that I needed a hat this morning, I just went with it.

I'm not sure her head will fit in here, she thinks pretty highly of herself...

Mommy, are you mocking my fashion choices for you?

She not only put the box on my head, but cried every time I attempted to remove it. I ended up having to sit with that thing on my head for about 30 minutes. By the end, I'm pretty sure even the dog was judging me for my head wear.

Speaking of the dog, I took her for a shorter than usual run this morning (2.5 miles) because it was pretty cold and windy for the kid and the dog seemed fine for the run. She slept the rest of the morning (what a tough life) and didn't act like anything was bothering her, until the afternoon when I noticed her licking her paw. I yelled at her to quit doing that a few times, but then I decided to take a closer look and this is what I saw:

All together now....EWWWWWWW

It has a little eye

Of course, I have a very measured and calm response to this and in no way decide that the dog has an abscess filled with soon-to-hatch spider babies. I don't know why that was my first guess, but apparently that's how my mind works.

I called the vet and they couldn't see the dog this afternoon or evening (but oh so nicely offered to squeeze her in for an extra 50 bucks), so I just made her an appointment for tomorrow and then dosed her up with Benadryl and cleaned the area really well with hydrogen peroxide. Peanut isn't limping or anything, so that's why I'm not too concerned. Just as long as that spider babies thing doesn't pan out, I think she's going to be fine. Unless her paw is back to normal tomorrow, I'm not going to run her because that probably won't help the situation. Luckily, the combination of Benadryl and the dog's normal anti-seizure medicine have left her almost comatose, so she might not even mind taking a rest day or two.

Ok, now that I've grossed you out with dog paw pictures, how about you return the favor and tell me about the grossest injury you've ever had (or seen)?

Toddler problems

2012-02-08T20:08:00.000-05:00

There are many different types of problems in this world, but there is nothing like a toddler problem. What's a "toddler problem"? Here are some examples:

When you can walk places, but you don't WANT to:

Woman, pick me up!

The tyranny of being told that you can't eat pasta through your nose:

But my nose is NEAR my mouth

Look Mom, no hands!

When someone tells you that you can't go outside with pants on your head:

But Mommy.....

When you decide after 20 minutes that you don't want to be in the stroller anymore, but your mean Mommy says "We're 2 miles from home, you have to just deal"

Your Mommy logic is no match for my tantrum powers

Finally, one of the worst toddler problems: when your Mommy puts your books away in the wrong order. This is the only proper response:

Oh, the humanity!

Yes, I took a picture of her tantrum before I picked her up and comforted her. I'm an awesome parent and this was like the 5th one in an hour, so I felt ok about this. I didn't know what I had done to elicit such a response until she crawled over to her books and fixed it, all while sobbing.

Maybe I should add another problem to her list: When Mommy takes you for a 4 mile run and then straight to toddler story time at the library.

I didn't shower before I took her because I didn't have time and I wasn't done running for the day, but I hope I didn't offend anyone too much with either my odor or running tights. At least Faith got to enjoy her toddler mosh pit of dancing to something called the "Teddy Bear Song". My husband said that they're going to ban me from the library if I go there stinky again, so maybe I'll stick to taking her on my rest days from running.

Do you ever go and do things after a hard workout before you shower?

Running confessions

2012-02-07T20:24:00.000-05:00

I've done a few confession posts before, but I've never had a running-centric post before so now seems like a good time!

There is a long, steep hill leading into my neighborhood. 9 times out of 10, I walk it. I'll even plan my runs around the walking, meaning I'll run an extra .3 before I turn around to account for pausing my Garmin for my stagger up the hill. I know I can run it, but I just hate it so much.

I'm scared of becoming too dependent on listening to music when I run, so I'll force myself to run without it occasionally. I haven't gotten to the point of enjoying the sound of nature and shit, but it doesn't drive me nuts like it did the first few times I tried it.

On weekdays, before I run on the treadmill I always have some candy before I start. Unless I have cookies, then I have cookies instead...and then maybe a piece of chocolate too. I have a whole door of my fridge devoted to bags of fun sized candy just for this reason.

Wait, where's MY candy?

Even on no incline, I think running on the treadmill feels harder than running outside. The sad part is that I usually run about a minute slower per mile on the treadmill than I do outside!

One time I forgot to bring my water bottle on a stroller run so I drank out of Faith's sippy cup. It was as embarrassing as you can imagine, but at least no one saw (I think).

I saw you Mommy, and I judged you harshly

I am terrified of running on sidewalks because I have tripped over a crack in the sidewalk and skinned my knees more than once.

When I see people running in Vibrams, I giggle in my head (and sometimes out loud). I can't help it, they are just silly looking.

Are your toes so unruly that they have to be kept separate?

Faith didn't want to be left out of this confessions post, but she didn't have a running confession. Instead, she wants everyone to know that she does this almost every time Peanut gets fed:

My pretty, pretty hat

Mommy, why do you keep putting dog food in my drum?

Yes, Peanut is a very patient dog.

Do you have a running confession to add?

A glutton for punishment

2012-02-06T20:23:00.001-05:00

I didn't do anything too interesting today, so I'll just tell you about how I embarked on a "Mommy marathon" yesterday. There was a baby shower that I wanted to attend, but it was 2 hours away and my husband couldn't drive with me or stay home with Faith (grad school work and house repair stuff). I decided to be wild and just take Faith with me to the shower, even though I had never driven that far with the kid by myself.

I left to drive to the shower at noon, which is Faith's normal nap time and I hoped that she would sleep in the car. Nope! She ended up watching the Wiggles the whole way and didn't make a peep, but didn't sleep at all. Once we arrived, I was worried that she would have a ton of melt downs, but she was too excited to be in a non-toddler proofed house to care. I never appreciate how toddler-proof my house is until I take her to a house inhabited by only adults. Most of the party goers were foolish enough to place drinks on coffee tables, so I had a full time job of keeping Faith from giving herself a lemonade shower. Even though I was on top of her for most of the party, she managed to find an apple (not part of the party snacks) and eat it, dump 2 glasses of water, and use a paint pen (for decorating newborn onesies) to draw on the fold out table. Phew.

It was fun to see all of the cute baby clothes (the baby is going to be a girl!) and reminisce about how Faith used to be that small. Baby girl clothes are just the best. I know they have some cute stuff for boys, but it really can't compare to the little dresses!

Brian, the best blog troll a blog could have

Faith is pretty used to have a camera in her face, but Brian's big fancy camera was something new (and fun to grab!)

Is this camera drool proof?

In a house with no toys, Faith still managed to amuse herself:

Peace, love and teething man

By the end of the 2 hour baby shower, Faith was so tired that she couldn't even eat any cake (and that's really tired!). On the way home, she passed out for about 20 minutes with her face all scrunched up in an angry expression, but 20 minutes isn't enough considering that she normally takes a 2 hour nap and she was a ball of cranky by the time we got home at 6pm and I was exhausted. I had run a little over 9 miles that morning at a speedy (for me) 8:15min/mile pace and that was a cake walk compared to the baby shower marathon.

Since kids don't make sense, Faith couldn't fall asleep when we got home because she was too tired. I knew it was going to be bad when I was just getting this look:

What you talkin' about momma?

So I learned an important lesson from all of this: I can't coax the kid to nap in the car AND drive the car. Doing that kind of trip with my husband is so much better than winging it on my own.

Luckily Faith is all recovered from her wild and crazy day yesterday, even though it took me two hours to get her to nap today. I have confidence that she'll get back on her normal napping schedule by tomorrow. By confidence, I mean desperate hope.

When was the last time you gave someone a dirty look like Faith's in the photo above?

Those are some positive splits

2012-02-05T19:53:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was the third trail race in my running club's winter trail race series and Peanut and I were excited to run in a new (to us) park about 30 minutes from my house. We got to the race about an hour and half before the start to help set up and register people for the race. I'm getting good at the computer aspect of it, and I'm pretty sure I only messed up the gender of one or two people when entering data.

It was a chilly damp morning, so it was really cold sitting in front of the lap top. Luckily I wore extra layers and pretty soon it was close to race time so I got Peanut out of my car (she is so patient) so she could pee before the race start. There were 2 other dogs at this race, but Peanut fell in love with this one:

Why helloooo

We had a great turnout for the race (meaning 46 people ran), so I made sure to line up behind the fast guys at the start line.

Oh dude...Mexican the night before a race? Bad call.

We had a pre race brief that warned us that the way back is harder than the way out and then we were off!

Ready...set....LOOK AT YOUR GARMIN!

The race started on an uphill, which was deceptive because it was actual a net downhill to the turn around point. We were running on a fire road with a sand/mud/gravel footing and it was nice and wide so people could pass as needed. As we were running, I was starting to dread coming back because I realized that we were going downhill...a lot. Finally we hit the beach and hopped a log and then ran through the deep sand to a cone turn around point.

Time for a Baywatch slow motion run!

The Chesapeake Bay looks so much prettier than it smells

I could have run in the packed wet sand, but there were a ton of shells and I was worried about Peanut cutting her foot, so we stuck to the loose shell-free sand. Once we started on the way back, I was really wishing that Peanut had the same pep as the first quarter mile and would pull me up the hills instead of running nicely next to me.

The first hill was the worst one:

It goes around the corner and then goes up some more...and then some more

We started out running it:

Peanut looks so goofy when she runs

But by the end of it, I was walking. I tried to call it "Ultra Walking!" but it was more "I'm sucking wind and I need to walk". I actually had to walk twice in the race, which is a new record for a short race. Despite that, I still finished the 3.85 mile course in 32:49 (official time) which is an 8:25min/mile average. My mile splits were hilariously positive (meaning the second half was MUCH slower than the first), but that was hard to avoid on that course. We had a dude show up and run the course at a 5:29min/mile average, which is badass. I saw him running at the top of the biggest hill and he didn't even look tired.

After refueling with some hot chocolate and doughnut holes, we cleaned up all the race stuff and headed back out onto the trails. We ran back to the water and then went out on the trail system and got off the fire road. It was still pretty hilly, but going slower made it much nicer. We ran 5.1 miles, which gave me 9 miles for the day.

Peanut had a great time at the race and I'm pretty sure she wishes the running club had canine memberships.

What are you doing? GET OFF ME

Oh, we're taking a picture? Ok.

Thanks to Perry Rapp and Jeanne Larrison for the pictures! I took some of them on our post-race run (I admit that hill running picture was staged), but most of the good ones came from them!

Back to being an adult

2012-02-02T19:55:00.001-05:00

My husband just returned from being gone all week in California for work, so this means I'm back to acting like an adult. When he travels, I regress to a "let's see if I can reuse the same plate for lunch and dinner" level of living. I also seem to let my parenting slide a little, mostly with how much TV I allow her to watch. On the bright side, I still find the Wiggles amusing.

It's so embarrassing when Mommy sings along

Today's weather started out with pouring rain, so I didn't go out for a run. I don't especially enjoy running in pouring rain and I really hate running in the rain with the stroller, so we just stayed inside. As soon as I put Faith down for her nap, the rain stopped and the sun came out, but I was still stuck using the treadmill because of the whole "Don't leave your baby alone the house" thing that parents do.

I don't need a nap...zzzzzzzzzzzz

I managed to get 8.5 miles done on the treadmill, or in other terms, I watched two episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I didn't push the pace or the incline on this run, mostly because I didn't feel like it. I think it's important to occasionally have a run when you just "run" and aren't focused solely on pushing it. Do you like my excuse?

No pasta for you Mommy. Pasta is for runners who run on an incline on the treadmill.

Faith has been dealing with a lot of teething pain this week from some molars coming in, so she was in rough shape today. So much crying, so much drama. She was better after her nap, so I took her to the park in an attempt to avoid more "face down in the kitchen crying about nothing" incidents. An example of teething madness: She cried because I was making breakfast too slowly, then she cried because it was a blueberry waffle, and then she cried because I took the blueberry waffle away and tried to get her something else. She ended up eating the waffle while crying, which was the most pathetically sad thing I've ever seen. She's been jamming her fingers in the back of her mouth a lot too. Infant motrin has been our friend this week!

My weekend is starting early because my husband has off tomorrow, which is fantastic. I have another trail race on Saturday morning and of course Peanut is coming too. This race is about 4 miles long and I think the course is hilly based on the pictures I saw of last year's race. The weather is predicted to be great so hopefully we'll get a lot of people to show up for the race! If you're local to the D.C. area and want a good trail race this weekend, click here for a list of races put on my running club!

Do you ever just run and not worry about pushing the pace (or the incline if you're on the treadmill)?

My dog has issues

2012-02-01T21:01:00.000-05:00

On my run this morning, as I was listening to loud music to drown out the sounds of toddler whining, I couldn't help but notice that my dog has a serious case of paranoia. She's always had it when we run: she is CONVINCED that someone is behind us and/or following us. Every 4 steps, she has to whip her head around and check. She has even run into the stroller because she doesn't stop running forward, she just stops looking forward.

She gets that way almost every single run we do alone (not with a group) and there is never anyone following us. She has bad days when she has her tail tucked for a good portion of the run and just looks ridiculous. When other people tell me "Oh my dog just gets tired after 2 miles" I feel like responding "Well, my dog is terrified to stop running because she thinks Big Foot is behind us".

Yeti hungry for COONHOUND

The funny thing is that if we run in a group of people, she's fine. In the race last weekend, at no point did she seem to be in fear of a woods Yeti. I think she would be a happy dog if all of our runs were group runs.

I don't understand how a dog who does so well in public can be so frightened the rest of the time. She's fine if she's alone in the house or in the yard, just not when she's running with me. I think in her doggie mind, she thinks we're running from something when it's just the two (or three) of us.

She has other issues too, including but not limited to:

She has to have her special pink fleece blanket for sleeping downstairs. If the blanket isn't on the couch, it's like her world doesn't make sense to her.
She has some kind of internal clock. At 4:59pm, she just goes and lays down and stares at her food bowl because she knows that 5pm is feeding time.

Peanut will only sleep in her crate, however if I ask her to go into her crate, she reacts like this:

She'll only go into her crate when I go into the bathroom to brush my teeth before bed. I don't know why, but I do know I can't change it.

She cuddles with Faith's toys when she thinks no one is looking:

Ok, I admit I invited Cookie Monster, but Elmo just tagged along, I swear!

How is your dog or cat "special"?

Do you ever feel like someone is behind you when you're running and do the quick turn and look?

I rock at parenting, part 2

2012-01-31T20:17:00.002-05:00

If you read some "mommy blogs" you might think that they are perfect parents who always have organic hummus and bell pepper strips for their toddler's snacks and make sure their kid's day is chock full of enrichment. I'm either a worse parent than them, or more honest about the realities of life with a toddler dictator.

Faith woke up this morning in a cranky, cranky mood. I think the tantrum counter was at 5 before 8am, which means the day is off to a great start. Since she was already so fussy inside the house with freedom and toys, I knew the stroller run was going to be rough. On days like that, I'm grateful for the BOB stroller's 5 point harness and my iPod.

How dare you strap me in here like an animal!

If you're imagining a poor suffering child being forced to sit in the stroller for hours, that's not exactly how this works. We only go for 4 miles, so I just need her to sit in there for 35ish minutes and I bring a ton of snacks and toys. Lately, despite all of this she still fusses and whines. I assume it's a phase.

Replace "drink" with "turns up the volume on headphones"

I'm an advocate of "picking my battles" in terms of parenting and getting her to sit in the stroller is one of those battles that I'm picking. No stroller runs means I only get to run outside on the weekends and that's just unacceptable. Also, the dog would suffer greatly.

Once I was done torturing both my child and neighbors with my need to run outside on a 60 degree day in January, it was finally my favorite time of the day: nap time. Any parent who denies this is either a paragon or a liar.

She took a long nap and during that time I ran 4.5 more miles and then ate half a pizza. See? Nap time is the best time. After she woke up, I took her to the playground in the hope that it would tire her out and make my evening easier...oh wait, I mean I took her to the playground so she could enjoy herself. Yeah.

You aren't fooling me Mommy

We ended up staying at the park a little longer than I had planned, so instead of rushing home and preparing a healthy, balanced meal for Faith, we stopped by this lovely establishment:

You know you crave this on Sundays

She ate almost every last bite of her kid's meal, which is more than I can say about my home cooked dinners. I think the key is the waffle fries and chocolate milk. It seemed strange to me that the kid's meal toy was a CD of a computer game. Kids these days...

If I hadn't already achieved "Awesome Parent" status for the day, earlier today I made her scrub the floors Cinderella style.

Yes, she's using a slipper as a "mop bucket". I really need to give her some cleaning supplies instead of just a dry napkin. I just need some confidence that she won't try to drink the cleaning fluid...

Someone recently asked me how I have time to be a good mother if I run so much (210 miles in January). I should just refer them to this post. Step one: Train the toddler to clean the house. There is no Step two.

Part one of how I rock at parenting

Muffins and Pigtails

2012-01-30T19:42:00.001-05:00

My weekend didn't only consist of running one of the nation's only 12 mile half marathons (very exclusive). I also attended a fun breakfast for my running club's yearly awards! Since the running club is full of crazy runners, most people came about an hour early to run before breakfast. The party was at a club house in a neighborhood with nice bike lanes, so I brought Faith and the stroller with me. I didn't think we'd make it for the whole hour of running, but I knew she'd enjoy the breakfast after.

We only made it 2 miles before she started really fussing and since I figured I could help set up breakfast, we called it a day at that point. This was my contribution to the breakfast party:

Apple cinnamon whole grain muffins...they didn't even taste like cardboard!

Runners bring great food to events! I knew once I saw doughnuts that it was going to be a good meal. Faith ate a ton of food and she made sure to make her rounds and socialize with everyone. Normally she's a little shy in crowds, but the sweaty odors and running shoes must have made her feel at home.

Ok Mommy, let me show you how to clap

She barely even sat with me and preferred to go chat about running with other club members:

I don't even warm up until mile 30...

I'm out of fluid. I need more hydration.

So then this other baby said I couldn't place in our AG and I said "Eat my dust!"

Other than pretending that my kid discusses running, I have been obsessed with trying to style her hair. I have been waiting for a long time for her to have enough hair to put in a ponytail, so I may be a little over excited about it. Also, I don't really do my own hair, so I'm not very good at it. With practice I'll get better, but that will be easy to do because it is so fun. If it's wrong to laugh at your kid's unicorn ponytail, I don't want to be right.

Mommy, you really suck at this hair styling thing

Do I have to do EVERYTHING around here?

I thought the teeny ponytail and headband combo was hilarious, but then this morning I discovered that I could manage two teeny tiny pig tails. This picture pretty much says it all.

Words can't explain how much joy this picture gives me

I really never thought I could have so much fun with a box of little hair ties.

The muffins were a Duncan Hines mix, so if you want the recipe I suggest the baking aisle at Target. :)

High Cloud Snapple Half Marathon 2012 Recap

2012-01-29T20:06:00.000-05:00

Yeah, shorts in January. I'm a badass

Here I am in all my mud soaked glory after another lovely morning doing a race with two of my favorite running buddies:

There are Milkbones at the aid stations, right?

Alyssa is thinking "I can't believe I'm in a car with a smelly dog"

We had to get to the race almost 2 hours early because parking was an issue, even though it was just a 400 person race, so after we got our packet and chip we hung out in the warm car.

The dog really enjoyed rocking out to Lady Gaga and group photos

The race had waved starts and we lined up for the second group (for people hoping to finish between 1:41-1:59). A lot of people seemed surprised that a dog was going to run a half marathon, but I explained that I had emailed the race director and got permission for her to race and that she is very fit. Peanut was on her best behavior for the race and didn't even poke anyone in the butt as we were waiting to start.

Before we even lined up to start, I knew I was having stomach issues. I had to make an emergency Wawa stop on my drive to the race and they were sold out of Immodium! I had to get Pepto Bismol instead, which in case you were wondering, does absolutely jack shit. I tried to "take care" of the issue before the race start, but I had that rumbling feeling in my gut that didn't make me feel confident.

The race start was really crowded and it took about 2 miles to open up. During that crowded period I had one very angry woman demand "Is that dog allowed?" and she said the word "dog" like I would say "crack pipe" in reference to a kindergarten classroom. I told her "Yep!" and she was like "I doubt it!". Ok, lady. Don't be mad that my dog beat you at running and she's prettier too.

The vast majority of people at this race were really nice and friendly, but we managed to find not just one asshole, but two. We were coming up behind an older guy and he was slowing down and we passed him. As soon as we did that, he started cursing at us and sprinted ahead of us. I guess that sure showed us...for passing him in a race? Maybe he really didn't want to lose to a dog?

Alyssa was having problems with her asthma and I was having the GI issues, so we had to take 2 breaks: one for her inhaler and one for me to dash into a bathroom. At that point we knew a PR for Alyssa was out of the question (since her PR is like 1:50) so we decided to just cruise it in and enjoy the scenery. We did see some chick almost fall into the canal because she was trying to avoid getting her feet wet in a puddle, so that's the kind of scenery that needs enjoyment.

At the turn around point, we noticed that it was short, but we assumed that we'd make up the mileage later on in the course. As we were running, we noticed that the mile markers were really off...like a mile off. Then just before mile 12, we saw a large group of people ahead of us that weren't running. To our shock, it was the finish line! This was even a USTAF certified course, so my half marathon time was 1:47! It's too bad I can't pretend that 12.12 miles = 13.1 miles.

This was a volunteer-run event and there was a mistake setting up the turn around point (obviously), but they apologized profusely and offered a discount on a future event. If I had been running a better race, I might be upset about it, but since I was just running an "ok" race I just thought it was funny. I bet the course next year will be 13.1 exactly!

Peanut is thinking "You bitches owe me a mile at race pace"

Peanut did a a great job at the race and even behaved for Alyssa when I had to duck into the bathroom. Alyssa hates dogs, so I was afraid that Peanut would make her hate them even more, but it hasn't happened yet. We did have some issues with other dogs on the trail (not affiliated with the race) and not one, but two dogs went after Peanut. I tried yelling at the owner, but she was either deaf or didn't speak English. The other dog was an really aggressive boxer on a retractable leash. I freaking hate retractable leashes, especially when a stupid person is holding the handle end. Peanut wasn't hurt, so that's all that matters.

It took a long time for my stomach to feel better after the race, but by 3pm I was able to eat lunch without any issues. Note to self: always keep Immodium in the car!

As it stands, I'm not going to use this race as a half marathon PR, which means I'm still stuck with my 2:16 PR. The half marathon doesn't seem to be my lucky distance!

My unicorn ponytail is lucky

Suicide pace

2012-01-26T19:50:00.000-05:00

I haven't mentioned this yet, but I'm running a half marathon on Sunday. Obviously I haven't been following any specific training plan for it, but I still think I'll be able to just wing it with my mileage base. Most half marathon training plans call for less weekly mileage than I normally do anyway. I'm planning on running a little less tomorrow and Saturday and calling that a "taper" and that's as fancy as I'm getting for this race.

I've only ever run one half marathon before and that was over 2 years ago. I managed to time getting pregnant with Faith perfectly so I was slightly queasy for the race, but didn't know I was pregnant, so it was a really peachy keen race experience. It was also VA Beach on Labor Day weekend, so it was really hot and there was no shade, so I assumed I was sick due to the heat. My time from that race was 2:16, which is pretty slow for me. I run at a faster pace now than I did pre-Faith, so it's time for a redemption race.

Jessica asked me what my goal pace is for the half marathon and I laughed and said "Um...as fast as I can?" and that's my plan. I'm running this race with Alyssa and this will be like our 6th or 7th race together and every one of them has been fun, so I'm sure we can get a great time and have fun doing it. Look how happy we are after getting a sub-4 marathon at Baltimore Marathon:

3 hours and 54 minutes later, we were still on speaking terms

This race is on the canal path (gravel and dirt path) which is nice and flat and there are a few wooden bridges to cross. The weather is predicted to be sunny and a high of 48, which is perfect racing conditions. Last year the race course had 6 inches of snow and ice on it and I ended up not making the drive up there, but this year I have no excuses.

A few days ago, I sent this to Alyssa and told her that this is our motto for the race on Sunday:

Let's just hope that my race recap isn't title "That time I threw up on Alyssa..."

Other than the race, my plans for the weekend include a fun sushi date night tomorrow night with my husband (my mom is coming for the weekend and she'll be with Faith) and a running club awards breakfast on Saturday morning. There is a group run before the potluck breakfast and then awards. I didn't win anything, but going to a breakfast potluck is like winning an award in my book. I'm taking Faith with me, so hopefully she will behave and not embarrass me too much.

Hold on Mommy. I think I blinked.

Do you like attending pot lucks? What's your go-to dish? I'm bringing muffins because I don't have to worry about them getting cold while I'm running before the breakfast!

So many questions, so little time

2012-01-25T20:06:00.000-05:00

You may have noticed a trend of "11 things" going around the blog world and I have been tagged twice by Terzah and Amber. It has complicated rules, but I'm not going to follow them at all because that's just how I roll. Instead of coming up with 11 things about myself, I'll just answer an assortment of their questions.

1. If you could have dinner with anyone dead or alive, who would it be?

Qaddafi of course. I'd like to go over my 100 page master's thesis with him and see if he has any notes to add. Also, I think we'd have a good laugh over the YouTube videos of his capture. I feel like he'd have a sense of humor about it.

Also, he'd be the young hot Qaddafi, not the old skeevy one obsessed with Condi

2. Are you a fan of motivational posters?

Not unless they are Demotivational posters. Those make me giggle.

3. What is your favorite thing about being a "grown up"?

Not eating vegetables unless I want to and eating in front of the TV. Man, I'm wild.

4. If you could pick a totem animal, what would it be and why?

Beaver. Hands down, beaver. Do I need to explain?

5. Do you have any tattoos?

Yep, I have two. I'd have 3 if my husband was more hip and not such a stick in the mud.

6. What's your best piece of parenting advice?

Well, I'm obviously an expert because I've been a parent for over a year and a half, so it's hard to narrow it down to just one piece of advice. I think I'd go with "Pick your battles", which is also just good life advice. I had a boss once who always asked "Is this the hill you want to die on?" when things got crazy at work and now I say it and get funny looks.

7. Why did you start blogging?

I have read blogs for a long time, but when I was working full time and working out, I didn't even consider trying to create a blog myself. Once I had Faith, I thought it would be fun, but it wasn't until she was 7 months old that I felt that I had enough of a handle on her schedule and her health (we had a lot of problems with her and a milk protein allergy) to start blogging.

8. What's the scariest thing you've ever done?

I asked my husband "Hey, what's the scariest thing I've ever done?" and he responded "What about that time you squeezed the little munchkin out of your hoo-hoo?" and I can't really top that. Hoo-hoo? Yes, I married that man, he's taken ladies.

Epidurals are magical

Ok, I'm not going to tag anyone, but if you want, pick any of these questions and tell me your answer in the comments!

The Joy of Running

2012-01-24T20:03:00.001-05:00

Ever have one of those days when you don't want to stop running because you feel great? It only happens once in a blue moon, but I had one of those days today. Today was beautiful and not only did the sun come out for the first time in days, but it was also in the 50s. I wasn't the only one who wanted to run today, Faith also wanted to go! I tried to get a good video of her taking off, but in this clip she got distracted by the grass and stopped soon after starting. Normally she just keeps going, but not today when I had the camera with me (typical).

I did get a great action shot of her running. Check out that form!

Ok Mommy, hand me my Gu

I felt great on the 4 mile stroller run this morning and came back home feeling like I could run further than my standard 8 miles for the day. I had about 30 minutes to feed the kid her lunch and put her down for her nap for the urge to end, but I still felt pumped up and energetic. I hopped on the treadmill and ended up running 8.5 miles, making the total for the day 12.5 (for the math challenged who didn't want to do the addition). I feel like those runs that feel great and you don't want it to end are rare and should be savored!

I'm not saying that I don't normally enjoy my runs, but every runner knows that every run isn't, as I've said before, unicorn farts and rainbows. Sometimes it feels like work, but you do it because the result is worth it and sometimes it feels like misery, but you do it because race day might feel that way too. I usually have my best runs the day after a full rest day (like yesterday) and I didn't do a long run over the weekend and I think that's why my legs felt so great today.

Speaking of runs that feel like you are being showered in unicorn tears, our running club photographer took some fun pictures of our trail race last Saturday.

Here is a picture that shows how much Peanut hates the rain:

Why am I standing in the rain? WHY??

The trail that we ran on was really pretty, but I didn't get to appreciate much because I was trying to run quickly and not die, so it's great that our photographer also runs the course and takes pictures as she goes:

Avoid the icy wood planks!

Like a stream crossing that never ends

The only running action shot was this one of us running back out to the trails after the race was over to collect the flag markers and signs:

Peanut is mid-shake, she doesn't normally look THAT stupid.

That picture reminded me of how Peanut wouldn't stop trying to stop and shake herself off, even though I tried to explain that it was pointless when were outside in the pouring rain. Dogs and logic don't really mix.

Bold statement: As soon as someone runs because they like it, they are a "runner", regardless of mileage or race experience, but people who do it for other reasons (like calorie burn) but don't like it aren't runners.

Agree or disagree?

Raised by a Mutt

2012-01-23T17:10:00.001-05:00

Alternate titles for this post:

Dog Whisperer: Toddler Edition

Life is Ruff for Faith

A Toddler's Guide to Life: Guh dog

I am the first to acknowledge that my kid is not well socialized with other kids her age. Up until recently (like a week or so ago), her nap time conflicted with most toddler activities in the area and she's too young for any Mother's Day Out programs. I take her to the playground, but she just watches the other kids (who are usually older) and doesn't interact with them. The vast majority of her interaction is with me or my husband...or the dog.

Since her nap time has shifted to noon, we were finally able to attend the toddler story time at the library this morning. I was picturing it to be sort of lame with like one other kid and an old librarian reading "Cat in the Hat". It was actually about 15 toddlers all in a special room and the two librarians alternating reading a story with singing a song or having the kids play a game.

At first, Faith was like a deer in the headlights about the whole thing, especially the "Ring around the Rosey" game. She wanted NO part in falling down. I don't really blame her, it's a freaking strange song.

I didn't bring my camera, but this is close enough

The story time lasted for 30 minutes, which is like 2 hours for a toddler. After the second story, Faith just wanted to go play with the buckets that were used for one of the games. One of the other toddlers had the same idea and wanted to play with the laminated teddy bears in the bucket. Faith took one and held it out for the other kid and then snatched it away at the last second and ran. I realized that this is the game she was playing:

Can't catch me!

This is a game that Peanut taught Faith and now Faith was trying to get the other toddler to play along and the kid was just staring at her like "What's your malfunction?".

Faith was fascinated by this taller toddler girl with curly hair and keep inching closer to her and to my dismay, started PETTING her. Like, full out petting the other kid (in the stomach/chest area because that was at her eye level). I asked her "What are you doing?" and she looked right at me as she was petting and said "Guh dog". I am SO lucky that she's not really understandable to other people because that kid's mom was right there and I really didn't want to have explain that it wasn't personal, it's just that my kid thinks your kid is a hairless dog.

We stayed after the story time ended because she was still playing and then one of the librarians busted out bubbles and it was like shit just got real. I've never seen so many toddlers run to one spot in a room and stand with identical looks of wonder.

Toddlers are like little stoners

Most of the moms seemed to already know each other and hopefully if my kid doesn't keep calling their kids dogs then I can make some friends and set up play dates. Maybe a month or two of play dates and story hour will help Faith come out of her Mowgli phase.

But I LIKE being raised by wolves!

Until then, if anyone needs someone who really understands dogs to help them out with anything, this is your girl:

Guh dog!

You're never the craziest person out there

2012-01-22T20:05:00.001-05:00

One of the best parts about running is that no matter how crazy or dedicated you are to the sport, there is someone out there taking it to the next level. Someone might think my level of running is crazy, and then there are people who I think are crazy (and so on). Regardless of your sanity level, it's fun to have a group of people who are willing to show up for a trail race on a rainy 33 degree Saturday morning.

When I woke up yesterday, this is what I saw outside:

This would be enough for a 2 hour delay here

It was pretty icy outside, so I thought the race might be canceled. Nope! I had spent a couple of hours baking muffins and cookies on Friday for the race and I had promised to help set up and register and those two things really helped propel me outside in the pouring rain.

I didn't take my camera (pouring rain doesn't mix well with electronics), but I wish I had so I could have taken a picture of the ice coated wooden bridges and water logged trails. I normally run on the edges of puddles, but these puddles were the whole width of the trail in parts, so before long my feet were soaked with icy water. It didn't really matter since my whole body was already soaked from the cold rain. I still can't believe 20 people showed up to run (and some people came just to volunteer!). See? You are never alone in your insanity if you're a runner.

I brought the dog with me, even though she hates the rain, because she was dying to run with me The excitement of the trail run helped her forget how much she hates getting wet and she splashed through all the puddles with gusto. It poured rain for the entire race, but it wasn't so bad in the woods.

The trails for this race were really fun with lots of wet leaves and tree roots to dodge (I'm not even being sarcastic, I really like the mental challenge of remaining upright). I had to slow down on the downhills and the icy bridges, but then the last mile was on flat grass, so I made up some time and finished 4.10 miles in 36:55. I was the first female finisher, but in all fairness I think Peanut crossed the finish line ahead of me so the honor should go to her.

Bow to me bitches

After the race was done, I had some water and hot chocolate then after everyone had pretty much finished, 3 of us headed back out to the trails to pick up the flag markers and signs. We only did part of the course, so it was just 3.5 muddy miles. By the time we were done with that, I was ready to go home and take a HOT shower and get into some cozy sweats! Even though Faith and my husband stayed dry at home, they were more than willing to indulge in some cozy couch time watching quality cinema:

Oh, Captain Feathersword, you're so wacky and fun

Mommy, you can't sit here. My octopus is sitting here

Today was a gray, cold day. Faith had two things working against her being a happy kid today (teething and multi-day constipation) so I had to bail on a group run I had planned to attend and run on the treadmill during nap time instead. I was really bummed to be stuck on the treadmill on a weekend day, but once I got going it was fine. Thank goodness for fun TV shows! I just ran 5 miles and that left me wanting more, but not more treadmill miles if that makes sense. Maybe I should stop carb loading like I'm still training for a 50 miler and I won't have so much energy.

Faith got a little cabin fever from not being able to go outside much this weekend. If you're wondering how I could tell, here is Exhibit A:

Mommy, make this my audition video for Toddler Jackass

I took her out for a toddler "run" this morning (I was really hoping it would help the constipation issue) and then we played with Peanut in the yard. After just 25 minutes outside, I was frozen so I brought everyone inside and then made the kid wear her "Forever Lazy"

Mommy, you should just get your own already

I find that whenever I feel cold, I have a deep urge to bundle up the kid. It's like biology at work.

When you feel cold, do you ever want to make other people put on an extra layer? I know at least one of you out there puts a sweater on their dog. :P

Did you run in nasty weather this weekend?