January 2012 Archives

I participated in the 10-mile trail race I had scheduled for today. I had picked the race because it is small (after the 1/2 marathon in San Antonio, I really wanted to try a small race), it is on the trail (softer than the road), and it is my grandma's birthday!

I had a couple of decent 3-mile runs this week so I'm hoping the worst of the ITBS is over as long as I keep up with all of the things I need to do to keep inflammation down. It was nice to know that, even after a ton of time off, my fitness was still mostly there and I could do the 10-miles. It wasn't a stellar 10 miles but I'm happy with my work and I'm happy I decided to run it. It makes me feel like I haven't lost too much ground with the marathon training. Now I will ease back into my training!

Henry was a good little helper at the grocery store today. He even brought his "purse" along (it is a gardening tote).

Henry was inspired by his VIP cupcakes yesterday and wanted to make me some more today! Yum!

Henry had his VIP day today. Each kid in his class gets a VIP day either close to their birthday or half-birthday. Since Henry's birthday is in the summer, it was fun for him to bring in yummy cupcakes to share with his friends. He helped me put the cars in and chose the green and blue sprinkles for the tops.

This is what Sarah & I cobbled together for Pirate Day at school. Perhaps a little more gypsy than pirate, but we're OK with that.

Henry had an appointment with a speech therapist this morning. He really started adding words when he turned two and we put him on Claritin. However, his speech is so unclear and it sounds like he's talking with marbles in his mouth or he has excess saliva. He did a great job with the therapist and she said he is on track, especially since he only started adding words six months ago. We need to focus on getting him to watch our mouths when we speak and enunciate clearly as he is missing many initial sounds of words. I can bring him back after 6 months, if I want to, to get him re-evaluated.

Craig took the kids to the Museum of Natural Science this afternoon so I could get some extra stuff done around the house. This was Henry's first time there and he loved it!

We are in the habit of getting groceries and then cleaning the house on Sunday mornings while Craig goes on his group rides. This morning the kids put on the fancy feather headbands (these are from New Year's Eve for me and the girls) and said they were "brave Indians" because they were not scared of the vacuum cleaner. For the record, they are not scared of the vacuum cleaner but they like to pretend that they are.

Lacing beads. I don't know why he prefers to go without pants.

These are just some pictures of my little birds in their nests.

Henry really feels a connection to his sisters and seems to be paying more attention to not getting left out of things. The girls were spinning their skirts and saying, "watch my skirt spin," so Henry took off his pants and shouted, "watch my pants spin!"

Today Sarah & Henry had the pleasure of accompanying me to the sports medicine doctor to get my leg checked out. This, of course, is something I avoid at all costs, but I could not find a sitter for them, so they came along. They were great and I think we moved rooms enough to keep it interesting. I got an x-ray done (Sarah & Henry had to hide around the corner away from me for this and I gave them each a giant apple to keep them busy while they waited) and it didn't show any fractures which is great news.

The doctor said I have ITBS (illiotibial band syndrome) and gave me some steroidal anti-inflammatories to take and instructed me to not run until I complete the prescription. I also need to continue to ice my leg, use the foam roller, and I'll also continue to wear my compression sock at night. My leg is really feeling worse after several days off of running so I hope this does the trick!

We met up with Lesley, Caroline, & Eleanor for story time at Barnes & Noble (do not go! It was awful!!) and then we rode the carousel after lunch. Henry did not want to sit up high on the animals or have one that moved. He liked the bench just fine. (He has been acting scared of heights ever since I tried to change him on a bathroom changing pad on our trip to Colorado@#8212I've even had to move his changing pad in his room onto the floor.)

One of the great things about living in Texas in January is that we can play outside all day! The kids all loved having a treat on the playset with Anna's friend today.

I tried to go on my long run with my running group today but only made it a little more than half a mile before I had to turn around and walk/hobble back home. My whole right leg hurts. This happend on Tuesday night's run around the waterway as well. I was scheduled for 8 miles but had to walk a lot and only made it 6. I am upset that something is wrong this close to the marathon (March 3)!! Here's hoping that resting a few days will make it go away.

The kids have made up a game that they call "We all got caught in a spiderweb." Someone is the leader of the train, then one of them splits off between the ottoman and TV stand and they all fall over in hysterics as they all get caught in a "spiderweb."

Sarah is really enjoying her new big bed and reading some Biscuit books. We got her a full-size like Anna's so that we have more options when we have visitors. Now we can have two people in Anna's room, two in Sarah's, and three in Henry's room (he has a full-size futon) before we have to stick anyone in the game room out in the open.

Craig's friend Joe is in town for a while on a project so we had him over to visit. The kids adored him. (Henry was napping when I took this picture; I meant for it to be just Craig & Joe but the girls had to be in it. Notice they gave him some flowers, too.)

Craig took the girls ice skating and they met up with Anna's friend and younger sister & brother. Anna stuck to skating with the walker or holding Craig's hand; Sarah was brave and tried skating on her own. I will, at some point in my life, post video of that.

I went on an 18-mile run this morning and did not feel up to ice skating. The run was not my best. I had a tight left calf on a run earlier this week and I think I should have worked that out before I did any more running on it!

Since Henry moved into his toddler bed, I decided to sing him a song before bed (actually, I just started because I was used to singing to Sarah before she went to bed in that bed and then once I started the song, I kind of had to keep going!). So, while I sing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," then "Rock-a-bye Baby," and then "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" to Sarah before bed, I now also sing the ABC song, recite "Three Little Kittens Who Lost Their Mittens," and then sing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" to Henry. (I don't know why Sarah wants the same song twice; she said they were the best "nighttime songs." I suggested the ABC song to Henry since he doesn't have that down yet and he requested the Three Little Kittens. Anna doesn't have me sing to her. (I used to sing to the girls when they shared a room in Korea but she hasn't asked for it since we moved to Texas.)

Anna had school today but Craig is still off on vacation. I decided to get my big 17-18 mile run in while Craig took Sarah & Henry to IKEA to get Sarah's new bed so that Henry can have Sarah's toddler bed (he has climbed out of the crib a few times now). I did 17.6 miles (wow!) and did not take a picture of their new set-ups yet. Both kids are super happy about their new beds!

I must first confess that I am writing these posts all the way in August of this year. I ended up getting overwhelmed with my volunteer project at Anna's school, training for the marathon, and just life in general. Then I got behind ont he blog and got overwhelmed. Then I had technical difficulties. Things piled up. I'm trying to get caught up again and will hopefully never get so far behind! Three more things: 1. I didn't take good notes during the time I wasn't keeping up on the blog. 2. I accidentally threw away the notes that I did take. 3. There are a few pictures missing from this post because my camera was on a different setting and didn't produce a .cr2 image, only the .jpg and when I go to edit pictures I always delete all of the .jpgs so I can just work with the .cr2 images. Of course, I didn't realize when I did this that I didn't have .jpgs for the first few images for the month of January. I'm very sad about this! I'm just glad it was only one day's worth of photos and not more.

I do plan to write these posts as if I don't know the future/as if I wrote them on the day they are posted since is how I have always written. (Back when I just had Anna I wrote daily during her nap or after she went to bed. When I had Sarah it was every couple of days, never more than a week late. After Henry I posted for the week every Sunday until we moved to Texas and then things fell apart and I have been on a continuous falling behind/catching up routine. I love having the printed books to look at so that is my motivation to catching up right now!)

We had a bit more relaxed hors d'oeuvres party this year. Since we planned to get back on the first, I bought a bunch of frozen appetizers and we just heated them up. I bought everyone fancy hats (not pictured, see note above) and we had holiday crackers again. We were all just so glad to be home and not driving any more!