Thursday, May 31, 2012

Potty Trained??

Yesterday was our first day with NO ACCIDENTS.  Yep!  I'm pretty excited.  I know that there will be days with accidents here and there but one day without any is fantastic!

Annika really seems to like when we cheer for her and call her a "good girl" when she does pee or poop on the toilet.  I'm glad that she understands that it's good and that she actually wants to do it!  I can't believe that yesterday she even pooped in her potty.  We were having a hard time with that because it seemed like she couldn't figure out how to "pinch" off the poop so she'd get impatient and try to walk with the poop still attached!  Which meant we'd have a poop laying alone in a random place somewhere between the bathroom and where ever Annika had wandered off to!

I'm hoping we don't have any set backs or regression now.  I hear about it so often.  I'm going to give her a few months before we even attempt night time training, she's wearing a pull up now.  We have an issue with her that she likes to take a sippy cup of water to bed with her so she's always waking up wet, actually soaked.  I need to get her out of that habit but I tried one day last week only to have her wake up at 2am screaming "WATER MOMMA, I NEED WATER".  Anyone have advice on that?

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Earrings for Annabel

We had Annika's ears pierced at about 3 months old but for some reason we've baby'd Annabel.  She's 5 months old and we finally got her ears pierced on Monday.

Josh was nervous.

Marking the spots.

Making sure they're perfect.

Cute little face!

Annika was very curious.

Making sure they're even again.

"What is going on momma?"

Piercing! (Doesn't daddy look scared for her?)

Aweee, poor baby.

Daddy makes it all better!

Poor girl, she was done crying not even a minute later.

Happy girl!

The December birthstone is blue topaz but I think these look more teal.

Annika kept telling us "babys earrings cute".  We had to tell her twice to not touch them so I hope she doesn't try anything when we aren't looking.  Later in the evening Annabel was laying on the floor crying in our room and Josh asked me what was wrong with her.  I told him I wasn't sure because she had just eaten. Annika tells us "babys' ears hurt".  Ummm....I'm not sure how she would have known that unless we have a little baby whisperer on our hands here!  How would she even know that earrings hurt at first?  It was just crazy.

Annabel has been fine since though.  She tugged on one of them once but now seems to be leaving them alone.  They just look so cute.  I'm glad we finally got them done.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Potty Training Scorecard: Days 2, 3 and 4

Saturday morning I didn't have a lot of hope of potty training success.  I dared it and took her out to a produce market with panties and a dress on.  I figured if she peed she might miss the dress and we'd be okay.

Annika stayed dry the entire 2 hours.  Then we got home and she peed directly in front of the potty on the floor.

We took her to Target in a diaper for fear of a pee accident in public.

Later we put her down for a nap.

After her nap we went into the room to discover she had removed her diaper and a long, HUGE turd was sitting in the middle of her bedroom floor.  It never touched the diaper.

So we put on panties.

Around 6pm Annika told me she needed to go potty.  Took her to the potty and she PEED!!!  We cheered and let her have 2 little chocolate chips.

Day 2 Scorecard: 1 accident, 1 pee on the potty, 1 poop on the floor


Sunday morning Annika woke up with a dry diaper.  What???  Shocked and half awake I took her to the potty and she peed!

After breakfast Annika told me again she had to pee and we went to the potty and she peed again!

Then before we left for Wal-Mart she peed again on the potty!

We went to Wal-Mart with her wearing panties....daring.  She stayed dry so we went out for some frozen yogurt to celebrate.  While we were eating yogurt she told us she needed to go potty!  She went pee again in a public restroom with Josh!



Nap time we left her in panties and put her potty in her room for her to use.  When we went to get her 2 hours later she had pooped in the potty and her panties were just slightly damp.

Then we ate dinner and went for a walk.  The walk is almost 1/2 a mile so she had an accident along the way.  But she was able to hold in the pee some because when we went home she peed some more on the potty.

Day 3 Scorecard: 2 accidents, 5 pees on the potty, 1 poop on the potty


Monday morning Annika's diaper was wet but she was screaming so I think maybe she was trying to call for me and I didn't hear her at first.

During the day we had 4 pees in the potty including one at the mall.  We also had a poop on the potty during nap time again but she wet her bed during nap.

Day 4 Scorecard: All but 1 pee in the potty, 1 poop on the potty


Right now we're pretty confident in Annika that she can wear panties during the day.  We're going to use up the rest of her diapers for night time and for nap time (she only naps on the weekends anyway).  We're also going to leave her potty in the bedroom for her to use at night if she wants.  Can't believe how good she did!!  I'm so happy to have an almost potty trained toddler!!


Monday, May 28, 2012

Packing!



One of Josh's friends from work suggested we watch Jenna Marbles videos on You Tube.  She's hilarious.

I'm not as unorganized as her with my packing but the quantity is probably just about right!  My excuse now is that there are 4 of us so even for a weekend (only a one night stay) can be a nightmare to pack for!

Since I am a list maker though here is my detailed list of what we are bringing in a few weekends when we go up to Orlando to visit.  This trip includes one day at a state park and one night at Josh's sister's house (she has a pool, so that's sort of semi-important, I guess..).

Let's divide it out by person:

Annabel:


Pajama (she usually sleeps in a footed pj and a sleep sack but it's hot as fuck as his sister's compare to our house, we like to freeze our children!!)
2 pairs of socks (you know, cause it's 95 degrees outside in FL...)
4 onesies (she might spit up, like a lot)
diapers
wipes
diaper rash cream (even though we've never used any on her)
2 pacifiers (even though she hates them, she might suddenly decide she likes them)
4 bottles
formula
spoon
baby cereal
8 jars of baby food (ummm...unsure on this number, this is bottomless pit child #2)
cooler with ice for pre-made bottles of formula for the park
5 or 6 bibs
2 receiving blankets
blanket
pack n play
pack n play sheet
hat
bathing suit
teething tablets (just in case she decides to finally grow some teeth)
Tylenol (for the teeth too)

Annika:


pajama (Houdini wears a footed pj too but since she'll be sharing a bed with us I can pack her anything)
socks
2 shirts
2 shorts
2 dresses
extra shoes (besides the ones she'll be wearing)
diapers
wipes
2 sippy cups
comb
hair ties and clips
bathing suit
stuffed animal to sleep with
diaper bag (with diapers, wipes, toys, and a shit ton of snacks)
snacks (nuts, graham crackers with peanut butter, organic fruit snacks, apples, banana, crackers, Lara Bars and other random things I load up on at the store)
sunscreen
lotion (to use on both girls and myself, we'll share)
body wash (again we can all share, we use Lever 2000)
toothbrush and paste

Me:


tank top and pajama pants
panties
bra
extra shoes
birth control pills
Emergen-C (in case anyone appears sick at all)
wallet
camera
toothbrush and paste
shampoo/conditioner (Annika shares with me)
deodorant
shower poof (I like calling it "poof")
face soap
razor for shaving
wrinkle creams (cause I'm getting old, I use a day and night one now....)
make up and brush
comb and brush
hair ties
phone charger (Josh and I share one)
bathing suit and cover up
sunglasses

Josh:


pajama pants
shirt
shorts
toothbrush
deodorant
spare contact lenses
sunglasses
5 hour energy (just in case he gets tired)

OMG, I think that's it.  Good think we bought a bigger car....




Sunday, May 27, 2012

Lists

I am a list maker.  I'm a bit of an obsessive list maker.  To show you how obessive I am I will make a list of lists that I currently have going now:

~To do list
~List of things to pack when we go to Orlando next month
~List of what Annabel eats/drinks in a day (I always keep track or I'll forget if I gave her fruit or veggies)


My "to do" list is horrible.  Currently I need to do these things and I'm not doing any of them today!

~hang picture frames (umm...we've lived here like a year and a half and I still haven't hung everything yet.

~hang stand for DVD player and wire cover strip (this is in our room, right now the DVD player is on the floor and the cords are just hanging around...)

~buy chain lock for front door (Houdini AKA Annika can now open the front door, lovely...)

~look for a new computer desk (our computer desk is very modern looking, nothing else in the entire house is)

~organize my shit in my closet (I have random papers, jewerly, clothes, etc all over the shelves)

~order pictures from Shutterfly for Josh's step-dad and some new ones for frames, which I haven't hung up yet.....

~re-list our crap on Craigslist.  I'm trying to sell our Sit N Stand stroller and I can't believe no one is jumping at my low price!

~clean up clutter/junk from closet under the stairs, garage shelves, and kitchen cabinets

~hem 4 pairs of pants (I don't wear heels anymore and I'm short)

~do a blog post on why I don't wear heels anymore

~go through the box of 9-12 month clothes for Annabel since her 6-9 month stuff is getting tight


Saturday, May 26, 2012

Potty Training Scorecard:Day 1

Friday


12pm: I get a phone call from Josh and in a shrill almost girly excited voice he says "Annika pooped on the potty!"  Then she gets on the phone and whispers "I pooped".

Turns out Annika got naked (big surprise little nudist) while Josh was still sleeping, got into bed with him, told him she had to poop, and had a turtle head poking out!  So he picked her up, put her on the toilet and she pooped.  Well, I guess she technically did poop on the potty.

2:30pm: I got home early from work.  I asked Annika if she wanted to wear panties, she said "YES".  Then asked if she was going to pee on the floor and got another enthusiastic "YES".  Lovely.

3:30pm: Josh left for work.

4pm: I'm feeding Annabel in the dining room and Annika comes running to me.  "There's sweat, yuck."  Nope, she peed herself even though she had just sat on the potty.

5pm: "Ewwww....sweat."  Again, we were sitting on the potty every 30 minutes, she still peed.

6pm: Sit her on the potty and explain that we are going for a walk with Annabel.  You cannot pee on your walk or it'll be embarassing to walk home with pee pee pants.  She stares at me like I'm stupid.

6:45pm: We get home from the walk and she's still dry!  So we sit on the potty and she screws around with Bo's food (Bo eats in our 1/2 bath...classy).

6:47pm: "Ahhhh, pee pee".  Yep, on the floor, on her shoes, on her shorts while I'm feeding Annabel.  She strips naked and plays around for 15 minutes while Annabel laughs instead of eating!

7:20pm: Put Annabel to bed.  Sit on potty again, nothing.

7:30pm: Explain to her that if she's going to sit on my bed with panties she needs to pee in the potty.  "Okay, momma".

7:32pm: Pees on the bed, rips off her panties, goes fucking ape shit nuts, throws her body on the bed, kicks, screams, freaks the fuck out.  I grab her, calmly, carry her to her room naked and screaming for no good reason.  Brush her teeth, put on a diaper, pajamas, put her to bed.....and she's out like 2 minutes later.

Friday's Scorecard: Accidents 4, Pees on potty 0, Poops on potty 1

Friday, May 25, 2012

Potty Training Weekend Attempt #2

We have a 3 day weekend so it's the perfect time to potty train, again.  We tried back in January and after two complete days of cleaning up pee and poop off the floor we gave up.  We failed, miserably.

Yesterday I asked Annika about potty training.

Me: Are you going to use the potty this weekend?

Annika: No.

Me: You can't pee and poop in your diaper forever.  We need to have you wearing panties.

Annika: No.

Me: Well, this weekend you're wearing panties and using the potty.

Annika: No.

Me: Only the baby can wear diapers soon.

Annika: No.

Me: I don't care if you say no, this weekend you're learning to use the potty.

Annika: No.

Me: So you'd rather just pee on the floor and in your panties?

Annika: long pause......YES!

Oh it's going to be a battle.


Thursday, May 24, 2012

Family Pictures

Somehow I did not get any of the height gene and I happen to be the oldest cousin.


Josh says we actually look related, I can kind of see it (I'm totally printing this picture and getting it framed, it's not too often all of us are together).

My cousin, uncle and me (so many great pictures, even though this was after my grandmother's memorial service).



Here is Annika with my cousin.  Pretty sure that this is currently Annika's favorite family member (she reads this blog so I hope she sees this!).  I told Josh that since I don't have any brothers or sisters that the girls won't have aunts and uncles our age on my side of the family but that my cousin, Alejandra, is totally going to be like the "cool aunt" to the girls.  Annika just loves her sooo much!

Here is the family.  The older man with the walker is actually my great-grandmother's youngest brother.  I don't remember how old he is but the little old lady to his right is like 98, but I keep forgetting who she is...oops, horrible!


I'm trying to push Alejandra down so I look taller.  She had super high heels on and I had flats, that's why I looked so much shorter than everyone else and I am short!

The only picture of Annabel from Saturday's service and lunch.  She wasn't happy with us holding her so we just left her alone and she observed.  She laughed a lot so I guess we were funny!


This is my aunt and her cousin with Annika.  Annika is very into "seasoning" things with salt and pepper.


This is my mom's cousin next to Annika and his dad.  I haven't seen this cousin in YEARS.  I remember when we were younger that he had a ton of McDonald's Happy Meal toys, like 100s.


As you can see here my uncle is taking all the salt and pepper shakers away from Annika because she was being a monster and she was "seasoning" everything, including my Sangria!




Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Sister Love

Sweet sisters posing with their momma



One of the best things about two little girls, matching dresses!


And then the fairy tale cuteness ended:


Annika: OMG, get this little red headed mini-me off of me!!
Annabel: Annika smells like poop! Get me away from her!


Annika: Poop? Are you kidding me?  I smell fine, holy shit, it's you!
Annabel: I wish I knew how to walk so I could run away from this hell!


Annika: Are you going to let her talk like that?
Annabel: GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!


Annika: Why didn't you use birth control?
Annabel: You shut up!!!


Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Escape Artist

Saturday we had a bit of an escape artist on our hands.

Annika has always been difficult to keep in her bedroom during naps and bedtime, well, especially since she stop sleeping in her crib and was moved to a bed.  We have to keep her locked in her room because our bedrooms are on the 2nd floor and we're afraid she'll fall down the stairs in the dark.

When we first moved Annika to her toddler bed I turned her door knob around so we could lock her in.  Our doors have handles though so pretty quickly she was able to break the door handle and get out!

Next we used a baby gate at her door.  This has worked for the last year until Saturday.

We put Annika down for a nap around 2pm.  She sleeps in a footed pajama that we zip up the back, because she's a nudist and likes to strip naked, take off her diaper and play in poop.....yeah...

About 20 minutes after we put her down for a nap we went outside to sit on the patio.  I was facing the sliding glass door.  Next thing I know a little naked body appears.  Yep, Annika is not only out of her room but she is completely naked.  We took her back upstairs and realized that she climbed the baby gate, went into our bedroom, somehow Houdini'd her way out of her pajamas, took off her diaper and came downstairs.

Then I wanted to see how she did it and she showed us:


So we gave up on nap time.  Around 8pm we decided to put Annika to bed.  We sat back on the patio again.  10 minutes later a naked body appears at the sliding glass door, laughing and dancing.

I dressed her, put her back in her room, Josh puts the baby gate up a little higher hoping she won't do it again.

About 20 minutes later I glance inside and realize that the living room light is on.  So I go in to turn it off and naked Annika is sitting on the couch watching a movie.  She got naked, climbed the gate, came downstairs, went into the DVD cabinet, picked out a movie (Over The Hedge, a bit ironic), figured out how to play the DVD and sat on the couch to watch it.

Then we gave up on bed time.  I was afraid of her hurting herself climbing the gate so we ended up with her sleeping with us in bed.

Yesterday we went to Home Depot and bought a door knob that belongs on a front door.  The side you use the key with is in her room so we can lock her in.  We're keeping the spare key in her room, hidden, in case she tries to lock one of us in!

And last night she slept!

We figured out how she got naked too with the zipped in the back pajama.  She stretched out the neck and pulled it down her body so today I ordered her two new pajamas from Old Navy, sneaky girl!

Monday, May 21, 2012

Salad By Me!

I like to come up with new ideas for salads.  Sometimes when I get home from work I'm in no mood to cook so I like to throw together an easy salad.  Josh also rarely has time to prepare food so with this recipe I prepared a salad for him to eat when he gets home from work.

I usually don't do a step-by-step recipe guide with pictures so here it goes:

First of all, welcome to my kitchen!  It's a mess right now!


Secondly you will need all the ingredients for this salad.

I have chopped pecans, grape tomatoes, 1 cutie (mandarin orange), spinach, balsamic vinegar, feta and pink salmon (option on the salmon, Josh uses it, I do not).


I put the spinach for my salad into a small bowl.  The spinach for Josh's salad is in a re-usable container.


Then I cut the grape tomatoes in half and the pieces of orange in half too.  I split a cutie (the small orange) between the two of us.


While making and photographing this salad creation I had someone who kept wanting to help.  Really I think she just wanted some cheese.  She loves feta.


Next I added the feta cheese and pecans to my salad.  For Josh's salad since he'll be eating it later I put his feta and pecans in another small container.  This way the pecans will stay crunchy.  I also put balsamic vinegar in a small container for him too just in case he decides to pack his salad for lunch tomorrow instead of eating it at home.  I added just a few sprinkles of balsamic vinegar to my salad.

And we're done, then I have this one staring at me while I eat:


This is probably my first mention of our poor forgotten dog, Bo.  But he's here, always under my feet while I'm in the kitchen making food!  Right along with this one:


We also have this little cutie watching me too!



Thursday, May 17, 2012

Body Image/Self Esteem

I hate magazines, especially fashion ones.  You can always tell all the pictures of the women are airbrushed.  How are our girls supposed to live up to false standards in magazines???

I love how Britney Spears has released the un-airbrushed pictures of herself from a photo shoot.  You can tell that she does actually work out but she has real-women issues.  Cellulite on the back of her thighs, some bruises on her leg.  Then they airbrush the hell out of her!  You can tell that her skin is just un-naturally smooth.

When I was going up my mom always had the latest issue of Glamour magazine laying around.  She always talked about how fat she was and what diet she was on.  She was never thin enough and she was always binge eating.  I don't think she realized the affect it would have on me though.  I have had an unhealthy relationship with food and I have in the past been diagnosed with an eating disorder.  Right now I have been eating very healthy, normal quantities and exercising a normal amount (mostly running).  I am actually happy with my weight  and size so now I don't feel the need to weigh myself at all (unlike my mom who used to weigh herself multiple times a day).

I do like that Annika has taken a notice to the healthy eating and my exercising.  She likes to try to do push ups with me and burpees!  Now she's even eating healthier too by having an apple with me as a snack instead of our usual cookie or candy of some sort.  I hope I am able to influence both girls to have healthy lifestyles.

I've never called myself fat in front of Annika, even now at this age.  I don't want her thinking that my size is fat.  I don't want her to think about her weight or the size of her clothes.  I just want both girls to be healthy and happy, no airbrushed pictures to compare themselves to!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Yay! New Running Shoes!

So excited!  Just ordered some new running shoes!

Here is a good picture of them:


This is my third pair of Asics.  I like them because my feet are wide and they're super comfortable.  I also like going with funky color combinations like this one.  I usually wear pink, black and grey but now with these I can add a little yellow to my running wardrobe.

Shoes don't last long when you start increasing your mileage.  I know I won't actually run my marathon, or probably even my half marathon in these actual shoes.  I can't wait to get them though because the ones I have now are so wore that my knees start to hurt!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Things She Says

Annika's vocabulary is ever expanding.  It's not always expanding correctly though and a lot of the things that come out of her mouth are downright hilarious.


She is still using the word fuckies a lot.  It's hard not to laugh when she says it, especially when it starts out with an "oh my goodness".  We seem to have a sugar ant problem and whenever she sees a tiny little ant on the kitchen floor she screams "oh my goodness FUCKIES!!!"

The neighbor kids have those Razor scooters and since Annika is fearless she always asks the one little boy (who is about 10 or 11) if she can ride it.  She'll look at him and say "pleazzzzzeeee, can I?"  It's so cute.  He's incredibly good with her, he lowers the handle and holds on to the handle and her back and takes her up and down our sidewalk, very, very slowly.  She loves it.

Today two of the neighborhood boys came with us on our evening walk.  She kept saying "hey boys, hey, wait" because they were on scooters again and she was trying to run to keep up.

I still love that she calls flowers "flow-ies".

She now sings the songs from Wonder Pets since it's her all time favorite show.  We stream Netflix now on our Blue Ray player and canceled cable so that's one of the shows that she gets to watch all the time now whenever she wants, well not whenever, she limited to one episode a day.

The other day when I was holding Annabel and she was crying Annika told me "put baby to bed, put to bed".

She always tells me when Annabel is crying "babys crying, babys crying, go" because she wants me to make her stop.

We've become friends with our neighbor, which is unusual because usually I don't talk to anyone!  She's probably around 40 and has a 10 year old son (who is friends with the other neighbor's 10 year old son) and a 14 year old daughter.  Annika likes to go to their house because they have Wheat Thins there.  So Saturday we went outside to talk and Annika goes up to our neighbor and says "hand" because she wanted to hold her hand and then she tried to pull her toward her front door and said "crackers, please".  I guess I'm going to have to buy her some Wheat Thins because she's crazy about them!

Monday, May 14, 2012

Slacker

Oops, did I really only blog like once last week?

Mother's Day was quiet, since both of us don't have mothers we don't like to make a huge deal.  I did get this though, I ordered it today, can't wait till it comes!  Josh was afraid of buying the wrong one so he gave me the money to pick  it out myself.  I'm having issues with the program on my phone telling me my correct miles.  Yesterday's run per Google Maps and my car said I did 8 miles round trip (which is what I wanted to do) but my stupid phone told me I did 10.  I know that's wrong.  So hopefully the Garmin will help me keep things straight!

I need new shoes for running.  My old Asics are done.  There are only so many miles you can run in a pair of sneakers and after my 8 mile run on Sunday I'm pretty sure I exceeded it.  I'm looking online now for some new ones.  I'd like to stick with Asics since that's what my last two pairs where and I like pink ones.  They have to be pink!  Most of my running clothes are black, grey, or pink.  P

Annabel has started to eat baby food.  I only buy Earth's Best organic for baby food.  I don't have the time to make my own baby food, which I'd love to do, so to me the next best thing is to stick to strictly organic foods in the first year.  So far she's had sweet potatoes (loved), peas (loved so much she laughed the whole time) and banana (little laughs but peas seem to be the favorite).  She's also had some rice cereal, that's what I started her out with last week.  She is such a good eater.  Annika always pushed the food out with her tongue and made a mess but Annabel is very neat and just wants to gobble down the food!


Saturday, May 12, 2012

Annabel~4 Month Check Up!

"Little" Annabel had her 4 month check up about 2 weeks late.  We had it Thursday which was rescheduled because our doctor had a family emergency.  This meant I had to take both girls on my own and I had never done that before.  The first appointment Annabel had we all went together and the last one I was still on leave so I took Annabel by myself while Josh slept.

I put "little" in quotes because Annabel is not little anymore!

Length: 26 inches which is over the 100th percentile (she's off the charts!)
Weight: 13 pounds 14 ounces which is the 90th percentile
Head: 16 1/2 inches which is 75th percentile

And now to compare her to Annika at 4 months:

Length: 25 1/2 inches (Annabel is longer!)
Weight: 14 pounds 13 ounces (Annika was a chunky girl but I can't believe the numbers are just reversed!)
Head: 16 3/4 inches (Only 1/4 smaller, I always remember Annika's head seeming like it was so much larger and Annabel's seems pretty normal to me)

So really Annabel has been faster growing since she was so much smaller than Annika at birth (7 pounds 3 ounces compared to 9 pounds).  I just can't believe how big she's gotten!  I think I don't realize it because Annika is older and so much bigger that I probably will always view Annabel as our "tiny" baby.

Annabel started rice cereal yesterday too.  She's been taking sometimes over 40 ounces of formula a day and our doctor doesn't like babies eating over 32 ounces.  Since we can't starve her (the child is ALWAYS hungry) he told us to start cereal and slowly move to veggies if we were comfortable with it.  Annika was already eating veggies (per me feeling like she was ready) at this age so I feel comfortable introducing Annabel to some this weekend.  I'll probably get her some sweet potatoes and green beans to start off with like I did with Annika.  Annabel did great eating her cereal too, gobbled it all up and wanted more!  She's eating almost 3 little bowls a day for the last 2 days now along with her formula.

Here are some new pictures of the happy girl!




Friday, May 11, 2012

Running Some More

I had already planned to do this half marathon in November.  So excited since it was my first half marathon ever back in 2010!  I love the course because almost the entire time you can see Tampa Bay.  You also get to run around the St. Pete Pier and run through Tropicana Field where the Rays play (I've never actually seen the Rays play there, the last time I went there was years and years ago when the Tampa Bay Lighting hockey team played there).

Now I've decided to push myself a bit.  I'm actually going to do one of my Before I Turn 35 goals.  I plan on signing up for the ING Miami Marathon in January.  I just need to save up some money for the hotel stay and then I'll be set (Miami is about a 3 hour drive and the race starts at 6am, plus you aren't supposed to sit in a car for hours after the race so we'll have to stay 2 nights)!  I printed up a training schedule and I'll start training in October.  It's lots of long runs with a few mid-week which means the girls will be coming with me!  Luckily all the long mid-week runs are in December so I'm hoping for cooler weather for the almost 2 hours we'll be out at one time (the longest run is on a Wednesday and is 10 miles long!).  I might be able to convince my friend from work to watch the girls for me during that long run though, I'm lucky that she really likes both of them even though she's not really a "kid" person.

I'm so excited because since having Annabel I've really jumped right back into running and my speed is better than ever.  I took both girls today in our jogging stroller for a 3 mile run and finished in 30 minutes!  I barely ran that fast without the stroller before.  But I haven't had a chance to run on my own in a while (I always either have both girls or just Annika) so I'm not sure how fast I've actually gotten yet all on my own.  Next weekend I do have a run planned on my own for 6 miles that is actually for timing myself on speed.  I might even accomplish another Before I Turn 35 goal by getting my half marathon time under 2 hours but right now I'd be happy with better than my previous time.

Plus this running thing, the only 2 weeks I've gotten super serious about it again, has helped me get back to pre-pregnancy weight!  Yay!  Only took 4 months :)

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Happy Birthday Mom

Today my mom would have been 60.


Reading to Annika (what a chunker!)

She had a long standing (and horrible) joke that she would say she wasn't going to make it to a certain age.  When I was younger it was "I will never make it to 40".  Then it was "I will never make it to 50".  Who knew that at 58 years old she'd actually be right and not live to see 60.

Easter with Annika.

I am thankful for the time she did get to spend with Annika even though Annika will never remember.

Holding Annika for the first time (she was nervous).

I just wish she had gotten to meet Annabel.


Me and mom (I know it looks a lot like Annika).

I have lots of good memories with mom and lots of bad ones too.  We had a rough time and she had a rough  life with her mental illnesses.

Me and mom again.

But it's so sad to remember how she loved Annika and how she isn't around anymore.  She spoiled her so badly and loved her so much.  She would call every single afternoon to ask how Annika's day at daycare went.

Me and mom (gosh I'm making a face exactly like Annika does)

I used to get annoyed that she'd call every day and that she'd talk so loudly on the phone.  What I wouldn't give to have another phone call.  Just one more.  It's one of the things I miss the most about her being gone.



Happy Birthday Mom.