The Preset

"The Preset" is a lot like being pre-prepared.  It's having something reset, in advance, proactively, so when you need it you can just grab it because it's already ready.

I like to have my son's sippy cup, or "joooice" as he calls it, ready at all times.  When it's meal time, you can grab it and sit him in his chair and he won't complain while you prepare his meal because he has juice.  It's always ready to go when it's time to go out for a meal.  Just put it in the go bag as you head past the refrigerator to the garage.

I like to have lots of things preset and ready for use.  Like the wipes container.  Never let the wipes container get to less than three wipes.  Because you're just asking for a seven wipe diaper change disaster with bonus combatant child if you do.  Always preset the wipes.

Always preset the cribs.  Toys in the crib from the morning "bridge before breakfast?"  Make sure you have the crib ready for nap, pacifier found and on the railing, so you can ease the baby into a nice nap and have that cherished hour of adult time without complications.

Preset:  proactively resetting something in advance

The Big Boy Update:  New words of the day: wait, clothes, chicken.  No, not all at once.  Nor at random.  It makes you want to do a double take when the proper word, in the proper usage comes out of his mouth when you least expect it.  He brought me a shirt and said, "clothes."  Phrases commonly said by momma and daddy right now are, "Did you just hear what he said?" or, "Did he just say what I think he said?"

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Bottomless girl.  We're fairly certain if you kept giving her food to shove in her mouth, she'd never stop eating.  She never seems to get tired of picking up a new item in front of her and trying to wedge it into her already full mouth.  Also, she apparently can drink out of a straw.  She was interested in my drink cup last night at dinner and I let her try the straw.  When I pulled it away she did the, "how dare you?" scream so we had several more rounds of straw drinking.

Fitness Update:  Heart rate monitor belt.  Okay, this is very exciting.  I've been debating getting one for a while because I didn't know if it would be useful to me and if so, if it would help me train.  I decided to get one for two reasons.  First, there is a belt that goes with the iPhone 4s that I have and is Bluetooth and integrates with the fitness tracking app I use, Endomondo.  There are lots of belts, but this one doesn't have an additional dongle to add to the phone.   Second, I met two ladies at the pool: one a seasoned marathon runner and the second one a runner in training.  They told me a heart rate monitor would help with pace because you take the focus off duration for distance and just maintain a higher heart rate for a certain period of time.  I ran with the belt for the first time today and I had much better times.  Not that I don't love running for two hours, but if I could accomplish the same thing in an hour-and-a-half, I could wedge in other things I need to get done in that extra half-hour.

Oh, and I registered for that half marathon last night.  This can only mean trouble...