Inner-campus Mail

Some parents are the smothering type, my mother and father weren't of that persuasion. When it was time to select a college, I was interested in many, but most of them only held a casual level of consideration for me. Would my academic record put me in the accepted group of students applying? If I was accepted, would I really want to spend four years at that location?

I think the only place i had ever pictured myself going to school was at the college my mother had bee working since I was a small child. And while I did apply to other colleges, I don't remember if I was or want accepted to any of them. What I do know is that I applied, was accepted and did go to the college I has pictured myself going to for as long as I can remember.

But would this pose a problem?  Not only would I be going to school at the same spot my mother worked, I would be living in a dorm one building over from the administration building in which she worked.

Would she pester me?  Would she show up for surprise visits to my dorm room to make sure I was keeping my room tidy and not getting into trouble with my suite mates?  Would she check up on me through my teachers (that we also her colleagues) and then have talks with me if I wasn't working hard enough at my studies?

No to all of those things. Not only was my mother respectful of my new-found independence, she kept her distance just like she would have had i gone to a college the next state over. What did she do to keep in touch?  She wrote me letters via inner-campus mail. 

Some day when my children are older and have gone off to college I hope I'll be able to respect them as they move into their next phase of life like my mother did for me.

The Big Boy Update:  "Uncle Bob is here! Uncle Brian is here!". Uncle Bob and Uncle Brian arrived the other day to join us for the holiday weekend. I have been telling both children about their impending arrival with excitement. The morning after they flew in, my son came over at breakfast and told me they  were both here. He seemed very happy to have them here for their visit. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  "No. Stop it!"  This is a new thing she's been saying. She will tell you when she doesn't like something and that she wants you to stop right now. It's charming when she says it in her high, squeaky baby girl voice. 

Some Days You Just Don't Feel It

Today my neighbor and I were suppose to do a long run.  Well, we were going to wedge in as much of a long run as we could manage.  I'm out of town starting this afternoon so we would miss our weekend long run.  We're wimps, neither of us wants to do a long run alone.  But what we are willing to do is get up balls early to get in a run in the dark, in the boring neighborhood, because the monotony is gone when you're running with your Chatty Kathy buddy.

We decided--okay, I decided--that I didn't want to start at 4:45am.  We settled on 5:00am and planned to run until just after seven o'clock, when I would need to be back to get the children ready for school.  I got up at four o'clock and drank the Vespa endurance running booster and then tried to sleep until 4:45am but mostly failed. 

We met at 5:00am and after about ten minutes I think I said, "I just don't really want to be running today."  My neighbor agreed she was feeling the same way.  We weren't specifically tired or winded, we just weren't feeling it for some reason. 

We ran on and strangely, out of character for us, we talked about going to the fitness room instead.  But we never got around to it.  And we kept running.  We kept running until ten miles and then we decided we could fit in one more mile before we both had to be back, so we made eleven miles--all on a day neither of us wanted to run. 

Running is fun for us.  And it normally is.  I'm not sure why we just weren't in the running mood today.  Our next long run is coming up on either Monday (if we come home early) or next weekend.  We'll be able to run in the light then and go to the park which will be nice. 

The Big Boy Update:  Uncle Jonathan was putting my son to bed two nights ago while I was at a Yoga class.  Apparently my son wasn't happy that daddy and mommy weren't there.  He looked up at Uncle Jonathan and told him, "I want my grown ups!"

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Superman.  She's been saying "Superman" for a while now.  My son has some superman and other super hero shirts, but my daughter has none.  While helping me with the laundry the other day she said, "Superman!" and pulled out one of his shirts.  The one she pulled out was Batman, but hey, it was close enough.  I asked her if she wanted to be Superman and she nodded, so I put the shirt on her.  She was very happy wearing it around for the rest of the day.

Fitness Update:  Eleven miles, two hours of slow running (because all we do is run slowly) in the dark or mostly dark hours of the morning.

Making a House

I'm not talking about building a house; we did that.  I'm taking about "making a house."  This can be done with sofa cushions, folding tables, pieces of furniture, blankets and sheets.   And these houses are lots of fun. 

My son has been into making houses lately.  The other day I went upstairs to find all the pillow arranged in such a way that a small area was available to climb in and hide.  I think daddy helped with the arrangement and somehow, through the impressive wedging capabilities of toddlers, my son and daughter were able to fit inside.

Uncle Bob came to visit earlier today and my son asked for the baby gate/wall to be brought out.  We wet it up into a spiral shape, then a hexagon and then many shapes in between and covered it with a dark blanket and a light sheet.  Uncle Bob joined him in the various renditions of the house and they did things like hide from the alligators, take a bath and pretend to sleep. 

Mostly though, my son was interested in the opening and closing of the door, and asking Uncle Bob to come in and play with him. 

I had been meaning to put the baby corral up into the attic for a good while, but now that a new life for it has been identified, it's not going anywhere for a good while.

The Big Boy Update:  When I asked my son how old he is, he said, "I'm bigger than half.  My dump truck is three."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Coloring craze.  We got a new easel and she is just mad about coloring.  She's started to like coloring more at restaurants on the children's menu too. 

Fitness Update:  Yoga.  I did my first yoga class last night.  It was great.  I was exhausted.  It was hard.  I was so sweaty.  I plan on going back.

Who is Your Personal Serial Killer?

Wow, that sounds ominous doesn't it?  Serial killers for a blog post title from this lady that likes to talk about her kids doing forward rolls and pooping on the floor.  But it's a valid question I think.

It's largely an age-related thing.  Every so often, there's a serial killer that comes to light, is captured and is the focus of media attention for a period of time.  We're all horrified (well, the vast majority of us are I hope) with his or her deeds and yet we find ourselves intrigued on some level at the same time.

I asked my neighbor, because I wondered if her answer would be the same as mine, Jeffery Dahmer.  I wondered, because she and I are the same age.  And yes, we both clearly remembered the media spectacular when we were twenty-two years old and the utter dismay we felt as the details of his murders came to light. 

On a recent run we talked about other serial killers.  We knew names, and yet we didn't know that many details.  We mentioned Ted Bundy, and we knew he was a charismatic guy that did things to women.  Did he rape and then kill a few?  We didn't really know.  But we remembered very specific details about the Dahmer case because we lived it as it came to light.

That night, I looked up Ted Bundy and read some of the wikipedia entry about him.  I was astounded.  This guy did more terrible, horrible things to women than I had ever had any idea about.  But because it was at a time I was too young to be watching television (especially that kind of news television) I had no idea.

It's been a while since a seriously sensational serial killer has come to light.  Well, that or I haven't been paying attention in a while.  Hopefully that trend will continue.

The Big Boy Update:  Integrating this and that and this other thing over there and mommy, I need more string because I need to "hook" these other things to the mass of things I've already connected in some way or another and then, you see, my plan is to drag them all over the house. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I don't want to go to school.  Okay, that's not exactly the case.  She wants to play on the playground we have to walk through to get to the door to her classroom.  I almost had to drag her to class this morning because she wanted to go play over there instead of going to class and going to play on the playground behind her classroom.  So focused, these children.

Pain Free...Could It Be?

I've had shin splints for some time now.  I didn't know much about them until I read a bit online and discovered that yes, the symptoms I had were consistent with one type of shin splints.  I didn't have degenerative issues, just muscular pain from about a half mile to three miles.  It was consistent and bothersome during that short two-and-a-half mile length.  It didn't appear until around about a half mile and then was gone close to three miles.  The reading I did said that some people experience pain until they're warmed up. 

But it was annoying, and painful to the point that during that period, I would sometimes have a hard time focusing on the conversation at hand with my running partner because it was one of those very annoying type of pains.  It wasn't a damaging or injured type of pain, it felt more like the muscles along the shin bone were trying to cramp, only couldn't quite get there.  It was bad enough that I started to become anxious about running.

I took a break from running to focus more on the work with our trainer.  My neighbor broke her toe during this time so she wasn't running either.  My trainer suggested some exercises I work on to help with shin splints and I worked on those too.  I had been asked if I had old shoes or if I had changed shoes because that could be a factor.  I had gotten another set of my favorite shoes not long before so I was fairly certain it wasn't those shoes.  I'd been told to take anti-inflammatories before running and to roll out the muscles with something like a rolling pin.  And I did all of those things.

And still the pain persisted.  Sometimes, if I would warm up on the elliptical for a half hour before running, I'd have no pain.  But that's an annoying thing to schedule and it's just avoiding the initial distance by running it on another medium. 

Then, the other day, I ran and suddenly realized I was in absolutely no pain.  Zero.  I didn't say anything for the first three miles because I was a bit stunned.  Could it have been a freak shin accident that they didn't remember to bother me?  I hadn't even taken any Ibuprofen.  How strange.  Wait one minute, I'm wearing my very old, very very old, worn out running shoes.  I had forgotten to change before going out into one of my newer pair. 

Could it have something to do with those shoes?  I had several other pair of shoes, different in type.  One pair I had liked running in so much that I was on the third pair of the exact same shoe.  I had another pair of an entirely different brand that I ran in as well.  But this pair of shoes and I'm in no pain.  I need to do more investigation.

The next day I went back out in my old sneakers with no Ibuprofen and I got the same, pain-free result.  Magic.  That afternoon I went to the running store and got the newest iteration of that shoe (version eight instead of my original version five) and ran the next day.  Still pain-free.

Should I start celebrating now or had I better wait until I cross the finish line at the marathon?  For me, I'm just happy to have a solution.

The Big Boy Update:  "A joy" is what one of his teachers told me he was today.  As it was only the second day of school, I think she must have him confused with another one of the children in her class.  Seriously though, she has liked him a lot since last year when he was in her class and she said he has been a great helper and influence on the younger, newer students that just started this year. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Hula hooping.  We have a small hula hoop and somehow, somewhere, she's seen someone try and hula hoop with it.  She tried again and again this morning to make it go.  I tried to get a video of it but I couldn't quite catch it.

Fitness Update:  Mid-week medium run of eight miles.  We're still slow, but we're getting there.

The Change in Street Dynamics

At first when we moved to our neighborhood, we lived on a quiet street.  We lived in a quiet neighborhood as well, which was due to the number of empty lots and un-built houses surrounding our general area.  We had land (although it wasn't ours,) and we had quiet (although it was lonely at times). 

Now, we have noisy, busy, messy construction all over the place.  And I'm not just talking about the tremendous amount of construction happening all around us.  There's construction and all the messy mess that comes with it, the nails in the tires and the muddy streets and the noise.  But it's glorious noise because it means neighbors, friends and playmates.

At first we had one playmate, Madison, who is right between my two children in age.  She then had a little brother and other younger children moved onto our street.  As the houses were completed, more small and young children arrived and the existing children were happy.  The parents were happy too as we'd meet out on the street by random happenstance after a meal or during "beer hour" on Saturday evening--I just made up "beer hour" but if there is such a thing, you can bet my neighbors and I will be part of the event.

The children would run up and down the street in their little push plastic cars or inch worms or wagons.  In short order some children a few years older moved in and then there were battery-powered cars that my two children looked at with awe.  They got to ride in them and my son has even learned how to drive one of them now.   It's a happy neighborhood.

Then, within the past two months, two more houses have become occupied and it's changed the dynamic once again.  This time, these children (six in total) are all older.  They can play on the street without a parent there to warn them to watch out for cars and to make sure everyone is playing nicely together.  And these kids are all friendly and like small children too. 

My son was watching with big eyes as the older children rode bikes up and down the street and chased each other on skateboards.  He excitedly wanted to be involved, although he couldn't pedal that fast on his push-motorcycle.

We have only one house left that's not occupied and those two children will be part of this older, more independent group of children.  All in all, with eleven houses on our street, we have nineteen children, enough for fun for all ages.

The Big Boy Update:  Throwing.  He is throwing things to keep them away from you, me or anyone that wants the item.  Or, just for the fun of throwing.  It's not safe or appropriate and we're working on it. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I want out.  She wanted to go out the back door, but it wasn't a good time.  She saw me come in and turn the bolt behind me.  A few minutes later I saw her lugging her dinner table chair across the room.  What was she doing?  Oh, she was pulling it up to the back door so she could reach the deadbolt knob.  And she successfully unbolted the door.  Sadly though, she doesn't have hands large enough to turn the handle yet to get out.

Fitness Update:  A quick three mile run this afternoon in less than broiling hot summer weather, which was nice for a change.

The Thirty Dollar Glass Mistake

We printed a photo my husband took on his cell phone and decided to have it framed on advice from my neighbor.  She has a good eye, and this particular picture she said would be perfect in black and white--and she was right, it was.

It was an odd size because my husband's camera takes pictures in wide screen mode, so any standard frame wouldn't fit it.  Cropping wasn't an option because one child was in one corner and the other child was in the other corner and while the proportions looked pleasing to the eye in the shot itself, cropping it to a more standard frame size would have ruined the effect (or cut off someone's body parts in the process).

So off to the store to get a custom frame made.  The sales person helped me with selection of mat and frame and I was feeling confident this was going to be a nice picture, hanging in the spot my husband and I had already identified.

Then she asked me what kind of glass I wanted.  I had her price it out and the "non-reflective" glass was thirty dollars more.  "We don't need that fancy schmancy glass," I thought to myself and told her the regular glass was fine.

When I picked up the picture it did indeed look great.  Her mating suggestions and framing advice was right on and I couldn't wait to hang it at home.  But guess what, the spot we picked out for the picture is right slam in line with lots of things that make reflection not a minor issue.  I was irritated with myself for being cheap.  I was annoyed with myself for not thinking about the position of the picture and how it's in a bright area of a room with lots of windows.

Wait, what did I just hear you saying?  Was it, "we live and we learn."  I know, I agree.

The Big Boy Update:  "Here mommy, this is for your wrist."  I commonly wear a small elastic band for my hair around my wrist, that is, if it's not in my hair holding it up.  I didn't realize my son paid attention to it but when found a similar elastic band on the ground at the pool yesterday, he picked it up, gave it to me and said, "here mommy, this is for your wrist."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:   My daughter and I were eating a snack at Target the other day when an older man walked by and said to me, "she's precious, enjoy the time while you can."  As parents, it's not uncommon to get comments about how cute or adorable your children are.  The other thing that's very common is to hear from parents of older or grown children that these young years are something to cherish because they're gone altogether too quickly.

Fitness Update:  Three miles today.  Small run, but I can see the benefit now of the small runs after larger runs during the week.  It was a more tiring run than I would have expected from that short a distance and duration.  Is it only two months until the marathon?  Oh my.

The Fascination With Water

Things went higgledy piggeldy last night and I had to cut my post short to chase children to bed.  Now, I'm trying to remember what I was going to say.  I have to put myself back in mind of when I was a child and how magical a fountain could be.

It's a strange thing to think about as an adult.  I mean sure, I'm impressed by the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas, but then again if you're not impressed by those fountains, then you've got thrill issues--because those fountains are a wonder to behold. 

So I'm a child and there's a fountain.  It's usually concrete and there is water and it's flowing or spouting or moving around in some way.  And it's magic.  It's hard to remember because most fountains are mundane to me now.  I know how they work, it's just water and I don't really want to get wet.  But when I was a child things were different. 

I remember there was a fountain in front of the administration building where my mother worked at the college I would later attend.  The amount of time I spent around that fountain was staggering.  Mom would come in on the weekend to get caught up on work and I would play around the building.  There were trees to climb and sticks to find and acorns to collect, yet I seemed to gravitate all my activities around that fountain. 

Why is water so exciting to children?  My children love water.  My daughter spent thirty minutes with a spray bottle in the back yard yesterday just spraying dots on the picnic table.  Both children will go and play in dirty, messy water at their water table Nana and Papa got them and be happy for long periods of time. (And yes, we dump and refill the water as soon as we notice they're interested in the rain-filled table, but kids move fast!)

One of my best memories is my mother giving me pennies to put into the fountain.  I tried that yesterday with my daughter.  For some reason I had visions of her throwing the penny into the middle and watching it flutter down in the water, intent on it's every turn and rotation.  But no, she just dumped it in and asked for, "moi mommy".   Was it fun for her though?  Absolutely.

The Big Boy Update:   Waiting out the cranky.  He is having troubles lately that have involved cranky, hungry, irritable and difficult.  We're doing our best to be consistent, even in times of loud behavior at restaurants (where we remove him until he is calm) but it's a challenge.  I have spoken to other moms and they've said it's a tough time but that if we continue to let him know our expectations and hold to them, it will pay off in the future. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Alternative way to eat an ice cream cone.  My daughter doesn't want to eat the ice cream down to the cone and then eat around in a circle, making the cone and ice cream shorter from the top.  She wants to push her finger into the side of the cone, usually several times, and then fish out the ice cream on her finger and eat it that way.

Fitness Update:  Fourteen miles and we've hit my neighbor's running edge.  She had a tough run some time ago because she didn't eat enough the night before and hadn't had breakfast when we started our run.  Today, she did fine.  I've run up to eighteen miles, but I was the one who didn't eat enough last night.  It was a fine run, but I don't think I would have been tired at all towards the end, had I eaten enough last night.

Someone Once Said:  He was all that I admire in a man—loyal, honest, intelligent, gentle and brave.

Fascination With Fountains

My children are fascinated by water fountains.  There was a small one by Red Robin, where we ate today.  They could have watched the water bubble down for far longer than we had patience for. 

I remember being fascinated by fountains when I was a child.  There was one that was most likely only two stories that ran along a stairwell at a store I think named Boylan Pierce.  It was a magical thing.   My mother was always nice enough to let me throw pennies in.

I may have to reconvene this post for another day, things are going haywire upstairs with the children...

The Big Boy Update:   Today he combined a tow truck and a spatula (plastic) to make a new version of a scooping, dumping, hooking device.  Imagination...marvelous.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Hiding under the towel.  She loves to be covered by a towel after getting out of the pool or the tub.  She will put her head on her feet and be very happy under cover of the towel, sometimes for several minutes before popping up and seeing if we knew where she was hiding...grinning.

Fitness Update:  Yipes, I'm suppose to be running in two minutes from now.  I'd better get changed.  I'll be back after three miles to finish this post later.

The Frequency of Changing

I changed the sheets on the bed last night.  I couldn't remember when I'd changed them last and that's a pretty good indication they need to be changed.  I don't know if people commonly change their sheets every week, or day, or every other week or really how often they get around to it.  For me, I take a bath before bed most nights so I go to sleep clean.   But what's generally considered too long?  When have you gone from, "too long" to "eww!"

For that matter, how often do you wash the items you sleep in (if you sleep in anything at all.)  I decided a while back to have as a reminder to change the sheets more regularly that I would sleep in the same night shirt and wash the sheets and the shirt at the same interval.  If I happened to not notice the sheets were in need of a washing, surely wearing a shirt for upwards of two weeks at night would be a fierce reminder of the need to freshen things up.  That's been a helpful way to help me pay attention to the sheets.

The one that seems to make itself known more than anything though is towels.  I don't wash a towel after drying myself only once with it.  I was clean when I got out of the bath, how dirty can it be from just removing excess water off my body?  But for some reason, towels start to smell musty fairly quickly. 

So, how often do I change my sheets, sleep shirt and towel?  Not that frequently, but not that infrequently either.  I dislike being surrounded by dirty things.  But I also loath unnecessary laundry. 

The Big Boy Update:  "Where are the cups?" I asked my son when I couldn't find them at the end of breakfast.  "I threw them away," he said.  And so he had.  He told me he was cleaning up.  I asked him to show me and yes, he had thrown the plastic cups away...in the recycling bin, which is where they would have gone had they not been reusable.  We talked about how it would be nice to use them tomorrow and he helped me to pull them back out.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Swing smarts.  She has figured out how to get into a swing, something her brother has yet to get.  And interestingly enough, she can do it two different ways: she can back up to the swing, grab the chains up high and pull herself into the seat.  She can also face the swing seat, pull herself up by her arms and step into the seat. 

Fitness Update:  We've modified our training schedule to have our longer run more than twenty miles prior to the marathon.  I personally would feel better running closer to the marathon distance than six point two miles away at our longest run.  I've also been given advice from several experienced marathon runners that it will be a much easier run if we've trained to higher distances.  Today was a short day at five-and-a-half miles.  This weekend we'll be doing fourteen.  I've done longer but with my shin splints and broken toe my neighbor had, we've backed up on the schedule somewhat.

Getting Grandmother at the Bus Station

Are there still bus stations any more?  Does Greyhound still take people all across the country?  Bus tickets and rides are still popular in songs, movies and television shows, but how many of us still travel by bus?  Is it a dying mode of transportation?

When I was young, small even, my father's mother would come to visit us from the coast.  She lived, "far far away" to my mind and it would take her long periods of time to get to our town via a bus ride from the city in which she lived.

Today, that town is two hours away, although the highways are more direct and the speed limit is faster, but it still wasn't as far away, even then, as my child's mind imagined it to be.

When she first started to come and visit, the Greyhound bus station was a smallish affair in the downtown area.  It didn't seem clean or welcoming, but it did the job and she arrived and we were all happy to see her.  I remember the excitement of standing just to the side of the bus, waiting for her to come out.  At that point, her arrival and visit had begun.

Shortly before she stopped coming to visit via bus there was a newer, sleeker, more expensive-looking building she would arrive in.  It seems expansive and huge to me.  I don't remember going there more than a few times.  In comparison to the old building it almost seemed opulent.  Was that right before the decline of bus-based travel?

My children ride in a car with a television in it today.  Their grandparents have their own cars and come to visit at their convenience.  When they arrive, it's to my children's door.  I wonder how things will be different for my children's children some day?

The Big Boy Update:  Anticipating the next line.  My son is getting to the early stages of repetition of things he's seen many times.  You know what I'm talking about: you've read a book so many time to your child that the child starts to read the page back to you before you even get there...and the child can't read yet.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Pulling out her hair?  Her hair is growing slowly, and I yearn for it to be a little longer so it moves beyond the bothersome spots in front of her eyes.  We keep it back during the day, but every so often there are bits of hair on the car seat or in her hand.  Is she accidentally pulling some out or is she annoyed and pulling out pieces intentionally?

Fitness Update: Thirty minutes in brief at the fitness room.  Twenty on the elliptical, trying to push the resistance as much as I could.  Five minutes on the weight machine, testing out my shoulder.  Good news is no pain.  It looks like it might have been just a big scare; but one of warning nonetheless. 

Someone Once Said:  Novelty is the currency of childhood. Spend it wisely.

The Long Goodbye

Recently I've been involved with or have talked to people who have run into a "long goodbye" situation.  Two nights ago we went to a family friend's house for dinner and two of their family members weren't there when we arrived.  Twenty minutes later, they showed up and the wife told me, "we've been next door saying goodbye...for twenty minutes."

She said she wasn't accustomed to a goodbye and departure taking that long.  She didn't say it with any frustration, just a difference in how people take their leave of each other.  I'm more of the "see you, bye, <car door shuts>, <car drives away>, wave" type of person myself. 

I would rather spend the time together not focusing on the leaving component of the visit.  Is it manners that cause people to spend such a protracted amount of time on the good bye phase?  Is it that they really hate to see the time end?  Is it that they're not sure when they've been gracious or friendly enough to just turn and walk away?

If you're ever visiting me and you need to take your leave, know that I won't ever be upset when you say a sincere goodbye and then go your own way. 

The Big Boy Update:  "What number is that?" I asked my son as he looked at a big red button with the number three stamped on it.  "Three," he said.  I didn't know he knew the symbols.   Was it a lucky guess?  I will have to do more asking.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Light switch infatuation.   She loves to turn them on and off and look around to see what happened.  Yesterday at my parent's house she found a switch she could reach and kept turning it on and off.  As long as the lights on the stairs kept changing state, we didn't have to worry where she'd gone.

Sneaker Camps

I haven't been that knowledgeable about sneakers, tennis shoes, athletic shoes, running shoes, <insert whatever name you like to call them> for most of my life.  I don't consider myself an expert today either, but I do know a bit more about shoes than I did before I started running.

I knew there were shoes designed for various sports (soccer, basketball, tennis, running, rock climbing, etc.) but for the most part, I would go to the store, pick out a pair I thought looked nice that were in my price range and if they felt comfortable, I would buy them.

When I went to get fitted for running shoes, I had to change my approach.  For a good running shoe, you don't go for the one that looks the most attractive.  First, you have your feet measured and they check to see if you have any thing that needs to be addressed, such as pronation.   Then, the associate brings you shoes that will work with your foot type.

At this point, you hope they don't look ugly (or at least that's what I hoped), and you try them on.  Commonly, you're trying on a similar "best fit for your foot type and described usage" across several brands.  Your job is to put them on, walk or run around with them and then select the shoe that felt the most comfortable. 

Different people feel more comfortable in different brands.  As it turns out, I feel more comfortable in Mizuno.  My husband prefers Asics and my neighbor loves Brooks.   Once you start with a brand it's not uncommon to become attached to that brand.  In the past week I've been involved in two brand-centric sneaker conversations. 

The first was a lady who approached me in the park with my children saying, "Are those the Mizuno Wave Elixers?  Is that version eight or seven?  I like the colors of that version."  Okay, um, yes.  Wow.  Some people sure know their athletic shoes, right?  I had recently reordered the shoes online and as a complete point of luck, knew that yes, they were the Mizuno Wave Elixer 8's.  I'm not sure if I felt geeky or knowledgeable when I told her that.

The second conversation was last night when my father-in-law, mother-in-law and childhood friend discovered they were all wearing shoes that were not only the same brand, but same appearance as well.  They checked the numbers on their shoes and started talking about how the 830 model was out of production and that the new 840 was a good option.

Or at least it was something like that, I am sure I have the specifics completely wrong.  They were members of the New Balance Shoe Crew, and as a die-hard member of the Mizuno Members for Life group, I knew nothing of those details, we were members of different sneaker camps.

The Big Boy Update:  It was past bedtime and my son was about to read a book with Papa when he heard the "click" sound of daddy's iPad turning on.  He turned to Papa and said, "you read by yourself, I'm going to go watch daddy."  The iPad is a powerful toddler entanglement device and should be used with caution.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Birthday NO!  We were at a friend's house for dinner last night and at the end there was a birthday cake.  The candles were lit and my daughter stood on a chair and started singing the birthday song.  We weren't ready to sing yet as not everyone was in the room so we just smiled at her and listened to her.  When the rest arrived and the birthday song started in earnest, she got upset.  She looked around at all of us saying, "No!  NO!" until we were done singing.  It was very cute and somewhat inexplicable.  We can only assume she wanted to sing by herself as she started singing again once we all finished.

The Naked Hill

From before I can remember there was a large shopping mall near where I lived.  It wasn't built until after I was born, but my memory never included a time when it wasn't there.  We live in an area that has rolling hills and the spot this mall was built on was at the base of a valley with a creek running near.

Just above and behind the mall there is a large group of hills.  There is one in particular that seems to lord over all the surrounding hills, the valley below as well as the meandering creek. 

On the very to of that hill was a residence of an old family from the area, but by the time I was old enough to go to the mall (and remember it) I don't believe anyone lived there.  Several restaurants tried to make it in the converted house; they were each high-end, high-cost, elegant affairs that somehow never made it.  Perhaps it was because people didn't associate the heavily-wooded hill with fine dining.

But something has happened now.  The entire mound is being developed and to start, they're removing all ground covering, including trees.  I have heard there is a significant amount of site work they'll be doing on the land, meaning they're reshaping the topography, and as such weren't able to keep the trees.

But what's going there?  It's pretty exciting looking.  It's strangely different looking though.  Right now, it looks like a naked hill.  A naked red hill as we're all red mud underground in the south.

The Big Boy Update:  Antsy at mealtimes.  His sister sits quietly and eats her meals most of the time.  He has trouble sitting still and he sometimes can't manage to eat his meal because he would like to be taken out to run around with an adult while the others at the table finish eating.  I don't know if this is a behavior we started that we'll have to break.  Today at lunch I did take him out, but his only choice was to sit on a stool at the bar with me until everyone else was done.  Now, he's hungry and wants a snack because he didn't eat well.  He is getting no snack.  We'll see how this battle turns out in the future.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Dolly.  She has a very large plush doll her Nana gave her.  Nana named her, "Dolly" and my daughter is very fond of here.  By large, I mean over twice as tall as my daughter, although very floppy and easy to tote around.  And tote it around she does.  She also likes to sleep with it, even though it takes up over half her bed. 

Raining Good Time

The block party was a wet success.  We had many neighbors come and even with an on and off rain, everyone seemed to have a good time.  The children of the neighborhood got together and played basketball, drove in powered and unpowered children's vehicles and jumped in the bounce house.

Adults talked, ate and drank adult beverages.  The party went on past the end time of four hours and is still going on now, as I write this.  I am tired and want to get to bed.  I'm not packed for our family vacation we leave for tomorrow morning and I have doubts we'll leave on time.  Still, all in all, a good day.

The children had an amazing day.  They moved around the street, interacted with the adults and children alike and had unending energy that took them to bedtime, where they passed out without much of a whimper. 

I, too, am off to bed in short order and I suspect I will fall asleep quickly as well.

The Big Boy Update:  Run over!  Oh dear, Lightning McQueen ran over my son.  Lightning's driver, Cooper, didn't mean to hit the gas on his electric car when my son was in the way but it happened and it ran right up on his leg.  Those of us who saw it thought it looked pretty bad but my son was not hurt in the least from what we've been able to tell.  Cooper, on the other hand, needed a lot of consoling.  He was upset he had hurt someone.  In short order they were both friends again and the play in the rain continued.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Something cranky got a hold of her after her nap and nothing would console her.  Was she cutting a molar?  We couldn't figure it out so we gave her a dose of ibuprofen.  Thirty minutes later she was happy again.  She stayed happy for the entire block party and had a tremendous time with all the children in the neighborhood.

Time Shared is Time Halved

Days with children can be a challenge for parents or caregivers to find something new, interesting and stimulating for the child or children to do.  It might sound like fun to stay home and not have to go to work, but having one or more small children who have a need to be mentally engaged when you have the same toys as you did yesterday can be draining on any parent.

We try to find interesting things to do like different parks.  The variety of configurations of each park, even if the overall offerings are similar (climbing structure, swings, slides, sand, etc.) is still interesting and different.  Couple that with different children playing and your youngsters can be entertained far longer than they would be at home. 

So we spend time as moms and dads and caregivers coming up with how to make the days exciting and different than the days before.  My neighbor and I have a text message standing request: she lets me know if her children are outside and I let her know if mine are.  We let each other know if we're planning on going to the pool or other activity that might be fun that the others could join in.

We've done impromptu finger panting on the picnic table, water art on the driveway, lots and lots of swinging at each others swing set, pool dates and indoors play time together.  Two days ago our paths crossed in just the right way: I saw her getting ready and she mentioned they were going to the park at the airport observation tower.   There's a large sand area and the children can watch the planes take off and land.  I immediately invited us along, "can we join you?"  She said, "absolutely!"

It's still the same parent to child ratio, but the parents have someone to talk to and the children have people to play with.  That afternoon, we went over to our neighbor's house to play in their play room and time flew by just like it had that morning. 

Suddenly, it was almost dinner time and the day seemed to have gone by twice as fast as normal.  She and I agreed that time shared is time halved when it comes to children.

The Big Boy Update:  "I'm trying to hold my pee," he told me while he danced at the table eating his food.  He had woken up from his nap and was very hungry.  We took a break from the food to make it to the potty and he made it without an accident.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  iPad.  She says iPad in the cutest, tiniest little voice.  She is almost skilled enough to know how to pick the apps she wants and use them correctly.  Although, there's an good chance she's playing with it upside down instead of right side up.

Fitness Update:  Twelve miles training for the marathon.  We started at 5:15am and Uncle Jonathan joined us.  We had fun talking and running in the dark until it got light and we could enter the park.  It's always nice to be able to talk and laugh together when running.  I think it's one of the reasons I enjoy it so much.

Neighborhood Block Party

Our street is hosting the first neighborhood block party for our newly developed neighborhood.  Saturday is the day, pending a cooperative weather situation (which is currently in question).  We're not sure how it's going to be, who will come, how many will come, what the general atmosphere will be and if it will in general be a success or a flop.

We've made it very unstructured.  Everyone brings their own chairs and beverages and each street is assigned a section of food such as appetizers, side dishes, desserts or entrees.  Other than that, it's going to be a general time for people to be social. 

Tonight we had another one of those impromptu street block parties.  They happen randomly, but regularly as our street has both children that like to play together and parents that like to socialize.  We were out for almost four hours in the front yard having a good time and watching the children run up and down the street playing with each other and each others toys.

I really hope Saturday will be a success; if the remainder of the neighborhood is anything like our street, it should be an easy and fun time for all.  I'll have to let my imaginary readers know (and any actual real readers out there too.)

The Big Boy Update:  "I'm not a bad guy.  I just a girl."  That was my son's statement when he came down to breakfast this morning.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  "Yummy yummy yummy."  This is a regular statement she makes when she is presented with food she likes.  It is also accompanied with a smile.

The Decline of Hosiery

When I was a young girl there weren't that many occasions I would get dressed up for, but there were some.  I remember the prom and other school dances.  There was an occasional wedding or other event we'd been invited to as a family and there was usually at least one event every summer at the magic convention I would be expected to look my best in a dress or some other suitable outfit.

Today, as an adult, I don't have a significantly higher number of "dressy" events each year I attend, but in contrast to my childhood, I look forward to getting dressed up instead of dreading it.   Styles change and what passes for more formal versus casual has made some significant changes as well.  Today, the range of clothing that would be considered acceptable at a more formal occasion is far broader than it was when I was a youth.

When I was young, if you were in a dress or skirt at a fancy event, you wore hose.  When I began my career as a professional, you mostly wore hose.  Today, I don't remember the last time I put on a pair.  I have some and I have considered throwing them out, but what if I need them?  I don't know under what circumstances I would need them, but hey, what if something comes up like I need to meet the Queen of England and protocol requires that I have hose on my legs?  I'd best keep a pair around just in case.

I was thinking about this last night as I applied lotion to my legs and before I put on my dressy shorts.  These shorts appear to be a skirt while having the more comfortable characteristics of shorts and they do so all while looking very dressy--so dressy that I can wear them with heels and look like I'm more dressed up than someone in a full dress.  So I was applying lotion and thinking that I didn't want my legs to look dry because I was wearing these shorts and those heels and that my legs would be more accentuated than they would be in a more casual setting.

That's when I thought about hose.  Today, had I shown up in hose, I would have looked quite out of place.  Shiny, not-dry legs are the in.  Covered, even-toned legs in hose are out.  I wonder if hose will make a resurgence any time soon?  I like not having to wear them.  They never were that comfortable in my opinion.

The Big Boy Update:  He decided a few days ago that we are "mom" and "dad" and not "mommy" and "daddy".  I don't know what prompted this change, but he's been enjoying calling us by our new, shorter names and waiting for us to respond.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Forward roll.  She can do a forward roll.  Not once, many times.  She knows how to put her head down on the ground while bent in half and then roll over on her back.  It's more of a piked-version of a forward roll, but she can do it with ease at twenty-one months.

Someone Once Said:  It is much easier to be critical than to be correct. (from a fortune cookie last night.)

More Manageable Hair

I had my hair worked up last week.  First, I had it highlighted again.  That can sneak up on you, especially when it's not a drastic change.  I just add two colors to make my hair look a little less, "boring brown".  When she gets done and I wash it the next day, I realize it had grown out more than two inches and a re-highlight had been long overdue.

The other thing I had done was the Keratin Treatment again.  I've done this a lot now and I do like it.  But it's one of those things that once you start, you have to continue.  I should say that's the case for me, not for everyone.  The keratin is touted to last three months, but my hair seems to hold on to it and never let it completely go.  Only the portion of my hair that's grown out is frizzy and bothersome and as I have long-ish hair, to let it completely grow out would take over a year, well over a year.  And truthfully, I'm not sure I have any desire to go back to frizzy and unkempt looking hair.

So, straight it is.  But I've noticed the keratin just after application is more flat that I prefer.  There is another treatment that became available more recently called, "Keratin Light" which is for people who want to try out the results, but don't want to make a full commitment either financially (it's half the price) or in time (duration is closer to a month).

This newer treatment would most likely straighten and calm my hair without the extreme flatness.  So I tried it.  It was a much shorter process at the salon and I only had to go eight hours before washing as opposed to seventy-two hours.  And so far, I like it.

But there were some strange drawbacks, although they were short term.  The product is much heavier and for that eight hours, all you can think about is how gunky, dirty and unpleasant your hair feels.  It was an amazing relief to wash it later that night.  It was also a sticky product as I had to do a second wash to get it completely out the next morning.  And then there was my scalp.

The main keratin product never made my scalp itchy.  It didn't feel acidic or caustic in any way, but for two days, my head itched like it had been mildly burned.  The tops of my ears even were itchy.  It was a strange experience.  But...two days after the treatment, I am very pleased.

My hair isn't too board straight, it looks great for more than a day in a row if I don't wash it and it doesn't have the "memory" it did prior to getting it re-treated.  By memory, I mean when you put it in a pony tail or have your glasses pushing it back or any other thing that conforms the hair to a position for some period of time.  Prior to the treatment if I had my hair in a pony tail holder for even twenty minutes, it would take hours to drop out, longer, and I was stuck with a "wump" in the back.

I'm glad I got it done.  It's nice to not be frustrated with your hair every day.  Right now, I even like my hair, and that's saying a lot.  We'll see how long the Keratin Light holds up in comparison to the full strength version.

The Big Boy Update:  Yesterday while he was on the potty I asked, "Are you done?"  He said, "I poop more."  Then he checked between his legs to make sure things were still happening and said. "It looks like a donut in there."  Oh...how nice.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Helping mommy make the bed.  After Nana and Papa left the other day, we washed the sheets and towels.  My daughter wanted to help me make the bed.  She climbed up on the bed and helped me pull each corner to the right spot and did her best to put a pillow in a pillow case.  To Nana and Papa:  If the bed is a little crooked when you next visit, it was done with love from your granddaughter.

Fitness Update:  I ran for just a bit with Uncle Jonathan yesterday as he went off for his long run of the week.  I turned around at a mile-and-a-half and Uncle Jonathan came back, after running in ninety-two degree weather, after nineteen miles.  Whew!

Clothes Swap

I went to a clothes swap yesterday.  My friend invited me to one some time back and I wasn't sure what it was and if I even wanted to go, but when she didn't have many people respond that they could attend, I decided to go to be supportive.  Honestly, I didn't think much of it and didn't care about swapping clothes, but it turned out to far surpass my expectations.

The way this works is you and your group of friends go through your closet and drawers and anything you don't want any more, you bring to the swap.  I had some clothes that fit me well between and after pregnancies, but that don't fit me now.  I also had some clothes that were in my closet for many years, but that I never seemed to wear and I decided those should go.

My friend send out the invitation to the swap four months ago.  This gave us lots of time and even included a season change so that we could set aside anything in preparation for the upcoming swap.

When I got to my first swap, I saw the experienced "swappers" pulling out things from their boxes and bags and laying them all around the room on the sofas, chairs, coffee tables and even a stepladder leaned against the wall.  Shirts went to one area while pants went in another spot in the room.  Shoes were piled in a corner and accessories went in another zone.   Then, after everything was dispersed around, we all jumped in.

It's a free for all and it's fun.  You quickly go through things because a lot of it isn't to your taste.  Some of it most likely isn't your size.  And, of course, some of it's yours, designated for the other people in the room.  People select items they like and try them on.  Some people take their shirt off and try on the items right there.  Other people prefer to change in another room and then come back in to model what they've found or get opinions.

Let me tell you, it's a fun thing to have someone try on your shirt, exclaim how much they like it and look great in an item that just wasn't working for you any more.   But there's a bit of sadness too.  There are clothes you really loved and you have hopes that people will be fighting over those great finds, only to see them sit there and have no takers.  But that's the way it works.

You can get into a bit of a retail mentality too.  I took my shirt off and put it in the corner, making sure I didn't get it confused with the other shirts because I had to put it back on when I was done.  And yes, that's what you do when you're buying clothes, but this is all free and you can take your current shirt off, stick it in your take home bag and wear out whatever great find you find.

It's fun, but you have to stick to your plan, or what seems to be the most common plan, of bringing home less than you brought to "get rid of".  The coordinator of the event or a designated attendee then takes the remaining, unclaimed clothes and donates them to a cause.

All in all, it's free and fun shopping with friends.

The Big Boy Update:  At breakfast, unsolicited:  "Reese likes Papa.  I like Nana...I like Nana and Papa."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  On the phone.  If you get on the phone and it's to one of the grandparents and my daughter realizes this, you are going to have a tantruming child until she gets her fair share of talking to that grandparent.  Yesterday she talked to Mimi for some time.  She knows just how to hold on to the phone and she will talk back to you.  No one can tell what she's saying, but she will say a lot.  This morning, she got the plastic blue phone that goes with the shopping car and started talking on it.  She walked around the living room and the kitchen having a very nice conversation with whomever was on the other line.  It was a long call. 

Fitness Update:  I feel like I need some serious anti-oxidants today.  I was cranky achy at the gym and not in an overworked, over-exercised kind of way.  I'm off to the grocery store after this to help remedy the situation.

Someone Once Said:  A generation which ignores history has no past – and no future.

The Beginnings of Conversation

The children are starting to have real conversations recently.  They've been talking to each other for some time, but it's been words as opposed to discussions.  My daughter is getting more verbal every month now so the conversations have taken on more depth.

There has been communication for a good while now.  My daughter communicates with gestures and by sharing things or handing things over or taking things.  She is also good at making a fuss when she doesn't get what she wants or has what she's working with taken away.  But that's communication, not conversation.

What we're starting to see now is my son saying something, her saying something back, the two looking at the item of interest and then having another round of words.  Many times it ends in a power struggle and there is tears, but not always.

I don't think they've figured out how to plot against us a parents yet, though.

The Big Boy Update:  "I stuck."  He was.  He was coming down the front stairs.  I thought he was joking, but he kept saying he was stuck.  He was holding the railing on the inside, towards the wall and there is a place the trim from the second floor comes close to the railing.  He had wedged his arm in that spot and didn't know to reverse the motion to get loose.  He wasn't upset, he patiently waited for help.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Eh?  We have been asking her questions lately because she's getting better at communicating, but I didn't realize she was better at starting and leading a conversation until we tried to get some general information out of her this morning.  Things like, "what is your favorite food?" and she just looks at you or talks about whatever was on her mind before you asked her the question.  Her brother at eleven months older, is able to focus on your question, think about the answer, and then give you a related response.

Fitness Update:  Five miles.  A short run today and I have a copy of the training plan my neighbor is suggesting we work towards for the marathon.  It is scant weeks away, eek!  But, we're ahead of schedule by one week.  The only thing I don't like about it is you only train to twenty miles.  That's over six miles shy of the marathon distance.  I would feel more comfortable training to twenty-four miles, personally.  This is a well-respected training plan that has taken countless numbers to the finish line, so I will have to trust it. 

Someone Once Said:  He was all that I admire in a man—loyal, honest, intelligent, gentle and brave.

Shoulder in Shambles?

On Monday we had a sitter come to help with the children.  She took our minivan and I used her personal car so I could get my own errands run.  When I got into her car I used my right arm to push back her passenger seat that had been pushed forwards in her coupe.  When I did so, a terrible pain and unfriendly pop happened in my shoulder.

This was not a normal movement I did, and to make sure it wasn't something that only happened once, I tried it again, it happened again and it hurt.  Okay, now I'm getting scared.  My arm socket is hurting and I'm afraid I've just town my rotator cuff and much of the exercising I do currently will be impossible in the future.

I got a bit depressed as the ache and inflamed feeling got worse through the day, even with a goodly dose of anti-inflammatory.  I was scared.  I called my neighbor who tore her rotator cuff one day doing something simple.  She had told me, "I know exactly when it tore."  I talked to my husband, who tried to calm me down like I did to him after he had his arm come out of the socket a while back.

I couldn't do much without pain and I knew from how it behaved in different movement directions that I could most definitely not do most of the exercises we do at the gym with our trainer.  So I stopped using my arms for several days and I hoped.  I fervently hoped it was a fluke or something that wouldn't be an issue.

Surprisingly, in less than two days it was mostly better.  It was so painful and achy feeling that I was sure I had injured it.  It seems almost like it never happened now, six days later.  I have a suspicion that yes, there is something wrong with the rotator cuff because I did a lot of range of motion tests and there's a click in one direction I remember being there for many many years.  Perhaps I just hit is in the right spot doing a motion I don't normally do. 

Or it could be something else.  I am a knave and a neophyte in this field.  I'm just glad it's better. 

The Big Boy Update:  "Un huh."  I didn't know he said, "un huh" until the other day.  He was distracted and I was asking him questions and he wanted to answer in the affirmative so he said, "un huh" instead of "yes".

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Yogurt stand tunnel.  While at a frozen yogurt store the other evening, my daughter spent time climbing through the large opening in the bottom half of the large, colorful, plastic chairs.  Our friends made a chain of six and she had fun crawling her tiny little body through the tunnel.

Fitness Update:  First long run in a good while.  Shin splints, hardly noticeable.  My neighbor's broken toe, barely bothersome.  We ran twelve miles.  And we need to do a lot more running.  Those weeks off have taken their toll on my stamina.  The marathon is not that far off in early November.

Two Sophias?

There is this giraffe that was very popular as a gift when I was pregnant with my son.  It's still popular now, with various renditions available to purchase beyond the first, main form.   It was touted that the material was superior, the shape was designed to be perfect for young hands and mouths and it was most noted for it's high price tag. 

It squeaked and therefore it was also a great dog toy, so my dog surmised.  She tried to get at it and we kept it from her and eventually my son was able to clutch it and chew on it and it's still a fun toy today, although at this point the dog does get it thrown at her and she then carries it off to a corner and tries to make it squeak.

It goes up and comes back out as toys are rotated in and out.  It's put with the other animals now, as opposed to the teething and chewing toys it was initially kept with.  Oh, and it's name is "Sophie".  I think that's the name.  We decided to add a syllable and call it "Sophia".

It's out now and it's been moving around the house like all the other toys do.  Yesterday, while cleaning up, I put it where it was supposed to go and there was already a Sophia there.  Two Sophia?  We only got one and no one has handed one down to us either.  I am flummoxed.  I am confused.  I am bewildered, and my children don't know enough to explain to me where the second one came from, even if they did know.

The Big Boy Update:  I was watching a cooking show in which the host was explaining how other countries and cultures ate bugs.  My son was watching too and he seemed very intent on what the man was saying.  The host said, "So why aren't we eating bugs in the United States?"  To which my son said while waving his hand in a no gesture, "We don't like bugs."  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Me: "are you poopy?"  My daughter: "I not poopy."  Me: "are you sure?"  My daughter: "I sure."  Guess who was poopy?

Fitness Update:  1:15 on the stationary bike and elliptical, working on the shin splints exercises.  I'm about ready to get full swing back into running.  I hope all will be well with the shins.

The X-Ray Update

I've been going to the same Chiropractor since 2004.  When I was originally seen by them, they took x-rays to asses the condition of my spine and determine if and how they could help me.  It was at that point, during the first week of being seen by them, that I found out just how bad my spine situation was. 

Shortly after that, I was having spinal fusion.  I had several surgeries and some terrible nerve and muscle pain that took years to calm down to a manageable roar.  Through all that time, the chiropractors kept me as comfortable as possible.  I have been quite grateful to them as any solution that has such rapid and noticeable results without medication is truly a wonderful thing.

It's now 2013 and it's been close to nine years since those first x-rays.  They know my spine well as I am a frequent and long-standing visitor to their office, but things have been changing.  I expect I will have to have another fusion at some point as the junctions above and below my fusion are being worked extra hard and weren't in prime condition at the time of the fusion.

And then there was this discomfort in the right side that wasn't going away.  It was there day and night if I moved my neck in certain directions and it gave me the sense that things weren't as they should be over that-a-way.

On more than one occasion, the chiropractors (there are four of them) suggested I consider new x-rays so that they could have a better idea of what's going on.  It was only if I wanted to take them, and it wasn't a requirement as they could and did help me regardless.  So I spent some time considering it.  I spent months considering it.

I told them I would be glad to have new x-rays if it would help them.  But, I did not want to know the results.  One of the chiropractors wasn't surprised and had had other patients ask the same in the past.  I was serious though.  The only reason I wanted to know something was if they discovered a tumor or some other issue that I must know for my continued health. 

Because yes, I know it's getting worse.  But I'm in a good place right now and I don't want to know how bad it is or how bad it's going to be.  The technician who took the x-rays was confused that I didn't want the follow-up appointment to go over the results.  But the chiropractor understood.  The next time I saw him I said, "I hope the x-rays helped," and he smiled, said, "yes, they did" and then adjusted me like normal.

I like my chiropractors.

The Big Boy Update:  Eczema.  His eczema is evolving again.  He doesn't have as many direct food reactions of late, although we're avoiding things like straight soy beans and peanuts.  But he still has a fluctuating dermal itchy situation.  It comes and goes and he scratches, but I think it's getting better in some ways in comparison to a year ago.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Torrent of words.  The sitter, Ezra, who has been helping out this week can understand her better than I can.  She says so many things.  She will have a whole conversation with you and be so happy to be talking.

Fitness Update:  Fitness room chatting with my neighbor yesterday afternoon.  Uncle Jonathan and I go there a good bit, but I rarely go with my neighbor.  We had a chatty good time.  This morning I went back for some more shin splint exercises (which have been helping a lot.)

Someone Once Said:  ‘Gratitude’ is a euphemism for resentment.

That Soup Was Bad

While running yesterday afternoon I got a text from my husband: "what do you want from Chinese?"  I was at the little watering hole (which has a water fountain and there's not a hole anywhere, but that's what I like to call it anyway,) so I had a minute to text back that I wanted that fancy wonton soup that had all the extras in it like vegetables and multiple kinds of meat.  I was going to have dinner ready for me when I got home!

When I got back I drank lots of liquids and yes, the Chinese order had arrived by then.  I shared some of the broth of the soup with my children and then started to eat it myself.  Normally, this is a dish I love.  Yesterday, it just wasn't that great.  The flavor was blah and the vegetables weren't snappy.  Maybe I was just tired from the run.

I also ate an egg roll, but that too, didn't taste like they usually do.  Must be me.  I must have off taste buds today.  This place has good food or we wouldn't continue to order from them.  I shared some of the egg roll with my daughter and then I dumped the rest of the soup out.  

Then, as stomach things tend to do, I started to get a niggling sense that things weren't right in the land of the tummy.  It started mildly, but got more intense as time went on.  As it was getting time for the children to go to bed I told my husband I thought I was going to be sick.  I was hunching over because my stomach was cramping.  Could it have been the food?  It must have been the food.

But my kids weren't showing any signs and they'd both eaten some broth (well, not much as they made more of a mess than anything) and my daughter had eaten the egg roll with me (okay, just a few bites, but she did have some.)  So if I was feeling ill, were we about to have a long night of three sick humans in our little four human household?

We got the two to bed, and right about then I did get sick.  And as is very common, I felt immediately better afterwards.  I only got sick once and the children never seemed to have any issues.  I have a pretty strong stomach as it doesn't give me fits when I run full, ride in a boat or eat all manner of crazy foods together and whenever.   But something bothered it yesterday.

I'm glad it was quick and over in a short time.  I fell asleep and work up at midnight ravenous.  I told my stomach I was tired and it could eat in the morning but it would have nothing of that argument.  I had to get up and make soup.  Yes, more soup.  But better-tasting soup this time that didn't give me fits an hour after I'd eaten it.

The Big Boy Update:  "Black is my favorite color."  See, it's these random, unexpected comments that come out of the mouths of children that make us laugh.  They also make us a little big jealous, simply because our minds are more cluttered, more constrained and more reserved than that of a child.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  "Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy."  Today at lunch she repeated my name again and again while she ate her meal.  Yes, I had been out for several hours, but she didn't seem to be talking or even looking at me.  She was just repeating a phrase as she worked through her lunch.

Someone Once Said:   Children are human beings to whom respect is due, superior to us by reason of their innocence and of the greater possibilities of their future.”

Why Eggs and Peanuts Don't Look Good Anymore

Have you ever liked something and then because of a specific event or thing, you don't like that thing any more?  Is that something tequila?  It seems like tequila is one of the most common things like that.  You have just too much tequila one night and for years afterwards, the smell is just too much to bear.

I like eggs.  I like peanuts and peanut butter too, but my son has had issues with them for some time.  They make him itchy.  He has a reaction that will require Benadryl at the time he's consumed the item and then hydro-cortisone over the next few days as the reaction converts into eczema.  

So, while I like both eggs and peanuts, they just don't look that good to me right now because I hate to see my son so distressed by these two foods.

The Big Boy Update:  In the car yesterday he said, unprompted, "I don't love rainbows.  I love cars and trucks and dump trucks and Bob the Builder."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  She sat still.  I saw Pearl, her teacher braid her hair today.  It took several minutes and she sat very still and let her do it without moving or turning her head.  If I can get a simple bow in without her wiggling left and right seven times, I've done well.

Fitness Update:  Thirty minutes on the elliptical to warm up my shins and then five miles in the park.  It's hot.  I'm tired.

Black and White

We were showing my neighbor some pictures of the children at the beach from our vacation.  She looked at one and said, "you need to frame that one in black and white."  And I realized she was right. 

She has lots of pictures of her children all over her house and they are all very fun to look at.  Some are in color and some are in black and white.  She has a good sense of what would make sense to be in black and white. 

I sent the picture to my husband and he's going to get it printed up. 

The Big Boy Update:  Afraid of Monsters, Inc.  I was surprised to find that he understands some things are scary.  We put on Monsters, Inc. in the car on the way to vacation and he asked during one of the more scary parts, "turn it off.  Turn it off."  We turned it off and will wait until next year.  The thing is, there are Monsters, Inc. characters on so many of his underpants and pull-ups, and we were hoping he would connect with the show like he did, "Movie Cars."  (Known to the rest of us as just "Cars").

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Sweaty head.  Her hair is so fine that when she sweats, it looks like she's got a head of dirty hair.  It makes me want it to be bath time.

Fitness Update:  I ran!  Yes, I didn't expect to be running but I ran and I wasn't in pain.  I've been doing exercises at the fitness room for shin splints and it has hopefully been helpful.  We shall see.

Someone Once Said:  Of all the nonsense that twists the world, the concept of ‘altruism’ is the worst. People do what they want to, every time. If it pains them to make a choice—if the choice looks like a ‘sacrifice’—you can be sure that it is no nobler than the discomfort caused by greediness…the necessity of deciding between two things you want when you can’t have both.

The Compost Lob

We haven't been composting.  I know, we should have been, but there have been challenges.  Well, that's not exactly true, there has been a single, small furry challenge: our dog. 

So while we can compost, putting anything out that can be reached by our dog, smelled by our dog and in general stalked by our dog will be a big nuisance.  We have a natural area down the hill and we can throw all manner of food refuse and ort in the downhill direction of our lot and beyond.  We know that nature will naturally take care of the decomposition of the discards and we'll be saving that amount of usage in the sewage system or dump.  But we have to use it with caution and consideration.

What we can do is discard into our back yard anything that a dog wouldn't find desirable for consumption, such as banana peels and broccoli stalks.  And we have been doing that to some degree for a while now. 

Since we've moved into this house, I've been doing what I call the "compost lob" off our deck when possible.  Molded tomato?  Over the deck and down the hill.  Grapes that went sour?  How far can I throw them?  Orange peels or watermelon rinds?  You get the picture.  But not everything works well for throwing because it just doesn't have the heft to make it to the natural area.

So why, exactly didn't it occur to me to get a little compost pail and put it by the sink for things like cilantro stalks and strawberry tops?  I do not know.  But slow as I might be on my good days, I eventually get there.  Now we have a pail and it's been collecting biodegradable food and plant matter for me for two weeks now.  When it's full, I walk down the hill and dump it into the high weeds and bushes, knowing that little bit of fertilizer will most likely make that annoying weed grow more rampantly.  But, it won't be in the landfill, so I suppose it's a win overall.

The Big Boy Update:  28.6 Pounds.  We haven't weighed them in a while.  I had no idea how much he weighs.  He is almost 32 months old.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  22.2 Pounds.  She is almost 21 months old and working hard on catching up to him in both height and weight.

Someone Once Said:  It does not require a broad education to function as a social and economic animal... as long as you know when to rub blue mud in your bellybutton. But a mistake in local customs can get you lynched.

Memories From Kindergarten

Do you remember much from kindergarten?  I have very few memories, although the ones I do have are quite specific.  I have fewer still from pre-school, but there are some distinct moments that have stuck with me due to their impact on my life at that point.

For some reason yesterday, I sent myself an email titled, "memories from kindergarten," to remind me to do a blog post on that topic.  Today, I still have those same memories from kindergarten, but I don't remember what sparked the idea yesterday to write about it.  Alas, memory can be so fickle.

I shall not let that bother me into not writing about it, however.  To start, I may or may not remember the first day of kindergarten.  I remember the door to the classroom and I remember the teachers.  The main teacher was Mrs. Hunt.  Her assistant was Mrs. Honeycutt.  I don't know if that's how her name was spelled, but I do know I upset her one day later in the school year because I told her I could remember her name because it was "honeycutt, like your going to cut her head off."  The look on her face when I told her that made me upset, because I liked her a lot, and I didn't mean anything bad by my comment, but apparently that's not the kind of thing you say to your teachers, I gathered.

There was the bunny rabbit and the classmate who took it home for the weekend when it didn't return.  We took it in turns to keep the bunny over the weekend.  On this particular weekend the bunny got out of the cage, jumped into her pool and drowned.  Okay, wait, who has their own pool?!  Yes, that's what I thought.  I suppose we got another bunny, but that's the story I remember.

There was the day I went to the bathroom and was whistling to myself while I was in there.  I don't think my teachers knew I could whistle and when I came out they were trying to find where the whistle came from.  They almost didn't believe me when I said it was me.  It seems I had confused the whole class.

I don't remember nap time much, except that I would get in trouble because I would tie my shoes into knots and spend part of nap time chewing the laces trying to get them undone.  My teacher told me she would absolutely not untie the mess one more time if I did that again.  I remember the conversation and chewing on the laces; I don't remember if I did it again.

I vaguely remember the yard we could play in.  We had our own little yard and the only thing keeping us in was a hedge around the rectangle that abutted our classroom.  I wanted to get to the area beside our classroom because that was for the first graders.  Their toys looked exciting, only I couldn't figure out how to get through the dense hedge.

And then there was the butter making.  That was a real magic trick.  The teachers put cream into a jar and said we would each have a turn shaking it and then handing it to the next child in the circle.  When it got back around the circle, it would have turned into butter.  "Not possible," I thought, but so it was.

Kindergarten was a whole year.  How can it be that I only remember a handful of things from it?

The Big Boy Update:  About this "Poomer Power" thing he keeps on saying...I asked him yesterday what it meant.  He looked at me and said, "ask more people."  I didn't explain that I had already asked Google and even the great and powerful Google didn't know.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  She is climbing everything now.  She has taken it on of late to conquer the kitchen cabinets.  She will grab a hold of the counter top and then try to climb up using only the drawer knobs.  We've explained that the knobs don't appreciate this, but she doesn't seem to care. 

Someone Once Said:  I never learned from a man who agreed with me.

The Old Carousel and the Park From the Past

We went to a park after camp today.  We ate some lunch there in the sun and then we went on the paddle boats.  It was tricky getting two toddlers on the paddle boat when the youngest toddler wanted to smash her face against the glass window of the carousel building and babble about the merry-go-round, the horses and the music.  Or, at least that's what I think she was babbling about.

After the paddle boats and more sun laden with hot than we cared for, we were ready to go ride the carousel.  My husband got the tickets while I waited in line with two very excited children.  The ride was fun as I stood by my daughter who held on to the pole and grinned  as the wind blew her hair back and her ostrich moved up and down.

I rode on this very same carousel when I was a child, but it was different back then.  The animals were original, beautiful, and always in need of expensive repair.  Today, there are solid-bodied replacements that hold up to wear well.  They have real horse tails, which the children love, and they don't know they're not original.

When I was small the carousel wasn't in a fully enclosed building.  It was covered, but unprotected from the sides.  And then there was the calliope, with it's beautiful music.  Today, the calliope is still there, although I don't know if it's the original.  But it's in a separate room, walled off with glass.  We can see it, but it doesn't make it's music any more.

What does make the sounds are large speakers and I'm guessing a small iPod or some other digital device that sends a digital version of the old music out to the big speakers.

My children don't care; they love the carousel, and I love the memories.

The Big Boy Update: "We not ready to get out."  During bath time I was doing laundry while watching the children.  I would come in to see how it was going (and to make sure water wasn't everywhere) and my son would let me know that no, they weren't ready to get out yet and that yes, they were still having fun.  He would tell me this unprompted.  I suppose he didn't want it to be bedtime yet.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Yucky hair.  Her fine blonde hair will take on dirt and impurities and show it faster than darker-colored hair will.  Today she has what looks like greasy hair because it's been attacked by baby oil, sun screen and bug spray.  Oh, and don't forget sweat from being at the very hot and very sunny park.  I might have to wash it three times tonight.

Fitness Update:  A shortened workout with our trainer and then an hour on the elliptical machine, working on the special exercises my trainer gave me for the shin splints.  I hope it helps, because my neighbor's toe is healing and I'm going to start running again soon.

Someone Once Said:  Next time you’re tempted not to tell me something ‘for my own good,’ will you take a chance that I’m not wedded to my own ignorance?

Happiness is a Choice

There is a parent in our school that I liked the first time I met her.  You know that kind of person, the one in the room who smiles at you, is friendly immediately and makes you feel like she is glad to be there and happy to be talking to you.  Ever since the first time I met her, she has always been the same great person.  Her husband is like that too, just as nice, just as fun and just as real.  Not fake, not ever.

Her daughter was in my son's class at the beginning of the year.  Later on in the year, her son started about the same time my daughter started school.  I found out that he was delayed starting because he had Downs Syndrome.  He was the twin of the daughter in my son's class, but on a slower path due to his disabilities.

But let me tell you about cute.  This little guy is cute as can be and I think, no, I know my daughter has a crush on him.  Apparently all the ladies do in the class because he's such a nice little guy.  But back to the mom.  She's got three children, with a third that's older, so I know she's busy.  Dealing with the Downs Syndrome child must make her day even busier.

What I found out later, through casual conversation at a birthday party was that the daughter was having febrile seizures in the middle of the night.  Her mom just happened to wake up and find her the first time it happened.  What would have happened if she hadn't woken up just in time to check on her silently seizing daughter in another room?  She could have died.  Was that the only time the seizures had happened?  No.  And yet my friend was talking about it in a positive light, about how they had it diagnosed and how her daughter should grow out of it.

I can hope I'd be so positive, but I might equally be upset and angry.  I don't know how well I would handle something that frightening and potentially life-threatening.  Then, just the other day, I talked to another friend who mentioned that with the daughter's seizures and the son's issues with Downs Syndrome, it seemed like they were in the hospital almost every week for one thing or another.

I didn't even know her son had medical issues.  She had never mentioned them, certainly not to the extent that it was that serious.  I asked my other friend how the mom was dealing with it and my friend said one time our friend told her she felt happiness was a choice.  She believed she could wake up and be happy, or she could decide to be angry or sad.  So, she decided to be happy.

Could it be that simple?  It seems to be working for my friend.  She seems nothing other than happy and she's got a lot that she could use as valid reasons to be unhappy.  Not only did I think she was great when I first met her.  I think she's an even more remarkable lady now that I know more about her situation and how she thrives instead of just survives and does so with a smile.

The Big Boy Update:  "I have a great big stomach."  That's what he told me the other day when I was sure he must be full and yet he still wanted more food.  Apparently he does have a great big stomach.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Sharing with her brother.  She likes to share.  She will take a food item that she might be enjoying but is getting full eating and she'll get up from her seat, walk the two steps to her brother's seat and put one of those items (grape, blueberry, cereal nugget, etc.) onto his plate.  Since my son is greedy, this suits him just fine.


Fitness Update:  Fitness room today with both my neighbor and my mother-in-law.  And guess what?  Three ladies chatting makes the workout go three times as quickly.  Imagine that! 

Someone Once Said:  Piety does not imply horse sense.