Your Body, No Your Body

My neighbor and I ran a trial marathon today in the park across the street from our neighborhood.  We're six weeks out from the first of two marathons we've signed up for but I suppose we just wanted to make sure we were ready for them.    It appears we are.

When you run with someone beside you for five hours—if you're doing pace math, that's slow—you have a lot of time to talk about lots of things.    Today we coincidentally ran into my neighbor as she was heading out for a run and ran along with her for a few miles.   We later happened upon another neighbor who is the mother to three children who sit for all of our children.   We ran with her for three miles or so and then she split off.     But we still had twenty-ish miles to talk.

We have never run out of things to talk about.   The only time there is danger of that is when one of us is bonking so badly we can't think straight enough to talk—which has happened.   Today among all the things we got to talking about was things we disliked about our bodies.    It's normal to have parts or areas of your body that you don't mind and then other areas you wish were different in some way.

As she and I were talking, we both kept scoffing at the other's comments.   "What do you mean you don't like your thighs?  You have great looking thighs!"   Or, "your upper arms don't look flabby, they look muscular and defined!"   There was a lot of this going on.   Eventually, we both had to laugh because we decided we'd each be much happier with the other's body because we just couldn't see what the other was unsatisfied about.

The Big Boy Update:   First Circus.   We took both children to the circus for the first time today.   My son loved it. He loved the sights and sounds.  He was fascinated with the animals and the acrobats.   He loved the motorcycles that spun around in the big metal sphere.    As we were leaving, he wanted to do some acrobatics on the metal bike rack.   I asked him if we should put up the trapeze on the swing set so he could practice and he said yes.   He was working hard on doing some hanging upside down move when it got dark and he had to go in for dinner.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Sleepy Circus.   My daughter went to the circus for the first time today as well.   She liked everything, although it was loud.   She would do a dance from time to time with her arms when there were dancers dancing and she clapped at just the right spots.    She got tired after intermission though and fell asleep across both me and her chair, face down on the seat.  

Fitness Update:  We ran our marathon trial run today.   I ended at the longest run I've ever done by adding one extra tenth onto my prior max distance and came in at 26.4 miles.

Pack It In

I'm running a marathon distance run tomorrow as part of the training we're doing for two upcoming marathon-length races.   I can I say again how it's not fun eating a lot of food because you know you need to eat a lot of food?   It sounds like fun, but it doesn't really pan out that way.

I don't like being uncomfortably full, but I like even less being three hours into a run a and not knowing if I can make two more hours because I'm so depleted in energy.   I don't like the somnolence effect I get from eating more than I normally would that happens an hour or two after the food begins to digest.

Tomorrow I expect it will be a slow run (as all of mine are) but we'll make it.    Thanks in advance to my husband and my mother for watching the children while we're out on the trails for so long.

The Big Boy Update:  Kisses, Hugs and I love you's.  My son hated all three.  He didn't want to be kissed, disliked being hugged and would not tell you he loved you back (or at least he wouldn't tell me.)  Now he's a big fan of all three.  The other day out of the blue he said, "guess who I love?"  I told him I didn't know and he said, "you!"

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter's hair is crazy.   It takes a lot to make it look anything other than a messy wreck.   We use conditioner, spray in a conditioning spray and blow dry it to calm it down.   But even with all that, the fineness of her hair makes it look fly-away even with a modest elastic band to keep part of it out of her eyes—that is, when she'll keep something in her hair at all.    And don't even get me started about how food is inexorably attracted to her locks.

Fitness Update:   Our Ninja run team is growing.   Other people that work out with out trainer are joining our team.   I don't know how we'll do, but Don says he's going to prepare us in the coming months.

Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper Helicopter Man

Several tines now I've heard a strange sound.   It's been the end of the day and my husband is upstairs getting the children tucked into their beds while I fold laundry or clean up the bedroom.    I would hear this sound that sounded like water running through a pipe and making a strange sound.   We have an outdoor hose bib that does this and it's not fun to hear.   Only this was further away and not as loud.    Then, it stopped.  

A few days later I heard it again and this time I was in our bathroom.   I walked around, listening to find the sound.  Was it coming from the heating system below me in the crawl space?   Was water running from above in my children's bathroom and we had a pipe issue?   Then, like before, it stopped.

And then last night, I was walking out of my children's room, heading downstairs to clean up.  My husband was going to tell one of his now much demanded, Super Helicopter Man stories to them as their last story of the night.  He makes these stories up.   There are multiple characters.   I never get to hear them because I'm off writing this blog or cleaning up things.    As I turned to go down the stairs I heard the sound again...only this time it was louder.   I ran back up the stairs, now sure I knew what it was as I burst back into the room.

My husband stopped making noise and he and my children looked at me with a questioning look.  "What are you saying?  I've been trying to hone in on that noise for days," I asked my husband.  He looked conspiratorially at my children and said, "should we show mommy?"   They nodded and he then started his Super Helicopter man story again.   I heard him drag out the "ooo" in "super," seeing just how long he could make the one note last.  

It was impressive.   Mystery solved.   I laughed, left the room and went downstairs to get on the cleaning up.

The Big Boy Update:   Today was my birthday.   We had a birthday cupcake that my son delivered to me with a single candle in it.   After he and I blew the candle out together, everyone ate cupcakes.   That is, except for my son.   He had a toothpick and was poking at the candle with it.   He asked, "what's inside a candle?"   We did that adult smile and laugh thing and said, "more candle" or something like that and then went on eating and talking.   A few minutes later we suddenly realized he'd been finding out for himself with that toothpick and had gotten candle bits all over the place.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter directed dinner tonight.   She happily suggested where Mimi was going to sit.   She let Uncle Jonathan know where he was going to sit, she made sure I sat beside her and beside her brother at the same time and then when we were mostly all seated she engaged us all in conversation of the type only a three-year-old can manage.  I looked at my dad and said, "she's cute, isn't she?"

Chewing the Jerky

Today was the day.   The day I'd been waiting for for months, no, longer than that, over a year.    I wouldn't have told you it was a day I celebrated chewing my niehgbor's homemade venison jerky when I woke up this morning, but that's how it turned out.

I've had a long run with some tooth issues that all culminated in the delivery of two crowns and two implants this morning.  I've been missing one molar since the point we got the playground for our back yard before my son was two-years-old.   I remember swinging on the new swing set with a bleeding hole in my jaw and being sad about losing the tooth.     Some time later I had a root canal on the tooth that was next to that missing tooth.   That root canal turned into a root extraction surgery and ultimately another tooth extraction.

So then I had two missing molars on my upper left side.  I didn't like to smile big for fear it would be obvious.  After months of healing and bone regrowth I had implant screws put in and then after six months of waiting for the screws to integrate with the jaw I had the crowns delivered (today.)    Now, I have two "teeth" on my left where there had only been metal screws or partial teeth or painful teeth before.

My right side had some temporary crowns and for three weeks I had problems with one coming off due to the situation with the tooth.   It would have happened to anyone, but since my neighbor was my dentist, he just loaned me some of his tools and some temporary glue and when it came out, I'd scrape it clean, stick it in the ultrasonic cleaner and then glue it back in so the tissues would stay in place for the final crown.

For the last three weeks things have been sketchy as I avoided chewing on the side with teeth for fear of losing one or more than one temporary crown and attempting to chew on a side with the molars missing altogether.   I just had to hold on while the final crowns were being built at the various labs.    Then, this morning, they were all cemented in.

When I left the dentist's office I had been given the go-ahead to "chew anything."   I had joked, saying I was going to go find a bison leg to chew on for dinner.   Not knowing where to get bison legs, I went to Whole Foods and walked around, looking for the thing I most wanted to eat first with my new teeth.   I wanted something chewy yet crunchy.   I needed to see if everything worked and worked without discomfort.   I found this:

I chewed on the left.   I chewed on the right.   I chewed on both sides at the same time, something I haven't done in a long time.  Nothing hurt.  Nothing was uncomfortable.   Nothing felt like it was about to fall out and need re-gluing.   My whole mouth was working again!

I went home and the afternoon went uneventfully.  We had a collection of neighbors out in the back yard and one mentioned her father making that, "terrible venison jerky" to her mother.   "What," I thought?   I told them it sounded great to me.   They offered to bring me some and when they did I gnawed into it and chewed the tough meat on both sides of my mouth.   I was so excited about how well my teeth were performing I ate the entire bag they brought me.

What a great day.

The Big Boy Update:  My children both selected corn kernels for their side dish at lunch.   As they were scooping up spoonfuls and eating the corn my daughter called it, "popcorn."   My son replied, "it's not called popcorn, it's called rice."  A discussion ensued in which neither child seemed to care that my husband was telling them it was called corn.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter picked up a book she'd never seen before at her friend's house this afternoon.  As she walked across the driveway she said, "once upon a time..."  Were do they learn these things?  Most books don't start with that line and yet children know it.

Fitness Update:  Uncle Jonathan, Eleanor and I ran five miles in twenty-eight degree weather this morning.   Three of us running and chatting and laughing in the dark must have scared at least a few neighbors in their beds.

Missing Words My Sentences

I've been dropping words when I write lately.   An example of the type of words I've been dropping is showcased in the title of this sentence.   It's clear what word is missing (in) but not clear why I decided it wasn't worth adding into the sentence.   This has been happening a lot.   It's been in emails.   I've done it in text messages and it happens as I write these blog posts as well.

Am I saving on typing?    Did some words become more expensive and I haven't found a coupon for fifty-cents off this week?   I don't know.   I hope my brain isn't breaking, because I need it to do all sorts of useful things.   We all make typos and through the technology of autocorrect, we all make funny typos, some of which result in missing words or confusing sentences.    Only this isn't the result of that.

It's like my brain found a turbo button and is going just that wee little bit faster than the part that's  processing what I'm typing.   For most words I'm good, but every now and again, just like when my children swing together on their swing set, things get in phase and the next short word is tossed out.

I will have to do more tests.   That means I'll have to keep texting, emailing and writing blogs.   How ever will find the time?

The Big Boy Update:  My son got a lesson in the binomial cube yesterday.   I was very excited to hear him tell us this.   He didn't particularly care, but I love the math behind the binomial cube work.   He told me all about the colors of the blocks this morning at breakfast and then he told me about the trinomial cube and how he would get a lesson on that when he was five.   (I have the trinomial cube on my Amazon list, but apparently the mathematically-oriented item only looks exciting to me because no one has gotten if for me in two years.)

Binomial Cube

Trinomial Cube

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  On the way home from school today my three-year-old daughter told us we live in North America.  We were all very impressed.   Then she told us, "our house is North America."   I told her that was a pretty big house to live in but we were all sort of a family.

The Stick Prediction

My husband came into the room I was in two days ago and said, "your prediction came true, now  have a stick.  The evidence is in my hand."   I had no idea what he was talking about.  None.   We were both laughing as I tried to guess what it was.   He told me I had been bemoaning this very thing only a few days before, saying the phrase, "I'm going to be stuck with a stick" and being very unhappy about it.    We kept laughing.  I still didn't know.

When he opened his hand a few minutes later, there was an orchid flower inside.   Ohhhhh...  How could I have forgotten—the orchid had lost its last flower.   This particular plant was given to me some months ago with five flowers.   I am not good with plants, and by that I mean I am not overly fond of them inside my house, where I have the responsibility to take care of them, because there is a good chance I won't take care of them well.   And if that were to happen, I would feel terribly guilty for the plant and I would talk to it and tell it I was sorry and, well, it is just best that plants and I keep a wide berth.

This plant was a thank you plant for doing something easy and quick.   The person who I did the favor for gave me a plant to remember the...colonoscopy by.   There, I said it.   This was a thank you plant for driving someone to their colonoscopy.    It was a dear friend and even though I am not a plant fan, I did my best to water the plant just as the little plastic stake said it should be done.

All was well until one day two of the flowers looked droopy.   But it was two days before the designated watering time.   What should I do?   I broke protocol and watered it in the hopes it would perk the blossoms up but the next day two of the five had dropped off.    Ack.  

I told my friend and she told me that the flowers would fall off and that was okay.  After a period of months more flowers would come back.   Oh.  Ah.  Okay.

I came back home and told my husband in a rather shrill voice, "they're all going to fall off and when they do it's just going to sit there for months, just being a stick.   I'm going to be stuck with a stick!   For a colonoscopy I didn't even get to have myself!"  (Have you caught on to how much I truly and deeply love plants at this point?)

So as of a few days ago, I have a stick that needs watering that can't even hold itself up on its own.   It has to have another stick tied to it to keep it upright.   And it's going to continue to be a stick for months to come.

I love my friend, but next time I'm going to say no thank you to thank you plants.

The Big Boy Update:   It was cold and windy this afternoon when we left soccer class.  My son was in shorts and a short-sleeved shirt.   He told me, "I want to be in your belly again like I was when I was a baby, because it's cold outside."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  This was a conversation between my husband and my daughter this afternoon.  My daughter, "Daddy could you go to the potty with me?"  My husband, "Why can't you go by yourself??  My daughter, "because it's a big deal."

Fitness Update:  Our trainer is going to focus on strength for us for the next several months while we train for the two marathons.   We also signed up for a Ninja Run, which is one of those 5K runs that has you do various other fitness-type things throughout the course.    I will most likely fall flat on my face running over some logs on the water or not be able to do a single pull-up.  We shall see.

The Blush and the Scarf

My mother told me of one of her memories from childhood today.   We were at the park with my two children and while they'd run off to play in the large, wooden castle, she and I say on the swings and talked about childhood memories.

I didn't realize that when my mother was a child kindergarten wasn't offered in the public school systems, so her first experience with school was first grade.    Her memories are vague overall, much like many of mine, but there is one thing she remembers very clearly: her first day riding the bus to school.

My mother said she was a very shy child.   She was also quite pale and petit.   Walking to the bus stop to climb onto a large vehicle, leaving her mother behind was a scary thought to her.    To help her get through that first day, my grandmother put some rouge on my mother's cheeks to make her look bright and happy.   My mother said she felt very special and loved as they walked to the bus stop together.

Then, right before she had to get on the bus, my grandmother took her scarf from around her neck and put it on my mother's neck.    My mother said she remembered how the combination of those two things gave her confidence and she stepped onto the bus to head to school.

As an adult, she said she remembered that day and the special understanding her mother had for her daughter's needs on that first day of school.

The Big Boy Update:  My son needs some roughhousing time with another boy or friend or father or someone because he has had a tough time with punching hands and strong, bossy words today.  He is now asleep after some running around at the park.    He has two friends coming over for dinner, so maybe they'll have fun together tonight while all four parents go out to dinner together.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:   My daughter played the beginnings of her first song on a musical instrument the other day.   She accidentally happened on the first three notes of Frere Jaques.   She tried it again and then decided to sing the rest of the song (or at least the bits she knows.)