I'm not a big fan of the word proactive. I think when I started out in business from college it was a big buzz word and it just got burned out in my mind and I try to avoid it. Avoid the word, not the behavior.
I like to be prepared. With the children I like to be ready to go places with them and not have to get ready for a half hour before we can leave the house. You want to go out to dinner to Pei Wei and you just decided three minutes ago? Sounds fantastic, I'll have the kids ready to go in five minutes. But that's only possible because I'm pre-prepared to go places with them.
I have a "go bag" that is not small. It has all sorts of baby things in it including lots of diapers, wipes, heck even swim diapers, a change of clothes for each child and a pair of shoes for my son who can walk places and may need them in case we sweep him into the car and forget that he's shoeless. But most importantly, it has food. Plenty of food for both children for a meal and a bib for each.
So when it's time to go out, I go to the refrigerator and grab the sippy cup for my son that's also pre-prepared and a bottle of juice for my daughter that's ready too. I stick them in the go bag and then all we need to do is pack the children in the car.
I like being able to go out at a moment's notice. Maybe that's because I like going out. When we return home, we do a "reset" of the go bag. That involves restocking, replacing and swapping for clean so that the bag is sitting in it's spot, prepared for action.
I don't think pre-prepared is a word. My spell checker says it isn't. But I don't care.
The Big Boy Update: Left-handed? We're not sure. We never give him anything with a particular hand in mind. When he eats, we use two spoons many times because we want him to be able to feed himself, but we also shove some into his mouth between his less-effective feeding. So sometimes he ends up with two spoons. He seems to have started favoring the left hand for things like feeding himself. He's young and that's only in the realm of food, so we'll have to wait and see how his handedness pans out.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Teeth grinding on the tub. Imagine your cute little girl crawling over to the tiled tub. Imagine her standing up and then imagine her intentionally, repeatedly, chewing and grinding her teeth on the edge of that tub. She is teething we know, but it's still singular that she will head directly for the tub, stand up and chomp down on the edge, and has done this multiple times over the past week. The tile can't be all that flavorful.
Fitness Update: I ran eight miles this afternoon. It was hot. I shouldn't have been running faster than I normally run in the mornings when it's cool. And I should have been running slower because I went, "the hateful route" as I like to call it, due to some steep, hilly sections. But I did. Not only did I run the first two "hateful" miles faster, I kept running faster through the remaining six. Maybe I need to run in the heat more? Or start out with tiring hills? Or maybe I'm still tired when I run in the morning. More research to follow...
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Hobbies and Crafts
I do crafts. I like crafts. I do all sorts of things that I might need to go to a Michael's store for. Recently my husband talked about a new store in his parent's town that had a big sign saying, "Hobby" on the front. We weren't sure if the store was named, Hobby, or if it was an indication of the contents of their store inventory. Was it a store where people sold things they made through their hobbies and crafts? We'd have to wait until it opened.
My husband was looking forward to it opening because he's been wanting to make a train table with my son. He's a little young for a real train table (my son, not my husband) but it's never too early to get planning.
The other day my husband said he found out the store had opened and his parents had gone. He said he was disappointed because the hobby store he had such high hopes for turned out to be much like a Michael's. I said, "Oh, it's a girl craft store, not a boy hobby store."
Until that moment it never occurred to me, but the word, "hobby" is more associated with things men like to do like model cars, trains, planes and figurines. Crafts is a more female-oriented word associated with basket weaving, picture framing, origami, jewelry making and lots and lots of other things that come to mind that I love to do personally.
Am I being stereotypical? You bet I am. Stereotypes are generally there for a good reason. Certainly there are many men who love Michael's, my builder included. And I put together more than one model when I was younger and had more time. It was just an interesting realization I had that my notion of the word, "hobby" is more male-oriented and "crafts" are something I not only love to do with my girlfriends, but I have a whole room that's nicknamed, "the craft room" in the house.
The Big Boy Update: Choo choo. He has started liking trains. He says, "choo choo" a lot. We have a potty book all about trains. He can spot one in pictures or in a toy from across the room now. And now he has a new, plastic, riding train with a back car. Maybe he'll learn to take his sister for a ride some day soon.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Finger bowl, part two. Today, after yesterday's finger bowl introduction, I brought it back after a messy lunch. She saw the bowl coming and smiled at me. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get the bowl back, she had so much fun cleaning her hands.
Fitness Update: Half marathon plan. My neighbor and I are going to do it. I ran ten miles and she ran eight the following day. The race we're targeting is in November, so we feel confident we can make it in time. I am very pleased to be training with her. She has run a half marathon before, so she can give me good advice. She also isn't interested in racing, but in completing, which is exactly what I want to do. So we're a good match for training partners. Besides that, she's fun to be around and always encouraging.
My husband was looking forward to it opening because he's been wanting to make a train table with my son. He's a little young for a real train table (my son, not my husband) but it's never too early to get planning.
The other day my husband said he found out the store had opened and his parents had gone. He said he was disappointed because the hobby store he had such high hopes for turned out to be much like a Michael's. I said, "Oh, it's a girl craft store, not a boy hobby store."
Until that moment it never occurred to me, but the word, "hobby" is more associated with things men like to do like model cars, trains, planes and figurines. Crafts is a more female-oriented word associated with basket weaving, picture framing, origami, jewelry making and lots and lots of other things that come to mind that I love to do personally.
Am I being stereotypical? You bet I am. Stereotypes are generally there for a good reason. Certainly there are many men who love Michael's, my builder included. And I put together more than one model when I was younger and had more time. It was just an interesting realization I had that my notion of the word, "hobby" is more male-oriented and "crafts" are something I not only love to do with my girlfriends, but I have a whole room that's nicknamed, "the craft room" in the house.
The Big Boy Update: Choo choo. He has started liking trains. He says, "choo choo" a lot. We have a potty book all about trains. He can spot one in pictures or in a toy from across the room now. And now he has a new, plastic, riding train with a back car. Maybe he'll learn to take his sister for a ride some day soon.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Finger bowl, part two. Today, after yesterday's finger bowl introduction, I brought it back after a messy lunch. She saw the bowl coming and smiled at me. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get the bowl back, she had so much fun cleaning her hands.
Fitness Update: Half marathon plan. My neighbor and I are going to do it. I ran ten miles and she ran eight the following day. The race we're targeting is in November, so we feel confident we can make it in time. I am very pleased to be training with her. She has run a half marathon before, so she can give me good advice. She also isn't interested in racing, but in completing, which is exactly what I want to do. So we're a good match for training partners. Besides that, she's fun to be around and always encouraging.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Toothless
Or, rather, one tooth less. I lost a tooth yesterday.
I have always had rather good teeth. They've not been great, but they haven't given me lots of problems and they're generally not painful. I am happy with them and they've served me well. So my mental image of my teeth didn't include one being pulled yesterday. But that's what ended up happening.
My former dentist retired and I had only seen the new dentist once for a cleaning during my second pregnancy. But now that I'm pregnant-free, it was time to get them cleaned, X-rays updated and evaluated. I should have gone before now, what with my daughter being eight-months-old, but it wasn't as high a priority as it should have been. Never is, right?
So a chip came along in a molar and reminded me daily that I needed to get to the dentist. Just in time with the appointment, this tooth that eventually got pulled started hurting. When they evaluated my teeth, that one was in sorry shape, twenty-year metal filling with clear decay all around it. A large fracture down the side of the tooth and pain that had just begun.
The dentist said he would try to save the tooth if I wanted to, but he would pull it if it was his. It was a second molar and I wouldn't miss it most likely. (Talking to family and friends since this news has confirmed that most people don't need the back molars to eat effectively and normally.) He would try to save it, but it was going to have to have a crown, hell, there wasn't much tooth left that wasn't a wreck. And he would definitely have to do a root canal because of the depth of the decay on the X-ray.
He thought he could save it for a few minutes, but then discovered there was calcification in one of the roots from a long-gone infection. So he pulled it.
Here's a useful piece of information: teeth don't want to be pulled. They will do everything in their power to keep snug in your mouth. As such, my jaw and gums are quite sore. But the hole is already filling in and I think all is going well.
Two days ago, I got the news initially that I was going to not only lose a tooth the following day, but it was going to be expensive and, oh, there is a lot more work that needs to be done and you don't have that great set of teeth you used to have. I came home and was in a funk. I suppose shock and depression (on a minor mouth-centric level.) Shock because how much was this going to cost to fix?! (He gave me a handy estimate) and depression/grief because I didn't want to lose a tooth.
My husband said I had lost my mojo. I didn't have energy to do anything. I say on the couch and I didn't even think about what needed to be done and how I should be getting up to get things done. I felt like my arms and legs were made of heavier stuff than normal. I was able to eat ice cream though, so I knew I was going to pull through.
I worked through the funk quickly enough (aside from the shock of how expensive dental work is) with some good advice from both my parents and in-laws. They had advice from experience which was both calming and reassuring.
So today, one less tooth. In a few weeks, more work to get other bits of my mouth in order.
Next, I think I'm going to start a fund raiser project with my cute son and daughter to help defray the costs of my expensive mouth
The Big Boy Update: "Pops!" We got these plastic pops from our friends. They're little colored things with a male and female end. You link them together and make chains or rings. A few weeks ago he liked them, but he didn't get how to put them together. He could pull them apart and then he'd try to put them together, sometimes succeeding, but not having an overall plan with what he was doing. Today, the pops are out again and he gets it. He gets some design in his head which might include making a large ring or a chain. He breaks the current chain apart and pulls off some pieces and then relocates them to another end. It's an entirely different way that he's interacting with the pops today. He also has been saying, "pops" repeatedly to go along with the play.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: The Finger Bowl. My mother likes to finish mealtime cleanup with my son by bringing over a bowl full of water so he can get his hands really clean. He loves the bowl. It's a great idea and it's fun for him too. I'd never tried it with my daughter until today. She wasn't sure what to do at first, but when she realized there was a small body of water in front of her she could put her hands in and splash, she got into, "finger bowl time."
Fitness Update: Running together is less work. I ran with my neighbor again this morning. We chat and gab and talk the whole way around the park. And we're both likely to add on more distance if we're close to a mile or time goal and can wedge in the time. Today, when we were done and had run six miles it seemed like not only had the time flown, but we were able to make the run being less tired because we weren't paying attention as much as we would running alone.
I have always had rather good teeth. They've not been great, but they haven't given me lots of problems and they're generally not painful. I am happy with them and they've served me well. So my mental image of my teeth didn't include one being pulled yesterday. But that's what ended up happening.
My former dentist retired and I had only seen the new dentist once for a cleaning during my second pregnancy. But now that I'm pregnant-free, it was time to get them cleaned, X-rays updated and evaluated. I should have gone before now, what with my daughter being eight-months-old, but it wasn't as high a priority as it should have been. Never is, right?
So a chip came along in a molar and reminded me daily that I needed to get to the dentist. Just in time with the appointment, this tooth that eventually got pulled started hurting. When they evaluated my teeth, that one was in sorry shape, twenty-year metal filling with clear decay all around it. A large fracture down the side of the tooth and pain that had just begun.
The dentist said he would try to save the tooth if I wanted to, but he would pull it if it was his. It was a second molar and I wouldn't miss it most likely. (Talking to family and friends since this news has confirmed that most people don't need the back molars to eat effectively and normally.) He would try to save it, but it was going to have to have a crown, hell, there wasn't much tooth left that wasn't a wreck. And he would definitely have to do a root canal because of the depth of the decay on the X-ray.
He thought he could save it for a few minutes, but then discovered there was calcification in one of the roots from a long-gone infection. So he pulled it.
Here's a useful piece of information: teeth don't want to be pulled. They will do everything in their power to keep snug in your mouth. As such, my jaw and gums are quite sore. But the hole is already filling in and I think all is going well.
Two days ago, I got the news initially that I was going to not only lose a tooth the following day, but it was going to be expensive and, oh, there is a lot more work that needs to be done and you don't have that great set of teeth you used to have. I came home and was in a funk. I suppose shock and depression (on a minor mouth-centric level.) Shock because how much was this going to cost to fix?! (He gave me a handy estimate) and depression/grief because I didn't want to lose a tooth.
My husband said I had lost my mojo. I didn't have energy to do anything. I say on the couch and I didn't even think about what needed to be done and how I should be getting up to get things done. I felt like my arms and legs were made of heavier stuff than normal. I was able to eat ice cream though, so I knew I was going to pull through.
I worked through the funk quickly enough (aside from the shock of how expensive dental work is) with some good advice from both my parents and in-laws. They had advice from experience which was both calming and reassuring.
So today, one less tooth. In a few weeks, more work to get other bits of my mouth in order.
Next, I think I'm going to start a fund raiser project with my cute son and daughter to help defray the costs of my expensive mouth
The Big Boy Update: "Pops!" We got these plastic pops from our friends. They're little colored things with a male and female end. You link them together and make chains or rings. A few weeks ago he liked them, but he didn't get how to put them together. He could pull them apart and then he'd try to put them together, sometimes succeeding, but not having an overall plan with what he was doing. Today, the pops are out again and he gets it. He gets some design in his head which might include making a large ring or a chain. He breaks the current chain apart and pulls off some pieces and then relocates them to another end. It's an entirely different way that he's interacting with the pops today. He also has been saying, "pops" repeatedly to go along with the play.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: The Finger Bowl. My mother likes to finish mealtime cleanup with my son by bringing over a bowl full of water so he can get his hands really clean. He loves the bowl. It's a great idea and it's fun for him too. I'd never tried it with my daughter until today. She wasn't sure what to do at first, but when she realized there was a small body of water in front of her she could put her hands in and splash, she got into, "finger bowl time."
Fitness Update: Running together is less work. I ran with my neighbor again this morning. We chat and gab and talk the whole way around the park. And we're both likely to add on more distance if we're close to a mile or time goal and can wedge in the time. Today, when we were done and had run six miles it seemed like not only had the time flown, but we were able to make the run being less tired because we weren't paying attention as much as we would running alone.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Twicecream and Thricecream
I like ice cream. I like it usually out, at a frozen yogurt place. I like it from time to time, but I'm not an ice cream fanatic. I am, however, (and inexplicably) in a major ice cream phase right now.
I think about ice cream during the day. I think about ice cream before I finish my meal, wondering which of the ice creams I have in the freezer I should have (and sometimes I have some of each kind.) I think about ice cream before bed. And I eat ice cream about that often as well.
Some days I have twicecream. Today I had thricecream. I am going to have to trust my body that I need either the carbohydrates or calcium or some other nutritional component or heck, just the calories because there is no real reason I should be craving ice cream three times a day.
And no, I'm not pregnant.
The Big Boy Update: The pig that gasses. At the baby shower for my daughter we got not one, not two, not even three, but five rumbling pigs from our registry. Something went wrong at Target and it never marked it purchased, even though people bought from the registry. The one remaining pig vibrates when you pull his tail, or he "gasses" as my friend's son, Gavin says. This pig is so round it's more like a ball than a pig. I pulled it down to let my son play with it earlier today. He looked at it and made the snorting sound he makes when he looks at one of his books and sees a drawing of a pig. He's beginning to make some impressive connections lately.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Ice cream cone. I got mini ice cream cones from the freezer section at the store. I've given one to my son before, out on the deck, without a shirt on. Tonight I gave one to my daughter. I held on to it while she tried to get the whole top into her mouth at once. When she was done with the main bulk of ice cream, I set down the cone and went to get something. When I returned, she was holding the cone, in the proper orientation, trying to eat it. She spent a good while working on it with her two little teeth.
I think about ice cream during the day. I think about ice cream before I finish my meal, wondering which of the ice creams I have in the freezer I should have (and sometimes I have some of each kind.) I think about ice cream before bed. And I eat ice cream about that often as well.
Some days I have twicecream. Today I had thricecream. I am going to have to trust my body that I need either the carbohydrates or calcium or some other nutritional component or heck, just the calories because there is no real reason I should be craving ice cream three times a day.
And no, I'm not pregnant.
The Big Boy Update: The pig that gasses. At the baby shower for my daughter we got not one, not two, not even three, but five rumbling pigs from our registry. Something went wrong at Target and it never marked it purchased, even though people bought from the registry. The one remaining pig vibrates when you pull his tail, or he "gasses" as my friend's son, Gavin says. This pig is so round it's more like a ball than a pig. I pulled it down to let my son play with it earlier today. He looked at it and made the snorting sound he makes when he looks at one of his books and sees a drawing of a pig. He's beginning to make some impressive connections lately.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Ice cream cone. I got mini ice cream cones from the freezer section at the store. I've given one to my son before, out on the deck, without a shirt on. Tonight I gave one to my daughter. I held on to it while she tried to get the whole top into her mouth at once. When she was done with the main bulk of ice cream, I set down the cone and went to get something. When I returned, she was holding the cone, in the proper orientation, trying to eat it. She spent a good while working on it with her two little teeth.
Toy Upheaval
I've rearranged the children's toys before and that time has come again. But this time I'm doing it with a twist. We were back up in the attic, with more bins and some new racks trying to get to my ultimate goal of knowing exactly where everything is. I dislike not knowing where something is and even though we've been busy with two babies, we've been in this house for a year-and-a-half now and it's about time we finished sorting the attic.
I found two boxes of dog toys I'd saved over time. And I discovered something. Dog toys (some of them) make great baby toys. There was a fuzzy squirrel house. It had three small squirrels you could pull out and put back in the stump/house. It was just like a cute child toy, but target to pet owners.
There were other toys, like a feather on a stick and some bouncy, rattly balls and even some child toys that I dubbed dog toys at the time of purchase. And squeaky. Lots of squeaky things. My dog was excited to see so many toys out and my children were happy she was interested in the new items they were playing with.
So a box of new toys was downstairs now and I had to decide where to put it in the already full toy areas for the children. I got to thinking about a conversation my husband and I had had about volume of toys and how less can be more interesting and engaging. So I got several plastic bins and started going around the house, "putting up" fifty percent of the toys that were out.
My children watched me as I put away all their favorite things. Favorite things they had little interest in of late. Suddenly, things my son hadn't touched in a while were noticed and he began to pull out things from the back of the closet into the room and play with them.
After putting up several bins, my new plan is to swap toys in and out. As new toys arrive, older toys will get banked for a while. When the current toys get stale, "new" toys will be magically pulled out of storage and swapped.
The Big Boy Update: Shape sorting. There are little containers with holes in the top in the shape of circles, squares, triangles, stars, etc. There are plastic pieces inside the container you take out of the container by taking the top off. You put the top back on and then put the shapes back into the container via the matching shaped hole. Very Sisyphean. But excellent activity for a small child. My son can do this, but he seems to have to relearn each shape every time he goes back to the toy. The other day I saw him for the first time grab each shape and go directly to the correct hole without trying other holes first. And once he'd gotten the first green circle in, he went straight to the circle for the remainder of the round pieces.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Dog curl sleeping. Have you seen a dog preparing itself for a nap? The dog curls around in a circle until he's got it just right and then sleeps in a nice balled up mass of fur? My daughter has started sleeping in an entire different manner than she has before. When you put her in the crib, she rolls over and then begins to curl around, looking for some blanket to grab and press her head into. She's gotten legs stuck underneath her before, which looks uncomfortable, but if you right her, she just repositions herself until she's exactly how she needs to be to go to sleep.
Fitness Update: Running with Rebecca. My cousin and I have been planning to run together for some time now and today, we made it happen. She has not one, but two lakes near her house. We ran by one and then ran/walked around the second one. Running together is a great way to catch up and she and I never run out of things to talk about.
I found two boxes of dog toys I'd saved over time. And I discovered something. Dog toys (some of them) make great baby toys. There was a fuzzy squirrel house. It had three small squirrels you could pull out and put back in the stump/house. It was just like a cute child toy, but target to pet owners.
There were other toys, like a feather on a stick and some bouncy, rattly balls and even some child toys that I dubbed dog toys at the time of purchase. And squeaky. Lots of squeaky things. My dog was excited to see so many toys out and my children were happy she was interested in the new items they were playing with.
So a box of new toys was downstairs now and I had to decide where to put it in the already full toy areas for the children. I got to thinking about a conversation my husband and I had had about volume of toys and how less can be more interesting and engaging. So I got several plastic bins and started going around the house, "putting up" fifty percent of the toys that were out.
My children watched me as I put away all their favorite things. Favorite things they had little interest in of late. Suddenly, things my son hadn't touched in a while were noticed and he began to pull out things from the back of the closet into the room and play with them.
After putting up several bins, my new plan is to swap toys in and out. As new toys arrive, older toys will get banked for a while. When the current toys get stale, "new" toys will be magically pulled out of storage and swapped.
The Big Boy Update: Shape sorting. There are little containers with holes in the top in the shape of circles, squares, triangles, stars, etc. There are plastic pieces inside the container you take out of the container by taking the top off. You put the top back on and then put the shapes back into the container via the matching shaped hole. Very Sisyphean. But excellent activity for a small child. My son can do this, but he seems to have to relearn each shape every time he goes back to the toy. The other day I saw him for the first time grab each shape and go directly to the correct hole without trying other holes first. And once he'd gotten the first green circle in, he went straight to the circle for the remainder of the round pieces.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Dog curl sleeping. Have you seen a dog preparing itself for a nap? The dog curls around in a circle until he's got it just right and then sleeps in a nice balled up mass of fur? My daughter has started sleeping in an entire different manner than she has before. When you put her in the crib, she rolls over and then begins to curl around, looking for some blanket to grab and press her head into. She's gotten legs stuck underneath her before, which looks uncomfortable, but if you right her, she just repositions herself until she's exactly how she needs to be to go to sleep.
Fitness Update: Running with Rebecca. My cousin and I have been planning to run together for some time now and today, we made it happen. She has not one, but two lakes near her house. We ran by one and then ran/walked around the second one. Running together is a great way to catch up and she and I never run out of things to talk about.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Useful Exercice? Biking to School.
I was selected for a random survey I received in the mail recently. It asked questions about what transportation I used in the area. Specifically, it asked about biking and running in the general vicinity in which I live.
Why yes, I do run in the area, I answered. I also bike some, I filled in. Then it got to the why questions and I realized I don't do anything useful with the biking and the running. I just head out from my front door, do some exercising and then return to my front door. Then the survey asked lots of questions about how many trips per week, month, etc. I used the sidewalks and green ways for transportation from place to place. Oh... erm, none.
So I started the survey feeling like I was doing a good thing getting exercise, but I ended it feeling like I was burning up just as many fossil fuels as I had been in the past. Was there a way I could use the bike or run to some errands?
So running, no. No real pocket room in running shorts and no one is going to want to see me when I arrive all sweaty. But the bike, yes. I could bike somewhere and do something. I had even gotten a basket on my new bike. But the best possibility is baby transport.
We have one, soon to be two baby seats that go on the back of our bikes. The babies love riding around. In under a month, my son starts a morning preschool. Could I bike him to school?
There are challenges. First, the roads are big. But wait... I saw my neighbor biking his girls to school in a trailer pulled by his bike recently. When I asked how he got to school on the roads he said, "Oh, you just go through the park and get on the green way." His children go to a different school, but my son's school is just as easy to get to. Park to greenway to art museum path to pedestrian bridge over the highway back to green then arrive at school. Disco.
But how long will it take? That's the second challenge. Getting a small child up early, getting him fed and then biking for how long to get him to school? So today I checked out the travel time and distance. It's slightly under six miles and took me about a half hour. That's doable. That is it's doable if someone is at home to take care of the second baby while I'm pedaling.
But I'm so going to do it one day before the weather gets ugly and no one wants to be outside. After telling my husband how the route was and my total travel time he went out later in the day and beat my round trip total time by seventeen minutes. Showoff. Maybe I'll send daddy to school on the bike with the boy.
The Big Boy Update: "Stuck. Help. Corn." That is what he said at lunch. And he said it several times. He was eating corn on the cob, which he loves. He said it several times and pointed at his teeth. I looked and lo, he had corn stuck between his two front teeth. That's the most impressive bit of communication he's done yet.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Do not like shower, mama! Normally they get a bath. We decided to try a shower with them tonight. My son loved it. He backed in the corner when it was time to get him out, said, "no no no" and then, "bye bye" to explain how he was not finished and please leave the water on as we left. But my daughter screamed the entire time. By the time she was clean, she was in the "snuffies" phase of crying where catching her breath was taking over and her ability to cry was limited by her upset gasping.
Fitness Update: 12 miles biking. Fun, and not nearly as tiring as running. Also, much less sweaty.
Why yes, I do run in the area, I answered. I also bike some, I filled in. Then it got to the why questions and I realized I don't do anything useful with the biking and the running. I just head out from my front door, do some exercising and then return to my front door. Then the survey asked lots of questions about how many trips per week, month, etc. I used the sidewalks and green ways for transportation from place to place. Oh... erm, none.
So I started the survey feeling like I was doing a good thing getting exercise, but I ended it feeling like I was burning up just as many fossil fuels as I had been in the past. Was there a way I could use the bike or run to some errands?
So running, no. No real pocket room in running shorts and no one is going to want to see me when I arrive all sweaty. But the bike, yes. I could bike somewhere and do something. I had even gotten a basket on my new bike. But the best possibility is baby transport.
We have one, soon to be two baby seats that go on the back of our bikes. The babies love riding around. In under a month, my son starts a morning preschool. Could I bike him to school?
There are challenges. First, the roads are big. But wait... I saw my neighbor biking his girls to school in a trailer pulled by his bike recently. When I asked how he got to school on the roads he said, "Oh, you just go through the park and get on the green way." His children go to a different school, but my son's school is just as easy to get to. Park to greenway to art museum path to pedestrian bridge over the highway back to green then arrive at school. Disco.
But how long will it take? That's the second challenge. Getting a small child up early, getting him fed and then biking for how long to get him to school? So today I checked out the travel time and distance. It's slightly under six miles and took me about a half hour. That's doable. That is it's doable if someone is at home to take care of the second baby while I'm pedaling.
But I'm so going to do it one day before the weather gets ugly and no one wants to be outside. After telling my husband how the route was and my total travel time he went out later in the day and beat my round trip total time by seventeen minutes. Showoff. Maybe I'll send daddy to school on the bike with the boy.
The Big Boy Update: "Stuck. Help. Corn." That is what he said at lunch. And he said it several times. He was eating corn on the cob, which he loves. He said it several times and pointed at his teeth. I looked and lo, he had corn stuck between his two front teeth. That's the most impressive bit of communication he's done yet.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Do not like shower, mama! Normally they get a bath. We decided to try a shower with them tonight. My son loved it. He backed in the corner when it was time to get him out, said, "no no no" and then, "bye bye" to explain how he was not finished and please leave the water on as we left. But my daughter screamed the entire time. By the time she was clean, she was in the "snuffies" phase of crying where catching her breath was taking over and her ability to cry was limited by her upset gasping.
Fitness Update: 12 miles biking. Fun, and not nearly as tiring as running. Also, much less sweaty.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
The Beauty and Fright in the Night
Isn't lightning stunning? I love it. I love a good storm. I Love seeing the lightning, watching it cascade across the sky and then hearing, or even feeling the thunder.
We've been having a series of storms the last week or so that have been just beautiful to watch. Riding home from the mountains last week, I was looking down and my husband kept exclaiming, "wow, you missed some amazing lightning."
I was out last night on the swing again (I am rather fond of the new swing set,) and there was lots of lightning going on. It seemed far enough away as it wasn't raining on me, but from time to time it would seem a little too close.
It's interesting with lightning, isn't it? You can marvel at it, the power and beauty. But at some point it's too close and suddenly it turns into a menace to be feared and treated with excessive caution.
Also... butterflies. Lots of them. This is the third summer we've been here (one in construction form) but we haven't seen butterflies. Or we haven't seen so many. They're everywhere. Some are beautiful black and iridescent blue. There are the monarch-type yellow and brown and then some that look like little buttercups in flight. I don't know what's caused them to visit, but they're a delight.
The Big Boy Update: Hot Hat Help. Three of his favorite words and they all sound the same. We've been doing a lot of context-based listening to determine if he's saying something is hot, or he needs help, or it's related to the top of his head. If it's food related, and he likes it, he's liable to do his, "happy food dance" in his seat, bouncing from side to side and looking pleased while shoving food in his mouth.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Dance Central. She loves music. When music comes on she dances. If she's standing she does the little bounce up and down that's so classic with happy babies. If she's sitting she bounces in place and smiles. Today, she added a new dance and swayed back and forth while holding on to the ottoman.
Fitness Update: 10+3 (or half in two). New record, ten miles. Ten slow miles, but hell, ten miles. When I came back into the neighborhood I ran into my neighbor who had gotten a late start, but was running with her daughter in a stroller. I told her I was going for a new record and when I told her I had a half mile to go to make ten miles, she said she was going to run it with me. How cool is that? So we finished out my ten miles and got to chatting about our plans for the half marathon. I was walking to cool down, but walking quickly. She was running slowly beside me. And here's the interesting thing, I started running more than once without realizing it. I suppose it's like driving on a highway, then getting on a slower road and having your speed creep back up on you because you're just used to the higher speed. Then, this afternoon, Uncle Jonathan came over and we're training for a 5K together so I went back out and ran another three miles with him. Wait a minute, 10.1 + 3.0 miles = 13.1 miles. Hey, half marathon in two runs. What an unexpected and unplanned surprise.
We've been having a series of storms the last week or so that have been just beautiful to watch. Riding home from the mountains last week, I was looking down and my husband kept exclaiming, "wow, you missed some amazing lightning."
I was out last night on the swing again (I am rather fond of the new swing set,) and there was lots of lightning going on. It seemed far enough away as it wasn't raining on me, but from time to time it would seem a little too close.
It's interesting with lightning, isn't it? You can marvel at it, the power and beauty. But at some point it's too close and suddenly it turns into a menace to be feared and treated with excessive caution.
Also... butterflies. Lots of them. This is the third summer we've been here (one in construction form) but we haven't seen butterflies. Or we haven't seen so many. They're everywhere. Some are beautiful black and iridescent blue. There are the monarch-type yellow and brown and then some that look like little buttercups in flight. I don't know what's caused them to visit, but they're a delight.
The Big Boy Update: Hot Hat Help. Three of his favorite words and they all sound the same. We've been doing a lot of context-based listening to determine if he's saying something is hot, or he needs help, or it's related to the top of his head. If it's food related, and he likes it, he's liable to do his, "happy food dance" in his seat, bouncing from side to side and looking pleased while shoving food in his mouth.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Dance Central. She loves music. When music comes on she dances. If she's standing she does the little bounce up and down that's so classic with happy babies. If she's sitting she bounces in place and smiles. Today, she added a new dance and swayed back and forth while holding on to the ottoman.
Fitness Update: 10+3 (or half in two). New record, ten miles. Ten slow miles, but hell, ten miles. When I came back into the neighborhood I ran into my neighbor who had gotten a late start, but was running with her daughter in a stroller. I told her I was going for a new record and when I told her I had a half mile to go to make ten miles, she said she was going to run it with me. How cool is that? So we finished out my ten miles and got to chatting about our plans for the half marathon. I was walking to cool down, but walking quickly. She was running slowly beside me. And here's the interesting thing, I started running more than once without realizing it. I suppose it's like driving on a highway, then getting on a slower road and having your speed creep back up on you because you're just used to the higher speed. Then, this afternoon, Uncle Jonathan came over and we're training for a 5K together so I went back out and ran another three miles with him. Wait a minute, 10.1 + 3.0 miles = 13.1 miles. Hey, half marathon in two runs. What an unexpected and unplanned surprise.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)