17 months, 1 week, and 2 days

17 months, 1 week, and 2 days, and the boy is FINALLY WALKING!!!  We are breathing a big sigh of relief.  And now we can move on to worrying about other things.  Like, you know, whether he knows his multiplication tables yet.

My baby

Late at night, I sometimes, OK, every night, go into Dash's room and stare at him until he senses my presence in his room.  He sits up, groggy and confused, and I pick him up for a last snuggle before I go to bed.  Usually I put him back in his bed quickly, but occasionally, I sit down with him in the chair in his room and hold him for a little while.  I love the feel of him resting on my chest, so much bigger than when he was a newborn, but still little enough to snuggle up on me.  I love to rub his sweet head and kiss his forehead and just rock with him in the dark.  Tonight he indulged me for a few minutes, gave me lots of sweet cuddles with his head resting on my shoulder.   And then he sat up, wide-eyed, looked me in the eye, pointed to his crib, and said "Night night".  I put him back down in his own bed, heart full of love and gratitude that while he's growing up so fast, he can still be my baby for a little while longer.

Running

I will probably never be a fast runner nor a super long-distance runner but I do like to get into the habit of running for exercise regularly because it always makes me feel so good.  One of the ways that I 'encourage' myself to run is to sign up for races.  I have enough pride to want to run an entire race without walking which requires some amount of training beforehand.

My preferred race distance is a 10K which is just long enough to feel challenging but not so long that training runs take up too much time.   With both of my babies, I found that the first race after they were born felt like an especially big accomplishment.  And now that Ella is old enough to really be aware of what's going on around her, I think seeing me run a race is a really great example of having fun in a physical fitness activity (she has no idea how slow and plodding I am) and just overall mom power.

The first race I ran after Ella was born was a 10K in Richmond the spring she was 10 months old.  I often do races in Richmond where one of my good friends K lives because it gives us a chance to go visit with her and her family, and because K likes to run too so we sign up for the races together.   Back in 2009, I had managed to train for the race pretty well which was a feat in and of itself.  The night before the race, Ella, usually a lovely sleeper, was up multiple times in the night crying and unhappy.  I just kept nursing her and putting her back down so she wouldn't wake up K and her family.  When the alarm for the race went off in the wee hours of the morning, I was so exhausted I almost couldn't see straight.  Josh later told me he thought there was no way I'd run that race after the sleepless night.  But run it I did.  For me and for Ella.  And it felt great. 

Richmond, Spring 2009

After Dash was born, it took me longer to get back into running, but I finally decided to start back in the winter when he turned one.  I registered for a 10K up in Richmond, K agreed to run it with me, and so I was off again.  Trying to fit in running with TWO kids and an even busier job and life has been a challenge but I have done it, mostly early in the morning or tacked onto the end of a workday when I can get a sitter to stay a little longer.  I did pretty well with my training until 3 weeks before the race when both of the kids and I got some horrible respiratory virus and were pretty much laid low for two weeks.  So the week before my 10K, I hadn't run at all in 11 days and I had barely run more than 3 miles in all of my training, but I got out mid-week for one last-ditch 5 mile run (horrible, hot, slow, painful) and we packed up for Richmond that weekend.

It took military style planning but very early on Sunday morning, we packed up 4 kids, 2 husbands, a breakfast picnic, water bottles, strollers, wagons, and diaper bags, and headed off to the race.  Despite the gray day and drizzle, despite the crazy logistics, despite the weeks of not enough sleep or training, K and I ran that race.  Our kids and husbands cheered us on.  It felt great.

One of my favorite parts of having my kids watch me run is seeing them

hold up signs.  This one was especially fabulous:  "Run Good, Moomy"

Here is me and Ella, ready to start the kids Fun Run.  It was Fun, it was not much

of a Run since Ella got tired about 20 feet in. But she participated and that made me proud.

We ran 20 feet in the Fun Run, stopped at the sidewalk and watched

the bigger kids run the four blocks, and then turned around for an awesome

finish back to the start line.  See, we're so fast we're a blur!

At the finish line. 

Babies CAN eat Kimchee

At the library recently, I checked out a very cute children's book called Babies Can't Eat Kimchee which we read approximately one thousand times in the three weeks it was at our house.  Ella loved the sweet story of the big sister talking about all the things her little sister can't do, including eat kimchee, and so did I.  Best of all, though, was how naturally Ella took to the word kimchee which I am pretty sure I didn't know was a word until at least my twenties.  She asked for the book by name after the first time she heard the title and wanted to know all about what kimchee actually is.  And then tonight, a minor miracle happened!  For dinner we had a meal involving Kimchee and Ella actually asked to try it!  Now she didn't like it, but her willingness to try it was just amazing.  Thank you library book.

Crying in your aioli

If you find yourself crying over a batch of aioli mid-afternoon on your daughter's birthday, it might be a sign to reevaluate your priorities.  At least that's the message I got loud and clear today. 

It was a typical busy weekday at our house with all the usual demands of children and jobs and all the rest.  On top of all the usual madness that fills, oh, 110% of every day, it was Ella's 4th birthday.  I must have somehow thought that because it was such a special day, the extra hours needed to make the special birthday breakfast, to prepare the special school snack, to frost the homemade cake, to make the delicious homemade birthday dinner, to open and ooh and aah over the many special gifts, would just magically appear. 

As it turns out, the only thing that appeared was me having a breakdown in the late afternoon over a batch of wasabi aioli that just wouldn't thicken up.  All the birthday girl wanted was pizza which I could have easily procured from any number of local restaurants.  But I had grand visions of a meal with homemade pizza dough, an array of gourmet toppings (never mind that all the birthday girl wanted was "those round, salty things", i.e. pepperoni), and a number of delicious side dishes for the adults, hence the wasabi aioli to go on the freshly steamed and sauteed green beans.  Dinner prep time ran short, though, and when the aioli refused to thicken up and I was in tears, my dear parents, sister, and husband talked me down from the wall, ran to Whole Foods for pizza dough, and stuck a beer in my hand. 

In the end, we had semi-gourmet pizzas and a simple but delicious salad, and we ended the evening on the back porch on a beautiful spring night, laughing and eating birthday cake with Ella, who was just happy and grateful to have the people who love her gathered together. 

I will remember this next year, heck next week, when I try to do too much when all that really matters is being together.  I'd rather enjoy the special days with a light heart than by crying in my aioli.

Happy birthday, my sweet girl.

Ella, at 4 days old.  She weighed 5 pounds in this

picture, and was the tiniest, sweetest,

most amazing little person I'd ever laid eyes on.

   That four-day old baby turned into this

four-year old beauty so much more

quickly than I ever could have imagined. 

And she only got more amazing each day. 

Ella-isms

If I just walked around all day with a tape recorder and caught all of the funny, sweet, and perfectly kid things that Ella says, I could fill many books.  Here are just a few that I managed to get down recently:

Ella: Mommy, how old will Dashy be when I'm a grown-up?
Me: Dash will always be two and a half years younger than you. So when you are a grown-up, he'll be a grownup, too.
Ella: Mommy, I have a idea! When we're grownups, I'll marry Dashy!
< Is this better or worse than wanting to marry her daddy?  I'm not sure but I'm thinking (hoping) it's all developmentally appropriate.  At least for now>


Ella: Mommy, throwing up didn't smell good.

<You're telling me>


Ella: Mommy, it's a good thing about being happy.

< Happy Mommy sigh>

Hi Mama!

Dash has mastered putting together Hi or Bye with our names.  So he is constantly saying "Hi, Mama!  Hi, Mama!" when I come in the room or "Bye, Mama!" when I'm leaving.  There is something especially precious about this new aspect of his language development to me.  It feels like the first glimmer of all the real conversations I hope I'll be lucky enough to have with him as he grows up.    I just love this little dude more every day.