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.