Thirsty Thursday

Thankfully the ice and water dispenser on our refrigerator has a lock button, or this could have been quite the mess.

Dear Grocery Store

Dear Grocery Store that I Frequent Regularly,

My daughter seems to be obsessed with all of the food that you put out in the little black displays. She would go around your store and taste each item in everyone of these displays numerous times if I would let her. Thankfully, these displays have reminded her how much she likes certain fruits, deli meats, and cheeses that she has begun refusing at home. If you could please put some yummy vegetables on display I would be very thankful. At the moment she isn't interested in eating whole vegetables; however, I am quite certain that if they came out of one of those black display containers she would gobble them up.

Thank you for your assistance in this matter,

A Toddler's Mommy

Wet Wednesday

It rained again today. (We had rain Saturday through Monday, and are projected to have rain from now until sometime on Friday.) Out of desperation to not go completely stir crazy I tried to plan little things throughout our day.

Our morning started with Carly sleeping until 8:45 and then meeting Carly's BFF for breakfast at CookHouse (a local restaurant that serves your typical southern breakfast). After a yummy breakfast of pancakes and sausage, we all went over to our library for story time. Mr. George was back this week from family leave (his wife just had a baby boy), and Carly was extra social with all of the kids and their mommies to celebrate. She walked around the room to greet each new face and each returning face throughout our time. Following the library we headed to the grocery store to get the one item I needed for tonight's dinner, which of course turned into two items.

Following lunch, nap, and a little playtime one of our neighbors called to see what Carly was up to. (This neighbor and I had discussed yesterday how this afternoon would be long if it really did rain all day again.) So, over came our neighbor and her two little boys. This company was GREAT! All three children played with different toys, watched each other, and ventured (or tried to venture) over to see and play with a toy another kid was playing with. It gave the kids a chance to play and the moms a chance to have adult interaction. A win-win!

Such A Trooper

Carly gets a gold star today (or really 3) for being such a trooper.

Our Saturday started like any other Saturday. I got up and ran (or attempted to run) and then Dave and Carly woke up shortly after I returned home. After we were all dressed and ready for our day we ventured out for a bagel breakfast (we needed to carb load for the remainder of our day). We then returned home for an hour or so of playing. Then at 11:00 am our "scheduled" day began.

We loaded into the car and began our trip down to South East Charlotte for Matthew's fourth birthday party. Thankfully durning our trip Carly fell into a nice deep sleep and got about 45 minutes worth of a great nap. During the party Carly sat on the sofa with Matthew while he read her a few books. She followed him around and tried to play with everything he played with. (Matthew was great about telling her it was his turn, then explaining what he was doing with the toy, and then handing it to her for her to play with.) She also sat in a little kid's sized folded chair at a kid's sized card table to eat her hot dog lunch and cupcake. She was also eager to use the Cars napkin to demonstrate her ability to wipe her hands and mouth. (She was definitely showing off for the older kids.) She played balloons with the kids and sat very well for a 17 month old while Matthew opened his gifts.

Following Matthew's party we packed ourselves back into the car and headed towards East Charlotte for Ty's first birthday party. Carly didn't nap during this 45 minute trip, but she did relax. We arrived just in time to see Ty with his cake. While Dave and Carly were making their away around the party, Carly saw a large kiddie corral full of toys. She was thrilled and spent most of the party playing with different kids in the corral. This gave Dave and I a chance to sit, relax, and talk to other adults (such a foreign concept at a kid's birthday party).

After a second fabulous birthday party we piled back into the car and started making our way back to Cornelius. We arrived home shortly before 5, giving Dave just enough time to take a power nap and Carly just enough time to play with her toys before we piled back in the car to meet some friends who were in town for dinner. Normally, we wouldn't have scheduled a dinner out after such a busy day; however, we really wanted to meet baby Parker while he and his parents were in Charlotte visiting from Indiana. So, off to dinner we went. During dinner, Carly wanted to walk around and check out the new restaurant. She was quite fascinated with the fish tank, until a large bunch of balloons were delivered to mark a table as reserved. Carly wasn't a super eater during this meal, but she did color while we waited on our food to arrive and she did eat while we ate the first half our meal. While her restaurant behavior wasn't perfect tonight, it was a whole lot better than it could have been with the busy day she had (and the lack of a crib nap).

So, three gold stars for being a trooper on such a busy day!

Photographs

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Tonight I disagree slightly with this saying. Carly had some very cute/funny moments today that photographs just don't caption.

The first was this morning after breakfast. I took the following pictures:

My goal was not to show that she enjoys looking at books, but to show that she was actually trying to read to Elmo. She had been walking around the family room trying to figure out a way to prop Elmo up in front of her so she could read to him. She even went as far as to move her chair around to different spots. She finally settled on the position shown above after some frustration. While these pictures look cute of her reading and her feet crossed and swinging, they also look like Elmo was just thrown to the side while Carly read a book to herself.

During Carly's afternoon snack we had another similar moment.

Carly was happily eating her yogurt when she ran out. She made sure to lick the spoon really, really well. Scrape the side of the container and then lick the container. In licking the container she created a sticky mess. However, these pictures don't show her licking the container. They only show how messy of an eater she can be.

I know that if I had a camera attached to me at all times I would be better at capturing these moments and not the aftermath of them, but then again what fun would that be? I'd miss so many other things if I only watched Carly through a camera lens.

A Weekend of FIRSTS!! WOO-HOO!!

What an AMAZING weekend filled with firsts. Carly had her first sleepover without Mommy and Daddy, Dave ran his first half-marathon, and I ran my first marathon.

Our weekend officially kicked off at 1:07pm when we were all loaded up into the car and were backing down the driveway. We headed off to Atlanta with many feelings of anxiety. Dave was nervous about his run, I was nervous about my run, and I was freaking out that Carly wouldn't behave for her grandparents. Unfortunately due to traffic our trip took longer than expected, but we arrived in time for a wonderful spaghetti dinner. Carly had a rough time falling asleep, which only made me more anxious about leaving her the following night.

Saturday, we ventured down to the Georgia Dome for Dave and me to pick up our race packets and then to head over to the hotel to check in. Carly enjoyed looking at the sites of downtown Atlanta and taking a short nap in her stroller. Throughout the day she also chased Gertrude and Jake around her grandparents' home and making sure she was center of everyone's attention. Thankfully she was having such an amazing time with her grandparents and aunt that she didn't seem too phased when Dave and I said good-bye. She wasn't interested in leaving my arms at first, but I handed her off to Dave and she quickly became fascinated enough with another family member to go willingly into their arms. While leaving I only got a little teary eyed. I knew she was in fabulous hands for the evening, but I have never not slept under the same roof as her. My biggest fear was that she would have a rough night and be an unpleasant house guest. Shortly after arriving at our hotel we received a text message that Carly had gone down very well and without fussing. Unfortunately, I didn't sleep that well - I was very anxious about the next morning.

Sunday morning started with a 5am wake up call. Quick showers, packing of bags, a quick walk to the car for water then to Olympic Park, a pre-run breakfasts (a protein bar for Dave and peanut butter on wholewheat and a banana for me), checking of the bags, and then hanging around our corrals. During this time Dave and I talked a lot about what the HECK we were doing! It was finally time to say our good-byes and venture to our separate corals.

Then at 7:00am Dave, myself, and just under 16,000 of our closest friends (for the day) took off running through downtown Atlanta. Unfortunately, this many runners affected my ability to find my rhythm early on in the race. My first mile was about a 12 minute mile (about 3 minutes slower than my starting pace). Finally around mile 7 (when the half marathoners and marathoners separated) I was able to find my rhythm. I was going strong and then I arrived at Piedmont Park. Here I had to run around three-fourths of an oval of sunken ball fields, then turn around and run back around it and hitting mile 22 in the process. Unfortunately, this turn around point is where I hit an all time low and was only thinking about how if I kept putting one foot in front of the other, then I will see Dave sooner, get to take my shoes off sooner, and get home to see Carly sooner. Shortly after leaving Piedmont Park I saw this hill that I would need to climb and thought there was no way I could handle these last 3.5 miles. Then right at the base of the hill I saw a friend from college. She was in Atlanta supporting another marathon runner, but was willing to run some with me if we could connect. Thankfully, she ran with me up the last major hill and informed that it really was the last major hill. Seeing a familiar face was exactly what I needed at that moment and allowed me to continue running the remainder of the race. I crossed the finish line with a chip time of 4:23:08, but most importantly - I ran the entire race except when going through a hydrating station (running while drinking from a cup doesn't work well for me).

Dave did an amazing job with his half-marathon too (maybe he will blog about it when he gets a break from work and school). Unfortunately due to his busy schedule, he hasn't been able to train as regularly as he had hoped. However, he did finish his first half marathon with a quicker time than he was anticipating - although I know he wishes it was about 3 minutes quicker than it was. Through amazing technology, my mom was able to track both Dave and me online and notify Dave with my projected finish time based on my pace. He used this extra time to get a massage and stretch out before finding a spot at the finish line to watch me finish.

Following the race we limped back to the hotel (a whole 2 blocks away) and collapsed - Dave on the sofa and me with my feet in the tub. After a few moments (or many, many minutes) we started moving and getting cleaned up and ready to checkout. The day before we had huge plans to stop for lunch at the Varsity for lunch before heading out of the city, but by the time we were loaded in the car all we wanted to do was get back to Norcorss and CRASH!, so Wendy's drive thru it was.

Carly was napping when we got back, which allowed us to relax for longer. Once she woke up, Julia was kind enough to go upstairs to get her (carrying Carly downstairs wasn't quite yet an option for Dave and me at the moment). She was eager to see us; however, wasn't super clingy to either one of us. She was not really eager to see her Aunt Julia return to school later in the afternoon and had no problem playing with her grandmother while Dave and I took naps.

This morning we slowly ventured home and are trying to get back to normal as much as possible - this is quite a challenge with 2 very sore parents and 1 very active little girl. I'm not sure if Dave will run another half marathon, or if I will run another full marathon. But I do know that Carly will have another sleepover with her grandparents one night when I don't have to wake up at 5 am to go run 26.2 miles!

Silver Lining

Carly appears to be recovering from her flu and ear infection nicely, which is wonderful after a long 9 days. During these days she was a 25 pound infant, who also slept through the night. She would snuggle and cuddle for long periods of time and best of all was willing to sleep on our chests. Dave and I thought these were the silver linings to Carly's illness. The real silver lining didn't make an appearance until last Friday (March 11) when Carly blew her nose! And best off all, she is still blowing her nose.

For the two weeks leading up to March 11 she would make a noise and blow out her mouth when we asked her to "blow." Then all of a sudden she switched from blowing out her mouth to blowing from her nose. She has continued to blow her nose since then, and actually enjoys it.

Now we just need to work on her blowing her nose only when she has a tissue. Unfortunately asking if she needs a tissue to blow her noes will occasionally trigger her nod her head and then proceed with the blowing action. Either way, she is blowing HER nose!