Pigtails for Gramma and Papa

At Gramma and Papa's request - here's a couple photos of Julia in pigtails! She sometimes likes getting her hair done, but most of the time I just have to gingerly chase her around while I try to put it up ;).

Week 6 - 12 Miles

I decided to write about my long runs...if not for everyone else's entertainment, for my own sake...

This morning we all planned to run 12 miles, and I told Tom as I left for the gym, "If no one else shows up, I'm getting coffee and coming straight home!" The whole drive to, hopefully not, meet everyone, I was worried about my knee. I know I have "runners knee", which is basically where your knee gets "off track" and your knee cap grinds against your cartiledge, enciting varying amounts of pain as you sit, walk, run, or especially, go down stairs. One of the guys I'm running with suggested using kinesio tape, so I taped up both my knees this morning, hoping it would alleviate some pain at least.

When I pulled into the parking lot at the gym everyone was already there waiting in the 35 degree temps for me! Shucks...as we took off, one of the guys said, I'm sticking with you, my feet hurt so I need to go slow. Ha! Talk about a self-esteem booster :). I am, notably, the slowest out of everyone. So we start out, and thankfully he had a GPS watch (I'm getting one in Illinois!!!), so we were going along at a 8:30 pace and I told him this wasn't going to last...I run 10's. About 3 miles into the run, we had to cross "The River", as we affectionately call it. There's literally a stream that's developed across the major road we run on, and our way around it was gated off this morning, unfortunately. My buddy hopped, skipped and jumped very gingerly over it, but I stopped. Then started overthinking my approach, and just went for it. Phew! Only a couple drops of water on my toes...no biggie.

We picked up another runner around 4 miles who dropped back from the fast guys, and we all stuck together until mile 6. Then, my buddy and I headed back in the same direction we came from. All was well...and then it was time to again, cross over The River. He easily crossed it, but I stopped again, tried finding a narrow spot, and then said, what the heck, I'll just go for it, that worked last time. Oh boy...on my first not so carefully placed step I broke through some ice/slush and was up to my ankle in ice cold water, I gasped and took another couple jumps out of the river. In all my fanfare my car keys and gloves fell out of my pockets and I started laughing hysterically. All the guy watching this unfold could say was "That was epic...". I kept laughing at myself and my soggy shoe for the next few minutes, and then the reality of having to run 3 more miles like this sunk in...yuck.

3 soggy miles later, we crossed over our 12 mile mark and stopped to walk the rest of the way to our cars. I didn't realize how sore my whole lower half was until we actually stopped running and then I realized running 12 miles with someone faster than me might have been a mistake. We finished in 1 hour and 58 mintues, so just under my 10 min. mile pace. My knee actually held up pretty well, but most of my leg muscles ache and even my feet got swollen and are still aching. I have some good quad strengthening exercises I'm going to start doing, since that supposedly helps with sore knees. Whatever works, I'm up for it! So, I think next week is 14 miles...we're getting into major uncharted territory for me, so wish me luck!

Marathon Training

I tried posting a photo of me and some of my fellow marathon trainees, but it didn't work out...anyway, yes, I am training for a marathon! My plan was to run the Paris marathon in April, but because we're moving now, I'll be doing the St. Louis marathon that is not only very close to where we will be living, but it is also on the same day as the Paris marathon! That means I can continue to train with everyone :). One of the best things about this marathon, besides it being my first, is that it is also on my 26th birthday! How about that, running 26.2 miles on my 26th birthday? I'm pretty excited, and it is proving to be quite a challenge already. We had some unusally cold and snowy weather, but we all still ran 10-12 miles every weekend in the snow, running through slush, and one morning it was even 14 degrees, brr! I started having some bad knee pain, but with the help of some kinesio tape (awesome stuff!) I ran 5 miles today and felt great! We'll be running 12 miles this weekend and then working our way up our longest run, which will be 20 miles. Wish me luck in my training and prayers for endurance and strength would be great too!

Dada's Sweetie Pie (or as Julia says "Baby du-by")

Climbing stairs like a big girl!

Playtime with Dada

There's a reason she wears sneakers with her dresses ;)

So stinking cute!

For awhile now, Julia has been saying "Baby du-by!" in a sing-song type voice and we had NO idea what she was saying. Tom figrued out she's trying to say "baby, sweetie pie", since whenever he puts her to sleep he sings "Julia, sweetie pie, baby, sweetie pie". I literally teared-up when he told me this - it's so sweet of him to sing to her and super cute when she sings it back to him!! Julia's really been talking a lot lately, and I've been trying to capture as much as possible, so here's a few more new words:

• Nope (this one always cracks me up!)
• No means no (she says, "no meh no", but this one is funny too!)
• Shower
• Show me (that was a new one tonight!!)
• "Moy" for movie
• Outside
• Shoe-ock, for shoes and socks, hahah
• Babybees for bumblebees
  

Julia's Forts

Because we've now packed/shipped all but 3 of Julia's stuffed animals and 3 books in preparation for our move, we saved the big box her car came in to make forts with! She doesn't seem to mind that all her other toys are gone, and certainly loves crawling around in her forts that we help her build! (PS - in one of the photos you can see her cut lip. One day when I picked her up from daycare she was running around and tripped when she saw me, and hit her lip on the corner of a bookcase. I think I was way more upset than she was, and after the first night, it didn't seem to bother her much, but looked horrendous!)

Being sweet

Giving Dada kisses

Trying on Mama's socks

Brushing her hair from her face :)

Practicing drinking with no lid!

Julia sure is growing up fast! She's not even 2 yet, but we fear she's entered into the "terrible twos." She loves doing everything by herself, and we don't dare to do anything for her, unless she asks for help. This can make getting ready in the morning quite trying at times, but it is fun (when we're not in a rush!) to watch her figure things out and learn new skills. Below are some things she can do and new words/phrases:

• Put on shoes and socks
• Pull up her pants
• Clean up after herself
• Drink from a cup with no lid
• Put things back in their place (yay!)
• Open ziploc bags
• Climb up everything (including the changing table - scary!)
• Put on her jacket by herself
• "My Dada"
• "My Mama"
• "My [everything]"!!!
• "Cheeeeese" when we take photos :)
• "Yellow"
• "Banana"
• "It's a [fill in the blank]"
• "Oh boy"
• "Oh no!" (with the hands on the face too!)
• "It's a nigh-nigh time"
• "Bath time"
• "Towel"

I'm sure I'm missing a lot more, but these are the highlights! In the last month or so, she's really started talking a lot, and having more "conversations" with us, it's so much fun!

Moving Day

The moving van - they actually closed up all the crates

What we didn't move...

Our living/dining room

Pre-Move (don't judge, it was the night before!)

As most everyone knows, we'll be moving shortly, so these are some photos of the process of shipping everything. The movers came in the morning, and had everything boxed/wrapped up and ready to be crated by early afternoon. We'll be without all our creature comforts for the next 6-8 weeks or so, but it'll be worth it! We do have loaner furniture, though, so we at least have beds, a couch and a dining set :). As the moving van pulled away, I told Tom that I was worried that our crates would fall off the shipping boat, or everything would catch fire in a warehouse somewhere, but he reminded me that are things are just that, things. Everything that does matter to us will be sitting between the two of us on the airplane back home :).