6!

Six hours!
Six days!
Six years!

Today, Jason and I had six amazing hours without a baby! It was soooo strange.

In six days, we leave for a 10 day camping trip with friends, then family in the Smokey Mountains.

Today is our 6th anniversary. 6 years! I can't believe it!

Jason bought me a lovely bouquet of flowers with some of the same flowers that were in my wedding bouquet six years ago. Good job Jason! Aren't they pretty?


Our babysitter showed up about 12:30 and we were off to the Palladio Restaurant at Barboursville Vineyard. Lunch was (very expensive but) amazing. It's definately one of those "get what you pay for" deals. We shared and appetizer (ravioli with goat's milk ricotta) and dessert (chocolate mouse in a raspberry dark chocolate shell) and for lunch, Jason had Bistecca di Vitello alla Griglia and I went for the Petto di Faraona Arrosto. Don't get too excited that I remembered those Italian names. I copied and pasted them from the menu.

We wanted to have a our picture taken when we finished lunch, and the Dysfunctional Divas agreed to operate the camera. They were having a grand time!



Then, it was off too see Angels and Demons. Good movie in its own right, but don't compare it to the book. While the Da Vincci Code followed the book rather closely, this one had more variation.

Talky talky

It's no surprise to those of you who have children, but I am consistently, continually, and endlessly amazed by my child. What was it this time? I can actually hear the beginnings of speech developing. This week, I've been noticing that her babbling is more than just syllables. Where before it was just a string of "bababababababa" or "yayayayayaya", now her noises have inflection. Her voices changes tone and pitch. She pauses and then starts again. I listen to her and can almost hear her having a conversation. Though I don't yet understand the words, I can hear the patterns. And folks, this one has a lot to say!

The fast track

After not running for a week after the half marathon, I jumped right back into it yesterday with a track workout. Clearly, I was well-rested from that week off because I was moving right along.

I'm not certain many of you will care, but for the few that might (Sarah, Brian, Kerri, Ryan, anyone else read this blog?), and for posterity, here's the workout:
800-1200-1600-1600-1200-800-400-400-400-400
Times:
3:04-4:31-6:09-6:09-4:36-3:02-1:25-1:25-1:25-1:24

Walk/jog recovery was for about 3/4 of the time it took me to run the fast part, except for the 400s, which were almost equal recovery time.

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign

We've been doing some baby sign language with Sierra for about 3 months or so now. We just do a few signs, the sign for more, and for a few of the foods she likes, wash, sleep, milk, water.

Today she signed back! How awesome is that?! It was the coolest thing ever. We were eating breakfast. Sierra was sitting on Jason's lap and Jason was feeding her some pieces of sausage. Then, clear as day, she signed "more." Apparently, she digs keilbasa. Mmmm ...

Bad Influence

Would you believe that my sweet, darling, adorable daughter has, at 11 months old, already been a bad influence?

In Chicago, we stayed with our friends Kelley and Mark. They have a little girl, Kate, who is 3 months older than Sierra. While our kitchen cabinets all have those little plastic locks that you have push in to open the door or drawer, there is no such babyproofing in Kelley and Mark's kitchen. There was no need since Kate doesn't get into cabinets. Well, didn't ... then Sierra showed up.

When we got there on Friday, Sierra had been tied up or strapped down most of the day so she was really happy to be FREE!! She crawled all around their place, from one end to the other, into the kitchen, opened the cabinets, pulled out a pot. Distraction prevented further destruction. I had packed a door lock and so pulled that out to put on the cabinet with the soaps and things, but she was opening any door and drawer we let her get close too.

By Monday morning when we left, Kate was in the kitchen, opening the cabinets (sorry Kelley! It was bound to happen eventually!). This is just karma paying it forward. I've known Kelley for a long time, and she was definately a bad influence when we were kids. Okay, just kidding. I love Kelley. She and I were practically inseparable from third grade until we graduated from high school. She was my maid of honor. She's one of those friends that even if we haven't spoken for a long time, we can just pick right back as if we had seen each other yesterday.

Every time I right about this, I continue to be shocked that four of my really close friends from grade school all had babies within a year of Sierra. C.R.A.Z.Y.
Here we are, ready for a 7th grade dance. (What is up with that hair?!) That's me on the left, Kelley on the right. Interestingly, Liz, in the middle, is another of the friends with a new baby this year.
At our 8th grade graduation. Apparently, flower dresses were popular for junior high girls in 1994. You can see the girl behind us wearing one too.
And here we are, still sleepy, right before I left Monday morning.
We definately make some cute babies!!

jiggity jig

We have arrived safely home. I have pictures to upload and some things to tell you, but it is getting late, so all that will have to wait until tomorrow. We drove through a very brief downpour on the way home that was intense while it lasted. The rain was coming down so hard that we had to travel at about 40mph on the interstate in order to see the road. The underpass had a collection of bikers trying to escape the weather.

It is way more hot and humid in Virginia than it was in Chicago, which is to be expected I supposed. This summer will be rough. Phew.

Sorry about the strange post in three parts previous to this. I sent it as a text message from my phone and it wouldn't let me type more than 160 characters. I guess that's sort of what twitter is like from my best understanding. But even my best understanding isn't very much and I certainly don't have a twitter account (or whatever).

Rockin'

It seems we are going to have to get Sierra a rocking chair. There's a mini child-size one at my parents' house that belongs to Harmony. (It belongs to Harmony currently, but I seem to remember it being around for a long time) Sierra spent a lot of time in the rocking chair during our visit. She would crawl over to it, push it around, climb up in it, sit in it, and try to stand in it until someone stopped her. She loved it.

Then, when we stayed with Kelley, Mark, and Kate last weekend, Kate a little rocking chair too! Kate's is a little taller, so not quite at stable (how stable can it be, really, it's a rocking chair). We ended up having to put it on its side because Sierra just would not stay away from it and we didn't want her to tip over.

Where can I find a tiny rocking chair?

"Yaaaaaay! Rocking chair!" What's not to be excited about?

Congrats to Chris and Karen

Chris and Karen were married last October in Hawaii. Then, they had a celebration outside Chicago with friends and family. I have been in town all weekend, but Jason flew in for a whirlwind trip to Chicago so he could celebrate with his college buddy.

(insert embarassing college photo here)
Here's Chris 10 years ago:
And, here, Chris is in the back on the left, that's me in the middle, and Jason is to my right:
10 years later:
We arrived a little bit late (my fault). We were staying with Kelley and Mark but we rented a car to drive out to the reception. Mark took us to the airport to pick up the car so we didn't have to navigate public transportation (thank you!!) and after he had dropped us off and was headed back home I got a call from Kelley.

"Hey Kelley. What's up?"
"Did you forget something?"
"Erm ... I don't know ... "
"The gift?"
"Shhhhhhit!"
So we had to head back to pick up the wedding gift before driving out to the suburbs. I found the wedding gift we got for Chris and Karen in Galena. It was two bowls made by a potter I know and some goodies from the Galena Canning Company, which has a chef who does house-made dressings, salsas, jellies, and sauces. I hope they like it!!



The reception was a lot of fun and Chris and Karen got a really beautiful day for their celebration. There were some old friends to talk to and some new friends to talk to and Chris' sister had to reintroduce herself because I didn't even recognize her. She was a kid last time I saw her (hi Kathleen!).

Sierra and the other little one there, Benjamin, had fun entertaining one another. They borrowed Rebecca's shoes after she kicked them off and thought they were the coolest things ever!



"Thanks for letting us borrow your shoes, Rebecca. That was so nice!"
After the reception we headed back to Chris and Karen's with the McCoy family where we relaxed, chatted, caught up a little (there just wasn't enough time!) and that evening, did some grillin'. Sierra took a teeny nap, but really just refused to sleep. There was just entirely too much excitement.

Congratulations Chris and Karen! We wish you many happy years together!!

The full album from Chris and Karen's receptions can be found here.

Have you missed me? Our

Have you missed me? Our trip is going well. We've visited with friends and family, relaxed, did some shopping. We are currently on the way to

Chicago where Sierra will have

Chicago where Sierra will have her first trip to the zoo. We're meeting up with my friend Brad. Jason will arrive tonight and then we'll stay

with my friend Kelley and

with my friend Kelley and her family, including her 14 month old. Sunday is a wedding reception in the suburbs then home Monday.

Forever friends

I feel really blessed in many ways, one of those is that I have amazing friends. Even better, I have amazing friends that I have known since childhood and I am still in touch with them! How many people can say that? I count eight in my head right now that I met in gradeschool or before that I still keep in contact with. Sometimes contact is more sporadic than others, but still, we try and keep up with the basics of what's going on with each other.

Here's the crazy part: four of the girls (women, now, I guess, though it's hard NOT to call your friend a "girl" when you've known her since you were 5) had babies within a year of Sierra's birth (HI Kelley, Casey, Liz, Monica!). It's crazy. I still can't fully wrap my mind around how bizare that is. We got to see both Casey (and Colton!) and Kelley (and Kate!) while we were in Illinois. We missed Liz (and Ellie!) by just a week. Boo.

I digress ...

Casey lived down the street and was my first "best" friend. Oh, the antics ...

1985
1990: 4th of July; Casey not diggin' the fireworks
1994: 8th grade dance; what is up with those twirlies on the side of my head?
2003: helping me address wedding invites
2009: *Gasp* They let us reproduce!
The next generation of forever friends: Colton and Sierra
"Hey! That's mine!"
"Ha ha! Got it back!"

Important Stuff

Sierra's cousin, Harmony, is 4 years old. Harmony and my sister live with my parents, so there was a lot of time for Harmony and Sierra to interact during the beginning of the week. Harmony isn't used to sharing her toys, and this is the first time she's spent with Sierra since Sierra has achieved mobility. Needless to say, it took a little while before Harmony accepted that Sierra is a baby and gets into things, especially if those things are her toys. Harmony did a lot of snatching toys out of Sierra's hands in the beginning.

Sierra had crawled over to Harmony's box of playdough and various playdough accoutrements and started taking things out of the box and setting them on the floor. What can I say? She's really into removing items from receptacles at her current stage in life. Harmony caught sight of Sierra and with sheer panic resonating in her little 4-year-old voice, she shreiked, "She's gettin' into all my important stuff!!"

Luckily, Harmony did get used to Sierra and was quite the helpful big cousin within a day or so.

Harmony helping Sierra open her first (early) 1st birthday present from Auntie Tania
Harmony sharing her rocking chair and helping Sierra get up into the seat
Sierra stands up in the chair and Harmony makes sure she's steady

Rockford Half Marathon Race Report

Two weeks ago, I did a 10 mile run with an average pace of 7:42. The second five miles were a 7:24 pace. Phew. I was surprised by that, thought it might be a fluke, but it gave me confidence for my race, which was this morning.

I was hoping to run the half marathon (13.1 miles) in 1:45:00, a great day would have been to equal my previous best of 1:39:21, but I would have been really happy with anything better than my slowest (1:53:32).

Well, much to my own shock and amazement, I finished the race is 1:32:32! Holy geez! How did that happen?!?! Honestly, I don't know the answer to that, but I have some thoughts. I was second place overall for females and first in my age group. I still can't believe it!

My performance seems crazy considering I've only been running twice a week (very occasionally three times; sometimes only once!). Here's what I think made the difference:
1. I have consistently gotten my long run in. Jason has been really good about taking care of Sierra on Sunday afternoons so I can run anywhere between 1:10:00 and 1:50:00 (my longest training run).
2. I have been lifting weights three times a week. This is huge. I had the strength and stamina to last through the entire 13.1 miles. Increased strength prevented my running form from going all to hell at the end of the race.
3. I've been cycling once a week. Even though it wasn't running, the riding increased my base endurance.
4. I'm not overtrained (obviously ... see above) and I decreased even my meager mileage in the couple weeks leading up to the race.
5. I ran at a pace that felt comfortable through the first part of the race so that I didn't totally bonk at the end of it!
6. I had a baby 11 months ago. I don't know what, exactly, this has to with me running faster, but I read an article once that indicated that females can/do/might get faster after having a baby, so I'm going to go with it.
7. The day was beyond perfect for distance running. It started out a little cool and there was no wind. It was sunny but never got hot.

The started at 4:00am when I woke up so we could leave at 4:30 (!). "We" is my dad and me. I offered to just borrow a car and drive myself, but daddy-o volunteered to go along, and I was glad for the support/cheering section. My dad has been going to my races since high school, and it's awesome that I'm almost 30 and he's still there as my back-up. Go dad. I fed Sierra (who went back to sleep after that - hooray!), got dressed, and we were off.

We got to the course about 6:00am and checked out the start and finish lines. I warmed up, did a little stretching and the race started at 7:00am. As I mentioned earlier, it was perfect conditions for distance running this morning. I chatted with a guy near me at the starting line (who I later found out was named Eddie) but as I settled into my pace, he pulled away from me pretty quickly.

I was hoping to be running a 7:45 pace (or better) based on my 10-miler from a couple weeks ago, but I crossed the 1-mile mark in 7:07. Ooops! I felt relaxed, but I guess the excitement of the beginning of the race got to me. At that point, I was running with a man named Paul who said he had hoped to be running 7:30 pace. He said he was trying to catch the woman ahead of him in the lime shorts. They run some of the same race and he's finished ahead of her a couple times, and she's finished ahead of him a couple times. We ran together for a bit then I told him I was going to pull it in a little so I didn't bonk later in the race ("bonk" in running lingo is difficult to explain if you haven't run much, but suffice it to say "bonking" is bad. very bad). At this point, I was totally paranoid that I had just ruined the back half of my race (or at least the last couple miles) by going out so fast. I told Paul I was going to slow a little and maybe I would catch up with him later.

I was feeling good, though, so I just relaxed a bit. It brought my pace back to about 7:20 or so. Around mile 4-ish I was chattering away to a man named Gene who was running the full marathon and two women passed me so I picked it up and ran with them for a couple miles until I lost them (behind me) around mile 6.

My original race plan was to keep my pace nice and relaxed for the first 6 miles, maintain for the next two and then push the last five. I went through the 8-mile mark in right about 58:00, 7:15 pace. A spectator had just called out that I was the 6th female, but I didn't see any other women in front of me. I picked up my pace and passed the first female around the next corner. 5th place.

I then proceeded to run several miles in 7:00 or a little under. I saw Paul and said "Where's lime shorts?" He told me she was up there about an 1/8 of a mile. "I'll catch her for ya!" I said. I was cruising! I passed another female in the park just past the 11-mile marker. "Crap!" she said when I went by her. I called back "Well, come on, stay with me, less than two miles to go!" But she didn't. 4th place.

With a mile to go, I was feeling my increased pace, but I knew I was almost finished. I came around a corner and saw "lime shorts." She was a bit ahead of me, but I could see her on the straight strech. I just kept looking at her back and mentally pulling her closer and closer to me. I caught her and she yelled "Whoo hoo! Go girl!" "Way to go!" I called back. 3rd place.

As I approached the last stretch, a guy jogging in the opposite direction pointed to a runner about 200 meters ahead of me and said "That's the first place female in the yellow shirt!" Hmm ... the other woman must have been running the full marathon and turned off. There wasn't enough time to catch yellow shirt ... so ...

2nd place!

Yay!

I finished 2nd overall and 1st in my age group in the Rockford Half Marathon this morning. Time was 1:32:32. Seven minutes faster than my previos best!

Travel and the 11-month-old

I was completely paranoid about travelling by myself with my darling active daughter. Completely. The one mention I made of this upcoming trip was not a true indication of the enormous fear I had for this trip, and with no Daddy Back-up! (always take Backup!) The image that kept playing in my head was of Sierra wiggling and squirming because she wanted to get down and move around. Then, as I try to hold her in my lap on the plane she begins shreiking and crying and arching her back and turning all red in the face. People start turning around to look at us. I get a few sympathetic looks, but mostly looks of sheer annoyance or complete horror.

I posted my fears in one of the forum I frequent on TheBabywearer and got a lot of good feedback/suggestions/tips/good vibes. I came prepared with some new toys Sierra hadn't seen before, bubbles for the airport layover, and plenty of snacks.

Sierra totally rocked the trip!! By expecting the worst, I was able to be pleasently surprised.

Ms. Rob, Sierra's stand-in grandma dropped us off at the C-ville airport where we breezed through security. We found a little corner to play and I blew bubbles for Sierra to pop. When she tired of that, she did some cruising along the loooong line of chairs in the waiting area, crawled around a bit and then it was time to board. The flight to Dulles is only about 45 minutes and Sierra was asleep 1/2 way through and kept on sleepin' through the entire hour layover.

Just before we took off for Chicago, she woke up and I braced myself. She was awake for the entire two hour flight, but she was a complete gem. She kept peeping over the seat at the woman behind us, she was waving at the couple sitting kitty-corner from us, we played with some new toys, had graham crackers and then we were there. Early!

The early arrival was a bonus. We were scheduled to land at 1:27pm, which meant there was no way I would catch the 1:30 bus to Rockford and we would have to kill another hour at O'Hare. The flight was almost 30 minutes early AND we were able to deplane rather quickly, so we did make the 1:30 bus. Yay! Sierra was hilarious on the bus. Before we began moving, she was standing in the seat next to me looking out the big bus windows. She grabbed on to the window ledge with both hands and jumped up and down with a huge baby smile on her face.

A short ride later and we were in Rockford. My sister (Auntie Chris) picked us up and we were at Grandma's house well before dinner.

This is my first attempt

This is my first attempt at mobile blogging so whether or not this works is yet to be seen. The first leg of the flight went well ... onward!

A good day is ...

A nap and a brat (rhymes with caught, not with cat).

After a two hour nap yesterday afternoon (Did you hear that? Shhhh ... listen ... yep, that was the sound of angel singing), Sierra had a brat for dinner. An entire brat. I can't believe my 11-month-old ate an entire brat. And some yogurt. And some sweet potato. Where is she putting all that (and ... I'm not looking forward to today's diaper. Maybe Jason will get it. Ha!)

Speed demon

Yesterday, I was on the phone with the airline in the dining room. Sierra was just through the doorway in the living room. I peaked through to check on her and didn't see her. I thought she must have crawled through the office into the mud room or was headed in to the kitchen, but when I walked into the room I saw her at the top of the stairs!! Sheesh! I didn't even hear her climbing. She was just kneeling at the top, looking down at me and grinning. She was so proud of herself!

This trip that we're taking on Saturday should be interesting. The last time I was on an airplane with Sierra she was, um ... not mobile! Since then, she has morphed into a squirmy, crawling, active, opinionated 11-month-old. I can imagine that she will be none to pleased at being forced to stay on my lap. Oh how I fear being "that woman."

Throw the ball! Throw. the. ball!!!

If there's one thing that drives our labrador batty it's The Tennis Ball. She loooooves The Tennis Ball. And if she can find someone to throw the ball for her? Well, that's even better! You can't help but laugh at her excitment as you hold the ball getting ready to throw it. She gets all tense and quivery and she just stares. at. you. "throwtheballthrowtheballthrowtheball THROW THE BALL!"

Yesterday was a happy day for Molly the labrador. She found a new person to throw the ball. You guessed it ... Sierra! It happened completely by accident the first time. We were all sitting on the enclosed porch and Molly pick up a ball, dropped it, picked it up, then took it over to her pillow and lay down. Sierra then crawled over to Molly, took the ball out from under her nose and dropped it (threw it?). I'm not sure if this was intentional, as she's seen us throw the ball for Molly many times, or if it was accidental. Regardless, as soon as that ball bounced on the ground, Molly was up and had pounced on it. She brought it over to me, and I set it on the coffee table. Sierra pulled herself up to the table, picked up the ball, and dropped it on the ground. Molly got the ball. I set it on the table. Sierra "threw" (dropped) it. And again. And again.

What fun!

The best action shot. Note the orange blur of the ball in the mouth of the brown blur of the dog. Molly caught the ball on a bounce after Sierra dropped it off the table.
First you get the ball ...
Then you throw the ball ... This was taken a moment after Sierra threw the ball but before Molly had jumped up to get it. See how baby and dog are both looking at it?
Then Molly brings it back (good dog!) ...
Then you throw it again!