Mono?

I guess we're due for a sick update. And I'm not trying to complain so just work with me here for a bit. I really felt better on Thanksgiving. So much so that I went for a run, cooked all day and still felt fine. Then Friday arrived and I felt like I'd been beat up again. It was like a trick day or something. My body tricked me to believing I was getting better so sadly I over did it and I then paid the price. Like nearly slept from Friday until today kind of pay of the price. I tried to rally again on Saturday for just a few hours when we went on a small outing to see a giant 10' x 14'  gingerbread house in the lobby of the Ritz Uptown and then wandered over to the ice skaing rink. But again, that outing proved to be too much as I spent literally all day in bed on Sunday. I would say I was just napping but after you sleep for 5 1/2 hours during the day, I think that's past being a nap. And then I was in bed officially asleep last night (and every night this weekend for that matter) at 7:30pm. We all got up today at 6:30am and all I wanted to do was go back to sleep. I can't get enough sleep right now. What is wrong with me???

So after the Monkey went down for her first nap today, I dragged myself to the computer and tried to do some research. If I'm not getting better, I might as well wallow in my own self pity about what kind of mystery disease I have, right?  Other than the sore throat (which I do not have), I swear I have mono. And no, I didn't kiss that little baby that got me so sick so I'm not sure it's really mono. But how can one person be so tired day after day after day (11 and counting on this current illness) and still not feel better?  I continue to be congested and I continue to blow foreign objects out of my nose. TMI, I know. And I'm just soooooooooo tired. And the worse news? Mike's gone until Friday. So I have to rally. Some how. I'm on a pinch of coffee right now so that's helping. And I had breakfast today which was my first meal since Saturday, so that's exciting too. I'm going to see if the Monkey and I can go for a walk or something outside today. We have too. I can't keep us cooped up in here forever. We must get outside.  The fresh air will do us both good. Or it'll lay me up in bed for another day or two. What's new, right??

And speaking of the Monkey, she has a runny nose, which occasionally brings out some yellow snot so I'd say she's fine but the yellow makes me worry. As far as her temperment though, she's really hanging in there. And she's definitely not as tired as I am. She's sticking to her 2, 1 hour naps daily and sleeps from around 6:30pm to 6:30am.  Here's my final note (and I'm not complaining!) - I can't wait until I feel well enough that I don't pray for 6:30pm each night to come sooner (the Monkey's bed time). I can't wait until I can run again. I can't wait to get my life back!

Thankful

I'm thankful for a lot and I won't get into one giant sappy post today, I promise. I'm still a pinch sick (may have been a bit overzealous yesterday after feeling better for the first time in days).  And although I've spent a good amount of time as of late complaining on this blog about being sick, I'll start off my "thankful" list with this....I'm thankful for my health. Beyond this crazy 2 weeks of one unknown illness after another, I'm truly one of the healthiest people I know and I'm so, so thankful.

I'm very thankful for my husband and daughter. They are truly my world. When I'm here with Eloise and she's playing I often catch myself gazing out the window thinking about where I was and where I've come over the past 17 months. I'm thankful for my family. I'm a little crazy and dramatic and I'm sure the list of whatelse I am is long but my family still loves me. Regardless of my antics. That's pretty cool. 

I'm thankful for my friends. My friends are ones I've had in my life since I was a wee-one and they are still the ones I call daily, I count on in a pinch and I live for getting together with as often as we all can.  I'm thankful for the baby whisperer. She truly is my life line during the week. She's amazing with Eloise and without her help, I wouldn't make it.

Ok, and now some ancillaries....I'm thankful for Eloise and Mike's health - they've really hung in there this year. I'm thankful for running, for coffee, and I might even throw in hot chocolate into that mix. Yum. I'm thankful for my current working-from-home-arrangement. I'm thankful for the fun mom's group in the neighborhood and all of the kiddos there are for Eloise to grow up with. I'm thankful for long weekends and vacations with my family. And I'm thankful for a certain amount of clarity and right-sizing that has helped keep me grounded, grateful and appreciative. It's taught me to never take anything for granted.

And some pictures from yesterday of the Monkey hanging out with her BFF, Grandma. Check out all of her hair fitting into a pony. Too cute.

Ok, this isn't funny

It's Wednesday. The day before Thanksgiving and exactly 1 week after getting sick for the 2nd time (in 7 days) and I'm still not right. I mean, "not right" in a coughing, congested, runny nose kind of way. I realize I'm "not right" actually most of the time but we can just keep that to ourselves.  No need to kick a girl while she's down. But you guys - seriously - I can't deal with this anymore.  How is it that I live a realitively healthy life by eating right, running, taking care of myself and my Monkey yet I'm still stuck in a funk battling an "unknown virus" (thanks for that Urgent Care) that seems quite content hanging around. Tomorrow's Thanksgiving and truly, I have SO much to be thankful for. But this sickness is not one of them. Flat out - this is just not funny anymore!

I'm kind of back in the saddle

I'm at least upright and in a vertical position vs. horizonal. It's good progress so I thought I'd post. After wanting to literally die on Saturday, I dragged myself to Urgent Care - great place to find yourself on a weekend afternoon - why I didn't just call the Dr. on Friday per my mother's request, I don't know. So I sat there for 2 hours. Awesome. Then they run a flu screen on me to see if that's indeed what I had, because it darn near felt like it and they came back to say "No, it's not the flu. But you have a temperature so we can't go ahead and give you the flu shot today."  Ok, well what is it?  "It appears you have some sort of virus so unfortunately, we can't give you anything. Just go home and 'treat the symptoms.'"  Seriously. That was about the nail in the coffin at that very moment. I've never felt more sick in my life. I actually faced the public with one valiant effort only backed by the sheer idea that I might get some relief through a drs prescription and you are going to send me home with nothing???  Kill me. One straight shot to the head. Just end the misery. So instead of going home completely empty handed, I went to CVS and bought the following:

1 bag of swedish fish
2 cans of chicken noodle soup
1 bag of M&Ms
1 bottle of Tylenol
1 container of Flu something or other - CVS brand

As I'm checking out I'm barely making eye contact with the checkout guy. I'm not trying to be nasty, I just can't deal. And it's only going to be about a 4 second transaction. There's no need for small talk at this very moment. Surely he'll understand. He can chat with the guy behind me. Instead what do I get???  "Ma'm, you should really have a hanky on you. It sounds like you could use one right about now." Whatever look came out of me at that very moment, I can't say for sure but his response might let you know. "Oh, ah, ummm....I'm just sayin'."  My only thought - is this kid for real??  Give me my bag of said items and stop talking to me. In fact don't ever talk to customers ever again. Should I ask for his manager's name? I'm half tempted. Thankfully I was literally out of my mind on Saturday so I returned home, ate my snacks, took some meds and returned to my bed to sleep for another several hours.

Then yesterday included more sleeping. Thankfully Mike was here so I could continue to rest. Today I was feeling better, not close to 100% but at least better enough where I could take care of the Monkey and face the world if we indeed had to leave the house - which we only made one quick trip to Harris Teeter for Monkey milk.  I'm hoping tomorrow I'm at least 75% there. I haven't run in what seems like an eon. I just need to get some energy back and losing this hated runny nose would be a nice perk. I no longer ache all over and my head is no longer pounding so that's a plus. Oh and I can sleep through the night without having to change my clothes after waking up completely soaked. (I don't make this stuff up. That happened twice on Friday and twice on Saturday. Gross.)

Oh, oh and how could I forget the best part of all of this??? How indeed did I get so sick, after having just gotten sick the week before??  Well, today finally revealed the source. On Wednesday of last week a neighborhood mom and I went to watch another mother's 17 month old and her newborn to give her a break.  So Eloise and I trucked on over and this mom trucked on over with her son Cam.  In total there were 3 kids around Eloise's age, the newborn, and then us 2 moms to take charge.  One of the toddlers had a runny nose but to this day, Eloise still is not sick, not even a runny nose. So that little guy can't be the varment. Nope. Instead, I get a text message from the other volunteer mom just today saying she's been "death walking since Thursday.....has never been this sick before in her life.....listed out her symptoms (which happen to be the exact same ones as mine) and that Cam is completely fine." 

Conclusion - she and I got something from the newborn and it freaking knocked us both out.  She's still hurting. I at least feel like I'm on the mend.  My solution....stop trying to be nice to help out other moms in the neighborhood. Lol. How terrible am I?? Kids are dirty little varments and honestly, I can't deal with getting sick all the time like I apparently do now. Ok, I'm off to bed. I still need another good night's rest. With it maybe I can at least go running tomorrow. Dare to dream.

Sick.......again

I'm sick AGAIN. I can't even believe it. That said, I don't know when I'll be returning to running or blogging. To think that just last week Eloise and I were puking everywhere. And this week I get socked with the flu. As I said, I can't believe it. And I can't understand it as well. Nonetheless, as of now Eloise seems ok. I'm not sure if she's getting sick but I continue to try and muscle through each day being ill all while taking care of a healthy child. That makes things very interesting. Oh the days when I never ever got sick. Now I'm a complete mess. Quite literally. And an unshowered complete mess at that. Agh.

Intermission

We're taking a break from the Cars movie. It's sadly wreaked quite a bit of havoc around here the last few days and so I've decided we're going to enjoy a nice, long intermission. Get some snacks, step outside, and maybe even make a few calls. Then after we take a nice breather, we'll reconvene and get Cars back up and running again.  We're not threw with this fantastic movie all together. Believe me. It has quickly become a family fav. But together, we need to reassess how we allow Eloise to watch it.

Why, you might ask? Because after further review, I've figured out that the last two mornings have been filled with screaming and complete and utter tantrums (starting at 5:30am as I've blogged) yelling "down, down, down," because she wants to go downstairs and do what?? She wants to watch the "mooooooov, moooov, moooov" Cars movie.  It took me an extra day but I finally figured out what was going on here as this morning she's pointing at the TV and crying and screaming.  I don't mind allowing her to watch Cars each day for a controlled amount of time but I can't reward this kind of behavior.

Therefore, morning TV watching is gone until further notice.  Actually, today in its entirity, movie watching privileges are gone. Tomorrow we'll reassess.  And I'm actually thinking of changing my approach all together and using Cars watching as a reward for good behavior. I'm not above bribery and I'm not above allowing her to watch TV because she was a good girl.  Up until now, I let her watch it just because. But after 2 mornings of being woken up from a screaming/crying baby who wants nothing more than to watch TV and won't stop screaming/crying until she is allowed to watch it (or tires herself out because today she was not allowed to watch it once I finally got wise to what was going down.) is just insanely ridiculous.  Yes, I'm regaining control and will not allow these kind of meltdowns if I have anything to do with it.

So, Cars intermission it is. We'll be back in a few.

Cars 2

You heard it here first (thanks Grahama!).....Cars 2 coming Summer 2011!

The Monkey Moratorium

I'm calling an official Monkey Moratorium for the Vail house. We can handle no more. i.e., Mike and I can't handle anymore. The monkeys I'm referring too are the stuffed kind. Not Eloise the Monkey so don't worry.  Of the stuffed kind, we now have 4 and Eloise can go no where without all of them. The situation is way out of control.

Here's a day in the life with 4 stuffed monkeys, and I'm not embellishing this for blog purposes.  Eloise woke up today at 6:30am. Sigh. I tried to squeak another 30 minutes out of her but she wasn't going for it. She continued her whining and crying - which over the baby monitor chiming in your ear while you're trying to get just a few more Zzzzzzs is like chinese water torture - and so I went and got her.  What did I find when I opened the door with my usual "Good morning Monkey-girl" greeting?  I found the Monkey standing up, leaning against the rails clutching (I'm not kidding) 4 stuffed monkeys, all while crying. Lord. Goooooooood morning.

So I get her out of the crib and over to the changing table - still clutching 4 monkeys and still crying and this time reciting over and over, "down, down, down" - meaning, she wants to go downstairs. We eventually do make it downstairs where she has a complete meltdown. I have no idea what got into her this morning but it took her a good 30 minutes to really work it out.  Crying on and off, dragging 4 monkeys around this place while I'm trying to hold her and one second she lets me and the next she doesn't.

Fast forward to nap time. We can't go upstairs at 8:50am (ever) without all 4 monkeys. So the search is on. We finally gather all of them and upstairs we go. Meanwhile, I can barely carry her anywhere when there are 4 monkeys jammed between my face and hers. I always read her stories before she goes to sleep. Where are the 4 monkeys you ask? Sitting on either side of us. I tried to drop them off in the crib before we read stories but she freaks out. So the 4 monkeys come with us and sit perched in the chair as if they are honestly listening.

When she gets up from her nap we typically go running. Today was the same. And as you can guess, all 4 monkeys had to come with us. So jammed into the stroller is Eloise with a sock monkey on one side, another monkey on the other, the monkey lovey in her hand, thumb in her mouth and a baby sock monkey on her lap. And I'm not kidding, she held on to those little guys for the entire time we were out there.

Back home for lunch - monkeys in the high chair with her. Then another nap - see monkey nap detail above. Then we head out to go to 2 stores - monkeys come with us and thankfully I had a chance to distract her long enough to hide 3 of them so we only go into the stores with 1. Home we go for dinner - monkeys in the high chair. Bath time - she throws down a major fit because monkeys can't go into the water with her. We get out of the bath and she's screaming "Mimi, mimi, mimi" like a broken, loud record until I can get her into her diaper and pjs and back downstairs where we find Mimi, who was right next to Noni, Noni's baby and Nana. Yes, one of the monkeys had a baby. The sock monkey named Noni. (Mike couldn't resist the baby sock monkey from Walgreens when picking up his prescription. It is pretty cute (and hard to resist at the time) but now we both know better - NO MORE MONKEYS.)

Then before bed we watch 20 minutes of Cars with Eloise on my lap and yes, you guessed it, she had all 4 monkeys on her lap.  Up to bed we go.....me carrying her sandwiching 4 monkeys. All of us read stories together and then she and I strategically placed all 4 exactly where she wanted them for "night night."

I'm tired. Chasing around monkeys all day is exhausting. And listening to her whine because she doesn't have all 4 every waking second of every day is exhausting. Yes, she's cute. Her fixation with monkeys (which we created. kill me. ) is cute but we're done. Please, no more monkeys. We've pledged to stop buying them and we beg that you do to. The Monkey Moratorium. It's official. It's in place. We're all going to live by it.

And a few pics. Here she is riding her bike with the monkeys - not sure how only 3 made it for this ride but I'll introduce them all to you in case you already don't know who is who. From left to right  - Nana, Mimi and Noni. Noni's baby is a mini-me to the sock monkey.

Friday's updates

Yesterday was the Monkey's 17-month birthday. I have no stats but she's enormous. Well, it feels that way at least. She's just so heavy!  And then I come across tee-tiny baby shoes that she first wore and compare those to the Vans she's sporting now and just can't believe she was really ever that small. It's amazing how big she's gotten. And so quickly!

What's big right now? Well first off, before I forget to mention...from her 16-month birthday to her 17-month birthday she's working on growing in some seriously large back teeth. I'm guessing they are molars. They are big and there seem to be a lot of them. I can't really get in there to get a full check out but as we speak, I think she has 4 new back teeth coming in. She had 8 teeth for so long and then nothing. No new teeth growth all summer and then just within the last month she's got all sorts of action going on in that mouth of hers. I suspect that could be the excuse I use when I go to the library today and explain to them that once again, my daughter ate one of their books. UNREAL. Seriously, I know kids embarrass us. And there will also come a day where I embarrass her (thinking about knawing on a book in front of all of her middle school friends as I drop them off at the mall), but this book eating issue is unreal.  In actuality, I'm going to simply tell the library that I lost their book and just go ahead and spare myself the humilation that I clearly have no control over my daughter's oral fixation. I'll hand over the $5, say I'm really sorry, and we'll move on with our lives. Will this be the first of several excuses (i.e. lies) I make up about miss Eloise and her "isms"?  Ahhh....what a mother will do (to protect herself) to protect her daughter.

Language continues. She's going to be a chatter box. Let's just be real clear on that one. No one raise your hand here in surprise. Ha ha....funny. I know what you're saing, "pay back's a expletive." Thanks. Anyway, here's her growing list of words:

Dora - we've moved on from Dor to Dora, 2 syllables. Dora is also becoming more than milk to Eloise (who gets milk in her Dora the Explorer cup). She now realizes that Dora has her face on balloons at Harris Teeter and is occassionally seen on TV. She's not into her cartoon though. She's a Cars fan only. Dedicated, I call it.
Nana - This one is cute. She named one of her monkey's nana, which is her word for banana. She connected those dots all on her own and therefore, although Nana is not a word, rather a name, we're adding to the list.
Door
Wet
Water - can't remember if this made the list last time
Neat
Wow
Watch - can't remember if this made the list last time
Ring
Road
Doc - a Cars character. Obsessed.
Nose
And Moooo.....now means more than for a cow. It also signifies she wants to watch her Mooooooovie, Cars. Like I said, obsessed.

For animals noises, we've added the following:

Donkey - Eeyore
Owl - hoot
Frog - still giving me about a B effort on a solid Ribbit. That's a toughie.
Mmmmmmm - not an animal noise but it's what she says when I ask her if she's ready for breakfast, lunch or dinner, which is cute so it must be added to the list.
Oh, and she sniffs when she "smells the flowers" in books
And a combination of sniff/buck teeth noise for a bunny (remember who her teacher is. I'm just doing the best I can:)
She's also great at body parts. We've got quite a bit down here. Hair, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, hands, arms, feet, toes, ears, belly, belly button, and all of the above on Mommy.

Oh one other milestone/age related update, she's getting much better daily at climbing the stairs. We practice going up and down them and it's working. She obviously can't do it alone but she's figured out using the wall or the railing to help her get up while standing vs. doing the standard on hands and knees approach that she's been taking. She toggles back and forth between both ways. She's getting there! The risers are still a little tall for her so she needs to grow and inch or two but in the mean time, her practice is really paying off. Way to go Monkey-girl! (I look forward to the day when stairs aren't so scary.)

As for Friday's updates, we both began feeling better by Thurs. Thankfully we had a quick moving stomach bug and so by today, I believe we are both back to normal. Just in time for the weekend, so that's cool. Although, I'm still a little hesitant to feed her or me anything too crazy, we are at least consuming real food with flavor so that's good.  By Thurs I had the baby whisperer back, which was hugely helpful so I could get some work done. Also, before she arrived, the Monkey and I scrubbed this place from top to bottom trying our best to make it germ-free. Eloise is typically very good at following me around from room to room and letting me clean each as I go but this time, she wanted to help. What better way to earn her keep than to scrub toilets??

Also, I actually got orange chair shots this month. How did I get it done? By putting on the Cars movie and let her hold the remote control. Orange chair shots are becoming very difficult these days:)

The Monkey gets blogged

Yes, I blog about her daily and yes, you come here to read about all-things-Monkey but it's fun when someone else blogs about your little girl so I thought I'd share.  You remember Danielle, my friend the super-fab photographer who graced us with her awesomeness just recently.  She posted something today on her blog about the Monkey and added a few more pics that you haven't seen yet.

And as far as sickness goes, we're on the mend around here. Thankfully so because I'm drowing in work and desperately need to get back in action. The baby whisperer is here for a full day so I can knock out my to-do list. I'm half tempted to go running but think that might be a bit much. I only returned to actually eating real food this morning so I'm not sure exercising is a smart idea. I guess I've done dumber things in my day. We'll see.

And then there was 2

I guess if you get puked on it's only a matter of time until you start puking, right? Hindsight 20/20 on this situation because as of yesterday around 4:30pm, I was hovering over the bowl puking my guts out.  The Monkey was happily watching Cars movie - my only saving grace right now for feeling so terrible.  My puke fest continued right on into story time last night when I was putting her to bed. Together, we made a b-line to the toilet mid-book where mommy again puked her guts out. And this time with the Monkey standing by watching the entire meltdown. How disgusting.  Maybe I can use this as a teaching time and she can learn how to hold Mommy's hair back?

I tucked her in at 7pm and promptly tucked myself in at 7:30pm.  She seems better today. Or at least I didn't find her covered in puke at 6:15am. I, on the only hand, am death walking.  I really do miss the days when I said, "I hardly ever get sick." Now being a mom, as soon as Eloise gets sick, it's just a matter of time before I'm hit with the same funk.  I don't have the baby whisperer today. The least I could do was keep her away from the scene of the crime. So today will include several naps from both Eloise and mommy, a lot of water sipping, toast, and some movies. That's it. And if Eloise starts feeling a little better and wants to play, I'm going to have inform her that today is not a day for playing. Tomorrow, maybe. If she's lucky.

Vomiting - Day 2

Yesterday morning we were greeted with a vomit soaked Monkey and today, the same thing. What gives? Meanwhile, she seemed fine yesterday, is not running a fever, ate OK - not what she usually eats but that's because I limited her to toast and Saltine crackers all day, but then this morning when I went in to get her....I found a vomit soaked Monkey.  For the second day in a row.  We had a repeat morning of strip her down, bath, try a bland breakfast and again, she's been acting fine today. She's a tad bit more mellow, which honestly, has been kind of nice. So aside from puking all over herself for 2 mornings in a row, you'd think nothing was wrong with her. But since this is the second day, a call to the Dr was in order and they told me to give her the B.R.A.T diet - Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast, which she was basically already on.  No milk. Just water, Pedialyte and Gatorade and to give it another 24 hours.  We've been laying low today playing games and watching Cars and as I said, besides being more mellow, she really does seem like herself.  Is this the calm before the storm?? Stay tuned.

The Parents Club

Mike and I are in.  As of 7am today, we've been officially indoctrinated into the "Parents Club".  It really feels like such an honor. Thanks for all of your well wishes and words of encouragement over the past 17 months. We really appreciate it!

See, at approximately 7am this morning, the Monkey was found projectile vomiting from her crib and thus onto her mommy and daddy.  And I have to say, what followed was a series of well-performed acts between both Mike and me that live up to a solid A+ effort.  Who knew the two of us could so quickly be Johnny on the Spot?

After hearing Eloise wake up through the monitor, I went into to greet her with my normal "good morning Monkey-girl!" and instead, I found her literally puking over the rails of her crib. A quick call to Mike and the two of us got her comforted, stripped down, bathed, fed, doted on, pampered, and the war zone cleaned up. 2 loads of laundry later and I'd say, the hazing period is over and Mike and I are now officially card carrying members of The Parents Club.

Luckily for us, it took nearly 17 months for a puking incident of this magnitude to occur but of course, all parents have to go through this before they are truly seen as equals amongst their peers. And so here we are, we've been puked on, we've cleaned up the battlefield and we're in.  The Parents Club. 

The well-performed acts took a divide and conquer approach. I bathed the Monkey while Mike retrieved a new clean monkey lovey, a new pair of warm PJs and also started battlefield clean-up duty. Then when her bath was over, he took her downstairs to see if she'd eat a little breakfast and/or play while I was the finishing clean-up crew. When I came downstairs I half expected to see him feeding her rice and ground beef - what you feed a dog after having a puking incident. Because we have literally zero experience in this area, you must cut us some slack.  But dry toast and water was the perfect plan because the Monkey was completely none the wiser on what just went down. After breakfast, she was running around here as good as new. She goobled down some toast, took a few sips of water and it was off to playing with daddy before he went to work.  

Mike and I are both still a pinch traumatized by the incident but thankfully the Monkey is fine. To her it's like it never happened.  After seeing what came out of that Monkey-girl, I'm not going to lie, it's going to be a long, long time before she gets spaghetti for dinner again. My word.

Dowd YMCA 1/2 Marathon

Today was my own much anticipated 1/2 marathon race (running solo sans jog stroller, of course) and I'm really, REALLY pleased with the results. So proud that I'll even admit to you that I cried after the race was done. Crazy, I know.

I often think to myself....why am I doing all of this running?  It's a really lonely sport and I put on miles upon miles all by myself (of course most of them are with Eloise but it's not like we're talking or competing or coaching one another). But after today's race, now I know why I do it. I felt great throughout the entire run. A miracle in and of itself. With 13.1 miles, you never know when going too hard or going too slow will come back to bite you later in the race but today, I single-handedly planned out my own race, stayed on my own tempo and in the end, ran my PR again.

My fastest 1/2 prior to today was 1:37 something. I can't remember the seconds. It was a race I ran a long time ago and was in the middle of my marathon training at the time.  Today's race, I ran 1:37:26, (a 7:27 min/mile pace). Which was not in the middle of marathon training and makes me even more proud. I guess all of these miles I'm putting on weekly are worth it (not that I was questioning them. I love running. It's just who I am.). But when you start a race feeling as good as you do ending it, it's such a euphoric feeling, I can't even describe it.

I coached myself throughout the entire race. I looked at my watch each mile to ensure I stayed on tempo. I took "Gu" at the miles I mapped out in advance. I drank water at each station. I motored up each and every hill. And in the end, I did it. I did it!  Tears and all, I did it. I ran that dang 1/2 marathon with all my heart and I felt great doing it. I honestly don't think I could have run even one second faster and that's exactly how I want to end a race. I don't ever brag. I don't ever gloat. Shoot, I hardly talk about running (I guess except for this blog. Some of you may be sick of my running banter:). But just for 1 second today, 1 second after the race was done when my eyes filled with tears, I said to myself...You go girl!  You did an awesome job!

Bath time convo

Mommy: "Eloise, can you say turtle?"
Eloise: "No."
Mommy: "Can you try to say turtle?"
Eloise: "No."

Tonight's bath time conversation merited a note in the "baby book" (i.e. the blog). She seriously cracks me up.

Weather.com

It's pouring down rain right now. Not a break in the clouds anywhere in the sky.  And so as the Monkey is sleeping, I'm wondering to myself, when and how are we going to get in a run today? We regretfully missed yesterday so we really need to get out there today.  So rather than fantasize of an hour break in the cold, wet weather, I decide to take a quick visit to Weather.com and see what they say.

And ta da....here's what it shows. 

Ummmm......really??  Partly sunny and 50 degrees?? Because it's literally pouring outside my window right this very second. I know Charlotte's a pretty big city but really, Weather.com??  Could it possibly be "partly sunny and 50 degrees" over by my Mom's house but not here? I mean come on already. This site is as annoying as the local meteorologists.

Discovery Place KIDS

We checked out the all-new Discovery Place KIDS adventure land today and had a "double-super" (as Seasame Street characters say) time. I'll get to the details in one second. But first, I have to show a pic of the Monkey. This is what I came downstairs to today. The Baby Whisperer had her all bundled up and the two of them were outside playing. I mean, come on already.

Ok, Discovery Place KIDS. This place was out of control. Such a perfect place to take Eloise at this age. There were only a few things she couldn't do because of only being 16 months...i.e. this giant climbing area that went from floor to ceiling and if Mike were with me, maybe one of us could have navigated with her but I couldn't do it solo so we passed. Instead, we played in the Kiddo area including an oversized water table with barstool height chairs, toys, and a very fun walking trail that Eloise couldn't get enough of.  Then we moved on to the race car garage/Pit area, the train table, the bank with drive-thru complete with car, the airport including security check point, baggage cart, of course an airplane and a landing stripe that the Monkey was way into. Then on to the grocery store complete with shopping carts, check-out line with moving conveyor belt, bakery, produce and real grocery store products (empty ones that is - well branded by Earth Fare. smart move Earth Fare), the veterinarians office, the stage where employees performed fun nursery rhyme dances and songs, the farm with tractor corn and cow, a giant fire truck, and I'm sure I'm forgetting things so I'll just say, "and more and more."  Honestly this place just kept going and going and going. And the kiddos were having blast. (so were the moms:) We met 2 other moms and their kids there so there were 3 little ones romping around and having a good time. Cam, Liam and Eloise. Here are some pics.

Happy Halloween!

We had a great time at yesterday's Chantilly Halloween Parade. The Monkey was (believe it or not) the only butterfly.I was sure her costume would be representing well based on how cheap I got it. But alas, she was the only. And of course, as far as we're concerned, the cutest little bug out there!  After the parade we were greeted by a fire truck that Eloise didn't know what to make of. She stared in awe but then when I put her in the passenger seat, she freaked out.  I believe by that point, she was so over the top super stimed, she needed to go home. Which we did. And sadly, she screamed in my ear the entire time. Thankfully drinking is encouraged at this annual parade so we all cracked fresh beers and slowly headed home. Happy Halloween 2010!

And btw, what a difference a year makes.  A 16 month old for Halloween is quite a bit different than a 4 month old. Phew. We were all very tired when we got home:).