Emma's Imagination

Emma's imagination is in full bloom. She's a little girl who's full of energy, spunk, and has a knack for story-telling. Just last night, while in the backseat of my car, she pulls out a book that's a little advanced for her (it has little pictures with lots of words). So she starts narrating. Here's a little taste for some of the conversation that I picked up:

Convo #1: "Sophie, you don't bite. You don't let the ghouls scare you. See--you spit at them. No, no. Don't spit. That's a bad girl. Now you to to time out."
Convo #2: (Inside her Hello Kitty book, there's a page with all of Hello Kitty's friends. I've named them off for her once. She couldn't quite remember all the names, so she just starts spouting off the first thing she can think of) "This is Eenie, this is Meanie. This is Pieces; this is Feces."

Braces for Baby Teeth?!?...

Are you kidding me? Emma recently had her second dentist appointment where the doctor mentioned braces. Braces? For baby teeth? WTF? That makes absolutely no sense. I wasn't at the appointment, but Andy asked the obvious question: "With all due respect Mr. Dentist, why in the world would I put braces on my 3 1/2 year old's baby teeth?" And he explained that they can either do it now or do it later.

WTF?!?

Why in WORLD would you put braces on something that's going to fall out?

Andy & I have both been blessed with healthy teeth and gums (aside from the false front tooth he has, but that's all to do with football), so one would just assume our children would follow suit. And Emma has perfectly fine teeth. The dentist just mentioned that she has some slight cross-bowing going on. Well, I say cross-bow away. There's no way in H-E-double-hockey-sticks I'm putting braces on some teeth that are just going to fall out in 3 years!

Visit with the Easter Bunny

After waiting in line for about 30 minutes, both kids did a great job with the Easter Bunny. I wasn't worried about Emma--she's a pro and has never had any issues with these giant creatures--but I was a little scared for Drew. But he didn't disappoint! He was just as curious as Emma was at that age. He kept wanting to pull at Mr. Bunny's head and had the cutest look on his face when we finally got him to look at the camera (that picture will be posted at a later date): it was like "Why am I sitting on this buy thing's lap?"

Priceless!

Emma's First Award

I'm such a proud momma. My little lady got her very first athletic award at gymnastic class last week. As many of you who read this know, I put her in a class with 4-5 year olds. Seeing as how she's over 3 feet tall, weighing in at 47 lbs, she's no ordinary 3-year old. And I didn't want to run the risk of having her smother another 2-year old on the trampoline, so I put her in a class with other girls her size. And she's doing just great! She keeps up with them nicely. She loves it....especially the bounce house that they let them play in at the end of class. Her teacher is pretty good with them too. His name is Coach Scooby. (That's his honest to goodness name--Scooby. As in the dog.)

Here's to hoping there's plenty more awards to come!

Still Not Crawling...

My little man. I love my little man. He's so stinking cute, sometimes I just can't stand it! I want to gobble him up and squeeze his fat little thighs! He's just this happy little guy who's content to just sit in place. Or roll around on the ground. He has absolutely NO interest in crawling. Or pulling himself up to walk around the perimeter of objects. Emma was crawling by 8 months, and she started walking between 10-11 months. But not my little man. Nope, he's content to just let Mommy and Daddy pick him up and carry him to wherever it is that he needs to go. I guess that's the difference between a boys and girls. I mean, why should he put forth the effort to crawl when his big sister, mommy, or daddy will get him what he needs? And you know, to be perfectly honest--I'm fine with it. Hell, I love the fact that I can still plop him down on the floor and not have to worry about him crawling into all sorts of things! Emma keeps me busy enough. I'm just trying to keep her from running into him (or somersaulting or flipping or skydiving or whatever the hell she seems to think she can do these days!).

Emma's First Sleepover

Emma had her first sleepover at Papa and Grandma Ann's this weekend. Truth be told, I was kinda nervous that she wouldn't make it. She's only slept over at a different person's house one other time. And she was an infant then. And it was at grandma's house. She loves her grandma. Sees her at least twice/week. So she's extremely comfortable there. Well, we tried a "sleepover" at her house about a month ago. Didn't happen. We got a phone call around 9:00, saying that Emma wanted to sleep in her own bed.

So I was hesitant to have her stay at my dad's. But I figure she's 3 freaking years old--plenty old enough to stay the night at her grandpa's house. That's what being a kid is all about...staying over at your grandparent's house while they spoil the stink out of you. I want her to have that experience. I have some good memories of staying at both of my grandparent's houses, and I want both her and Drew to experience that was well. To prep her for the sleepover, I told her a few days before. I told her that we were going to pack her Princess suitcase and drive to Papa's house so that she could have a sleepover. She seemed really excited about it, but truthfully she was really excited about her first attempt at my mom's. So I still didn't know if she fully got it. Well, on our way up to his house, she started asking questions. "Is Papa going to make me a bed?" "Will I brush my teeth in his sink?" So I know she was running through her night time routine in her head. Which was a good sign. She had totally processed the idea that she was sleeping at Papa's and not at home.

And it turned out to be a success! My dad said that she was really good. They had no problems getting her to go to bed. In fact, she didn't even want to read any books. She was probably tuckered out from all the constant attention that she got for 6 straight hours, that she just wanted to go to bed! I'm so happy everything went well. I can't wait for the summer, when she can stay overnight with Papa and Grandma Ann again!

Pilates is for the Birds

So I'm trying to incorporate some cross-training into my mini-marathon training. I do spinning on a regular basis, but I'm taking a small break from it to incorporate some sort of strength training, yoga, or pilates class into the mix. This week, I did a pilates class. I thought I had done pilates before, but I think I was sadly mistaken. For the first 20 minutes of the class, I'm thinking, "Is this it? Is this really all you do?" I felt like we were just lifting and twisting our bodies in the slightest, weirdest positions and I didn't really "get it." All I knew and felt was that it was just extremely uncomfortable. I mean, some of these positions you put your body in are just not normal. And half the time I kept praying, "Please don't let me fart, please don't let me fart." Basically (I felt like) the entire class was spent on spent on squeezing by butt cheeks together so as to not let any squeaks come out or trying to balance my wide load on a balance ball.

Or so I thought.

Cut to 36 hours later. Oh. My. Gosh. I couldn't cough without hurting, I couldn't get up out of the bed without some maayja help; basically I couldn't use my center, core muscles without it hurting. The rest of my body--legs and arms--were sore, but not painfully sore. I could definitely feel that I had worked some leg & arm muscles I don't normally work, but it didn't feel anything like my stomach muscles.

So I haven't decided if I'm going to go back yet or not. During the actual class, I did not enjoy it much. But I am enjoying the after effects. Having a strong core is key to your overall health and being. So we'll see. I'll have to make up my mind come Monday morning, when I make up my schedule for the week!

Preschool Enrollment

I enrolled Emma in preschool today. Such an exciting time! I even got all giddy when I walked through the front doors. Emma's going to absolutely LOVE going to school there. In fact, she talks about school all the time. "Mommy when I get bigger, I get to go to school and wear a Spiderman bagpack!" (Funny story: while taking the tour of their facility, all the kids keep their bagpacks outside their rooms on the little coat and bag hooks. She saw a (big) Spiderman one that stood out from all the others. So now she equates school with a Spiderman bagpack.)

Because she turns 4 in October, she just misses the cut-off for Pre-K by two months. If you haven't met Emma, then I'm sure you've heard me say that she's well ahead of her age group. (If you have met, then you know.) So I'm kinda bummed that she won't be able to start Pre-K now, but I know that'll benefit her in later on in her schooling. Plus, being older has it's advantages. 1) She'll have a year up on other kids, athletic-wise. Fingers crossed, she'll be an athlete. Let's hope, at least. I mean, hell--she's a 47-lb 3-year old!!! 2) She'll be the first in her class to drive (ahhh--Emma driving. Crazy.), 3) she'll be the first in her class to drink (double-ahhhh--Emma drinking. Even crazier.) So she'll be placed in a room with other "older 3-yr olds." There's still academia that's followed. Although in small doses, but still.

The one big bummer to this situation, though, is that Drew will still be staying with Nancy. Not that there's anything wrong with Nancy (our caretaker who watches children out of her home). It's just that they'll be separated for a year or so. And I really don't like that. I'm wondering if that will impact either kid. It's hard to say right now, because I don't see the kind of interaction they have together, when there's other kids around. I don't know if Emma takes on the protective big sister role, thus making me think that she'll be upset that Drew's not in the same place as her during the day. So we'll see. Only time will tell. But in the meantime...I'm super-excited to have Emma start Preschool in August!

Old Friends

I spent some time with some old friends this weekend. And it was so nice to catch up and see what's going on in their lives. Because of Facebook, I sort of feel like I already know what's going on with my old high school buddies. Like the fact that one of my good friends from high school just had twins; and that her husband is a twin. So when I met her husband, I was like, "Oh yeah. I know you. You're Justin and you're a twin." He's never seen me before in his life (well, okay aside from FB pictures), and it was almost like he was old news. That's been a true jem, this whole social networking-thing. But nothing beats actually meeting up with good friends and talking about old times. I love reminiscing on old times and what finding out what's going on with other people's lives.

I love to hate running

So I did it. I ran 6 miles this weekend. And despite the fact that I dreaded it up until the moment I was done--I did it. And I'll continue to do it. I've only ran 6 miles once before. And when I did it, I really ran/walked...it took about 1 hour, 20 minutes if my memory serves me correctly. This time, I ran it in 1 hour, 12 minutes. Which is a 12-minute pace....WAY too slow for what I'd like, but hey----I'm doing it, right?

Right now, I run about 13 miles/week. Which is really nothing. At this point in my training schedule, I would really like to be running, at minimum, 15 miles/week. I should hit that this week, though. 4.5 miles today, 5 miles on Wed, 3 miles on Friday, and 4.5 miles on Sat. And, yes--I guess they are getting a little easier. I mean, running 2 miles really is nothing to me. I can run that straight through, no problem, at an 11/min pace. If you would have told me that I can do that 2 months ago, I would have laughed. And I'm hoping, that in another 2 months, I can say that I can run 4 miles straight through, no problem. Cause right now, I have to walk about 2-3 times, for about 15-30 seconds.

Originally, my goal was to run the mini at a 10 minute pace, putting my finishing time around 2 hours, 18 minutes. But that really seems unlikely. I am truly a beginner runner, who is somewhat out-of-shape. I mean, yes--I've got a little extra junk in the trunk. Er, okay. I've got a lot of it, whatever. I'm no Elle Macpherson. But I work out regularly (meaning, 3 times/week) and eat somewhat healthy. I just don't eat healthy all the time. What can I say? I love food! So that said, I've changed my goal to finish the mini at an 11 minute pace. It's still going to be challenging for me, but it's totally doable. I really need to up my training runs throughout the week, pushing myself to not walk. If I do that, than I should be able to finish the race in 2 hours, 40 minutes.

Why am I running again?

I'm about 5 weeks into my mini training and I'm starting to wonder if I'll make it. I still hate it as much as I did 5 weeks ago. I still hate it as much as I did 5 years ago. When I was skinny. Well okay, when I was thinner. Skinny + Chrissy = not since the toddler years. Anyway, I digress. Every time I go out for a run, I dread it. I'm supposed to run 3 times during the week, with the group run on Saturday mornings. I've been cheating myself and only running 2 times during the week. But I AM running. And the shortest distance I run now is 3 miles. I have my 6 mile run this coming Saturday and I'm wondering how in the hell I'll be able to do it. Uggh. I'd rather eat boogers all day than run 6 miles.

But I'll do it. And I'll love myself after doing so.