First tooth

It finally happened! Sam lost his first tooth:)

Smarty pants

The other day after my run, I was putting the babies back in the car, when Max sniffed me.

Sniff sniff.

Ooh, mom, you smell STINKY!!!

Then (with a gleam in his eye) "Katie has a shower."  (aka go to aunt mara's house and use her shower so I can play with my favorite person in the world, Katie).

Oh Max, you are so smart.

And yes, it totally worked.

First Word

It always amazes me how different my children are.  I think I'm still mostly the same person, but they are so unique.  For example, Sam could have cared less about trains, and Max is totally obsessed.  Pearl was not a huge dolly player... she liked little people and stuffed animals... but at 14 months, Ruby has discovered babies.  

We walked down the doll aisle at target with Max to see if Max could find a Christmas present for her.  I have never seen that kid so exited.  She was pointing, bouncing in her seat, reaching, and saying "baby, baby."  So, since we really have no dollies at our house (though I think Santa will be bringing her one) I went ahead and let her have the $3 one.  It's head is small enough for her to grab it by the face and clonk it on the floor with her as she scoots.  She wants to take it everywhere... she got it into the bathtub last night (it was apparently too close) and it had to spend the night on the heater vent... when she woke up, she sleepily rubbed her eyes and signed "baby" at me... so we went and got baby.  

Here is video proof of her first word.  Enjoy!

Poor Ruby

Will you just look at that sweet baby?  Unfortunately for her, she had a little accident...

And ended up in a cast:(  She took a tumble all the way down the stairs, we were so lucky nothing else happened to her!  She just doesn't have enough brains yet to know that if you try to scoot down the stairs, it will hurt.  Pearl feels terrible, she had taken her upstairs while I was cooking dinner and didn't close the gate.  There will be no more unauthorized baby movement around here.

Fortunately, it was a mild fracture, in fact, the pediatritian didn't even catch it, the radiologist found it and I got a call the next day.   

I get comments a lot.  It is the cutest little cast you've ever seen, if it wasn't so sad, it'd be something to smile about.  I made sure to take pictures while it's still cute, one week later and it's pretty gross.  We're counting down the days until it's gone (she has to have it for 5 weeks.)

I think the saddest part is that she's supposed to be working on standing and crawling... but her ankle hurts too, so I haven't been pushing it, we'll meet with the PT soon and get her advice.  Other than that, it doesn't seem to be holding her back much.  She's getting good at feeding with her left hand, she does her little scoot with a CLUNK CLUNK throughout the house, and finds that she can still do important things...

like single-handedly removing all of the pea gravel from the playground (Maryann, remember how that was Sidon's favorite thing to do?) and playing with her grandpa.

How we love this sweet, good natured little girl!

Second Half Marathon

I did my second half marathon yesterday.  It was really fun.  No really, I mean it.  It was raining, I had stayed up too late the night before seeing the twilight movie with Tami and Mara, it was FREEZING cold, but I still had a great time.  I think it's partially becuase it was my second half, I wasn't so worried about it, I knew what to expect.  But mostly, it was fun because I ran with my friend Kate. 

Let me tell you about Kate.  We met in the back row of our Speech Pathology/Audiology classess junior year.  Turns out she was the very best kind of friend to have, always there for you, super smart, took REALLY good notes, and she's sneaky.  She's all quiet and sweet, if you didn't know her, you wouldn't expect her to be such an overachiever... but she is.  When you're not looking, she'll just quietly graduate head of the class, get a doctorate, meet her lifetime weight watchers goal, run her first half marathon faster than you... see... sneaky.  

I was actually really happy to run with her... she runs a 9 minute mile.  I didn't think I could run that fast... but I did with Kate!  And you know what, I did just fine!  I didn't pass out or anything:)  At about mile 5 I had to stop to go to the bathroom (of course) but I caught up a bit and ended up finishing a few minutes behind her.  

This means I shaved a full 26 minutes off of my last race time.  That's a lot, in case you're wondering.  I can now do a half marathon in 2 hours and 14 minutes!  Boo-yah!!!!  It was actually easier that way... I thought I would get too tired, but the miles seemed to go a lot faster and my body was glad to be done half an hour before expected:)

See?  Doesn't that sound fun?  Now that I know I can run so fast (fast enough to be in the top half of the finishers my age:) my next goal is to do a 10 K in under an hour.  We'll see....

Happy Halloween

Cutest.  Elephant.  Ever.

 Max, who was thrilled to be an astronaut because Sam was one too!

Somehow, Astronauts use their ninja powers to protect the universe.  Or something like that.  

Pearl girl as a kitty with her best friend, Molly.  Both at the school harvest festival and at the neighborhood trunk or treat, they just "hung out" and did their own thing.  Last night they talked on the phone for 15 minutes.  When did she decide to grow up?  And who gave her permission?

Mean (Crazy? Neurotic?) Mom strikes again...

Cross Country is over, and Pearl was doing so well by the end, able to run a whole mile without stopping OR crying.  We are doing a mermaid race together in 3 weeks, so I didn't want her to lose her ability to run, so I thought I'd try her on the treadmill Saturday (I ran 11 miles that day, I just didn't have it in me to do one more with her!)  It cracked me up because she LOVED it.  She got to watch whatever she wanted on netflix (my little ponies) and I set the speed for a little under a 16 minute mile, which was her finals pace.  That kid ran happily for 1.5 miles with a goofy grin on her face the whole time.  Just goes to show, to each is own.  I hate the treadmill, give me the outdoors anyday, but the treadmill works for her.  So, now she's on a 3 day a week running schedule (on the days she doesn't have taekwondo).  I feel bad making a 9 year old exercise (I think at that age you usually use the word "play" as a euphanism), but I think she's pretty happy about it.  And I'm really proud of her for doing something hard and being happy.  Nice work, Pearl!!!

Baby Lu

Little miss cutie pants is one.  (actually, it's little miss dirty pants, see previous post!!!).  Ryan Logan set up this really cool light thing and I took some pictures.  She was.... pensive, but still adorable.  

She loves her brothers and sisters, and she still loves her mommy and daddy.  She still refuses to stand unless you grab her thighs and make her.  She throws peas on the floor, and has decided chocolate milk is awesome.  She is starting to sign "milk" and will repeat duplicated syllables.  She will give you the hugest smile when you come back into the room after leaving.  We love her sooo much!!!  One year dr appt monday, stats and birthday party pics to follow!

Cross Country Finals

Today was Pearly's cross country finals.  She did so well!  I was so worried about her, I've been "pacing" her for most of the other meets, ever since she got lost the first time.  No pacing for the finals, though.  So, I made her wear her "sparkle" skirt and her coach gave her some super awesome sparkly bows.  This meant that both Jared and I (who were stationed at different places on the course) could see her coming from far away.  

She finished last, with a smile on her face.  I was standing in the crowd at one point, and she ran past, alone, obviously working very hard, in all of her sparklyness.  I heard someone say "look at her go, she's totally awesome."  That pretty much sums it up.  Nice job, Pearl, you never gave up even though it was hard.  So proud of you!

It's official.  Ruby is a Hulbert.  Which, for my particular branch of the family, involves vast amounts of uncoordination.  Her cousin, Quincy, (born 5 days after Ruby) can climb up and stand on top of the toilet tank (not that I'm asking for that, believe me!!!).  When Grandma is asked how the babies are doing, this is how it goes down... "Quincy can stand and walk and dance and run 5 miles...  Ruby has 8 teeth."  Or something like that.

But we are here to tell you that she's ON THE MOVE!!!  Just not in the typical way... she's been scooting for a week or two, but today she got really fast, and it's quite funny.  Kind of like one of those clams or something moving along the beach.

And she does have 8 teeth.  That takes some effort, right?:)

Dump run

Max and Daddy went to the dump yesterday. Max helped load the truck. The highlights if the day were a multi colored icee and trash, rounded out with a trip to Home Depot. Very male bonding-ish.

Cross Country Meet

Today was Pearl's first Cross Country Meet.  I knew it was going to be a CRAZY day, so I got a babysitter for the little ones so that I could volunteer to help make sure the 4th grade girls got to where they needed to be.  This is all the fourth graders.  In our tiny tiny school, we had the first place and the last place girls.  Go figure.  We're the outliers:)

The school where the meet was held is WAAAAY up on top of this crazy hill, and the girls had to run up about half of it on a dirt path as part of the course.  There were lots of loops and repeatings etc, so they had EVERYONE walk the whole course before running.  

Unfortunately for us, it didn't help us much.  I walked the course with the girls, then stood at the start until they had left and made their first loop... by the time the first loop was over, Pearl was at the very end with the teenage volunteers who lead the pack and bring up the rear so nobody would get lost.  When I saw her come around a second time (the wrong way...) I chased after her to tell her she was going the wrong way.  The little teenage girl was confused and embarassed, and I was really wishing I had my running shoes on at that point.  We made it back to our tent (which was thankfully right along the course) and I explained to the coach that Pearl and her friend Molly had gone the wrong way... and the coach offered to run it with them.  Bless her!!!  I didn't want Pearl to give in, but I didn't see a way around it, I couldn't send her by herself, sure she'd get lost again with no pack to follow!!!

This is her when she finally made it to the big finish, she was working so hard to go SOO slow... funny little girl!  She came in 58 out of 58 girls, but I don't think she was too upset about it.  I think she was upset that she ended up having to run further than anyone else did.  

 There were some tears at the end, I think she was just overwhelmed, and tired from the BIG hill (seriously, I would avoid running that hill!) but once we walked it out and made it back to the car she was happy and cheerful again, sure that she would do better next time.  I tell you, that girl knows how to perservere.  What a good example, really.  

You know that scripture about how church isn't for the righteous, it's for the sinners?  Well, Cross Country is apparently for Runners in Progress as well:)  As I told Pearl, the only way to go from here is up:)

Ragnar with the Crazies

Ragnar is here.  I leave on Thursday night.  I am SOOO EXCITED!!!!  I'm even more excited today than yesterday because today we had a dropout and MARA took their place!!!  Wahooo for me!!!!  She is such a champ, she will have absolutely no time to train (my last run is tomorrow, and that's iffy, I should probably be resting, but I'm a glutton for punishment... plus I ate a lot today...) and she's dropping everything and spending her time finding a sitter for her girls friday because she is the BEST SISTER EVER:)  And she really wants one of these cool pink skirts I designed for our team:

So, what this means for me is.... I'm switching one of my shorter runs for her long run... so now I get to run a total of 20.5 miles.  That's right.  2.7, 9.3, then 8.3.  That's fine, because I'm a rockstar.  And believe it or not, she'll still have to run something like 14 miles total.  Actually, I like 8 mile runs... I get into the rhythm of it and I like the feeling of being all alone for an hour and a half.  Weird.  If I had read this 6 months ago, I would have been sure I was reading the wrong blog.   

Ask me after this weekend if I really want to run a full marathon.  I'm saying if I can do 20 miles in 36 hours, I could totally do a full.  Just once.  To say I did it.  In case anyone will think that's cool:)

It's sure making that next half marathon I've signed up for look nice... only 13.1:)  

Preschool

Max officially started his school year today. This morning he wanted to make sure I would LEAVE HIM THERE and NOT STAY. Yeah. Not a lot of separation anxiety there:)

School Pictures 2012

So, in continuing with my tradition of NOT purchasing school pictures, I did portraits of the kiddos the other night instead.  Last year I was a little dissapointed... especially in the terrible smiles I got out of one little five year old boy... but not this year.  This year, I got so many good ones... I know there's a ton, but you wouldn't have been able to choose either!  I sent even more than this off to print!!!  So, for the record, Pearl is in 4th grade, Sam is in 1st grade, Max is starting his first year of preschool, and Miss Ruby is 10 1/2 months old.  Precious.  I kind of love my kids.  

Max is THREE!!!!

Mr Max recently had his third birthday.  His cousin, Maya just had a birthday too.  She got her very own photo shoot with an outfit and a field of flowers... 

Max got 3 minutes in the backyard with his grungy hand-me-down Thomas t-shirt that he wears at least once a week.  Sorry, kid, you're number 3 and you have a cute baby sister.  That's all I can say in my defense:)

 I don't think he minded... not then, and I'm sure he'll forgive me in the future.

 This kid... is STILL obsessed with trains!  We squeaked in one more birthday at the train museum before our passes expired.  The child has everything, so this year, we let him pick out his own present from the train museum... the silver train pictured here.  I'm not sure what the pull was, it was not something I would have picked out for him, but two weeks later he's still sleeping with it.  Most awesome birthday present I ever bought him:)

 He's still generally a happy boy, and more and more interested in what the big kids are doing... especially Sam.  It is safe to say that this one is Sam's shadow.

How I love having this little boy in the family!  I think he's a keeper.