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!!!