Moving on Up

Wow, two posts in one night? Well the last one wasn't really a post as much as just showing off the boys...and here's more of the same.

I've been told that I need to shoot more video of the boys (well of Ryan dancing) so we shot this video about 4 weeks ago. Tim finally got it set up for me to publish...I'm a bit computer illiterate.

Ryan had been trying to entice Brayden to follow him up the stairs and until last month we didn't have to worry about closing the gate because Brayden had no interest in trying to climb...oh well, now it's a different story. The gate at the bottom of the stairs is now closed for the first time in over a year. But look at my boy go!!!!

Pictures

And nothing else...sorry nothing interesting to talk about today. So a few pics for your viewing pleasure.

A time of peace around the house...bedtime!

Ryan and Brayden building train tracks out of all our couch cushions and pillows.

Ryan sporting his "wobble goggles" (from Imagination Movers) and then pretending to swim.

Brayden walking with a little help. He's only lacking confidence at this point...it won't be long.

Motivation

My motivation over the years has changed. It used to maintaining decent fitness and making friends through the sports I chose to participate in. Now it's my boys and my husband. That simple, my boys are my motivation to stay healthy so that I can be around to experience things with them and teach them new things and even learn from them. My husband is my motivation to challenge myself and make myself better, physically and mentally.

Tim has been sick for 2-3 weeks now and been unable to train and I've found that hard for me simply because we normally hold each other accountable for getting our training in on a daily basis. We often do the same bike workouts or even workout together at night. Thankfully, Tim has almost kicked the crud so I should have my training partner back by the end of the week.

Ryan was my "motivation" this morning. We had to stop by Tim's office because I left my wallet in his car this weekend and the entire way there he told me "Mommy, you have to follow the first path because we have to save Hansel and Gretal before the dragon comes. Hurry mommy hurry. Drive faster." Uh, okay...well I didn't really drive faster but I pretended to by hunching over the steering wheel and talking in a panicked voice. I was motivated to save Hansel and Gretal from the evil dragon that apparently was the semi-truck beside us on the freeway. Once I passed the truck for good and Ryan couldn't see it right behind us, he told me they were safe and "yippee mommy, we won!"

After reclaiming my wallet, we made our way to the park for some good play time, then home for lunch and naps. Again I was motivated by "mr. ryan" to help is stuffed dog that daddy won for him this weekend.
"My doggy looks sad mommy. I think he misses his friends, can you help him?"
"What is your doggy's name Ryan?"
"Nick nack patty QUACK"
"ok, well...nick nack patty QUACK, this is elmo and this is mr. cow. They are Ryan's nap buddies. They will keep you company and be your friends."
"mommy you're silly, mr. cow doesn't go honk shh, he 'MOOOOS'."
"Sorry buddy, but he can still be friends with nick nack patty QUACK"
"ok mommy. Thank you for helping nick nack patty QUACK. You can go downstairs now."

Okay.

Pictures to come.

Fluids

So I'm on the quest for trying to figure out my fluid intake for White Lake 1/2...I've gotten a few suggestions thus far that I'm going to try (thank you Rebecca) this weekend on my long ride. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. The one half I attempted I only ended up drinking about 50 oz. of fluid on the bike with no other nutrition (bars or gels)...hence the HUGE BONK on the run that left me dehydrated for days. Otherwise I would have hit my goal time.

So lesson 1 is: drink more and use bars or gels on the bike...duh. Go figure your body needs more nutrients for longer distance races. I honestly don't know what I was thinking or better yet, why I didn't think!

The deceiving part of the title: the fluids are flowing around this house, YUK! Tim seems to be getting sick once/month for the last 6 months or so...with it lasting about 2 weeks on average for each illness. Right now he's battling a flu-like illness and an ear infection.

Brayden's poor bottom can't handle many more liquid poops in a day. Again, not thinking...I gave him some corn about 3 days ago (not a good idea for little ones under 1, their bellies can't process it well at all) and I knew better...but he liked it so I said ok. Corn + teething = 6 runny stools/day. He's at least staying hydrated but food is just passing through him right now.

And Ryan, well he's just always got a runny nose and a dried snot line from his nose, across his cheek from wiping his nose with his sleeve so much. He's not old enough to get the concept of blowing his nose yet...when you ask him or show him he still blows out of his mouth. I think it's sometime after age 3 that they are able to actually blow their nose properly. And trying to catch him with a tissue is like playing Russian roulette.

3 Signs of Trouble

I used to follow Ryan around when he was little to make sure he didn't get into anything he shouldn't and so as not to miss anything cute he might do. I relaxed a little when he started walking and then a little more when Brayden was born. I guess I trust them to a certain degree, not that I don't watch them or play with them because I do...I'm just not as "hawk eye" as I used to be. But there are a few things that will make you stop and wonder what is going on:

1. When you hear the words "uh oh mommy".
2. There's a loud screech.
3. It is absolutely quiet and nap time isn't for another hour.

No. 1 is typically when they are doing something like trying to fit toys down the toilet or in the DVD player and they get some sort of outcome they didn't think would happen; like the DVD player spinning around making noise or a toy not working properly because a 4 inch Mickey Mouse is stuck in one of the holes.

No.2 is either a fall or finger slam...or in the case of the picture below, when an innocent hug turns south because big brother is just tall enough that a hug is at the height of a head lock. Notice how Ryan is smiling and was actually saying "I love you baby" at the time while Brayden is terrified.


No. 3 is perhaps the scariest and most important one to recognize...silence is not good when you have little ones. It means they are up to no good or hurt...like drawing on the ways or eating wood chips or finding the one thing you will most definitely forget about when baby proofing.

Delayed Anniversary

Our anniversary was on Wednesday, but we didn't go out until last night. We dropped the kids off at my parent's house and since my grandmother is in town, they didn't mind keeping the kids for the night. Tim and I were going for dinner and a movie.

Tim really wanted to go to Rio Churrascaria's Brazilian Steakhouse. It's a great restaurant that you pay a base price and get salad, appetizer and all you can eat of 6 or 7 types of meat brought to you by the "table runners". We went to the Rio's right up the road from my parent's house only to find that they had closed. Not a big deal, there's one back by our house, so we drove another 30 minutes back to our neighborhood to the other Rio....and it had closed too. Hmmm. Well there is a another Brazilian steakhouse at a shopping plaza about 15 minutes away called Brasa, so we went there. They open at 5 and by 6 they were already at an hour wait. We chose to sit in the bar area until we found out that the table runners don't come to the bar...so we left and walked to Fujisan Japanese Steakhouse. Finally some food....steak and chicken fried rice with sushi, salad w/ ginger dressing and miso soup.

We were debating 3 movies, "Taken", "Last House on the Left" or "Slumdog Millionaire". We decided to go see "Taken". Ever since having kids, I can't stand watching movies with senseless violence/killing or about kids getting hurt. I've turned from liking thrillers and horrors to wanting to watch comedies and romances. Don't get me wrong, I always liked romance and comedy but I loved the adrenaline rush from the horrors and thrillers....not so much anymore. They make me angry and I have bad dreams. Although I was angry while watching it, just thinking about if it were my child, I thought "Taken" was a good movie. The sad thing is that I know the chance of the real life ending the way the movie did is like 1%, but at least it ended well.

Aside from Tim believing that a dad and his 2 daughters planted bombs in the row in front of us because they only sat there for 2 minutes before getting up and leaving the theater, it was a great night.

And today, Monkey Joes with the boys. It's been raining since Friday non-stop, so indoor inflatable play places are our only option for staying sane and getting toddler energy out. Besides, I think Tim and I have just as much fun as the boys do getting to act crazy and play like we're 5 again. Hopefully the rain will stop. After all, my front yard is flooding.

Epiphany

Like a ton a bricks, it hit me today while warming up Brayden's dinner why both him and Ryan have been so emotionally needy and a little off on their night time sleeping habits...duh. So the idea about a milestone happening affecting their sleep is completely true, or at least it has been for both my boys.

After being gone for a week, we came back to Ryan having taken some sort of cognitive leap. When we left he was talking well...complete sentences, but it was mostly him repeating things you tell him or things he had recently heard. Now, it's like he is making his own deductions about the world and why things are happening. Before he would ask "why" or "is that right" sort of questions and now he's telling us why things are the way they are or why he believes something. It's amazing to watch a child reason and figure things out like this.

Brayden seems to also have some milestones emerging. Not only have we jumped from 4 to 8 or 9 teeth over the last few weeks, but he is trying to walk unassisted...well until he realizes he's not holding on to anything then he sits down. And, he is also making some sort of cognitive leap. He's definitely hitting the physical development milestones more quickly than Ryan did and it seems to me that he's making some of the mental development milestones more quickly as well. Maybe I just can't remember when Ryan did some of these things.

I'm just loving being home with my boys. Life is good, real good. Oh, and the siding and sheet rock is up in the new house...anybody know of people looking to buy a house. I'm very fond of our current house, it's just a little too small.

Refreshed

I think that sometimes we get so bogged down in the daily grind of things. Just getting it done, getting by, going through the motions and then before we know it we're completely burnt out. Well, that was me anyway. I had gotten so tied into everything that I couldn't see the big picture. It's like I couldn't tell that I was on the downward spiral...actually I was about a tippy toe above the bottom.

This past week in AZ was amazing. I slept more in this past week than I have in the last 3 years...or so it felt. I didn't have to worry about anyone but me. I could eat, sleep, work out, wake up, lay in bed or do whatever I wanted to WHEN I wanted to. It was great, flashbacks to single life entered my mind. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade my family for the world, but it was nice. The hotel was so nice and quiet. It felt like Tim and I were the only guests there.

I forget sometimes that I need "me"time and exactly how important it is to staying mentally and emotionally put together. I tend to let everything else come first, family, house, work...then me. With only a few days left on the trip, I told Tim that I was ready to be home, but the truth was that I was only ready to see the boys for a few hours then have another week of vacation. I also came to the conclusion that Tim and I need to take 2 vacations/year. One long one like this past week and then maybe just a long weekend in the fall.

Ah, I feel good. It was a great week for training as well. I got in about 15 miles of running, 3 hours on the bike and 2 solid swims. I was amazed at what weather in the mid 70's with no humidity did for my run times...I was able to run just under 8 minute pace, for a few miles. I'm not able to hold that pace for more than a few miles but the fact that I could do that at all is encouraging for me.

Ha, in all the hoopla from our trip last week I forgot to mention that today is Tim and I's anniversary!

Happy Anniversary Jo!

Missing NC...

Well not really, I didn't miss NC at all. But I did miss my boys. I'll have a few posts a little later with more to say. But for now, we're at home watching Idol with 2 suitcases full of dirty clothes sitting on the floor and I'm stinking tired.

Wow, gone a week and there's a ton to catch up on with all you ladies out there...it's a job within itself. I feel so connected to you all now that it's like reading a great book. So far sounds like some good work outs took place and crappy weather up north. Hope everyone is feeling good and staying sane.