Wonderful Time of the Year

Instead of snow, we have been having warm, sunny days, but that makes this time of year all the better to me. Have I mentioned I love warmth? I do hope for some snow this year for Hunter's sake, and I trust we will have at least a little. The daylight hours are getting longer starting today, and even though we have not partaken in much outdoor activity this afternoon, I appreciate the sun streaming into my house and brightening around the twinkling Christmas tree and mantel lights. 

This time of year with little ones is so much fun, dutifully dressing them in red and taking them to see Santa. We happened upon him one afternoon after visiting Heifer and their animals downtown, so we of course popped in to get a picture. There was no way Hunter was sitting on some strange heavily bearded man's lap, so I did. He told me to. He was older than Christmas, and he kept asking Hunter questions that went completely unacknowledged, but that beard that Josie tried to grab was 100% real.

Getting a picture for our Christmas card was another event that went really really well. Hunter did agreeably help me test out the lighting, and I caught some great faces in the process.

 

And then somewhere along the way we had a meltdown ("we" being an accurate pronoun here). But those sweet faces! I love all the pictures.

Cookie baking has taken place more than once, since we are all sugar-addicted these days. There may even be a roll of dough sitting in the fridge now. I used to make the dough myself, and then I just realized that no, I'm not going to that trouble anymore when pillsbury does such an excellent, cheap, and delicious job of it.

 

This Josie baby would love more than anything to get her hands on some of that dough, or any food, or any object set in front of her, really. She does a lightening speed quick swipe these days, with those great reflexes and high motivation. I'm surprised more things aren't eaten and broken in our house, especially when she rides facing forward in the Ergo. She also loves to get those sticky little hands into her big brother's hair, all tangled and intertwined. He doesn't mind too much, and can actually act very sweet and loving to her in between swinging her too fast in the jumper seat, spinning her in the staycation exersaucer, kissing licking her fat cheeks, and tickling her just a touch too hard. It really is hard to resist those cheeks, so I don't blame him.

    

Don't be fooled. He's licking her.
 

Who wouldn't adore this little guy back? He's a feisty little thing, or make that, feisty, big, strong, quickly growing thing, addicted to the latest: The Axel Show. I should have him do pushups while watching or something. But he needs his chill time too.

 

And this look on Josie's face, just for Hunter. That shows the adoration right there. Her very favorite person!

 Merry Christmas and Happy 2016!

February Surprises

Mid-February is usually so boring. My birthday is over, it is still winter, and I'm probably tired of it. I did meet Jeremy in mid-Feb 6 years ago, so 2009 was exciting. And this February has turned out to be more interesting too.

I, and the baby, had our 20 week ultrasound on Wednesday, and unlike in my last pregnancy, I have only had one other scan this time, so there was no "it sure looks like a boy, but I'm not 100%" guesses from the doctor. Closing my eyes at the end so I would be just as surprised as everyone else was tough, but I knew it would be more fun. After leaving the doctor's office, I went immediately to a bakery to drop off the results. The cake was scheduled for Saturday, and it was HARD to wait that long! Jeremy's mom and aunt came in town, and the cousins all trekked up the hill to find out what we are having.

There are so many gender prediction "tools" out there, and we found as many as we could before cutting the cake. It was swaying just slightly toward girl, but so many of them were wrong for Hunter that I was still firmly believing it was a boy. I felt the whole time that I was carrying another boy. The votes were in, and we should have believed the young kids (although Hunter went back and forth each time we asked him), and the grandma and great-aunt!

Almost even again. I had tried to over-interpret everything the ultrasound tech had said after knowing herself, but she was not giving anything away. Jackson and I had tried to see through the outer layer of icing for any clues, but none were found. Finally time to cut the cake, I was almost nervous!

And I was truly surprised to find pink in the middle!

Even little H was excited.

But after lots of pictures and texts and facetime chats with the other cousins, he was just wanting to eat the cake. And it turned out delicious!

We are super excited to welcome a little girl. It'll even things up around here.

Our smaller surprise of February was the ice storm we got Monday that closed down the roads and Jeremy's clinic for two days. Mammo and Nanny got back home to Kentucky just in time to get snowed in themselves.

I'll take it as a sign that I should have an easy running week, since I'm not steady on my feet or interested in busting my ass again anytime soon. The trainer will work just fine for a few days. I'll update on my "training" these days soon.

Older, slower, and clumsier

I've been trucking along, despite having gained a new tick on my tally of years lived. No new age groups for a couple more of these birthdays, and I'm not really racing much lately anyway. The best female endurance athletes always seem to be mid-30s, which I'm still classifying myself as for now. 

I am slowing down a bit, but I have my good reasons for that, not the least of which is winter coldness and all the extra clothes that go along with outdoor activity. 

But the clumsiness! Now in just the past 6 weeks or so I've tripped and come home bloody after two different runs. The first was on a trail made mostly of smooth gravel, but with sections of broken asphalt I was picking out of my hands weeks later. If I had just worn the thick gloves that day! Instead, I had on my new touchscreen compatible ones, since it is obviously too much trouble to put the glove on after starting strava. It was cold and I was fully clothed, thankfully, but still tore a hole in one of my favorite shirts at the elbow. The best husband ever (mine) remembered my love for these two moth-eaten, hand-me-down-gifted wool shirts and gave me a brand new one for my birthday. Helly Hansen base layer shirts! Go stock up. They are really the best for 40F or less. And they can save some of your skin. 

Anyway! I assumed that my fall was just due to the way my mind and eyes wander while running (not to forget the time I ran my forehead smack into a tree branch, requiring lots of stitches). But then just last week, running on a sidewalk with maybe a centimeter lip, I did it again. Flat onto my belly, hands, and, somehow, shoulder I skidded. I stood there in pain, contemplating whether I should just call for a ride home, but then decided it wasn't really that far after all. 

When I got home, Hunter saw my wounds, said, "Awwww!" and came over to kiss then. After inquiring as to what surface I had been running on, he gave me some excellent words of toddler wisdom: 

"Mommy, if you run on the grass it won't hurt so bad when you fall." 

Quite true, and he should know, since he has fallen a lot more frequently in the past almost 3 years than I have. 

All kinds of remedies to this problem have run through my mind. Should I switch out of my Hokas? I really love them but do seem to scrape my feet more in them. I can blame my hip flexors, possibly, for not reacting quickly enough and getting a foot under me. Maybe it's time for some silver sneakers classes in balance training in my old age. 

Pondering the meaning of life. And running surface impact. 

New Year!

The year ended without so much as a peep from this blog. Oops! I am slowly realizing that we are one of the last houses in the neighborhood to still have decorations up, but that could be due to the variety of cultures here, some of which do not celebrate with lights and trees to begin with. While it is still so dark outside so early in the evening, I use every ray of the twinkling lights on the tree for ambiance and warmth. The cloudiness that I should be accustomed to during the winter months in the southeast is still a little surprising to me after three years of daily, bright sunshine, literally about 360 days of the year. If it weren't for the noticeably growing daylight hours, and the fact that Target already has miniature pots of strawberry seeds and bikinis out on display, I would be more inclined to believe that winter is going to last forever. I can't get on facebook without the local weatherman's page telling me more about the arctic blast that will leave us all frozen after a few weeks. It starts tomorrow. Keep telling me that running in freezing temps is not so bad, ok?

So Christmas came! We had a cozy Christmas Eve and Day with the three of us celebrating by first going to a candlelight service, through which we made it approximately 10 minutes. Hunter hadn't napped, and all the excitement and darkness and music was putting him to sleep at 6 pm (most likely to wake around 8 pm for many hours), which would not have aligned well with Santa's plans. Instead we booked it  back home to feed the reindeer and put Santa's cookies out.

Two and a half is just the right age to start to understand how exciting Christmas can be, but I still think I was more excited than Hunter was. That sweet boy didn't tear through presents, but would find one and open it and play with it so long that we had to convince him to look at others.

New BFF

 

The joy

And then we can cook soup, and baked potatoes, and ....

 

Rescue cars? Cool!

 

They actually fit?

 

You got measuring cups? Perfect, because I got food.

Just before New Year's Eve, we drove to Germantown to see my family and celebrate with them: Christmas Part 2. It was cold, so there was no horsebackriding this time, but seeing the cousins and Nana and Granddaddy of course, was plenty of entertainment for Hunter.

We are missing Ethelyn and Ethan and Austin, and most of Jeremy, and I'm a little shaky with my panoramas, but you get the idea.

H and I started to develop a nasty cold on New Year's Eve, which thankfully explained his crankiness from the day. Unfortunately it is probably the worst one he has ever had, and we are both still sick almost a week later. Happy New Year!

Next up for us is a weekend trip to Kentucky to see Jeremy's family: Christmas Part 3. I am more than a little thankful that the toddler and I will be flying while Jeremy drives the 6 or so hours. No carseat! 

A kiss for the angel

We are looking forward to an exciting 2015! Happy New Year!

Oh Winter Training

How hard is winter training? I know some people love this time of year, and I do love the Christmas season, but not in relation to exercise. We can't complain that Jeremy only works at the daytime clinic 4 days a week, which leaves three days (on non-call weekends) of daylight hours in which to train. He has been getting up before 5 to get his workouts in, since he did sign up for an Ironman that takes place in 20-something weeks. That leaves a rare lunchtime or the after work (meaning DARK) hours for me. Not that I would trade training hours with him. Early mornings are not my thing. I used to try to get on the trainer while the toddler napped, but he has decided recently that naps just aren't for him anymore (and even back then, he could sense me riding and wake up after 30 minutes, getting mad that I was all sweaty). A few times the miracle of sleep has come upon us before 8pm on those non-napping days, for the first time in his life. But other times he likes to extend his waking hours so that when his internal alarm goes off at 7am, he has gotten a total of 9 hours of sleep in the last 24. He definitely gets it from his dad, because I have never been a naturally early riser, or one who happily survives on 30% less sleep than average. His latest sleeping habits include less frequent nursing, but if I'm not directly touching him, he wakes me up every hour or two to let me know. Every night. No, he doesn't "sleep through the night" yet, by any stretch, but I'm sure one of these days he will be in his own bed and I won't be alerted to this so frequently. I am really not complaining about this, since it's just part of having a little one, but rather I'm explaining why I just can't get up in the mornings to run, bike, or swim. Especially when it's cold and dark.

Since my decrease in mileage when I decided that the half marathon wasn't in the cards, I have slowly increased back up a bit, and even begun again the season of 24 where I left off, meaning I rode my trainer. I'm still going to the gym for barre or strength classes. I was thinking recently how ironic it is that I need to go to these classes when I have the knowledge to train myself perfectly well, and I have even been an instructor in many of these. It's just that I can't get the motivation part down. Or I just plain forget that it has been three weeks since I lifted a weight other than the toddler. 

We planned to have Jeremy run the St. Jude half last weekend. On Thursday I texted our homestay, Nancy, to see what time we should get there on Saturday. Her reply was that, well, the race starts at 8am Saturday, so... For the previous six months I had believed the race to be on Sunday, and now travel would need to happen Friday night after work, with either a cranky toddler, a napping on the way toddler, and/or a toddler who wanted to stay up until midnight and play with Nancy's kittens. She pointed out that it was a long way to go for 13 miles, and it occurred to me that yes, it was. So we stayed home. I was sad to miss my friends and fun in Memphis, especially since I wasn't the one who had to worry about racing. But we will be back!

Every post needs a toddler picture, so here is even better: a video clip of Hunter's first ride on Mystic. "Mommy, Daddy! I'm on the grass on Mystic on the grass!" He's a natural equestrian. I'm not a natural videographer I'm afraid.

.

The completely off season

I must have a button somewhere that switches me from in season to off season that was accidentally pressed. Ages ago, before I knew what exactly my hip problems were, I signed up for a half marathon. Five weeks out, it was time to add some mileage and get the hips accustomed to longer stuff again before completely surprising them with a race. I had a decent 10-miler, and then within 3 days, my off switch was turned. I have mentally DNSed the race already with 2 weeks to go.

I am a bit impressed with my ability to do so little exercise and not be completely crazy about it. Winter seems to do that to me anyway, just not always to such an extreme. Oh winter, you're not even here yet and I'm ready for you to be gone. I'm missing the sun being up after 5pm, the flowers that were suddenly killed by the freeze, oh, and warmth. How can 70F inside feel so different between winter and summer?

My gym will probably be attended more frequently soon. By me. I have started my own little hip rehab in the form of barre class. I may the last person on earth to try it, since I'm rather slow to embrace fitness trends. The class seemed not particularly difficult, but the tightness in my little stabilizing hip muscles for the following three days told me it was working! I'm really excited to see if this, finally, is the key to fewer troubles. 

If the pool at this gym could manage to keep their air temperature above the outside temperature, I may get back into it. But convincing myself to jump into water when I'm shivering already isn't an easy task. 

One success so far this cold fall is that the toddler happily wears a jacket outside! It's a miracle. But don't dare suggest a hat or gloves. We will just be trying to keep our little fingers warm by the electric space heater in the garage for now. 

Somebody still gets his mileage in. With a passenger on board too!

LR half marathon

Some people are fair weather fans. Some are fair weather friends. I'm a fair weather racer. Sunday was completely devoid of fair weather.

Saturday was Emily's first 5K!

I was having confidence problems going into the weekend, despite my best efforts. Although I don't put much weight on rankings and such, I'd just found out I was USAT All American for 2013. This sounded suspicious to me given my less than stellar results this past year and since I only everrank that high in my IMFL years. So when I realized they had altogether eliminated the category of Honorable Mention, my usual end of year status, and just called all of us All American this year, I wasn't surprised. But I tried to let it boost my confidence anyway. Then there was something about getting ranked as a silver medalist for Ironman? Seems at least one of my blah 70.3s this year was good enough to get me there, whatever that means. As sad as it sounds I reminded myself of these things, and that I can run this half marathon course well enough to win $500 (when nobody shows up). And even get into the elite corral ("you're elite?"). And surely even if we had terrible weather, I thought I was in better shape than I was for my half marathon in October. And the course Sunday was a good bit flatter. 

Hey both feet are off the ground! Must be very early on. 

I told Damie the day before that if I didn't have a good race, I'd blame the weather, and it's true! It was the weather's fault! And those crazy people who convince me to wear less clothing than I really need. I kept thinking of the year I wore a long sleeved shirt under my Los Locos tank and took it off from underneath the tank while running. I didn't want something like that to happen again, and it was going to be over 50 degrees at the start, so I wore shorts and short sleeves. I had been stalking a local weatherman all week and he told me that the front would come in much faster than  predicted. But I didn't listen. Instead of dropping 4 degrees in 90 minutes, it was more like a 15 degree drop. It rained on and off, it was windy with nobody to draft off of, and I froze up in mile 6. 

It was all going fine, or at least ok, until then, except for having no traction on even the slightest uphills due to the slick roads. After mile marker 5, a guy I had chatted with at the start came up beside me and talked again. It took my mind off things for a bit, but I found myself out of breath afterward and feeling significantly worse. The mile splits took a turn in the wrong direction, and I wish I had too, but my main concern was the sharp pain in my right hip/SI joint (the usual) and the cold numbness creeping up my arms and legs, as well as my blurring vision. Does this not happen to anyone else? Jeremy acted like I was nuts when I told him how my vitreous humor must be freezing up when it's cold because I can't see after a while. Can Raynauds affect your eyeballs?

Surprisingly to me, I kept passing women and a few men along the way. I'd been assigned to corral B but snuck into A before the start, not that anybody cared. I was slowing down dramatically but still keeping the same distance on one small woman ahead of me until mile 11. When I passed her as we turned into a headwind, she tucked in behind me and stayed there for a bit. It was all fine until she started kicking my heels! She said something that I didn't understand but kind of didn't sound like apologizing. But my ears were pretty frozen too. She then dropped back and I never saw her again. I was passed by a speedy woman at mile 12, and tried to keep her in sight, but once she was 10 yards ahead of me I couldn't get a clear view of her anymore and that was that.

 ug

The last mile-point-one took freaking forever, and I can now assume that is because it was a 13.35 mile race according to my Garmin and everybody else's that I looked up online. Why can't races come up a little short anymore? I'll pretend it was the full distance if you will. I somehow hit my lap button on the Garmin around 13.11 without having any feeling in my fingers, so I'll go with that time instead of another 1:35! I'm cursed by the 1:35s still, but I suppose it could easily be worse. I crossed the finish line and was told to keep moving by a warm dry man who had not been running, and his light hand on my back just might've caused me to fall forward if I hadn't mumbled something about needing a second to stand ("BACK OFF DUDE!" no, i didn't say that). I went to get my large medal and heard my name being called by a mylar blanket wrapped person standing just a couple yards in front of me. It happened to be my sister, who had been calling my name right in front of me over and over before I could see or hear her. She had been getting frostbite waiting for me after her 10k, with her new friends I thought she was going to introduce me to.

This is one in a series of 4 (4!) photos where I'm looking at my watch. It's such an unbelievably bad time. Or I can't believe it was that long. Or it just took a while for my eyeballs to work. 

The real win of the day was the awesome parking spot we got about a block from the finish line, so after we loaded up on junk food and made a quick warm up stop in the coffee shop in between, we got to the car and sat in the blasting heat for about 10 minutes before I felt stable enough to drive. The numbness masked the awful pain in my, well, everything (whose lats hurt after half marathons?), which keeps reminding me of what a bad decision it was to run. I was actually wishing they had just canceled the whole thing. I almost thought I'd gotten away with another pitiful race going unnoticed, since I was mysteriously missing from the results, just like that Phoenix marathon that I may or may not have run. Turns out they had me listed as a 10K finisher with a spectacular 15:20 per mile pace. It has since been corrected, assuming 13.1 miles, which it was not! So marks the end of my half marathon season. It's on to trail races now.

It's not actually a mug shot. 

Spring! Or, the last month of winter

The locals keep telling me this is an especially cold winter. I wouldn't have known the difference since I couldn't remember what southeastern winters were like after being away three years. But it sure has seemed cold! It's harder keeping a toddler occupied when he a) won't wear a hat or gloves or any jacket other than his brown one outside and b) won't get in the car. At least he has an excellent imagination and plenty of little people animals, Mickeys, Legos, and coloring books inside.

But it has warmed up! At least temporarily. So we have gotten to spend more time outside, chalking up the driveway again, digging in the flower beds, and filling the "we-cycle gahbage can" again and again. H actually knows what gets thrown in the trash and what gets recycled already. Good little environmentalist.  

Besides our crayola 48 pack(s) of chalk (we go through them quickly), other art supplies that we love for use indoors (for next week when it gets cold again) are our crayola window markers and gel markers. Finally a white marker that works! I had one as a kid, in the shape of a mouse, that didn't really do much, so the technology has improved! The best crayons are still our Melissa & Dougs. They are squared off and impossible to break, as hard as a toddler might try. We have a Melissa & Doug sticker book with vinyl restickable stickers. There are 5 different landscapes and about 100 stickers for each. Very loved. And yet another Melissa & Doug product we have is a stamp kit with washable ink. Our animal stencils have come in handy for making shapes out of our fingerprints. We have a little more playdough in the fridge (I will never buy playdough it's so easy to make), but we keep accidentally leaving it out, rendering it useless. Or actually it is useful for making painful indentations in the bottom of feet when it is stepped on.

I have enjoyed a few warm runs, just in time for a half marathon taper. This time I will try not to completely stop exercising in the 10 days before the race. I don't step on the scale too often, but when I did last time, there they were, 2 winter pounds that must have been put on with all the heavy winter gear. But never taken off. Wow these 4 months between half marathons went quickly. As always, I should've done more! With spring comes a little more motivation to get outside running, and maybe even to get to the pool more than once every 2 weeks. Ah we'll see. Which, growing up, always meant "not gonna happen." But I bought a shiny new swimsuit in case it does ever happen again.

 little hands at work

just before the jump

 

clever little one knows he's cute

 

My electronic coach

Wednesday of this week was track day, and by "track" I mean "church parking lot." Lucky for me, it's a huge church parking lot, about 1.3 miles from my house if I go the long way. On the schedule was 16x400s at 10k pace with a 200m jog between. Jeremy set up the Garmin with the workout for me so I wouldn't so much as push a button during the whole thing. Who knew it could be so simple? I might've been thinking out loud when I mumbled in front of my husband something about 10k pace being 6:30 per mile, and without asking any more questions, that's what he told the Garmin I wanted to do for my 400s.

My planned route was to take the outside parking lot line over and over, since it is almost exactly a mile with only a tiny bit of doubling back. What I hadn't planned on, despite Jenny's warning of the windiness of the day, was that the biggest uphill of the loop was also straight into the wind. And that's where I started my first 400. I appreciated the countdown distance to go and the 5 beeps it gave me before another interval was to begin or end. I appreciated not having to count .25mi, then .12mi for recovery and all the mathematics it would involve for an oxygen deprived brain. But I didn't know it would be so vocal about my slowness. Obviously, on my first 400, just being my first, plus going uphill, plus going into the wind, I wasn't hitting my goal pace. And Garmin beeped at me to let me know that. Every 10 seconds. OK, Coach Shankman Garmin, I get that I'm slow (flashbacks to college). I learned a few more intervals into it that it also beeps when you're finally on pace. I think I heard that congratulatory beep 3 times during the workout. It was a tough one for me, even though I quickly learned to avoid the windiest, hilliest side of that parking lot, and instead did multiple small, flat loops before I headed to a downhill for my hard intervals. I know, I'm only cheating myself. :) It is a good thing Garmin doesn't beep more when you go super slow, since my last interval I did already headed home on a gravelly road by the field, uphill of course, and I think it was 8 minute pace.

Doesn't this route look enticing?

A little sun, a little warmth, a bit of training

I think this is why people live in the southeast: you get a few days of snow and ice, then a few days of sun and 65 degrees. In December. It is the shortest day of the year, which is exciting since days get longer from here. I may not be getting any tan lines this weekend like I did in Alamogordo on the shortest day, since it is pouring rain, but I can wear shorts running in it! (I swam, in the indoor pool, instead today.) And then we are returning to winter in a few days, but it's Christmas, so expected.

These short days are making it hard to fit in outdoor running. Jeremy goes in the mornings and I usually run on weekends and Wednesdays, with last week's runs totally 17 miles.  I went twice. I need either more lighted streets or fewer cars around or both to make my evening runs more frequent. I have been religiously hitting the trainer though. Every other day of the week I have tried to get on as soon as Hunter goes to sleep for his nap, and have successfully gotten in about 45 minutes each time. Except the other day, when just before I finished up a hard 10 minute interval, he woke up. He is sleeping in the usual spot, our bed on the floor. He can get in and out easily, and I keep the stairs baby gate locked, but only a few times has he woken up and just walked out of the room. Usually he calls for me. I have never let him cry, so as soon as I heard him I sprinted up the stairs. Of course at this point I was a sweaty mess, and he turned up his nose at me, like I smelled or something.

It might possibly be the extra hours on the trainer, but my SI joint is not getting better. I skipped the chiropractor again this week, since I really can't justify $40 for 10 minutes of stim and ART. The Sacro-Wedgy effectiveness is still up in the air. It is not comfortable to lie on, but I have been doing it every night. Swimming is rough on it, as is sitting on the floor with Hunter, which is where I spend a very large proportion of my waking hours. I have no solution to my pain so far, and I don't want to sound like a senior citizen the rest of my life complaining about my back.

It's hard to believe Christmas is almost here! We celebrated Ethan's 4th birthday this week at Jump Zone, which is SOOOO fun for a toddler, and a Mexican feast. I am trying to keep myself from eating my weight in Moose Munch (at least it is hard to do, since light fluffy popcorn is at its core) and the pies that I will make this week. The last minute shopping seems to be complete with today's trip to Target. And side note: is it just me, or is it hard to resist things with JOY written on them this time of year? There are canisters, shirts, towels, place mats, glasses, plates, candles, ornaments, everything! I want them all. Do people with other names have this problem? The Hopes know what I'm saying.

 Uh oh, there's a bulb out! We checked every light, didn't we Dad? You taught me everything I know about exterior illumination.

Winter is here

Nothing says winter like a few beautiful 75 degree days. Knowing Wednesday was the last one like that for a while, I put my running shorts on and did a little 8 miler with some tempo miles thrown in to try to beat the husband's pace for the day. However the sickness that I'd had starting a few days before kept me from the victory this time. I got my first winter cold before the winter cold weather even got here. It's turned out to be the worst cough I've had since Hunter was born. I notice this fact because not only is it frustrating to wake yourself up coughing repeatedly each night, but having to stuff a pillow into your mouth to avoid waking the baby is the icing on the cake. Or maybe the icing is when you have him almost asleep and that horrible jarring cough comes out of nowhere and startles him. Being sick is fun enough before kids. It is so much more so while trying to take care of a toddler. Luckily his nursing provides him lots of good antibodies and he has only gotten a runny nose, so at least I'm not trying to entertain a very sick toddler.

After running Wednesday I didn't stick to my word and rescheduled my chiropractor appointment so that I could go to the massage therapist. She was good, and said I have "a lot going on in there" when she worked on my hips. I decided that while it costs more than my $40 copay at the chiropractor, it lasts so much longer and feels so much better. I might become a (more) regular. She recommended an apparatus called the sacro-wedgie for helping my deep hip muscles relax, so I put it right on my Christmas list.

We knew the cold would be coming along Thursday and the temperature steadily dropped all day. Friday the ice came, which brought Jeremy slowly home from work very early. Unfortunately Hunter and I just watched as Dad and the cousins sledded down our street. He's not much for being cold, and jackets, mittens, and hats aren't his thing. It's like he's not even listening when I explain the theory behind "winter clothing." Toddlers.

I'm fine right here, thank you 

See? I'm so much happier shirtless.

Indoor activities are going to have to be stepped up for a while during this long cold that is forecasted. We have already made a dent in the 400 page Mickey coloring book. I can see a difference in his coloring skills already. I'm totally impressed at his ability to stay inside the lines already. I'm hoping he doesn't get his Daddy's inability to color things the proper color though. Yellow jaundiced eyes on a duck? Come on people. Apparently I've always been the coloring Nazi, according to my poor little sister, who I stood over while she used my set of 64 crayolas (with the built-in sharpener-- that, honestly, who would ever want to use?). She told me this memory and i actually felt sorry for my young self. I'm sure I was made to share my precious pack of crayons with her, and was trying not to get mad when she put the oranges back in the wrong order. And obviously, there is a correct order. It's called the rainbow.

  ...my blue suede shoes

 "Doof" looking sharp with his pants matching his shoes

I did happen to color the red pants, but his black shoe and green glove and face are looking just as good.

And speaking of Mickey, he's one busy guy at our house, with all the excavation by truck...

...and by bucket. Mickey signs to us a lot now, and lends a helping hand even more.

 I'm about to start him working as my sous chef since his play dough cutting skills are rivaling my onion dicing skills. I'm not sure the plastic knife will work as well on an onion as it does on the raspberry scented homemade red dough, however. And he may be too young for the Henckels. 

We have worked on decorating for Christmas, and Hunter has sorted and boxed and dumped and bounced all the plastic ornaments we could find-- over and over. He has helped make some new ornaments as well, including his handprinted one complimenting last year's, and a few clear glass ones with Christmas confetti and shredded tissue paper inside.

 Such a fascinating tradition we have here of hanging strange objects on a tree inside

So inside snuggling our precious ones we will stay for the next week until the weather warms up, getting our exercise (well some of us) on the trainer, doing laps running around the house, racing at the starting sound of "GOGOGO!" and practicing our somersaults and pikes on the bed. Stay warm, friends!