Secrets...

So, I've been absent from this space for a while, but with good reason. I've been keeping a secret. And I'm terrible at keeping secrets and/or lying by omission, so I usually just keep my mouth shut for fear of revealing the wrong thing.

But, now it's safe to say: There's going to be more spit-up in my future. Estimated due date: February 7th.

I'm beyond excited and here are some things I've been dying to share:

*After waiting TWO hours at the doctor's office, the doctor said he thought I was measuring large and might be carrying twins. OMG. Heart-stopping news. He said that he wanted to order an early ultrasound, but the soonest they could get me scheduled would be THREE WEEKS. I cannot wait three minutes -- much less weeks -- to find out if I'm having twins. So, thanks to my resourcefulness, I managed to find another office who could schedule me the next day. There's just one baby and he/she is big already.

*I have been SO sick this time around. I think I've spent more time in the bathroom than in my bed. One sweet side-effect: Little Man comes to the bathroom to comfort me and pat me on the back. He is such a sweet little boy. Thankfully, the nausea is subsiding and I'm feeling better each day.

*Little Man is already letting his new sibling know who's the boss. He's been poking, jabbing, and climbing all over my stomach. We're working on breaking that habit -- fast.

Book Updates

I haven't posted in a while because I've been having a torrid affair...with my Kindle. Man, do I love that thing. (Thanks again, Mom and Dad!)


I'm officially a quarter of the way to my goal of reading 100 books this year. I'm on #26, which is Kitty Kelley's unauthorized biography of Oprah (don't judge me). It's not something I would normally read, but I need something somewhat normal and not too scary. Here's some of the best books I've read lately.

Hide by Lisa Gardner: Do not read this book unless you are very, very brave. I am a big scaredy cat and literally did not sleep an entire night after I finished this book. It is absolutely terrifying and filled with suspense. The plot, which includes several intersecting stories, was unbelievably well-thought out. The characters were interesting and believable. If you like suspense and thrillers, go for it. Just make sure you sleep with the lights on, and don't say I didn't warn you. I would love to read more books by this author, but quite frankly, I'm too afraid.

The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer: Definitely not as good as the Twilight books, but entertaining nonetheless. I had a hard time remembering the character Bree and the newborn vampire back story from Meyer's previous books, but I was still able to follow the story. It was a short, easy read to satisfy my Twilight cravings until Eclipse premieres on June 30th.

Life Sentences by Laura Lippman: Really anything by this author would be good. Some of her tales are scarier than others. This was a great story about a mother whose infant goes missing and she refuses to tell anyone what happened. It sounds terrifying, but wasn't. It's a quick read and satisfies by urges for mystery without giving me nightmares!

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson: I loved the first two books in this series and pre-ordered this one on Amazon. Maybe I had my hopes too high for the last book, but I was a bit disappointed. The story really dragged in some places and it was weighed down by too many other side-stories. If you've read the other two books by Stieg Larsson, definitely read this one but be prepared for a bit of a letdown.

If you're looking for more great books, join Jonna's online book club. I'm planning on reading more of her selections soon.

I'm still looking for more books to read. What are the best books you've read recently?

Cuteness

Just when I thought my heart couldn't melt anymore than it already has, Little Man has entered a whole new world of cuteness. I promise to capture some of this cuteness on video, but until then you'll have to take my word for it.

*Blowing kisses. He has started blowing kisses all the time, which is cute all by itself. But, he also makes this kissing/smacking sound on his hand as he blows his kisses. Too cute for words!

*Speaking of words, the Little Man's vocabulary is growing! We have been sounding out words for him and making letter sounds and to hear him repeat them is adorable. Today, he said f-f-f-f-an and pointed at our ceiling fan.

*Feeding himself and using his spoon. He's finally (mostly) mastered using his spoon. Tonight, he ate sweet potatoes and corn using only his spoon. He doesn't quite get a lot of food on his spoon, but he licks every bit off! Occasionally, he also uses his hands to help out. Because, really, who doesn't like smearing potatoes all over their face?

Hiatus

I promise I'm still alive.

We've been crazy busy and I've thought a million times about posting, but I haven't brought my little fingers to the keyboard.

I'll get to that soon. Promise.

In the meantime, check out the links to other fabulous bloggers whom I admire and adore. They are brilliantly funny.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all! Our day was filled with a pancake breakfast and a family trip to the zoo.

I couldn't have asked for a better day, but just in case I could The Smartest Man Alive got me a Keurig. I am loved, spoiled, and couldn't be happier.

Thank you, Little Man, for giving me the best job of all: Mom. Each day you bring me joy, happiness, and a love like no other. And thank you to my own mom who continues to love and nurture me even in adulthood.

Dude, Where's My ...

I haven't been able to blog in a while, because I've been so busy ... making sure our house doesn't turn into a toxic dump and get swallowed whole by the earth.

So. How old is old enough to pick up your own toys? I'm wondering because that's a LARGE part of our house cleaning issue. Little Man has turned into a whirling dervish and anything that's not nailed down is fair game. The Smartest Man Alive thinks he's too young to learn to put away his own toys, but I think we should start teaching him now. He's 16 months and if we could contain the clutter in some specific part of the house, that would be immensely helpful.

Right now, he has a playroom. But, he brings all of his toys out into the living room and promptly ignores them so that he can dismantle my baker's rack filled with cookbooks, opens cabinets and removes various bakeware and then scatter it all over the house ... you get the picture.

I hate clutter and the sooner we can resolve this problem, the better for all of us.

Super Mama

The Smartest Man Alive is out of town coaching a high school girls lacrosse game. So, Little Man and I have been on our own today. I was dreading this day because I thought surely this will be an epic disaster. Little Man will be grumpy, I'll lose my patience and there will be TOO MUCH to do. Turns out, I was wrong. There was still too much to do, but we both managed to end the day without any tantrums (from either of us).

Accomplished all by 7:35 p.m.

*Worked from 7 a.m. until 2:45 p.m.

*Picked up Little Man from day care.

*Went back to work with Little Man in tow to tutor kids afterschool.

*Drove home AND remembered which roads were closed due to construction.

*Made dinner -- Spinach and ricotta ravioli with spaghetti sauce and dinner rolls.

*Unloaded the dishwasher, reloaded it, washed all of Little Man's dishes and cups.

*Bathed Little Man

*Played with Little Man

*Put Little Man to sleep

*Packed for our trip to Orlando tomorrow.

*Made lunches for both of us.

So, yeah, I'm amazing.

Silly Mama

Little Man needed to go back to the doctor today to make sure his ear infection was gone. While we were in the waiting room, he picked up an Animal Babies book. We flipped through it about 100 times looking at the animals.

Little Man flips pages like a maniac, so quickly in fact that he usually misses a few pages without realizing it. Thus, I can look at a board book about 10 times and still discover new pages!

During about the 10th viewing, we came across a picture of a kangaroo and a joey. I read to Little Man about how mama kangaroos keep their babies in pouches. We looked at the picture of the baby cuddling in the mama's pouch and I told Little Man how much I wished I could keep him in a little pouch.

He looked up at me and laughed. Silly Mama!

Ladies' Man

We went to a new church today. It has a nursery for infants and pre-schoolers that is perfect for Little Man. We go to Mass while Little Man plays with the other kids and enjoys a snack. It's in a Kindergarten classroom and there's plenty of things to play with and room to explore.

I was a little nervous about dropping Little Man off this morning because it was smack in the middle of his naptime. He gets shy around new people anyway, and I thought he might get whiny, clingy, and tantrum-y. But, apparently he had a grand time. The nursery volunteers reported that he was very well-behaved and he was bouncing in the arms of a older girl when we picked him up.

As we were leaving church, we passed a group of middle school girls who were standing near a church bake sale stand. The Smartest Man Alive overheard this: "There he is! That's Logan." That statement was followed by pointing and oohing and ahhing.

My son, the ladies' man.

Bad to the Bone

Things my dear, sweet son has accomplished this week:

1. He grabbed a beer out of the refrigerator. Seriously. Thankfully, it was one of the plastic bottle kinds (we are classy people) and I was standing there to intercept the contraband.

2. While we were in a toy store with my dad, he grabbed a few toys that were sitting out as displays and headed straight for the door. My dad caught the little shoplifter as he was making his getaway.

Isn't this enough to make a mama's heart swell with pride?

A Gold Star for Mama

Little Man had two public meltdowns today. I've been dreading the day that this occurs and I pictured myself getting sweaty, frantic, and dashing out of a store without looking back. But in reality I was calm, patient, and we both survived.

Scene #1: Snip-Its, a hair salon for kids.

I've been meaning to get Little Man shoes for about a month now, but he's been sick, we've been busy, blah, blah, blah. So today we went to Viera, an outdoor shopping mall about 45 minutes north of our home. We got there a little after 9 a.m. and discovered that most of the stores didn't open until 10 a.m. (Side note: Seriously, business owners, 10 a.m. is ridiculous. We've been up since 6 a.m. and we're itching to get our errands done, so get your lazy butts out of bed a little earlier and open your stores!) We stopped by the book store and walked around to window shop.

Then, we discovered Snip-Its. It's a children's hair salon that is decorated with toys, colorful contraptions and animated movies for little guys and girls to watch while they get their hair trimmed. So, I figured we'd quickly stop in, get a quick hair cut and then buy our new big-boy shoes. Little screamed nearly from the time he hit the swivel chair. At one point, he actually wriggled out of the safety strap and nearly made a getaway. Nothing would appease the dear child. No amount of bubble-blowing, video-watching, lollipop-bribing would work. He just reached his chubby little arms out to his mama and screamed. It quite possibly was the longest hair cut of my life, but just kept repeating soothing words.

"It's O.K."

"It doesn't hurt."

"We're almost done."

"Awww. It's tough being a big boy."

He finally got his lollipop, I paid and was relieved we were done.

Scene #2: The shoe store

By the time we made it to the shoe store, Little Man was contentedly sucking on his lollipop. The store was filled with little boys, so he smiled and was making friends while his mama perused the shoes. He consented to his foot being measured. He smiled sweetly for the sales lady when she put on his new shoes. But, he did not like the shoes. He stomped his feet, pounded his little fists, laid on the ground and CRIED hysterically. He absolutely refused to stand or walk in the shoes and he only stopped screeching when I put him back in his stroller. The nice sales lady assured me that he was not the worst she'd seen, and I breathed a quiet sigh of relief. By the time we got home, he had recovered from his shoe opposition and was happily walking around the house.

Mama survived both meltdowns. Now, where's my gold star?

Spring Cleaning

I've never really felt compelled to do the whole "Spring Cleaning" thing, but we are, quite possibly, living in squalor right now. To be fair, it's not really squalor, but it's definitely below my standards (which are low for housecleaning).

Mainly the problem is that we have stacks, piles, and mountains of stuff. Books, magazines, random to-do lists half-completed, odds and ends are littering our house. I tackled part of the kitchen today. (Well, if we're being honest here, just the counter.) I bought a desk organizer from Target and cleaned out our old kitchen basket. Everything is now neatly in its place. Everything that didn't fit in the basket got shredded or pitched into the trash.

Now, the only problem is where to go next. I don't feel like our house is necessarily dirty -- just cluttered. I've bought "organizers" before, but they never seem to work out for one reason or another. You really need to have a plan and see what fits for your particular situation. Boxes and bins sometimes just contain the clutter instead of eliminating excess junk.

Normally, I'm great at organizing smaller spaces -- like my classroom at school -- but the entire house just seems so DAUNTING.

Tell me, interwebz, how do you stay organized and eliminate the clutter at home?

In the meantime, I'm going to peruse Martha's Spring Cleaning checklist and see if I can muster some motivation to tackle it.

Sickness

Is it possible to have a 104 degree fever TWICE in one week, driving your emotionally-fragile mom to the brink of Googling-madness? Why, yes it is, dear friends.

We're going to the doctor today.

Here's hoping that there will be fewer lukewarm baths and and less nail-biting in our future.

I suppose I've learned a few things during this prolonged illness.

1. If there's a bright side to having a sick kid, it's this: The Snuggles. Little Man normally is a rough 'n tumble, lemme go, lemme go kind of kid. But, when he's not feeling well, he's content to snuggle with his mama ALL DAY LONG. It's nice when I'm not worrying that he has some sort of fatal illness.

2. A calm husband is worth his weight in gold during times of sickness. Thanks, Smartest Man Alive.

3. Always be prepared. We had several bottles of Pedialyte, Tylenol and Motrin on hand so that when his fever spiked we didn't have to run to the store. I'm making it my personal mission to make sure we always have those supplies on hand.

UPDATE: We have a virus plus an ear infection! Antibiotics have been injested and we are simply waiting for them to work their magic.

Fever, Part II

We were fever-free for about five days. Then, today the fever returned. Little Man slept fitfully last night, but we chalked it up to sleeping in the Pack 'n Play. He wound up in bed with us for most of the night, thrashing and snorting.

My mom swears that she can "smell" sickness before symptoms even surface. She says it's a sweet, acetone smell. I've always been a bit skeptical, but she's never been wrong. While I schlepped The Smartest Man Alive to his lacrosse tournament early Saturday, mom came over to watch Little Man. She announced that he had the "sick smell" and put him down for a nap.

My sister and I scoffed at her prediction and that was Mistake #1: Don't Mess with Mama's Intuition. Six hours later, Little Man was feverish, cranky, and cantankerous.

Right now, we're hoping the fever is being caused by a nasty tooth and not an ear infection or a recurrence of the cold.

Fingers crossed.

Hot Mess

You haven't heard from me in a while and that's because we've been a HOT MESS around these parts.

• Little Man had his first serious fever yesterday. (104 degrees. OMG.) We think it was a combination of his 15-month shots, teething, and a virus. Thankfully, he is miraculously recovered today and currently refusing to nap.
• To take my mind off the above-mentioned drama of the fever, I attempted to make Pioneer Woman's Caramel Pumpkin Gingersnap Cheesecake. The result was a very scrumptious cheesecake that would not come out of the springform pan and dripped hot caramel all over the bottom of my oven. Have you ever tried to scrub hardened caramel off the bottom of your oven? No? Well, you're missing a good time.
• The Smartest Man Alive and I have had lingering head colds all week. I've been alternately lounging on the couch feeling miserable and declaring myself cured for about five days.
• To make up for all this chaos, I decided to attempt these cute little Individual Raspberry Cobblers. While they bake, I'm watching re-runs of The Real Housewives of NYC and waiting for the oven to blow-up or something.

Good thing tomorrow's Monday and Auntie is heading our way.

Brain Food

Before Little Man was born, I devoured dozens of child-rearing and baby development books. They preached, advised, and recommended the best ways to raise a well-adjusted, intelligent child.

I thought I was well-prepared, but we all know you can never be truly prepared for motherhood. When Little Man was an infant, I worried about SIDS, tummy time, feeding him formula, and finding a good day care.

As he's grown, my worries have changed to motor-skill and language development. It's brought out a side of me that I'm not really proud of. As I listen to other parents speak about their children, I'm mentally ticking off how Little Man compares. It's brought out a lot of unneccessary worry on my part, and I've recognized this in myself, but it's been hard to stop.

I just started reading Einstein Never Used Flashcards: How Our Children Really Learn -- and Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less* by a pair of child psychologists.

This book was the Aha! moment that I needed. Being a teacher, I know how children learn. It just reinforced what I already know, but it was exactly the reassurance that I needed. Little Man is learning plenty just by playing. He doesn't need special classes or flashcards to learn about the world around him.

It's also helped me appreciate his own interests. Little Man loves books and puzzles. He jabbers and gestures. He has buddies at day care and eats and sleeps well. In short, he's a perfectly normal 15-month old boy.

*This is not a paid endorsement. I bought the book on Amazon and am only expressing my personal opinion.

To do: Make a List

Every year, the excitement of the approaching summer hits me around spring time. I start making a mental list of all kinds of things I just don't have time for during the school year.

The idea of months away from work to just do stuff is sometimes overwhelming. For weeks, sometimes months, I walk around our house announcing that various things are going to get taken care of once it's summer. But, if we're being honest here, most of the stuff doesn't get done. It gets shelved in favor of vacation, spending time with friends, reading, and basically relaxing.

This summer, I'm making a list and checking it twice. I can't resist a good list and the feeling of accomplishment once something gets checked off.

To-Do

1. Continue on my 100 book crusade. I've done the math and I need to read at least 8 books per month. I've already read 11 in January and February, but I'll have more time to read during the summer.


2. Make Cupcake-Pops. These are from Bakerella and as soon as I laid my eyes on them, I feel in love. Seriously, l-o-v-e.

3. Finally rid our house of the various mismatched sheets, ill-fitting clothes, old dishes, cheap cutlery, you name it. It's going!

4. Update this blog more often!

5. Finish Little Man's 1st year scrapbook. On second thought: Finish all the scrapbooks that are half-finished. *wink* *wink* Smartest Man Alive. (I'm still working on his 30th birthday scrapbook two years later.)

...I'm sure I'll have other things to add as the weather starts warming up and summer approaches. What's on your to-do list?

Busy Reading

So, now that I've run my first 5K, I'm on to a new goal. This was, in part, inspired by Hillary at NotRaisingBrats. Before The Lad was born, she read more than 100 books in 2009. I'm a reading teacher and probably read HALF that. Shame on me! So, in an effort to have a more respectable reading record, I'm reading 100 books in 2010.

My trusty Kindle will make suggestions along the way, but so far I've just been getting suggestions from friends.

Here's what I've read so far:
Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Stephanie Meyer
The Solace of Leaving Early, Haven Kimmel
Lucy, Jamaica Kincaid
The Likeness, Tana French
In the Woods, Tana French
People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks
Hatchet, Gary Paulsen
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Steig Larsson
Gooney Bird Green, Lois Lowry

I've also joined Jonniker's Book Lushes site to get more recommendations and discuss books online. Happy reading!

Walking

The past few weeks have been full of pulling on pant legs, whining, and tentatively sticking our feet out to take a step or two. In the past few days, we've progressed into taking five or six steps toward mommy or daddy.

Today, we let go.

We have a stumbly, trippy, not-so-balanced walker. He steps carefully, spreading his arms wide, looking down, and then grinning up at us. He stops to clap for himself with a huge grin that advertises his pride.

It's bittersweet for me. I can remember when he was two weeks old, snuggling him against me after a nursing session and crying. The Smartest Man Alive asked why I was crying and I told him it was because I never wanted Little Man to grow up. I wanted him to stay this small forever. Small enough to fit in his mama's arms and cuddle. I still feel that way. I imagine it will be this way on his first day of school, when he learns to ride his bike, and drive a car.

But, I'll always have these memories to replay in my mind. His first nursing session, the first time he crawled, his first steps.

It's a beautiful life.

Food Rut

Little Man is one lucky kid.

The Smartest Man Alive and I are pretty good cooks and Little Man has always been a voracious eater. As I've mentioned, cooking makes me feel like I'm providing for my family, physically and emotionally. Lately, I've felt like we've been in a food rut. (Side note: Seriously, who thinks about these things?)

So, this afternoon I decided to shake things up.

Breakfast first: I baked some Lemon Cranberry Scones from Smitten Kitchen. Then, I sent The Smartest Man Alive to the grocery store to retrieve tomatoes, turkey bacon, and English muffins as a back-up breakfast option.

For snack time, he usually eats fruit. I totally believe in the power of Vitamin C to keep us healthy, and usually he eats blueberry and mango. To add a little variety, I bought a strawberry and kiwi mix from Fresh Market and added that to his normal fruit salad.

For lunch, he'll have leftover stir-fry, mozzarella cheese bites, and Cheerios. (Incidentally, I didn't realize what an odd combination that is until I just typed it.) Later in the week, he'll eat turkey and cheese roll-ups, pizza pitas and whatever else we have leftover from our dinner.

At dinner, we'll have Grilled Chicken and Vegetables over Saffron Orzo.

Cooking helps me feel like I'm taking care of my family. What do you do for your family that makes you feel good?

Resolution Update

In January, I decided that I would try to be more "present" this year. I wanted to free myself from multi-tasking, disconnect from technology, and enjoy the moment. Such lofty goals.

I also promised to unplug once per week, prioritize my to-do list, and write about my experience once a month. Right off the bat, I think I should confess that after the first week I totally FORGOT all about the unplugging. However, the Lenten season is upon us and I have given up Facebook for a whole 40 days. Take that, time-sucking-technology!

I thought multi-tasking was going to be the hardest to give up, but I've felt so much more focused. It's a such a great feeling to just concentrate on what I'm doing, even if it's as simple as making Little Man's lunch. It's just intentional.

Prioritizing has been much harder to do. Perhaps other people have known this about me (and if you do, keep it to yourself), but I'm an impatient-obsessive-compulsive-micromanaging-mess. The house is a wreck: Major Meltdown; Little Man is sent to daycare without a change of clothes (which he later needs) and I'm ready to sob inconsolably for obviously being such a neglectful mother; The Smartest Man Alive shrugs his shoulders when I ask what he wants for dinner and he nearly gets a whack to the head. All of a sudden, I'm overwhelmed and wondering whatever happened to stopping to smell the roses.

It's just that I want everything done NOW and RIGHT and MY WAY. I honestly have never really realized this and considered myself rather easy-going. The Smartest Man Alive has always looked at me sideways and stifled a laugh when I mentioned this, but now I feel like I'm seeing myself in another way. Recognizing the problem is the first step, right?

I suppose that's the beauty of motherhood and this great "life" adventure is that you get to see yourself grow and change.

Kid-free vacation

Can I just tell you what the power of an adults-only vacation has on a mother's psyche?


Wow.


We took a three-day mini vacation to the Bahamas sans-Little Man last weekend. He spent quality time with his auntie and Granny Bulldog and Grampa Stu. Before this trip, I had no idea what slaves we were to his schedule. It was absolutely *glorious* eating, napping, and READING whenever we wanted and uninterrupted no less!

But, before I sound like a candidate for Worst Mother of the Year , I do have to say that I did miss Little Man. Three days was the perfect amount of time. Any more than that and I would have been missing my little guy too much; any less and we wouldn't have had time to relax.

It should be noted that Little Man had quite a time as well. Auntie fed him cookies, cake, ice cream, AND pizza.

Good thing Momma wasn't around for that!

Old Man Winter

We live in Florida, so I can't honestly say we really *experience* winter. However, this has been a particularly nasty one by Florida standards.

If you live in a northern climate, feel free to just skip right over this post and go shovel your driveway for the 1,045,872nd time this winter.

It has been in the 40s every morning this week and -- gasp -- we've had frost on our car windshields! (Seriously, I had NO IDEA how to deal with this little predicament until The Smartest Man Alive clicked the defroster button on my dashboard and cranked the heat.)

My baby soft hands are now cracked and dry, and I've had a major headache for two days from traveling between the heat and cold. And God forbid it's dreary, cloudy, or rainy!

So, if you live in a northern climate AND you're still reading this, tell me how you survive MONTHS of this. What comforts you during the winter? We've made chicken 'n dumplings and soup this week, but that's getting old -- fast.

I never thought I'd wish for our Florida heat back. Rest assured, I'll be complaining about it come June. (The humidity! The heat! Can't we move up north?!)

Good News/Bad News

Good news: Little Man just took his first "real" steps tonight -- live! on Skype -- for his grammie and grampie to see. Grammie and grampie are getting buried in MORE SNOW and this infinitely cheered them up.

Bad news: I have a dentist appointment tomorrow. Why am I such a baby about these things?

Is this thing on?

Oh, hi there! Blogger tells me that I have written since Jan. 10th. Well, we've just been so BUSY!

*I received my Teacher of the Year award at a lovely ceremony and gave my speech without throwing up and/or tripping.

*The Smartest Man Alive and I booked a Bahamas cruise for next weekend. Just the two of us. Words cannot express my excitement about this grown-up adventure.

*I won a contest! Seriously, I never win ANYTHING, but bless my dear friends Hillary and Michelle at NotRaisingBrats. Love them.

*My parents have been on a Hawaiian cruise. My mom got to swim with a whale shark. Seriously. Fortunately, she lived to tell the tale.

*My sleep problems continue. I'm considering acupuncture. Thoughts?

Run 5K -- Check!

So, I survived the intimidating 5K and did not chicken out at the last-minute. I seriously thought about it after I saw 5,000 people lined up for the race and the weather report said it 39 degrees outside! I'm not sure if I'm going to do another race, but if I do I'll be a little wiser the next time.

1. Running in the cold is seriously difficult. My legs literally felt like there was peanut butter stuck in my joints, making me go in slow-motion. If you're running in the cold, you must warm up A LOT before the race. Disney had these people doing all kinds of crazy dances and activities before the race started. I thought they looked a little silly, but I really was wishing I had done it once the race started.

2. You need to have a plan going into the race. Motivation is one thing; getting from point A to point B with all of your belongings is quite another. We had a hotel room at the Wilderness Lodge and I laid out all my clothes the night before so getting dressed (in the dark, to prevent waking the baby) would be easy. But, Little Man's crib was near the bathroom and I was afraid using it would wake him. So, I had to find another bathroom, a snack before the start of the race, etc. etc. I felt disorganized and it eroded my confidence a bit. Luckily, I was at the race an hour before start time, so I could practice my visualizing and pumping myself up.

3. You can never drink enough water. This is the only thing that hampered my weekend. I thought that I had drank plenty of water before the race, but apparently not. An hour or so after the race, I felt dehydrated and hung over. I kept drinking water, ate half a banana, and some oatmeal, but I couldn't shake the feeling for the rest of the day.

Baby Report Card

Little Man had his one-year well-baby check-up last week. (Whew! That's a lot of hyphens in that sentence!)

He is, of course, perfect.

He is growing well and on the verge of taking his first steps. He is also saying some words: Mama and Dada, specifically. He also will occassionally say 'hi' and 'auntie.'


His newest trick is giving kisses, which are actually just open-mouthed licks. Slobbery, but heartwarming.

Word of the Year: Present

I've been thinking about New Year's resolutions and then I read this and this.

Erin at Mo Mommy decided to choose a word to focus on for her year. She chose Quiet. Sarah at Semi-Desperate Housewife took the challenge and chose Perspective -- two great choices and something I could also work on! But, during the last week I've been thinking about what I could do to be a better mother and create a better life for my family.

My word is going to be "present." I want to live in the moment more. I've noticed that I'm always thinking ahead to the next chore, milestone, or challenge. Our days, weeks, even months are crammed and over-scheduled with to-do lists, chores, outings ... life and it feels so chaotic and squished that we don't even have time to just enjoy each other.

So here's what I'm going to do to be more "present" this year:

1. I'm going to "unplug" at least one day per week. No television, no Internet, no texting. Just us.

2. I'm going to write about my efforts each month to stay focused on my goal.

3. This one is going to be hard, but I'm at least going to try it: I'm going to multi-task less. I'm going to pick one thing and do it. Then, I'll move on to the chore or activity and do that. No more cooking dinner, talking on the phone and facebooking at the same time. (You didn't know I was that talented, did you?)

4. I'm going to prioritize. I don't have to do everything right now. Some things can wait. Some things won't get done. That's okay.

So, there's my Word of the Year. Are you going to pick a word? Did you make a resolution? Post a comment with a link if you wrote about it.

5K Update

The date for my final showdown with fitness is looming. Mark your calendars. I will be running my first 5K on Jan. 8.

Although some of my fitness plans have gotten derailed by my aching knee (and if I'm honest, a bit of laziness), I'm confident I'll be able to finish the race.

The knee still gets sore when I curl up for an extended period of time or when it's really cold out. I've run several times on it and all went well. I think everything will be fine, except for that lingering feeling that I must be getting O-L-D, because I have aching knees.

We're running through 11 countries of EPCOT's World Showcase, Fountain of Nations, Spaceship Earth and Leave a Legacy monument. At least I'll have some nice scenery.

I've been trying to mentally prepare myself for the race. I've been visualizing myself at various stages of the race and anticipating what I might be feeling or thinking. I've also placed some encouraging sayings (like: You can do it! Keep going!) near my desk at work so I can motivate myself. (I'm a cheeseball, I know.)

But, most of all, I'm just looking forward to finishing the race and saying: I did it!