Ode to a Runner

We've had temperatures consistently above 45 in the mornings for the past few weeks now, so the girls and I have been getting out on our morning stroller jogs quite regularly. A few days ago as we passed a very nice old woman in the next neighborhood, she asked if I was training for a marathon. I would have doubled over from laughter, were I not already in that basic position due to a significantly raised heartbeat and a severe lack of oxygen (a result of attempting to jog up a small hill).

Last week one morning we were out for about 30 minutes, and there is no way I went even three miles, and I think I almost died.

These two events got me a little curious about just how fast (slow) I am really jogging, so I timed myself from my driveway to the stop sign at Setucket, the point at which I usually have to take my first break from jogging to catch my breath. It took 11 minutes, 50 seconds. A quick drive in the car revealed this to be a distance of 1.2 miles. Don't bother doing the math - I'll just tell you: it's a blazing 10-minute mile. Maybe the air in the BOB tires is running a little low - that's supposed to decrease your fuel efficiency, isn't it?

No wonder Catherine is always asking, "Mama, can you run faster?"

Even if you accept my excuses that I'm pushing about 80 pounds of stroller and kid and I've been pregnant for 18 of the last 40 months, you still have to admit there are people all around who routinely run more than twice that speed. Seriously? I don't think I will ever be one of those people. In fact I'm pretty convinced that I possess neither the mental fortitude nor even the potential for the level of physical fitness required to run a marathon. So to you I tip my hat, Marathoner.

It is highly unlikely my feet will ever trod the course of a road race, and breaking a 9-minute mile with BOB and the girls is probably ambitious, but I very much enjoy our morning stroller jogs. I like that after only a few weeks I already feel a little stronger when I go out, and I recover just a little quicker when I inevitably have to slow down, and this morning on the sizable hill near the end of our route I made it all the way up to the third crack in the road (about halfway) before admitting defeat and slowing to a walk.

I have to do something, or Catherine is going to outpace me by the time she's 5.


Now I have all summer to figure out how to keep up some level of activity through the winter, because I'm starting to remember writing an eerily similar post a couple springs ago.

Have you exercised today?

Somersaults & Polka Dots

Catherine is really into polka dots right now. She has two dresses with polka dots, and she has worn one of them every day for the past four or five days. She even started singing about her polka dot dress the other morning when she put it on. The song was about 15 minutes long. Lucky for you I only recorded about a minute of it.



Here's another video of her in her polka dot dress, although in this one she is more concerned about her sunglasses.



And here's her other polka dot dress:



"She did it..."

"But I love her anyway."


Catherine had a big accomplishment yesterday: her first unassisted somersault! Or at least the first one she did on purpose, and not as a result of running too fast...



Mary hit a milestone of her own - another tooth! Number five poked through a few days ago, and 6, 7, and maybe 8 are right under the gums - I can see them but they don't quite feel sharp yet. In spite of this, she is smiley as ever.

Eating In The Round

Michael claims that Catherine and I are the only two people in the world who eat a circle around things made with bread (eating the crust first, then the middle):

Hooray for the Outdoors

It was a lovely Saturday here today so amidst the laundry, cleaning and grocery shopping we did spend quite a bit of time outside. While Michael battled the bittersweet and the holly leaves, Mary did some swinging in the rocket swing and Catherine hopped in and out of her car about a hundred times, yelling "Oh, Hello!" or "See you later!" to "Cinderella Daddy" - we really have no idea what that means. Mary also got in a lot of practice walking and Catherine logged a few more miles (ok, meters) on her tricycle. She has no problem with the pedaling now, except on the slight uphill, and likes to show us how she can turn around, which means making circles. For the most part she does well, but she is very easily distracted and this results in many close calls with the curb, grass and bushes.

Mary is down to walking with one hand now, even in the grass:



Some pictures for you:

Hmm, I'm standing...now what?


It seems like her hair is getting longer every day...


Another cutie friend: Robert loves trying to climb up and down our stairs, and his dad is always quick enough to catch him!


Look at that - one hand, two toys.


The mail! The mail! The mail! (Catherine is always that excited about it, so I think I should be too, although I don't really see what's so great about it...)



Mary is also experimenting with some new dance moves. I still prefer the booty dance over all, but she usually goes for bouncing up and down and stamping her foot now.

A Night Out

Yikes - sorry I haven't had time to post all week. The house is a disaster, so I know I didn't spend time there; I'm behind on work, so no extra time expended there; there's no clean laundry, so that wasn't it; I'm rather tired, so I couldn't have gone to bed early. Nope, I literally have no idea where the time goes. Usually when this happens I consult my camera to help me recollect the goings on of the past few days, but tonight there was only one picture:


Apparently a tutu also makes a good hat.

One thing I do remember from this week is Tuesday night. I put Mary to bed a little early and our childcare savior Arline came over to do bed time with Catherine and stay with the girls while Michael and I and our friend Jen zipped down the street to the Cape Cinema to see a Bon Iver show. I have to say it was rather kind of them to come out to the Cape to play a show, because if it had been in Boston as most nearby shows are we definitely would not have made it (or at least I would not have made it). So this time all the Bostonians had to drive down to us and while I think I heard a lot of them whining about it, I very much appreciated it. The show was amazing. Cape Cinema is a 300-seat theater just a few miles from us and they usually get a few good indie musicians to play each summer, but this is the first time we have made it to one. Here is a video from the show we were at - clearly it doesn't do justice to the sound in the little theatre, but it's something:



Although Catherine threw a brief "but I want to come with you!" fit just before we left, reports are that she was very good and went to sleep with no problem. Considering how she behaved for the first 18 months of her life, I believe this to be a rather significant miracle.

Mary meanwhile is still focused on her walking and will force anyone with a finger to help her practice. All throughout the day she will crawl over to Michael or me, pull herself up to standing, grab a hand and just take off. You know if you don't go with her she's going to fall over and hit her head on something, so she wins every time. Once she has you here, you're stuck. If you let go, she falls over and refuses to stop screaming whether she hit something or not. If you make her sit back down, she screams. If you put her next to something stationary she can hold on to, she screams. After she's done screaming, she crawls over to you and does it again, or worse, she grabs Catherine's hand, a situation spelled D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R. And really by this point her yearning and persistence are so endearing you just ignore the sharp pain in your lower back and shuffle endlessly from one end of the house to the other with her gripping the lone finger she needs to sustain her balance. It won't be long...

Since the walking thing is taking a little longer than she expected, Mary has briefly tried crawling like a real baby on her hands and knees, but this is actually quite slower than her army crawl so she usually flops back down on her stomach after a few seconds.



The other thing I accomplished this week are plans for a visit to St. Louis in June - what fun to see you all in less than a month!