Friday, October 31, 2014

Twilight Thriller 5k

Saturday was such an exciting day.  My mom and I went to a baby shower for one of my best friends in the morning, we found out we're having a GIRL in the afternoon, and then we ran our annual Halloween race in the evening.  We've run the race the past 4 years.  I missed out last year because one of my best friends got married in San Diego that weekend, but I've run every other year.  The first year we ran the race Ty dressed as Batman, I was Robin, and Thomas was The Joker.  At the race we realized there were costume awards and Ty decided he wanted to win the next year and he did exactly that, dressing as a gnome with a 2 foot tall hat.  The next year he decided to run with Carter in the stroller and turn the stroller into a plane with them both dressed as pilots.  We all knew there was no way he wouldn't win again and he did.  This year he went with a train for the stroller and engineers for both his and Carter's costumes.  His train costume was complete with a train whistle to blow.  There was no way anyone was going to beat him.  When it came time for the costume contest they called a guy wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a mustache as the male winner and I was mad.  I knew how much time and effort Ty put into his costume and everyone could see his costume was far superior.  There was no way he shouldn't have won.  I was very vocal about my disappointment and planned to complain about the injustice to the race director after all awards were passed out.  Then they announced the group costume winners and it was Ty and Carter.  Last year he won as the male costume and this year he won as a group instead.  That made more sense.  Everyone in the crowd erupted in cheers.  It was almost as though they all felt Ty had gotten gyped as well and were relieved that was not the case.
A group shot before the race in 2011.
Our group costume in 2011.
A group shot in 2012.  My best friend, Ang, also did the race.
Ty's winning gnome costume.
Group shot from last year.  I was in San Diego for one of my best friends' weddings.
Ty and Carter with the winning plane/fighter pilot costume.
Group shot from this year.  It was so awesome to have everyone there!  Each other year we were missing at least someone.
Ty and Carter in the winning train/engineers costume.
Going into the race I'd had a rough week of training.  I had a migraine that lasted for 2 days so I didn't run either of those days.  My first day back was Friday and I struggled at 11 minute pace and stopped to throw up during the run.  Things weren't looking promising for Saturday's race.  Friday evening we stayed up until 1 am and woke up with Carter at 7 am.  Then I missed my nap because Carter woke up right as I laid down.  So by the time we headed out for the race I was exhausted.  I had hoped to take off at around 7:30 pace and try to run a similar time to the 23:11 I ran at the Zoo Run when I was 13 weeks pregnant.  But by the time race day came around I was just hoping to be able to run without being completely miserable.  I took off at a decent pace and ran the first mile in 7:41.  I slowed down during the second mile and kept my pace consistent going into the last mile.  I finished in 24:03 an average of 7:45 pace, about 1 minute slower than my Zoo Run time.  That put me 5th overall female, 2nd in my age group, and 16th out of 151 overall.  The race went better than I expected.  We have another race coming up this weekend.  I have a feeling I'll be able to run a little bit better with a more restful day and my head holding out throughout the week for me.

Crossing the finish line.
Jeremy ran the race dressed as Heisenberg wearing a hat and sunglasses.  He kept both the hat and sunglasses on for the entire race, even when it got dark.  Thomas asked him how he could see once the sun went down and he said he couldn't really.  When I saw him at the turn-around he was 5th overall and ended up winning the race in 18:57!  Dad ran a post-surgery PR in 22:56, winning his age group by 5 minutes and placing 9th overall.  Thomas was 26th overall with a time of 25:21 and placed 3rd in his age group.  Ty ran an impressive 32:53 while pushing the stroller and wearing a long-sleeved shirt and overalls!  He started at the very back of the race to stay out of everyone's way since he had the stroller and passed 75 runners during the race!  He was 4th in his age group and would have placed had it not been for Thomas!  Mom started at the very back with Ty and planned to run/walk but got excited and ran the entire race, finishing in 34:26 and passing 65 competitors during the race, finishing 7th in her age group.
Jeremy finishing with sunglasses on and all!
Ty and Carter accepting their group costume award.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Gender Reveal Party for #2

I took the address off the bottom to post the invite, that's why it looks blank at the bottom.
When Ty and I learned we were pregnant with Baby #2 we knew we wanted to do a gender reveal just like we had with Carter.  We also knew we wanted to do it in a different way than we had with Carter.  For Carter's reveal we cut into a cake revealing blue cake underneath the frosting because Carter was a boy!  I wanted to somehow involve Carter in the reveal and kept mulling over the idea of him opening something.  I finally decided he should open a stuffed animal revealing a boy or girl stuffed animal.  My plan was to send someone armed with the doctor's note to Build a Bear to make either a boy or girl stuffed animal.  But then as the time approached I didn't like the idea of using Build a Bear anymore.  Whoever agreed to be our secret keeper would have to trek out to Build a Bear and spend a decent amount of time creating the stuffed animal.  Then it would come down to their personal interpretation of what a boy or girl stuffed animal would be.  I also hated to spend all the money.  I found myself wishing we could just use something we already had.  Then it dawned on me.  When they had the Little Critter books and stuffed animals at Kohl's for Kohl's Cares for Kids I bought the Little Critter doll along with his little sister to give Carter for Christmas.  I decided we would use those stuffed animals.  Our theme then became blue, pink, and Little Critter.  The theme for Carter's reveal party was pink, blue, and footprints.  It was nice just changing out one thing because I was able to re-use most of the decorations.  Read about Carter's gender reveal party here.
The Little Critter and sister dolls from Kohl's.
To prepare for the party I pulled out decorations we used for Carter's reveal party.  Ty made a box out of leftover cardboard from turning the stroller into a train for Halloween.  Then he covered the box with white paper.  I wrote "It's a..." on the top of the box and "Boy or Girl?" on the other side.  Then I gave Carter pink and blue markers and had him color the box.  We worked on the box a little bit at a time because he would lose interest in coloring after a while.  He had a lot of fun coloring it and it turned out looking awesome!
Decorating the box for the reveal.
 
 

The weekend of the reveal we already had plans to visit my hometown for the baby shower of one of my best friends and a race in the evening.  My mom graciously offered to host the party at her house and since she was hosting did a lot of the decorating ahead of time which was so nice!  When we arrived Friday evening we just hung the chalkboards and set out a few decorations.  I wrote my answers to a few old wives tales on one chalkboard and used the other chalkboard for guests to record their guesses.  My mom ordered a cake and had fruit and veggie trays.  She also bought pink and blue candy and used them in vases to decorate.  Another decoration was a vase filled with girl clothes and a vase filled with boy clothes.  Ty's mom brought pink and blue Sixlets in baby bottles and cookies made with pink and blue M&M's.  It was all so cute!
The vases filled with girl and boy clothes.
The adorable cake my mom ordered.  This time it was just white inside!

We scheduled the party for 2:00 thinking Carter could go down around noon for an early nap and should wake up just in time for the party.  Things didn't quite go as planned as Carter ended up going down for a nap at 11:30 while I was still at the shower.  Then he took a shorter nap than usual, waking up at 1:00.  Ty's parents and grandparents had just arrived so we were only waiting on my best friend, Erin, and her son, Hayden, who planned to arrive at 2:00.  It was a long hour waiting to find out if we were having a boy or girl.  Carter and I went outside at 2:00 and watched as Hayden and Erin arrived.  Carter was so excited to see Hayden and wanted to play with him so much that he wasn't too interested in opening the box.
Carter opening the box he decorated.
It's a girl!
After discovering we were having a girl my mom had us go through and look at the girl clothes in the vase she'd used to decorate.  Ty's parents gave us a present to open with a couple of adorable girl outfits Leina found at a garage sale in perfect condition.  Ty's grandparents also had presents for us.  It was so much fun to open the presents and to have a few girl clothes!  After the party Hayden and Carter had a blast playing together and everyone else talked about how excited and surprised they were to be having a girl join the family!

One of the adorable onesies from Rocky and Leina.
Carter and Hayden enjoying some cake.
Of course I couldn't get them both to look at the same time!

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Wordless Wednesday

Carter kept pulling his arm out of his sleeve.  Every time I fixed it, he did it again!
 
 
I tried to get him in the cart and he stuck both legs in the same hole, lol!

Taking a nap with his little sister doll.
Playing with his painted pumpkin from Gma.
Reading with daddy after he got home from work/running.
Window jam band session, slapping in rhythm!
Playing with stickers from his Great Aunt Brenda.
Reading to himself while I got ready for the day.
Baby girl is starting to pop!
Carter's Gma painted him a little pumpkin and gave it to him this weekend.  Monday morning he carried it around all morning.  His new thing is taking books off the bookshelf and stacking them different places so he was carrying his pumpkin while he did that.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Week 17 Bumpdate

This week was the most exciting week since finding out we were pregnant because we got to find out the sex of our baby!  We are having a baby girl!  For some reason I've thought all along we were having a girl and would accidentally say things like, "She's kicking again."  Part of me thought I had that feeling because I kind of wanted it to be a girl.  But my momma's intuition was right again!
 

October 28, 2014

Baby's Size: Baby is the size of an onion and should measure about 5 inches long.  She can move her joints and is developing sweat glands. 

Weight Gain: When I weighed in this morning to see I'm up 4 pounds, meaning I gained a pound this week, I immediately felt stressed out.  I thought to myself, it's too early to be gaining a pound a week!  Ah, I'm going to gain so much weight.  But then I stopped to think about it and I have 23 weeks left to go.  If I gain a pound every week from here on out that's a total weight gain of 27 pounds.  I'm totally okay with that.  I gained 25 pounds with Carter and he was born 4 weeks early, so I'm sure if I'd gone the full 40 weeks I would've been closer to 30 pounds.  It is exciting to be gaining more weight in the sense that my belly is really starting to pop!  Unlike with Carter, this time I've been getting comments on my cute little bump.  With Carter at this point people were still telling me I didn't look pregnant!

Maternity Clothes: One of Ty's co-workers gave him a bag full of maternity clothes for me and my mom bought a huge bag of clothes from a garage sale.  It was so exciting to hang them in the closet and take down some of the tight fitting shirts that make me look pudgy.  I'm still wearing my jeans unbuttoned and not zipped up.  My maternity jeans are a little big because I read online to get a size up from what you normally wear so they never fit when I was pregnant with Carter, they would slide down in the back.  I might replace them this time, but I have a feeling I'll just deal with the frustration again.

Sleep: I was so exhausted this week.  I couldn't get enough sleep and kept missing out on naps which was a rough combination!  Sleeping with the body pillow has been nice and is really the only way I can keep from rolling over onto my stomach.

Symptoms: Still having dry heaves most days in the morning but have even had them a few evenings as well.  The exhaustion has been serious!  I would almost say worse than my 1st trimester exhaustion, but I have a feeling my memory of how tired I was then has just faded a little bit.  I've also had hives off and on for 2 weeks.  They are mostly just on my legs.  Talking about it with a few people I've decided they are most likely psychosomatic and are due to stress.  I've also had headaches and even had a 2-day long migraine this week.  Back pain kicked in on Sunday evening and I was bummed out.  It seemed so early to be having back pain, but then I thought about when I first started having back pain with Carter and remembered it was around 12 or 13 weeks.  So actually my back held out for longer this time around!  I finally started a consistent schedule with my planks and I think that will help with the back pain.  Strengthening my core really helped me when I was pregnant with Carter.

Running: This week was tough and running was no different.  I took Monday off because I was exhausted and then ended up taking Wednesday and Thursday off because of my migraine.  I ran again on Friday and it was terrible.  Then Saturday we ran a 5k race which went better than expected after my abysmal week of training.  I was able to run a 24:03 and place 2nd in my age group which I considered a win, especially because I was dry heaving during my warm-up.  It was actually pretty funny because I was warming up with Jeremy and said, "Being pregnant is..." and started dry heaving.  He thought I was saying being pregnant is pukey and was making a point by making throw up sounds, but I really was dry heaving.  I had planned to run an easy run Sunday, but was exhausted and ended up just walking some.  So my weekly mileage was a piddly 10 miles. 

Food Cravings: Dairy is still the main one.  I am always wanting cheese and milk.  I've been enjoying hot chocolate with whipped cream as a sweet treat or dessert rather than something with more sugar.

Food Aversions: Still barbeque and smoked meat, yuck!

Movement: I am loving how mobile our sweet, little girl is!  She is constantly on the move and anytime I sit down I feel her just moving away!  Ty hasn't tried feeling her in a few days and I don't think it will be much longer before he can put his hand on my stomach and feel her.  She has such strong movements compared to what I felt with Carter in the very beginning!

Best Moment of the Week: Finding out the sex of our baby!  It really does make everything more real to be able to picture a boy or girl.  I was trying to convince Ty that we should wait until birth to find out the sex if we have a 3rd baby, but now I'm not so sure I would want to wait.  It is so much fun to picture the baby and start preparing everything!

Currently Loving: Starting some very small steps toward moving Carter over to his big boy room and getting the nursery ready.  I moved Carter's clothes that are too big for him into the closet in his big boy room and pulled out the size markers, newborn through 6 months, that I'd put away and hung them back up in the nursery closet.  I also moved over the small pink hangers a co-worker gave me when I was pregnant with Carter in case we had a girl (and we used until we acquired enough gender neutral hangers to switch him over from pink).  I have already washed a few newborn clothes I bought at a garage sale and hung them on the pink hangers.  Then I went through Carter's newborn, 0-3 month, 3 month, and 6 month clothes.  I pulled out all the gender neutral clothes and the pieces I felt like we could get by with on a girl and washed them.  I know it's really early to do that, but I was just so excited!!! 
All the newborn through 6 month gender neutral/I don't care it looks boyish clothes along with a couple girl outfits we were given at the reveal party.

Miss Anything: I missed feeling rested this week.  I think next week will be better!

What Big Brother is Up to This Week: Carter got to open the box at the gender reveal.  It was so much fun to find out he's having a baby sister!  He still likes to point at the ultrasound pictures and say baby.  He also still points to his own belly when we ask him where the baby is.  Soon enough he'll notice my growing belly!  He had so much fun playing with Hayden at the gender reveal.  They are so cute together!  He also won the group costume contest with Ty at a 5k this weekend when he dressed as an engineer and rode in his stroller made up to look like a train.  This week during our photo session Carter decided he wanted to erase the chalkboard with his foot, lol!  My Week 17 Bumpdate with Carter.
 
 
 

Monday, October 27, 2014

Weekly Learning Theme: Trains

The past 3 years we've run a 5k called The Twilight Thriller near my parents' house.  So far every year we've run, Ty has won the costume contest.  The first year he ran solo as a lawn gnome.  Last year he turned the stroller into a plane while dressing himself and Carter up as pilots.  This year he decided to turn the stroller into a train and dress them up as engineers.  In order to get Carter pumped up for the race I decided to focus our learning on trains the week beforehand.  It definitely worked because he was jacked up about trains, choo chooing everywhere we went and saying "train" very distinctly.  

Listed below are the objectives I am focusing on for the themed weeks.  The highlighted objectives are ones Carter received exposure to during our theme this week:
  1. Know the names of and be able to point out body parts.
  2. Know names of objects and be able to point to them when asked.
  3. Sort objects based on size or color/Match like objects together, for example match a circle with a circle. 
  4. Play make believe.
  5. Speak in short phrases and 2-4 word sentences. (He's done some 2 word sentences already!)
  6. Follow simple instructions.
Activities/Movement:
  • I took baskets that were previously used as book baskets in my classroom and covered them with different colored construction paper: red, yellow, black, and I left the blue basket blue.  They were cars for our train.  I attached them to each other with yarn.  Then I chose a stuffed animal of each color and had Carter sort the animals into the train cars.  After he was done sorting he ran into his room, grabbed a yellow dog stuffed animal out of his stuffed animal basket, and put it in the yellow train car with Woodstock.  It was so cute!
Putting Elmo in the red train car.
Putting Toto in the black train car.
All the stuffed animals sorted into their color coordinating train car baskets.
  • Next I pulled out masking tape and created a train track on the floor.  While I was putting the track down Carter rode around right behind me on the car I had pulled out to use as the train engine.  It definitely added an extra element of difficulty while creating the train tracks.  Carter was so excited to drive on the train tracks and even more excited when I added his train cars to the engine using yarn.
  • We made train tracks on the floor with popsicle sticks and Carter drove his cars on the tracks.  We originally planned to glue the tracks to construction paper so they wouldn't move around, but Carter kept ripping the popsicle sticks off the paper before they had a chance to dry, so we decided to just make the tracks straight on the floor.
Attempting to make train tracks on construction paper.
Driving his car on the train tracks.
  • An idea I saw online and thought was really cute was to draw train tracks outside with sidewalk chalk and then walk or ride on the tracks.  We planned to do this activity on 2 different days, but it rained both days so we ended up just playing with our masking tape track inside.
  • I had also planned to use bottle caps as wheels and match bottle caps to construction paper rectangles of the same color to make trains.  I planned the week out early because I got ahead of myself and I forgot to save all the bottle caps I'd been waiting to add for My Coke Rewards.  After I added the codes online, I tossed the bottle caps and was so disappointed when I made it to train week and realized what I'd done.
 Craft:
  • I cut 3 rectangles, a triangle, and 4 circles out of different colors of paper.  I had Carter glue the shapes down onto paper to create a train.  We talked about the shape and color of the piece of paper as he put glue on it and then stuck it down.  Then I drew a track under the train which he thought was awesome.  I handed him the marker to draw some smoke coming out of the chimney stack, but he just drew smoke all over the picture!
Putting glue on the first piece, the engine.
Adding the wheels.

Proud of his smoke!

Special Snack:
  • I took a graham cracker and cut the side into a slant to make it look like the front of a train.  Then I spread peanut butter on it and cut bites of banana for the wheels.  I cut part of the left over banana into a small rectangle and added a smoke stack.  At the last minute I added some peanut butter smoke coming out of the smoke stack.  I learned from the boat snack and took a picture of the train before I gave it to Carter for snack.  He actually seemed impressed by the train and started off by playing with the smoke.
Carter's graham cracker and banana snack.
 Make Believe:
  • Once Carter's train was created and I had the masking tape rail down, he drove his train around on the tracks.  I let him wear his engineer hat while I blew the train whistle.  If I stopped blowing the whistle, he'd start saying "whoo whoo" so I'd blow it again.  I set up his pop up school house as the train station and he had a blast!  He kept looking back to check on his stuffed animal passengers and would get really concerned if one of them fell over.
Watching his passengers as he left the station.
Heading down the track.
 

Songs:

  • We sang a cute train song to the tune of Jingle Bells that I found here.  It went like this:
Chug, chug, chug,
chug, chug, chug,
chugging down the track.
See our little choo choo train
chugging down and back.
We are cars all lined up
chugging just like so.
Hear our whistle toot toot toot
as down and back we go.

Field Trip/Interactive Experience:
  • Close to our house there is an old train sitting on a section of train track.  We went to visit it and Carter was so excited.  I couldn't believe how excited he was, especially because we've been there before, it's just been a while!  I'd ask Carter to stand for a picture and he'd plant his legs, turn, and smile at me.  It was amazing, I couldn't believe it!  While we were there we heard a train and we looked over and could see a train off in the distance.  Carter was so excited and pointed at it yelling "tain!"  As we were leaving he said, "Bye bye choo choo" and waved at the train.  It was adorable!
Posing with the train engine.

Checking out the red caboose.
Watching the real moving train on the other side of the road.
Pointing and yelling "Train, choo choo!"

Books:
Carter was so excited to sit in a train chair at the libarry!
Carter loved the train books that had a lot of sounds in them.  The favorites were "All Aboard", "Chugga Chugga Choo Choo", and "I'm Fast!".  I was surprised when we read "Smokey" by Bill Peet because it was on multiple preschool train book lists and I felt it was racist toward Native Americans in the way they were portrayed in the small section of the book they were in.  I would leave it off the list in the future and thought about omitting it all together, but wanted to at least document we'd read it so I didn't forget what it was like.
  • Trains by Gail Gibbons
  • All Aboard by Mary Lyn Ray
  • 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo by Eric Carle
  • Thomas' Magnetic Play Book by Ted Gadecki
  • The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper
  • Freight Train by Donald Crews
  • Chugga Chugga Choo Choo by Kevin Lewis
  • The Little Train by Lois Lenski
  • Trains by Hal Rogers
  • Trains: Steaming! Pulling! Huffing! by Patricia Hubbell
  • Smokey by Bill Peet- got a thumbs down from me and Carter was indifferent
  • Steam Train, Dream Train by Sheri Duskey Rinker & Tom Lichtenheld
  • I'm Fast by Kate & Jim McMullan
  • Hey Mr. Choo Choo, Where Are You Going? by Susan Wickberg
  • Blue Train, Green Train by Tommy Stubbs
  • All Aboard! by Mary Lyn Ray
  • Can You See What I See? Toyland Express by Walter Wick
  • Train by Elisha Cooper
  • My Big Train Book