Running Update

Today, we ran ten miles, which is about 3.8 miles farther than I'd ever made it last year and 1.8 farther than I've made it this year.  I finally veered from my training plan this week, when I was supposed to have a four run week.  I cut out a two miler scheduled for the day after my seven mile because I was sore, I was busy, and I was kind of nervous about the ten for this weekend.  I'm happy to report that I made it through the entire ten miles today, feeling great.  After a shower and some lunch, I completely crashed though.  My legs are just exhausted, I'm dead tired, and very much looking forward to bed.
Brian decided he didn't like some aspects of the plan (like a long run mid-week and weekend) so we made some adjustments and here's what the rest of the plan looks like now:

Next week: T-3 miles, W-5 or 5.5 miles, Th-2 miles, Sat-10 miles (the original plan had a seven mile on W)
Oct 1 week: T-3 miles, Th-6 miles, Sat-9 miles (we took out a two mile from this week)
Race week: T-5 miles, Th-2 miles (we flipped these two from the original plan), Sat-13.2!  Eek!

It's definitely coming up and with how nervous I was for today's run, I wonder how I'll get any sleep on Oct 12.  I am feeling more confident now that I managed to do ten miles after having only done 8.2 before.  I figure if I can do that, I can manage 13.2 after having done ten miles twice before.  I'm still trying to convince Brian that he should run WITH me rather than speeding past me.  :)

First week of Preschool: Letter A

We've completed our first week (and a half) of preschool, learning about the letter A.  The first week we skipped Labor Day, and then we went to the cities that Friday so we skipped that day too.  Needless to say, he didn't quite figure out the letter A in three days on his first time doing something so structured, so we did another week of working on it.  I am proud to report that if I ask what letter we learned, he can now answer "A!", make the ahhh sound, and list some words that start with A.  He's also enjoying making sounds and asking what letter makes them.
Here are some of the activities we did.  And please see my amazon widget to the right for easy access to some of our favorite supplies.

Painting the letter A

A brief selection of the (many) library books for the week

Working on Big and Small in his workbook

 We bought this Mead preschool workbook from Wal-Mart and I like it so far.  It has sections on letters, colors, shapes, math, etc.  He enjoys it, especially with his new pencils.

Counting Bears!

Scores from le Target dollar section, 75% off.  So $.30 for flashcards and another $.30 for this pocket holder.

He's loving learning colors, shapes, and numbers with this 

Melissa and Doug shape sorting clock.

I've read several places that these books are awesome for learning to read so we finally got some of the BOB books.

And here's the star pupil with his home-grown little baby pumpkin!

18 Month Check Up

We finally made it in for Callum's 18 month check up today (he's only 18 months, 2.5 weeks old).  Besides the boys being unbearably wiggly and loud, it was ok.  We were in and out.

Here are the stats:
Weight: 26.6 lbs, which is around the 50th percentile (was 25 lbs three months ago, so about a pound and a half gained)
Height: 34.5 inches, which is just about the top of the 95th curve (that's like nearly three feet, people!) (was 32.5" three months ago, so two inches gained)
Head: 19 inches

Vaccines: Last dose of HepB, first dose of HepA.  At his two year check, he'll get his second and finaly HepA and his first Varicella.  Then he'll be all caught up to the usual schedule and all while only getting two pokes/appointment and one instance of three pokes.

He screamed (through his nuk) for the shots but was immediately back to normal and excited to get his shoes back on and find a truck sticker.  Then we decided since it was the last hot day of the year, we needed to go to Dairy Queen.  It's so expensive, we very rarely go, but hey, shots deserve special ice cream, right?  The boys shared a mini M&M/brownie blizzard and I got a mud pie mini blizzard.  Mmmmmm.  Since we even managed to get Callum down for an early nap after our morning run and errands, we now have the whole afternoon to just play.  We maaaay have already had a treat outing today after our run, but hey.....it's hard to say no to these faces!

I Met My Imaginary Friends

My local friends and the husb always give me crap that I spend a lot of time with people who probably don't really exist.  Well, this weekend I got to prove that I'm not totally insane and at least some of them actually are real people.  When I was pregnant with Ev, I got addicted to the forums on thebump.com.  I went back to their pregnancy and baby boards with Callum and kept up with some of the girls from there on a break off board and eventually a facebook group.  Now I'm never on thebump anymore, but communicate with these girls on facebook daily.  They are a hilarious and loving bunch.  I do love my real life friends too, but there's something special about my online "imaginary" friends.  This weekend, we went down and stayed in the cities and I got to meet three of these friends and their four awesome kiddos (plus meet up with two college buddies).

First, I got to see Britt and her boys!  You know, Britt.

Our boys had fun playing in the McDonalds playland (except Luther, he's a bit young for that).

I also got to see Mel, who I pretty much haven't seen in ages and ages.  It was awesome!

Then there was the imaginary friend get together.  So many babies!

   

And sorry to B for this picture, but the husb isn't great at taking a zillion shots so I can pick the best....

You might recognize these girls as the amazing tot-schooler and mom of adorable little Henry, Nicole, and mommy of the sassiest and cutest little girl ever, Buffy.

I failed to get a whole group, but our lovely host for the get together was the hilarious mom of two boys with the most gorgeous eyes ever, Jaymi.  Here she is waving to Henry and holding I think the cutest baby I've ever seen, her little Sam:

Phew!  And in addition to all that, we stayed at a fantastic hotel (Best Western Plus in Bloomington) where they were nothing but welcoming and awesome and had the best toddler pool area.  The boys enjoyed that.

And we did the mall, including rides, and ikea while there.

And now we're a day behind on our routine plan, but should be able to catch up this week.  6 miles today, 2 miles tomorrow and we'll be back on track.  :)

Toddle Along Tuesday : Mommy and Me

This week's Toddle Along Tuesday is Mommy and Me pictures.  Let's start at the beginning, shall we?