Bolder Boulder

I have this friend, Alisa, who is super beautiful and super smart and super funny and super amazing. She also has three kids, so I'm pretty sure she has super powers. A few months ago she started training for a half-marathon and I thought, "Well, that's just crazy. I could never do that. It's impossible!" Despite my negativity, the idea of a half-marathon was planted in my brain and I have decided to try for it. There is a half-marathon in Denver in June, but I think that is way too soon, so I am shooting for the one in October. Yes, I have picked a goal that is 7 months away. So be it. But to help motivate myself, and to show some commitment to something for once, I am registering for the Bolder Boulder 10K. It is Memorial Day. That gives me 10 weeks to prepare for a 6 mile run.

Holy. Cow.

I haven't done anything more than a brisk walk since I got pregnant over a year ago! Am I crazy? Maybe. Am I going to do it anyway? Yes!

The first steps on this crazy goal are:

1. Go to a specialty running store and get some running shoes that fit really well. I have bad knees and a good shoe will be key. Also, a supportive undergarment, if you catch my drift.
2. My first run is Monday, just a jog/walk for 15 minutes. That's all. I can do that.
3. Then jog/walk 2 miles on Tuesday! (I've already mapped out a two-mile route around my neighborhood!)

It goes from there. I get three weeks to jog/walk my way through 2 miles here, 35 minutes there, and then it gets to running only. We'll say jogging. Jogging only. The hardest part will be starting. And getting up earlier than I have to so I can jog before work. If I want to go after work I'll have to invest in a jogging stroller so I can take Evelyn with me.

Let the painful journey begin!

Cutest. Baby. Earth.

Observations

A few random observations on this snowy, cold morning:

** Evelyn did not sleep through the night yet again. I'm telling you, it's this dang daylight savings switch. She awoke at 1am with a giggle and a screech and stayed that way for, oh, 30-45 minutes. I'm not sure. I went in to her room when I first heard her to try and stave off the waking with a quick insert of the pacifier, but to no avail. So I went back to bed. About 20-30 minutes later Jon went in because it sounded like Evie had pulled her blanket up over her head, as she often does when she's kicking and having a good time. At some point she fell asleep on her own and so did we and all was right with the world. Until she woke up at 5am...

** I find I am becoming my mother, which isn't a bad thing. In many ways it is a good thing. Except that I have caught myself saying on more than one occasion, when looking into the car next to me on the road, "That kid isn't old enough to drive! What is he, 12?!" Yep. That's my mom. I also talk back to commercials, especially infomercials, about that stupidity of their claims. I'm not sure if my mom did that. She would always talk to us about various things we may be seeing on the TV, like how an ad that says a product is a "$49.99 value can be yours for the bargain basement price of only $19.99" is, in fact, only worth $19.99 because the value of something is what you are willing to pay for it. Stuff like that. I question the validity of claims made by the Ninja Peeler commercials. I stand by my assessement that at no time will I ever need to whittle wood and then, directly after and with the same instrument, peel a peach. Never.

** I do not, nor will I ever, understand the need for a decorative garland.

** Apparently there are many different "types" of parent out there. A blog in the Washington Post outlined 6 or 7 different labels that parents get these days, including Helicopter Parent, Free-Range Parent, Crunchy Mamma, Hipster Dad, Posh Mom, Slacker Mom, etc. While still developing my parenting style, I can pretty much say right now that I am a slacker mom with a little crunchy thrown in for good measure, with a yearning to be free-range but knowing that I'll have a lot of helicopter in me as well. Luckily Jon is a hipster, and probably a separate category--"laid back" perhaps--that will keep our household grounded.

** People in Colorado drive equally as slow when there is 1/2 inch of snow on the ground as they do when there is 8 inches. I mean, come on people! It took me way too long to get into work today.

** Tonight I think I will make corn chowder for dinner.

Poor decision-making method

This weekend Evelyn really started rolling over. She can roll from her stomach to her back from both the right and left (although she goes to the left 95% of the time). She is 3/4 of the way to rolling from back to front, but she can't quite figure out the logistics quite yet. She gets her legs over, and her body on its side, but she always gets hung up on her elbow, not knowing quite how to get all the way over. She only ever goes to the left as well. I wonder if it is because she is right-handed. Because she is. Very right-handed, in fact.

I was having a semi-exhausting Saturday with a cranky baby who didn't want to spend any time on the floor, or sitting up, or in her bouncy toys. She wanted to be held. So in a stroke of mommy genius, I took the mirror off our entryway wall and propped it up against the living room floor to help entice Evelyn to entertain herself. She loves watching herself (our little Narcissus), and will happily play on the floor for a very long time as long as she can look over and see her reflection from time to time. So funny. It was literally the first time in six months that she did tummy time without getting upset--because she could look at herself. That is when she really mastered rolling over, too. She had done it before, but really only on accident. But now, while staring at her reflection, she was able to spend enough time on her stomach to figure that if she pushed off with one hand she could slowly roll to the side. Then she likes to stare at her reflection upside down while on her back. I mean, seriously, if I was that cute I would stare at my reflection all day, too!

In not-so-awesome news, Evelyn was awake for two hours in the middle of last night. Much like the two hour wakey time she had in the middle of the night one day last week. She isn't upset, she isn't hungry, she isn't wet, she isn't sleepy--she is awake. And happy. And noisy. She will lay in her crib and grunt and screech and coo and giggle and yell, just having a grand old time. At some point she'll get upset that she can't find her pacifier, but generally she is just fine. So I can't so much employ the "cry it out" method, because she isn't crying. Nor can I employ the "go back to sleep and let her play by herself" method, because I live in an old house with ZERO wall insulation and I can hear every little creek and crack that comes from her room. So instead we employ the "trying to make parenting decisions at 2am" method, wherein Jon and I try to decide what to do in the middle of the night since we are both awake from the noise and both totally wishing we were asleep. It usually comes down to me using my boob as a pacifier because that is almost guaranteed to get her back in the vicinity of sleepy. But it is totally NOT the best thing to do--I realize it reinforces negative behavior--but it really only gets implemented after we have both been awake for over an hour.

If anyone has any awesome parenting tips to help us out, I'm all ears. She is an excellent night sleeper 85 percent of the time, but that other 15 percent....ugh.

Promotion

I got a promotion! You are no longer reading the blog of a Sr. Business Analyst. You are now reading the blog of a Business Analyst Specialist. What is the difference? Not much. A little more work and a little more money. I don't manage anyone now or anything. But it is a step up and that is always nice. Especially because I didn't solicit the promotion, I was given the promotion because my work is so valued by my supervisor. Hooray! I am very happy.

For the grandparents

For the grandparents, who I know want to know this sort of thing. And some pictures to break up the text. Isn't my spring baby adorable?

I am just so demure and beautiful. Like the flowers growing up behind me...

Evelyn had her six-month check-up and she is, officially, HUGE. Tall, actually. Here is the breakdown.

Weight: 17 lbs, 13 oz. (85th percentile)
Length: 27 inches (90th percentile)
Head circumfrence: 17 1/8 inches (80th percentile)

No, I said 'step, tap, step, tap!' Where is my gin and tonic? You! Over there! Get off the stage and bring me my drink!!

She is big. Big big big. So big that the pediatrician said she has outgrown baby tylenol and is now ready for children's tylenol. So big that she is almost too big for her car seat. We're probably a month or two away from needing to get the "big kid" convertable car seat and retiring the infant car seat. She is happy and healthy and developmentally on-target (or a little ahead...really, she's a genius).

I have an old man face. Grrrrr. I stick my gums out at you!

The only health-related excitement around here is that my lower eyelids have had some sort of a reaction to this eye cream I tried to use and now I look like I'm either high or infected with pink eye. It's awesome.

But that is neither here nor there. Evelyn is good. And that's all the grandparents care about. :)

Happy half birthday, Evelyn

My office has been undergoing various construction projects for over a year. The final element of that rebuild was to move the reception area from the third floor down to the main lobby on the first floor. The third floor reception area is now just an empty space with a big desk, a couple of chairs and a couch. I mention this because Evelyn had a very bad night of sleep last night, which means Jon and I had a very bad night of sleep last night, and the couch in the abandoned reception area is calling my name. If only it wasn't still a major traffic area from one side of the building to the other...

Today Evelyn is six months old. Her half birthday. A milestone. Something. I'm really too tired to get all excited. She has taken to crabbiness the past week. It is, my friend recently said, as if she is on the cusp of something else but can't quite get there. I think she is frustrated she can't be more mobile. Or maybe she is teething. Or maybe she is just outgrowing her 4-month-old personality and making way for a new 6-month-old personality. Whatever it is, she is crankypants babypants and it is very tiring.

Which isn't to say that she isn't equal parts adorable. No, really she is at least twice as cute as she is cranky, which makes it impossible to get upset. She has started making the funniest crinkled old man face. Her nose squishes up and her brow furrows and she opens her lips in this hilarious square way, like she is sticking her gums out at you. Oh man, it is funny. Not easy to capture on the camera, but funny. She also will go from giggles to angry cries and back again all in the same breath. I wish so much that I knew what she was thinking about in those moments. I wish I knew what she was thinking most of the time. I think she would have some very interesting things to say. Probably something like, "Mom, seriously...t-shirt and jeans again? Can't we move past the all-cotton-all-the-time look? I promise I won't spit up on you..." Or maybe "Carrots! CarrotsCarrotsCarrotsCarrots! Carrots!"

She loves her carrots.