Mom Without Baby-A Day in Pics

I am lucky enough that my MIL and SIL live nearby and are usually fighting each other to take G whenever the need arises. In fact, G gets to play hookie from school most Fridays to stay home with her Aunt and she has even spent a few nights away too.

Grammi and G at her first WV Mountaineer game!

But this weekend she left early Sunday morning and didn't return until Monday evening. So-what's a mom to do without a wanna-be-walking, I prefer attention at all times, almost toddler, scrambling up her leg or climbing anything else in sight? Well, here is what I did-in pictures (and captions!) pretty much in order of my crazy (somehow busier than when G's here!) day.

Baked bread!

Make 3 kinds of protein/snack bars!

Made a mess, and then cleaned it up!

4 mile run...

Went shopping for myself, came home with G's birthday dress instead!

Took these goofballs for extra walks-beautiful day!

Hard wood=Hard work!! This literally takes hours!

Rolled coins for G's bank account...while eating ice cream and watching Project Runway! :)

There were a few other things, like grocery getting (ugh!), laundry and general tidying up, but for this Type A chic a very productive and anxiety reducing day!! It was great to knock out some chores but I miss my baby girl. So do the puppies, they are pacing around wondering why G has been missing for so long, it's very cute. She'll be back soon and then the fun can begin again!

Happy G in the stands at the game!

Best Body Bootcamp...the Final Phase

That title sounded kind of Star Trek-y didn't it? Believe it or not I meant it to-because this plan is out of this world *cheese ball alert!* I have been nothing short of amazed.



Amazed at how quickly 8 weeks went by;
Amazed that I have managed to sneak in almost every.single.workout;
Amazed that my body was able to accomplish almost every.single.workout;
Amazed that each phase threw me for a loop, made me groan, and then made me grin;

And best of all...
Amazed that I am in the best shape (ever) less than a year post baby!

I love them!!

This is NOT the type of picture I would normally post, but I thought maybe some #proof was in order here. I mean seriously, I have guns biceps.  Of course they were always there and I've always considered myself somewhat strong (for a chick!) but I can't believe what I see when I flex now. And we haven't even been doing dedicated bicep work. That's the beauty of the plan to me. All the moves are very functional and sequenced in a way that you get in, get out and get the job done in the time you have. Which, for a busy mom is perfect!

Here's another great thing...Round 3 of BBB just opened. I highly recommend checking it out. It's the most bang for my buck, fitness-wise, I've ever gotten. Of course you get out what you put in but the facebook group and great motivation/advice they provide will be there for the days you feel down. Sometimes just reading a few of their comments got me headed in the right direction.

Half marathon training has been fitting right in as well. I use the 2 cardio segments of BBB as my short runs, doing the interval work prescribed and using the 'cardio of choice' day for the long run listed in my training plan. I finally made that 6.5 mile run and felt awesome about it. 2 short walk breaks and still gas left in the tank at the end.

It didn't hurt one bit that the weather was perfect, I was the only one out there, and the new sports complex where I ran had nice (open!) bathrooms to look forward to at the end ;-) And check out this awesome sign they had hanging at the entrance to the ball fields. Great advice!! It 's unfortunate they felt the need to do this, but at least it was done in a cute, funny way. Kudos.

I mentioned before that I will probably take the BBB plan and go through it again. I'm in the middle of a little and much-needed break from 6 day/week workouts, but when I get back on track that is what I'll do. It's the type of plan you could repeat, make a few modifications to suit your style, and never get bored.

Bottom line-sign up. And Thank You Tina!! I only wish warm weather would stick around a little longer so I can sell some tickets to the gun show! Haha!

Just because she's so darn cute!

Gwyn's World: 11 Month Update

Oh my, here we go again. I get to lament for a few paragraphs on how big G is getting and how time is just speeding along. :-( All babies change quickly, it's their job, but G seems to have made some big moves this month. Along with perfecting her crawling technique, pulling up to anything standing still (and some not!), practically running with assistance and eating anything put in front of here, she's now a mimicking master, conversation babbler, and all around goofball/show-off.

They've moved her to sleeping on a cot at school (apparently this is a big deal?!) and she is now one of the oldest/biggest in her room. In fact we showed up one day last week to be told that she got caught on her way to biting a boy who tried to steal her snack. Honestly, I get a little territorial about my food too, so I can't blame her for that one!

If you want to catch up, here are G's other monthly updates:

5 Months

6 Months

7 Months

8 Months

9 Months

10 Months

There is not a day that goes by where she doesn't make me laugh. And not just a giggle but a full-on belly laugh. How good is laughing for you, by the way? Something like that can turn an entire day around and seeing this little person who is so happy 99% of the time makes me realize how good life really is. Stopping to smell the roses is always worth the time, ya know?

We have two more teeth on the bottom, only a guess on weight, and no idea on length (is it height now that she stands up a lot?) We don't see the doc for real stats until after her 1st b-day. Don't even get me started on that! Only a few people will be coming over, but I'm guessing about a thousand pictures will be taken, so of course the Type A in me wants everything to be perfect. I may have some interesting  pics to share after this weekend's cake decorating practice disaster is over.

Like most babies (I think!) she loves, loves, loves music. Of any kind. She dances to the elevator music the HD channel we watch baseball on plays when there's no game. That darn Fresh Beat Band could be on halfway across the house and she'll be bopping along! Even the goofy music her car seat toys make never fail to get a smile.

She can now express things that she wants by pointing, reaching or saying her 'words' for them. The best so far is Dak, which is obviously Jack, although to her I think it's puppy because she also uses it for Nallah! Of course she also expresses what she doesn't want by throwing, pushing or otherwise getting it out of her way. Whether it's a toy in her crawling path or mommy's hand or face somewhere she doesn't want it she will make sure it is out of her way quickly and with authority!

I've been trying to get her outside as much as possible now that it is reasonable in the evenings. She really enjoys our bumpy little wagon rides down the driveway. We get out and touch trees and leaves and walk in the grass and even watch bugs crawling. I want her to have an appreciation and respect for nature but also curiosity. So what if she came inside with dirty feet, those can be washed, the look on her face when she felt that cool soft grass under them was priceless!

Our world revolves around Gwyn's World, which is as it should be. I knew that going in. I just didn't know my heart would revolve around hers as well. It certainly know it belongs to her.

11 Month Update:

• Weight: ?? Still 20+ pounds for sure!
• 12 month clothes
• Cruising, walking/running with hands to hold
• Losing interest in binkies and bottles (except when sleepy)
• Points at objects and waits for you to say the word
• LOVES: chasing the dogs, pancakes, wagon rides and Wow Wow Wubzy

Taking the Plunge

I did it. Finally. I registered for the race I've been talking about...the Disney Princess Half Marathon!!! Ok, I did it a few weeks back, but still-it's done and there's no turning back now! I can't believe how excited I am over something so far in the future-I'm so glad I chose a race like this for my first, it's more of an event than a race and I think the atmosphere will be so much fun that the run itself will be an afterthought!

Seriously, how much fun does this look?

I've also mentioned the Jeff Galloway plan I'm using to train. I made it through the first 4 weeks without a bump. I even finished my first non-treadmill 5-miler without much incident so I figured things would continue to progress steadily (and easily) along.

Princess Pics Source

Wrong. This past weekend we came upon the 6.5 mile run. I woke up dreading it. I haven't been dreading running in quite a while so I knew this was not a good sign. It was also pouring down the rain which meant being confined to the basement treadmill-blah.

I decided to try a similar tactic as the 5 mile run with predetermined walk/run intervals. I think this works much better than waiting until you need to walk. This time I counted steps- 500 run, 100 walk. I only count one foot when I say steps, btw. I've used the step counting thing for a long time to keep my mind occupied. *It's also an easy thing to do when you first start running and actual distances freak you out, or you just can't tell how far a quarter mile or 400m or something like that is. Just get yourself to run X number of steps and then walk X number, increase the running number each time you go.* I also find the pure monotony of listening/counting my steps soothing, I get in a rhythm, so to speak.

Generally a good pace should be about 90 steps/minute (I think I heard this on another mother runner podcast, can't be sure though) so this was only 5-ish minutes of running at a time but I was still barely slogging through each one. It didn't help that I was feeling guilty for leaving G upstairs with her daddy who also had a million things to get done on the one day of the week we were actually home. These two things combined gave me an easy out and I only ran 4 miles in 42 minutes.

Should I enter G in the kids race?

I'm lucky. I'm way ahead on this training plan for my race so repeating Week X isn't a problem. The problem for me is always the mental game. Why was I dreading the run in the first place? Let's run down the potentials...

1. Because I hadn't had enough sleep-no, I get the same 6.5 hours every night (this is the compromise for me to both function and get stuff done!) 
2. Hmm-did I hate doing it on the treadmill? Sure, but I'd better get used to it with winter and looong training runs unfortunately coinciding soon. 
3. Was it leaving G with the hubs? Maybe, I always feel guilty (please don't ask why) about doing that even though they need their time together. 
4. Because I doubt that I can do it and hate failure so much that I tell myself ahead of time that I probably won't be able to do it so that I'll be prepared? DING, DING, DING-I think we have a winner!!

Ah-the psych out. Now here it is the beginning of repeating that week. I have two interval runs before I tackle that 6 miler again. So I have that many days to get myself mentally prepared-this time for the fact that I CAN do it. I need to keep my eating in check-I've noticed almost immediate fatigue when the processed stuff sneaks back in-and practice some positive self-talks during my week day runs.

I've continued to follow the Best Body Bootcamp format for those which means hills this week-yikes! That plan has helped tremendously with not getting bored with the weekday treadmill runs. In fact, even though this is the last 'official' week I think I'm going to turn around and do it for another 8 weeks. I plan an entire post about the overall experience, but it was great and highly recommended.

Here's to positive thoughts this week!

What run/workout thoughts keep you going?

Compliments.

Lately I've been making a lot of posts that are reminders to myself, but I hope can also serve as reminders to anyone out there in reader land. I feel like this one is pretty important: learning to take a compliment. And learning to give them as well.

Most of us (I'm talking to you, ladies!) are hard on ourselves. We're surrounded by visions of perfection. For example, a few promises of magazine covers just sitting around my house:

Look 7 Years Younger

Drop a Jeans Size

20-Minute Dinners

And what about the typical 'Get Great Abs', 'Organize Your Whole House', 'Make This Thanksgiving the Best Ever', blah, blah-you know you read them. Or at least scan them in line at the grocery store and think "Why don't I try to make this the best Thanksgiving ever? My family deserves that." Of course they do, but that's a lot of pressure, especially when most would be happy with pizza!

I was actually reminded of this thanks to the hubs. He's not a man of words (he is from Mars after all!) but somehow mentioned he thinks he has become a 'leg man'. I frowned when I heard this and replied Too bad-that's my worst feature. And I have honestly always thought that. I have thick thighs that keep me from finding pants that fit in any decent way and calves that make me buy boots with the stretch panels so I can zip them. But then he surprised me by saying "I actually think they're your best."

Huh. I had no idea. Normally this is where we say-you're crazy, and walk away. But instead I kissed him, said Thank You and spent a few minutes trying to see what he sees. And you know what, they're not half bad. They carried me through pregnancy, plenty of running lately, and man BBB sure is working them!

My legs aren't even in this pic, but you get the point!!

He probably has no idea how profound that moment was for me. That is part of the beauty of it.

Of course you should be paying yourself a compliment every now and again, but doesn't it always mean more coming from someone else? Try paying one to a random person each day too. That girl with the cute shoes-tell her she has great taste. The one at the gym with the killer biceps-tell her you hope to have guns like that. And don't forget the ones around you...just mention every now again that your husband/bf has a cute butt or maybe it'll make more of an impact to say that he knows more about college football than anyone you know!

You just may brighten someone's day...or make them take a second look at something they've been doubting. Oh-and the next time someone pays you a compliment, smile and say thank you. And then believe it.

What's the best compliment you've been paid lately?