Today was our final 1st birthday of our baby friend group! Today we celebrated Emma's birthday!! It was a gorgeous day to have a birthday. I went for a great 4 mile run this morning. It was the perfect temperature and I had to get back on the horse of running since last week's disaster!
We played a lot outside with our friends at Emma's house. Olivia, Nikki, and Ethan played together. We had lunch and cake. Emma did not want her cake in her high chair...she did much better with it once she sat on the floor! She had such a yummy cake! We were so happy to celebrate with Emma and her family today!
As our friend Mark said... all the birthdays are done for 2012 and Olivia will kick off the 2013 birthday season next year!!
We came home and Olivia napped and Brendon and I relaxed for a bit. I admit I was a tad tired and napped too! Then we went to church. Rick and Karyn went too and sat in front of us. Olivia did pretty good...a little talking here and there but nothing too bad. We came home for dinner and the usual night routine minus the walk outside.
Waiting to go to Emma's party!
Climbing up Emma's slide
Playing with Nikki
Mark and Ethan
The very large turtle that lives behind Emma's house
Emma and her cake!
Olivia met a nice friend Lydia who played with her
I gave in today and went to the CVS Minute Clinic. My voice still isn't better. I begged the nurse practitioner to take me before she went to lunch and she did. I think she heard my raspy voice and felt bad and she even said that she has a hard time turning people down. The nurse said it is just allergies. On the Atlanta Allergy page it says that it is Elm, Ragweed, and Grass. So I guess my body just doesn't like one of those even though I take Claritin D daily. She also said that my nose was really swollen and that she couldn't believe how well I was breathing out of my nose considering the swelling inside. She prescribed me some nasal spray and to switch to Allegra which Brendon takes both. She said it should kick in and I should have my voice back soon...I hope so!!
Brendon was super dad today and took Olivia grocery shopping so I could go to the doctor. He said her favorite part is the produce section. She likes to point to all the fruits and vegetables she knows! What a smarty!! She took a pretty long nap and was not very interested in dinner. She ate lots of peas and carrots though. We took a quick walk and read lots of books. Poor Olivia had to listen to my horrible voice reading her books. But she did sit in my lap and listened for 3 books...maybe she likes this voice! Tomorrow we are celebrating Emma's birthday! We are so excited!!
Tonight we started our fall Kindermusik classes. Too bad I still have no voice and I couldn't sing and barely talked. If this is not better by tomorrow...I am definitely calling the doctor! It was soo good to see Nikki and her mommy! We have missed them!! It was fun to sing and play instruments!
After Kindermusik we all were hungry so we went to Subway for dinner. Thank goodness we were the only ones in the restaurant the whole time! We ate and the girls played. It was so cute! Olivia ate a lot of sandwich by taking bites! She even ate the lettuce! Too bad she whined the whole way home...no real tears just whined. The cutest thing now is that when she looks out the window in the car she points and names things. She will say car and today we passed some horses and she said, "Horsey!" It made my heart smile.
Craziness... I have no voice. It is very hard to communicate with people and especially with Olivia. It was pretty rough in the classroom today too. But I feel fine so I didn't want to waste a sick day when I feel fine.
When I got home from work I tried to feed Olivia lunch but she wasn't very interested. I tried a few different foods before we left this afternoon. We stopped at The Avenue to get a birthday gift for Emma today. Her party is on Saturday. We stopped at Barnes and Nobles and Carters. Olivia loves to look at all the books and clothes so she was pretty well entertained.
We then zoomed to Gymboree! I felt bad because I couldn't really talk to Lauren and Michelle. But Olivia and I had fun anyways.
By the time we got home it was almost dinner time and I wasn't sure what to make. So I decided it was my favorite meal...breakfast for dinner. I used to love when my mom made this for us! I made some french toast, sausage, and used the leftover eggs. Olivia had some banana too!! It was so yummy! Olivia did pretty good eating it also. We had mega dishes to do so we stayed inside tonight and played in her room for quite awhile and had fun!
I told Olivia today that she was 17 months old and her response was, "Wowie!" I guess she thought that was exciting!
Here are some new and fun things about Olivia:
She is growing way to fast. At dinner tonight I noticed that her feet now touch the foot rest on her high chair. I still remember when we first put her in the high chair and her feet were a good 4 inches from it! She looked so little in the high chair but now she is so big!
Olivia is still wearing 12 month clothes but everything is becoming a bit snug. I have a feeling we will be washing some 18 month stuff soon that will last us through fall and winter.
Olivia is doing better with the fork and spoon. She can even say spoon. Yogurt, pureed fruits, and pudding she loves to spoon herself. We are still doing pureed fruit but she will eat bananas, grapes, watermelon, and pieces of apple which is a major improvement. Olivia still loves her veggies. Instead of giving her milk right away when she is eating we wait since she will drink all the milk and not want to eat. She will now say, "Milk!" when she is ready for milk. She is also doing a lot of biting of things- crackers, animal crackers, breads, and sandwiches.
Today I got her to walk down the stairs holding just one of my hands. She did step-step down each one. She is still using hands and legs/knees when she goes up the stairs.
This girl loves some shoes! Olivia loves the Stride Rite commercial and now says,"Shoes!" when it comes on. So cute...but this could be trouble in the future. She is sometimes able to take off her shoes and knows where her shoes are located and will get them out.
Olivia can take off her socks and help with taking off her shorts and shirts.
Olivia knows lots of animals now- dog, cat, cow, horse, duck, owl (her favorite), deer, elk (daddy taught her that one), fish, bird.
Olivia loves to dance. I admit she looks like Elaine from Seinfeld when she dances though!
We are working on jumping! We just need her to get some air...she has the right motion.
She knows the color yellow!
Olivia knows the following body parts- eyes, ears, nose, teeth, tongue, tummy, belly button, toes, knees, elbow, and back.
This girl loves a game of peek a boo! Now she thinks it is sooo funny when we pretend we can't find her! She loves stuffed animals now- well at least her lamby, bunny, and Olivia the pig doll.
We almost have her name down- comes out livia... but we are close! Thanks to her Olivia the pig doll!!
Olivia is getting interested in the potty. She will say bye bye to the pee pee when we flush so potty training may be coming... I am not rushing it though. I want her to be ready and it to be successful. I ask her sometimes if she goes pee pee or poopy and sometimes she will answer correctly or sometimes I will ask her if she needs a diaper and she looks down and checks (kind of funny).
The only thing I am still concerned about are her teeth! She still has 6! We have not gotten a new tooth since April! I see lots of bumps in her mouth where they are but none have decided they are ready yet. I will bring this up at her 18 month appointment in September.
But we just love her sooo much! She is growing and changing so much every day. We can't wait to see what she does this month!!
Olivia is getting into gadgets. She can now reach the computer and successfully present the restart button...not funny when it happens 2 or 3 times. She also loves our phones and the computer keyboard. I was pretty sure we had a spare keyboard and we found it. She loves to "type" on it. Olivia can even say, "keyboard." Too funny!
Also Olivia found the boo boo on my toe. First she said, "Ewwwww!" Then I told her it was a boo boo on my toe (since all her boo boos end up on her knees). The rest of the afternoon she kept checking my toe and saying boo boo! Too cute!!
Here she was today texting away and typing at the same time.
Today was recovery day. I woke up starving. Breakfast was good...you can't go wrong with Brendon's dippy eggs. We just relaxed this morning and did lots of playing indoors. We went for a little walk this morning since Olivia was getting bored with all of her toys inside. I don't know what we will do when it gets cold, this child loves to go outside.
Olivia and Brendon ate lunch. I was just not in the mood for food. I was drinking lots of fluids though. After Olivia went down for a nap I took a shower and then a well deserved nap. After the nap about 3:00 I felt better and was hungry so I had a bowl of cereal. A very slow bowl of cereal. It was a weird weather day sunny and then super dark clouds and a little bit of rain. I stuck my feet in the pool for a few minutes and enjoyed getting some vitamin D.
Then when Olivia woke up, she ate her snack and we played inside. She is so funny sometimes. She put all of her stuffed animals in her shopping cart and was walking them all around. She played with the stuff in the recycling bin. She ate dinner like a champ!! Can't pass up some venison tenderloin, zucchini and squash, and noodles. We had a quick evening walk- Jake included! Then bath time and two Olivia books before bed.
I am feeling better now...not 100%. At least my legs aren't sore- that's a major positive.
Recycling bin fun!
Taking the airplane for a ride in the shopping cart
I am disappointed in myself, my poor pinky toe is blistered and bloody, and recovering from dehydration is no fun. I had high hopes for myself to finish this 1/2 marathon in a goal time of 2 hours and 15 minutes. That goal slipped away during the race. I felt prepared and confident. I was not going to let the Alien 13.1 beat me! Well it did.
Here is the race recap:
I am glad Dean and I decided to leave when we did. Parking was tight. We parked about a 1/2 mile from the start. So basically we walked a mile and a half before the race started. We picked up our numbers and went back to the car for final race preparations. It was a warm start- about 82 degrees. I was already sweaty before it started. I grabbed a bottle of water before we got to the start line and I am so glad I did. I had my race plan in my head. It was the same strategy I used last Saturday on my 10 mile training run- run 8 minutes and then walk and recover for 2 minutes. I ended up running the first 2 miles without any recovery breaks and then started from there with my plan. It was hot. We passed a water station for mile 4 that looked like it had Gatorade/Powerade. So I was really looking forward to that. I did my first 3 miles at about 28 minutes and felt great. Well when I got to that water station....the water was slim and it was not Gatorade or Powerade...it was some energy water that was not mixed and tasted horrible. I was happy I still had my water bottle.
I kept on going and felt fine. The temperature was dropping but when you are all sweaty that makes you cold. Every water station was packed...they were running out of cups and water. At mile 10 I wasn't that far off my last Saturday's 10 miles- 1 hour 50 minutes, I was at 1 hour and 54 minutes. And then it rained....I mean just a brief rain but I was soaked. The water station at mile 10 ran out of water. I think I got the last bit in my water bottle and then the volunteer said they were out of water. At this point my pinky toes started hurting, I figured either I was over pronating or it was from my socks being wet- from both the rain and sweat. At this point I was doing more walking then running. I felt wave after wave of nausea...I didn't want to drink anymore water. I felt like I was over watered at this point. So at this point I just decided to walk...why risk getting more injured.
So I walked the last 3 miles. It got dark and it was hard to see the paved trail we were on. At mile 12 there was one last water station...they had no cups and they were literally pouring water into peoples' hands. I had my trusty bottle...as beat up as it was at this point and they filled it. I tried to drink it...but nope...my body didn't want it. A couple of dry heaves later...kept walking. Finally the finish was in sight and I just walked across it.
I got my sticker and my medal and the search for recovery foods and drinks was my mission. Guess what?? No recovery food except apples and warm water in snow cone cups. I tried a couple of the vendor booths with no luck. One vendor gave me a sparkling water...gross. I found Dean and sat on a bench that was in view of the medical tent. Dean came back with his swag bag and I looked at Dean and said, "I don't feel so well...I think I am going to the medical tent." I think we were both surprised with that since we always try to give it our all each race. I went to the medical tent and explained how I felt and that all I wanted was something cold and not water. The first attendant said they didn't have any Gatorade or Powerade. He gave me some ice to put on my back and forhead. He gave me some cold water that I just swished in my mouth. Not nay better. At this point Dean joined me in the tent with lots of other people. A second medic stopped to check on me and voila! he appeared with Gatorade! My hero. I took some small sips. Then I really didn't feel well. Just an FYI ...the next part is not so pretty. I threw up...and threw up...and threw up. That poor medic sat there with me and let me puke and just stayed with me. I told him, "Thankfully you don't have to hold my hair!" He at least laughed. Dean and I stayed until we felt better. At one point I think we were both worried about who was going to drive home! We felt well enough to get back to the car and star driving. I ended up stopping to get a Ginger Ale to help settle my stomach. But I was so happy to get home. I ate some crackers, showered, and went to bed.
I was tired, disappointed in myself, and so happy to be home. Would I do the race again? Maybe... if it is not in Mid-August. I don't know how else to prevent the dehydration....I had hydrated for days. Am I disappointed in myself yes and no. There are some things that you can't prevent while running...like the people running out of water or not having Gatorade or Powerade or even blisters on your pinky toes. I guess I need to train differently for Athens, but I felt my training was good and last Saturday I felt great with my 10 miles. Next time my goal is to finish strong!
Brendon went for a bike ride in the morning so Olivia and I had some quality time. But I was sooo tired. I was not feeling well and did not sleep well Friday night. Not sure what it was but it caused major sleep disruptions. When Brendon came home I took a little nap. Then I got ready for my 1/2 marathon (that post will come a little later).
Brendon and Olivia had a great night together. They went swimming and had a great taco dinner. Olivia had some rice, chips and tacos! She even says taco now! They had lots of fun playing.
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