Rachel: 3.5 years

Our very verbal child continues to be very verbal indeed.

Things with Rachel lately seem to be quite challenging... it's hard to know if this is just the usual 3 year old stuff, or just Rachel, or what.  She has so much energy!  She is nonstop go go go and talk talk talk.  She keeps us on her toes.

She can be sweet and helpful and so smart.  But she can be such a challenge also.  I find it particularly hard to have her interact with other kids her age, since she has a hard time sharing toys or attention from adults.

She loves swimming, movies, anything to do with Frozen, reading books, telling stories, riding her bike, throwing and chasing balls, and playing with her kids and stuffies and marbles.  She has really been enjoying school lately and seems to be making closer relationships at school.  It is hard to get her out of the house to go to the park, go hiking, etc.

She's my best little friend and my companion.  I love snuggling up and reading with her and it's amazing to watch her imagination and listen to her stories.

Ava: 10 months!

Ava had a 9 month check up with the doctor and was deemed to be doing well.  She is 67th percentile for weight at 19lbs, 4 oz and is in the 94th percentile for length at over 29" tall.

We had a discussion about her fluid and food intake at the appointment, and decided to start adding some formula to her diet.  It seemed like a huge decision for me, since I'm such a big believer that 'breast is best'.  But she was probably only getting 17oz a day from the breast, no matter what I tried to do to increase milk production or feed her more often, and it's recommended she get 24-32oz per day.  Also, I don't always have enough time at work to pump.  Lastly, when Rachel was this age she started running into trouble with losing weight and it was a huge concern.  I worked so hard to try and make it work without formula for Rachel because I thought that was what was best, but that turned out to be a mistake.

So now Ava has some bottles at daycare 'topped up' with formula.  If I can get her 3 oz, then she'll get another 3 oz of formula mixed in.  And wow!  Using formula is so easy.  There's nothing too it at all.  There's so much less pressure on mom to make sure she has enough and if I miss pumping now, it's not a big deal.  If something were to happen where I'd be separated from Ava, she could have formula and be just fine.  I can see why this whole thing is such a hit in our society today.  Don't get me wrong... I'm all for breast feeding and still plan to do it for a while.  But I don't feel guilty for using some formula to make life a little easier and help Ava grow big and strong.

In the last two months, Ava has mastered efficient crawling.  She can crawl upstairs.  She can pull to stand, stand on her own for a moment, squat down with support to pick something up, and cruise a little.  She wants to stand all the time!  She has had a few more falls and bumps.  She isn't interested in being stuck in a car seat, exersaucer, play pen, or crib.  She can get into everything.

She loves to swim at the pool and is fine going under water.  She loves music.  Her favorite thing to do is to be near her sister and watch everything Rachel does and play with whatever Rachel is playing with.

She can clap, sign 'more', sign 'milk' and eat anything that she won't choke on.  She has no 'rules' on food except no cow's milk straight up.  She's a great eater and will eat most anything that's put in front of her.  She's getting better at drinking water from an open cup.

R sits with helmet on eating lunch.  Ava is under her chair playing.

She has learned that if she fusses, she will probably get picked up.

We are still waiting for her first tooth to appear!

She will be 10 months tomorrow.  It's amazing how fast the time is flying by.

Here are three videos if you can watch them:
1) Ava (8 months) bear crawls

2) Ava (8 months) moves chair around

3) Ava (9 months) bounces with excitement

4) ) Ava (9.5 months) crawls on stairs

April desert races and training

On Easter weekend, our family headed to Fruita, CO for a trail running festival. 

We left the Front Range heat on Friday morning and drove to Frisco, and had a picnic lunch in a snowy playground.  Then we drove toward Utah and headed to our campsite in the Colorado National Monument.  The canyons and red rocks were beautiful.

Camping in the busy Friday night was a bit difficult.  Ava had a hard time sleeping in her travel crib inside our giant tent (thanks, Amber!).  It stated to rain unexpectedly sometime in the night, and we weren't sure if the tent would stay dry. (It did.)  Ava ended up sleeping in my sleeping bag with me, so I didn't sleep much at all.

Sat morning we woke up to pouring rain at 5:30am and jumped in the car to drive Jason to his race.  Everything was clay and muck and wet.  We dropped Jason off to run his marathon and then tried to figure out what to do for a few hours.  It was my 35th birthday and I was unimpressed with things.  But by the time we saw Jason at the finish line with a big smile on his face, it was all good again.  It was his 8th marathon and he reached his goal of negative split (running the second half faster than the first half).  

Sat afternoon I got to nap, the sun came out, we saw friends, enjoyed the Dinosaur Museum, and had a nice campsite dinner with friends.  Rachel enjoyed several Easter egg hunts around the campsite.  Jason did much more with Ava that night so I could sleep.  

R goes potty next to car at campsite while wearing bunny mask

Sunday morning it was beautiful and sunny and everything had dried out.  I ran my half marathon and really enjoyed the scenery.  I was anxious going into it because my longest training run was only 9.3 miles, and I hadn't spent much time doing anything technical.  The first 6-7 miles felt good.  I was pretty happy at 10 miles on top of a big climb, even though my legs were hurting.  The descent was really fun, even if my legs complained the whole time.  Then at 12 miles, when we returned to flat double track, I shuffled along to the finish, slowly but satisfied and just trying not get get injured. 

Rachel, Ava and Jason were cheering at the finish, with Easter eggs all around.  We watched friends finish and then packed up and drove home.

Jason has a couple short races planned (5-10km) and I have 2 triathlons coming up.  I do an Olympic distance tri June 7 and then my half ironman on June 29.  I have a lot of work to do in all 3 disciplines to make this happen.  The next 2 months must be better about training/resting/eating well/working less.  

I'm actually pretty tired of being on a training plan, and motivation is waning.  When I have a hard time finding the motivation, these are some things I think about:

- Other people I know that have completed a half ironman, and they seemed so badass (Anna and Aoibhinn, Jen M, Jason, Shelie B, Sarah M, Kelly O, etc.) and I want to feel that length of a race and that challenge and succeed.

- I want to feel strong and fit again.  In the last 5 years I've been pregnant or nursing for most of it and it's been a tough toll on my body.  I do want to be confident in a bikini again but I also want to be able to go do things and feel strong and powerful.  I'm pretty much back to the weight I was before I was pregnant at all, and completing a half will be a real achievement to celebrate being done with the whole pregnancy process.

But when it's all said and done, I want to just camp and hike and walk and play outside again, instead of having specific workout needs all the time.  In order to train for something all the time (even if we do it half way because that's all we can manage), it means Jason and I are often trading our time.  One stays with the kids while the other goes and runs.  This means we do way less as a family and, therefore, as a couple.  I miss doing things outside as a family and I miss playing outside WITH Jason.  Right now splitting up is the only way we know how to do it, but I'm really looking forward to July!

Good bye ski season

Skiing pictures from March

A few weeks ago, we had a lucky opportunity for a family to watch Ava so that Jason and I could take Rachel skiing.  The ski season this year has been awesome, and the snow is still decent - even now in May.

We had a fun day taking Rachel to Keystone.  We were able to park in our friends' parking spot near the gondola, in a covered parking area.  This made things really easy, and made us wish we could buy a place near the slopes!

Rachel did an amazing job skiing.  She skis beside us and holds on to our poles.  She loves to go fast.  She doesn't really know how to turn or stop, but she can balance well and hold up her own weight.  She doesn't love to ride up on the chairlift, and doesn't like it if the lift attendant touches her to help.  She wears a little backpack with a handle that we don't attach the harness to, but it allows us to lift her up on to the chair lift.  She carries Nunu in her little pack so he can ski, too.

Jason took a few runs on his own, but mostly we were there to ski with Rachel.  It's hard work for one adult to ski with Rachel.  She takes long runs - a long time to hold a squat position!

Rachel had her first wipe out, but it wasn't a big deal.  She also rode through the park for the first time, and went over her first real jumps and her first plastic box.

We were all about done just after lunch, and headed back to the car.  Our friends had given us keys to the resort hot tub, so we had a nice soak as snow flakes fell all around.

When we arrived at the turn on to I-70, we saw that the highway was closed.  We pulled over and waited and panicked because Ava was without too much extra milk and we weren't sure how long our drive home might be.  But, thankfully, the highway opened up after about 30 min and we were near the front of it all, and made it home without any further drama.

We are sad we didn't get to ski more this year.  There's a small chance we might get in one more day, so we aren't putting the skis away just yet.  But we have to decide what we are going to do for next year - which resort(s), are we going to rent a winter place, what passes, and if Rachel will enter a formal program.