Cleveland 10K

About a week before I went back to work and about 6 weeks after I had Tenley I made a commitment to get back in shape and lose the baby weight.  I knew I had to stick with it since my sister's wedding is this August.  In order to keep myself accountable I signed up for Weight Watchers and I also got the crazy notion to sign myself up for the Cleveland 10K.  After I had Rylee I made it a goal to run a 5K and I did.  This time I wanted to set my sights a bit higher so I could push myself.  At the same time Paul made the decision to run the Half Marathon.  

I stuck with my training, even though it got pretty hot the weeks leading up to the 10K.  I was having some knee issues and was starting to wonder if I would be able to actually RUN the whole distance without stopping.  The 10K actually started at a separate time that the half and the full, so I knew Paul wouldn't be around at all to keep me going. Luckily I wasn't running alone. A couple of my mommy friends had signed up too!  They were also 10K virgins so that put me a little more at ease.  Except for Becky who is super woman and ran her first full marathon!

Here we are pre-race:

Another thing that kept me going during my run was thinking of my friend Jen and her sweet little girl Ainsley who had passed away the week earlier after a long battle in the NICU. Becky and her husband made these awesome signs for us to pin to our back and run with that said Running in Memory of Ainsley.  If I ever felt the need to stop (which thankfully I didn't!) or push a little harder, I thought of that sweet little girls face and how brave and strong her and her family were during her short life.  

Here is us with our signs:

 I have to say, I'm not a morning person, let alone a morning exerciser. We were able to stay with Mindy in Lakewood the night before but we still had to get up around 4:45 am to trek our way to downtown Cleveland. Once we got down to the race the whole hype and adrenaline of everything started to kick in. I was REALLY nervous to start but away we went.  It was hot. Really hot.  I started out and pretty much knew after the first mile that it was going to be a good run.  My knee wasn't hurting and I really felt in the zone. My goal was to finish under 1:15:00.  I ended up finishing in 1:12:26.  Crossing that finish line was one of the prouder moments of my life.  I'm not a runner by any means and that is what makes these accomplishments that much more awesome! I went from feeling like I was going to pass out on C25K Week 1 Day 1 to running 6.2 miles!

I'm also proud to say that Paul finished his first Half Marathon even though he had minimal training due to some injuries.  I'm clearly in better spirits post-race than he was.  

I ran into a few old friends there and we got to catch up with Pauls cousin Dee and husband Joe who also ran the half. Speaking of Halfs, somehow I decided it would be awesome to run the Akron Half. We'll see how awesome it is running in the summer heat!  Wish me luck!

Donuts with Dad

Not to leave the Dads out, the week following Muffins with Mom, Morgan's preschool celebrated Donuts with Dad. Paul doesn't have as much flexibility with his schedule as I do so he doesn't always get the chance to go on Morgan's field trips or class parties. This was a nice chance for him to spend some time just him and Morgan. Morgan is definitely a Daddy's girl so she was super pumped he was coming to school with her.

After I saw my Mother's Day questionnaire I tried to fill Morgan's head with answers regarding Paul's. Turns out she had already filled both of them out prior to us seeing either.  I have to say some of Paul's was better than mine and some of it was much worse. 50 years old?!  If one of Morgan's preschool classmates was not named Sophi, I would be concerned.

Afterwards the kids all sang songs and did some dancing.  That is apparently what Morgan is doing in the second picture up.  Raise the roof! lol. So much fun, plus yumm! Donuts!

Mother's Day

I had a fabulous Mother's Day this year that even included some activities at Morgan's school.  Mother's Day weekend started off on Friday at Muffins with Moms at preschool.  When we arrived we had our own setting at a table with all the stuff Morgan had made for me.  It included this little treasure of a questionnaire:

Yes, that says I'm 37 and enjoy wearing costumes.  Also, I'm the meanest mom ever because what I tell Morgan the most is "Go in your room!". Hey, at least she would give me cupcakes if she could give me anything!  She made a bunch of other things that I didn't get pictures of but trust me they were soo cute!

Us at Muffins for Moms.

Before we ate the muffins, the kids sang us a cute little song. Preschoolers really can be the cutest things ever. After they sang we had muffins and juice.  I love to spend time with each of the girls one on one and a lot of the time it's hard to do that with our schedules.  This was a nice little treat.

On actual Mother's Day I got to sleep in, (which let's be honest I do that every weekend...Yay Paul!) and the girls brought me some hanging flowers for the porch.  Morgan had soccer that afternoon and then after we headed to my Grandma's so I could see my own mother. It was a perfect day with my sweet little girls!

Tenley Quinn:Five Months

Our little sweet pea is five months old already. I can't believe how much she's grown.  She is still our awesome little sleeper and good natured baby.  She is becoming more enamored with her big sisters and watches their every move. Rylee is particularly fond of Tenley and constantly wants to be right next to her. When I say next to her that means on top of her or in her face in Rylee's world. We have definitely come to realize that when T wants to go to bed, it means she wants to go to bed.  It doesn't mean she wants to eat, or be rocked, or anything at all.  She just requires that you give her a pacifier and her crib.  In other sleep news, she has made the move to full fledged stomach sleeping.  Rylee was a big stomach sleeper due to her reflux and it freaked me out.  Morgan always stayed on her back and didn't attempt to sleep on her stomach until she was a toddler so I never had to worry about it. This time I kind of felt in between.  It still made me nervous for a day or two but after she proved to me that she wouldn't suffocate herself I felt better.

Things she loves:

Big Sisters

Food - Both formula and baby food now!

Her blocks

Attempting to sit up

Sticking out her tongue

Her toes!

Things she hates:

Her needs not being attended to immediately

Losing her pacifier in the middle of the night

Now on to the fun stuff...pictures!

Obligatory picture with dog.

Her hair is still wild. This is her serious face.

Who me?

Why yes, I am the cutest 5 month old ever!

* I totally started writing this post as four months and then had to really think about it.  I'm clearly on top of things when it comes to my children. I'm still second guessing it now but I'm fairly certain I'm right so it's getting posted.

Best.Indians.Game.Ever!

We recently got an awesome opportunity that at first I thought might be to good to be true!  I received an email about a week before this game asking me if I wanted a complimentary 4 pack for Saturday May 5.  The 4 pack included:

4 tickets

$10 loaded onto each ticket for food/drink

4 hats

1 parking pass

4 Jerseys (which was actually the giveaway and not part of the 4 pack but worth mentioning)

Plus a special preview of the Rookie Suite that was set to open on Sunday.

I was like wow, there has to be a catch, but there wasn't!  They wanted to do a soft opening and get some feedback from families before they opened it to the public.  OMG I was so all over this.  I LOVE the Tribe probably more than any one person should.  This was an awesome experience.

Here is our view from the Rookie Suite.  Our tickets were actually in the Mezzanine but we spent the entire night in the suite.  The Rookie "Suite" is actually 7 suites combined into one giant play area for kids.  They have their own little concession stand that caters to kids, couches and flat screens for the adults, a few restrooms, a rock climbing wall and all the toys a kid could want.  If you wanted to watch the game from there you could step right outside to a row of seats to watch the game.  This would be handy if your kids were a bit older than mine and didn't need constant supervision.

Our night first started out when we were checking into get our wristbands and the guy checking in in front of me turned around and said "Hey I like your shirt, I own that company, mind if I take a pic?"  I was all sure and then totally all umm I love your shirts, because I do.  Fresh Brewed Tees if you care.

Here I am!

All of the Hot Dogs made an appearance in the suite to talk to the kids.  Morgan has not stopped talking about them ever since. Paul is mad that she got her picture with Ketchup because Ketchup is a cheater.

Tenley watching the game on TV and generally being adorable.

Rylee spent the entire night riding the Little Tykes roller coaster thing. I have to say even the staff in the suite were super nice and helped the kids and played with them.

Oh what's this you say?  Oh, that's just us and our good buddy Mark. Mark Shapiro. I was like a damn kid in a candy store that evening.  This is going to be my 2012 Christmas card, except I plan on cropping everyone out but me and my pal Markie.

I would say a good time was had by all!  Big, huge, ginourmous THANK YOU to the Indians for the opportunity.  I love going to Tribe games and we love to take the kids.  I've always found the Tribe to be really family friendly but with the addition of the new kids suites it got even better!  Next time you head up with your kids, make sure to check it out!

Wagon Trails

Morgan had her last field trip of the school year at the beginning of the month and we were lucky enough to have Aunt Mindy go with us!  I had never been to Wagon Trails but I had heard lots about it from some of the other moms who had older kids in preschool in years past.

First we went through the little petting zoo area (which you can't really pet anything but it's kind of a time kill until the wagon is ready to take you.)  Morgan was a little unsure about the whole thing at first but warmed up really quickly.

Rylee on the other hand still hates animals of all kinds.  I have to say this scares me.  I swear the first thing you hear when someone kills their parents or shoots up a school is that they tortured pets as small children.  While she doesn't torture them per se, there is definitely no love lost between her and the animal kind. She prefers to look from afar.

At the end of the "petting zoo" there was a baby camel that you could in fact actually pet! So cute!

Aunt Mindy feeding the animals.

Like I said, Morgan was unsure at first but warmed up really quick.  They give each rider on the wagon a bucket of food, which is pretty large and can feed quite a bit of animals.  This is good because there are tons of awesome animals that are HUNGRY.

Coy Pond.

So happy.

Rylee getting brave enough to attempt to feed an animal...

....and quickly pulling her hand back as fast as humanly possible.

It must not have bothered her that much because she was still able to give me her signature Popeye camera face.

These guys were so awesome.  Their antlers feel like velvet!

Our final stop included Zebras and Ostriches which we were instructed on how to feed because they are apparently both mean animals.  I was a little nervous because I had watched a video on their website before we went and those ostriches creeped me out frankly. We were told not to get our fingers/hands near the bucket and when feeding the ostriches and to throw the food under our seats for the Zebras.  The Zebras were actually more brown than black and the ostriches were as creepy as I thought they would be. 

All in all we had a great day and I'm thinking we will have to take Daddy back sometime this summer!

Morgan+Side of Stairs=Stitches

Hello way behind on the blogging! I'm forcing myself to catch up this week because lord knows this summer will be a busy one and I will have tons of things to blog about.  Okay moving on...

Wayyyy back in the beginning of May was a pretty busy time at work for me.  Not to mention all the shit I knew we had to start doing at home and for preschool, etc.  One evening while still at work I saw I missed a call from Paul. I gave him a call back to let him know I was going to be late and see what he wanted.  He answered the phone and told me that I needed to meet him at the ER.  Surprisingly I didn't panic.  I asked him if he was kidding.  Occasionally he will stay stuff like this just to ramp up my anxiety and then immediately say "Nope! Just Kidding!"  He will then proceed to ask me something stupid like hey can you pick up Nair for Men..(that's a whole other post..)  This time however he said no, I'm serious, Morgan hit her head and she needs stitches.

Oy.  None of the kids have every been injured enough to require medical attention. I knew she would be okay but I was panicked that I wouldn't get there in time to be with her  Of course Rt 8 was backed up more than usual  that day and gave me total road rage.  As it turns out we had to wait like 3-4 hours before they could see her anyway. Once I got there she was fine and playing with the toys they have there.  I was able to get the scoop from Paul (and my mom on the phone) that she tripped over something in the basement and went straight first into the side of the stairs and bashed her head on the trim.  Lucky for us there are a plethora of nurses that live on our street and Paul ran her across the street where Nurse Lori (Thanks Lori!) made the official call that stitches would indeed be needed.

This is how I found the little munchkin upon my arrival.

After waiting a few hours the bandaid was not doing the trick anymore.  This was the fixup.

Pre-Stitches. Ouch.

Post Stitches.

She was quite the trooper.  The nurses who did her stitches even commented that she did better than a lot of adults.  She barely made a peep minus the numbing shots she got right before she got the stitches. She was rewarded for her bravery with Dairy Queen.

Here is right after they got taken out the next week.  It healed up pretty nice and hopefully won't scar too bad.  I'm sure over the next 20 years we'll have plenty of these kinds of posts. Just hopefully not any soon.