toilet paper

Saw this idea while Jesse and I were wandering through the mall and loved it.  More importantly, Lily loved it and it was a riot to watch her play with the toilet paper.

I love her expression in this one.  She was having so much fun.

I think there's a Charmin commercial in this one..

"Momma, this stuff is awesome."

Real life update later, just wanted to share the pictures. 

Win.

Oh, let's see, what can I talk about today..

Training for my half marathon is going pretty well.  I'm actually quite pleased with it, considering I had to take a week and a half off of my training.  This might hurt the PR I was going for, but my runs have been pretty consistent and felt good so far.  I did 5 miles yesterday and felt great, so I was really encouraged by that.  We'll see how dead I am after 10 tomorrow..I purchased some calf sleeves to help with shin splints and calf cramping/pain and I'm planning on wearing them tomorrow.  Hopefully they  help and my legs aren't as sore.

This week was pretty relaxed.  Tuesday, Zeke had a friend over.  This little puppy found his way up to the Y, and our friend took him in until we could find the owner.  Since I didn't work Tuesday, dogs had a play date.  Small Dog (as he was fondly referred to) was scared of our 67 lb Boxer (shocking) until I got them to the park, where they became best friends.  I wish someone had been with me to take my picture, because I'm sure I looked pretty cool pushing a stroller and walking a Small Dog and a Big Dog.  It was quite the workout for me, and I was quite thankful for the doggie park where I could turn them loose.

Lily is still working on the whole get-up-on-your-hands-and-knees thing..she actually can get to her knees, but isn't sure what to do from there.  She will either rock back and forth a few times, or just lay back down on her stomach.  Pretty adorable if you ask me (which you did, it is my blog), and I wouldn't be surprised if she actually got some momentum to get going soon.  One of my co-workers told me that Lily scooted forward (she has only been scooting backwards) towards a toy.  But a) I wasn't there to see it, and b) I told her to either push Lily down or yell for me if she started moving.  Since she didn't fulfill B, I'm assuming it didn't happen (sorry, Chanell).

Lily has gotten more interested in toys, and a friend from church/work gave us one of those Leap Frog light up table/activity center things.  She really likes it, and incidentally, so does Zeke.  Actually, Lily and Zeke are figuring it out pretty much at the same rate: Zeke is equally fascinated by the lights, and will press some of the buttons with his nose to make it light up if no one is playing with it.

The rice cereal is going well.  Actually, great.  I'm glad we waited until she was 6 months to give it to her because she is grasping the concept pretty well and quickly.  If we give her the spoon with some food on it, she knows right where it goes and is a pretty good aim (maybe this is normal, though?).  On the other hand, she is enjoying it so much, I feel like we could have gotten started much sooner...*shurg* we'll leave that question to philosophers and not worry about it. 

Jesse is enjoying the idea of it, not so much helping execute the feedings, but has already been talking about moving onto other foods.  Actually, the day we started the rice cereal, he went out and bought some stage 1 sweet potatoes and a few other baby food type things.  I'm thinking we'll start peas or green beans sometime soon..possibly this next week.  Maybe we'll wait until next week.  Sometime we will start the green stuff.

Last but not least, Lily set a record today and took at least a 3 hour nap!  I was so excited, I took a nap and then did nothing productive to celebrate.  It was glorious.  So what if it has taken me 6 months to figure out how to get my baby to nap?  I kept her awake all morning and then took to her the "Mommy and me" swim lesson at the Y.  She adores the water, and if I didn't know better, I would think she has gills.  We showed those other little babies how to go under (I think the other mom's were pretty nervous about this..but Lily and I showed 'em how it was done!), and Lily was kicking up a storm.  Not really splashing around, but she sure was ready to go!  We had a lot of fun, and I think she almost fell asleep while we were rinsing off in the shower and enjoying the warm water.  Needless to say, by the time I got home, she was sound asleep.  Woke her up to feed her and she was passed out!  Win.

24 and 6 months

I turned 24 today!  Only happens once, and will last an entire year, so watch out: I'm ready for whatever it has to offer.  Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday (even if you forgot momentarily *cough* Mom, Dad, Jesse *cough*), I had a very splendid birthday.  Keeping with my decision to not recognize calories on my special day, I ate way too much of the cookie cake Jesse bought me and don't regret it one bit.  Plus, I ran 8 miles yesterday and will be running 3 tomorrow.  And today was my birthday.  I could have eaten the whole thing with no guilt.  Ah, it's a good thing birthday's don't happen often!

We celebrated today by Lily getting me out of bed at 630, followed by a nap at 730 (hah).  The three of us bummed around for awhile before going on some errands and to pick up my cake.  While we were out, Jesse noticed that one of my tires was looking kind of flat, and upon further examination, noticed that it had a bulging/tumor looking thing.  Unfortunately, this required as immediate attention as possible, and so he spent the rest of the afternoon at the car-fix-it place while Lily, Zeke and I hung out at home.  I exercised the creative half of my brain by decorating a few onesies for Lily (pictures later..) and we all took a little nap.  And thus, my birthday.  Nothing too exciting, but it was fairly relaxing, and after the past few weeks we've had, I was grateful.

In other news and adventures, since Lily is turning 6 months (whoa!) this week, Jesse and I gave her some rice cereal today.  She. Loved. It.  No ifs, ands or buts about it: she think it's the greatest.  After the first bite, she was reaching and grabbing at the spoon for more, as I apparently wasn't feeding her fast enough.  She had it twice today, and loved it both times, so I don't think I have too much to be concerned about with this.  I was kind of anticipating more stories and funny pictures for this, but she just gobbled it right up without too much of an incident.  How boring.  We'll see if we can get some wonderful "this is disgusting" faces with peas or something..

going for the first bit..notice the bib.  it's a runway that lights up.  be jealous.

not entirely sure..

and the spoon is a plane!  thanks, Rick and Nikki!

biiiiiig fan!  and so was Zeke.

That's about it!  Nothing too exciting to report, but I promised this post with pictures of the rice cereal to a few people who have been eagerly waiting all day for it..so here it is! :) Please say a prayer for us that Lily sleeps tonight..we're all dragging with her sudden sleep aversion.  We've been fortunate that she's slept so well so far, and she needs to get back to that.  asap.  

Oh, and since I mentioned it briefly, my training is going pretty well.  I went 8 miles yesterday and was pretty pleased with my time, considering the farthest I had run before that was 4.5 miles (I was supposed to be up to 6, but with all the sickness, I skimped on my runs).  It felt pretty good, and I'm actually not too sore which is great.  The race is at the end of April, and I'm pretty excited to run it and see some of our friends while we're in TN!

fun weekends and running

My brain is kind of fried recently, so I don't really have too many new developments, but I do have pictures of this past weekend in Findlay!  Hooray!  It went way too quickly, but Jesse, Lily and I had a lot of fun visiting family, running a (fairly) spur of the moment race [Dad emailed us last week and asked if we wanted to run it] and celebrating Mom's and my birthday's.  We got back later than planned last night, I got up earlier than I wanted to this morning and ran farther than I felt like today, but life is good.

[photo credit to my mom and Kimmy for most of these pictures]

future Beethoven 

runners + photo-bombers

we are serious about running

Richard finishing strong

Dad zooming along

I  definitely beat the lady running next to me

I encouraged them by yelling "don't you DARE let a girl beat you, Joel!" and the like. 

airplanes!: maturity took a serious hit.  This was right before I almost bit it.

good nights sleep and coffee.

I think that I can honestly say that Lily and I are better.  She is on her last day of amoxicillin- with no allergic reaction!- and has been sounding soooo much better.  I still have a bit of a cough, I guess, but compared to how we were feeling, I will take that.  I even have been doing my runs this week (with an inhaler close by).  I will try and update real fast while I eat my breakfast and the dog and Lily are both content..and by content, I mean Lily is trying to vault herself out of her bouncer seat..

This post is brought to you compliments of me finally getting a good nights sleep last night and a good cup of coffee with my cereal this morning.  So chances are, my fingers won't be able to keep up with my brain, so bear with me.

Jesse, Lily and I went to Zanesville last weekend and got to spend some time with his parents.  On Saturday, we also ran over to MVNU for a few hours to see my parents, Joel and Kimmy.  We're headed up to Findlay tomorrow to see my side of the family.  Dad sent an email last week asking if we wanted to run in a 4 mile race on Saturday..sure, why not!  So that's what we'll be doing Saturday.

Lily has been incredibly wiggly lately.  Well, always, but she's getting harder and harder to hang onto.  Since the sickness, she is now a bit fussier when I'm not holding her, but we're working on that.  She had a great time last night and was being so funny when Jesse and I went to the Cline's: Jen and I even got her to giggle :)  Lily has been rolling all over the place, including off my lap and trying to dive-bomb for the floor. No injuries yet, though.  I had to ask the babysitter's at the Y on Monday that if Lily started to crawl while I wasn't there to please not tell me: I really feel that she's getting close.  Hopefully she'll at least start scooting sometime soon.  Well, ok, scooting forward, since the other day she scooted backwards..as she licked the carpet the whole way.  Lovely.  

Speaking of Lily not being super happy when she isn't being held, she apparently is turning into a little player.  She will cry and cry and cry (with real tears and everything!) until someone picks her up.  And if it's not me, she'll continue to cry.  And as soon as she gets passed to me, she gives the biggest, most ornery smile you've ever seen.  What a goober.  So, I think I can safely say she got used to lots of Momma-Lily cuddle time while she was sick.  Fortunately, she continues to be a really happy baby, and will smile and "talk" to everyone at the Y.  And, she's been getting used to other random people holding her for a few minutes, which is handy.  

And real fast before I go get ready for a run: 5 month pictures!

Oh, and she is kind of sitting up on her own. Kind of meaning she will sit up if I put her in a sitting position, at least for a few minutes, before wobbling to the side.  And because I was a soccer player and worry about head injuries, I get a little paranoid about her hitting her head.  But she's getting better!

prescriptions, over the counter and humidifiers

Oh, do I have stories to tell.  Well, I guess one story, but the bottom line is that I have an upper respiratory infection and laryngitis, and Lily still has RSV (an upper respiratory infection).  

Saturday brought about an awful nights sleep for all three of us here, and I had a fever (did I blog about this?).  As the day continued, I felt achey, but my temperature went down and I wasn't too worried about it.  I felt congested and just blah (a good technical term) all weekend, and began to lose my voice yesterday.  This morning, I woke up with absolutely no voice: all gone, minus a whisper.  Which is awesome, since I was scheduled to work tomorrow morning.  I ran over to the Y and "spoke" with my supervisor, explaining that I felt okay enough to work, but I would need a wipe-off board and dry erase marker to talk to members that came in, and I wasn't sure how I would answer the phone.  She got things figured out, and I have the day off.  Perfect.  

I had called the doctor yesterday because I wasn't feeling to swift with lots of congestion and a cough (and the hoarse voice), and praise God, they had an opening for today at 5p.  I wasn't terribly concerned about Lily because I had been told it could take a few weeks for her to feel better, and she has been acting happier with smiles and more activity.  Minus the fact she still sounds like a seal when she's coughing and occasionally throwing up mucus (ugh), she really is sounding better.

As the doctor was sitting and trying to talk to me (probably just reading my lips), she stopped and listened to Lily for a second and got pretty concerned.  We finished up with discussing me and what I needed to do (an inhaler, Mucinex and a nasal spray) and she called the nurse back in to help check Lily out.  Poor little girl..her lungs sound clear still (yay!) and she has enough oxygen in her blood (yay!), but she seemed to be struggling to breathe.  Not gasping or anything, it just wasn't coming easily.  

So, we got to do a nebulizer treatment.  Lily is not a fan.  To try and help break up some of the snot and stuff in her chest, she sent us home with a round of albuterol for a nebulizer we're going to be getting tomorrow or Friday, a low-dose steroid treatment and, because this all wasn't enough, amoxicillin to help with the little ear infection she has.  Poor baby :( I really hate to give her drugs, and such strong ones, so early, but she needs to breathe and get better.  Asap.  So, this shall be fun.  Keep your fingers crossed she doesn't have any allergic reactions to amoxicillin, she doesn't need to deal with that as well.  We're hoping that because Jesse is not allergic to penicillin and I am, she takes after her dad in this case. 

I guess that's pretty much the story.  I'm really hoping to find my voice, because I've had to give the condensed versions of my thoughts all day because it takes too long and I get too short of breath to try and explain myself.  When my voice started to come around this evening, Jesse warned me not to talk because "you don't want to scare it away again."  I think he just enjoyed having me be quiet for once ;) and I'm pretty sure my parents got a kick out of trying to understand what I was saying when I tried to call them a few minutes ago, so here ya go, Mom and Dad..this is what I was trying to tell you! 

I'm really praying this all clears up soon: because of my shortness of breath, and the fact that I'm just sick and can't breathe, I haven't been able to do my training for the half marathon.  Which is not good, especially considering I decided it'd be good to go ahead and do the shortened version of the training anyway, and only gave myself 10 weeks instead of 12.  Great.  So, here's hoping I bounce back quickly and can get my running shoes back on!