Splash Day

Some friends of ours came over for some fun water adventures. We were suppose to head up to the pool and do a picnic but P decided to throw up in the afternoon and we decided to change plans and have a splash day in the yard.  EZ and I are pretty sure she actually gagged herself but it did make for some fun cleaning.   Seemed like all the kids had fun and had the most fun being sprayed with the hose curtsey of EZ.

Summer Continues

We keep moving along, day by day. And before I know it, I'll be back at work! This summer is going by super fast. And really T is growing up super fast. I definitely don't pay nearly as much attention to her as I did P when she was this age, but I think that is just what happens. You are so busy running after an (almost) 2 year old, I'm lucky that I can just get T's diaper changed when it needs to be and fed every few hours. I know T doesn't mind, she doesn't know any difference. And I'm sure as she gets a bit older and can "do" more things, it will be different. But for now its fine. These first few months were the hardest for me with P so its nice that they are going by so quickly and I don't have time to dwell on what is going on.

Not sure what happened in the sleep department, but she was sleeping pretty long until 6 some mornings, but that has stopped. She is back to having a feeding around 9/10 and then sleeping until 3/4 and then again until 8ish. Either way, it is still nice blocks of sleep and she is really quick to eat and falls right back asleep which is good.

Some recent photos:

Piper Pictures

How can you not love her! She is lots of fun and lots of energy which means lots of exhaustion on us! But she is a good kid and is learning more every day. She is now the oldest one in her class at daycare and will move up to the 2 year old room soon. She uses the potty pretty regularly but is by no means potty trained. She eats pretty much everything we eat, sometimes she will try something and tell us she doesn't like it, but she seems satisfied with just about everything. She finally decided to give peanut butter another go the other day. So maybe we can start doing pb&j at some point.

Life with Two

We decided to pull P out of day care for 2 days a week, so twice a week I am home with both kiddos. We did this for a couple reasons, (1) was the money and (2) I thought it wouldn't be hard being at home and it would be nice to spend more time with P. :)

Its only been two weeks of this, but it is quite difficult. There is a lot that makes it challenging. As long as I have things to do, the days go by pretty quickly, but it is starting to get really hot out and that is making it more challenging. Yesterday, we journeyed up to the park at 9am and by 10am I was begging P to go home because it was so hot and sunny out already! I was fortunate that I had a neighbor come over for an hour yesterday afternoon to watch T while I took P up to the pool (which she LOVES).

Speaking of the pool...P thinks she can swim. And she cannot. My child is quite fearless which keeps EZ and I on our toes. She really will just jump off into the water and float to the bottom or whatever. Or I'll be holding her and she just wants to push off me and go under. I love how much she loves the water, but it is quite terrifying that she just goes under and doesn't know how to swim yet. I have gone back and forth on whether I should get her floaties or not. I am pretty against them but I just don't know. EZ and I have been working with her on just kicking her legs and moving her arms. Maybe we'll get there.

They both seem to be changing so fast and I honestly can say that it is going by so much faster with T. I really think it is because I don't pay as much attention to her (as I should???) I make sure she is fed or changed or whatever, but most of the time, I'm just holding her or have her in the bouncy seat or whatever and am focused on what Piper is doing or playing with her. Poor T. Maybe in a few months when she is mobile, I'll be more involved.

Work

I can't believe that I've been teaching for 5 years already. Time goes by so fast. At HPU we have a 5th year review with the dean and provost to let us know how we're doing in terms of getting tenured (which we apply for at then end of year six, so in one more year). I personally don't think that leaves you enough time to make any changes if you are told that something is wrong and they are trying to change that. Either way, my meeting was last week and it went really well. I feel a lot better about applying for tenure next year and the dean and provost both didn't have much to say on things that I needed to change. The dean at one point said that if it isn't broke I doesn't need fixing. They made one comment about how it would be nice to get a paper published that I had submitted back in January. So since it had been six months since I submitted my article I emailed the journal to ask about its status. Lo and behold 5 days later I get an email saying its been accepted!! super excited about this. I have a few other things going on on the research side of things and hopefully I'll find time to eventually work in them but overall I can't be happier about the way the meeting went and the relief it's given me to know that I'm on track for tenure.

This Race Blows 5K

Last weekend a wonderful family put on a 5K through our neighborhood in support of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. They are such a great family with a beautiful daughter who has CF and they put on an event of some sort every year to help raise money to help find a cure. Their story can be found here: http://www.islasinspiration.com/ . I can't say enough great things about their family and what they are doing.

I signed up for this race because I wanted to support them. I had no idea what running a 5K was going to be like 9 weeks after given birth. I've been running 3-4 times a week 3-4 miles at a time and just in the past week was finally feeling a bit better running wise. I had two goals for race day- One was to weigh in below 130lbs. And I weighed exactly 130, so I was close. (This still leaves me with 8 more pregnancy pounds to go, but I should be happy that I've lost 32 already).

My second goal was to run sub 27min. Typically I run around 9 min pace now and I had no idea what kind of "speed" I had in me at this point. And this 5K was super hilly. Started at the top of a hill, straight down and then up and the another hill or two and finally back to the start so finished on a steep uphill. Yikes...hence one of the reasons the race was called This Race Blows. I was running with a friend who also had a baby (4 months ago), and she was a runner in college. We've been trying to push eachother a little just to get back in shape. And we took the first mile out in 7:45. Wow, I didn't know I even had that in me. :)

I don't know splits for 2 or 3 miles, except that we were both pushing hard and running fast and it hurt. Especially the last hill to the finish. She out sprinted me (ahh those miler legs), but I can't complain, crossing the line in 24:45 (just under 8 min pace). I mush stay I am super thrilled with the time on such a hard course. I was 5th overall female in a small race, but still had lots of fun.

I've thought a lot about training for things, and have settled on trying to run some decent 5K's this year and throw in a couple sprint triathlons for fun. I have always wanted to break 22 minutes in a 5K and feel like with the time I have now, maybe this is the right time for it. We'll see.

Tatum 2 Month Update

Wow, 2 months already! At the doctor the other day she weighted 10 lbs 6 oz (50th %), and was 23.5 inches long (75th %). She did super with her shots and she is a pretty happy baby. We have had two stretches of sleep at 8 hours and 9 hours. But this could be from the shots too. She is starting to babble a lot and smile a lot too. EZ thinks that she is a easier/better baby than P. I'm not sure if she is, or that we just know what to expect more.  Happy 2 months!