Potty Training

We've been kind of potty training if you could say it. We have started taking a more active role, asking P if she wanted to go, ect. We bought underwear and everything. Well after a week of lots of accidents everywhere and refusing to go potty sometimes, I told EZ I was done forcing it and was going to just go back to what we were doing before, maybe she wasn't really ready.

Saturday brought our first day of just going with the flow and seeing what happened and she stayed dry all morning between using the bathroom a few times. Wow, maybe things are better. So she went down for her nap. After a couple hours when she was up and I went up to get her I could not believe what I saw. At some point she had peed in her diaper so she took it off and put her bloomers back on (the little underwear type things that go with dresses). Well then she had pooped and so she took her bloomers off threw them over the crib, not without half of her poop going everywhere in the crib.

So she was underwear less, had peed again in the crib, there was poop all over and on her blanket and stuffed animals. Awesome. So we went straight into the shower :) Oh what good times. When we were cleaning it all up and I got her diaper she said "Piper peed diaper" (so I took it off). Good times. Oh well. I am prepared for many more of these until we get the potty training under control.

Some recent photos.

Stats

Piper two year check up-
Height: 2' 10" (50th %)
Weight:27lbs (50th %)
Head circumference- xx (still 90th %-yikes...maybe she has lots of info stored up there!)

We are in full on talking/arguing/whining mode. Lots of back and forth but luckily still goes to sleep awesomely in the crib and seems to have no intention of climbing out. Thank goodness!!

At the doctor I put Tatum on the scale because I was curious and she's at 12.5 lbs already at 3+ months. I know this must be bigger that P was as the 3mo carter clothes say up to 12.5 lbs and I was putting P in 6 mo clothes around 5 months. I can tell the 3 mo clothes are already getting tight but I'm prepared to make them last as long as possible because it's all summer stuff which I need right now!

In Other T news- she has learned how to roll from her back to her belly this week. This caused problems with P when she learned how to do this as she didn't know how to roll back and so would constantly wake herself up at night. So far this week hasn't been bad, she sleeps pretty hard and has slept some in her tummy once she's rolled over in her sleep. However she is spitting up a ridiculous amount because of this since anytime we lay her down she rolls over and it's a lot of ab work which causes the spitting up.

Happy 2nd Birthday

I can't believe it's been 2 years already, but we had a fun "splash" party this past weekend for P's second birthday. Lots of fun enjoying the water activities in our yard and the weather wasn't too too hot so that was good.  Here are lots of photos from our fun day!

3 Month Update

T turned 3 months old while we were up north. She seems to be growing faster and faster by the minute. Nothing too new to report. Lots of smiles and just started laughing at things which is funny. She was laughing at Piper yesterday which made me happy. Since we've been back shes been sleeping like a champ. Sleeping until 5/5:30 every morning and going down between 8-10, usually we do a dream feed with her around 9/10 depending on where her last feed was and that helps and gets her to the morning. She is generally a pretty happy baby and very laid back.

She started day care this past week, part time, M/W/F. So now I am home by myself on those days. I haven't been able to relax to much yet, have lots of stuff to do around the house and errands to run, and have some work I need to do too and have been party planning for P's second birthday party! Yikes!! Time flies!
I know P turned 2 last week too, so I'm a little behind...but here are some photos of T and one of the two girls that daycare sent me today of Piper being a great big sister! 

I don't know how she was comfortable like this but she slept hard for a couple hours in the swing the other day in the most contorted position possible:

Enjoying some outside fresh air:

My two sweet girls:

We Survived

We headed up north for a week of visiting family. Started with a short side trip to the lake to see EZ's family for the day which was nice. Followed by a stop over at my dads then up to Traverse City to see my sister and her family. Then drive back to my dads and then drive home. Lots and lots of driving. Both kiddos did absolutely fabulous and I am so thankful for the mini van. I must say the trip was so much easier because of the van. One of us could sit in the very back and deal with entertaining P or T at any time.

It was super hot up north and with no AC we spent some time outside playing in sprinklers and headed to the lake one day. P absolutely adores Amelia. She loved running around after her. And we were also able to spend lots of time with my grandma too which made the trip more fun. Here are some photos from the week! (my sister took a bunch at the lake and some others too...will have to get those to post too)

Training

I don't know what happened, but somehow got sucked into training. Training for what...I don't really know. It started with wanting to run the 5K for a local family and now its onto training for a super sprint triathlon that a few of my friends wanted to do. So ok, I can swim and bike a little and be somewhat fit. The swim is only 250m which means my swim training for now consists of once a week going to the pool and swimming 1/2 mile straight during the 10 min pool break. I think that should be good.

Oddly enough, I have enjoyed my past couple weeks on the bike though. Not biking far (20ish miles), but its hard and freeing. The mornings have been a bit cool and it has felt quite refreshing out. The only bad part about all the working out is that I have to do it super early in the mornings before EZ heads to work. I can run with just T in the bob but the weather can be hot and brutal sometimes by the time I get back from dropping P off at daycare on the days she goes. And on the days I have both of them I can't do anything except before EZ goes to work or after he gets home.

And seriously, I have NO motivation to work out at the end of a day chasing around P and holding T.

I told EZ I wanted to break 22 min in a 5K. This has been a goal of mine since before P was born. My PR for a 5K is 22:08 (maybe in 2007 or 2008). I did run 22:xx in fall of 2009 but I wasn't training for anything really at that point either. And after my 24:45 the other week I felt more confident that I might be able to do this. And so rather than getting back into longer running (which I still want to to), I decided with the time I have now, I would rather put my effort into trying to run fast. EZ then told me that he thought I needed more of a base...meaning more longer running. After some discussion it came to the fact that I could train for a 10K first to get some more mileage in and then start my 5K mission.

I haven't picked any running races yet but we'll see. I'll probably look for a 10K in September or October and go from there. For now, I'm going to just keep running and slowing increasing my distance (up to 5 miles) and endurance. And use the biking to help promote my overall cardio fitness too.

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!