Week 25

I finished the week at 163. Again, not a great week for consistency. This week Joe starts working for a judge so we'll be back on some sort schedule again and getting regular workouts in should be easier. You'd think a school break would mean more time to exercise but we always end up doing fun things instead. So not a total loss. 


M: weights 2x15 @ 10 lbs
T: 2 mile run @ 22 min
W: Chinese Food :(
Th: skip
F: 2 mile run @ 21 min
S: Farm Tour!
S: skip

The Baby Sleep Whisperer

This is my belated Father's Day post. Joe is a great dad. He does so many things for Lily and me I couldn't even begin to list them all here. But the thing he is best at, and the thing I appreciate most, is putting Lily to sleep. 


Lily had been in bed with us and nursing to sleep until around 9 months when she started making it clear that she needed more space and wasn't really interested in nursing to sleep any more. So we got a crib and have been working at getting her to sleep in it ever since. We finally have a bedtime routine that is working. Most nights she sleeps in it for 4-6 hours and then comes into bed with us for the rest of the night. Getting her to sleep in the first place is the tricky part. Joe is the secret ingredient. 


I don't know what he does in there with her, but after he gives her a bottle she goes to sleep while he rocks her or paces around the room holding her. Then he manages to get her into the crib without waking her up. This is no small feat. We got the cheapest crib from IKEA, which seemed great when Lily wasn't standing and the platform was higher. Now that she pulls herself up we had to lower the platform and it's basically on the floor. So you have to lean over a waist high fence and try not to drop the baby on her face. And there you have it, the baby is asleep for a few hours. 


When I try to replicate this, there are only tears and wailing to be had. For some reason, Joe has the magic touch. This works out great for both of us because while he puts her to bed I get to clean up from dinner and pick up all the random toys that are strewn around the apartment (this is something I enjoy). We usually finish around the same time and then we get to have grown-up time together! We get to talk about things, sit and read together, eat dessert, or just crash and watch a movie together. It's amazing. 


So happy Father's Day to all you dads out there. And a very special Happy 1st Father's Day to the Baby Sleep Whisperer, Joe!

Week 24

I ended up at 164 which is kind of amazing since I skipped so many workouts. We've been busy traveling, cleaning, and doing random things. I'm going to try to be more diligent this week. We'll see how that goes.


I'll also try to write a real post sometime. 


M: 4 mile run 45 minutes
T: skip
W: weights 2x12 @ 10 lbs
Th: 2 mile run 21 minutes
F: skip
S: skip
S: skip

Week 23

I ended up at 165. Hooray! I also skipped a lot of workouts this week, boo. We had a super heat wave, and we don't have A/C in our apartment. I tried a run on one of the hot days, but it was pretty slow. I was worried about getting dehydrated so I drank way too much water before heading out, and then had to go to the bathroom after only 1.5 miles. I didn't stop the watch as I ducked into one of the beach houses, so the time looks REALLY slow. I need to find that perfect balance between drinking enough so I don't die, and not drinking too much so I don't have to stop. It was way too hot to try and do weights in our apartment as well. It didn't even cool off in the evenings. This week I'm going to try to squeeze in the long run that I missed, so at least my milage will still increase.

M: skip
T: 2 mile run 24:45 (bathroom + heat)
W: skip
Th: 1.5 mile run 14:59
F: weights 2x12 @ 10lbs
S: skip
S: skip

Week 22

I ended up at 166, which is incredible given the weekend I had food wise. Warmer weather helps me eat better in that I don't want everything covered with melted cheese, but that doesn't matter much when I eat a ridiculous amount of ice cream to help "cool off." This week I'll find that balance.

M: 166, skip
T: 166, 1.5 mile run @ 15:31
W: 165, 2x12 @ 10lbs
Th: 165, 1.5 mile run @ 15:39
F: 166, 2x12 @10lbs
S: 167
S: 166, 3 mile run 32:33

10 months

Last week Lily turned 10 months. She is 27.5 inches long, and about 16.5 lbs. She's finally on the weight chart! She's in the 30% for height and the 5% for weight. It's been a long time coming. The doctor hasn't been super worried about it but he was glad to see the chub she's starting to get on her little legs. 

She full on crawls now. Still kind of slowly and like an injured crab, but it's definitely up on hands and knees. She usually ends up in a downward dog position, I think she's trying really hard to stand upright. She pulls herself up on everything and likes to shuffle along whatever it is. She talks up a storm to herself, to her toys, to everyone around her. And her facial expressions are just amazing. She's similar to me in that you know exactly what she's feeling all the time because it shows in her face. I don't think she could hide it if she tried. She's also really into trying to play peekaboo with people. She turns her face away until someone says "Where's Lily?" Then she whips her head around and grins. It's pretty dang cute. 

I bought an ottoman from Target to replace the stool I got from the chemistry department at St. Olaf. It's soft and you can store things in it. It's very similar to this one except ours is green microfiber faux suede stuff. Best $16 I ever spent (it was on clearance). It's perfect for Lily to pull herself up on. If she bangs her face it doesn't hurt. And when I take the top off she has so much fun diving for all of her toys that are inside of it. Occasionally she topples in head first and she kicks her little feet back and forth in frustration. I haven't gotten it on film yet, but it is hilarious. And it stores all the toys. So awesome. 

I just can't believe how humongous she's getting. I know she's still small compared to other babies, but relative to when she was first born, the change is drastic. Just look at her in her carseat from then and now. 

 

She's doing such a good job of sitting up, we saw this little chair at Wanamaker's and just had to get it. It folds up into a little crayon bag. I love it. The cup-holder was an unexpected hit. She thinks it is great to put things in it and then take them back out again. 

On Memorial Day we put her in the little inflatable pool my mom got for her. We have one at the apartment as well that we'll take to the park/garden/beach. Despite her initial reaction, she thought it was great fun. I love this picture. She looks so distrustful. And thanks to Rachel and Joe for the adorable swimsuit!

She's starting to really look like a little girl. I don't mean in a gender-specific kind of way, just a growing kid kind of way. She still has baby chub and her face is still baby-ish, but the way she moves and her expressions are starting to make her look older, more mature. She's definitely more aware of what's going on around her and likes to know exactly who is where. She's more fun to play with, more fun to sing and read to, more fun to cuddle with. This whole parenting thing is getting more fun by the day. 

He was my cat.

I have to do it. I have to write a sappy post about Duncan. 


For those of you that don't know, Duncan unexpectedly died on Monday. He had been kind of drowsy all week, but I just thought it was the colder weather. He's always been sensitive to temperature changes, so it didn't strike me as odd that he spent most of the week sleeping in the closet. By Sunday he had stopped eating and drinking and could barely stand. When he stopped purring I knew something was really wrong. We took him to an emergency vet Monday morning. While she was treating him for dehydration and a possible bacterial infection his heart and lungs basically just shut down. After he died she found tumors in both his lungs and his brain, and said that it was lymphosarcoma.

I knew when we took him in that it was likely we were going to have to put him down, but I didn't expect him to just die while he was being treated. I had signed a DNR order and gave him a quick pat on the head before leaving the hospital. But I figured we would get a chance to come back and say goodbye before he got the shot. That wasn't the case and now I feel bad because I just dropped him off and left him there to die. He was such a happy little cat and it makes me really upset to think about how sick and sad he was, surrounded by people he didn't know in a strange place. 

And the fact that he was such a young cat (only 5 years old) makes it only that much sadder. He was a healthy, active cat that should have lived to 20 years or so. And that's what we were all expecting. He and Lily were fast becoming friends. She would squeal and clap whenever he appeared in a room, and he would come over and let her try to pet him. He was fascinated when she started crawling and standing up. In the afternoons we would all sit together in the living room and play together. Cat toys and baby toys are remarkably similar, as are cat and baby attention spans. 


I could write forever about all the ridiculous things Duncan and I have done together. He was my companion through graduate school while Joe was deployed, we've moved across the country 3 times together, he's escaped more times than I can count but always found his way back, and he never met a person he didn't like. Duncan, you were my cat, you were my friend.