Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Scrappy Says, "Mele Kalikimaka"

Last night after dinner I said, "Ok, Moana! Bathtime!" And you know what she did? She walked right up to Scott on the couch and made this little "mmmmmm" sound while pursing her lips and getting her face very close to his. We figured out that she was trying to kiss him goodnight, which he always does right before I take her up to do bath/bedtime. Just how cute is it that she went to initiate it? And with that "mmmmmm" sound- she must have gotten that from watching Scott and I kiss goodbye every morning before he goes to work.

Moana is in a nap transition stage right now, meaning some days she takes her two naps as usual, but every third day or so she just isn't ready to take a nap in the morning so she ends up with just one longer mid-day nap. I'm okay with it either way but the hard part is not knowing what it's going to be each day. Just makes it tough to plan. Anyway, she didn't want the morning nap today, so I figured I needed to take her out and entertain her for a few hours until it would be time for noon nap. No place entertains her like the beach, so off we went. She is so social these days too- she just walked right up to this little 2 year old boy and started playing with his buckets of sand and water with him. He was a good sport in sharing. The beach we go to has lots of dogs running around and playing in the water (mostly off leash) and she just squeals and starts barking out loud at the dogs when she sees them. I have not heard her say 'dog' but she says 'RUFF RUFF RUFF' whenever she sees one (or a picture of one). Then she'll go right up to the dog and luckily (so far) they have all been kid-friendly dogs so she typically gets a big wet sloppy tongue in her face, which makes her laugh and squeal even more.

Ok, enough of the sap.

Because you know what? It's not always so rosey and cute around here. Take tonight, for example. Moana drove me batty. Seriously, no idea why, she just whined and moaned and screamed at me... I tried to feed her, but she wouldn't eat. But she wouldn't let me eat. She wouldn't let me walk into the kitchen without screaming, but if I just sat on the living room floor it was ok. Heaven forbid I tell her not to suck on that eraser she ripped off the end of the pencil. And no, Moana, your blanket cannot come with you into the bathtub... complete meltdown to follow. I was at the end of my rope by the time Scott came home. Seriously, I just handed her off the second he walked in the door and told him it was time for Changing Of The Guard. Sometimes I think that's just what she needs. Because while she can instantly forget that she screamed incessantly at me for the past hour and decide to be all darling during her bath (yes, immediately following the meltdown she forgot about her blanket and enjoyed the heck out of her bath toys), I don't forget quite so quickly or easily. And my mood clearly plays a big role in her mood. So when Scott finally got home he couldn't figure out what I was talking about because our daughter morphed back into her cute little self for him for almost an entire hour. Then she started wailing again about every little thing so I just put her to bed.

It's amazing how these little people can stretch you to your extremes... one minute you're like she's the cutest thing ever!! And the next minute you're willing to give her away for free.

Christmas is in just a few days and I'm pretty much done shopping. One gift I still have to go pick up, but it's already paid for so it'll be a quick trip to get that done. Just a little bit of wrapping left and I'll be ready. Moana is not going to have a huge Christmas this year b/c let's face it, that's just completely unnecessary.

I sent out our Christmas cards last week... it was funny as I was addressing them to all these relatives that I am not in regular contact with (some of Scott's who I do not even know!) all I could think of was that I should be sending cards to all of my blog friends too, though I do not know most of your addresses so obviously that did not happen. But seriously, Scott's aunts and uncles are not going to understand the little joke on our card like all of you would.

Speaking of Scrappy, he's been pretty easy on me lately. A lot of my nausea seems to be gone, which is a relief. It's not much fun to feel like you could just upchuck at any given moment throughout the day for weeks and weeks on end. Anyway, that seems to be over. And in other good news, it seems that my blood volume has finally caught up to my expanded veins and arteries. I don't feel all dizzy when I stand up anymore, and my heart rate while running seems to have gone back to normal. For a while I felt like my heart had to work really hard just for me to jog really easily (Dr. Clapp explains this in his book by saying that in early pregnancy we just don't have enough blood to fill our expanded arterial system so that's why HR is not a good indicator of how hard a woman is working in early pregnancy.) Anyway, running feels easier now, even though I don't feel especially fluid or light on my feet while doing it. I managed to run 40 miles last week, which is a lot I know... it wasn't my plan to run that much, but after Saturday's run I counted it up and had 36. And on Sunday I was going to go ride my bike but it looked like it might rain and I'm just not interested in riding in the rain these days so I went for a 4 mile run instead. There you go. 40 miles. I keep telling myself that I will back off as soon as it doesn't feel good anymore, but it still feels good, so I'm feeling no need to back off the volume. I have backed off the pace quite a bit though. I don't even know how slowly I'm running anymore b/c I've stopped timing my runs. It's fine, whatever the pace is. It's fine. If I'm honest, I'd tell you that there's actually a teeny (tiny) part of me that feels relieved to not have any pressure on me to go 'fast' this next year.

15 comments:

DR said...

my daughter is now just 17 mo...your blog sounds EXCACTLY like my last 3 months...my daughter started the 2-1 nap transition around 13.5 months and it was hit and miss, and then at 16 months she began to sleep 13-14 hrs at night and taking 2 naps again every day for 3 weeks...i didn't know if i was coming or going (it must have been a growth spurt)and then one day she woke up nice and early and i just knew by her energy level it was only going to be one nap and it has been for the last 2 weeks! everyone has their own ideas but on the days my child got too "wingy" (aussie term for whiny) i just put her too bed earlier...10-30 minutes...it really helps.

i was seriously losing my mommy mojo a few months back...that's when i googled and read mommy blogs -- and found yours! but seriously, looking back NOW i have to say there has been this crazy amazing maturation process where you can actually say you can't take blankie into the water or it will get wet and your toddler nods and says "wet" and leaves it at that. it will happen SOON!

hang in there mama simmons!

H said...

Happy Christmas to the family Simmons, a huge source of inspiration for my 2009. Loved seeing you train for and race Kona, thanks for the great reads, hope 2010 is a fabulous year full of love, laughter & adventure... H x

Anonymous said...

ryan gave up two naps at 12 months bc of daycare. brayden gave up the morning nap a little sooner bc he was around ryan so much it just worked out that way. i' having those days of "oh s@%$, can i handle being at home full time with 2 kids and woring part time". right now my sanity is being sacrficed.

GoBigGreen said...

Merry Christmas Michelle!

Molly said...

Merry Christmas to you all!!!

kerrie said...

merry christmas to you guys too! love to hear about how moana is showing her little personality even more now...they are so much fun at this age!!
i am also totally impressed with how much you are running...i'm "training" for a marathon and i have yet to hit a 40 mile week so you have given me a new goal :)(you know, the one where the preggo chick is doing it so i better too!!)

cherelli said...

Hey Michelle, thanks for the Christmas pic - great looking family with another to come. So glad I stumbled across your blog this year, I've enjoyed your pregnancy - baby-training-Ironman - back to pregnancy- updates...best wishes for 2010!!

Kate Parker said...

Glad to hear that I am not the only one of the end of a "I want the blankie in the bath" temper tantrum. :)

Love the card! I felt that way about my cards as well, like I wanted to send them out to my bloggy friends, too. Will have to get on that.

Merry Christmas to you guys!

Angela and David said...

I feel the same way about Zach sometimes as well. Sometimes I just can't wait until he goes to bed. It's amazing how they can go from being so pissed one second to happy the next. And oh my goodness, testing boundaries. When the hell does that phase end?

And I also wanted to send our Christmas cards to all my bloggy friends. David sends a card to EVERYONE he's ever met so I'd much prefer to send them people that I actually keep up with.

N.D. said...

love the christmas card and totally know what you mean about having one of those afternoons where it is just meltdown, I'm nuts when Bill gets home and then Nick is great for him!

Regina said...

Oh I know the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde routine from my son so well. We threaten to sell him to the circus. He's on to us now and says, "ok". Damn, now I have to come up with something new. There are definitely days.......

Love the card, totally got it!

The way you feel about not having to worry about pace while running now is how I felt about my waistline when I was pg; It doesn't matter (that was a first).

Happy Holidays Santa.

GetBackJoJo said...

Merry Christmas to you and to all your family--and Scrappy too!

Clare said...

love the card! merry christmas!

Big Daddy Diesel said...

OK I am jealous. HAppy Holidays

Katie said...

" one minute you're like she's the cutest thing ever!! And the next minute you're willing to give her away for free."

Thank you for putting this out there. How much cuter can it get than being a week old, helpless, pink, sweet-smelling and tiny, and yet when the crying has been going on and on I just want someone to take this child out of earshot!! And then later the same day, after she's calmed down and daddy's had her for awhile, I find myself missing her. Whatever.

I felt the same way about not going fast while preg - I just ate it up as a pregnancy bonus! :)

BTW, that's really interesting about blood volume vs expansion of arteries. I guess that's another reason to stay open to doing whatever amount of fitness your body's up for on a given day (rather than deciding after 1 "off" day that you just cant wkt anymore), since your body might catch up + feel much better later!