Moana Goes Bananas

Moana is getting the hang of how to use a spoon. Like a little bird, she opens her mouth to gleefully accept anything that spoon offers*. No questions asked.

Of course, once she gets a taste of something new, it might come right back out of those lips faster than it went in... and then we've (ok, I've) got some cleaning up to do.

So I've learned to practice solid foods with her twice a day- once in the morning before we change her out of her pj's, and once in the evening before bath time. So far we're doing pretty well with a mix of rice cereal and bananas. This mix is only really a problem when she sneezes before she swallows, in which case bananas end up all over me and the surrounding vicinity.

And it looks like somebody is getting pretty darn close to sitting up on her own. She can do it for a few seconds before toppling over if her legs are positioned right out in front of her and she leans forward on her hands.

So it's Monday, which is typically a recovery day, for both Moana and me. Seems weekends lately have been big for both of us... me on my bike (mostly), and Moana at her dad's soccer games or out on the town with us at some social event. Weekends wear us both out, and lucky for mama, that means extra long naps on Mondays for Moana. :)

But this isn't just a recovery day for me, it's a recovery week... so... What to do? What to do? A trip to the local mall was in order (man it's a good thing I'm a triathlete and normally have other ways to occupy my time because going to the mall isn't really my thang...). Anyway, turns out I'm actually a complete sucker for those cute cute cute clothes at The Children's Place. Seems they're always on sale and Moana always gets new clothes when we walk in to check out what's new.

Now I've been instructed by Cat to check out Mini-Boden... oh boy... here we go.

*What's funny is that I've been mixing up her solids in an espresso cup (since she just eats a little bit at a time right now)... consequently she now thinks that anything in an espresso cup is for her... one of these mornings when she reaches out for my hot shot she's gonna accidentally get a little surprise. ;)

Typical Female

Moana went down for her morning nap sort of early today. Just a few minutes after I left the room she started wailing, and when I went back in to check on her, I found that she was upset because she had rolled herself over onto her tummy... so like a good mom I rolled her back over, gave her a little kiss on the cheek, replaced her dollie in her arms, and all was well in her world.

I didn't hear another peep out of her, but about an hour later (after finishing my Power Yoga for Athletes DVD) I went in to check on her. This is what I found. Notice her 'pillow'.

Not sure why being on her tummy was unacceptable the first time she rolled herself over yet perfectly acceptable the second time? Typical female I guess.

And here's a little product review for all you moms... I guess I should know what it's called before I go raving about it, but I can't remember... And since nobody's paying me to talk about it, I don't feel too guilty about not calling the product by name. Anyway, it's a little teething food sucker thing... it's got a little handle and a mesh bag that you can put food in for baby to suck or munch on without the potential for choking on it.

Yesterday afternoon I cut off a slice of the pear I was eating and put in in the mesh bag for Moana. And guess who's eyes lit up like little lightbulbs while chewing on the thing? There was some serious munching going on.

The One Day I Didn't Wear A Hat

I'm not a huge fan of running in sunglasses. I used to wear them all the time but inevitably they would end up on top of my head. I guess I just feel like I can see better without them on.

So instead, I wear a hat or a visor. Every run. Used to be to keep the sun out of my eyes, but now that I have transitioned into doing most of my runs when it's not exactly light out (o'dark-thirty has become o'dark-o-clock), the sun factor is not as much of an issue. Besides, it's been so cloudy here lately I can't remember the last time we saw the sun?

But just because the sun isn't out doesn't mean that visor is useless. Lately its purpose has been to keep the rain out of my eyes. Visors work pretty well in this capacity.

So this morning I was getting ready to jog over to the track and I thought about grabbing my visor, but then remembered how the last couple of weeks have been so windy... and when you're killing yourself around the home stretch trying to make your goal times the last thing you need to worry about is your hat blowing off your head. So I made a conscious decision to skip the hat today.

And wouldn't you know it? We arrived at the track and were immediately greeted by an ominous looking grey cloud... one that opened up on us during our first item. Me... No hat. No sunglasses. Just a runner squinting through the rain.

We laughed about how this was going to be an epic track workout... killing ourselves in the dumping rain... I told Nalani it might even be blog worthy... It's not really though, so I don't know why I'm blogging about it*. The rain pretty much stopped after just that one downpour and left us running through the resulting mud (because in Hawaii we don't have nice track surfaces- ours are dirt, which become mud when it rains a lot). I tried not to get too frustrated about the mud though, because hey, at least its not ice, right Angela?


*Ok, I do know why I'm blogging about it... Cat was giving me a hard time on FB about how she has posted more than me this week, so I had to blog about something.

Wearing A Baby Out

I almost hesitate to post this... I know many of you have babies that go on nap strikes and just don't like to sleep during the day (or night)... I guess I'm just really lucky that Moana doesn't resist naps too often, or for too long. Anyway, if you have a baby who doesn't sleep much and you're frustrated about it, this post might just irritate you so consider yourself warned. ;)

Moana had kind of a big weekend... going out to a party on Saturday night and staying out wild and crazy late (she didn't get to bed until 8:00!! And without a bath! Oh my!) Then she went to watch her daddy's soccer game on Sunday morning... then yet another little social get together on Sunday night which once again kept her up past her normal bedtime. I did force the bath on her Sunday night because it was necessary, but luckily she was asleep within 3 seconds of hitting her crib. So much for the 'an overtired baby won't sleep' theory.

Two 'late' nights in a row just about threw me over the edge because I was petrified that she was going to be all off on her schedule and stop sleeping like such a champ, but apparently late nights have the opposite effect on Moana. In fact, it seems that her instincts allow her to play catch up and sleep even more in the next days.

Yesterday Moana was playing in her jumperoo. I planned on putting her down for her nap at 12:30... at 12:25 I noticed that the jumperoo was quiet... no monkey sounds like normal when she's bouncing up and down... and I look over and find her like this. Yes, my baby fell asleep while in the jumperoo.

Life Is Simple (It Used To Be, Anyway!)

I have a lot of really old training clothes. Most of my running shorts are at least 5 years old... some of them I remember buying in 2001. Shocking that the elastic is still stretchy! (I think the key there is never putting them in the dryer). I know the cycling outfit I wore yesterday needs to go in the garbage because the side panels of the shorts are almost sheer and the zipper on the top is all corroded and I couldn't get it unzipped yesterday when I was done. Mama needs some new clothes.

Here's an example of an old one... a long sleeve technical shirt that I got for $7 in 2002.

How's that for a classic? Those of you who were doing triathlons 7 years ago might remember that Utah was the Ironman where the crazy winds picked up and made the water in the shallow lake impossible to swim in... I tried... but after 1:20 of duck diving overhead waves and not seeing a single buoy, I walked in to shore 3 piers down from where the swim was supposed to end... all before knowing that the race had actually been cancelled.

Anyway, needless to say the Ironman Utah clothing was on a firesale the following day. At first I remember thinking that I didn't want any IM Utah clothing, because there was no IM Utah... but now, 7 years later, this stuff is classic.

I put the shirt on this morning before heading over to the pool. This is what it says on the back:

Pouring his coffee, Scott said: "You need to add to that list..."

Since I hadn't yet had my coffee, I had no idea what he was talking about. Me: "What?"

Scott: "On your shirt. It should also say 'Feed baby, Change diapers, Do laundry, Vacuum floor, Clean kitchen, Grocery shop, Fix dinner, Sweep the patio'..."

That got me thinking. My life is definitely more complicated now that I have a family. It used to be simple. When I was single and had a job but no husband or kids, I might have been busy time-wise, but it was all more flexible than it is now. I made all my decisions about what to do and when without consulting anyone, or even taking anyone else into consideration for that matter. Swim in the morning? Or at noon? Or at night? Whatever I felt like.

Now I feel family responsibility to be home as much as possible and orchestrating our home and everything that goes along with it. I am the hub. If I don't remember to get toilet paper, there will be none in the house. If I don't fold the laundry, it'll stay indefinitely in the dryer and just get more and more wrinkled. If I don't keep the kitchen completely clean, the ants will have a hey-day. And if I don't orchestrate Moana's day properly, there's a lot of crying and then and everyone is unhappy.

Not that Scott doesn't pitch in at all around here, but his job is his job. He goes to work and does his job and brings home the paycheck. My job is to make sure that everything is running smoothly here. And I really feel like I have to get everything done as well as possible because, at least in my own head, that's my free pass to go train. The guilt I feel about being away for hours every weekend putting in long miles of biking and running is enough. I totally couldn't do it if I felt like I was neglecting anything at home.

Maybe that's the difference now? When I was single, lots of things got neglected at home... But it didn't matter... Because I was the only one who would notice. Now I have two people depending on me NOT to neglect things at home.

But in the end, I wouldn't trade it away for anything. And I think the forced organization has made me a better athlete. Because now I don't have the option to swim in the morning, or at noon, or at night. Now it's swim in the morning or miss it altogether. So I'm hyper-scheduled. I can't remember the last time I skipped a workout.

This past weekend was a big one. I ran a 10K on Saturday morning. It wasn't as fast as I was hoping for, but not bad in the big picture (45:51). No would-have, could-have, should-have excuses from me... I just took it out too fast and completely underestimated how hard that last mile was going to be with the uphill and headwind. Yesterday was a huge ride/run brick (B95, R4.5). Probably (ok, clearly) more than we need to be doing right now since we're only training for a 1/2 IM, but there is a degree of satisfaction to be gained from successfully completing a workout like that and feeling strong at the end.

30,000 Words

When my phone rang this morning and it was Kelley asking if I wanted to meet up at the park with our girls, I didn't hesitate for a second before saying yes.

Because anyone who stays home all day with a little baby knows that as much as we love our little darlings, it's imperative to 1) Get out of the house at least once/day and 2) Have some stimulating adult conversation.

The second point above is especially important of you want to save your marriage. Because our poor husbands walk in the door and are immediately assaulted with our verbal vomiting of every detail of the day... you know how it goes... Moana reached out for the keyboard and pressed the spacebar for the first time today and you should have seen her laughing at the dog! Then we went to Toys-R-Us and picked up these cute teething toys for her to suck on... I think she's going to like them... and look! A little toothbrush.. isn't it cute? Angela posted today that she took Zach in the pool and he loved it and kicked the water a lot and then Beth posted on Facebook that she dropped her cell phone into a port-a-potty at Oceanside... can you believe that???

Kelley and I laughed about how we talk non-stop at our husbands for like two hours straight everynight. Scott and Ryan will appreciate that we used some of those 30,000 words per day on each other today.

And of course it was just the cutest thing ever watching Moana and Sara interact... they're still maybe a little too little to really appreciate each other, but they did express some interest. Sara was so cute rolling around on the blanket and talking up a storm... Just like her mom!! :)

Things That Aren't Funny

There was a rumor floating around that the pool by my house had heaters on and that it wasn't icy in there anymore. That gave me high hopes for this morning's swim! But then as I was just about to dip my toes in the water, the lifeguard announced that the water was 74 degrees. WHAT???? My heart sank. Dread filled my soul. It would yet again be another session that was more a matter of survival than a solid workout.

"April Fools!" laughed the lifeguard. "It's actually 80 degrees!"

See, that was not funny. But boy was I glad that I was gonna get a good workout in without going numb.

So then I kind of thought it would be fun to put a little practical joke up on the blog today... seeing that it's April Fool's Day and all... I was gonna announce that I was pregnant again (surprise!!)... but then how and when do you convey that it was just a joke? At the end of the blog? The next day after starting inevitably a bunch of rumors that might be hard to stop?

In the end I decided that A) It's not funny to pretend such a thing, and B) My poor mom would just fall of her chair if she read something like that online.

So just for clarification, there are no more babies on the way in this house. ;)

Last night I had a dream about the Honolulu Triathlon. It's an International distance race here in May, and rumor has it that it's going to turn into a 5K-40K-10K duathlon because it's likely the ocean will be filled with jellyfish that weekend. Grrr. That was going to be my only shot at an International distance race this year and I was looking forward to finding out what I could do, but alas, they're going to take away my strength and make me run instead... Anyway, last night I dreamt that I was at that race and they decided instead to make us swim in these flooded hotel hallways... only the water was like a foot deep so we couldn't really swim... so they led us, ankle deep in water, down this maze of hallways until we got to the deeper part, which was just barely deep enough to not hit your hand on the bottom. Somehow I ended up swimming alone around this maze of hotel hallways until the water dried up and I was all lost and frustrated. That wasn't funny either.

To end on a more positive note, Miss Popular here seems to think everything is funny. :)