Another day, another run - yippee!
I did the same 4 minutes running/2 minutes walking routine, and I ran for a total of 26 minutes. I was running a tad bit faster today than I did the other day, though, so I think I probably came close to 2.5 miles running. It wasn't quite as euphoric as my run on Monday, but I think that's because it was a lot warmer - I had to run later in the day than I'm used to. But it was still really, really awesome! I want to run again tomorrow, but I know that's not wise. And I'm even going to wait another day, and not run again until Saturday morning. I know I'm still very susceptible to reinjuring this stupid shin right now, so I'm playing it real safe for a while.
I had my followup with the orthopedist on Tuesday morning. I never even wrote about that, as it was kind of overshadowed by the whole biopsy ordeal. But the orthopedist visit went well. I had to bring the boys with me, but I gave them each a donut, which helped keep them mostly quiet. And a very nice nurse also came by with stickers for them, so between the donut and the stickers, they did pretty well. So the doc's advice is to keep being cautious as I ease back into running, and if it feels like it's flaring up again, to go immediately to the Aleve and icing routine, and to keep up with the PT exercises at home.
Something he told me that I found interesting, though, is that it's not necessarily a bad idea to take Aleve prior to running. I had always thought that was a bad practice, as you'd basically just be masking any pain you might be having, and could end up running through a bad injury (and making it worse) and not even realizing it. But, as he pointed out, Aleve's primary function is as an anti-inflammatory, so if I'm feeling like my shin is on the verge of acting up again, it wouldn't be bad at all to take an Aleve before I run, to keep the inflammation from occurring - or at least keep it to a minimum. Obviously I don't want to be in a position where I have to take Aleve to get through every run, but it is good to know that I can use it to head off any potential problems in the future.
And now that I'm thinking that the biathlon is probably doable for me this year - even if I have to take walk breaks - I'm thinking that I really have to get back on my bike soon! I've been slacking with my biking the past few weeks - because I've been getting so caught up in the swimming and working on getting back into the running, and have been finding it hard to find time to do everything I want to do! But if I want to make a decent showing at this race in a few weeks, I have to find the time, so I will.
And that's enough blabbering about myself..... on to the boys -
Gabe's pushing and hitting have been on the upswing lately. He seems to go through phases where he'll get really bad with it, and then he gets better, and then we have a really bad phase again. So this is a bad phase, and poor Dante is on the receiving end of all of it. I'm really struggling with keeping my cool and not yelling, because it makes me SO angry when Gabe is just constantly pushing or hitting Dante. I hate to see him act downright mean, and I know I have to do better about remaining calm about the whole thing, but man, it's hard.
So last night, as I was getting ready to make dinner, I told him that if he did anything to hurt Dante, he wouldn't be able to go outside to play after dinner. And guess what happened? About 15 minutes before we sat down to dinner, he kicked Dante. For absolutely no reason. So he and I stayed inside and watched Scott and Dante play outside after dinner. Gabe was pretty bummed.
And tonight, once again, as I was getting ready to make dinner, I told him that if he pushed, kicked, or hit Dante, he wouldn't be able to go outside after dinner. Not even 15 minutes later, I caught him hitting Dante in the head with a Matchbox car! He sat in a time-out, I took the Matchbox cars away, and I told him that if he hit, pushed, or kicked Dante again, he would go straight upstairs to bed and I wouldn't read him any books.
He held out until after dinner, but about 5 minutes after we were done eating, there he was, giving Dante a very hard shove that sent him to the floor. So upstairs he went, and he was in bed at 6:45. He was NOT happy, and he cried a lot, and it's one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I was almost crying as I put him in bed. But what else CAN I do? Nothing seems to get through to him, and although I don't expect that he's never going to hit Dante again, I do expect that he should not be pushing/kicking and/or hitting him every 10 minutes. It's not really THAT often, but it has gotten out of hand. And he never really hurts Dante, but it's just a really mean way to act, and I feel like I've gotta stop it, and I've got to get through to him about how wrong it is to act that way.
I don't know. I don't know if I'm doing the right thing. I don't know if I did something horribly before now to cause him to act this way. I don't know if going to bed early with no books is drastic enough to get him to turn his behavior around. But if it isn't, I'm really running out of ideas.......
He's not a bad kid, I know he's not. And just as much as he takes out his aggression on Dante, he also loves him to pieces, and can turn around and be so kind to him. They were playing together last night in the hallway, just running back and forth and chasing each other, and it was the cutest thing.
He is still very cute in other respects, too. Yesterday morning I had them all set up at the kitchen table with markers and paper, and I caught Gabe drawing on his hand, so I reminded him to color only on the paper. So he looked at me and said "It's just marker, Mommy!" As the words came out of his mouth, I had a vivid memory of a recent occasion when he got some marker on his hands accidentally, and I said something like "Oh, it's ok, it's just marker; we'll wash it off." Ooops.
We came home from the beach on Sunday, and it was hot and disgustingly humid - just one of those classic August in New England type of days. And we had told Gabe he could watch a movie while we got dinner ready. His choice - the Christmas Classics Sing-Along DVD. So, with the A/C humming in the background, we were treated to a little December preview.
Dante is becoming quite interested in the potty. He likes to sit on it, but will usually only sit for about 2 seconds, which is, of course, not long enough. We try putting him on the potty every night after his bath, because he seems to have started a habit of peeing on the floor right after his bath. So now the new habit is that he sits on the potty for 2 seconds, gets up, walks across the room, and pees on the floor. He has peed right in front of the potty a few times, too - does that count as the "first step" in potty training?
What he lacks in potty skills, though, he makes up for with signing. It's funny, too, because if he doesn't know the sign for something, he'll just make random gestures with his hands, all the while with a quizzical look on his face, as if he's waiting for us to tell him what the sign is. I look up as many as I can, because it's so awesome to see him communicating, and he picks them up so quickly now. The last time we were in Target, he saw the dog on the Target signs and started doing the sign for "dog" - I was so proud of him!
And the kid has got some moves, too! He loves to dance now, and will play his musical toys and just rock out. There is nothing as funny as watching a toddler dance - they don't care one bit what they look like; they just do what they want to do, and they have SO MUCH FUN doing it!
I've often wondered if Aleve might be good before a run for that very reason, and I think it probably is. But, one argument against it is that it maybe can alter your fluid/electrolyte balance so maybe if you're doing a really long hot run, it could be a problem. Otherwise it totally makes sense... if something is swelling in your leg, it is going to rub against other stuff and start to hurt more (and swell more). So, if you stop the swelling won't you just decrease the further damage you do to it? And I mean it isn't like an anesthetic or anything, if something is badly injured it isn't going to mask that!
Good luck with the disciplining for the hitting. I've just about decided that disciplining Lauren is about as effective as disciplining my cat! That is... it has no effect! LOL.
Congrats on getting back to running! Woohooo!!!!!!!
Lynn
Posted by: Lynn T | August 30, 2007 at 01:57 AM