Once again, our oddly mild winter treated me to another perfect day for running today.
It was almost 50 degrees when I woke up at 5:30am - drastically different from Sunday morning, when it was in the teens.
Sunday I met with a friend at the beach for an easy 10 miles, and the temperature never got above 15. As with the previous week's frigid temperatures, though, I was dressed properly, so I felt fine once we got moving. It was nice to have some company again, too. I did all but one or two of my long runs solo when I was training for Hartford, and I don't mind running alone, but it's awfully nice to not have to go it alone all the time.
Today was a solo run, but it was my favorite - the 8-mile tempo - so I didn't mind. I was looking forward to putting on my favorite playlist and enjoying the beautiful day - which was so warm that I wore shorts and short sleeves, and was perfectly comfortable the entire time. Unbelievable, given that it's the end of January!
I won't go on and on about how much I'm loving the tempo runs - I've done that enough already. I'll just say that it went well, and I managed to run the exact same route I ran for last week's tempo, and ran it 17 seconds faster (7:25 pace for the full 8 miles). Not a huge time difference, but enough to provide another confidence boost, so I'll take it : )
The real challenging part of my day was still to come, though. Carmine had his 2-year checkup scheduled for 11am. He's not a fan of the doctor, and every appointment I've brought him to, he's gotten progressively worse and worse.
Today was no exception to that pattern. I've never seen a 2-year-old child so stressed out, and nervous, and downright terrified. I had to fight with him just to get him undressed, and the screaming that started then barely let up for the remainder of the appointment. It was really difficult, and really, really upsetting.
I don't know why he's so deathly afraid, either. He's never had anything other than routine checkups and vaccinations. No painful procedures, nothing that would have traumatized him in any way. And nothing they do at these checkups is even remotely invasive - he freaks out at the simplest things, like having the stethoscope placed on his chest.
And it wasn't the normal "I'm scared" or "I'm angry" cry that kids have. It had a different tone to it. That may sound crazy, but moms (and dads) will understand. You know your kids' cries, and they are distinctly different. This was more of a "I'm terrified and incredibly stressed out about this, and I can't believe you're holding me down so they can do these things to me" cry. As if we moms don't carry around enough guilt already.....
I was seriously a little shell-shocked when it was finally all over. He's not due for another checkup until he's three, and between now and then, I'm going to use every trick in the book to try to get him to stop being so scared of the doctor, because I do not want to have to go through an experience like that again.
Neither Gabe or Dante was ever this bad with doctors, so this is all uncharted territory for me, and has kind of caught me off guard. I think the third child feels it's their mission to keep you on your toes, and make sure you are well aware that, just because you've done this twice already, you do NOT have it all figured out - not by a long shot.
The only silver lining to this cloud is that once we leave the doctor's office, he forgets very quickly about how traumatic it was.
We listened to his "They Might Be Giants" CD in the car on the way home (his new favorite), and he spent a good part of the afternoon stomping around in the mud that surrounded one of the few small piles of snow left in the yard, and shoveling that snow into his Tonka dump truck. Thank goodness for short attention spans and even shorter memories.
I ran in shorts, short sleeves, and Vibrams yesterday and it.were.awesome! My pace was a little slower than yours :-) but I did 6 miles! Booyah!
Sounds like the little one knows how to tug your strings. Hang in there. It wouldn't be any fun if all our kids were the same.
Posted by: Wes | January 25, 2012 at 11:30 AM