All Systems Go

My foot held up very well during and after a 7-mile run Wednesday morning, so I'll be heading out for my planned 18 tomorrow. I'm still a bit nervous, but hopeful that I'll be ok and can make it through these last weeks of training.

As I write that, and as I updated my Facebook status today, I realized that there are only 7 weeks until I run this marathon!  My training for Hartford seemed to last forever, but this round of training has flown by. I got a huge rush of nervous butterflies when I thought about how soon I'll be out there on the course.

In some ways, I think having the issues with my foot was kind of a blessing in disguise. I would never have chosen to take a week off from training without it, but not running for a week has made me so eager to get out there and run 18 miles tomorrow, and get back to speedwork and tempo runs next week.

And since I wasn't running this week, and it was vacation week with the boys, I ended up having a very light week, workout-wise. Sure, I could have brought them to the gym with me every day, but I kind of felt like I needed a week where I wasn't working out 5 or 6 days, and it was nice to not have our days revolve around my gym time. We were free to do whatever we felt like, whenever we felt like it, and having some lazy mornings was a really, really nice change of pace for all of us.

I still got in a great workout Monday, and did my run Wednesday morning, but that was it. And yes, I do feel a little lazy and icky as a result, but I also feel like it was good for me. I needed a little break, mentally and physically - and I'm definitely ready to get back to it next week!

Vacation week with the boys has been a blast - helped in large part by the fact that the great non-winter of 2011/12 has continued, and we were able to spend large portions of each day outside.

We had a fabulous day roaming the grounds at Mystic Seaport Wednesday, and were able to stop at a playground on the way home to burn off even more energy.  Yesterday we spent the ENTIRE afternoon outside. It was glorious. A bit windy, but nearly 60 degrees!  I was a little bummed that Carmine didn't take a nap, since he didn't have one the day before, either, but it was so great to see him running around the yard chasing after his big brothers, so it was a good tradeoff : )

Our experience with Carmine has been so different from Gabe and Dante in so many ways, but right now most noticeably in that Carmine is talking so much more than either of them were at this age. When Gabe was two, he only had a handful of words, and wasn't even close to putting together sentences, and Dante was about the same.

Carmine, on the other hand - there isn't much that he can't say, and he puts together three- and four-word sentences already!  It's so fun, and such a new experience for us - I just get such a kick out of talking with him.

He still has his funny mispronunciations - blanket is "buh-buh," apple juice is "at choo," pillow is "puh-puh," Gabe is "Gee," Dante is "dah-dah," finger is "feh-feh," and poop is "poot."  He also learned a while ago what a wedgie is, and likes to walk around pulling at the seat of his pants saying "weh-wee, weh-wee."    

But more often than not, it's very, very clear what he's saying, and he so often makes me giggle. Grammy got him some Buzz Lightyear toys for his birthday, and I noticed that instead of just calling him "Buzz," he calls him "Buzz Woody." And every time he sits down now, he informs me that he's  "sittin', bum," I guess because I'm always telling him to sit down on his bum. And there's nothing cuter than seeing him hop up on the couch, pat the cushion next to him, and say "Mommy, come sittin."

And I have no idea if it's impressive for his age or not, but I'm personally kind of impressed that he sort of knows some numbers already. He can't count, but if you say a string of numbers, he'll chime in with "one, two, three," so he gets that those are numbers and they're related. He likes to play rockets, too - he'll countdown "Five, two, blastoff!" 

Our biggest source of pride, though, is the fact that at least 65% of the time, he can now nicely say "hep pee" (help please) instead of just screaming when he wants something. That other 35%, with all the screaming, is still somewhat frustrating, but progress is progress. Baby steps, as they say.....

Comments

[Mom and Dad]

Glad the foot is feeling so much better.....have been enjoying all the photos...if we can't be there, they are the next best thing ! .....Nothing like a really great school vacation, busy but not too busy !

[Laura]

Yes, I loved when my daughter could learn to replace screaming with words, like help, please!!
Sounds like a great week to recharge. How did your 18 go? I made it to 15.5 instead of 20 but twisted my ankle at mile 2, and it's not feeling so good today. :( Hoping it's nothing serious!

[Michelle]

18 went well. Foot is a tiny bit sore, but it feels more like normal aches and pains than injury-type pain. Sorry to hear about your ankle! Hopefully you just need a little TLC and a very, very short rest.