Running

Today on my run, a girl yelled at my friend and I that we were crazy. I enthusiastically responded "yes, we are!"

The truly crazy thing is that we got that response with only one kid apiece in our strollers today. Normally we're pushing far more weight and huffing and puffing a little bit more.

But really? Running with a double stroller doesn't make me crazy. It keeps me from being crazy. Sometimes the days are long and the only respite I get is a run. Unless I get up with the roosters, showering by myself is a luxury I am not privy to. I do get up early and soak in the Word and try to eat some food before the kiddos wake up, but I'm ashamed to admit that even with that time, by 8:30 I'm often ready for naptime and need to hit the restart button and find myself a new attitude.

So with a prayer and a run I start over. I summon a little more patience. Some more empathy. The ability to see the world through my kids' eyes instead of seeing my day as something to trudge through.

So to me, *not* running is crazy. Running helps me to see my life as an adventure instead of drudgery. It shows my kids that taking care of yourself is important. That you can be a stay-at-home mom and not sit around and eat bonbons all day- that even as a SAHM, you can have goals and achieve those goals.

I'm not breaking any records or even running any races, but I'm running. And some days, that's all that keeps me sane.

Asking you all to ignore the fact that this picture is clearly from the fall. I don't make a habit of taking pictures of my runs...

Jade's first 5k

Friday morning, Chuck and I loaded a very confused and slightly unhappy Jade into the car and headed to the base, where we ran a St Patrick's Day 5k put on by the fitness center.

We wanted to leave the camera in the car, so I tried to snap a picture right after we got her in the stroller, but this is what I got. She was crying and trying to pull her hat off. And you can't actually see any of that because of the weather shield. But with a start time of 0700 and us getting there at uh... 0700, I didn't have time to take the weather shield off and take another picture. Such is life.

But she did great during the race. Chuck and I took turns pushing her and she didn't fuss at all until the end. So then we got her out of the stroller and took more pictures :)

Chuck and I both had fun. And Jade tolerated our craziness fairly well, so that's good :) We definitely plan to run more of the races on base. They have one a month I believe. Chuck hadn't run in 6 months, so he was out of shape enough to run with me. That won't last though, which is ok. I don't want to be married to a slow dude ;)

Chuck and Jade finished right at 25 minutes and I came in about 30 seconds behind them because I had stopped to tie my shoe and couldn't catch up (with my husband who hadn't ran in 6 months... talk about making me feel out of shape!).

Later that day, we went to the pediatrician for Jade's weight check. Everything looked great... she had gained almost a pound in a month. She is now 15 lbs 5 ozs, 26.5 inches tall and head circumference is 17.5. Both height and weight are right below the chart and head is the 50%. She's gonna be smart!

Sleep and running

I don't have much time, but I just wanted to get a couple things out there.

1. Jade's sleep is SO much better. I haven't wanted to post about it before now because I was afraid of jinxing it, but she now consistently only wakes up once or twice a night.... and probably once a night more often than anything else. I realize that some people think that's "a lot" for an almost 10-month-old, but for Jade that is AMAZING. I feel so much more rested and able to handle not only her demands during the day but other demands as well. My house is returning to some sort of order and I shower on a regular basis. I'm sure you are all glad to hear that.

I doubt anyone cares how we got her to this point, but I'm going to touch briefly on it anyways. I decided that I would not nurse her before 5 am. This took a LOT of work from Chuck... he was the one that had to respond to all of her wakings before then. He would go in, do his best to calm her down (which generally did not work), and then lay down on a mattress that we put in her room and continue to comfort her verbally. I was comfortable with this because that way she knew she wasn't being abandoned... but she was getting the message that she was not going to be picked up and that it was time to sleep. The first few nights were really rough, but he hasn't even had to go in there in a couple weeks now I think. I love my husband SO MUCH because I know that many husbands don't participate in nighttime parenting (especially with a stay at home mom in the house) but with Chuck it was never an issue... he was always right there with me. I am so grateful.

I figure I'll give her a little while to see if she weens off the 5 am feeding naturally, and if she hasn't done it herself by 1 year I'll push her that way.

2. I have officially started training for a half marathon in Virginia Beach in September :) I've run a half before, but didn't really train for it so I'm interested to see how well I can do if I actually train. I have a couple running buddies to keep me accountable, a good jogging stroller, and a treadmill so I'm set! Chuck's trying to convince me to run a full marathon in October, but I'm thinking that's not going to happen. I mean, I want to run one... just not sure I want to do it in October.

But I am excited to be officially training for something, because now Chuck is well aware that I have no intentions to get pregnant before I've finished that run! Is that bad? When Jade was first born, we said we were going to start trying again when she was 1, but that's just not going to happen. He's ready, I'm not. So I've bought myself some time with my run :)

And this post is boring with no pictures. You guys will just have to forgive me!