An endorsement from our sponsors:

highlandparkplayers.com

Benched

Harrumph. I went to the doctor yesterday because I have a pulled muscle in my neck that caused enough pain to send me to bed for a good portion of Sunday because it literally hurt to hold up my head.

According to my doctor, the stupid pulled muscle in my neck is just a pulled muscle. This is good because...well, because it means it's not something worse. This is bad because I still have no explanation for why this has happened four times in seven months, in exactly the same spot, with exactly the same effect. Next to childbirth, it's the most painful thing I have ever experienced. It's even worse than pregnancy sciatica, but similar in that it's a constant pain that is horrendously distracting, not to mention debilitating. She gave me a muscle relaxer (which I can only take at night) and ordered me not to exercise until it's better.

That's the bad news: Usually this injury takes up to two weeks to heal (for me). So don't hate on me for missing my runs. I'll catch up.

Meh.

The First in a Long Line

Don't like reading about pee and poop? Skip this post. :o)

During The Boy's aforementioned two year checkup, we discussed potty training a little. My current philosophy is (was) that I'd really rather wait until The Boy is closer to 3 than 2, so he'll have better clothing removal skills, balancing atop the toilet skills, etc. But he's shown a TINY bit of interest lately, including wanting to "go pee on the potty" before he takes a bath.

(I can't believe I'm seriously posting about peeing and pooping. Sigh. And YOU'RE READING IT.)

So, upon the recommendation of our pediatrician, we went shopping for a little potty. (Explain to me why the simplest, sturdiest potty at Target also happens to be one of the most expensive? Explain to me why I would ever want a potty to cheer for my child? You pee and poop in it. Disturbing.) He chose the blue one, and it is now the only intentionally gender specific item in my house. Then again, I suppose I did buy the pink cash register, so he's just getting back at me. He also selected a blue water bottle on the same day. Y'all have brainwashed my kid.

I digress.

The first thing he wanted to do at home, naturally, was sit on his potty--which he did. "Do you want to pee in there?" I asked. "Okay." Off with the diaper, onto the potty...and he peed. First try. Tonight before bed I asked if he wanted to pee before putting his nighttime diaper on. "Okay." Off with the diaper, onto the potty...and he peed. And pooped (by accident, I'm pretty sure). And we dumped it in the big potty and flushed--just exactly what they tell you not to do. And he cheered.

So, people, I'm not sure what all the drama is that we're supposed to have. Not that we're "training," mind you. I have no intention of letting go of the diapers for some time, but I guess I was expecting a bigger deal over it. Also, I now have no idea what the next step is. Do we just keep trying to pee/poo more often during the day? Wait for him to ask?

Bring it, moms. Extra points if you have a boy.

Hip to be Square and Other Stories

My kid is square: 35" x 35 lbs. This is according to his two year checkup the other day. He is now in the 85th percentile for height, is predicted to be 6 feet tall by age 18, and is therefore pre-disqualified for the football team. (Right?Pleasepleaseplease.)


There has been a lot of discussion in our house lately on the topic of irrational fear. It goes like this:
Boy: "No bee gonna come in the house and hurt you." (He means himself)
Me: "Nope, you're right."
Boy: "Mommy, no bee gonna come in the house and hurt you and Avery."
Me: "That's right, you're safe. Bees don't usually hurt us at all. And I won't let bees in the house."
Boy: "Mom. Mama. No bee gonna come in the house and hurt you."
You get the idea.
Recently he was taking a bath and explored that fun looking button on the faucet...which turns on the shower. Of course the water that came out was freezing cold and scared the pants off him. So now each bath starts with, "Shower not gonna hurt you."


We had possibly our last day of Indian Summer on Wednesday, and used it to drive to the city to visit the beloved free Lincoln Park Zoo. It brought back lovely memories of our previous visits, including this one. The hit of the day was most certainly the giraffe. ("No giraffe gonna come over the water and over the wall and hurt you.") We visited them three times and were kicking ourselves that we hadn't brought along his little rubber animals (birthday gift from Mimi and Papa) so we could compare and contrast. He corrected the zookeeper that referred to one bathing mass as a Hippo ("Not hippo mommy. HippoPAmus."), and saw three black "Rhymeoferous"es. He narrated 99.99999% of the day's activities, asked me 6,264 questions, and fell asleep 3.2 seconds after takeoff.


1.Grand Dede has a friend he refers to as "Big Don," or sometimes "Big Donald."
2. The Boy has been singing the song, "Old MacDonald" for months. But it never sounds exactly like that, and I've been trying to decipher exactly what he's been saying.
3. Last weekend, The Boy was invited to a Northwestern football game. He told me he would be going with Daddy, Grand Dede and "Old BigDonald."
4. Mystery solved.
(Also, hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!)

C25K Update: Week 3

Week 3: 5 min walking warmup; 90 sec run/90 sec walk, 3 min run, 2 min walk; repeat interval; 5 min cooldown. This workout is a little shorter than the others.

Run 1: Well, the three minute running part wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It seems like a huge jump from 90 seconds to 3 minutes, which is the longest running stint so far.

Run 2: First treadmill run. Harder to set my pace, but highly entertained by whatever TV program I was watching.

Run 3: I thought this was supposed to get easier! The beginning of today's run was really tough, though today was the first day I've run outside when it was quite brisk (52 degrees), and I think that contributed to my labored breathing. The second half of the run (after dumping the dog back at home) was much more pleasant.

Did I mention I use to run a 6:30 mile?

In middle school.

But still.


(Looking forward to more autumn runs outside!)

Structure and "School"

I HEART FALL. But you know that already.

This year I love NEW things, though. I enjoy the summer, but I will never love it in the maniacal can't-wait-to-get-outside-and-look-at-the-leaves way that I love fall. I especially appreciate the structure that the fall brings. Partly from musical rehearsals, partly from our classes kicking back into gear, partly from the shopping for new clothes which always seems more enjoyable in the fall.

I love the light in my backyard, and how I can't still really tell if it's "partly sun, "mostly shade," or whatever. I can't wait to see what my new landscaping looks like as the weather changes. (And, believe it or not, I'm actually looking forward to gazing at my new evergreens topped with snow. For a minute.)

I love that (this year) I have Lawn Guys that magically blow the leaves away.

I love the first night it's cool enough to lounge around in sweatpants and hoodie.

And I love all the usual things, too....caramel apples, pumpkins and seeds, picking apples (must find a new place!), apple cider, baking cookies after a summer of "too hot to turn on the oven," sweatshirts, boots, fall jackets, football--wait.

So, The Boy started "school" last week. (SO NOT ANYTHING LIKE SCHOOL AT ALL, but he felt really cool when I said it. Now that we know he has an actual locker with his name on in (!), we will be packing his pack-pack full of...who knows. Snack? Cup? Star Wars guys?) This class we're taking together is basically an expensive playgroup comprised of four other boys his age and their NANNIES. Nannies?! The whole purpose of taking a Mom/Tot class (for me) is to meet other moms! Gah. So that is a bummer. But he thinks it's incredible fun and actually played WITH another boy during today's "class."

We also recently returned to The Land of Miss Mary. Hurrah! We seem to have a nice blend of girls and boys (mostly girls), some of whom were in our class last spring. And we have ALL parents (even a dad!), and NO nannies. Of course, it doesn't do ME any good because it's in the city, but at least they're nice people. And one of the women looks just like Jennifer Westfeldt.

Isn't the light pretty in the fall?



(1st Day of Pre Pre Preschool)

C25K Update: Week 2

Week 2: 5 minute warmup followed by intervals of 90 seconds of running and 2 minutes of walking (30 min total).


Run 1: I'm not gonna lie...that extra 30 seconds of running feels like an eternity. Anticipating some soreness tomorrow.

Run 2: Ack. Forgot to make notes immediately after it, so I can't really remember much except that running on top of acorns makes me fearful of twisted ankles.

Run 3: I got off my schedule by two days this week. (Lest you think I'm a total slacker, I did replace it with about eight hours of cardio-heavy gardening with my mom.) So I completed Week 2 two days behind schedule. Ironically, today's run felt the best of the six so far. I felt like I could keep running after each 90 second running interval was completed. Yay! And the weather is still beautiful. Double yay!

On to Week Three!