Second Child Pics

I'm a little sensitive about the number of pictures taken of me as a child, since I am the youngest by 4+ years. I feel like there are way more pictures of my two older sisters than of me. I guess I'm a little vain and want to see lots of pictures of my cute, little self. :)

As such, I've always harped on my sisters to make sure they take lots of pictures of all of their kids. Now though, I can see how easy it is to not take as many pictures of our second child. So when Sydney does something funny or looks funny, I think to myself, "Would I take a picture if she were my only child?" And generally, the answer is "yes, I would", so I pull out the camera. Here's to trying not to be a hypocrite! :)

Not sure how Sydney managed this, but I went to get her out of crib one morning and her arm was out its sleeve with the PJs still fully zipped.

Sydney dumped out the box of infant toys and climbed on in!




Often, Wes wants me to take a picture of him, too. No problem! I still want cute pictures of my little man.




Brian had out the lime juice the other day (making guacamole...yum!) and Wes insisted on trying it. Great funny-face photo op!






Wes actually liked it and wanted more, despite what this picture suggests.

Sydney's been into hats lately. The other day I was wearing this hat and she let me know she wanted to wear it. Pretty cute little girl in the big Mom hat!

I had "singing time" with the kids the other day so I could take a video. Sydney wasn't really interested, even though she knows all of the songs and normally sings much of the day ("Happy Birthday" and the "ABC Song" are two favorites). You can catch her on a tiny part of "Twinkle, Twinkle" though.

Two notes:

1. Wes was adamant that he wear the yellow sweater that day, which just happens to be Sydney's. I don't really care that he's usually oblivious to boy vs. girl colors and clothes. Soak it up now before it becomes an issue!

2. He sings "up a Word World in the sky". I think he really thinks that's what the line is.

Date Night to the Pistons Game

A while back I found a great deal (some might call it "slick") on tickets to a Pistons game. This past Saturday, Brian and I went to our first NBA game together. Neither of us had been to a pro basketball game in a long time. It was fun, but unfortunately the game didn't start getting really good until the end of the 3rd quarter; right when we had to leave to go pick up the kids. But we got to see two fights that included three technicals and a flagrant foul, so Brian was pretty satisfied with the whole experience! :)

Brian and Natalie

Before the game...the Pistons and Trailblazers warming up. Maybe we should have been rooting for the Trailblazers since the Sonics don't exist anymore so they're kind of like our "home" team now.

They had these fun fire shooters (technical term) as the Pistons' starting line-up was being announced. However, they made a really loud boom every so often that sounded like gunfire and scared the crap out of me. I'm not sure why they think that's a good idea in Detroit, of all places!

Cowtown Countdown - 5 Weeks to Go

Bally Fitness is now where I'm spending my training time! During my long-run on the 15th, I started to get some soreness on the inside of my right calf muscle. Actually, I tend to have some tightness there on both calf muscles. It's come and goes and I've always just thought it was because I had weak calf muscles and they were getting stronger. However, after that long-run my muscle was feeling more sore than usual. During the night after my Monday 6-miler, I was having dull aches that were bothering me. On our Wednesday speed workout I did only half because I was worried about over-straining my leg.

On Thursday, I went to the free physical therapy clinic to see what was up. She told me that it could be the beginnings of a stress fracture (not super likely, I don't think) or it could be some lactic acid build-up that just isn't draining. Jonelle seemed to think - after doing some research - it could be shin splints. With the latter two options, the treatment would be to not run for two weeks and to ice and massage. This is a little bit scary since the marathon is five weeks away, but I feel like I am in a great place with my running so I feel like cross-training will do a lot of good.

I've sort of been debating whether I should still run Cowtown or I should postpone seven weeks and run the Martian Marathon here in Michigan (which is my back-up run anyway). My leg is feeling less sore, but it's still noticeable for sure. I'll have to keep seeing how cross-training goes. The only problem is getting plane tickets! So I suppose I should just make a decision!

However, in the meantime, it's off to Bally's I go! I have actually been enjoying the variety, not to mention not being so cold. In order to cross-train effectively, you're supposed to spend the same amount of time biking (for example) and at the same heart rate as it would take you to run the specific mileage. So on Saturday I was supposed to run 18 miles, which would have taken about 2 1/2 hours. Therefore, instead of running, I spent 2 1/2 hours (+) at the gym. (I'm sure people thought I was a gym addict.) It wasn't so horrible though...I got a lot of reading done! :)

Weekly Goals

Monday: 5 miles at 8:41 /min

Wednesday: Yasso's - 10x800 at 3:40 min/800

Thursday: 4 miles at 8:41 /mi

Saturday: 18 miles at 8:41 /mi

Outcome

Monday: 5 miles at 7:55 /mi

Tuesday: 15 minutes swimming

Wednesday: 5x800 at 3:33 min, 3:31 min, 3:29 min, 3:34 min, 3:32 min

Saturday: 30 min elliptical, 30 min stationary bike, 30 min elliptical, 30 min abs and stretch, 30 min pool walking

Graduate Fun for Kids

One of the perks of being a graduate student is that they often have free activities for the kids. Last week we had a free graduate school activity as well as a free MBA Kids activity. Awesome!

On the 16th, we went to My Urban Toddler with the graduate group, which is a fun indoor play place for the kids. Sydney had a great time exploring all of the different areas. In the above picture, she's in the fire truck and her friend (Wes' best friend), Hayden, is just outside.

Even though there are about a thousand and one things to do in this place, Wes spent all but - literally - one minute at this train table. It was nice though, because I always knew where to find him while I was following Sydney around!





On the 19th, we went with the MBA Kids to the Extreme Bounce Zone. It was a lot of fun! There are a bunch of slides and bouncing areas. The kids had a great time.

Here goes Wes down the slide!

Andrea is always SO helpful when I'm alone with my kids. It helps that Hayden and Wes are almost always together. She took Sydney down the slide multiple times. As you can see Sydney loved it. She'd say, "Weeeee..." as she went down.

The boys (Carter, Hayden, Wes, and some other kid I don't know) had a great time attempting to walk on the inflatable surface.

A big difference between my two kiddos: I can hardly get Wes to stop playing long enough to eat, whereas I can hardly get Sydney to stop eating long enough to play! Here she is stealing and eating other kids' goldfish crackers.