Wish us luck

Here's the extent of the physical activity in this family this week:




We've been a little under the weather, but the real reason, I think, is that it's still January. And I am so tired of January!! And yes, I know January ends in, oh, approximately 57 hours, but then there's February. And March. (I got into one of those typical Minnesotan conversations the other day, where you argue about which element of winter is worst: the cold, the dark, the snow, the windchill*. Or January, February, or March. I voted for January. But my friends had compelling reasons for hating February and March too.)


At least the weather forecast is looking better for the Loppet this weekend:


*It's definitely the cold. Or the dark. Or the windchill.

Go Catriona!

Catriona Matthew, the 39-year-old Scot five months pregnant with her second child, won the inaugural HSBC LPGA Brazil Cup by five shots over Kristy McPherson of the United States on Sunday.
"When you play well you don't feel tired," Matthew said. "Maybe tomorrow I will feel it a bit." -- AP

"My tummy says..."

Recent quotes from my preschooler:

"My tummy is telling me it wants ice cream."
"My tummy says it's tired."
"My tummy really likes dancing."
"My tummy says it doesn't want to clean up."

It's the result of an effort to get my son to listen to his body during his 2-week bout with the flu. Apparently it worked a little too well.

It's taken me a month to have this revelation, though: replace "tummy" with "body", and everything makes sense. (Ok...80% of the time. Not sure it applies to cleaning up, going to bed, or tying his baby sister up with rope.)

Two other recent nutritional breakthroughs of note:

1. He requested, and ate several bites of, lasagna. (Yes, I realize that lasagna (pasta + red sauce + cheese) has exactly the same nutritional value of his favorite meal (that is, pasta + red sauce + cheese), but anything that can be construed as new is cause for rejoicing at this point.)

2. Yesterday morning he said, and I quote, "I don't want yucky syrup. I want good syrup. And if we don't have any, I want yogurt on my waffles." (Yes, I am gloating.)

Didn't the air smell cleaner this morning?

As a fitness advocate (not to mention Waldorf parent), I'm all about limiting screen time. But exceptions have to be made, and I loved that my preschooler clicked on the link to watch Obama taking the oath of office multiple times (although I suspect CNN's close-up shots of the cannon firing may have played a role, too).
Then, he found this cute clip of kids singing their thank you's to President Obama:

(Yes, this entry is an excuse to type those words -- President Obama -- as often as possible).
But I have to agree with my ECFE friend Elise that this was the ultimate inaugural moment ... and one I hope we'll be revisiting several times today:

Bagel, anyone?

I should have known it was too good to be true when I had both kids bundled up and buckled in right on schedule on Saturday, ready to go to ECFE. It was our turn for snack, or so I thought, and I had a bundle of bagels and cream cheese neatly packed into a fully-stocked diaper bag. My son was proclaiming his love for "EFC -- it's my favorite thing to do!"
Usually we're the ones coming in late, trailing stray boots and mittens, borrowing wipes from the better-prepared parents.
So I guess I wasn't all that surprised when we pulled up to the school and the parking lot was suspiciously empty. My son spied one light on inside, but our hopes were dashed when we found the doors locked.
I'd been looking forward to some advice on how to not let a 17-month-old rule the house. I think I've effectively blocked out memories from this stage with my son. Right now, we're pretty much giving in to her demands, and they are plentiful and constant: waffles for breakfast, popcorn for a snack, standing in the high chair. She makes herself remarkably clear, considering she doesn't speak in sentences.
Anyway, the rest of the day followed in the same vein: I took my son to the bubble on Nicollet, where we discovered that the 1:30-3 p.m. kid play time means you need to be there at 1:30 (but judging from what we saw, we will be there by 1:27 next weekend), until we finally managed to get in a few good runs down the sledding hill and cups of hot cocoa with friends at Mount Como.
At least when the sun came out on Sunday, we didn't waste any time getting outside:

Go Mary

Mary, former cross-country teammate and current running club teammate, on swimming at six months preggo: "Around six months or so, my body starts to find running more cumbersome and painful. The bother of two bras and a belly support, not to mention four layers of clothing, make swimming more appealing than running in the last trimester. Swimming is low impact and doesn't feel like work. I also like not having to worry about finding a bathroom three times around the lake!"

Sporty Bump and other related news from around the blogosphere

Starting with the most staggering news, check out the deal my friend scored on a double Chariot:

yogurt and granola

Then, head over to
mommy muse for some reflections on treating post-partum depression with exercise.

Next, validate your reasons for exercising with this post from
Kristin Armstrong's blog. Save this sentence for your fridge: "After my morning run, I can return to my house, my children, my relationships, and my work and feel replenished and rejuvenated to make my offering to my world."

And finally, a new line of maternity fitness apparel, if you can get past the name and convert pounds to dollars:

Sporty Bump

Quiz

Last weekend, we met our friends from Iowa at the Wisconsin Dells.
Guess which activity went over best with the kids?

Exhibit A:


Exhibit B:


Hint: It involved nothing remotely natural, but a good time was had by all.*

p.s. If you go, don't miss the cross country skiing at Mirror Lake. I had to sneak out by myself, but it was worth it.

*Including a 5-yr-old, 4-yr-old, 3-yr-old and 1-yr-old.

Snow report

These hand-me-down skis, circa 1988, may prove to be the present of the year: Since our preschooler tried these skis on, announcing he'd be falling a lot because he was just learning, it's been hard to get them off -- that's why this video was taken in the dark.
When I finally undid the straps, after two hours, he asked, "Why are we done skiing?" The upshot is that he's on his best behavior when he has them on. "Thank you, Mommy!" "Help, please, Mommy." "How do you spell Mommy?" (This lasts until the moment they come off. Yesterday, he had a meltdown on the way to school, in part because he wanted to ski. All day. Or at the very least bring the skis to school "because there's a little bit of ice I'd like to try them out on.") After school, he told me he'd invited all his friends over to watch him ski. Which means much time will be devoted to explaining why they're not lining up at the door. Now that my son wants to be outside, my daughter has decided she wants nothing to do with winter. Which I can sympathsize with. It's just that a screaming, mitten-throwing toddler makes it challenging to enjoy the marathon ski sessions (or a simple trip to the store to buy birthday cupcakes because "they're made by a big machine that puts the sprinkles on better than we can.") The next clip is an apology for the quality of today's and yesterday's videos, which don't do justice to any of our new snow "sports." (And no, you should not laugh at my son's red flowery snowsuit.)

How we rang in the New Year

Maybe I can blame it on the cold, but here's what I let my preschooler do this weekend at the cabin:



And this:



Afterward, he declared that his fear of loud noises is officially over. In fact, he likes them now.

I may regret this later.

Resolutions

In an effort to avoid inevitable failure and disappointment heighten my sense of well being, I’ve focused my ’09 resolutions on process, instead of outcome. In other words, I will be resolving to do four decent long runs in preparation for a half marathon, not to best my half marathon p.r. (Although, if that happened after about nine attempts, I wouldn’t mind.)

So, for the sake of accountability, here’s my attempt at positive thinking:

Swim 200 fly nonstop (starting at 100, add 25 yards per season)
Do a half-Ironman triathlon
Train 4.5 hours per week
Improve bike efficiency
Swim once/week
Organize an indoor bike session
Do a swim race
Swim across Lake Hubert
Go to one of Lauren’s 5-hour spin classes (at least most of it!)
Take preschooler rock climbing
Do Luminary Loppet (with kids) and one of the Sunday races (without kids)
Reduce car trips by 100