2.5 Hours Can Be a Long Time

Boy was Evan in a mood last night.  Since he can't talk enough to tell me yet, I'm going to assume it was because he was exhausted.  My sister took him to the pool in the morning and I think that completely wore him out.  He pretty much cried, fussed, and flailed the entire night until he went to bed.  The bad thing about this is that it makes it difficult for me to get anything done, so he still didn't get to bed until 9pm.  Now that he's eating a little more, I hate to put him to bed without dinner but then it took me forever to get dinner on the table between holding him and him crying on the floor.  And I was only making quinoa and microwaving food...not making a gourmet meal or anything.  We took a long break to play with play dough outside though....so that slowed things up.  I hate coming home and spending our only time together cooking dinner.  So, when he wanted to go out on the balcony to play with play dough I went out there with him.  So, we didn't eat until almost 7:45.  And then since he had sunscreen all over him I felt like I really needed to give him a bath.  All of those activities resulted in a 9pm bedtime, even though he probably could have fallen asleep much earlier.  What can you do?  Although I got home at 6:30pm and Evan went to bed 2.5 hours later - the night seemed extra long with all those temper tantrums!

And then I made pancakes for Ivan.  I had made some over the weekend but Evan was eating them for breakfast, so Ivan wanted a few too.  So I whipped up a batch.  I discovered if you put some oil in the bottom of the pan they kinda fry and then you have delicious lightly fried pancakes.  

And I made them with Banilla (I'm assuming Banilla is banana+vanilla) Yogurt and bananas, so that made them even more yummy.  I want to eat one right now!

I also made it for a run yesterday.  My friend says I'm on a roll with the running and it sure feels that way.  Except my "rolls" don't last very long.  I have gone every day except Saturday for the past week. Yesterday I wore my Team In Training shirt and a few people called out "Go Team" while I was running around the mall (as in the mall in front of Congress, not a shopping mall).

That is always a great feeling and really motivates me if I'm feeling tired.  Yesterday I had an accidental tempo run because for the three miles I was running on the mall these three guys were behind me and I could tell they wanted to pass me but they weren't quite fast enough.  It made me run a little faster to keep them behind me.  Sometimes that aggravates me but yesterday I was feeling strong so it was a good challenge.  Mondays are my best running days because after a weekend of pushing Evan in the stroller (about 50 lbs), a run by myself seems so much easier.  That effect dies off by the next run, but for one day I feel like I'm going fast!  Today is a day off and my hamstrings are thanking me.  I am still doing all my glute stretches and exercises and I think it is really helping.  The pain in't nearly as bad as before.

Ok, I better take a nap because I have a tone of work to do today and I want to be well rested.  I got 5 hours and 25 minutes of sleep last night, so that's not too horrible...but still, a nap will be nice.

Have a great day!

Slides and Tears

I am working from home all week so it's been difficult to find time to blog.  I don't have a 1.5 hour bus ride in the morning, so my routine has been thrown off schedule.  For two weeks in April every year Evan's daycare is closed and I have to find someone else to watch Evan or take vacation.  Last year it worked out well because I had a work trip to Birmingham and my aunt meet me there and watched Evan for a week and I was able to shuffle him around between friends for the other days.  This year, not so much.  I've taken a lot more work trips and both my aunt and my sister have already done (or are signed up for) two trips, so I didn't want them to ask for another favor.  So, I found another daycare to bring him to for a week and then I'm taking a week of vacation.

The daycare was recommended by a friend of mine and we went over to visit and the woman seemed nice.  Evan has other thoughts though.  The first day he was ok and I snuck off when he was outside playing.  Yesterday he was a bit more clingy but I snuck off while he was chasing after a ball.  Today?  He refused to be fooled and grabbed a hold of my hair and hung on for dear life.  The woman took him so I could leave and Evan screamed bloody murder.  It was very painful.  I thought that each day would get better but it seems that each day is worse.  Now that he knows I'm going to drop him off and leave he gets all panicky when we get there.  I really hate it.  It took all my self control to not burst into tears and drag my little baby toddler back home with me.  I think we avoid this situation normally because my husband usually drops him off and he tends to be less clingy with his dad.  Plus, I think he was familiar with my sister when we started dropping him off there so he's never cried at all (and maybe she smells like me or something so it's not quite as scary).  Boo.  It makes me sad.  And I miss him 10x more when he's at this new place than when he's at my sister's.  Just one more day and then our vacation starts and I can make it up to him by spending every second with him for the next week.

We did have a good weekend though.  It was SO beautiful out that I wanted to spend every second outside.  And so did Evan.  He has even learned a new word: slide.  That is a clear indication of how much time we spent at the park.

He had a new love of slides and can go down all by himself (if it's not too steep).  Sometimes he'll just perch on the top and enjoy the view though!

This was the perfect slide for him because he could get to the top and slide down all by himself.  Then he found the other park for the older kids and decided he liked the steep slide too.

This slide was much steeper and he had problems getting on it.  I usually caught him half way down and would have to reposition him - he would be head first, on his back, on his belly, etc.  Luckily the park wasn't really crowded so he had time to explore without fear of being knocked over.

He has also now developed a "smile" face, which is weird because I don't usually make him smile when I take photos and I don't feel like I take a TON of photos of him.  But somehow he learned and now sticks his head out and makes a goofy face.  Here are some others.

He likes to get as close to the camera as possible (and yes, I realize he needs a haircut).

Here he was eating his Sunday breakfast of pancakes dipped in maple syrup (although he didn't eat the pancakes, just sucked the syrup off of them), eggs, and sausage.  He is a sausage fiend and gobbles it up first.

Alright, I have to banana split and get this posted so I can get some work done.  I am a bit exhausted because I was up until after midnight getting work done and then had to get up early this morning to get Evan to daycare.  Since we only have one car I've been running (literally) Evan to daycare in the morning.   It's a nice and easy way to get a 4 mile run in, but today it was only 31 degrees out!  I had to dig my winter running clothes out again.

I hope you have a good Wednesday!!

Even walking is difficult!

Sorry I haven't been posting so regularly.  My mom was in town for a week and I was enjoying her company - so blogging was back-seated.  Her visit was amazing and I was so thankful she came.  We had lots of time to hang out, chat, catch up, and she got lots of Evan time.  It was perfect.  I was so sad when she left.  It was back to TV and long days alone.  I am trying to get into some kind of routine though - to make the days more structured and less lazy (i.e. me sitting in front of the TV not moving for hours).  Even with a semi-routine it has been tough to find time to blog.  I am really trying to get things together so hopefully I'll be blogging more regularly, but no promises.  We'll see what happens.  This baby stuff sure is time-consuming!

Although I haven't been cleared for actual exercise yet (have to wait until my six week appointment), I have been cleared to walk. {Note - I wrote this a bit ago and today was my 6 week appointment - so I'm cleared to run - yay!!}  And I am trying to walk as much as possible.  I love taking walks and the weather is so nice these days that it's a crime to not get out.  Plus, since we can't open the windows in our house for fear of a stink-bug invasion, it's nice to get some fresh air.

Evan is not always a fan of walking though.  Sometimes I put him in the car seat (we have a BOB stroller with the car seat adaptor) and he falls right asleep.  Other days (like today), I put him in and he starts crying.  And doesn't stop.

This is him on a good day:

 

 

 I didn't take photos of him on a bad day.  Like today.

On Wednesdays I try to walk to my sister's house and visit with her for a few hours.  She lives about a mile and a half away and it's perfectly easy to walk to her place.  Today I left thinking I'd take a detour and make the walk a bit longer.  It was so beautiful out and I wanted to spend as much time outside as possible.  I turned the corner out of our development and crossed the street.

Evan started crying.

I thought maybe I could lull him to sleep so I stuck the pacifier in his mouth and we continued on our way - making the turn down the detour street.  Evan continued to cry.  And cry.  And cry.  I tried to bump him to sleep by putting one wheel in the grass.  This worked for a total of ten seconds.

A few feet away was a cut-through to the faster way to my sister's house.  I thought about it for about a minute and decided that we were going to have to abort the mission.  A long walk was not going to happen.  A short walk was becoming impossible too.  I needed to get to my sister's as quick as possible (and hopefully pass as few people as possible since people give me looks when I am walking with a screaming infant).

Since I hate to hear him cry, I took him out of the car seat and carried him until he fell asleep.  Yup, I had him in my left arm and I pushed the stroller with my right.  I did this for at least half a mile.  I tried putting him back in after he fell asleep but he wasn't in a deep enough sleep so he woke up and started crying again.  So I took him out and walked with him some more.  About ten mintues later he was completely out and I could put him back in the stroller.

My arm was about to fall off.

But we made it to my sister's house.  What a relief!

So, even walking can be difficult.  I really though babies loved the lulling of cars and strollers but Evan seems to defy the odds.  He is not a fan of either - although he cries less on walks than he does on car rides.  I'm hoping that the more he goes in his car seat the more comfortable he'll get.  I bought this overly expensive BOB running stroller with dreams of going on long runs with him.  Just my luck that he hates the car seat and will probably hate the stroller too.  I guess we'll see!

And maybe I'll get that long walk in tomorrow...

But he's so darn cute I can't be mad!