21 Months

Dear Nadia,

You are now but a mere 3 months from your second birthday. I thought it would be a good time to jot a quick note since I haven't been very good at chronicling your second year. It's not like nothing has changed.

Soooo, the first thing I'd like to mention is your ever-increasingly particular routines. The morning, for example. Baby and Moo get out of bed and must watch and comment as you put on your clothes. The dynamic duo must then sit on the windowsill as you wash your hands in the bathroom. After running down the hall to breakfast, they must be propped up on the table as you climb into your chair yourself, buckle yourself in, put your bib on, and proceed to eat your oatmeal with both your water and your milk cup, even though you rarely drink the milk. We are planning to put our little Christmas tree on the very table on which your friends sit and watch you eat and I'm pretty sure that's going to go over like a, well, a lead balloon. If you see them, you want me to put on your indoor shoes so you can then kick them off throughout the course of the meal. And there you have it. Breakfast with Nadia. Should any of these steps be skipped, well, watch. out. world.

You seem very concerned with injuries and constantly bring up the fact that you used to have owies on your knees (like, 6 months ago) but now they're 'all done.' If I cut my finger, you make sure for days afterward that it too is 'all done.' You are also concerned with where things came from, always asking if your pjs came from "Rama?" or if your milk cup was bought by "mama and dada?" You know, all of the important details.

I don't know if I have mentioned it before, but you are an elephant. Not an elephant like the one that lives upstairs that you make sure to imitate when she's clomping around and we can hear her through the ceiling, but the kind that has an endless memory. You. Remember. Everything. Like, even things I consider too long ago for someone so young to recall. But you recall. And every time I am shocked.

I know they say kids are only capable of 'parallel play' before the age of 3, but sometimes it really does seem like you're playing 'with' older kids. Whether it be putting on a princess dress (our friend's 3 year old is pretty into this and even though I didn't really want you to be, you had a blast with it on Thanksgiving), or running up and down the hall with K's 6 year old, you love being around other kids. Even if it means sitting in a rocking chair reading a book while they play around you. Even when they play on "mine!" apparati at "mine!" park. You are actually better at sharing your actual toys at home, than sharing 'your' swing at the neighborhood park that was recently closed because of the 'November Nor'easter.' Hopefully it will reopen soon because you finally found the courage (probably from seeing others do it) and overcame your cautiousness a couple of months ago to go down slides by yourself and could do it all day.

Days with you are so so fun and I marvel at how much you're growing up. I love sitting next to you on the couch reading books read: me sitting reading Madame Bovary and you reading one of your books. Seriously, most often you would rather sit in silence looking at your books with the occasional "dat?" point and me naming the picture while I read 'mama book' than to actually have me read a book to you. So you can see how it's hard for me to get anything done. Not, as in the past, because you won't let me (I can now cook, practice, do laundry, and clean with little to no protest), but because who wouldn't want to sit and read a novel beside her awesome daughter? I mean, really.

As for talents, you can count to two and identify 18 out of 26 letters by words they start. You also recently got "air" for the first time on a jump. Once you've had a little more practice I think we may look into the next level of swimming lessons. Whenever you see something swimming related you ask, "mo' day?" Ie. more another day? Yes, baby girl, we will swim another day. I promise.

Love,
Mama

Winners

My fellow Sigonellan friends and I all got trophies at last week's 5k. I look just as hot post-race as I do during, don't you think? (Now THAT's sarcasm.)

10k PR

48:47 Garmin time on a long (6.29 miles), incorrectly marked, (like, I had hit 5 miles LOOOONG before the marker) and kind of annoying course. Details to follow after Thanksgiving. Oh, and J and I are never racing together again. (His time was probably about 30 seconds better than mine but no, that's not why I've put the brakes on future coupled races.)

5k PR

I had a great time running the military 5k turkey trot this morning with J, my friend K from Sicily and her super fast husband. J narrowly beat me (by less than 10 seconds), and I came in 4th female overall and 3rd place female ages 30-37 in a time of 22:30, by far my personal best. I started out way too fast, like 6:30 minute miles, but felt like I was going to hurl, so slowed down for a final average of just below 7:30 minute miles. Still, very fast for me. I wanted to sprint at the end to beat J but just didn't feel like seeing this morning's yogurt on the road. Maybe one day I'll be sub-20. My leg felt great, but maybe it's because I took advil at breakfast this morning, knowing I would have a good 3 hours to get over the harshness of ibuprofen on the stomach. My leg is stiffening as we speak.

I know for sure I won't be able to maintain today's pace for 10k next week, but I hope my legs feel just as good.

Oh, and K got first in her age group (20-29) and her husband got 2nd in his (30-37), like I said, super fast.

In other news, my Jetta needs a new transmission. A job that will cost more than the car is worth. Guess that's what we get for violating J's two car-buying rules: 1. Never buy used. 2. Never buy an automatic. So we've decided to run it until it stops since I only drive about 10 miles a week and if things go well in the spring re: J's job, ie. he still has one, we'll be in a more secure financial state to replace it.

Hopefully I'll have some tomato-faced pics to post of me receiving my trophy in days to come!

This is Why We Rent

The beginning of the Nor-easter's effects. This got worse over the course of 3 days to the point where our entire north wall (about 9 windows) were leaking in streams through cracking window frames, as was a light fixture and a couple of outlets. Electricity and water. Oh so safe. Anyway, for the amount we pay in rent, this shouldn't have happened. Clearly when they gutted the old building and remodeled, many, many, corners were cut. But thankfully no flooding. A lot of people weren't so lucky.

Our only casualties beyond the obvious wall issues were a book and a lamp. And we had power the whole time. Yay us.

Culture of Fitness

It's pretty common knowledge that I was worried about N's speech for a while. Though she has been excellent at comprehension and overall communication, actual articulation of words that sound like complete words, seemed to be a bit lacking. Well, I don't worry anymore. Why? Because for most of the summer she was saying "uhhhh," ie. the vowel sound in the way I said "ruuuun!" when she was running, everytime she would see running shoes or someone running. One day, shortly after our return to VA, I got her out of bed, and as we were walking down the hall toward the kitchen, she broke into a run, and shouted, clear as a bell, "running!" So there you have it. She may have a lot of weird designations for things, but I know one day, all of a sudden, she'll just say them correctly. And that will be that.

Here we are in a sequence of soccer moves. Not only does N like to be active, she also likes her "friends" to be active. How many mornings have I gone into her room to find her making her doll, Violette, (I named her that because she's, well, purple.), do sit-ups, or to find poor Violette being made to run laps around the crib. I am so happy that N is imitating lives that include core and cardiovascular fitness instead of say, smoking and fighting. (Though she does hit- just me, thankfully, not other kids - from time to time, not sure where she has seen that since she doesn't watch any TV except for an 1/2 hour of Sesame Street and she certainly has not seen violence in our house.)

What also makes me happy is that N loves to eat green peppers, lentil & butternut squash soup, turkey chili, and cooked carrots, to name but a few healthy food items she will always pick over sweets. In fact, I have given her small tastes of chocolate recently, and she has virtually recoiled in horror.

What else can I update you on the Moop? Well, she loves the alphabet. Not so much being read to, that involves too much sitting still, but she is constantly asking me to write the first letter of names of people she knows and can already identify A is for apple, M is for mama, D for dada, N for Nadia, Y for the Y, G for GG (my dad), B for Batman, R for Rambo (my brothers, as you recall), O for Oh No! and E for Emma, (Her other doll.) And yesterday she counted to two. So things, they are a moving along! (We won't go into the increased defiance and crying of late, I'm trying to stay positive;)

In other news, I'm proud to announce I just completed the 6 week course at the Y and was FINALLY able to break the 120 lb. plateau, something I haven't seen since before I got pregnant with N. I'm now 117.5 lbs, and down 2 percent body fat (lower than pre-preg days!), 2 inches in the waist and 1 inch in the hips. I feel fantastic. My leg is also getting better so I'm able to run more and am doing a couple of races this month. A 5k military race in which I hope to beat my un-raced PR of 24:16 and maybe even place in my age group, depending on who shows up, and a thanksgiving day 10k, in which I hope to break my un-raced PR of 53:29 (though I'm pretty sure I ran the first 10k of the half marathon this summer faster than that) and have no hope of placing in anything. Regardless of chip times though, it should be a fun month since my workout/runner friend K is visiting from Sicily. In the new year I'm hoping to take the second level of the class I just completed and move on to bigger races like a valentine's day 10 miler and a St. Patty's half. We'll see. I'm just glad I have things to motivate me during and after the porky holiday season;)