We're Baaaack!!!

We had an awesome vacation. The first one that we have taken as a family of four. It was exactly relaxing but I don't think any vacation with kids is relaxing - unless you hired a full-time nanny. Everyone had a great time, didn't get a sunburn, and I am hoping they sleep in tomorrow morning because they were up really early every morning!

We went to the beach, went to a lighthouse, walked down a bunch of stairs to get to the beach from the bluffs, ate a lot, built sand castles, watched boats, drank a lot, saw a camel, tortoise, emus, ducks, turtles, deer, and a lot of other wildlife - M loved it!

My favorite quote of the week - while M and I were walking out on a pier made of large rocks he kept saying to me, 'Be careful with me Mom', he didn't want to fall in between the rocks, I thought it was so cute!

T was starting to let go of things to stand on her own and she now has several 'gears' when crawling. She still hates the grass but she tolerated the sand.

Here are way too many pictures.

So sweet but it makes me tear up....

We finally have both of our kids consolidated into one school. Anyone who talks to me on even a somewhat regular basis knows the long story of how it came to be that my kids were in two different centers. They are now together which makes our daily lives much better. I am sure I will be complaining about something else in a month.

While M was at his old school he had a BFF A. These two were almost like twins:

-Curly hair - check
-Little behind with words - check
-Cute as hell - check
-Crazy little guys - check

A is basically a darker version of M. There have been pictures of both of them on the blog from time to time. A moved onto preschool because he was a few months older and then we discovered that M would move to T's school so when he was ready to move to preschool he moved. Shockingly the transition hasn't been bad at all - at least relative to what we were expecting. M has basically always cried when we drop him off even though that is what he has been doing since he was an infant. So the new school, new friends, new teachers, etc. we thought would be horrible for everyone. I am very happy to report that he is doing really well and I couldn't be more proud of my little guy - I hate going to new places where I don't know anyone.

I got an email with A's Mom this week, please take a look at what he said:

'Yesterday I was talking to A about preschool and his friends, and he said he missed M. Then he said "maybe M doesn't want to be my friend anymore." (No lie - I actually wrote it down, because it was the cutest/saddest thing I'd heard come out of his mouth!)'

I was instantly in tears at work when I read this. A playdate was instantly set up. I can't wait to tell M the news that morning when we go to see A. And I can't wait to see the two of them together again. A's Mom has said several times that she thinks they share a brain. :)

I survived!

The race was awesome! It was cloudy but the sun came out as we were putting on our wetsuits, stayed relatively sunny during the race, and then it started raining when we were driving back. I was in some pain so I need to do some more training and my times in the transition area where horrible. I finished in 1 hour 23 minutes and I place 325 out of 500 people. Not great but when I think about the fact that if I could have come in 5 minutes earlier I would have been 250 I am feeling pretty good. Some people were being pulled out by kayaks so at least I was doing better than them.

It was a little humbling to have 60 year olds passing me but I honestly expected that. I really don't have any pictures - A stayed home with the kids so it was just me and Lindsey. I have a few at 5 AM in the parking lot where we left to drive down but we aren't looking all that great.

Now I just need to start training for my next one in August. It is slightly longer so I won't be able to compare my times directly but I am leaving my times here for future reference.

Place No. 325
Name
Hometown
Final 1:23:30
Div/Tot 38/81
Div NEWB-F
Rank 119
Swim 10.33
Tran1 4.26
Rank 364
Bike 39.00
Tran2 0.47
Rank 318
Run 28.46
Penalty N/A

Tomorrow I might be able to call myself a .....

Triathlete. I don't know if you can officially call yourself that after only one race but I think I am going to go ahead and do it.

After having my second child I went back to the gym to lose the weight and get back in shape. I accomplished that goal but after I lost the weight I felt like my workouts really weren't doing much and I didn't have a true goal in mind. How I decided on a triathlon - I honestly have no idea. I swam for about 15 years, I used to run but honestly I don't enjoy it that much, and the last time I road a bike I ran into a telephone pole. I had a pool at the gym, I could start running but I didn't own a bike so I decided to start with spinning classes. So I got a little better at each piece but it was still just an idea - I needed to actually sign up for one and I needed a partner. I tried to get my brother-in-law to do it but he wouldn't commit. I was having dinner with a guy I work with and his wife and she mentioned that she runs half marathons. We had a really nice time - especially considering that we had never met and I ask her husband if he would ask her about the triathlon. She agreed and we are now less than a day away from our first one.

I have had such a great time - it has been some time away from the kids so that is a nice mental break - you need to have some time to yourself and away from the kids. Lindsey has been great - I have made a new friend which I find hard to do. And I am in better shape. We have done the whole thing twice so I feel pretty comfortable that we will be able to finish it. Our goal is to finish and have fun.

In my book I have come a long way. Still a little nervous - the swim is in the ocean which isn't exactly warm right now and I am still a little nervous on a bike so the large number of people will be a little scary but if I just stay behind someone the whole time and never pass anyone that works for me.

Now I am just hoping for a good night's sleep and no rain tomorrow morning. Can't wait!

The Strength of Hormones!

Today the hormones are going crazy - I am baby hungry. Why you ask when you hear about all of my complaints and tired I am. Today the Husband gets his vasectomy. We have discussed it, agreed upon it, and obviously we have acted on it but now that the day is here I am in a little bit of a panic. It makes no rational sense so I am blaming it on hormones and countless generations before me that tells my genes to want more kids. So when I think about it rationally what do I like about it?

-Pregnancy - no not at all. The first one seemed like forever. The second was fast but I was sick the whole time.
-Delivery - Honestly the first was a little traumatic but the second was so easy. So not my favorite thing to do but I think I could handle another one of those. But at the same time something could go wrong.
-Breast feeding - NO! I am less than 2 months away from finally retiring my body as a vessel for other's use and let me tell you - I can't wait!
-Waking up every 3 hours to feed someone for months - don't want to do it!

There are a million other things that I don't want to do but honestly I want another baby. I love the babies! Before I had kids I wasn't sure if I wanted them at all and honestly I had them because the thought of not having them and suddenly wanting them and being too old was scarier than having them. So here I am with two kids and desperately I want another one but I know that isn't a rational thought at all. It is just hard to think about the fact that never again in my life I will have suck complete access to a baby. How many other people are you allowed that much closeness to without it being weird? You can hold them pretty much all of the time, kiss them as much as you want, I love to rub their soft little skin, and I love to hold them and watch them sleep. Maybe there will be grandchildren at some point but still there isn't that same bond. There are times when it is so hard that you are the only one that can help make your baby stop crying but there are other times when it is so nice. Sitting the dark with a baby sometimes is the best thing in the world.

I think the other problem I am having is that a chapter of my life is closing. So far this has been the hardest one. There are days when I wish I was back in college because I can sleep in but honestly I am really happy with my life. College had a lot of drawbacks. I can't think of the last time I wanted to be single again so getting married so closing the chapter on my single life and opening one for my married life wasn't hard at all.

So I lift my wine glass to a long week of bags of peas and kids screaming that they want to see Dada who is locked in the room with a beer, video games, and pain pills. I just hope I am not in there with him by the end of the week.