Gravity continues to work

Bucket is in a new phase of development in which he is learning about spatial relationships.
This Lonely Island video sums up nicely where he is:

Warning- possibly not safe for work & possibly grandparents.

And as a totally random aside, there is nothing better than that first run in a new pair of running shoes. First new pair since November 2012. Ahhhhh.

Sand

None too sure about this beach thing.

Bullshit, "babies sleep on planes"

Bucket and I flew out to visit my dad and stepmom in my hometown. This was out first flight and boy was it a doozy.

L and Bucket, pre-flight breakfast

We checked a large duffle and his car seat. I carried my large timbuk2 laptop bag as a carry-on/diaper bag and Bucket went into the baby Ergo baby carrier. Going through security was a breeze and we got to the gate with plenty of time to spare.

In the airport, Bucket was thrilled at all the new people and sounds. Recently, he's begun shouting happily at things he likes: the cat, his little friends at baby group, the birdies outside, green beans on his high chair... you get the idea. He spent most of the pre-flight time flirting with everyone he saw, and shouting with joy.

Getting on the plane was a pain in the ass. Southwest boards the babies/families after the first 60 people in the A group. It took a while to get settled, after which Bucket helped himself to a pre-flight snack:

mmmm, luggage tags....

Excited? Happy? or totally cracked out?

The plan was to nurse on the way up, let him fall asleep in the world's biggest white noise machine, and then nurse on decent. 1) nursing in an airplane seat sucks monkey balls. Jostling the wiggling baby, the nursing bra, the nursing cover, in one of those small seats? Hell. 2) Kai doesn't fall asleep nursing. This is great because it's a good sleep habit. This sucks b/c it means I can't just nurse him to sleep. 3) Sleep didn't happen... but shouting did. Shouting at the person next to us, across the aisle, at the arm rest, at the fold-down seat tray, at me... I finally just took him to the galley and bounced him for about 35 min. 4) By we were in decent, he was full, I was empty, and nursing wasn't happening. So I popped in the pacifier and prayed it would keep his ears free (it did).

Side note to parents traveling with infants using pacifiers: get one of those mini pacifier leashes. We only use the paci for sleep so I never thought it would be useful... until i had to wash the damn thing every 5 min.

By the time we landed, he was wired. Shouting, giggling, so happy to still be awake (going on 4 hours at that point). I found my dad at baggage and texted L that I thought Bucket was going to explode with excitement. As soon as I sent it, I felt a gentle thud on my chest:

couldn't handle the party

He's made the adjustment to my dad's pretty well. He had 2 naps in the crib and went down like a dream at bedtime. Granted, he woke at 11, 12-1 (because there was a dance party in our room and didn't I want to join in the fun!?!?!), 3:30, 5:45, and 7:45. Except the 12-1 shift, most of the wake ups were just trouble though a sleep cycle and I popped back in the paci and he went back to sleep. I can just hear the non-parents reading this and thinking "omg, she's nuts I'm never in a million years having kids." The parents are thinking: "hey, that's not so bad for travel sleep, nice work!" Even better, he's back on his regular nap schedule today and going down well.

So far so good and I'm glad his sleep is back on track so maybe we can leave the house tomorrow.

Fun with CeeCee

A new adventure

Off to visit my home town!

Just some random thoughts on running

Running is hard.
Running in high temperatures is harder. It's now an average of 85 (29.45C) when I get out the door.
Running with a baby is even harder.

I'd love to say "I'll just get up and stay up after his early morning feed. People run at 5/6am all the time and the temps are cooler." But it's one thing to run early when you reliably go to bed early and reliably get solid sleep until that wake up call. It's another thing when you've been up a few times a night and can barely find your ass with both hands, much less your running shoes.

So we leave when it's hot(ish), timed with Kai's first nap of the day. It works out ok, but it's hot, I'm slow, and I've often just finished breakfast.

My goal this month is to join the YMCA and take advantage of their free child care with membership.

Cinco de Mayo 10K

The Cinco de Mayo 10K is a Tucson road race that I've run every year I've lived in the Old Pueblo. It's 10K over rolling hills and ends with Mariachi Bands, coffee, and breakfast burritos. It's also one of the last races of the season before it gets really hot and races start at 5am.

Here I am last year, 12 weeks pregnant with Bucket:

Getting back into running post-pregnancy has been hard. It's hot, I'm slow (11:30 miles on a good day...), and it's hard to get out 3X a week. I have to time running with his naps, time with his eating, the desert sun, and based on whether he's given me a solid night's sleep, or if he's pulled an up-every-45min, like he did earlier this week. That being said, I do get out the door 3X a week and even if that's barely enough to hold even, it's something.

I had been putting off registering for this b/c I hadn't run more than 4 miles. Slow miles. Where I take walk breaks every mile or so. On totally flat surfaces. But after some loving goading from my dear partner, and finding out jogging strollers were ok, I signed us up the Wed before the race.

In order to get to the starting line by 6:30, I had to get up at 5. This allowed me to feed myself, feed Kai, get dressed, get in the car and go. Fortunately Bucket ate and then went right back to sleep in the car seat. We changed his diaper, hung out by the car and popped him in the BOB.

can't you tell he's thrilled?
Side note: how do you do PJs in the desert? Just cut the arms off. Feet still protected from sun when we run, but arms don't over heat. Plus, he can show of his forearm rolls.

L offered to push the stroller and I was more than happy to weight him down a bit.


If you look closely under the stroller seat, you can see we pack the diaper bag and the ergo. That way, if Bucket gets too fussy during the run we can pop him in the ergo ( a baby carrier) and one of us can push the empty stroller. Non-parents, stop laughing. I can't even tell you how many times I've been able to avert 2 miles of screaming baby by putting him in the ergo and pushing the empty stroller.

Ready to roll! Can't you tell he's thrilled?

The race itself went well. I ran more comfortably than expected and only needed to walk twice near the end. I finished a 10K in my previous finishing time for a 12 and 15K, but oh well. Life is no longer just about me, and as long as I'm putting one foot in front of the other, I'm happy. Even better, Bucket had a great time. He'd doze off for a while, then wake up and babble at us, then go back to sleep.

Post-race was awesome. And b/c I'm slower than I used to be, no post-race runner's stomach, meaning I could actually eat my egg and zucchini breakfast burrito!

Even Bucket had a good time.




Races mean getting up early, but I'm up at 5 these days to feed the beast anyway. We all had a lot of fun and have decided to make family races something we continue to do as a family. We'll push Bucket until he can run on his own. Then we'll run together.