Christmas 2012

While I love Christmas and all the spirit that comes with it, I am taking the easy way out this year. Judge me if you want (I mean, let's be honest, how can you not?), but while everyone else is picking out and cutting down Christmas trees, hanging their stockings by the chimney with care- we will have no tree, our ornaments are hung from fake garland, and our stockings are hung from the curtain rod.

You can blame this on a certain one year old and a mom who has absolutely no desire to tell that one year old "no" 18 million times a day. So this year, I am taking the easy way out. And I have no problems sleeping at night.

Where you'll find us

In case you need Lily, she will either be in her high chair eating,



 in the bathroom on the stool,



or her chair in the corner (which is only in the corner for stability's sake).



Tripp will be either helping me in the kitchen



or cheering me on at a race (and trying to figure out why I never come in first place).



And Nelson- well, he's the glue that keeps this whole operation called life together. It was such a joy to celebrate his birthday today!

Happy Birthday Lily!

If I say it once, I have said it a thousands times- time goes by way too fast. I can not believe my baby is one! She has clearly grown up too fast! I vividly remember the day she was born- conversations I had with my doctor, getting to hold her right away, feeding her for the first time, Tripp meeting his little sister, friends visiting in the hospital, my in-laws getting to be there. The list could go on and on. This has been a hard year, no doubt, but I am not sure I could love this little girl more. Sometimes my heart feels like it might burst!! I love her smell, her blonde hair, her big belly, the way she says "dooooooo!!!" really emphatically when she is pointing at something she wants, her random order of teeth that are in, her wide open mouth when she wants a kiss, her already deep love for her brother and, yes, even her hairbows.We had a great day- starting with breakfast with Nonny, a visit to the doc, presents in the afternoon, cake after dinner and a bedtime bath complete with some cleaning from brother.

 

Happy birthday Lily! We love you so much and are looking forward to many years to come!!

Her 1 year stats:

Length: 31 inches (96 percentile)

Weight: 23 lbs 14 ounces (92 percentile)

Head Circ: 18 3/8 inches (89 percentile)

Not sure what I was thinking...

After finishing my first half-marathon, I was sore, tired and looking forward to resting for a while. But the next day (while I was playing the "let's all just lay on the ground" game with the kids), my friend sent me a text wondering if I wanted to run the Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon with her. During a moment of weakness, even in my pained state, I told her yes- even though it was less than a month away. I still took two weeks off, had quite a time trying to figure out what new running shoes I needed (and time was of the essence since I needed to run in them enough before I raced again), got sick for a while and then managed to run with her this weekend and have a really good time. Running with another person makes all the difference in the world. It is so much more fun, the time passes a lot faster, it is a lot more motivating, and just all around a better experience. I am so glad it worked out and so glad that my parents/awesome babysitter were willing to watch the kids so we could make the 5 hour drive to Indianapolis by ourselves and just enjoy some time away (even if it meant running 13.1 miles to get that). We would love to make this an annual tradition- it gives us something to look forward to and what better way to catch up than run a really long way together!?! So Janet, let's pick our race for 2013 and get signed up!!

P.S. Now I plan on taking that break I was going to before :)