Bert & Ernie

So, I don’t want to be one of those moms that claim her kid is a genius and more advanced than every other kid their age. However, I do have to post this drawing that Hattie did of Bert & Ernie - - I am pretty amazed at how good it is for a kid less than 2 and a half years old! I love how all her people wear hats. Brian and I have drawn her thousands of “Oswalds” upon request, and he wears a hat, so now everyone does.
I am also including a recent pic (unfortunately not of her in her cute Easter dress, since both sets of camera batteries were dead that day, damn it) and another one of her ability to pull off accessories, even in jammies.:-)

Easter Fun

Happy belated Easter! We had a great weekend – busy, but fun. Brian played on Friday to a packed house at Kennedy’s while I enjoyed an empty/sleeping house with a big bowl of popcorn. Saturday we ran loads of errands and then I spent the evening (and early morning!) with my closest girlfriends as an early birthday treat for me and Ferk. It was such a blast, and as most all my friends mentioned – a much needed night away! For Easter we went to my M&D’s for brunch (mmmmmm!) and then hit Brian’s family for dinner. It was a long day (especially after the margaritas from Saturday), but definitely a good one. Hattie crashed in about 2 seconds after putting her to bed, and I did about the same. (On a side note - Hattie told me "Happy Easter Bunny, Mama" when I laid her down last night. So sweet.) I had to put the thought of my impending race out of my head so that I could sleep. Six days and counting. My running has been iffy lately - - I took the last 2 weeks off and the week before that I cut way back on miles due to some shin problems. I ran a couple of 3 milers over the weekend and I think I am all healed up, but I am really worried that I am sorely under-trained for this race on Sunday. I just really, really, really hope I can finish alright. I am certainly a bit nervous about it, but am really excited for it at the same time. Please keep your fingers crossed that I do it! This is what’s getting me through: “Finishing is better than not finishing, and not finishing is loads better than not trying.” So true….Lawrence, here I come!

Dog-paddling is legal, right?

I had my first swimming lesson last night. I give it mixed reviews. There are four of us in the class – one fabulous triathlon swimmer, one young man joining the Navy, one teenager who will teach swim classes at a girls’ camp this summer, and me. All of us got one lane in the lap pool. ONE lane. That surprised me, but whatever. We all did nothing but freestyle last night, which is good since that is what I need the most help on. My breathing SUCKS. Or should I say doesn’t suck enough? And I seemed to get worse as the night progressed. But, I hope to get it worked out. There’s nothing that says I can’t side stroke the whole race. The triathlete dude swam about double what the rest of us did (My 20 year-old instructor kept saying…why is he here? I can’t show him anything!). She suggested getting in the pool to practice at least one more day a week, so if any of you have an Olympic-size lap pool in your basement let me know. My bike is in the shop getting a tune-up, so hopefully I will be ready for this race by June 6th! If my swimming doesn’t improve maybe that triathlon dude can tow me through Shawnee Mission Lake…

By the way – 19 more days until the half-marathon! Eek!

Do you know how to slide?

It’s been a beautiful week here. We’ve been to the park everyday. I believe Hattie and I are magnets for weird kids. I don’t know what it is, but always the ‘different’ kid finds us and makes friends. Many we’ve met at the library, and a couple at the park. On Tuesday we met Harry. Here’s an excerpt of how that convo went…
“Do you know my name?”
“Mmmm, no I sure don’t.”
“It’s Harry”
“Hi Harry. I’m Amy and this is Hattie”
“Do you know how to do the slide?”
“Well, I’d like to think I…”
“You just put your feet like this and slide down, see? It’s easy. Watch me. Watch me again.”
“Yep Harry, you sure can slide.”
“Look, I can climb up here. Do you know how to climb?”
“Yes Harry, I’ve done some climbing in my day.”
“Look, you put your feet like this, and be brave and push up here. See? I can do it again, watch. Watch. Are you watching?”
“Yep.”
“Do you know how to do this ladder-thing? You just push like this and (blah blah blah)..”
Obviously, I wasn’t watching close enough (I was trying to play with my own kid here), so I hear a, “Hey, hey, HEY! HEY! Are you watching!?!?”
Um, obviously your dad isn’t. Maybe you should tear him from his romance novel (yes, I typed that right) and get him over here to play.
And no, I didn’t actually say that out loud.
Kids are funny.

Hattie’s been in her ‘big girl bed’ for several days now. She’s very enthusiastic about it. Each night she points us to her room (“this room”), gets in bed and tells us, “don’t get up”. We agree, yes, that’s right, don’t get up. Stay in your bed or we’ll have to get the baby gate. Every night she nods and tells she will stay in bed. And each night it takes all of thirty seconds before she’s downstairs with a super-huge grin on her face. We usually repeat this scenario 2-3 times before we put the baby gate at her door. She’ll get the hang of it eventually. I do LOVE the bedding I picked out for her. LOVE it. We repainted the room, took an armoire out and I am making some curtains and a headboard. The room is a pale turquoise/aqua color with red accents. Not too girly-girly and not too baby-ish. I love it. Did I mention that? Will post some pictures when I get the projects done.
Some new things in HP world….
• She says “That’s much better” whenever you help her with something.
• We’ve just about got the ABC song down. There may be a mumble here or there, but she’s really close. She is also learning what sounds all the letters make. We have maybe 10 down thus far.
• Saying, “So cute!” (sounds like: So toot!) about any baby, baby doll or little item.
• She usually runs to us and gives hugs whenever Brian and I get home (always my highlight).
• We’ve been playing lots of soccer – Hattie has a good kick and dribbles really well!
• She has a wind-up boat in the bathtub that usually gets redirected with a “this way, please”. She sounds like a little tour guide, saying it over and over again. So toot.

Here comes me!

I’ve been told by my reader (a.k.a. Mom) that I need to pick up the pace on my entries. It has been awhile. As I’ve said before, I guess I don’t have as thrilling a life as I initially thought when beginning this blogging experiment.
Things are going well. I spent a month in physical therapy trying to get my knee back in shape. I had to stop running during the therapy, which was long, since I had pretty much slowed to a stop around Christmas anyway. But, I graduated (hooray!) and am back at it, though much slower than before. It’s amazing how quickly you lose your endurance & speed! I have committed to run the Lawrence Half Marathon in April. It should be quite a tough race for me, since my training will only encompass about 10 weeks and the race route is h-i-l-l-y. I have to run from downtown up to the campanile, out to Alvamar, and then back up campus to finish. There are 3 separate steep uphill stretches that are a mile and a half to two miles long. Eek! Needless to say, my time probably won’t be great, but I am looking forward to it nonetheless. I am anxious to get a half under my belt, and then I am going to focus on completing a triathlon in June. Wish me luck!
Hattie is doing great as well. Our quirky girl is still cracking us up all the time. She is growing up so fast. Brian and I are asked several hundred times a day, “What’s this?” or “What’s these?”. I’d say 99% of the time she knows exactly what ‘this’ is, but must really enjoy the question. The other day she was looking out the window and asked me what something was. I couldn’t tell what she was looking at, so I asked as much. She pointed at the tree and said, “What’s this tree?” Hm. How to answer that one? I told Mom it’s a lot like an ongoing Abbott and Costello act at home. Brian says it’s like the beginning of Nightmare Before Christmas (it’s a song Jack sings, for those of you who haven’t seen it). We’re still very much into Max & Ruby (also known as Max, Booby), wearing accessories (she can sport 10 necklaces, 10 bracelets, a cape, hat and purse all day long) and playing with her ‘friends’. She has several stuffed animals and babies who get fed, pushed in the stroller, kissed, and snuggled with all the time. She also likes climbing on Mom and Dad. When she comes near, she says…”Here comes me!” I know there are a million other funny quotes, but can’t pull any from the muck of my brain today. Hopefully this will suffice, Mom!

Caffeinated & Still Drowsy

This has been a really weird week for me. Monday I started a ‘diet’ with Brian (more on that later). I was not allowed to have any dairy, yeast, sugar or caffeine. By far the hardest thing was skipping my morning coffee. I substituted decaf with rice milk and Stevia for the leaded, half & half with sugar I usually have. Not tasty, but I thought it would be doable for the 10 days the diet lasts. I was wrong. By Tuesday at noon, I was miserable with a headache and felt like I was going to fall asleep at any second. I broke down and gulped a Diet Coke in about 2 seconds flat. Aaah. It did help some, but today I am thinking that it may be a flu I am getting that was causing the drowsy feeling and headaches. So, I didn’t even make it 2 days! So much for moral support. “You can do it, Brian! Now give me my coffee with sugar. STAT. Oh, and a chocolate bar”
The diet is under Brian’s new voodoo doctor’s instructions. He is seeing him several times for a month and then (God willing) his terrible allergies and anxiety attacks will be no more. I went to the first visit with him and Dr. Salas determined he was allergic to wheat and several ‘airbornes’ (pollen, grass, dust, cat dander). He also has a Candida (yeast) issue – thus the no yeast diet for 10 days while he gets treated. It’s all really holistic and different, but our hopes are high he can help Brian out. His success rate is very good. Will keep you posted.
Other new items…
Next Saturday I am doing a Polar Bear Plunge for the Special Olympics. It is supposed to be in the teens at night next week--should make for a VERY brisk dip in the lake. Eeek! The day should be fun though - there are a few of us jumping together. I'll be sure to post pics...

I finally got off my duff and saw a doctor about my knee. My self-diagnosis was right – it’s my IT band. I have physical therapy appointments for the next few weeks and after that I hope to have this behind me and try for another half marathon this year. In the meantime, I am looking at doing my first triathlon (or two) this summer. My swimming technique needs some tweaking, so I am enrolling in a swim class in February. The biking portion is what makes me a little nervous. Since adulthood, I’ve never felt very confident on a bike. Almost getting hit by a KU bus in front of my dorm freshman year didn’t help. Quite embarrassing and painful! So, I’ll be out there on my big ol’ heavy mountain bike trying to keep up with the real racers. Should be pretty interesting!

HP is doing great – talking up a storm. Some of my new favorite quotes are:
When asked if she wants to do something her answer is “Oh! taaay”
When I go in to get her up from naps she usually calls me “Mama, blue eyes”
If anyone drops anything, she says “Oops, sorry” even if she was not the one to drop it or no one else is around
Her new favorite show is "Max & Ruby" - called "Max & Booby"(which always generates a giggle from me)
She likes to peek from behind things and say, "See you!"
And my fave: “Dada, Mama, Ha-pearl…..Team Brooks!” (The ‘Team Brooks’ portion is typically accompanied by a fist in the air)

Camera download

So, no really good ones of the new haircut yet(the apron pic is the only one sort of showing it), but here are a few I just downloaded off my camera...