Shoes and Hope

I saw these on a trainer at the gym yesterday and got so excited! Vibram Five Finger Shoes.

After reading a book last Christmas I absolutely loved, called "Born to Run" I've been curious about these shoes and VERY interested in the science and thought behind them. Believe it or not these are running shoes. The idea (as far as I understand) is that instead of needing more support/cushion in a running shoe you need less, in fact, the less the better. Traditional running shoes weaken your muscles and hide bad form causing more injuries, not less. In the book, the author talked a lot about these superathletes in Mexico that could run hundreds of miles in rubber sandals with no injury, so why couldn't he run a few miles a day without injury? EXACTLY the question that has been plaguing me. Ever since I fractured my foot training for a marathon a few years back I can't even train for a 10K without getting injured. Nothing as serious as before, but enough to stop my training and make me extremely frustrated. After reading "Born to Run" I took my orthodics out and have turned my training upside down. Now I am focusing on weight training to strengthen my muscles before I start running too much, and I won't be buying any new running shoes, unless they are the ones pictured above.

So when I saw the trainer wearing them yesterday I was so excited because I knew she must know something about all that or she wouldn't be wearing them. (I can't imagine anyone wearing them unless they loved running and bought into the idea that stronger feet equals less running injuries--they are pretty ugly I think.) I had a bunch of questions for her and we talked for several minutes. And man, if I could ever pay for a personal trainer it would be her. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to find a way to train for long distances without getting injured. It would resolve a huge frustration for me.

In the meantime I will continue with weight training and wear down my old running shoes and know that there is hope.

Strange Noises and Bad Dreams

What is with the noise in my bedroom right now?!!!! Its driving me nuts and probably contributed a lot to the horrible dream I just had. I've heard it before on other windy nights but I don't know what makes it happen exactly because it's always windy here and it only happens occasionally (thank goodness!!). I can only describe it as a deep metallic rumbling. Maybe it's the wind blowing through a drain pipe by my window??? I don't know but it is so creepy!

I woke up at 2am surprised that Addison hadn't woken my up yet. I felt like the breast pain from Mastitis was flaring up again so I got up to take some more Motrin and as I got back into bed I had to check Addison's skin for warmth to assure me she was still alive. I don't think those thoughts contributed well to my sleep after that because I had such disturbing dreams I even dreamed about having them! Included were, waking up to finding Addison on the floor, re-swaddling her while she was making scary-movie-like demon faces at me, hearing weird noises in the house, being chased by a man with a gun who is trying to kill me, etc. At one point I thought I was awake because I was in my room thinking about what bad dreams I was having and how I was getting freaked out but that was when I picked up Addison off the floor and she turned into a demon. Ugh. Now I can't sleep and am afraid of the dark.

Giggles

When I was little I remember always giggling at the dinner table. For some reason my Dad would always get annoyed and tell us to stop. My mom would more often then not be giggling with us. This is what I remember, either from family stories often brought up or from memory, or perhaps both.

History repeats itself. Tonight at the dinner table Carter was so slap-happy it was ridiculous and Jaden couldn't help encouraging him. They both would not stop goofing off and Carter just kept bursting into giggles. Jeff started getting annoyed and we both were trying to get them to settle down and eat their food. It totally brought me back to my childhood. I never understood why my Dad always got so annoyed with us giggling, I mean, we were only laughing, right?

Well here I was on the other end. Only, even though I was a little annoyed, at one point I couldn't help some giggling myself. Carter's laugh is absolutely contagious, and it was just so weird to try to tell our kids to stop laughing.

Finally we had to move Carter to the other table in the kitchen so he could actually eat. Sometimes its so weird to be a parent and after 30 years finally understand something my parents did when I was little.

Ahhhh.

What a great day today was. I went to our Stake Women's Conference in the morning, even waking up early enough to get everybody ready and out the door in time to drop the boys off at my parents house and still make it the the breakfast at 7:30am. With two kids and a nursing baby, that is quite a feat!

I left that early so I could take the kids to the St. Patrick's Day Parade at noon. It was a last minute decision but its hard to get the kids out because we're often busy with the baby so we stay in a lot lately. The chance to get them out and do something fun for them was too hard to pass up. Besides, I went to most of the conference anyway. When I walked outside and saw the beautiful day that had developed I was soooo glad I didn't spend any more time indoors.

The parade was fun, I got a great parking space, into which I parallel parked like a PRO! It was done in two moves and ten seconds. I should have gotten an award. :) And, it was on two block from Tejon where Jeff was working extra duty. The kids got to watch the parade and check out Daddy's cop car. They got to see the lights and hear the sirens. He even let them climb in the back and showed them how the bad guys couldn't get out once they were put in. (The doors don't open from the inside). Jeff's sister Natalie (who is living with us for awhile) met up with us halfway through the parade and added to the fun family day.

After Jeff got off work we met at Baskin Robbins for ice cream. Surprisingly, all of us had Mint Chocolate Chip for at least one of our scoops except Carter who got Wild and Reckless Sherbet.

When we got home Natalie watched the kids while Jeff slept in preparation for work tonight and I went for a run on the trail behind our house. It was still relatively warm outside, perfect temperature for a run. Almost halfway through my run my Forerunner battery died, which was actually a good thing cuz I stopped thinking about how sluggish pace and just enjoyed the run. On the way back it was all down-hill and about half a mile from my house there was a fox right in the middle of the trail. I'd never even seen fox in real life until we moved here, and I've still only seen one a few times. This one remained in the middle of the trail as I kept my pace steady until I was pretty close, then only moved to side of the trail, still only about six feet away from me. We just stared at each other as I passed. I never knew foxes had such an amazing eye color! It's eyes were a fiery bronze color that matched its fur, it was a beautiful animal. What a surreal moment I won't soon forget. The wind blew gently as I continued down hill and my spirits soared. I returned home exhilirated and uplifted. There are few things better than a really great run.

After the run I made a delicious dinner that I consumed with relish, fed Addison without a bottle, and put her to sleep without much fuss. Ahhhhhh, what a great day. :)

Third Time Is a Charm

As I nursed Addison at about 2 AM I kept thinking how easy she is. She sleeps great at night, waking up once around 1 or 2 AM, then again around 5 or 5:30. Not bad for not even two months old! She still sleeps most of the day, getting a little fussy in the late morning and evening as she winds down and falls asleep.

The boys have adjusted well to her, I really don't sense any resentment at all from either of them. They are so sweet to her, they love to kiss her on the nose. Carter likes to snuggle against my arm while I'm nursing and say "I like you, Mom. And I like the baby, too."

The third child has been easier for me to adjust to, also. The first baby is a total life change, so even with an easy child, and even though you just have one to deal with, it's quite an adjustment to make. By the time we had another child I thought I had it all figured out. I quickly realized I that I didn't. Carter was VERY different from Jaden from day one. Plus, I still had Jaden to deal with. For me, having a two year old and a new born was very difficult, especially since Carter was NOT an easy baby. So baby number two was also quite an adjustment, even harder than the first.

Nursing was got progressively harder for me. Jaden and I had a pretty rough start, then, right when we were really in the swing of things my milk dried up and nursing came to an abrupt and unwanted stop. I thought that was bad, but when I started nursing Carter he wouldn't latch on correctly and one of my nipples cracked in half. I didn't realized it until he had blood in his spit-up. Very gross. I tried to get past it but nursing became excruciatingly painful. It was like torture session ten times a day. After two weeks I got Mastitis and it was just all too much pain, so I called it quits.

So when Addison was born I was pretty concerned about getting it right this time. Amazingly, so far so good. I've struggled with producing enough milk, but am on a medication right now that seems to have solved the problem. I am on the fourth day of not needing to give her a bottle at night. Yay! That makes me sooo happy!

I am surprised at how easy it all is this time. So far, anyway. I bonded with Addison right away, nursing is going great, she's sleeping great, the boys love her, we all love her. I guess the third time's a charm!

Bobble Head

Addison is surprisingly good at holding her head up. Almost from day one she would push her head up. I'm guessing this is because she was a week overdue. Now she's only 7 weeks old and she holds her head up without any wiggles. No more bobble head. :)

Addison Blessing Day

Last Sunday Addison received her baby blessing. Jeff's parents came up for the event and which made for fun weekend. A lady in our ward said Jeff gave a perfectly eloquent blessing. Addsion was blessed to have loving heart filled with charity, a desire to pursue a higher education and a temple marriage, and have strong ties to her family. My mother made sure she had a beautiful dress to be blessed in, which was borrowed from a lady in her ward. The dress and bonnet, and the day could not have been more perfect!




Just look at that smile!!!
I know the boys already miss Grandma and Grandpa!

Farrish

Last week our ward went to Farrish for a ward activity. Sadly, you can only go there if you are military or are with someone in the military. So I don't know if we will be able to go there again but we had loads of fun! It was beautiful and couldn't have been a more perfect day. There was lots of snow, no wind and a surprisingly warm day. There was a large frozen lake where you could rent ice skates. Jeff decided to improvise:

Carter was delighted to find this stick:

I was worried about Addison, that is might be too cold or too much exposure for her but they had a lodge where I could nurse her, and she didn't mind being outside at all! She was the cutest little pink bear I have ever seen.

Some of the smaller kids, found a rock to slide down. Carter loved it, he spent most of the day climbing up that rock and sliding down it.

I guess it was more fun for him than trying to walk through all the snow on the ground, he's still so tiny he got quite stuck one time:

Of course lots of snow means big snow balls!

And beautiful landscape:


We stayed most of the day and by the time we got in the car to go home we were all pretty tired. Carter said "Mom, I'm not tired, I don't need a nap," but was zonked out two minutes later. It was a very fun winter day!