Downtown

One of my favorite things to do with Jack is to go to downtown Burlington. He loves running up and down Church Street and is always willing to go to Starbucks (and Lululemon) with me.

Birthday Boy

Yesterday, Jack celebrated his third birthday. We had a pretty awesome day! Big breakfast, My Little Cupcake, visiting Santa, making pizza at Gun(d) and Pa's.

It's a Good Day

Today's run was four miles (solo) with pretty low expectations. I went by feel and tried not to focus on pace too much, and to my surprise, saw some numbers I haven't seen in a while!

Mile 1: 10:41
Mile 2: 9:50
Mile 3: 9:35
Mile 4: 9:40

Boo

This is a little late, but I want to share anyway because I'm still pretty proud of myself.

The plan for Jack's Halloween costume was for him to dress up wearing his costume from last year- a train conductor- because it still fit, and he wouldn't care. The weekend before Halloween we were talking about a parade we were going to and he told me he wanted to dress up as a ghost. Well, my guilt kicked in and I decided he needed a ghost costume. I got the idea from Parenting magazine and made it out of a men's sweatshirt (K-Mart), tulle, felt, ribbon and fabric glue (Jo-Ann's).

When I was younger, I was always envious of the kids with moms who could whip up homemade costumes. I'm not super crafty and this was really easy, so I'm hoping this can become a tradition.

Thanksgiving Eve

Happy Thanksgiving! These pictures are from yesterday, but we had a pretty awesome day. It was one of those days where you don't do anything particularly special, but it still feels special.

With the day off, the morning was relaxing filled with coffee and the Today Show. We headed over to my mom's and I went for a four mile run (felt tough but awesome after too many rest days) and played. Later in the afternoon we put Jack and Alice into the jogger and walked up to my mom and Tom's house that's being built just a couple miles away.

After Alice went to "sleep," Jack and I hung out and watched a Christmas movie. It was pretty awesome.

Goodnight Moon

Dear Alice

Dear Alice,

I love you, but I also love sleep. Help me out a little bit.

Love,
Mama

.............

For about a month, we enjoyed full nights sleeps. After Alice's second month birthday, she eased into a nighttime routine that involved an early bedtime and early wake up. I'm fine with an early wakeup if it includes uninterrupted sleep. After about a month, bedtime became a struggle, as did sleeping stretches of more than a couple hours. Getting up four or five times during the night is now the norm, and it is really starting to take a toll on me. I'm pretty sure the lack of sleep is related to this stressed out, overwhelmed feeling I've had so often lately. She gets up, sometimes eats, then it's a struggle to get her to go back to sleep in the crib. Here's hoping things turn around soon. Tonight she went to bed at 7:00 and it's now 11:00 and already has gotten up twice. I'm not sure how much more I can take.

Mini Me

I think she looks just like me!

4 Months

Happy Four Months, Baby Girl!

Grammy and Poppy

Jack is lucky to have both sets of grandparents nearby. On Saturday he got to spend the whole day, just him, with Grammy and Poppy at their house. Looks like they had fun!

3, 5, 7

Thursday: 3 miles
Friday: 5 miles
Saturday: 7 miles

Lately I've been feeling pretty down. Running has always been my sanctuary and relief and it has been helping me get through these past couple weeks and I'm thankful for that. On Friday and Saturday's runs I ran with my mom on different-than-usual routes and both runs were great rechargers. I'm hoping I can keep up this consistency as the days continue to get darker and shorter.

October

October is long gone, but here's a little peek into what we were up to for the month. And by the way, ended the month with 55 running miles!

One of the few times we used the Bumbo seat, now put away until we order the recall kit. Alice can wiggle out of it in a way that Jack's chubby thighs never had a chance to do

Pumpkin Carving

Halloween tradition: Trick-or-Treating in Mamet and Papa's neighborhood

Connor showing Jack the ropes

Alyce and Alice

Pa and Jack checking out Saratoga

The Giant Pumpkin Regatta