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After struggling to get Jacob to give up his Susu Melissa came up with a great idea. If he went 14 nights without one he’d get to pick a toy out from Toys’r’us. Each morning he’d get a sticker and we’d paste it to a chart we kept on the fridge. It worked great, though since he’s stopped having his it he’s having a harder time getting to sleep. So to help him with that Melissa whipped up another chart. I’m really looking forward to going with him to pick out his new Playmobil.
Today after dinner I took the kids to the park. Our picture to-day is of Jacob pushing Violet on the swing. I think it’s one of her favourite things to do at the big park near our house. Of course she also took the time at the park to show me just how much of a big girl she is as she started to climb up one of the ladders in the playground, the photo leads off todays bonus pictures.
Friday is swimming day, an activity both kids are really enjoying. The way the classes works out both start at the same time, but Violet’s is only 15 minutes and Jacob’s is 30 minutes, so Mommy and Violet are usually waiting in the hall for me and Jacob. It seems our little violet has taken a real interest in the mural that’s on the wall. It’s an under water seen complete with a treasure chest. Last week she mommy told her that daddy had the key so when I came out with Jacob she asked me to open it. Not wanting to disappoint, I played along and took out my keys and pretended to open it. So today she told Mommy all about the chest and asked for the key again and Melissa couldn’t resist taking todays picture.
Our picture today is of Jacob during his pre-bedtime routine. As he’s gotten older he’s taken over more of the routine on his own.
We don’t usually let Jacob play with Toy Guns, but today after dinner, he was outside playing with one of his friends who’d brought out a couple of his. Watching him played brought back memories of my youth and I couldn’t help but think my little guy is growing up.
For dinner tonight we had home-made pizza. The kids got really excited helping to make it, from shredding cheese to spreading the sauce. They were so excited that after we put it in the oven they pulled their chairs up to watch it cook.
Recently Melissa and the Kids worked out a set of family rules. Melissa took the time to write it up all nice and pretty. So we posted them on the wall.
Today Melissa and Violet headed off to a friends baby shower. So our picture today is of Violet socializing with some other kids.
Today was race day. After 10 months of running mostly alone on the local streets I finally got into an organized race. Running with a crowd adds a new dimension to running that I didn’t really expect. Though It was a great experience and though I fell short of my ultimate goal of under 28 Minutes, I did beat the Goal I had always set for my first race, under 30 minutes. I Ran it in either 29:34, the time I got from the Races Chip on my bib and 29:25 according to my phones GPS. Considering that my signal was poor for parts of the race, I think I’ll go with the official race time as the time I quote for my run. The race was a little harder than I expected. There were times that I felt I just didn’t have any strength left, that I contemplated pulling over and walking. Though there were a few moments here and there that I did walk, I managed to push through and I feel really good about how the race went. I’m looking forward to the next time I can get out there and that’s going to be sooner than I thought. My next official race is going to be the Sporting Life 10k, but I’ll have more on that in my next running post later in the week.
Over the last 10 months running has become a major part of my life. It seems to have snuck up on me. It has gone from a chore I was doing to lose weight to something that I really enjoy and miss when I am unable to do it. It has really surprised me how the times when I am unable to run has affected me. Looking forward the next 6 weeks will be filled with challenges but I’m looking forward to them and meeting some of my personal goals for myself.
I’ve never been one who gets down during the winter months but this winter has been hard for me. I have always been a bit of a night owl and winter has always just provided me with more night. This year it was different and somehow winter got to me, making me feel out of sorts and diet suffered as I turned to snack foods. Though the real problem wasn’t the winter at all, in fact the real problem was that the week after Christmas while out for a 10k or 11k run my knee started to hurt. It took a couple of days before it felt better that first time but every time I would brave the cold for a run after that the pain would return. I handled the physical pain and the emotional pain the way I always do, I ignored it. I paid it lip service by going to the doctor, but I never seemed to have time to follow-up with the sports medicine doctor that I was referred to.
I never gave up on running because I knew it was important to me so every week or so I’d head out to see how my knee held out. First I didn’t change anything about how I ran, I just ran untill it started to hurt and then I would push myself untill I got home and be more depressed than before. Finally, after some time, two things changed: one, I started using a knee brace, and two I forced to take a slower pace. With a slower pace and the knee brace I was able to run 45 minutes pain-free, it was during one of these runs that it hit me how much I’d been missing the act of running. I have continued running regularly, but the turmoil of the last few weeks has limited my opportunity but thankfully I have tried hard to take some steps to keep focused in the right direction.
Today I take the next step in my running, In less than two hours I’m taking part in Harry’s Spring Run-Off in High Park. It’s a step I’ve wanted to take since last fall, but I always seemed to have an excuse that kept me from registering for an organized run. Today that all changes and once the race is behind me then the real challenge begins. I have 6 weeks to train before I run my first Half Marathon. That’s 21.1k for in case you were wondering. As I work on this post I have been trying to remember when the thought of running for over 2 hours went from an impossible torture to a doable challenge, but that’s a story for another day. I have been thinking about running this Marathon since the fall, but it wasn’t until last week that I went beyond thinking and registered. It will be just 54 weeks over a year since the first time I asked my mom to sit with the kids so Melissa and I could give running a try. That day we managed to go 3.17km in 33:54. Today I hope to run 5k in under 28 minutes, but will be happy with any time under 30 minutes. So along with this race today I’m starting a new series of running posts, with weekly updates and tracking. I’d hoped to have more of it finished for today, along with the refresh of my blog, but life has had other plans. For now Wish me Luck, You can hopefully follow my run on my RunKeeper page.