Late Walkers, Early talkers

Seems like lately I've said this phrase a lot.  Charli didn't walk until 18 months.  Claire is almost 17 months and VERY active, but not walking on her own.  But, talk, she can!  She communicates in a much more demanding way than Charli ever did at this age, but we are thankful she is at least communicating.  And since I have been terrible with writing stuff down about Claire, this blog will likely be my best record of her milestones.

Claire can say:

ball, cup (usually sounds like pup or puppy), juice, cheese, sissy, daddy, mommy, pop, emmy, didi, papaw, brooks (sounds likes "ks"), kitty, CAT (which is how I yell at the cat, which she has picked up), puppy (for doggies), church (sounds like chch), yummy, help (sounds like hep), toy (her cutest word), get down (sounds like "et owwwn!"), Hi, Bye (sounds like die), movie (sounds like moo-mi), hand (meaning stop-trying-to-get-me-to-walk-without-your-hand, i-need-it!), minnie mouse or mickey mouse (sounds like mi-mi-mou), elmo, grover, murray, zoe, abby, veggietales, mouth (mou), ME (when she wants something she yells "ME" and points at herself)

Now that I type out this list I can think of many more things she says. Lots of foods, commands, tv related things, toy names, animals & their sounds, etc.  She's hilarious.  She's opinionated and loud.  When she's happy you know it, when she's mad- she wails.  She's into everything and loves to climb- two things Charli never did.  She is fearless and is a thrill seeker. (If you're a 17 month old thrill seeker then you love to swing really high and you crawl up the steps at the playground and then go down the slide face first and laugh joyously at the bottom.)

Charli is all things girl, princess, and little miss information.  She loves going to church and playing with her friends.  She loves to color, dance, sing, and baby her stuffed animals and baby dolls.  She says hilarious stuff everyday.  Earlier this week we went over to my mom and dad's house. I knew they were home and we rang the doorbell b/c the door was locked.  They didn't come, so we rang it again.  Charli says, very matter of factly, "apparently they're not here."  HAHA. I looked at her like, are you 3 or 30??

I love my girls. I love how different God made them from one another and yet they get along great and love each other dearly.  Lately I've been thanking God for making them uniquely themselves.  I want them always to know that God made them with special gifts and personalities.  I hope I can help them learn who God made them.  I will never tell them they can be anything they want to be. It's just not true.  I will tell them they can be exactly who God intended them to be, and being that person will bring them great joy if they do if for His glory.

Park days are here again!

Going to the park is one of our favorite morning activities. I love being outside, I love letting the kids use a lot of energy, I love sunshine, I love being away from "screens", etc. Claire can't walk unassisted yet but she doesn't let it stop her. She is fearless and on the go constantly! Today was a beautiful sunny day in the mid-fifties so we hit our favorite park in Collierville, Johnson Park, with some friends.

Run, run, as fast as you can!

I continue on with my fitness/weight loss goals.  I've lost about 40 pounds now and I think it will keep falling off as I continue with this new lifestyle.   I've been asked a lot recently how I'm doing it.  If you're wondering and for the sake of posterity I'll chronicle how here.

I started with running 5 days a week in July.  I could barely run a mile, slowly.  I could see that that pattern wasn't going to work because I injured my foot.  It was too much, too quickly.  I switched to running 3 days a week and biking and/or doing Power 90 (by Tony Horton) 2-3 other days a week.  In August I was discouraged that the weight wasn't coming off like I thought it should.  I decided to sign up for 3 months of Weight Watchers on-line.  I did WW hardcore for about 4-6 weeks.  Counted every point and quickly learned my problem areas: too much for breakfast, too many carbs/sugars, too many unhealthy snacks.  I made some significant changes in portion sizes too.  Once I got the hang of eating healthier, I started feeling so much better and the weight started to come off (about a pound or 2 a week).   Of all the changes I've made with food, eating more fruits and veggies is one of the biggest.  I used to make a couple veggies for dinner but that was the only time we ate them.  Now I keep a baggie of cut up peppers, celery, carrots, cucumbers, etc. to snack on throughout the week.  My kids are getting better at eating those raw veggies as well!  Instead of cookies, cereal, or muffins I'm eating fruit for my main snacks in the day.  A big apple with a little natural peanut butter is so yummy and so much healthier than what I was eating before.  The other thing I've gotten into is smoothies.  I'm drinking a smoothie for a meal 5 days a week.  Here's my recipe:

1 cup light (any flavor) greek yogurt (i prefer vanilla)
1 cup frozen fruit (anything from berries to mango, pineapple, etc) -this replaces ice, so you get more nutritional value per ounce
1 small banana
1/2 cup almond or skim milk
2-3 cups of raw baby spinach, it sounds nasty but you cannot taste it as long as you have a banana in the smoothie

I've kept running that 3 day a week schedule and now I'm doing some aerobics/weights classes 2 days a week.  My goal is to run a half marathon in April.  This weekend I ran 9.6 miles for the first time in my life.  Thanks to my wonderful brother and sis-in-law because they helped me mentally press on and ran at my pace the whole way.  They are seriously rockstars in my book.  After running 9 miles, I'm even more impressed that they are 3 time marathoners (and training for their 4th now)!!!

So, that's me.  I've come a long way. Maybe after my half marathon I'll post before and after pictures of myself... we'll see.  For now- here are a few recent running pics from my phone.

after a humid 5 mile run

My longest run so far

Most of my runs during the week are in the dark, cold.  I wear two pairs of tights, two long sleeve dry fit, warm shirts, my earmuff, and wear reflectors on both arms and carry a flashlight. i look silly for sure!