Obligatory Halloween Post

Every blog has to have a post about Halloween--so here is ours.

Finley was a monkey, more specifically he was Curious George.


And his daddy was The Man in the Yellow Hat. And I was a zookeeper... or something.


Last night, we went to the Capitol Hill area where they had a "Hilloween" Festival that Finley will love next year. For some reason, we though we needed to bring the dogs too--1 baby, 2 dogs and 3 grown-ups made for a long car ride. I thought we would be ok--the creature to responsible human ratio was in our favor. And it was ok... once we got there.

If you had to guess which creature cried the most on the way downtown, who would you guess?

If you guessed Copper you would be correct. He is a stressed out passenger. Sol held him the whole way there. On the way back we stuck him in the back with Belle and she tried to talk some sense into him. Unsuccessful.


Today, our neighborhood had a Halloween Parade--another event Finley will love next year. This year, it interrupted nap time and so he fell asleep during the parade. He was a tired little monkey.


And a cute little monkey. Don't you want one?

This post is brought to you by the letter E

Finley's nursery is legitimately done now.

I started collecting the letters to spell Finley's name back in March--even though we hadn't committed to the name, I was trying to plan ahead. I'm a planner, what can I say?

Paper Source was set on thwarting my plans. EVERY Paper Source was out of the lowercase letter "e"--until a couple weeks ago. Victoria picked up the "e" for me and I crafted it and FINALLY have his name on the wall. Who knew "e" was such a popular letter?

Now there is no mistaking who lives in his monkey room.

And I am NOT the world's worst mother--you can see Victoria's arm is preventing Finley from leaping off the dresser

Also, he has enough hair for a faux hawk. Take THAT, Ryan Seacrest.

State of the Baby Address

So, Finley is growing.


Weight: 17 lbs 5 oz 50%tile
Height:27.5 inches 80%tile
Noggin: 17 inches 35%tile

He has dropped more in his weight percentile, but is still gaining. The doctor wasn't concerned about the lack of weight gain but did suggest that we try to get his eating and sleeping under control. Which means he got kicked out of our bed. So last night, the poor little baby slept the the whole night in his very own crib, and he survived. We had a rocky start with some sad crying, but then he only woke up to eat ONCE which is about eight times less than before. Ahh, sweet slumber how I missed you.

So hopefully after a few more nights he'll be in a great sleep cycle and he will eat only during the daytime and he will grow into a healthy little dude.

Right? That's what's going to happen? I hear babies are really reliable.

My mom ran a marathon and I pooped my pants.

Next time, I want Finley to have a sign that says that.

I ended up not listening to music--although I downloaded some Girl Talk and I think it's going to be very fun to listen to on training runs. I got lots of good suggestions and am looking forward to using the playlist later. I just couldn't bear to not listen to the crowds and the footsteps of the runners and the energy of the race. Running a marathon seems like it would be a very individual activity--but it's not. It's a group effort. You chat with the people running along side you and connect with people you won't see again. It's such a neat experience.

One of the most fun things about running a marathon is reading all the funny signs people make. Here are a few of my favorite signs from the day:

• "Kanye says, Imma let you finish"
• "The End Is Near" at mile 20 with a man dressed as the Grim Reaper, somberly ringing a cowbell
• "You are LEGEN-wait for it-DARY"
• "That's not sweat, that's your fat cells crying"

So, I did pretty well. I ran 4:06:58, which is my slowest time. But I did have a baby 6 months ago, so I'm pretty happy. I initially wanted to run under 4:30... then closer to 4:15... then at the starting line I convinced myself that I could run under 4:00. I get weirdly competitive with myself. I couldn't run under 4--but I am thrilled with how I did. I ran pretty even miles--I didn't slow down too much at the end. And it was fun!

Considering how lightly I trained, I am still optimistic that I can qualify for Boston in the next two races (under 3:40:59). I think I will either run Oklahoma City, Pittsburgh or Virginia Beach in the spring, then if I don't qualify, either Chicago, NYC, or Philadelphia in the fall... or something else. And if I don't qualify again, I'm going to get Finley a sister.

And now the pictures. Thanks Dad, for being the photographer and for watching me run. It meant so much to me.

Waiting for the shuttles before the race... we were supposed to get there 2 hours early. I made it to the start 2 minutes early. WHOOPS. Good thing I wasn't taking it too seriously or I would have been a stressball.


Running the race... I was lucky I got to see my family three times, Kate, John and Margaret twice, and Kara for thirteen miles. Thanks so much to everyone who supported me!



After the race... I really needed to sit for awhile. And my legs HURT today.


My daddy and I on the metro home.

Marathon Tunes

The marathon is this Sunday.

Yikes.

I'm really excited to get out and run. I know I won't be running fast--my goal is to run around 4 hours. I think I can probably break 4, but mostly I'm just excited to knock this one out. I'm still hanging on to my dream of qualifying for Boston, and this marathon is the recovery step in my training. The schedule I use to train for this race was the lightest of any I have done and I definitely started out in the worst shape (thanks, Finley!). Next race (and I'm still taking suggestions) I plan to train for much more intensely.

I'm intense.

So... since I'm trying really hard to not take the marathon too seriously, I think I may run with an ipod. I've never done that before. Normally, I like to be able to hear people cheering and really savor the race. And I like to calculate my splits and... well... essentially do math while I run. That's really embarrassing. But it's true.

But this time, I think I want to listen to music. And my current playlist is not really pumping. Lots of David Archuleta, broadway tunes and Jason Mraz. And Sam Phillips. It's weird.

Suggestions? What songs are fun to run or work-out to? Help me out. YOU could help me win this race.

Exploding Pyrex

I made this really yummy sweet potato/butternut squash au gratin dish thingy--and look what happened.

My Pyrex EXPLODED. Literally, exploded. Looking back, I think I made two mistakes. One, re-heating it in the oven only half full made one half of the pan angry. Two, after taking it out, I set it on a slightly wet surface. And it immediately shattered and exploded.

Come to find out, Victoria had just gotten a chain email about Pyrex being produced overseas and the quality being terrible... and I guess it's true. Normally I discard the emails about the newest way people are car-jacking or stealing your identity. I won't anymore.

I learned a really important lesson. Everything you read on the internet is TRUE.

And I definitely ate the potato thing anyway. There is probably glass workin' its way through me now...

Six Months!

Finley is 6 months old today. You'd think he'd be happy that he has gotten to be a member of our household for a whole half a year--but apparently he's not. I took him outside to take some pictures to commemorate the joyous occasion and he would NOT smile. My smiley, happy, giggly baby could not be cajoled into a grin. Here are some sweet pictures of him looking very peaceful.


Finley loves Copper SO much--and Copper does NOT like Finley. Somehow I convinced Copper to sit beside Finley while I took pictures. Most of the time Finley giggles and giggles at Copper and Copper growls and glares at Finley. This time--nothing. They just looked at each other.

I'm not sure why you would ever make a baby hoodie without ears. They are too cute.


Quick updates at 6 months:

• Finley has grown two little teeth. He drools a little less and chomps on his hands a little less. He still sucks in his lower lip all the time, its precious.
• He makes all sorts of funny mouth noises. Blowing raspberries, clucking and trying real hard to talk.
  
• He loves looking at Copper and Belle. They always make him giggle.
• Crawling is on the horizon... he rolls and rolls and inches his little butt up. He is ready to be on the move. He is getting to be a pretty good sitter too!
• My current favorite thing about my little boy are his hands. They are impossibly soft and warm all the time. He loves to put them on my face and its the sweetest feeling on the world.
• He still stinks at eating during daytime and sleeping more than 3 hours at a time at night.
  
• He is cute.
• We love him.
  

Foot Update

It's been awhile since I updated on Finley's clubfoot correction...

He has been in the splint for about two months, and doesn't mind it a bit. We took him to the doctor on Thursday and the doctor said his foot looks great. Hooray! He also said we can have him out of the splint for 6-8 hours a day. Double hooray! The muscles in his foot and calf are very weak and he needs to practice bearing weight on it to make him stronger.


He's got marathons to train for, you know. We can't be limited by weak muscles! Oh and speaking of marathons, if you'd like to track me and get sent messages as I shatter everyone's wildest expectations about post-birth-giving-marathoning, go here. I'm registered as Rachel Scott.

Also, Kim wins the funniest comment award for the previous post. I LOLed. (That means "laugh out loud" if you don't hang out with middle schoolers every day.)

Tuckered Out

Sometimes Finley plays so hard and gets so exhausted that he can't even manage to fuss for me to take him to bed. He has to falls asleep where ever he has been playing.

The same thing happens to Sol.

They just work so hard! It's hard to be a baby/grown man.

I'm only 11, but...

Two posts ago, I got a random comment from some random 11 year old.

It said, "i am only 11 but i can tell you have a large family."

Koolman has 9 blogs. They are about his elementary school, online games and October themed recipes. You should go check them out. They each have about 1 post. Koolman has to be one of the most web-savvy 11 year old out there.

Koolman, who are you? How did you find my blog? I am concerned that your 11 years of life have only somewhat prepared you to judge the size of a family. Because my family is not large, it is only 3. I am a math teacher, so I can help you judge the size of a group of objects if you would like. I hope your elementary school gets more playground equipment and that your paper mache pumpkins turned out swimmingly.

For all you other mysterious readers... feel free to comment away. It is REALLY fun to get surprise comments from people. Like, REALLY fun.

And now when Victoria and I are unsure about something we say, "I'm only 11 but that is a really ugly hat."

Pumpkin Ziti

We found a case of three 29 oz cans of pumpkin at BJs. The great pumpkin disaster of 2009 has officially come to pass.

I'm down to one can--I've made four recipes of pumpkin muffins and two of pumpkin ziti. That's a lot of pumpkin.

Also, my kitchen walls are pumpkin colored. And we picked pumpkins last weekend. I think you have a blog you are obligated to post about pumpkins... it's mandatory.

But this ziti--its good. I used apple chicken sausage and don't think I could make it any other way. Also, I don't measure and ended putting in extra cayenne pepper and nutmeg. The energy required to clean measuring cups and spoons is not worth it. Everyone appreciates a little extra spice, right?


Finley missed me so much he couldn't bear to be put down. Which means the recipe is easy enough to make one-armed. Also, I did not shower or do my hair at all. I thought I would not wash it in honor of our friend Christopher Columbus. I bet his hair was greasy too.


Happy fall!

I still don't understand what coffee cake is...

Last March, Carrie and Megan trekked to NOVA with their husbands to help us prepare for Finley. Now, Carrie is expecting a little boy! This weekend, we met in the mountains outside of Charlottesville to celebrate their pending addition and Carrie's birthday.

Inside Joke for the loyal BSC readers: I got Carrie "Yes Man" with Jim Carrey because Target was all out of "Liar, Liar". I also brought COK queso.

One bad thing that happened was that Carrie made Finley wear this ATROCIOUS bird head thing. He cried for hours afterwards and insisted that we put him in something purple with a powercat on it. Poor kid has a fear of birds now. Thanks a lot Carrie.

The rest of the weekend was good, here's what happened:

• We taught Megan and Dane about Glee (Megan does not read either of our blogs or own a TV. She blames her sad existence on med school. I think she secretly hates all things fun.)
  
• We ate many baked goods--including two identical coffee cakes (another BSC inside joke!)
  
• We played "Office" trivia.
  
• We watched our husbands lounge uncomfortably close in a chair not intended for two/three grown men.
• We drove up in the picturesque mountainside to take pictures pick apples.

If you go visit Carrie's blog, you will see that her husband Cory has REALLY long arms. He takes really great self-portraits of the two of them, and we challenged him to take a self-portrait of all seven of us. He did it with room to spare. I think we can fit another 5 friends in there!

How cute is that kid? Precious.

Sleep

Oh, little Finley.

Please go to sleep.

Why do you only want to eat at night? And why do you insist on sleeping right next to me? And why are you so soft and cuddly and sweet? And why have you hated me for the past 3 and a half hours while I tried to convince you to sleep? And how is it possible that I think your inability to sleep and eat regularly is so precious and sweet and cute and makes me love you even more?

Why?

Surprise!

I found two very interesting things in this very sweet little mouth today.

Teeth!

I'm not sure how I missed them... I feel like a pretty rotten mother that I did not notice my child had sprung two cute little teeth. We were sitting in the Chick-fil-a drive-thru (yummmmmm) and I felt the need to stick my finger in Finley's mouth. I yelped when I found the little pointy suckers sticking through his gums.

I'm officially blaming all of his mixed up eating and sleeping on the teeth am anticipating completely smooth sailing for the rest of his life.

20 Miles

This is what I look liked yesterday after running 20 miles.

Amazingly, I am smiling. It was a GREAT run. It really was--I loved it. I ran faster than I have in a long time and am really encouraged that I'll do way better that I thought in the marathon. I ran 3:06--which translates to 9:13 miles. Way faster than the last few runs I've done. And it felt really good. I was thrilled and couldn't stop smiling afterwards... even though my feet look like they are made of rubbery plastic and various pieces of clothing had rubbed off select parts of my skin.

I was not smiling after my previous 20 miler. It was before the Cape Cod Marathon in 2007, and after I finished I laid (layed? I never know.) down and cried. It was really bad. I was running a 5 mile loop, 4 times and I had some things stashed on one part of the run--band-aids, snacks, a Nalgene, some GU. And someone stole them on my final loop. And I was all by myself. And mentally broken down. So I cried. This one was significantly better.

I love marathons.

New Designs...

Victoria and I recently have decided that we like to design blogs. And instead of redesigning ours over and over... we are doing our friends' blogs.

Go visit Christina or Hillary to see our new handiwork!

It's kind of a weird hobby, but we like it.

Goodbye Miss Amy!

Tomorrow is Finley's babysitter's last day of work for awhile.


If you can't tell, she's REALLY pregnant. I'm pretty sure I was never as pregnant as she was, but Amy assured me that I definitely was. I have recently learned that I am incapable of judging the size of things... but that's another blog post. Her little boy, Calvin, will be here no later than Tuesday. We can't wait to meet him and have him be best friends with Finley.

We are so grateful for Amy, she takes such good care of Finley. She is so calm, loving and sweet with him--and she misses him over the weekend! It is such a blessing to have someone so wonderful to comes over and take care of him. I can't imagine having to pack him up and take him somewhere every morning!

Finley is ready to teach Calvin how to be a good boy, and I'm hoping Calvin can teach Finley how to sleep for longer that a couple hours at a time.