REASON 5,476 WHY I WON'T BE WINNING MOM OF THE YEAR AWARD

Once again this year, I am taking myself out of the running for the coveted Mom of the Year Award. So to the judges and committees who determine who is to win this award, here me now:

After the events of last night, I am officially out of the running.

Yesterday was an off day for K. She was up an hour early - coughing and complaining of being hungry. She did have a little cough and she was plenty hungry. She finished a cup of milk and banana before heading downstairs for breakfast.

The lost hour of sleep left her a little sluggish during the morning. She had a mini-breakdown at the park because another little girl was eating goldfish crackers and I did not have any crackers (of any kind) for her. To my credit, I did have sliced mango, grapes, and cheese for her. We left the park and headed home for lunch. She ate two bowls of broccoli-cheese pasta. (Maybe my little peanut is in the middle of a growth spurt!?!?) During lunch the man from the security company came to install our alarm system (an hour early). In addition to installing the hardware, which involved some drilling, he was all over our house. So K went down for a nap about an hour later than normal. Needless to say, by the time evening rolled around last night she was spent. She actually told me she was tired before we headed off to meet D at the metro around 6:30.

She finished her bath around 8:40 last night. She pitched a fit over who-knows-what before I convinced her it was time to go upstairs to sleep. We went into her room like we always do. She turned on her "music" (the white noise machine) and turned off her lights. Then she hit the floor running for one last game of "hiding". This has become part of our bedtime routine... in the dark room she hides from me, I count to five, and then she runs up to me with a big, "Ahhhhhhhh... found you!"

Last night she decided to "hide" on top of her big pillows. She dove head first thinking she was going to land on her pillows and become invisible. Instead, she dove head first into the metal bars of her crib. I heard her hit a little spring before the crying began. And I knew it hurt.

I turned on the lights before picking her up.

I grabbed her and and encouraged her to breath (because she is notorious for holding her breath when beginning to cry). It was a relief when I heard her begin to cry. She cried and cried. I finally convinced her to pick her head up off of my shoulder and look at me. She had a bloody cut along the bottom of her nose and a brush-burn along the top of her nose.

We went downstairs to get some love from D and to calm down. We returned upstairs for Tylenol and some cream (read: Neosporin). She did sleep soundly and woke up with only a small scratch on her nose. I left home before she was awake. D called me so that K could say hi. When I asked her about her nose, she started to cry.

Hopefully this event will not scar her for life.

Once she was asleep last night, I talked with D at length about what had happened and we decided that I need to be the grown-up and not allow a game of hiding in the dark.

I need to IPDE - identify, predict, decide, and execute - activities at night that will not cause bodily harm to my sweet, tired little girl.

And with those events and a lesson learned, I hereby present yet another reason why I will not be winning the mom of the year award for 2010.

BEFORE AND AFTER

This is Bob, our Halloween pumpkin, on our front porch the Friday before Halloween.

This is Bob a few days after Halloween. He single-handly is feeding all of the squirrels in northwest DC.

Poor Bob.

DECISIONS, DECISIONS

The Philadelphia Marathon is 2 weeks and 3 days away!

I'm so excited.

I've trained hard for this race... I've run 1,000 miles this year and close to 500 since July.

I'm looking forward to running a race in a new city, staying in a hotel for a night, running with D (we haven't run a marathon together since 2006), and finishing with a smile on my face!

I am ready. Sort of...

I have everything planned - travel to Philly, care for K, hotel in Philly, fuel for the race, hydration plans, cute capri running pants (black by Lucy), BodyGlide, shoes, socks, and a cute BondiBand. However, I need a shirt to wear during the race. I usually run in a sleeveless tank-top, but I'm going to need something more for a late-November race in Philadelphia.

I've narrowed my choices of race tops down to these three:

1. a long-sleeved Brooks Equibrium shirt in bright pink (to be worn with my "super mom" BondiBand)

2. a long-sleeved Brooks Equibrium shirt in purple (to be worn with either my purple lightening BondiBand or my glitter star band)

3. a short-sleeved Brooks "Girl Power" shirt in pink (to be worn with either my "super mom" or glitter star BondiBand and a black long-sleeved shirt underneath).

Thoughts? Preferences?

A BUSY MONTH FOR THIS MAMA

October came and went like a flash. It was month full of celebrations...

K turned two. We celebrated with two parties - one on her birthday with grandparents and our friends and the second the Saturday after with all of her little friends and their parents. It was a celebratory couple of days.

We are grateful that she is so happy and healthy. Her days are full of songs, dancing, piano playing, trips to the park, story hours, metro rides, and playing with her little friends. At her two year check-up, she got a clean bill of health and she gained four pounds (in six months). She's currently weighing in at 24 pounds and is 33 inches tall.

This month was also monumental for me... I completed my dissertation proposal and set a proposal defense date (Dec 20). Three cheers for being that much closer to being done with school. I'm currently working on a paper for publication and applying for jobs. I plan to defend my dissertation in June 2011.

On October 30 during a 20 mile run with D, I surpassed my goal of running 1,000 miles this year. I'm really proud of myself and really excited about the Philly Marathon. I've trained so stinking hard this year and am excited about running a great marathon (and enjoying running another with D). It is hard to believe that the marathon is less than three weeks away now. I only have two medium-long runs left in this training cycle. On Thanksgiving, D and I are planning to run a 5k Turkey Trot together and I'm toying with the idea of running another marathon or the half at Rohobeth Beach in mid-December. We'll see how I feel after Philly...

As fun-filled and celebratory as this past month has been, it has also been hard. Two weeks ago our house was broken into IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY. Thankfully no one was home and a neighbor was able to call the police as the "bad guys" were breaking in. We had some big ticket items stolen, but the police and our insurance company have been great. Post-break-in, I've been spending my time trying to be comfortable in our house, worrying about coming home at night, and researching security systems. We've also had to deal with our insurance company, order/buy items that were stolen, and have repairs made to the house. It's been hard, but we (read: I) am starting to feel better about being here.

Several lessons learned from our break-in to share:

1. be sure all of your pictures are backed-up - either online or on an external hard drive. Our laptop where I download all of our pictures was taken and we could have lost everything. We did lose a few pictures, but thankfully have most of the big moments from the past few years saved online and on a separate hard drive.

2. be sure your homeowners/renters insurance covers replacement costs for stolen items. We were lucky and found out after our break-in that we had replacement insurance. Our deductible was high, but we got new everything.

3. write down the serial numbers of all your home electronics and store them some place safe. If you are robbed, having this information will be invaluable.

All in all it was a great month. Halloween pictures are forthcoming. And we're looking forward to a great November - full of birthdays, marathons, Thanksgiving, and Advent.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual started by SouleMama. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

SELF-DIAGNONSIS and SELF-TREATMENT PLAN

This past week was a scheduled low-mileage week. Meaning my weekend run was a mere 12 miles.

Nice.and.easy.

My parents were in town for K's birthday parties (yes, there was more than one) so that meant 12 miles with D. We didn't get out of the house on Saturday until 3ish. We had to party, eat lunch, settle down before nap-time, goof-off, find clean running clothes.

It was a warm afternoon with temperature well into the 80s. We got off to a good start and ran solidly for 6 miles. At mile 6 I started regretting having french toast for breakfast and lunch.We walked for a quick 0.2 miles, ran to the boathouse, refilled our water bottles and set out for home. I struggled with an upset tummy, chaffing, and a sore left hip. There wasn't much I could do about my tummy or the chaffing. So I focused on my technique and form; hoping to reduce the pain in my hip. Much to my pleasure the focusing worked and by mile 9 or so I was feeling much better.

We finished strong with our last 1.1 miles right at marathon pace - 9:05.

We walked home and spent the evening recovering.

On Sunday morning I got out of bed and it felt like I was stepping on a nail.

And I know what stepping on a nail feels like because I did it in a cheap pair of flip-flops the summer before my senior year of college.

The nail pain stayed with my all day Sunday. I attempted a recovery run, but it was too painful. So I went home and iced. And iced some more.

By Monday the pain had subsided, but it was still there with me.

After a little bit of internet research and a couple of conversations, I'm diagnosing myself with plantar fasciitis; brought on by lots of running and my tight calf muscles.

Treatment for such an injury is ice and stretching.

So that is what I am doing. I'm also only running every other day at this point.

Running plans for the next four days include: a 10K this afternoon, an easy 3.6 miles tomorrow AM, 20+ miles on Saturday, and a brief recovery run on Sunday. Monday I plan to walk some hills (instead of running).

I plan to ice my foot each day and stretch my calves at least three times each day.

Hopefully this will keep things under control.

Philly Marathon is 5 WEEKS AWAY.

THE BIRTHDAY GIRL