Our Life: 87 mile month

Time moves at break neck pace sometimes, and January 2016 was absolutely that! Full of finishing our Christmas Break, getting back into the swing of work and school, and struggling to stay well has kept us jam-pack busy! These kiddos have been sick off and on since the week of Christmas. My boys are sweet little things, but the constant tears, whining, fevers, medicine, throw up, etc. wore everyone out this month. We have missed more church lately. We have rescheduled and rerescheduled and so on. I am hopeful that with the beginning of this new month we are headed for wellness and warm weather and happy little people. 

This month wasn't all stress and chaos, though. There was plenty going on that was exciting and awesome. For the month of January, I decided to run everyday. I didn't set any goals specific to a certain time or getting X number of miles just run at least one mile each day in the month. I did it, too. It was a really cool thing! Even in the blustery cold, I would go out and get miles. Zero of my miles were on the treadmill or indoors. I ran 87 miles. I think I'm hooked, now and will definitely have to do another run-month, so that I can get 100 miles in a month. This is just a small piece of trying to accomplish my bigger goal of a sub 24 minute 5K. That means three miles back to back in under 8 minute miles. Running hard, I'm still at about a 27 minute 5K. For February, I am out on running everyday. Now, I'm purposefully adding speedwork, tempo run, long run and other body weight workouts to my calendar. I am hopeful this will make me stronger and prevent burnout, while helping me increase my speed.

Also, for February I have given up: pop tarts, sodas, and desserts (aka purposeful sugars). I realize sugar is in almost everything, so this is an attempt to consciously cutback. People who I tell this to are like In February? The month with Valentines? And true, but isn't there some gorge worthy holiday almost every month? It's already been a bit tough if I'm being honest. Sugar detox is a real thing. Thank goodness I had already kicked the caffeine, or I would be a "megabear". 

I can thank a lot of this motivation and craziness to the Rock. Wait no, I mean my rock- Sam, and he can say thanks for his motivation to the Rock. Hahaha.... But really, Sam and I have the alarm set at either 5 or 5:15 every weekday, and while I've been off running, he's out in the garage (no matter how cold) lifting weights. I can see the change in both our attitudes, and I think we both are waiting to see the changes in our waistlines. 

It's been a great month to find joy amongst the chaos, and I can't say I've been laser focused on the right things. I can, however, say that I am continuing to learn and grow all the time. 

Moose and Bo have quite the personalities. It's kind of incredible how siblings can be so very different. I love to see how each of their quirks and strengths show up. 

Moose wants nothing, nothing, nothing to do with Potty Training. He doesn't want underwear. He doesn't want a Potty Prize, and he doesn't want to read Elmo's potty book. He might be a wee bit stubborn... He will be three in April, so I am hopeful that we can get him potty trained early this summer. 

He knows his numbers up to 13. He knows random letters (though he thinks Moose starts with K), and he LOVES to read books. He loves the library and Ga's library bag. Sometimes he memorizes a whole book and recites it almost perfectly from memory. We had a small issue in the fall with "games." We had let him play a game on the family iPad, and he began to get crazy about it. The moment we walked in he would ask for the iPad, so somewhere before Christmas we got rid of it. It's been so much better here, now that we don't have it at home. Moose doesn't ask to play anymore, and there are no irrational-man tears.

Moose has also had another growth spurt in the last month! I got him some 4T pjs for Christmas, and they fit fine... Now it's crop top season. He has some things in a 4T that fit but for tops the 5T is much better all around. He's still got a skinny waist and short legs, so 3T/4T pants. He doesn't go back for his we'll visit until his birthday, but he is like 35 pounds of muscle. He's a thin thing, but he can lift crazy things. Just a strong baby Hulk, like his Daddy.

Bo is a whole other animal - he is a wild man. He wants his way and throws things or bites anything/anyone available. He ought to be quite the creative sort!! He's not as big percentile wise as Moose was, but he always seems so much bigger than Moose ever was in my mind. Odd how time warps the memory like that. Bo is just starting to get VERY vocal. He can say: hi, daddy, mama, and somethings that sound like what's that, light, and dodger. It's quite adorable.

He's big enough to wear 3T shirts but is still in the 24 month or 2T pants. I forget how little he is sometimes because he's such the little helper. Bo gets quite mad if you try to throw away a dirty diaper; he wants to be the one to throw it out! 

Bo is also almost jumping... We are in that adorable squat and bounce phase that is gone far too fast. I love my littles so so so much!!!!!!!!