runnin' fools

You may be wondering, "Did Robin fall off the 5K bandwagon? She hasn't posted anything about running in over a month." NOPE! I didn't fall off the wagon completely. . . but you might say I'm being dragged behind it :) I was doing pretty well with my 3 workouts a week until I got a bad case of food poisoning or some nasty stomach bug. This set me back quite a bit and it took a few weeks to get my motivation back up! Now I'm fast-forwarding through the last few weeks of the Couch to 5K plan since the race is the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

It helps to have a training buddy to be accountable to. I was over at my mom's house on Wednesday afternoon and we both grudgingly agreed that we needed to run, so that night before dinner, Palmer got packed into the stroller with a big ol' blanket and off we went! It was our toughest workout so far, 10 minute jog, 3 minute walk, 10 minute jog. (Don't laugh at us if you're a runner :) I definitely wouldn't have gone by myself at home that night. It's a lot more fun with someone else!

The nice thing about this Couch to 5K plan is how well it builds you up to the next level. Even though it was the first time for us to do this particular workout, we were able to finish it semi-easily. I can't believe we were losing our breath running 90 second bursts the first week! Next we'll do a 20 minute jog, then 22, 25, and probably the race after that! (The actual plan ends with 28 & 30 minute jogs, but we are perpetually behind since we didn't have 9 weeks before the race.)

We have no goal time since this is both of our first 5K in years! We're just glad to be getting in better shape and will be proud to finish :) Hope it isn't too cold that morning. . . eek!

times they are a changin'

Palmer is such a busy boy lately! He REALLY wants to crawl, so I think it won't be much longer now. Diaper changing has become quite a challenge as he desperately contorts himself to twist onto his stomach. If he's sitting on the floor, he scoots little by little to get up close to a table or chair. Next, comes gnawing on said piece of furniture, or trying to pull up! He doesn't quite have the strength yet, though.
Palmer loves his mega bloks- he bangs them, shakes them, taps them, chews them. . . He is especially intrigued when you add a block to one he's holding- WOAH, mind blown. Things that make crinkly noises are equally as fun. This includes plastic sacks (so safe, right?), newspaper, foil, and most other kinds of packaging. It's fun to sit on the floor in the living room, sorting through the Sunday paper, handing him each section as I'm finished with it. Did you know you can play a toy piano with a crumpled ball of paper? Palmer excels at this!

Other changes lately include Palmer drinking 2 bottles of formula a day. At the 9 month mark, I decided I would like to keep my shirt on a little more, and wear nursing bras a little less. The current arrangement, (which I will keep up til he switches to cows milk at 12 months), is 4 am: nurse, 7:30 nurse, 10:30 bottle, 1:30 nurse, 4:30 bottle, 7:00 nurse. I am happy to keep nursing for a few more months- but it is inexplicably liberating to feed him a bottle twice a day! I think I will definitely miss breastfeeding once he weans completely- it's a bonding time I'll be sad to let go of.

I am having so much fun shopping and making plans for the holidays and love that Palmer will have his first Thanksgiving and Christmas at such a fun age. Yay presents!!!

happy Halloween!

Palmer was such a trooper during his Halloween photo shoot and let us get a few sweet pictures of our little elephant.

Halloween night we went trick-or-treating with my friend Lara and her daughter Cadence and the babies did really well! Palmer was obviously confused about why we were walking around in the dark, outside. I let him try a blow pop the next day- he earned it!

nutter butter ghosts

Here is a cute, EASY treat you can make this weekend for Halloween! Just buy a package of Nutter Butter cookies, vanilla flavored Almond Bark, and chocolate chips and you are in business. Melt the Almond Bark according to the package directions, drop in a cookie, roll to coat, and lift out with a fork to let the excess drip.

Let them cool on wax paper. (If your house is as chilly as ours, you don't even need to refrigerate!) I melt a half cup or so of chocolate chips too, and pipe them out of a ziploc baggie to make eyes and a scary ghost mouth! These are super cute tied up in little cellophane treat sacks with Halloween ribbon. Oh yeah, and they taste good too :)

(P.S. I tried this same thing with white chocolate chips instead of the Almond Bark coating, but couldn't ever get it to melt as well and ended up having to spread it on the cookies- let me know if you get it to work!)

show off

Palmer was quite the ham at the doctor's office today! With a med student observing, he had a larger audience than usual. He blabbed on and on, then showed off his toy shaking abilities and stethoscope grabbing prowess. He is between the 75th & 90th percentile in height, but only 10th percentile in weight! Tyler thinks he'll make a good runner. We went ahead and got him a flu shot since with no health insurance it would be financially disastrous if he got really sick. (Also, I would hate for my baby to get the flu.) Here are some pics of his happy, 9 month old self!

9 months old

Here we are, October 26th, and Palmer is 9 months old! I don't have any pictures to share right now, but I guarantee with Halloween coming up Monday there will be plenty to look at soon :) Palmer is loving life lately and has a great time eating and playing. He has recently started eating Cheerios and it is so much fun to watch him do such a big boy thing! I put a few on his Bumbo tray and Palmer attacks them immediately, sometimes shoving his whole hand in his mouth to make sure the Cheerios make it in too. He has learned those sneaky little O's can stick to you, so he is careful to check both sides of his hand for any snacks that are hiding.

Finally tummy time isn't torture! Now when I lay Palmer on the floor to play, he is a little roly poly, rolling his way around to different toys. When he's on his belly he can't figure out how to move forward, but he rotates around in a circle pretty efficiently to get pointed in the right direction. Usually he gets the toy he wants, then rolls to his back to rest and play with whatever he found. I love watching him play on his own to see what he'll do or choose next. Last night the activity of choice was clacking two plastic blocks together.

Palmer goes to the doctor on Friday for his check-up and luckily the next round of shots isn't til his 12 mo visit- woohoo! I'll share his height and weight stats then. We are looking forward to Halloween next week and trying on the much anticipated elephant costume being sewed by my mom. I'm betting it will be pretty cute :)

couch to 5K

My mom and I decided to run the Believe! McKinney 5K the Saturday after Thanksgiving as a motivator to start exercising more, and so far it's working! Some of you may have heard of the training program Couch-to-5K- it's meant to get you from lazy couch potato to running a 5K in two months. Since we didn't make this decision until 7 weeks before race day, and the Couch program is 9 weeks, we're on a bit of an accelerated calendar, but I think it will work out just fine!

I haven't run in a long time, but I think I remember something about it from off-season training in HS swimming. . . oh yeah. . .it's HARD. Luckily, this running plan starts you out slowly. Last week assigned us to alternate 90 seconds of jogging with 2 minutes of walking for 20 minutes. Every week has three workouts and you are supposed to do a brisk 5 minute warm up walk before each. As you might have guessed, each week has less walking and more running
involved! This week is jog 90 sec, walk 90 sec, jog 3 min, walk 3 min. How sad is it that I'm daunted by the 3 minute jogs?? Haha, I hope the designers of this knew what sort of serious couch potatoes they would be dealing with.

Tyler will be showing us up/meeting his potential and running the 10K the same morning. There is also a 1 mile Holiday Walk. (Maybe my mom and I will sneak onto that course if things get rocky ;) I'm looking forward to continuing the process and getting a little more fit. Hopefully my knees can take it!