18 months

I can't believe Ty is 18 months old. I wish I had thought of this idea sooner but oh well. I'm going to recap his growth every few months. I think it will be fun to go back and look at and see how he changes over the months/years.

Age: 18 months
Weight: 29.4 pounds
Height: 31 1/2 inches
Food: veggies ( its pretty normal for ty to eat 2 huge bowls of peas and carrots in one sitting), fruit of any kind, grilled cheese. at daycare he will eat meat (turkey, chicken, pastrami) ...at home, he feeds it to the dog. go figure
Words: everyday his constant babble sounds more and more like actual words. so far he has mastered mama, dada, stop (in a very whining and raised voice, awesome), up, and please (which sounds more like peeeezzz). There's a lot more that he is trying hard to say but hasn't quite mastered, like banana.
Toys: hes still a big fan of balls (soccer, baseball, football, tennis) he will even roll up the washcloth in the bath tub to the shape of a ball and then throw it (ruddley is still has high hopes of him becoming a left handed pitcher) apparently at daycare he spends hours on the rocking horse and gets annoyed when any other kids stand next to him so they can have a turn.
Teeth: 12 with 4 more coming in
Sleep: YES! knock on wood but he sleeps a solid 12 hours a night. he normally goes to bed between 7-7:30 and if we don't have to get up or anything in the morning he will sleep until 8.
Favorite Song: he enjoys listening to his suzuki cello cds as well as the little mermaid cd i play for him now and then (hes going to kill me when he finds out i made him listen to the little mermaid!) . he really loves any kind of music.
Favorite Book: he likes his First 100 Words book along with his First Colors book. he likes to hold his own  book now while we read a different one to him.
Favorite Game: soccer
Bad Habbits: hitting....mom and dad....and then laughing about it.
Potty Trained: HA! i could only wish
Friends: just the ones i make him play with and the kids at daycare
Favorite memory of the last month: just watching him start to learn and discover new things. he has become so independent over the last month and even though it's a pain sometimes, i love watching him do things for himself. of course having him come running to me and give me a hug when i walk in the door after being gone for a run is pretty cool.

she gave me crap for not giving her credit for these photos

more then just a runner

The idea for this blog started a few years ago as I was knocking out some miles on the treadmill at the gym. We all know how painfully boring that can be and how we think of all kinds of crazy ideas. This blog was one of them. I was training, and say that loosely, more like running x miles when the schedule told me to, for my very first half marathon. There was no tempo, no track, no LSD runs... I just ran miles. I wanted a place to record my training and my running and my thoughts on said training and running. I had no idea how big the blogging world was at that point. I mean, yea I had read a few running blogs but really had no idea. 

As I got into it, I started following and reading more blogs, all running related. My focus on this blog up until now has been running with a few random posts thrown in here and there. I've learned alot about running over the last few years. I've learned a lot of "unspoken rules" in the running world, followed people's training plans that have led to an amazing PR. I've read about how every runner has their bad runs and how to recover from that. However, the name of my blog is not "Tales of a Runner". Yea, there's more to me then just a runner. This blog is supposed to be about one mom's adventure in running. So, I've got the running part down around here but I'm missing out on the mom part. While I love running, I'm really quite ok with skipping my run on any given day to spend more time with my family (unless I'm training for something big....like, oh, say my first marathon! yikes!). 

From awesome blog #1 

When I had Ty I started a separate blog for him. I wasn't sure I wanted to connect my two worlds. I've been a bad mommy blogger and I haven't posted anything on his blog in a long time. I know I'm going to regret this down the road when I wonder at what age he started walking, or when he reached other various milestones. It's just that maintaining two different blogs takes a lot of time. I'm hoping it will be different when I combine them all onto one. I've been thinking about this for some time now but the real push came when browsing around on my new love, pinterest. I came across all kinds of crazy mommy DIY blogs. Seriously, how can you not fall in love with blogs that teach you how to make this... 

I'm already planning these for Ty's July birthday! I'm also thinking I'm gonna tell ask Ruddley oh so nicely to paint this for T when he grows out of his current infant decorated room...

Stolen from here

Ohhh and of course I want to make these for the kids at daycare next month...

Amazing DIY mommy blog

Ohhhhh pinterest you are sooo amazing! Now that Ty is getting older we can do more fun things for/with him. It may sound weird but I'm really starting to feel like a mom now. I mean, I know I have been one for the last 18 months but now he's at the age where we can do things with other kids and he actually runs off and plays. In fact, he has his first real play date this afternoon. I'm in no way a crafty person, but for my kid? I think I'll try. So if you read this because you like reading about my running (which I highly doubt cause it's nothing special) then you're gonna have to get used to a few "isn't my kid so cute" posts in the near future. I promise you'll love them :) 

T

One year ago today this happened.

and it feels like over night he turned into this...

Dear Ty,

You are the most amazing thing to ever happen to me. You have brought so much joy and laugher into my life. The days when I was at my worst you just looked at me, smiled and started laughing...I can't help but smile from ear to ear every time I hear that. You love life more then anyone I know and I can't wait to see you grow. One year ago today at 8:00pm you entered this world full of life. Tonight, at 8:00pm I quietly walked into your room where you were peacefully sleeping after a fun day at daycare celebrating with your friends and then a yummy dinner at Friendly's with your dad and I. I told you how much I love you and gave you a kiss. I wondered what you were dreaming about, and I hope all your dreams come true. From the day you were born everyone has called you smiley. You are so happy all the time and I couldn't be more blessed. I love you Ty.

Love,
Mama

three things thursday, take 2

blogger kindly removed this post when they went down last thursday. ugh. here it is again!

train 4 autism update!! wooooot woooooot! i finally was able to nail down a charity that i am going to be raising money for while i train for mdi (yes, i WILL be training for mdi...positive thoughts my friends, positive thoughts!). i decided to go with a place called springy pond farm. this is a place where my brother takes horseback riding lessons in the summer. its run by an amazing women named jennifer cammack who is an occupational therapist. she was actually the one who suggested to my folks that zach see a developmental optometrist (they seriously have those things!?) because she said the reason zach isnt reading yet (13 years old) is because he doesn't track left to right and top to bottom, his eyes wonder all over. annnnnnyway, she rocks but like alot of businesses these days she needs monitary help to stay open. insurance companies don't pay for these lessons and it can be expensive on top of all the other bills that my family, and so many other familes who have autisitic children have. i've set a lofty goal of raising 5,000 over the spring and summer to help her out. i'll be running for train 4 autism and im putting together a team to run with me on oct 16. im going to have a post telling you more about jennifer and springy pong farm soon but in the meantime, i wanted to share this with you! i have a donation page set up and you can go here to donate if you would like to help out.

a new piece of art is in the process of being made at my house! ruddley and ty took a trip to the craft store and picked up some supplies. then ruddley stripped ty naked, squirted some paint on the canvus and set him on it. it was fun and messy and awesome. this is only the first step. he is planning on adding to it, ill post a picture of the finnished project.

im a crew member? uhhh yeah, so a few weeks ago i volunteered to crew for some of my NERT friends who are running the vermont 50 miler in september. then i realized i have no idea what that means. what am i supposed to do or how i do it? i know being a crew member is super, duper, uber important and i don't wanna mess it up. im sure there is nothing like being at mile 40 and hurting, tired, feeling like death and you really need your crew to help you out and they have no idea what they are doing. so i was chatting with someone on twitter about it and he told me i really need to know my runners and what they will need. he also told me not to ask stupid questions (like, are you tired? do you hurt? do you want to quit?). i don't really know the runners needs as far as running is concerned. i do know what kind of beer they like, does that count? i figured i should probably fix that problem. an opportunity came up to crew for some of the same NERTS at a ultra marathon relay in july. i figured this was a little less intense and i could practice my drinking crew skills here and get to know what these runners will need before i crew for the vt50. i really have no idea how this is going to work..like, do i really have to be awake for this whole thing? will they be nice and let me sleep? i mean, i know they are running the entire time are they aren't going to be able to sleep but crewing takes a lot of effort (ummm, i think), i should probably get a nap:-) haha, clearly im going to be an awesome crew member, duh. hopefully i don't get fired before race day!

do you have any brilliant tips for me?

happy thursday/ monday

three things thursday

1. the royal wedding is the last thing on earth i would wake up at 4:00am to watch. im so over it, and it hasnt even happened. with that said, i have friday off from work since i am working this weekend (booo) and im suuuuure im going to get sucked in to watching coverage of the wedding. that's what i do, i spend my days off watching useless stuff on tv. especially if im still gimped up.

2. steroid shot # 2 happened yesterday. im pretty sure its not a good sign when you are able to walk in to the appointment and have to leave the appointment in a wheelchair in tears unable to put weight on your right leg. backing up a bit, the wednesday before boston i had my first shot. i spent wednesday night, all day thursday, friday and saturday with tingling and numbness in my right leg. i got the ok to go to boston and walk around, in fact was told that walking is good for it. saturday night my leg hurt real bad and everyday since then it has gotten worse. i was scheduled for a follow up on may 4th and i called last week and told them i couldn't wait and i needed to get in asap. after getting the run around, you know the "well im not sure what we can do for you", they finally called and said the doctor wanted to see me asap. gee thanks cause i cry everyday and walk around all hunched over like an idoit. they suggested another steroid shot from a different angle and put me on some pain meds (after i suggested they put me some. ugh). their first available appointment was this coming friday but they said they would put me on a cancellation list to try and get me in eariler. on tuesday i was in so much pain i called them to find out if they had openings...come to find out they had one yesterday. im a little annoyed that it took me calling them to get in sooner. oh well. i went in yesterday and got my shot, went home, slept for a while and felt very frustrated. ive got a marathon to trail for. i need to get better so i can have a good, solid training! praying it works this time.

3. T turned 9 months on monday! hes called "smiley" by everyone that comes in contact with him. its actually kind of funny. i bring him to the doctors, work, my parents, my friends and everyones first reaction is "hi smiley"! hes 22lbs and 28in and the best thing to ever come into my life! i can't believe he is 9 months already...where does time go?? hes got 4 teeth and has started eating real people food...you know, like ice cream and french fries!:-)

opening day of the red sox

daddy and T

'cause this is what we do at easter egg hunts....

...eat the eggs!

i love this kid!