Training

I'm still training for the half marathon. It's starting to get harder. More miles. Longer runs. Very very humid and sweaty. I miss my old neighborhood. It would have been easy to find long run courses there. This was what my old run looked like. Down paths and around parks. Lots of shade. Depending on the time of morning we got out we could see birds, squirrels, and bunnies. It was beautiful.

My neighborhood here is far less scenic. Busy streets, a couple of small neighborhoods and the freeway. We've seen some wildlife by the side of the road but I don't point it out to Tate unless I nudge it with my foot first, in case it happens to be dead already. I learned this lesson the hard way with a frog that appeared to be fine on our way out and was dead and covered with ants on our way back. I told Tate while we were jogging that we could stop and see it again on our way back home. When I saw how gross it was on the way back we just kept jogging past and he remembered all day that we didn't stop to see the frog again. Then there was a sad tiny turtle and the occasional uninitelligible mushes of gore...needless to say, it's not always a beautiful jog here.

My immediate neighborhood is less conducive to jogging long distances. It's so much easier to get Tate in the stroller and get my jog done with in the morning so we can play with Glenn at night but it is getting harder to do as my runs get longer. Basically there are two circles to run near my house and when you have to run them over and over in order to get the mileage in for my training schedule, it makes my already bored mind go nuts. Does anyone have some great running ipod music recommendations to keep my mind busy? There are so many family members who run do you have any suggestions for me at this point?

Well, those are my challenges, but overall I'm feeling good. I feel stronger and more confident in my training routine. This week it's a 4 mile run today, a 5 mile run on Wednesday, and an 8 mile long run on Saturday. Then cross training of some sort on Tuesday and Thursday. Those long runs are killer. I am feeling like the shorter distances are finally getting easier to knock off and now they're increasing too. Was I crazy to think I could run for 13 miles? Most days I feel like I can totally handle it. Some days I wonder.

Tate is a great sport to sit in the stroller and chill for increasingly long periods of time while I get my morning jog in. I usually let him listen to my ipod on my cool down. He loves it and as soon as I start walking he asks, "Music on?"

Then I carry him up the stairs to our apartment and let him listen to it while I stretch and stuff. The other day he just laid down and listened to the songs.

Speaking of the little man, here are a few more funny things he's done this week before I forget to record them:

- Tate was sitting in his high chair eating breakfast and talking to himself and I heard him say, "Tate, no. No TV ANYMORE." I tried not to laugh and then thought, is that really what I sound like to him?

- Tate kept asking me to see pictures of Mya on the computer while I was sitting at the desk the other day. I finally said, "Okay, we can look at pictures of Mya." I lifted him up on my lap and he whispered, "Oh I so happy!"

- Tate hugged me while I was cooking yesterday and then told himself, "Oh, so sweet."

- We're trying to work more with eating utensils. He's just shown no interest in them thus far so we figured we might as well avoid the mess for a little longer. Now, however, I figure we probably should encourage him to try. Thus far he's just used them to scrape and push things around, not actually try to get them in his mouth. Last night he pushed all his cheesy rice and broccoli off his plate and then picked up the sticky rice covered plate and put it on his head exclaiming, "It's a HAT!" Ah, so it will be a bath night eh Tate?

Mom, I singing!

Tate has just started to sing songs to himself. He really just repeats a couple of words or a phrase over and over but I think it's so sweet. He says little phrases from songs he hears on TV or songs I sing to him at nap and bed time and he says them really slow and drawn out. I love it. We haven't been able to get him to sing along with us yet when we are singing to him.

We went for a drive last Sunday and he was getting restless and ornery so Glenn and I started singing to him. Then we randomly stopped at the same word and Tate finished the phrase. We laughed so hard and kept doing it over and over. Then we tried to catch it on film.

Shop 'Til You Drop

This past Saturday I had a booth at the Shop Til You Drop Maketplace in Cypress. It's about 40 minutes from our place and it was an amazing show. There was a huge arena and adjacent conference room full of booths.
I paid the most money I'd ever paid for a booth at a fair but it looked like it was a good fair and it was very well advertised so I thought I'd take a chance. It was amazing. I made my booth fee back in the first hour and was really busy all day long. I kept having to move things around and refold things to make my table look full. I made three times what I've made at even my best craft fair thus far. Here's a picture of my little booth space.

People loved the cute pictures of my little nieces modeling my infant and toddler skirts.

It was so much fun! It was great to sit at my little booth and have people shop and tell me that they love the things I make. It was such a boost and so nice to know that if I find the right venue I can really make a good deal of money on my little "Tate's naptime" hobby.

Little Adventures

Tate and I have had several little adventures lately. We've been trying to get to know people and figuring out this enormous place we live in by exploring a lot. We've had a lot of fun.

Our ward has a play group that meets once a week some place to let the kids play. It's fun to explore new places and get in a little adult conversation as well! We went to a really cool fountain/splash area downtown and Tate had a blast running through all the water spouts with the kiddos. He's slowly getting braver about getting water in his face.He liked to find them when they were really little and just stand in front of them so they splashed on his chest.

Another day we went with a couple of ladies to the Houston Aquarium. It was awesome! Tate was in heaven. Fish are REALLY exciting right now. Sometimes when it's unbearably hot and we are bored we go to the pet store and he just runs back and forth in front of the fish tanks saying, "More fishy! More fishy!" So the aquarium was like a magical land to Tate. I wish I had got some good video of his reactions to all the animals.

It was a really cool aquarium with each room all decked out in a different theme. This first room was the Bayou and had huge tanks with gators, turtles, and wierd fish.

The next room was a pirate treasure theme. Tate was in running back and forth, pointing out all the fish to me and copying what all the other kids were saying and doing.

At the end of all the little exhibits there was this room with tanks full of starfish, stingrays, horseshoe crabs and other animals you could reach in and touch. More fun in theory to Tate than in actual practice. These sting rays were very tame and loved to be touched. I held Tate's hand and tipped him over so he could touch one and then it started swinging its tail and jumping up the side of the little containment area and almost came up to Tate's face. It was just very excited to have a little love and wanted more. Unforunately, it scared the jeepers out of Tate and he was done reaching his hand in the water for the day.

Glenn came with us on a few little adventures as well. On Labor Day we ventured out to a local farmers market. It was huge and so cool.
Rows and rows of vendors selling the most delicious looking produce. I wanted everything!There were many fruits and vegetables that I hadn't seen before. It was really cool and Tate had fun pointing out things he recognized. It was also intimidating listening to all of the spoken Spanish. It's been way too long and I'm so terribly out of practice that I was nervous to speak to anyone. But I guess I was nervous even when I was in practice.

We came home with bags of goodies. Tons of broccoli, strawberries, corn, peppers, onions, tomatos, zucchini, mangos, passion fruit, cilantro, and all this for about $12. It was awesome. We'll definitely be shopping for produce there more often.
On Friday, for Glenn's half day of work, we decided to go on a little zoo trip. Tate and I have spent some rainy afternoons this week looking at pictures and videos on the computer of animals they have at the zoo here. He was fascinated by them and started to ask to see the pictures every time he saw the computer on. We bought a yearly pass to the zoo which was super cheap so we can go all the time. Tate loves animals right now so we might make this a frequent activity. We saw some big Cheetas
a family of elephants, two big ones and a little baby,

sea lions, grizzly bears, lions, tons of monkeys , and a whole slew of other fun creatures. I think his favorite part was the little aquarium they had at the zoo. He did a little happy dance when he walked into the room and saw all the tanks.

Well Done

Last night Tate was in his high chair eating his dinner. Glenn let out a loud burp and Tate immediately prompted him, "Excuse me."
I couldn't help but smile. Glenn just glared at me. That last thing Glenn wants is someone else to bug him about manners and such. I think it's wonderful. Good job, Tate.

He's Back

My little boy is back to himself and I'm so glad! He's been just a joy to be around the past week and we're loving all of the funny things he says and new things he's learning. He has said so many stinkin' funny things lately that I just keep writing them down on random pieces of paper so I don't forget. It's about time I put them down in one place.

- Sometimes Tate parents himself. He remembers what we tell him in different situations and says them to himself.

For example: He looked at me the other morning, said, "No throwing." then threw his food on the ground.

He falls down and says to himself, "I fine. It's okay."

He does something that we asked him to do and he tells himself, "Good boy!"

Other favorites in this vein, "Be nice!", "Don't hit!", "Please stop.", and my personal favorite right now, "Talk about it." (Which comes from me telling him, "Tate, just calm down. Let's talk about it.")

- A couple weeks ago at church Tate started shouting, "LA LA LA!" I clapped my hand over his mouth and told him to be soft in church. He slapped my hand away and shouted at me, "MOM, I singing!"

- Tate loves green beans. At least he does right now. He was feasting on them the other night and asking for "more green beans" over and over from Glenn. Glenn finally said, "Are you serious?" and Tate told him, "I serious!"

- Tate has started pretending anything and everything is food. He brings it to me, tells me what it is, and asks me to try some. Cars, toys, his sippy cup, even a bolt of fabric at the store yesterday become, "chocate", "O juice", "bocci" (broccoli), "roni" (macaroni), "fruh toast" (french toast), cookies, etc. He holds them up to me and says, "Mommy. O juice! Try some! Is soooo good!"

- "Daddy Back", said when he's so glad that Daddy is home, or when we leave the room and he wants to go back to Daddy.

- "Music on!" Said emphatically from the back seat of the car. Followed occasionally by, "Oh, pretty music."

- "Night time", we play night night a lot around here. He declares it to be night time, falls down on the floor and pretends to snore for a few seconds.

- "Galishious!" He tells me how much he likes his food. He's getting more and more picky about what he eats, but when he likes it he says, "Mmmmm. So good. It's so yummy. Galishious" over and over as he eats. He can be very enthusiastic about his food and it's great for my self esteem when he likes dinners I make!

- We're always telling Tate he is so lucky because he has so much. The other day we were at the store and he leaned over in the cart, gave me a big hug and said, "Oh SOOO lucky!"

- Sometimes Tate snuggles in bed with me in the morning while he drinks his milk. The mornings when I need just a few more minutes of lying down to get myself to wake up. The other morning he finished his milk, climbed on top of me, gave me a huge hug and said, "Oh. I love you so much!"

He's my little angel boy. He has little tantrums, but not too too often. For the most part he's so content to play and is very quick to giggle and smile at silly things I do. Sometimes I think weeks like this, where I look back and just think he was such a sweetie, are to prepare me for ornery weeks to come. I hope not. I hope he just stays this way. It's much more fun.