Baby Boot Camp Grand Opening!

Baby Boot Camp Grand Opening
September 8, 2008

We have hit the ground strolling! After months of anticipation, Baby Boot Camp has started! I'm so relieved and happy to report that the Grand Opening was fantastic. We had 20 people turn out, and many enjoyed the class so much that they bought class packages on the spot. I too enjoyed myself a lot-- after many years of searching, I have found my calling. The ladies that have already joined up are so motivated to succeed, and I am excited to be helping them with their goals. Now that we have a solid foundation to start, I'm looking forward to launching classes in Riverview next week, and at the YMCA at the beginning of next month.

Anthony's been wonderful so far at class! He seems to get a kick out of it. He's my little helper, when I tell the ladies it's time to start moving again with the strollers he'll echo me in saying, "let's go!" Or if I let out a whoop of excitement, he'll follow suit. My little parrot is mommy's little helper!

With the good comes the bad, of course. My little escape artist decided it would be a worthwhile endeavor to crawl out of his crib the other night! I heard a thump and loud screaming around 7:00am, ran in there to find him on the floor beside his crib, his foot still hooked in one of the rails. He wasn't hurt but was obviously very scared. My heart just went out to him, I can only imagine how scary that must've been for him! So Adam and I immediately started looking for transitional toddler beds as the pediatrician said it was time if he was trying to crawl out. We've found one, and MiMi and Granddude have kindly decided to buy it for him. It will take a week to get here, so we decided to use the pack and play as a makeshift bed if Criss Angel decides another escape routine is in order!

On the running front, Adam and I took Anthony on a family run last night. We went 3.5 miles with me pushing the jogging stroller, which is quite a bit of resistance if you consider the 26 pound passenger! I'll do another 3 tomorrow, 4 Saturday, and 6 on Sunday.

First Training Run

The marathon training has officially begun! This morning Erin and I met at 7:00am and completed 8.5 miles. We were only scheduled to do 6, but I figured if we were feeling good it couldn't hurt to build an extra shorter week into the training later on if we needed it.

It was a fantastic run! As far as I can remember it was the longest run I've done since the Gasparilla 15K last February. Weather wasn't too bad, and I just fell into an easy rhythm and pace. Yesterday I did 3 miles of hill intervals on the treadmill, and I've definitely found that my regular runs improve drastically after a hill training workout.

Days like today make one feel like 26.2 miles is nuttin'! I'm sure I'll be changing my mind about that...

In other news, Anthony's still not himself. He's been very fussy, and is still not eating much. It's a mommy's job to worry, and I am. I know when my baby isn't right. He doesn't want to do any of the things he normally enjoys, and now he's constipated because he hasn't been eating enough to produce a decent poop! He'll be going to the doctor soon if we don't start seeing some serious improvements in his eating and attitude!

Fabulous Run!

I was so involved in talking about the terrible, awful, dreadful thing that I forgot to mention the FABULOUS run I had Thursday night! I headed out around 6:30pm, and it felt more like early October out. The humidity was very low for central Florida standards, and my body responded by plowing through a fun and fast 4 mile run. For the first time in awhile I actually enjoyed the run, and I completed in in just over 37 minutes. The last mile back home, which is usually my most sluggish, was under a 9 min/mi pace. It felt like my legs were on autopilot, moving ahead so quickly that my upper body felt like it was being left behind. What an awesome feeling!! The treadmill hill drills are definitely helping my speed. I'm going to head out to the gym here in a minute to do some more hill training!

Thursday night reminded me of why I love running in the first place. It's so good to have those runs, especially since I tend to get so unmotivated during the hot, sticky Florida summers.

The Terrible, Awful, Dreadful Thing...

When I was growing up, I loved Beverly Cleary's Ramona book series. Ramona was my favorite child heroine, and I would read those books over and over until I had sections committed to memory. In fact, I still do. I can remember one particular book titled "Ramona Quimby, Age 8" in which Ramona suffers the humiliation of throwing up in school. If I recall correctly, it went like this: "The terrible, awful, dreadful thing happened. Ramona threw up. She threw up right there in front of everyone." I could totally relate to this being the end-all-be-all of horrible situations. I was always terrified of throwing up (still am, actually). When I found out I was pregnant, I dreaded the morning sickness (which never turned out to be anything more than nausea, thank goodness!) When it came time for labor, the pain didn't scare me nearly as much as knowing that many women puke during the transition phase (it ended up I did!) My sister has a 13 year no-puking streak going, if that gives any indication of my family's relationship to stomach purging.

I must admit, for the past year and a half I've worried about the first time Anthony gets sick. When he had the flu earlier this year, I was eternally grateful it never involved puking. I always figured we'd know when it was coming based on his behavior and eating patterns. Though he's been eating like a little chickadee the past 3 days, he chowed down at dinner last night and was his usual bouncy, happy self when he went to bed.

Imagine my surprise at 3:30am this morning when Adam got up to check on him after we heard cries over the monitor and delivered this news: the terrible, awful, dreadful thing had happened. Anthony threw up.

I think Adam and I both handled it quite well, and Anthony seemed pretty unbothered by it actually. We stripped the bed, changed his clothes, and after a few minutes put him back to bed. An hour later, we heard him gagging again, but that time very little seemed to be expelled, and he went back to sleep for a couple of hours. He got up at his usual 7:00am and downed a cup of milk, 2 cups of pedalyte, and a bowl of oatmeal with no adverse affects. He's taking a nap now, being obviously exhausted from being up in the middle of the night, but I haven't heard any unpleasant sounds rising from the monitor, so I'll assume he's ok and the dreadful, horrible, terrible thing won't happen again...!

In other news, a truly terrible, awful, dreadful thing that's not just my melodramatics... Hurricane Ike is plowing through the lower Caribbean with hints that it might come to visit us later in the week! I'm not too worried because Tampa does seem to have an uncanny ability to repel these storms... but we'll stay tuned.

Grand Opening Monday!! 25 people RSVPed! Excited and anxious and hoping no sickness or storms affect this event that I've worked all summer to make fabulous!!

... and then moments like those

Easy come, easy go. It took exactly 4 hours for the warm fuzzies I experienced earlier to vanish into thin air, replaced by all the annoyance and frustration that comes along with parenting an obstinate toddler. People (including the pediatrician) have been warning me for months that toddlers hit a point where they don't want to eat anymore because their bodies don't need the same amount of calories to grow as they formally did. This seemed to happen to Anthony overnight-- one day he was chowing down, the next two bites sustained him the whole day. Today, he ate his oatmeal and banana fine, and had a nutrigrain bar at 11:00am. After a very long nap, I couldn't get him to eat a thing at 2:30pm. I figured he'd be starving by dinner, and I wanted him to eat before my yoga class tonight and before he had to go to **Du-duh-DA-DAAAAHHH** the dreaded GYM CHILDCARE CENTER!

So at 6:00pm I fixed up a yummy dinner of fish fillets and veggies from the beef stew Adam was making in the crockpot. Mr. Obstinate turned up his nose promptly at the veggies. Ok, fine, says I, let's try the fish. No go. Now I'm getting annoyed, but trying not to let him see that as to not fuel the fire. Since he's acting like a baby, I grab a jar of pureed sweet potatoes (aka baby food), which is normally a crowd pleaser. Nah-ah, he ain't having it! I must admit, now I am P-Oed! Our battle becomes a power struggle, in which I lose all sense of reason (how do you reason with a toddler, anyway?) and vow to get some food in that gullet if I have to hold him upside down and pour it in the old fashioned way! Ok, I never intended to do that, but believe me, the thought crossed my mind.

He promptly burst into tears, shaking his head vigorously. I give up on the table, let him out of his high chair, and then try to feed him again in the living room, where he usually has breakfast. All toddler hell is broken loose at this point, and he's wailing as I get more and more frustrated. I give up entirely on the food, just trying to get him to calm down enough that we can go to the gym. He's shifted to high gear now, and there's no turning back. He calms down while we're on the short ride to the gym, but once we get there and enter the childcare center, he lets out full-on hysterics as I pass him to the care attendant. I felt so bad for her, passing on this screaming pile of toddler theatrics while I ran off to teach the class, but I had no other options. Needless to say, I was beyond embarrassed.

The hour apart was good for both of us, as we had both calmed down by time I picked him up. He ate some oatmeal and banana before bed, so hopefully he won't be up at 3:00am tonight wanting to eat. That was the main thing for me-- I knew if he went all day without eating, he'd be wanting mealtime in the middle of the night, and that is not happening!

The emotional roller coaster of parenting a toddler makes me dizzy sometimes. We're up, we're down, we're upside down, we're blasting off at 60 mph and coming to a screeching halt. I know I have to learn to not try to out-stubborn him, but it's so hard to let him get the best of a situation, knowing it could lead to more exaggerated problems in the future. I know that toddlers eat less than babies and I shouldn't have gotten so determined in making him eat, but I also know he can, and probably would, wake up hungry in the night as he's done it before. I also know he butts head with me more than anyone else because I his mother, and he's intent on pushing his limits.

Today was a day of rest from running, but I intend to keep this situation fresh in my mind as I head out tomorrow night. Frustration fuels my running, so I should be on par with the Olympians tomorrow!

My Frustrated Marathon Mommy

Moments Like These

Today I realized why I did the right thing in leaving my loser job and taking on this Baby Boot Camp endeavor. The time I have, and am going to have, with Anthony is priceless. This morning I took him to the Family Resource Center for open play time. Basically, it's a giant room with lots of books and toys. They had those foam "carpet" pieces that link together to form a big disco-looking floor. We put some of those together, and Anthony had a blast going to town on them! He ran around, stopping to pump his knees up and down in an awkward dance of sorts, grinning from ear to ear the entire time, and chanting "jump, jump!" It was just such a joy watching him have fun like that, and I realized how many of those moments I might have missed out on if I had stayed in that job and continued to surf the internet all day.

Yesterday I ran 3 fast miles on the treadmill-- just over 27 minutes. My time has improved tremendously, probably from the hill intervals I've done on the treadmill this summer.

I was telling a friend this morning about my marathon hopes and what propelled me to do it. I can imagine myself crossing the finish line after 26.2 long miles and months of training behind me, feeling elated at the accomplishment I'd made, especially when not-so-long ago I did not believe I was capable of it. Pushing my limits, challenging myself, going outside the box and doing things I didn't believe I could do-- that's motivation!

Chantel

Let the training begin!

First, let me say how happy I am hurricane Gustav did not turn out to be the monstrous disaster that the media predicted (and seemed to be hoping for!) It was definitely a significant storm but will not go down into infamy with Katrina. For the most part, New Orleans was spared as the levees held.

Now two days in September, I really have my mind on two things-- the Baby Boot Camp Grand Opening next Monday and beginning MY MARATHON MOMMY training! I'm excited for the Grand Opening... I have 25 people on the RSVP list. I think we'll have a good showing and a great first class! I've been anticipating this for so long, I'm ready to get it going already.

Also something I've been highly anticipating... the start of marathon training. Staring this Sunday, we are a mere 18 weeks until show time! This year went by so fast! This past week I ran 6 on Saturday (though not a good run-- I was very sluggish). I also ran 3 with the stroller last night, and 3 today at the gym (27:28 time on that one!) I tell ya, running with that stroller is getting harder and harder with the 27 lb weight in the front!

Our training schedule has us getting progressively longer on our weekly "long run". We start out at 6 miles (both already at 8, so we're a couple of weeks ahead!), go up 1 mile each week for two weeks, and then step back one week. So the long run looks like this: 6, 7, 5, 8, 9, 7, 10, 11, 8, and so on until the long run is 20 miles. 20 miles!!

I must've lost my head for doing this in the first place, but it's going to be a great feat and I am PUMPED!

Chantel