"Da Da" and 7 miles!

I'm a little late on posting this ... Thursday Alex said "Da Da" for the first time ... We are both so excited to hear him starting to "talk"! He still has the two teeth, the bottom one is coming in very sideways ... guess it'll straighten out as he grows. He's still not thrilled with textured foods. He just started eating organic yogurt, he loves it.

On to running ... I did 7 miles today ... I can't believe it! I'm feeling great, not sore, not tired (yet) ... here's the stats from today's run:

Total Distance: 7.05 miles
Total Time: 2:00:36
Overall Pace: 17:06 (Previous weeks: 17:16, 17:06)

Run Time: 1:00:36
Run Distance: 4.01 miles
Average Pace while running: 15:07 (Previous weeks: 15:19, 15:21)

Rest time: 1:00:00
Rest Distance: 0.04 miles

Calories Burned: 715 (with my weight of 270)

Again ... thrilled with how consistant we are being! Running with a group sure does make the time go by faster! I love it.

The FEMA rep just called ... so gotta get the place straightened up for his visit. Then we're headed to my parents tonight for dinner, I'm making lasagna, Robby & Rita are bringing garlic bread and mom is making salad ... a nice family dinner. I miss spending time with my family ... it'll be nice to catch up and if we're lucky, play some cards!

On top of that, I think my parents are keeping Alex overnight! It'll be the 3rd time since he was born ... we're excited to sleep in and they're excited to spend time with him! A win-win situation! :) A friend of mine, Ms. Carol, use to keep her grandkids overnight every Saturday night so she could spend time with them ... I always thought that was a great idea. She use to talk about cooking with them, going to the park, reading books ... just spending time together. I've always had a special place in my heart for my grandparents, but that's a whole nother post!

New tooth times two!

Saturday after my run, I noticed Alex's first tooth had finally broken through the skin ... his bottom middle one. Hubby and I both tried to take pics, and this is the best we could do. I know, I know, you can't really see it, but I promise, it's there and it's poking out!



Saturday was a filled day ... Alex and I went to La Leche League, then we all went to Babies R Us (their a/c was broken, ugh, hot.) and Walmart ... finally we got home and I crashed early, I was exhausted from my run.

Sunday daddy went to work, Alex and I stayed home. My parents came over and mom and I went through the boxes and bags of Alex's clothes. Some I'm sending to my brother in Texas for their upcoming baby girl, Myka Renea, who is expected in December. Some I'm sending to Boomerang Consignment, some I'm saving for our "future" baby (hopefully coming in the next year or two), some going to my sister-in-law in Texas who is due in November ... so yes, there was lots of clothes and lots of piles all over my bed. My best friend, Jenny, came over and helped too ... I was glad to finally get through them, it took us a good 2-3 hours! Way longer than I thought.

When Santiago got home from work, we ordered pizza, Mom and Dad stayed and hung out ... after they left I got to looking in Alex's mouth, stuck my finger in and I felt it ... a second tooth! The tooth next to this top middle tooth has broken through ... no wonder he's been so danged cranky!! Poor little guy was working on two teeth! He's been grabbing at his ear since Saturday, I'm thinking he may have an ear infection, he's never had one before. Santiago agreed to take him to the Dr when he gets off work ... his first time. I'm sure they'll do just fine.

6 miles!

WOW, I did it! :) We had a good run this morning, although it was pretty hot and humid. Since I'm a pace group leader, I email my group the results of our run today ... this is part of my email:

Total Distance: 6.08 miles
Total Time: 1:45:02
Overall Pace: 17:16 (last week was 17:06, so right on target!)

Run Time: 53:00
Run Distance: 3.46 miles
Average Pace while running: 15:19 (last week 15:21 - talk about being consistant!)

Rest time: 52:02
Rest Distance: 2.62 miles

Calories Burned: 653 (with my weight of 270)

I'm happy with how consistant we are being with our pace. I think that is so very important. I'm happy I did 6 miles, without pain. Especially since I didn't run this week, I was a bit scared.

I added a new spot on my sidebar where I listed all of the races I have done ... that really made me feel good doing that. It shows me how far I've come and that although I don't look like a runner, I am. And it feels great. I love the line of "Runner Girl" stuff ... stickers, mouse pads, magnets ... I love it. I love running. I'm so happy that I've made it part of my life. I've met some awesome people along the way too. :)

Ok, Alex is taking a nap, I need to take a quick shower and head to the LLL meeting then ... who knows! :) Hubby is off today, so we'll spend it together ... probably at Wally World, we need groceries.

Storm aftermath

Tropical Storm Fay hit this area on Tuesday as you can see from my earlier posts.

When I was getting ready to head to the office on Wednesday, I made our bed. Santiago puts his "decorative" pillow on the floor while he sleeps .. I picked it up and it was soaked! But we didn't know of any leaks, we didn't see any water coming in at all. We soaked up the water with towels, he pulled up the carpet and pad and put fans on it. I went to work, he stayed home with Alex half a day then brought him to my parents house for a few hours. That night we slept with the fans on and our bed pulled out and left it that way the next day (Thursday). We both went to work on Thursday and took Alex to daycare, a regular day.

I walk in the door Thursday night and I smell something is off, way off. By this time, Santiago has put our room back together, everything is dry. Santiago has a cold, so he really didn't smell anything too bad. I did. I went to Alex's room and knew the smell was in there ... got on my hands and knees and felt around the carpet and smelled it ... all over his room I did that. I get to our computer desk and it's stronger ... but I can't find where it's coming from. Santiago gets down on the floor ... and finds it.

Under our chairmat is a huge wet spot ... which is now mildewed and stinking BAD. It's around 9 pm by now and Alex is usually asleep, but there was no way I was putting him in this stinky room. Santiago cut out the affected carpet and pad area. I went to my parents house to pickup Alex's playpen, came home Alex was already asleep in our bed ... transferred him to the playpen in our room and we went to sleep.

We woke up to a stinky house. Our place is a small 2/2 condo, maybe 900 sq feet, so it's not like we have lots of place to move stuff around. We both called in to work, my parents took Alex to daycare then helped us move everything out of his room and rip up the carpet.

Apparently it got wet from a hole in the frame of the window, we can't see anything else. The corner of the carpet was still wet, the baseboards are damp, but drying out. It just killed me to have to rip it all out. The carpet was pretty new, berber carpet with blue and green in it ... we installed it and painted it blue before I got pregnant, it worked out great for Alex's room.

We worked all day, got the room emptied, carpet/pad gone, swept, lowered Alex's crib (necessary since he's standing up in it now) .... put everything back and "cleaned" the floor. Ugh. Not the best day.

We're going to keep Alex in our room for the next few days to see how his room airs out. It's still somewhat stinky in here, but not nearly as bad as it was. I don't want him in here if there's still issues though.

The storm just screwed with our week ... My office was closed Tuesday, Santiago didn't work Tuesday or Wednesday ... plus I have a 6 mile run tomorrow and I wasn't able to get any of my two runs in this week, so I'm probably going to struggle. Whine.

On the bright side, Alex is happy at the moment. :)

Ok .. gotta get to bed .... wish me luck on my run ... hoping I make it to the La Leche League meeting tomorrow!

Alex is getting busy!

This video is from Sunday of Alex 'crawling'. This is the closest he is coming to crawling at the moment. He'd much rather be in his walker running through the house. It's so funny, he runs then lifts his feet up and rolls the rest of the way.

Today I put Alex in his crib to play, which is rare, because we're usually in the living room or our bedroom playing. But I needed to get online for a few minutes and daddy was sleeping. So I put him in his crib, sitting up, with some toys ... a few minutes later I heard the crib moving, I turned around, and to my utter surprise, Alex was standing up just smiling at me! I was like, OMG. My first thought was, ok, time to lower his mattress since it's still on the highest position. I put him back down in a sitting position and watched him ... pretty easily he pulled on the bumper, then on the rail and pulled himself up. I was amazed. I grabbed the camera and he did it a few more times ... and yes, I woke daddy up to watch too!

Ok, enough posts for today ... glad I got them up though. We have a lot of family that isn't local that is enjoying the pictures and hopefully now videos of Alex.

Rain Pics

I wasn't as productive as I thought I'd be today ... sigh.

Here's some pics of how Tropical Storm Fay affected our neighborhood.

The community pool, right outside of our front door ... it hasn't overflowed during this storm, which is surprising.





Parking lot outside of our building ... everyone else moved their vehicles to higher ground.


Our pond ... it's usually way lower than the fence.



Our roads drain to the pond ... which is why they're flooded. Santiago's car is safe!



Santiago & Alex during the storm ... Alex was happy to be out of the house for a few minutes.

Rain Rain Rain

Tropical Storm Fay is in the process of drenching our area with lots and lots of rain. I won't complain. :) We're all home together, which with Santiago's schedule, isn't the most common occurance in our home.

Area schools closed, which means Alex's daycare closed. I'm very grateful that our office closed as well. The county is still open, which means Santiago was expected in to work, but he used a vacation day to stay home. I feel more comfy having him home with us, plus all over the news they are saying to stay inside, don't drive. I understand some people feel like this is just a thunderstorm, but you never know what could happen, and I'd rather be safe than sorry.

I just made blueberry muffins, don't cheer me yet, they're Jiffy, but hubby is still thrilled, and now the house smells yummy. I've been working on cleaning off our computer desk, it's a mess. I'm backing up our hard drive, I try to do it once a month. We have so many pictures, I would hate to lose them. I also need to update the pics on my thumb drive we keep in our safetly deposit box. And I'm going to try to upload a video of Alex today ... see, lots to do on my "day off" and I'm sure there's much more to do, there always is!

Daddy is feeding Alex his bottle ... so let me working on my projects!

Little sleep

I'm guessing Alex is teething ... the last 3 nights he hasn't slept well and has had a fever. Sunday it was 102.3, last night it was 101.6 ... but tylenol took care of it and it stopped. He's been so cranky and whiny. He's not usually like that, he's a really good baby, doesn't fuss much at all. So this is a real change for us. I hate seeing him in pain.

I think Santiago and I got maybe 4 hours of sleep last night, and that's not solid, it's 30 mins here, 45 mins there ... ugh. Finally, after searching online last night for ideas to try, he liked the paci with frozen water in it. That seemed to help his pain and let him sleep. He wanted nothing to do with the teething ring, cold or frozen washcloth though.

I remember my eyes last shutting at 4:17am, knowing my alarm was going off at 5:00am because today is Tuesday ... running day. I hit the alarm a few times and finally got up, racing around to leave the house. I brought Alex to my parents (they're keeping him all week since daycare is closed), he was still in his jammies, but suprisingly happy and alert.

I met Jenny and Christina at our usual spot ... Jenny said we needed to do atleast 3 miles, the route we were taking was 2.66 miles. So I said ok ... we'll just run to Macedo instead of Manville. Well. I messed up. We ended up doing 3.99 miles. Christina wasn't dressed for that distance, and Jenny nor I really had the extra time, but what can you do? You're already out there, you can't magically stop and leave. It showed we burned 449 calories. Yeah. I was dripping so much sweat, ick ... glad I bought the covers for the van seats.

My mom is taking Alex to a playgroup for infants at the Tot Room in the PSL Community Center today. I'm sure he'll love it. I took him there for an "Itty-Bitty Signers" playgroup last month and I think he liked it. They have mats on the floor and soft foam pieces for him to stand up on. Sometimes I really wish I was a SAHM, so I could take him to these activites. I'm glad my mom is able (and wanting) to. Time to get ready for work ...

Magic Mile

Yesterday was our group running day ... part of getting everyone into the correct pace group is doing a "Magic Mile" or "MM". We go our with our usual group and then do a one mile run as fast as you can. It's a timed event, everyone starts at the same time and runs one mile. There are people at the 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 mile marks to call out your time so you can gauge how you are doing.


I started off doing great ... as most runners do ... especially because everyone else around you is speeding by, well, that's my life anyways! I know I'm a slow runner, this is nothing new to me. You'd think by now, I would accept it and move on. And I'm trying to. But it's not working this time as well as it did last time I was training. When I was training in 06, I was running 3 times a week and going to my trainer twice a week ... yes, this makes a difference. It does! When I was training in 07, I was a few months pregnant, so noone really expected me to be fast, and I wasn't. But now, here I am ... post-baby, still carrying my pregnancy weight .. and trying to run.


My Magic Mile time was 14:54. I was the last person to finish. The LAST.

I'm down, feeling disappointed in myself ... and I remember I did a spreadsheet in 2006 charting my runs ... I wonder if I can find it? I start looking through my computer, there's lots of files ... and I find it ... "walksNruns" ... I want to know, but I'm scared to be disappointed in myself more than I already am.

Ya know what it says?!?! :)


My very first 5k (3.1 miles) ever, on January 7, 2006 in Disney ... I finished in 60:00. ONE HOUR! That's 19:35 per mile. I scan down, how good did I get on my chart ... my fastest time I have listed (Sadly, I only kept track for a few months) is the Disney 5k Women Go Red event in May 2006, where I did 15:36 per mile.


I need to shut up and feel good at my starting point. And I will.


Since I'm going down memory lane about my running ... here's some of my race pictures I was able to find ...




Our first 5k .. Disney, Jan 2006. It was COLD. L-R: Me, Mom, Jenny, Belle




May 2006 - Disney 5k Women's Go Red. Me, Mom and Jenny



Memorial Day, May 2006 - Run for the Pineapple 5k. Me, Mom, Logan and Robby. Logan won an award for his age division!


December 2006 - Palm Beach Half Marathon. Before the race, Jenny, me, Gina, and Bucky. Me finishing my first ever half marathon, 13.1 miles!!! What a great feeling!

January 2007 - Disney Half Marathon. Robby & I at mile 4. Jenny & mom at mile 8 . Jenny & I after the race, aren't we cute, we match.

December 2007 - Palm Beach Half Marathon. I promised Jenny I would be there, no matter what, and I was, although I didn't do the race. Bucky and I cheered Jenny on along with her hubby Randy. Alex was born exactly 2 weeks later. :)



Wow ... that made me feel really good ... looking at all of those happy pictures. I've had lots of fun doing the local 5k races. Even if I am almost always in the last 10 to finish. My best friend, Jenny, has done almost all of them with me, I think she was sick for the Pineapple one, otherwise, we're together at the start. Bucky did Palm Beach with me and will again this year. My brother ran the Disney Half Marathon with me, but doesn't have the time to train for another one right now. My mom has come to cheer us on a few times ... she loves it and she gets so many thanks from random runners after the event, it makes her day. I'm sure she helped make theirs too.

Having family and friends supporting and encouraging me really means the world! Thanks!