Sunday Funny

Back in March, when Ocean was sick, he kept shoving stuffed animals and bobby (his blankie) into his pillow case. Then he'd cry when he couldn't find bobby. I'd go in and retrieve bobby, Ocean would grab it, I'd leave, and a little later we'd repeat the process.

Normally he has a good memory, so I think it must have been because he wasn't feeling well.

Those who also have a good memory will remember that River's blankie was named Bob and Ocean's was named Larry, ala the Veggie Tales. Over time, Bob has evolved into bobby, and Ocean has decided his blankie is also named bobby (it is easier to say than Larry). So now all the blankies are "bobby", and if River has more than one that he's carrying around, the second one is "two bobby." As in, where's two bobby?

Using Instagram to Improve Speech in Toddlers

the rule is if he can climb up AND down by himself, he can play on the upper level

he learned how to climb it a year or so ago, Ocean will probably figure it out in the next 6 months

River finished speech therapy when he turned 3 back in October, and while he's still delayed, he has improved leaps and bounds since then.

One thing that we've been doing has turned out to be unexpectedly helpful in improving his skills. We read books to the kiddos, of course, but it wasn't until River and I started looking at "puppy pictures" on Instagram that I realized how much pictures can help improve his speech abilities.

When we look at "puppy pictures" I ask him questions and he describes what he sees, or points to objects I ask him to find.

This has helped his observation skills and his vocabulary and speech skills. He's more articulate, has better pronunciation, and uses complete sentences.

Obviously, this doesn't have to be done using social media, it just happens to be what helped me realize what was going on. Books with pictures are just as effective as Instagram pics, but I do find it easier to ask questions about Instagram pics than a page in the story we're reading.

GAPS v.2017 Week 14

once Ocean realized there was candy in the eggs, he was done looking for more eggs- he wanted the candy!

I'm still working on getting back on the wagon. Honestly, I'm feeling a bit discouraged at my lack of willpower lately. I've realized that I do fine as long as I stay away from stores and the temptation to grab that bag of chocolate just sitting there on the shelf. Unfortunately I can't completely avoid stores, plus avoiding the issue isn't solving the root of the problem.

I still have weight I need to lose, but it's not going to happen if I'm not more careful about the amount of carbs and starches I'm eating. If weight loss wasn't part of the equation, I would probably call it good at this point and quit GAPS entirely. However, weight loss is a big part of the equation, so I can't quit and I need to figure out how I'm going to make a low carb/low starch diet work for me. Because what I've been doing the last few weeks (cheating here and there and thinking I can get away with it without repercussions) hasn't been working.

In other health news, last week I had my follow-up to make sure my ear had healed properly, which it had. Though I was surprised at how long it took for my hearing to get back to normal- a good three weeks at least.

I also took River back in since he was still having problems hearing and he'd started complaining about his ears hurting again. He also had a nasty cough and runny nose. His ruptured eardrum and ear infection had healed, but there was fluid behind that eardrum and his other, previously healthy ear, was infected. So he's on antibiotics now, as well as allergy meds for the cough and runny nose.

After discussing the symptoms, his doc felt that those symptoms were indicative of allergies rather than illness. Ocean and I also have some milder allergy symptoms. I don't remember allergies being an issue last spring, so I'm bummed that they're becoming a problem.

Weekly Mileage

This week it rained quite a bit so I wasn't able to work on the chicken run. Instead I focused on finalizing details of my new website. My businesses have been moving a bit slower than I'd like, mostly because there's still "start up" details that still haven't been completed. I've determined to focus on one business at a time and finish up all the little things that I haven't quite gotten to, with my website being first up.

I've gone through several themes (designs on a word press site) and not really been happy with any of them. The last one was doing something wonky to my images, and I couldn't fix them, which was incredibly frustrating. I installed a new theme Monday, and things are looking much better. It almost looks like I'd want it to look if I paid someone a lot of money to design it from scratch (which I can't afford to do).

I spent the week customizing the theme, figuring out how to install google adwords (every time you change your theme it inactivates them, and the plugin that used to manage it is being inactivated so it's a bit more involved now), reviewing and updating the thumbnails for each post, and catching up on my posts (I stopped posting for a few weeks because I was frustrated with how unprofessional my site was looking).

River picked flowers for me

I have a bit more thumbnail editing to do and some more posts to write, but I've just about got things where I want them, which will allow me to move on to the maintenance phase of regular blog, Instagram, and Facebook posts. Then I will move to tidy up the next business.

Monday I walked on the treadmill while waiting on the laundry. Wednesday I was feeling tired and blah and didn't run, but that proved to be a mistake, since I had to squeeze those miles in on Friday and Saturday. I ran 3.5 miles on Friday and another 5 on Saturday, with more miles walked to warm up and cool down.

Towards the end of our hike. Ocean just woke up and isn't sure what's going on, River's resting his head on the bench, and Sunshine just wants to be done because it's so hot and humid. Real life :)

Thursday we hiked just before history club, but our timing was a bit off. Thursday proved to be hot and humid, so our 1pm hike was hot and sweaty. It's time to make sure we're dressing appropriately for hot weather and bringing lots of water on our hikes.

I've had some niggling at the top of my left calf, just below the back of my knee. It doesn't seem to be a problem when I'm running, but it bugs me when I'm walking and it just feels off. I'm hoping it's not going to be an issue, but the real test will be this Saturday. I'm running a 5k that's run up a <small> mountain. It's completely up hill, so if I can run it without my calf bothering me I should be ok. In the meantime, I'm foam rolling and using Deep Blue rub.

the new normal when Ocean is on the ground- Sunshine and River way ahead, Ocean taking his time exploring all the things

Total Mileage
Monday: 2.35 miles walked on the treadmill
Thursday: 2.23 miles hiked
Friday: 5.00 miles run and walked on the treadmill
Saturday: 7.50 miles run and walked on the treadmill
      total miles: 17.08 miles

hike #13 towards the #52hikechallenge
157.19 miles towards the #365milechallenge

Sunday Funny

For your viewing pleasure, some pictures from this past fall of Ocean sitting in stuff.

GAPS v.2017 Week 13 Intro-ish

As expected, I did not do so great last week in my efforts to stick to GAPS. Self-fulfilling prophecy? Probably. In any case, the stores are now almost barren of Cadbury mini eggs and Cadbury caramel eggs, so if I stay out of the stores, it will be easier to resist temptation and be more careful about what I'm eating.

I've been thinking a lot about my eating habits and why certain things are a bad idea for me. As in, eating one piece of chocolate (or candy or starchy carbs) just doesn't work for me. There's something in them that triggers something in my brain, and it tells me to just keep eating all the <sweet, sugary> things. There's not a reliable off switch.

Honestly, it's discouraging. Moderation doesn't work for me in this case- only complete abstinence. But never eating sweets or starchy carbs for an indefinite, extended period of time brings its own set of issues. I've self-medicated with chocolate for years when I'm stressed, and kicking that habit is difficult.When I'm stressed and I want my chocolate fix and I can't have it, it adds to my stress.

On the other hand, if I can get past the first week of detoxing and re-adjusting, it won't be nearly as stressful. I just need to talk myself through that week of adjustment.

I can do it.

I can do it.

I can do it.

aren't River and Ocean the cutest?

Weekly Mileage

Monday I spent 4 hours wrestling fencing for the chicken run. The fencing is all in place, but I still need to attach the boards. Despite the sore muscles (100 pound rolls of fencing are so heavy and awkward to work with), I walked two miles on the treadmill in the evening while keeping an eye on the laundry.

Wednesday my friend wasn't able to go for a run, so I ran 4 miles on the treadmill and walked a bit more to warm up and cool down.

Thursday we went for a hike at the multi-use park. We haven't been there for a number of weeks and it was nice to spy out the signs of spring. I let Ocean walk the last portion of our hike, and that was much more successful than letting him walk at the beginning.

gotta pick up some sticks for the trail

Friday I ran another 4 miles on the treadmill. This makes three times I've run 4 miles at a stretch, without stopping. I'm happy with my increased endurance, but I have a ways to go before I can run 13.1 miles without stopping.

Today marks the first official day of my half marathon training. I've been building my mileage back up after being ill, and I'm ready to get going. I need to start including some hill work and some speed work, but I feel like I'm off to a good start.

Weekly Mileage
Monday: 2.07 miles walked on the treadmill
Wednesday: 5.2 miles run and walked on the treadmill
Thursday: 2.22 mile hike
Friday: 3.3 miles walked on the treadmill
Saturday: 4.75 miles run and walked on the treadmill
         total miles: 17.54 miles

12 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
140.11 miles towards #365milechallenge

Sunday Funny

Monkey see, monkey do.

River put his feet up on the handle of the shopping cart, so Ocean tried to do the same. His short little legs just couldn't quite make it.

He tried holding his legs up, but they still didn't reach :)

Flowers!

Keeping plants alive is not my strong suit. Over the years, I’ve killed more houseplants than I’d like to admit. However, I do seem to be moving past my plant murderer tendencies.

Shortly after we bought this house, I purchased an orchid. Six years later, that orchid is still alive, and it flowers twice a year. All I do is water it a couple times a month, and somehow it’s thrived despite my neglect. I have noticed that the stems aren’t as tall and the leaves aren’t as big lately, so I’m going to try giving it some orchid food on a regular basis to see if that bolsters it a bit. Fingers crossed that I don’t mess it up entirely.

Another plant I’ve managed to keep alive is this amaryllis that I received for Christmas three years ago. I followed the directions and planted it, but it never flowered. It grew spectacularly long leaves, but no flowers. It went dormant and I thought about throwing it away, but left it on the windowsill instead. Months later it woke up and grew another set of spectacularly long leaves, but again no flowers. After another dormant period, it put forth greenery, but this time there was a stalk. In fact, there were two stalks! The flowers have all died now, but the leaves are still growing.  I’m not sure why it took so long to flower, but it was nice to finally see them. Guess I won’t give up on this one just yet :)

the tall stalk is the older flower, and the new stalk is just starting out

The last flowers are a work in progress. Back in February I bought a vase full of tulips from Costco. These tulips came with their bulbs attached, with the premise that they would last longer than cut flowers. They did last quite a while before finally dying. They included instructions for storing in the freezer and planting in the fall. I planted some anemone bulbs this past fall and they’ve flowered quite nicely, so I have hopes that the tulips will similarly thrive.

GAPS v.2017 Week 12 Intro-ish

Ocean stopped to pick up sticks while we were hiking last week- he sure loves his sticks :)

I’m still struggling to get back on the GAPS band wagon. I’m doing better, but I’m having trouble being 100% committed. I’ve been trying to identify why this is the case, and I’ve come up with a few possibilities.

1. I’m still recovering from being sick and taking antibiotics
2. It was that time of the month last week
3. Easter candy- Cadbury mini eggs are just so hard to resist!
4. High stress levels

Individually, I could handle them. Piled on top of each other, I’m not doing so well.

doesn't he look like he's casting a spell? he's smiling, so I'm sure it's a harmless one :)

This week I’m planning on doing the best I can, but being realistic, it still won't be perfect.

1. Feeling a lot better, though still a bit congested in the sinuses and lungs- hopefully I'll finally kick it this week.
2.  Done with my period thank goodness.
3. Easter’s this Sunday, so Cadbury mini eggs will disappear from the shelves until next February (pretty sure that’s when I first saw them this year).
4. Not a lot I can do about my stress levels because a lot of it is due to things I don’t have control over. There’s some things that are up in the air, and until we get more information we can’t make plans for other things (how’s that for vague?). We probably won’t get that information for another three weeks, at which point we’ll have to scramble to figure out how we’re going to make everything work. Depending on how things go, we have several options, but we can’t plan the details until we have more information. I find this very stressful as I like to plan things out. There’s other stressors as well, but that’s the big one right now.

My point to all that is that this coming week should be a bit better, but next week will see even more improvement in my ability to stick to GAPS.

Weekly Mileage

Last week was cold and rainy, but I managed to have some good workouts on the treadmill. I'm back up to 5 workouts in one week, which is what I need to be doing from here on as I get ready to start my half marathon training, which officially starts next Monday.

Monday and Thursday I walked on the treadmill. Wednesday I had a good 3.55 mile run on the treadmill with another 4.0 mile run on Saturday; both runs were without stopping. Improving my endurance is one of my goals, so it’s nice to see it happening (on the treadmill at least, even if not out on the road yet). 

the boys would have loved playing in the puddles

Thursday it was raining, but we were going to go hiking anyway since we have rain gear. That was the plan right up until the thunder and lightening started. At that point I changed our plans and rescheduled our hike for Friday morning and hit the treadmill instead.

Our hike Friday was… an experience. I decided to let Ocean walk for a bit at the beginning, with the intention of putting him in the carrier on my back after a little while.

why hike when you can scratch in the dirt with the stick you picked up earlier?

As expected, he wandered all over and had a blast (he loves being outdoors). The problems came when he wanted to go off the trail, when he walked super slow, and when he wanted to sit and play in the dirt in the middle of the trail. Add in River being adamant about taking the <much longer> red trail instead of the <much shorter> yellow trail we were on and resultant meltdown and the cold and windy weather and I was not as calm and patient as I could have been. In the end, Ocean went on my back, but was very unhappy about it and River finally bowed to the inevitable and followed us on the yellow trail, but he wasn’t happy about it either. Needless to say, our hike was not very long.

River spotted the red trail marker to the left

and proceeded to hug it while crying "red! red!"

I’ll let Ocean walk again, but I’ll pick a day when it’s warmer and I’m not feeling crummy (I had a sore throat on top of everything else) and I’ll let him walk towards the end of the hike, rather than the beginning. Maybe that will work better?

Weekly mileage

Monday: 2.32 miles walked on the treadmill

Wednesday: 4.11 miles run and walked on the treadmill

Thursday: 3.05 miles walked on the treadmill

Friday: .74 miles hiked

Saturday: 5.0 miles run and walked on the treadmill

            total miles: 15.22 miles

11 hikes towards #52hikechallenge

122.57 miles towards #365milechallenge

Sunday Funny

When I was sick with my ear infection a few weeks ago, I bought a frozen gluten free mac and cheese for dinner one night. Sunshine was able to cook it herself (she just had to toss it in the oven) while I laid in bed. We very rarely eat mac and cheese, mostly because grains are such a problem for me. So we've had mac and cheese once, maybe twice since Ocean was born.

As you can see, he wanted nothing to do with it. His reaction was so funny (and long lasting) that I grabbed my phone and captured these pics of him having a meltdown. He kept trying to hand my his plate- he didn't want it anywhere near him. Usually if he doesn't want to eat something I can pull it away from him, leave him alone, and he'll start eating once he calms down. That did not work on this occasion.

He was very offended by those noodles, but he did eat his broccoli.