Words, words, WORDS!

The other day I set out to write down a list of all of O's words. I figured, nearing 18 months now (when did that happen - holy cow!), there'd be about 20 recognizable words? Maybe even 25? Oops! Underestimated. Here's what we've got so far. (All English words, although, we're pretty sure he's blabbering in Arabic or Yiddish. The words with an asterisk * show that those words are currently only prompted, he's like a parrot!) 

I would normally put this on our family blog (sorry!), but it was connected to our old (hacked) email address, so sadly, I can't get into it until I contact someone :( 

Abby* - as in Caddaby. One of the wall clings in his room. Very clearly said! 

all done - pretty sure O thinks this is one word, a la 'aldone'. Usually accompanied by pushing his high chair tray away (without success) 

airplane - "air pane" at all times of the day, inside or outside. Pointing up at the sky (or ceiling). Often gets confused with a far-away lawnmower or motorcycle. Well-played, well-played. 

Auntie - said to, obviously, my sisters. But, now it's been extended to any remotely familiar female between the ages of 20-30. I guess that's what happens when you refer to all of your friends as "Auntie Mer" or "Auntie Stace". 

apple - this was one of Oliver's first words, and it generally applies to any round, edible object. Tomato, plum, peach, and even apples! 

apple juice - once again, one word - more like appleju. Said repeatedly, often very quickly over and over again. Especially when someone (anyone) opens the refrigerator. Reason obvious. ("appleju appleju appleju appleju appleju appleju") 

ball - with a lovely little British accent (can you guess who influenced that one?), in grocery stores, CVS (lovely bouncy ball displays), driving by a soccer game, and especially thanks to the Olympics. 

balloon - sounds slightly like ball-oooo, but contextually he always is pointing at balloons in books, or grocery stores. Who knew that Stop N Shop had SO many balloons - at the check-outs, at the deli, in the card section. Sheesh! 

Big Bird - "Bi Bir" when Sesame Street happens to be on, or he grabs the two stuffed BBs, or sees the wall cling. I think he knows these are two separate words :) 

blue*- Oliver's "blu" sounds quite French, and I love it. 

boat - This one was first heard on our UK trip, seeing as my in-laws live about 10 feet away from the harbor (excuse me, harbour), and we were constantly looking out the window at the boats. 

bump, bump, bump - always in threes. This is totally my fault. I've said this any time we drive anywhere, because there's a bit of our road that is SUPER bumpy. One day I forgot to say it (probably because I was jamming along to whatever was on the radio), so Oliver chimed in and said it for me. 

bus - we're having a bit of difficulty with this one. In London, it was easy peasy, because any two-level red thing was a bus. Over here? A bit more difficult. We've gotten the yellow ones down (although they are not too frequent in July/August - thank goodness), the city buses are going to take a while. 

bye bye - this used to only happen AFTER people walked out and closed the door, or AFTER we hung up the phone or Skype. We've made progress so people can actually hear the words. Now, we say "buh bye" to lots of people and things - balloons, animals (especially dogs, or when I turned the equestrian off the tv?!?!?!), and cars driving by us. 

car - again, British, "caaaaa"
cheese - much to Daddy's chagrin, this was a pretty easy word.  ...and he knows where the cheese bin is in the fridge. 

cookie - he knows where the snack cabinet is. trouble. 

cracker - this one cracks me up. "cracka" enough said. 

Dada - First word. Grrrrrrr.
dinosaur - we saw a bunch of dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum in London, and he really started saying "dine-sor" when we came back and were looking through his London Bus book. 

doggie - sounds a little bit like Dada, but we can generally tell which one he means :) 

Elmo - obviously, the furry red guy, although he gets Grover confused and sometimes calls him Elmo. They have the same face shape, right? 

empty - this is exactly how my sister, Sarah, used to say it. "emp-ih-tee" so cute. 

Ernie* - again, wall clings. (sensing a theme?)

giraffe* - we saw them at the zoo in London, and they were AMAZING. Plus, there's Sofie Giraffe here (who Stella is obsessed with. still.). It's pretty clear "jir-af" but only once we say it first. 

Mama - third word. after dada and doggie. I guess that's where I fit into the scheme of things! 

more - just now at lunch, this was combined with please! Ben got him to say "mo peas" - yippee! 

Nana - I'm convinced that this one (and all the other family names) were helped by our adorable photo books. (We have three we bought from Target - like this one) Oliver LOVES looking through the photos, pointing to everyone's faces, and practicing their names.) 

no, no, no - I've been trying to get this on video for approximately three months. We have a palm (?) / fern (?) in the corner of our living room (it's still alive! woo hoo!) and when Oliver went near it to grab the leaves, Ben said "no, no, no" while shaking a finger at him. Oliver did the exact same thing back. It was hilarious. And, of course, we had to pretend not to think it was funny. He does it now, without being prompted, which tells us that he knows right from wrong pretty well. 

Oliver* - sounds more like "ah-ver" but it's a start, nonetheless! And when we ask where Oliver is, he grabs his ears, points to his nose, or his chest. 

orange* - Granny and Papi (in-laws) have tons of orange flowers, and this was surprisingly easy for him to say - we were all pretty impressed! 

pepper - O says "peppa" like the pig cartoon, but then gets mad if his pepper (no matter the color) doesn't have hummus on it. He knows what he wants. 

please - "peas!" and if we don't respond or give him what he wants right away, it gets progressively louder until it's not really that polite! He walked over to Nana's candy dish, pointed at it, and nicely said "peeeease!" chocolate - score. He knows what to do. 

pool - we've been taking swim classes, and I suppose there are a lot of pools on the Olympics, but he kinda generalizes pool and can't differentiate between a pool, river, ocean, or lake. Fair enough, bodies of water are "pool" for now.
Pop - [my step-dad's name]. The second p is often soft, or even silent, but it is used to describe anyone wearing a suit and tie (we learned this Skyping with Uncle Mike), or sitting in a recliner. Hahahaha! 

poop* - I'll spare the details of when this happens, but maybe (?) it'll help potty train in a year or so? Ha!

purple - When the questions are: "Oliver, what's your favorite color?" or "Oliver, what color would you like to draw with first?" the answer is always "PURPLE!" Oh, Harold....
shoes - He knows where his shoe drawer is, and always chimes in when we're putting them on. What 18 month old has more than 10 pairs of shoes? Oh, wait, he's my kid.
sock -  Same as above.
spoon - We are trying to master the spoon. Trying is the operative word here. Suction cup bowls worked for 10 hours. He calls all utensils "spoon" for now. 

Stella - Obviously, he hears this word quite a bit, and has known where Stella is (below the highchair usually) or who she is (the one who takes all of the abuse), forever. Best friends. 

tree - "chee" on our walks, and when we're driving. There are a lot of them, and he likes to point them ALL out. Although, bushes/shrubs kinda confuse him for now. 

truck - I figured little boys loving trucks was kinda a myth, or exaggerated a little bit. Nope. 

up - "up" is usually followed by "peas" thus making "uppeas" which (like many other words) is repeated over and over, in a very cute voice until he gets out of the stroller, high chair or car seat. 

umbrella - another word we learned in England. Why? Because there were a TON of umbrellas because it POURED every hour or so.
yeah, yeah, yeah - "Oliver, do you want breakfast now?" Nodding his head, "yeah, yeah, yeah." Cracks me up. 

yuck, yuck - Whenever O tries to touch something (garbage bin, Stella's food dish, or something else that he shouldn't), I say "no, no, yucky!" and he does the "no, no, no" thing along with "yuck, yuck." Once again, he knows what's yucky and what's not. Smartie pants.

Woah! That's a long list. I'll be glad when he's older that I've written this.  I figured the only other person who will enjoy/appreciate this list is Nana :) So, enjoy, Nana! 

What I want to teach my son...

This has nothing to do with running, at all.


I am normally not one to voice opinions on Facebook, or any blog, or even to anyone other than my family. Having said that, with all of this craziness about Chick-Fil-A going on, I've felt inspired to think about what kind of world I want Oliver to grow up in. And what kind of world I want him to try to make a difference in. 


We've lived and worked in two very different environments in the last few years, and I find myself somewhat split between the two. I often think about the quote, America is not a melting pot, rather a beautiful mosaic. I love this because it talks about the fact that we don't need to change who we are to 'fit in'.  I get upset when I hear people calling each other names, or trying to impose their own beliefs on someone else, and I'm honestly torn about this issue quite a bit. 


So, what about those chicken sandwiches and peppermint chocolate milkshakes? (mmmmmmm.) I think it's everyone's right to feel, and say what they believe. I don't necessarily agree with what Dan Cathy (president of Chick-Fil-A) had to say about gay marriage, but I think he should be able to say it. This might seem a bit hypocritical [and I'm sorry because I'm pretty sure I'm about to offend 99% of the five of you who read this], but I don't think that a town or city should be allowed to deny someone's company a plot of land to build on based on their political, artistic or religious point of view. Let them build a Chick-Fil-A in Boston, and let the people who disagree with his alleged homophobic remarks go buy their chicken elsewhere. That, my friends, is the beauty of the country we live in. 


...and half of you have exited out of this window. So here I go, up onto my soap box. 


I want my son to grow up in a world where he feels comfortable speaking his mind, regardless of what those thoughts are. I've heard about toddlers saying things publicly like "Mummy, why is that man having a baby?" (when seeing a man's large belly), and that's not the kind of thing I'm talking about. There is a big difference between knowing what is appropriate given the situation. I'd be glad to talk to Oliver about how some men happen to hold weight in their midsections, so long as the fat fellow isn't within earshot. 


I want my son to grow up in a world where he doesn't have to preface his friends' names with things like "Jenny, the one with two mommies." Because, let's face it, that's what people do (whether they realize it or not) with family circumstances, religion, ethnicity, and physical characteristics.  I want him to say "Jenny, the really nice one who helped me find my lost math book." Because that's what's important. 


I want my son to grow up in a world where he has choices. If he wants to 'boycott' a restaurant, business, brand, or product because he doesn't believe in their sourcing, beliefs, pricing, or ethics - so be it. Hopefully, there will be an alternative. (Ironically enough, I'm making the Chick-Fil-A chicken bites from Pinterest on Friday evening, I'll let you know if they're a good replacement!) 


I want my son to grow up in a world where we can have discussions about important issues like this - so I can hear his unique, uninfluenced (for now!) points of view.  Right now, I don't let Oliver watch more than 5-10" of TV at a time, except for when we watch the news altogether. Nightly, sometimes even the BBC World News, it's an important part of our day. I want him to ask "why?" although I'm sure I will run out of answers. I want him to know about the world, good and bad (but it seems like a lot of bad these days...), to have questions, and formulate his own opinions. 


And, finally, I want my son to grow up in a world where he wants to make a difference, a positive impact, for those who don't feel like they have all of these same opportunities as he does. 


Thank you for 'letting me' rant. I'm done now. For now. 

Have "trainers", will travel - UK Rave Run

Runner's World publishes Rave Runs (see here) in each issue, and I always get so jealous/inspired when I see them. They highlight some of the most beautiful routes in the world - through deserts, redwood forests, and along the coasts. When we were in England last week, I had MY rave run. 

Ben's family lives in Newlyn - a suburb of Penzance (think Pirates of...) in the southwest of England (County Cornwall). It's RIGHT by the sea, tropical climate, and absolutely beautiful. I usually bring my 'trainers' (aka sneakers) and head out for some stress-relieving runs, but I generally only get out half of the time I'd like to because of the weather. 

Here was the 10 day forecast before we left: 

Yep. Rainy every day. Cold (compared to the upper 90s of the US East Coast!). I packed my 'trainers' (sneakers) regardless and kept my fingers crossed.  

The first two days were pretty rainy, and on the third - it was like the skies opened up! So, I headed out for a solo run to scope out the path. I had run it on a few trips before, but never (ha!) thought about a stroller being able to go on it! 

Backtrack. In anticipation of our pond-hopping, B and I decided to bring the BOB. We spent a day in London on each side of the trip (between the 8 hour flight and 8 hour train ride), and wanted to have it to maneuver around the museums and zoo. Best. Idea. Ever. We bought the BOB Single Stroller Travel Bag, and it was GREAT. (I'll do another post about packing/travelling with a family at a later date)

The next morning I work up and eagerly looked out the window. Horray! Another not wet day! (Notice I didn't say sunny quite yet.) So, O and I had breakfast, got dressed and headed out west along the path. We stopped every so often for photos, and of course his snack (I didn't bring my Garmin, having read that it wouldn't work on UK satellites). We ran 1.5 - 2 miles towards Mousehole, a cute little town known for their Christmas lights around the harbor and then headed back. 

Here are our photos! Enjoy!

Ready for the run, in the sun (?!?!)

Prounounced "Mowzel"

Looking out towards the Atlantic coast

Photo op at the turn-around point. Thank you, camera timer!

Pretty rocky shore

O's mid-run snack - fruit rope. I snuck a bite, DELISH.

The view heading back

Perfect day!

Garden with the best view - ever!

Just your run-of-the-mill scarecrows. Ha. 

St. Michael's Mount in the distance

Back to Newlyn!

Coastal path along the water

Newlyn in the distance

The last run of our UK trip I did solo, on Sunday, while O was napping. I headed east along the road towards Penzance and probably ended up doing about 5 miles? It was really sunny and I actually ran in my capris and a tank top! I just had to remember which way the traffic went while I was crossing the road! I didn't drag the camera with me, and my phone was off (!) for 10 days straight. Bliss. 

Now, contemplating sending this into RW. 

Any Rave Runs out there worth sharing?

Four on the Fourth

Happy 4th of July, everyone! 

(A day late, sorry, the race results were just posted!)

This 4 mile race was a last minute decision. As in 24 hours ahead of time decision. 

Nothing like an impromptu run with the stroller to keep you on your toes!

I hadn't run with Oliver in the stroller in a LONG time. (Since the 10K training run, 5/19!) I was reeeeeally nervous about what would happen. The runs I did last summer with him were pretty easy by comparison, because he fell asleep every time! Not anymore. I was all set (or so I thought) to go. I had snacks (fruit strip, dried strawberries in the snack trap, string cheese), drinks (water in sippy cup), toys (Elmo sound toy, mechanical book, jingle bells, YesYesNoNo book, and shake eggz.) 

What did I forget? The velcro straps. (Uh.mazing = Sippigrip - see here) We have three of them and LOVE them. And they're great. Just not sitting at home on the counter! Wrap 'em around a sippy cup, a snack trap, or a toy - and if your child should drop (ahem, THROW) them out of the stroller while moving, no big deal.) 

What else happened? We wore Crocs. BIG mistake. Oliver loves these shoes. They're amazing in the summer, especially at the park when we're running through the water (see photo below), but not so much in the BOB with the snack tray. Oliver likes to wedge his feet in there and slide them off. Generally, they drop into the little 'holding' area at the front of the stroller. Not this time. This happened around mile 3. One croc off (I didn't realize it), I mean completely off the stroller. Then another about 50ft farther down the road. Awesome. I had to stop and go back to get it, not a big deal, but it was a slight annoyance to those around me - especially seeing as the race was on both sides of a non-closed street. 

What more happened? After the Croc incident, I wedged the shoes into the canopy remembering the "shaded streets" comment on the race's site. Ha! Should've known better. The last 1/2 mile was in full sun and it was about 80 degrees already, couldn't pull the shade down without doing an Go-go Gadget arm maneuver to get the shoes under the stroller basket. O was a trooper, and kept cheering (clapping) everyone on! 

Over the course of this race, I ran into a friend from college who played on the tennis team for a year, as well as a great family friend (and running inspiration!). It was a nice holiday run, fairly inexpensive ($15 with cotton t included!), local (12 minutes away), kid-friendly (strollers allowed, and popsicles afterwards!) and easily accessible (parked about 25 yards from the check-in/start.) Overall, a great race, one that I will probably do again next year, and perhaps be better prepared for! 

So, here are the results: 

4 miles in 34:10, 8:32/mile.   47/127 women, 11/32 age group. 

10K Race Recap and Coxsackie

On Monday, I ran a 10K with an awesome group of Moms! 

Stroller Strides does a 5K/10K training program to get mums ready to do a road race, and I was privledged enough to 'lead' the 10K training group for the last two months. I've really enjoyed getting to know these four awesome ladies, and am SO proud of how much they've accomplished. Through foot pains, hill aversions and everything else... we did it!

Woo hoo!

10K? CHECK! 

I wasn't planning on running the race for time, but I felt pretty well lining up for the start. The course rolls through a beautiful residential area of South Salem/Lewisboro, around a lake, and there's plenty to look at - although being a race of only 118 people (357 in the 5K), there were certainly points where I couldn't see a whole lot of other racers in the vicinity.  

My race prep normally this involves going to bed fairly early the night before, drinking a lot of water, and sometimes doing some yoga or stretching. Sunday I was so exhausted from everything going on in our house (see below) that I needed (NEEDED!) a mango margarita.  It was amazing. And apparently (as told by my husband) this will become of my night-before routine. Or at least until I have a bad race. While clutching the drink, I found my Garmin in a box (still unpacking - blech!) and took my iPod out to charge, but unfortunately left it at home Monday morning! Luckily I had another one in my car (from using it at the gym the previous week), although it didn't have my new mix on it. Oh well! There's always next time :) 

We got all checked in (not a bad race shirt, and it all came in a nice re-usable grocery bag, love 'em!), met up with all the other 10K racers, snapped a few pictures, and got ready to run! At race time (8:00), it was about 70 degrees, and about 70% humidity. Luckily, most of the roads were fairly shaded. It did, though, get significantly warmer before the 5K start at 9:30!

By the numbers...

6.2 miles

50:48

8:12/mi average

1/4 division

7/44 females

27/118 overall

3 nasty hills

1 shoe-tie

2 box turtles (1 moved off by fellow runner)

3 squished chipmunks

Now, comes the "Mum" part... We've been battling Coxsackie Virus at our house since Thursday. Not sure what it is? Thank you, WebMD. I was really unsure of how well I'd be able to be able to run the 10K, mainly because of the lack of sleep I'd been getting!

So, after a bum rash (thought it was just needing some Desitin) and a back rash (thought it was allergy to the salmon we let O try) - Oliver came down with a fever at daycare on Thursday afternoon. Friday I stayed home with him, and luckily we had the weekend to heal. Boy, was it a long three days! He really didn't eat a whole lot more than watermelon, jello, popsicles, and cheddar broccoli soup. (No matter how he's feeling, he will ALWAYS eat this soup - gotta love the kid!). Friday and Saturday nights were LONG. He'd get up every 3-4 hours or so, needing some more medicine (just infants pain reliever), and SCREAM until it kicked in. He developed a few sores on his chin, two visible ones on his tongue, but it seemed to be more a sore throat than anything else. Poor buddy! It's never fun when a baby is sick, but even worse when they can't vocalize what hurts :(  

Good news is that we're on the mend now, not contagious, and returning to our cheerful, happy self! And that's always a good thing!

No registered races coming up. But that probably won't last for long. I'm ITCHING to break 50:00....

Mommy friends and a new 5K PR!

Mother's Day generally involves breakfast in bed, maybe a pedicure or a massage.... what did I want to do on "my" day? Run, obviously!  Ridgefield, CT (along with cities in 10 states) have an all-female race on Mother's Day, and it was awesome.   (To clarify: they also have a kid's race, which was SO cute, I can picture Oliver doing it someday!) 

Never turn down a cute race tshirt! (Baby blue, well-cut cotton shirt!)

A bunch of friends ran it last year, before we moved back up here, and I was very excited to run it this year.  I signed up last week, once the move was finalized. It was only about 25-30 minutes away, and it made me realize just how much I love doing smaller races.  I got to the race 45" before start, a friend picked up my bib for me (thanks, J!), and it was super easy to get to and from the start/finish. 

We ran like mothers!

I hadn't seen some of these awesome mums in 6+ months (K/J - how did that happen?), but it felt like we had just done some Rail Trail training runs together... glad to be back! :)

I ended up finishing in 23:18, new PR! It breaks down to 7:31/mile, which I'm pretty psyched about. (LOOK!)I do have to say that having trained on some serious hills (for our 10K in 2 weeks), I felt awesome with the rolling hills and even passed a few people going up some hills! 

Team SS ready for our 10K race!

Upon crossing the finish line, we were all handed a very pretty red rose! I hung around a little and waited for everyone to finish, then Kerry and I headed over to check out the results.  Well.... I made the first printed page. Then, I looked over at the place in division. #2! WHAAAT?!?!?! How did that happen? 

Anyway, I was going to head straight home to shower (and then off to IKEA), but clearly wanted to wait around and see what I 'got'! They were announcing the division winners, and said some other girl's name for #2. (They read them in 3rd, then 2nd and 1st). Felt like a dummy for sure, until they read my name for having come in FIRST. [The girl who 'beat' me was 2nd overall, so I guess they pull out of division for that? This is all new to me....]

My first time placing in a race!

In addition to this beautiful bouquet of flowers, I got a free race entry into next year's race! (Ben was hoping for a cash award, not something that will just feed into my 'addiction!')

Happy Mother's Day to all of my Mum friends (runners and non-runners), as well as my three moms! I hope you all did whatever makes YOU happy today! 

Race recap (SO late!)

So, somehow the last two and a half weeks have flown by, and I have just not gotten around to writing my race recap post. SORRY! I know (ha!) that you've been waiting (ha! ha!) for this post. 

In short... WE DID IT! 

Us, circa 1990

My sister and I crossed the finish line of the Jersey Shore Half Marathon. Together. For those of you who know us, and have known us for - oh - twenty years or so, know that this is pretty cool for us. We've come a long way.

I'm pretty sure we'd both be lying if we said we didn't feel slight disappointment for our time (2:00:43), especially as we've both broken 2 hours before. But, that wasn't the goal for this race. (9:13/mile isn't too shabby though?!)

We signed up together, each of us ran for the last few months for different reasons. Through different sicknesses, in different states, and we learned that we are very different runners.  

ME: running shorts, fuel belt, and glide. (aka marketer's dream)

AMES: soccer shorts, compression sleeve (on one leg, totally intense looking) and vaseline.  (She did see another girl in soccer shorts lining up, and they totally air high-fived from 20 ft away!)

It was a GREAT course from Asbury Park down to Sea Bright and back. (We opted for the out and back as opposed to the three-loop course, great decision). It was ridiculously flat, only having to go up and over one small bridge. It was super foggy when we started, you couldn't even see the ocean from the boardwalk! By the time we reached the turn-around point, most of it had burned off, and we even got some sun! 

From the RunAPalooza! website.

After the race, we headed to shower at a friend's house (Thanks, J+N!) and had lunch before heading back. A nice little morning :)

The back of Amie's shirt!

All in all, the worst part of the race was that the photographers (stationed throughout the course) didn't take a single picture of the two of us together. Not even at the finish line!  Now, normally I would understand this... but we were wearing MATCHING NEON GREEN SINGLETS throughout the race and we CROSSED THE FINISH LINE HOLDING HANDS. 

Dude, seriously? Take ONE picture so we can give it to the parents for Christmukah, or put it on an ornament or something. Lost out on some $$ there, that's for sure! 

On the back of my shirt, was a crazy picture of O from his birthday and it said "13.1 for my 13 month old." As Amie pointed out, it was ONE day before he was 14 months, ha! 

Up next: 

Mother's Day, Run Like A Mother 5K - Ridgefield, CT - 5.13

(Putting the team back together for this one... can't wait!)

South Salem 10K - 5.28 

(Yay team Stroller Strides 5k/10k training!)

Stay tuned for what I decide about registering for a fall half and maybe even a full! Eeks!