Halfway Goal

I'm halfway through the training for the half-marathon at the end of April. Week 5 of 10 is complete, check.

I'm training 3 weeks longer than I did last year for my first Half, and yet this time around feels like it's going by much quicker - and feels much easier.

Last time I was so nervous about not being able to finish, I took my runs slowly and paced myself easily, I didn't care about time I just wanted to finish. It was a huge challenge for me, I'd never done anything remotely athletic and I was basically building up my body from the bottom - I had little muscle from years of being non-athletic, and having a baby turned whatever sort of muscle I had in my body to mush.

I feel much different this time. I was apprehensive about training again, just because it's such a huge time commitment- well, really its a huge commitment all around. But I jumped in and have been feeling really good. As always, some runs are better than others, and some just downright suck...but the feeling of running is addicting and though I may not look forward to every single run, I look forward to the way I feel after.

I feel different in the fact that my body is stronger, and as a result I'm not as tired after my runs, I feel better during the runs, and I'm able to go faster. I'm still not fast. I'm not sure if I'll ever been one of those 7-minute mile people, but I'm considerably faster than last time. For some reason I'm slower on the treadmill, I think it's the lack of oxygen and air circulation and boredom. But on all my runs outside I've been averaging 9:30-minute miles, which took me by surprise the first couple times. Again, not track-star time, but really good for me and I've been able to push myself harder this time around.

So my ultimate reason for this post is to make my goal for this half-marathon official. The last Half my goal was to finish without walking and I completed in a quicker time than I anticipated. This time around my goal is to complete it in under 2 hrs, without walking. That would be shaving 18mins off my previous time. Think I can do it? Let's hope!

Words

In the last 24-hours Vienna has learned three new words and has been repeating them constantly. Okay, so maybe this isn't an amazing feat, but I'm a proud parent and I think my kid is a genius.

I always thought some of Vienna's first words would be things like "Drink," "Cup" or "Ball" -something along those lines.

Nope. She likes to say words like "Tickle" which she learned several weeks ago and still says all the time. She likes to walk up behind you and pat her hands on your back and say "Tickle, tickle, tickle."

But one of her new words is "Kick it."She started saying it last night when she was playing with her big pink ball. I got a little clipping today of her saying it over and over.

She helped me upload this and kept wanting to watch it again and again, and the whole time she kept repeating "kick it" over and over throughout the whole video...like she was cheering herself on.

Yesterday she also learned how to say "Dance." She keeps pulling the toy on her old baby bouncer that plays music and stomps her feet up and down saying "Dance, dance, dance!" Which in actuality sounds more like "Dats, dats, dats!"

And this morning she started saying "Shake," which sounds more like "thate."

It's so adorable, I can't hear her say them enough.

Sweets update

I can't believe how much time has passed since my last blog post- I feel like it's only been a few days, but in actuality it's been over a month. Sorry about that for those of you that are avid blog readers of mine. If there are any of you. ;)

What's kept me? To be honest, I have no idea. I guess things like busy weekends, being sick, running and small projects at home...just to name a few. Nothing extremely exciting, unfortunately.

I had a few reasons for starting this blog, one of them being a way to document and express things about my kid(s) that I wanted to remember in years to come. And as always there are new things to update about my little sweet girl, she grows like a weed and changes constantly, I can hardly keep up.

1. She's gotten very good about communicating. She's really using the signs she knows, which are: "please," "more," "eat," and she just learned "thank you." She also knows "baby" but that's not a common thing she has the need to communicate. When she wants to eat she tells me so by signing, not screaming, which is awesome. When she wants something she really does a good job communicating it by hand motions and little noises, instead of screaming, which is awesome. Not to say she never screams, because she does, sometimes.

She has started doing this thing that when she wants to go somewhere that she's not allowed to go by herself - like down the stairs - she comes and finds you and takes your hand and brings you there herself. It's so cute that it's nearly impossible to stay no.

2. At fourteen-months she can say: "Mom," "Dad," "Hi," "Tickle," "Bye," "Yay," "Night," & "Hot." She has also started eating with utensils.

3. She has begun trying to climb everything. Onto toys, into baskets...everything. One thing about Vienna that we've noticed as she's growing is that she likes to be sure of herself before really trying to do something that is daring. Like walking; I think she could've walked sooner than she did, she was sturdy and would walk like a pro with the help of a hand, but she wasn't sure of herself to try to take a step on her own - until one day she decided she was ready and then just started walking and never really crawled again. Same with climbing, she's had the ability to do it for awhile but she didn't really start climbing until she was certain that she could do it confidently. And when she gets it, she has no fear. She loves to climb up and down off our bed and up and down the stairs.

4. She is constantly on the go. All the time. She never stops.

5. She has become quite the personality. I love to see her little personality coming to life more and more and it's fun to see the different things that interest her and how she works. She lovesmusic. Loves it. And loves to dance. Nearly every time she hears some sort of beat she starts dancing - which her dance moves seem to change from stomping her feet up and down rapidly to turning in circles or bounces her body up and down. She also loves the piano...we walk into my parents' house and the first thing she goes for is the piano - she loves to play with her uncle.

5. She has also started this new laughing thing where she just walks around and laughs, for no reason. Not like a baby giggle but a downright belly-adult-like-laugh. It's so funny.

6. One thing I've discovered is that she's very transparent. When she's happy, she's happy. When she's mad, she's mad. Etc. And there's not much of an in-between. And there's also not much that can be done to change it. I do have to say that she's a happy little girl most of the time though...and likes to be very expressive about things that entertain her.

7. Vienna, a.k.a. Bina, Beanie-baby, V, Goose, & Sweets.