8 months old, she's growing so fast

Allie is looking more like her daddy every day. She has some curl in her hair that really comes out in the humidity. I may be biased, but I think she looks so grown up!

It was eight months ago today my darling daughter was born. It seems like just yesterday! Where does time go? It goes so fast, and now that first birthday is just around the corner.

Allie wanted to help put together our new end tables. We got them for her, sort of. Our old end tables would have been easily toppled on top of Allie whenever she started pulling herself up furniture. These are sturdy end tables will stay put and they're actually storage cubes! Pretty convenient for all the stuff we will have to hide from Allie's paws. I don't have a picture of the finished product though, I'll put that on my list.

On Allie's eight-month birthday, I'm thinking a lot about last year at this time. 2009 was a tough year and June was the toughest, but also among the best.

A sampling on June 2009, courtesy of this blog:
- June 30, I officially threw in the towel on running.
- I made the switch to maternity clothes and decided to embrace my pregnant belly.
- I had two job interviews, but ultimately no job.
- We found out Allie was Allie and not Ethan!

Here's what Allie looked at last year around this time:

Wow!

She's growing up so fast and changing by the day, by the minute sometimes. I feel like if we blink, we'll miss it. Recently we've lowered her crib mattress and graduated from the infant bath tub to the big tub. We're amazed by her ability to entertain herself by doing silly things like panting like a dog and blowing raspberries. She's working on mastering the sippy cup and is just starting to get finger foods. We've had to work on babyproofing the house and we're looking into the next car seat. There's another big pile of clothes in her closet that mommy needs to pack away; then I need to start getting out the next size!

No standees allowed

That's what it said in front of the school bus when I was a kid. Allie's not following that rule! Allie has pulled herself to standing using... mommy and daddy... which would be why I don't have more pictures of the event. She will use our legs when we're sitting with her on the floor and push up. Then she lets go and falls down. She's brave! Its funny, though she tends to push up on my shins, which are still tender. She will also grab our arms or shoulders, whatever is close by, but she hasn't started using the furniture yet. I'd like a bit of a grace period before she starts standing and walking!

Comeback #247: So far, so good

OK, its not really #247, but it feels that way. I've run three times in the last week on my third comeback attempt to running since Allie was born. I've started back at the beginning, running for time, increasing by two minutes each run. This morning I got up to 18 minutes. But again I have to figure out what to eat before running to get needed energy, but prevent the nausea I dealt with when I was trying to run after dinner.

My new theory is that by running intervals I was doing more than my body was ready for. So running without walk breaks is helping me to gain strength and also slowing me down. So far, so good, because my shins haven't bothered me at all while running. They still get a little sore in between runs, but its not bad at all.

I'm still working on cross training. My goal is to cross train twice a week and run twice a week, though I see myself moving to cross training once and running three times.

Again, I'm feeling confident in my running. Its refreshing to run without the illusion of training for a half marathon. At some point I will pick some goal races in the fall, but for now I'm just running to build up my strength and get into better shape.

Happy Friday

I succombed this week to the urge to create a shrine to my baby in my office cube. I did this by creating a slide show of my pictures for my screen saver. In doing this, I realized there are many pictures from the last month that I never posted! In no particular order...

Notice Allie's shoes here. I'm not sure how long she actually wore them, but we've missed out on so many chances to put her cute shoes on. I was determined NOT to miss the hot pink converse sneaker!

Allie already has a million toys. But her toy of choice? #1 is the TV remote, with the phone coming in a close second.

Alie was baptized on May 30. You may remember the fridge full of food picture. The event was a success, even if it was awkward to cram 18 people into our townhouse. Pictures from the ceremony didn't turn out the greatest, but we got good pictures afterward. This is from the water ski show we went to that evening.

Allie will chew on whatever is around!

She's ready for her close up. I love this picture! She loves the camera much more than she used to.

The cake that almost wasn't. I had ordered it online from Target the Tuesday before, only the manager had forgotten to give the order to the bakers. When Doug went to pick it up it didn't exist. But they just happened to be frosting a half sheet marble cake with white frosting, what we had ordered. They whipped up this cake in about 20 minutes and only charged us for a quarter sheet. FYI, Target makes great cakes.

Allie helped opened her present! She liked the paper better than the jumper that was inside, however.

Lazy Sunday afternoon. We want Allie to love reading, but I'm not sure this is what we had in mind.

We have a tooth!

With relatively little misery, Allie has cut one tiny tooth. Its hard to see because it just cut through, and whenever I touch her mouth gums she sticks her tongue out. But its there, bottom left! I can feel it!

I thought the other bottom tooth was trying to come in, but its apparently taken a break.

I sure hope the rest of teething stays this easy.

Water baby

Allie went swimming for the first time on Saturday. She loved it! We took a short family trip to Milwaukee last weekend because I had a furlough and Doug took a day off. Our main attraction was the Discovery World Museum, but the close second was the swimming excursion. My favorite part is her little swim suit.


Allie wasn't scared of the pool at all. I think Doug and I were more scared than Allie was. We kept it short and sweet and she wasn't ready to get out.

It was a water-themed trip. The museum has a technology section and an aquarium/water section. We went through the aquarium first, where Allie was fascinated with the fish.

Another cool thing the museum has is a replica ship on the second floor. Its a replica of ships that used to sail the great lakes back in the day. There are also exhibits about the great lakes. Allie didn't really care about those, but she liked the boat.

We were at the museum three hours and it was enough for Allie. She got tired and we headed out to our hotel where Allie had lots of fun crawling around and *not* sleeping even though she'd been pretty cranky just an hour before!

It was a great trip and we look forward to many more special family memories!

Monk and Allie

Allie is fascinated with Monk, and that fascination is mutual. Allie and Monk play together now that Allie is mobile. Its a lot of fun to see them interact. Allie likes to pull at Monk's collar and also her feet. Monk hates when Doug our I mess with her feet, but Monk so far lets Allie do it. Monk is very patient with Allie. I think its because right now its easy for Monk to get away. When Monk has had enough she can either go behind the couch or on it. I'm not sure what happens though when Allie gets bigger and can chase Monk!

Poor baby

Allie is teething. When we picked her up from daycare today her nose was runny and she was drooling a ton. Her gums (gum?) were red and there was a bump where I'm pretty sure the offending tooth is. My poor baby cried all the way home. She perked up a bit with some baby ibuprofin, enough to take a bottle and go to bed, that is. When she was eating she just laid there in my arms, no squirming like she usually does. The last time she just let me hold her was in April when she was sick.

She's been asleep about four hours now. I have no idea if she'll sleep though the night. We have things in the freezer for her to chew on. I don't know what else to do. I hope this isn't too hard for her because that means it will be way harder for us. She's always a happy and laid back little girl, so to have her be cranky and feeling bad will be so hard. I hope it doesn't last too long.

There she goes...

Life as we know it will never be the same.

I have proof of Allie's crawling

I just haven't been able to upload it yet.

She's getting faster. She's also getting into things she's not supposed to have, or at least trying. Her favorite object seems to be the TV remote and phones. She's got so many toys, but has eyes only for that remote.

But Allie also has eyes for Monk. She's really started to bug Monk and so far Monk has been patient. She lets Allie do what she wants and then goes behind or on the couch out of Allie's reach when she's had enough.

With the mobility developments, a new task added to the to-do list is lowering the crib mattress. But Allie spent a lot of time napping today, so we haven't been able to do it yet.

Its already a challenge to keep up with her! This is just the beginning. I sure hope she gives us a little time before she starts walking.

Baby, how you've grown

November 1, 2009

June 4, 2010

She looks so grown up!

Last weekend I went through my picture frames and got rid of the old pictures of people I haven't talked to in years. The goal was to finally display some current pictures in the house! It was fun going through pictures from the last seven and a half months.

Its obvious Allie has grown, but its still amazing to look back at pictures from her first few days and then to see her now. She is one amazing creature and learning new things every day.

Back to square one

I haven't run in nearly three weeks. My shin splints have been kicking my butt. So I decided to quit fighting it and take a month off. In addition to shin splints, I'm now in a chiropractor's care for SI joint dysfunction, which I believe is a leftover effect of pregnancy, even though I only know for sure this has been affecting me since January.

So with these two conditions, I'm taking it easy on the exercise in general. I've been working on cross training to get my legs stronger. In thinking about how things are different now vs. when I started running two years ago, I realized I cross trained more at that time. I didn't get really injured until later in 2008 when I was getting faster and then added too much intensity too quickly.

Fast forward to last December and since when I've been trying to run again and I haven't been able to get far before having issues arise, mostly shin splints. I've also been having flares of achilles tendonitis. Both of these are overuse injuries and I'm finally being realistic about getting rid of them. Up to now I've just been running and not cross training much. My legs aren't strong. I need my legs to be strong before this will get better. I believe my cross training has already made a difference on my leg strength. In addition, I've been doing leg the exercises I got in PT two years ago for my achilles tendonitis.

So a week from Wednesday when my month is up, I will start running again. But I'll only be running once or twice a week and only short mileage. I'm going to start back at square one and build my mileage the right way, in other words, slowly.

So that means to half marathon this year. I may run a few shorter races later this summer or in the fall. But no training. My new goal will be a half marathon next spring. So I go another year without reaching my running goal, but I will be better off this way. My legs will be strong and I can run longer without hurting myself!

There's no stopping her now

Thats right folks. Allie is now crawling forward. Our lives are forever changed.

Over the weekend, Allie also figured out how to sit herself up. So with these two milestones come the possibility that she will get hurt. I am sure this will affect Doug and me more than her! The first time she sat up on Sunday, she immediately toppled over and hit her head on the coffee table. So we've said goodbye to the coffee table.

I can't believe my baby is crawling! Doug and I are hoping she gives us a little grace period before she starts walking. We're working on the babyproofing for real this time, and realizing that soon the living room will be empty. The coffee table is in the basement and we have another glass top table that needs to be moved as well. We've ordered some replacement coffee tables that Allie won't be able to pull down when she starts grabbing things to stand up. We need to remove a plant and the stereo, soften the places she could fall and lock drawers she could open.

I'm hoping to have some video to post soon. We will have plenty of opportunities! Unfortunately they may not happen until next weekend because Allie goes to bed so early. It makes us sad because we don't have much time to play when she goes to bed at 7!

Prune face!

Allie likes prunes! Too bad mommy and daddy don't like what comes out of her diaper as a result.

Seven months and a few days

A few days ago, Allie passed 7 months of age. In just 5 short months, it'll be time for her first birthday party! In honor of 7 months, I have finally scanned and uploaded her 6-month portraits!

The photo shoot was really fun. I can't wait to have another one. I think Allie really likes having her picture taken now.

I really like these, despite the glare on the background of the full-length shot. Sears portraits are WAY expensive and we found out the coupon we brought didn't apply, so we spent more money than we wanted and elected not to get the enhanced photos. Its OK though. We learned two important lessons that day. 1) Make an appointment. 2) Don't go to Sears unless you have hundreds of dollars to spend, or, my preferred course of action, go somewhere else next time.

Not the greatest commute

Here's a funny story that wasn't so funny at the time:

This afternoon I had a chiropractor appointment at 4:45. I was going to leave work at 4:15 and take the bus to the clinic. All was going well until I realized that all the bus stops on the Capitol Square were moved for the summer because of a construction project (ummm yeah, everything is under construction already and its only June!). I realized this too late but ran to the substitute stop anyway to see if I could make it. I didn't. So I called the chiropractic office and rescheduled my appointment. While I was trying to figure out what to do, the bus that goes to my neighborhood came, so I decided to just take it home instead of having Doug come pick me up.

The bus ride was fine. I actually kind of like riding the bus. But the rain was threatening the entire way home. About 15 minutes from home it rained a little and I thought the rain would hold off. It didn't. It started pouring right as the bus got near my stop. The driver offered to drop me off further down the street, but it wouldn't have helped since I had to walk another block over.

So I had no choice but walk home in the pouring rain. I took off my flip flops and ran toward the condo association. I ran through the yard and under decks to try and shelter myself from the rain (it didn't help). By the time I made it to our front door, the only part of me that was still dry was my underwear, seriously. I had to strip down in the doorway! Doug and Allie were getting ready to come pick me up from the bus stop, but the bus got there sooner than he thought it would.

At least it rained a good 45 minutes more before the sun came out again. And I'm happy to say my shins didn't hurt after sprinting in flip flops and in bare feet! But I hope I don't have a commute like that again anytime soon.

Da da da da

Those are Allie's first "words," or really, her first real syllables. She says da da, but doesn't know them to mean Doug. Her language and her voice have really gained steam over the last few days. This morning Doug was getting her dressed and saying da da da da, and she repeated after him! It was so cute. I know, I write that everything Allie does is so cute. What can I say? I have a cute baby.

Allie has also started creeping forward! Its not really crawling yet, but its a step forward from scooting backwards. She's also really close to sitting herself up. I've seen her propping herself up with her arms a few times, but it doesn't last long. Its funny how she'll have a few weeks where shes doesn't have too many new things happening, and then they'll all happen at once.

I think we're all pretty much recovered from our weekend. Allie has gone to bed at 6:30 the last two nights, which is an hour early for her. She sleeps through until 6:30 in the morning, but last night she woke up at 1! Its because she was so tired last night that we had to skip a feeding of solids. At least I hope so. I hope getting up at night isn't going to become a pattern again, because I'm really enjoying sleeping through the night. I also hope she'll start staying up until 7:30 because we'll never see her otherwise.

Monk shows no real issues from being in the kennel this weekend. When we kenneled her in September she came home with tummy/diarrhea issues. That wasn't fun. I'm happy that hasn't happened again.

Doug and I are still enjoying the clean house and working to get back into our routine where we make dinner at home and stop eating junk food. Unfortunately there's still some junk-type food in our house from the weekend. We're also getting back to the gym and trying to catch up a little more on sleep. Its hard to get back into a routine when you've been 100 percent invested in something like preparing for a family party for the last two weeks. That was intense. I imagine that intensity will be magnified when its time for big events like Allie's first birthday, which will be in five short months! How time flies!

Crazy weekend

It was a crazy and fun weekend. But all of us in the Durso pack are glad its complete. Now we can get back to normal!

Allie's baptism went off without a hitch and the party that followed was a success. We had fun seeing both families and spending some quality time outside. Doug and I are especially happy to be done cleaning!

There are lots of pictures that I will try to post throughout the week, but here are a couple teasers. Have a great week everyone!