This is why I run

I run for me, but I also run for them. My family, Allie and Doug. I want to be a good example for Allie. I want Doug and Allie to be proud of me. I want Allie to see a Mama who is fit and takes care of herself.

Sunday morning I ran my first half marathon in three years. As you can see here, Allie got over her stomach bug and was good to go on race morning.

I've gone on and on about the challenges I've dealt with and how long I waited. Now I'm enjoying the accomplishment. And I enjoy how fascinated Allie was with my medal. She didn't care to wear it, but she loved playing with it.

You can read all about my race over in My Marathon Journey. I've got two different versions (the long version and the shorter, but still pretty long version), more pictures and more followup entries to come.

She was tired and cranky here, ready for naptime, hence the sour face. We went home soon after this picture!

Later when she was more rested, she enjoyed running around the house wearing my medal and carrying my purse. That kid loves purses.

She still didn't want to sit still for a picture though!

The most heartbreaking experience

We're lucky that we got through 19 months without a really major illness. We're not so lucky right now. Our poor baby is still sick and its the most heartbreaking experience.

She's slept a lot with this bug. When she's been awake, she's been in a decent mood for the most part. But this morning she was so uncomfortable and cried a lot. She finally kept food down today, so thats good. But she still has plenty of recovery. She's still sitting around on Mama and Dada a lot. She's cuddly. We love her cuddles but hate the reason for them.

Tomorrow we were all supposed to go to my sister Jocelyn's high school graduation and then Grandma and Grandpa were going to baby sit while Doug and I went to a wedding reception. Now I'm going by myself while Dada stays home with Allie. I don't know if I'll end up going to the wedding. We just really hope that she's well enough by Sunday morning to go to my race! We'll all be so sad if Allie and Dada have to miss it.

We did turn a corner today though. So I'm going to be optimistic and say that she will be better. Both so they can go to the race and also so our hearts can stop breaking!

Under the weather

Allie is sick. We had to bring her home from daycare this morning because she spiked a fever and then threw up. It certainly did seem to match the weather, as it was rainy all day. I wasn't sure if she really was sick or had a bad day, but suffice it to say the poor kid is sick.

She never does this for very long:

 And until tonight, I've never seen her do this:

Dada brought Allie and I home right before lunch and then went back to work. Allie went straight to bed and Mama did some thorough house cleaning. My downstairs is cleaner than its been in quite sometime, though I admit there's still plenty that should be done. I thought I'd have two hours, maybe three. Turned out I had 5! And that might have been more, but I decided to wake her up and see if she'd eat. We tried some apple sauce, but it didn't stay down. So we sent Dada to the grocery store for some pedialyte and spent a majority of the evening on the couch. She did perk up a bit right before bed, but she did go down easily. Dada will have sick baby duty tomorrow. We really hope whatever it is passes quick because we have a busy weekend planned!

Couch potato

We don't make a habit of letting Allie just sit and watch TV. But Sunday morning after breakfast, Doug was going to take Allie grocery shopping while I ran 12 miles. Allie was playing in the living room and the TV was on ESPN. We were doing our thing getting ready, when I noticed that the sound was off on the TV. I look over from the kitchen and see Allie sitting on the couch fiddling with the remote like she'd been doing it her whole life.

Just randomly pressing the buttons, she turned the sound all the way down and then changed the channel and had the TV on the On Demand channel before I took the remote away. Luckily she didn't manage to order a movie!

I want to send a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our nephew Carson. Doug says he turned 10 today. Was Doug right Carson? I hope you had a great birthday! I also want to say hi to Cole. We miss you boys and hope to see you soon!

She's a star

Last Saturday we went to Alex's 9th birthday party. Alex is one of Allie's cousins on my side of the family. We had a great time hanging out with the family! Allie found these glasses in with the toys. Isn't she the cutest? She's a star!

My sister Jocelyn took these pictures. She's going to Eastern Illinois University this fall to study, among other things, photojournalism. She takes some good pictures. She also shot the pictures for Jeni's wedding in April.

Who is this grown-up girl?

Is this my baby?

She's so grown up!

She runs around and talks and feeds herself and is trying to dress herself too (well, undress herself mostly).

Wasn't it just the other day when she was learning to roll over? When we'd put her on her tummy and she'd cry because she couldn't move? Isn't this the baby who slept the first six months of her life away?

Someone replaced my baby with a big girl!

Friday flashback (on Saturday): 8 years ago

Thursday was May 19, which marked 8 years since my first day working at The Southern Illinoisan in Carbondale. I was barely two weeks past my college graduation and one of few who worked at The Daily Eastern News who had a job before graduation. I wished I'd taken more time off before working. But there I was, new city, living really on my own in my first single apartment, starting my first job.

May 19, 2003, was also the day I met my future husband. I didn't know it at the time! It would be over a year and a half before we started dating. But honestly, I figured it out pretty quickly that first summer in Carbondale. If I had to pick one thing that started it, I'd say it was that we got along really well, right from that first day of work.

I wrote a few weeks ago about the bittersweet anniversaries that were marked in April, five years ago when I moved to Madison to work at the Wisconsin State Journal and four years ago when we closed on our house. I wrote that if we hadn't moved here, we wouldn't live in such a great city, in such a great house, and have such a great little girl and a great family.

I have often wished I'd never wasted the time going into newspapers. I knew in college it didn't pay.

But if I'd never moved to Carbondale for the first job out of college, when I actually believed newspapers had a future, I would never have met my husband! Its not too easy to have a great house in a great city and a great family without first meeting my husband!

Allie's new trick

Dada told me that Allie had climbed up on the book shelf Saturday morning while I was running my 10-mile race. She did it again the next day when I was there to witness it. We're lucky she didn't hurt herself! Because when I saw it, did I remove her from the danger? Nope. I grabbed the camera!

Dancing queen

Saturday was my cousin Nancy's wedding. We were running late so we unfortunately missed the ceremony. We made it to the reception though and had a good meal and an even better time.

We took a nice family picture with us all dressed up, though Allie had her mind on dancing.

And then Allie tore it up on the dance floor.

She kept running away when we tried to corral her.

She had fun with the other kids, of whom I didn't know very many. Niether did she, but that didn't matter!

It was all about the dancing.

Allie wasn't too interested in sticking with Mama and Dada, but we did restrain her long enough to dance all together. We had a great time, but soon we all got tired and it was time to get in the car and drive two hours home. Luckily Allie actually slept the whole time! She was so tuckered out from her dancing that she napped for three and a half hours on Sunday and still went to bed with no fight at 7:15! Partying is hard work!

She's a big girl now

Allie is starting to assert her independence, especially when it comes to eating. Meal times can get difficult depending on the menu. Some foods are easier for her to feed herself than others. Sometimes she uses the spoon. Sometimes she uses her fingers. This morning I gave her the yogurt container and she was so proud of herself.

When she wants to feed herself, she won't let Mama or Dada touch the bowl or plate. I would sometimes hold the plate so it would stay on the table. She would have none of that. She'll remove our hands from the bowl or plate and eat. It is easier in the sense that we don't have to feed her, but harder because it takes longer and she makes a bigger mess!

We're proud of our baby though. I suppose I really shouldn't still be calling her a baby. She's a big girl, a toddler. She's talking more every day and she can point out her body parts. She says her name (Ayyie), and that she's "happy girl." She will repeat almost everything. She'll untie her shoes in the car and act like she's trying to re-tie them. This week we've been walking out to the mail box together and she doesn't want to hold Mama's hand. We're dealing with temper tantrums, particularly when she doesn't want to hold Mama's hand! She likes to run and she LOVES going outside. There's so much that she's doing now, too much to list everything. Perhaps my favorite is when she gives kisses and hugs. And the other night she repeated "I love you" after I said it to her.

Off track betting

We all got in the spirit for the Kentucky Derby last Saturday. We like to pick horses, but our methods aren't very scientific. Doug and I pick horses by the names we like the best. Allie picked her horse out of Dada's hat.

Her pick? Mucho Macho Man. We liked that pick so we all rooted for him. Doug picked Nehro and I picked Pants on Fire. The picks were pretty good, except for mine. Nehro was second and Mucho Macho Man was third. Pants on Fire didn't do so well.

Zoo fun

A couple weeks ago Allie went to the zoo with Bridget, Teagan, Gianna and Ryan. Doug and I were jealous that they went without us! Bridget took pictures that she sent me. Allie loved looking at the animals, but she also loved looking at the camera too!

Circle of life indeed

Rest in peace Grandma. My Grandma Danielewicz died on Thursday morning. She was 88. Unfortunately we hadn't seen her since last summer. The pictures above are from my cousin's wedding in March 2010. Allie was 5 months old and had partied hardy!

Circle of life indeed! Between April 16 and May 14, here are the events of our family: Two weddings, a birth and a funeral. And lots of other events... Allie turning 18 months, my little brother starting a grown-up job. Add a few more weeks and my baby sister is graduating high school!

And Mother's Day. Here I am celebrating my second one. And family members already taken from us get their mom and grandma back.

The stats at 18 months

One of the most fun parts of seeing Allie grow up is getting her stats. Today we had her 18-month check up and got a new set.

At 31 and 3/4 inches, Allie is in the 50th percentile for height. She's always been on the shorter side in the percentiles. She weighs 26 pounds, 10 ounces, which places in the 75th percentile, which is down a bit. She still has a big head though, at 48.8 centimeters she ranks above the 95th percentile. Its her big brain!

The not-so-fun stat is that she got FOUR shots today! Poor baby. But the good news is she doesn't have to get any more, other than flu shots, until she goes to school! She took the shots pretty well, crying pretty loud by the end but quickly forgetting once they were done. By the time we were eating dinner and putting her to bed though, I think she was in pain. She had two in each leg, so I am sure she was sore!

Our concern continues to be her speech. But in talking with the doctor we're reassured that she's where she needs to be. We also decided we're not even thinking about potty training until her second birthday. Oh and there was also an autism screening, and she doesn't have autism! So thats good news!

The conclusion: Allie's perfect. Thats just the way we like it.

Cuties for a cutie

We all love the little clementine orange "cuties" in this house. And why not? Cuties for a cutie!

Make yourself comfortable

The other day Allie figured out that she could get her leg out of the leg hole in her high chair. So she sticks her leg out of her chair and just kicks back.

Yeah, its hard to be a baby, right?