Guess what I did today?

Too much of motherhood is spent smelling bottoms, looking for poo.  The worst part is when you find it.

Ponyo!

We watched "Ponyo" which is sort of a highly imaginative retelling of "The Little Mermaid."  It's quite cute but really weird and also very, very Japanese.  Just check out the theme song:



Ha ha ha!

I LOVE IT.

Saturday Sweat Log

This week I managed to run almost 6 miles, almost half of those on Wednesday.  I think I'm a vampiric runner, and by that I mean that daylight sucks all my strength and makes me feel like dying.  Not that I suck the blood of other runners.  Because I totally don't do that.

Anyway, on Wednesday I ran at night before eating a late supper, and it felt really good.  In fact, I ran longer than I had intended to.  (There's construction going on and I guess I sort of got a bit lost in the dark, what with familiar landmarks being, um, dark...)

I even did a few sit ups this week, as promised.  I have a goal to be able to do 50 in two minutes; I'm just over halfway there.  I feel a bit pathetic and soft bellied, and extremely vulnerable to velociraptors.  

"Make the fire, fix the breakfast!"

I got one of them Swiffer broom/mop things from Costco the other day.  I haven't had much chance to use it but is seems pretty okay.

Isadora, however, thinks that it is more than okay.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that it's one of her new favorite things.  She takes tiny, wobbly steps and pushes it around on the floor.  Maybe she's not doing a spectacular cleaning job but I respect her good intentions.

She's already got a little thing going on with the duster and a fascination for the vacuum.  When she gets a bit taller I will show her how fun it is to wash dishes.  By the time she's 6 I expect she'll be my very own little Cinderella.  Bwa ha ha!

Book Review: Wind, Sand, and Stars

by Antoine de Saint Exupéry


This was a sort of autobiography of a French airmail pilot from way back in the day.  And when I say "sort of" I mean that yeah, he tells a few pilot stories, but he's more of a philosopher than anything else.  This wasn't really my regular sort of reading fare, but I couldn't help but be impressed.  Although, the first chapter bit almost turned me off.  Booooooooring.  Despite my English major background, I rarely enjoy reading stuff written by poemers and the like.


In conclusion:  This was a library book, and Izzy ripped a corner off of one of the pages.  If we end up having to buy it, I won't be too disappointed.

Saturday Sweat Log: The First

(This is one of those new features that I was talking about.  This is where I tell you about exercisey/hard things I did this week to keep myself svelte...if I did any.)

So...I'm sort of back on the running horse.  I don't really like going by myself, and Matt usually leaves for work before Izzy and I are really up and about, so that leaves evenings free for us to go together as a family.  The problem with this scenario is that evening-time is also when we eat DINNER.  And when I eat dinner, I really eat it.

That means that we're jogging around like overheated slugs and making sad, groaning noises.  Anyone looking at us would think that we didn't LIKE running.  So...we've got to rethink our strategy.  I think we ran a total of 2 1/2 miles this week, although we may head out tonight and try to up that.  Maybe.

Side note: I've devoted a large portion of this week to eating cookies, and that's not exactly helping me feel like a real runner.  There are only two solutions to this: having my taste buds removed or being involved in a double dog dare.


Next week: Maybe I'll do some sit ups!

Books for baby

In case you haven't noticed, I'm a huge fan of books. Books for me, books for the baby, books for everybody! Isadora's birthday is coming up, and I haven't quite decided what book to get her. I'm a big fan of the Usborne touchy-feely books, but we already have five of those.  Although, we don't have the dinosaur one yet and I'm kind of leaning toward a vaguely dinosaur-themed birthday party.  Woo!

Who knows some good dinosaur picture books?  Preferably ones that are low on the blood-shed; Izzy's not quite old enough to appreciate that yet.

Just to clarify...

THIS:

NOT THIS:

Notice:

I'm a'thinkin' that this here blog needs more direction. Not a whole lot more, because then I will be creatively stifled and that leads to death. I will probably make Pooems a regular feature. I've got a few other ideas I'm kicking around as well. If there's anything you particularly like or dislike, now's the time to let me know. Now is your ONLY chance.

Catch-up stuff, followed by a Pooem.

We've had quite a busy time this week, but not so busy that I shouldn't have put something on here.

I got to donate blood for the second time in my life (usually my iron is too low), and that was exciting. Those blood-sucking needles are kind of HUGE. It took me 5 minutes and 18 seconds to fill the bag. I am an awesome bleeder. I love the Lorna Doone shortbread cookies you get afterwards, too.

Izzy scraped up her nose and chin on the concrete outside our front door, and she spent all of today with yogurt in her hair. I am apparently a wonderful mother. Woo!

Here is a Pooem I wrote, inspired by a true story. "Pooems," as the name implies, are crappy poems. Here you go:

It's kinda cool looking out over the lake
I think I can see a boat
No wait,
I can't.
Still
It's pretty blue out there
Blue like when someone stops breathing and then gets dead.
You know?

Oh, interwebs, you so crazy.

If you haven't seen Keyboard Cat, then you don't spend enough time on the internet.

On the right is the original video; on the left is Ron Livingston's stirring reenactment.



I honestly cannot tell you how happy this makes me.

I just don't understand.

I bought a box containing some things today.  It looked like this:

Inside, there was this:

Less than half of the inside space was taken up by a smaller cardboard container, which contained the actual product*.  The rest was made up of air.

WHY didn't they just use a smaller box?


*In case you were wondering, I bought hair cutting equipment.  That's right, pretty soon Matt will be too embarrassed to go out in public.

I like to get my failing done early.

It is beautiful outside this morning.  Also, it is September 1st, and since I like starting goals at the beginning of the month (week, year, etc.), I was going to resume my running habit today.  We've been traveling so much this summer that my workouts have kind of been forgotten.  I do not feel good about that.

I pulled on my five-fingered shoes, strapped the baby into the stroller, and jazzed myself up to go run 20 miles!  10 miles! ....Maybe a mile and a half.  Whatever.  As we rolled out of the driveway, however, I noticed the stroller had a flat tire.  I looked in half a dozen different shoeboxes and closets for the bicycle pump, but alas, it was not meant to be. 

I did find a jump rope, though, so while the baby puttered around eating grass and staring at her shadow, I hopped up and down and tried not to hit myself.  And you know what?  It was hard.  (Both the not hitting myself and the jumping.)  I think my internal organs have grown lazy.