Mother's Day and catching up on some things

I fell off the wagon. Face palm.

For two weeks after my birthday in April, I was taking Arianna to a Craw Babies class daily. She learned to blow bubbles, kick, roll from front to back and vice versa, and go under water. She loved it! I think we have a water baby on our hands.

Kevin and I have been trying to slowly build up our mileage to do a the Space Coast Half Marathon in November. We ran 5 miles today; it went pretty well and luckily it was pretty cool out for here (only 75ish degrees). I still started to get overheated at the end. I hope I can get acclimated to this heat! Not much else new is going on here - why I haven't really updated. We finally tried out Tammany Trace! We started at the Mandeville Trail head and ran towards New Orleans and back. The trail was actually really nice. It definitely could use more shade, but we were out running at 1pm - what can you do? One of the perks to this place was the kid's play area. They had some really nice shade structures, rubberized flooring, misting stations, and plenty of things to do - even for an 8.5 month old. Arianna had a blast swinging, as usual. It was definitely worth making the hour drive. It was amazing to not have to do 5 laps of our loop at the park here or 2 laps at City Park. The people we passed were all very friendly (not muttering show-off if you past them or other comments). We will definitely be going back.

And now for pictures!

World's Most Obnoxious Dog

How long can this puppy stage last? We are now going on 4 FOUR years. Apparently, it takes a scrawny Indian boy less time than that to break an adult male bengal tiger. Come on! I have tried everything short of marking my territory. I am trouble more by this today because:

1. It's storming outside, so I'm stuck with him in the house all day.

2. He gets so f#cking excited whenever Arianna wants to see him that I have to give him many harsh reminders to calm down.

3. Arianna is about to start crawling, which will make her even more interesting/exciting.

He constantly challenges me to the point of me having to hurdle the couch to get to him, as he is taking his precious time to do what I've told him to do. All the while, watching to see if I am going to stop paying attention to him so he doesn't have to do it.

In the very dead on words of a dear friend of mine, after he dog sat for me for a weekend, "How do you get this (points to Mr. Quarks), when he is raised with this saint (points to Buca)?" And my answer is still: I don't have any clue.

A Louisiana Spring: Pollen, Thunderstorms, and Love bugs

After our run in City Park

It seems that spring is finally making an appearance. How can I tell since the temps have been in at least the 70's since, well, we moved here a year ago? The pollen. Kevin has been sniffling and sneezing non-stop which means the pine trees are the culprit. Time will tell if I will have my turn. The only thing that seems to bother me is the flowering oak that we had in the triangle. I'm pretty sure what we have here, in Louisiana, is live oak. I may get lucky and not get the sniffles this year. The Love bugs are back; not quite to the extent of the biblical swarms that we experienced last year. I'm sure in time, they will increase their numbers. At least, they don't bite like the deer flies in Umstead. Also, with spring comes some pretty impressive thunderstorms. We are expecting a good one this afternoon; I do enjoy listening to thunderstorms. For some reason, they are relaxing for me.

This past weekend, I took Kevin to City Park for our run so we could have some new scenery. The park in Walker gets kind of boring, since it is only a half mile loop. We ran an out and back past the golf course and partly around City Park Lake. Kevin was impressed with how pretty the park is with all of the old oak trees. Also, there were actually other people out running! I think if we do a full loop around both City Park Lake and University Lake it is about 5-6 miles. That will be much better for long runs. We are slowly finding better places to run. It feels nice to be active again.

When we were finished with our run, we decided to try Arianna out on the swing at the playground. She really seemed to like it. I think she also really liked watching the other kids running around and playing. I need to get out with her more. I am thinking about signing up for a baby water class; it could be a good way to meet some other parents in the area and for Arianna to meet some other kids. Right now she has 2 friends, she needs a more expanded social circle.

7 Months

She leaned forward to sit like this without any help!

Things are getting back to normal in the Englestad household: sleep, exercising, etc. Arianna was in such a good mood on Friday that we were even able to go out to eat (at 5pm)!

She seems to have gotten my dad's eye color, which makes her look even less like me. I think people are going to start to think that I've stolen a baby - I swear, she came out of me! We've added one more solid meal to the mix (so she now does breakfast and dinner). She's doing really well with it and likes fruit a lot. 

We have committed to staying another year, and resigned our lease in our current house. It is going to be nice to not have to move this year. Since we are staying, Kevin did some research into square foot gardening and built/planted some beds this weekend. Let's hope we actually get some vegetables out of this thing!

We ran before he started on his projects, I promise we don't just wear workout gear around all the time.

Speaking of running, Arianna seems to get a real thrill out of riding in the BOB while we are running. We look down through the little window and she is normally awake, grinning, taking it all in.

Post-run grins

We lead such an exciting life, I know. Here are some pictures (I know that's why you really read my blog).

Mastering baby push-ups

She really took right to digging in to her Easter basket

Things that make me smile

To balance out my post from yesterday, after a decent amount of sleep last night, here are a list of things that make me smile:

Any time spent with my family
Munchkin snuggles
Munchkin smiles
Munchkin giggles
Watching Miss Munchkin figure something out for the first time
Watching Kevin & Arianna play together (makes me fall in love all over again - with both of them)
The first sip of coffee in the morning
Perfectly ripe avocado
Grilled Eggplant
Fall weather, Fall apples, Fall leaves
Running in cold weather
Long solo runs in empty parks
Open water swims in warm weather
Surfing
Taking my pups swimming
Playing frisbee with Mr. Quarks
Walks with Buca
Trips to the farmer's market
Veggie Pizzas
Star gazing
Cooking a new recipe (or old favorite) with Kevin
Kevin's bruscetta
My Dad's spaghetti sauce
Baking Christmas cookies with my Mom
and Chocolate

There is not enough coffee.

At least one of us is happy about being up most of the night.

Who is this cranky monster, and what has she done with my sweet, happy princess? Last night looked like this:

6:30 pm Down for the night early, because she skipped a nap
10:00 pm awake and hungry
10:30 pm back in crib
11:15 pm awake and angry: leg stuck through slats in crib and pooped.
12:00 am soothed and back in crib
12:30 am awake and angry: pooped again
1:00 am back in crib
Man, 6:30 came early this morning.

So far this month, I can count the times she has slept through on one hand. What is going on? Growth spurt? Teething? Waah.

Here are some pictures:

sitting unassisted

she likes tutus

She said "Mama!"

Miss Munchkin actually enjoys tummy time these days.

This six month growth spurt has been a doozie! It has dragged on and on - I'm still unsure if it is over! Sadly, this means that she has outgrown my favorite jammie's! That just meant that I had to take her shopping and buy her new adorable outfits and jammie's! I still haven't picked a new favorite just yet.

After 2 days of saying "ma," Arianna said her first word today. "Mama!" I thought that I had to be imagining it, in my growth-spurt-caused-sleep-deprivation, but then she said it again when she wanted me to pick her up! And I mean she looked at me, said "Mama" and then raised her arms up. Heart. Melt.

 I cannot stop grinning.

One of the wonderful benefits of Kevin's job is that the company gives you money towards a car seat if you go to the Alliance Safety Council in Baton Rouge and have them install and educate you on how to use it. No problem there! Since we were given an infant car seat by my mother as a gift, we have been saving it until now, when she can fit in a rear facing convertible. She has been getting more irritated in her infant carrier seat, I think she doesn't want to be reclined as much so she can look at things out the window. Today, I went down and had them install it. Arianna is a fan; she fell asleep in it almost immediately.

I made myself the best breakfast I've ever eaten last week. Egg in a hole - Cali Style with sriracha. Yum! Quick how to: cook an egg, over easy, in the hole of an avocado slice. Squirt sriracha sauce around the hole before you crack the egg into it. It. was. delicious. I will be making this again soon.