Halloween 2015

I will write about the rest of October next, but this was so fun!

I seriously started thinking about Cora's Halloween costume back in June or July. It being our first Halloween with a baby, I wanted it to be great!

Since she has red hair, I wanted to do something with it. I initially thought of her being a strawberry, with me being a mouse and Brandon being the big hungry bear (from the children's book that we read to her).

Then, I thought of her being a tiny Ginny Weasley and I loved that. But one night, Brandon and I were talking about it and I decided she HAD to be the Little Mermaid. A tiny chubby mermaid with red hair?? SO stinking cute. I found a crochet pattern online for a mermaid tail, and bought the yarn that night. I started working on it in September, and had to stretch the pattern out a little bit to make it longer to fit over her lower legs. She has the most delicious lower legs, with rolls on her ankles. However, that doesn't make it easy to dress at times. And I realized with less than a week to go before Halloween that while my tail tapered perfectly (in my opinion), her legs didn't.

 But look at this cute little mermaid!! The diaper sticking out kills me.

So I had to undo a lot of the tail and start again with less than a week before Halloween. Luckily Gabrielle sent me a mermaid tail-style towel, which I will get a picture of when we bring her to the beach with it, so I had a backup in case the tail didn't pan out.

So while I was frantically working on that, I hadn't even thought of which character we would be. As excited as I was for Cora's costume and making sure it looked great, I hadn't given any thought to our costumes. Obviously Brandon would be a good Prince Eric, but what the heck could I be? I decided just on Vanessa (Ursula's human form). Blue dress, seashell necklace, angry eyebrows, done. But the night before we were talking with our friends Devon and Raechel and she said "No no, you should be Flounder!, I'll help with the makeup!" And we spent a while looking up the makeup. Remember, I have ZERO makeup skills, so I love having friends who do. We decided to go get costume stuff the morning of Halloween.

Thank goodness Brandon got out early from being on call at the hospital, so I could leave Cora with him. Now that she eats baby food, I don't have to be here constantly (because SOMEONE won't take a bottle). So it was fun to get out and feel like a person again! While we were at party city, we found a chicken beak and I decided Brandon had to be Scuttle instead. It was hilarious. Then we went back to Raechel's place (because I'm sure Brandon and Cora were napping) and she did my hair and makeup. She even made fish lips on my face!

Not pictured: An AWESOME hairstyle with an inside out French braid and a blue hair extension woven in to look like a fish fin. This was just the picture I sent to Brandon to show him why I was gone for like 5 hours. Cora was PRETTY good while I was gone, but towards the end he said she was pretty sad. She wasn't even weirded out by  my face, and just wanted me. It felt nice.

Brandon's costume was a little harder to do, but I think we pulled it off. Even though everyone thought he was a chicken.

Oh yeah, and I couldn't find the dumb beak I had just bought when it was time to go! Grrrr.

Brandon helped me figure out how to finish off the tail, since I couldn't crochet to the edge in time. We had some felt in our closet, so we just cut it out and glued it on the bottom of the tail.

Halloween came at just the right time, as far as the tail fitting goes. Cora was barely fitting into the tail as it was, and it took both of us to cram her in there. Thank goodness.

So I took her to the beach and took pictures of her in her tail. Because when you are a mermaid and live by the beach, you HAVE to take pictures!

 

 At first she didn't like the warm sand (I'm glad she had her onesie on so it didn't hurt her back!), and fussed for a second. But, then she tasted the salt on her hands and she LOVED it. As long as her face was away from the Sun, she was happy. And yes, we had a bath immediately afterwards (well, that and lunch). 

Fun fact- Brandon watched "the Little Mermaid" while holding 1.5 day old Cora in the hospital while I tried to sleep the second night there. It was sweet, and so I'm glad her costume had a cute memory behind it. It was SO cute.

6 months- I never want to forget.

What the heck.

Brandon and I have successfully kept someone alive for half a year? And haven't scarred her too badly yet? It's a miracle!

I've been so paranoid that I'm not mentally stimulating her enough, or that I'm spoiling her too much and she won't hit her developmental milestones because I don't let her roll/sit/crawl enough.

But anyway, we have a lot of fun stuff coming up in the next few months. First Halloween (stay tuned for the best costume ever), then Thanksgiving, then CHRISTMAS, then Valentine's Day, then St. Patrick's Day, then her birthday. Waaaaah!

So yeah, I've been thinking about the future. I also keep thinking that next time around, when the nights are long and I can't nap with the baby this time because I'll have a toddler running around, I will remember that 6 months is FUN! She is so so so hilarious and fun.

Some things I don't want to forget:

- Her growling. She started doing this like last week, and it is SO hilarious. She growls all day every day, and I laugh every time. She even growls in response to me, which is so funny that she is catching on that we are making the same sounds.

As a side note, she does these high pitched squeaks that imitate mine. She also kicks her legs a lot when she does it and it KILLS me.

- How much of a morning person she is. This is a dark video, and it's off Snapchat so bear with me. But she is the happiest morning person possible. She LOVES seeing one of us put our heads over the side of her crib.

- How flexible she is. Her favorite thing in the whole world is sucking on her toes and hands. She will also suck on your hands if you let her, or your face.

"Slimy yet satisfying!"

- How much she loves Brandon. More of these pictures will come later, but she wouldn't smile at me while I was trying to take these pictures. But Brandon walked in and she made this face:

At this point we wait outside our apartment door when I know Brandon is walking up, and she lights up when she sees him. It's super cute!
- How much she loves looking in the mirror. She is totally being a ham right now. Whenever we look in the vanity mirror, she makes faces. Unless she has just woken up.

(Here are her "My First Halloween" pajamas. I couldn't resist.)
- How cheesy she can be. She has been giving me this cheesy smile lately and it is seriously so hilarious. Not many people get to see this... but she also does it when I pick her up when she's whining to get picked up. Stinker.

She loves eating rice cereal, but only if it has applesauce (with cinnamon) or bananas in it. If you give it to her plain she FREAKS out. She will still only nap on her tummy, and sleep at night on her back. She doesn't like wearing shoes, because that makes it hard for her to suck on her toes. If you leave her for a second in the room she bursts into tears until you come back. She sleeps well at night, but naps are still being worked out.

She is so opinionated, and I have no idea why. I feel so lucky to be her mom!

Half a year down... I am already planning her first birthday party in my head.

Southernmost Half Marathon in the Nation

There aren't too many times where I am truly proud of myself. 

I was proud of myself when I graduated college. 

I was proud of myself when I taught special ed.

I was proud of myself when I gave birth.

And this weekend I fulfilled a goal- I ran a half marathon!

So, 2 years ago I wrote this, which talked about how I was starting running and wanted to run the Big Cottonwood Canyon half marathon at the end of September. Well, I didn't. I then signed up for the Famous Idaho Potato half marathon in May 2014, but I didn't train enough so I decided to run the 10K instead. THEN, I found this run in October 2014 called the Southernmost Marathon in the Nation, which is run in Key West. We knew we were going to be moving to Miami, so I started training before we moved. But then a little somebody came along and made me sick, so that went on hold. And while I was pregnant, I actually started to miss running. It was so weird to realize that! 

While I don't necessarily like running, I know it is a good way to get into shape and exercise. I decided to run a half marathon within 6 months of Cora being born, as a way to get me back out and about as soon as possible. I know that a good way to fight off the baby blues is to get active again, so I made a goal. Once I signed up for the race, I was in it to win it.

It was SO hard to train. Cora is not a huge fan of running in the stroller for more than 20 minutes, which eliminated all distance day time runs. I could only train early in the morning or late at night... which basically meant late at night. I was getting discouraged by the end, because I know I hadn't trained as much as I should have. I endured sunburns and chafing (under my arms and my thighs). But I kept trying, and finally the day came.

I picked Brandon up from work on Friday, and that traffic was HORRENDOUS. I'm glad we decided that in advance, because it would have taken a few more hours just to get to that point afterwards. Usually it takes 4 hours to get to Key West (according to Apple Maps), but it took us almost 7. Poor Cora was DONE by the time we got there. Our hotel was the Key West Bayside Inn and Suites (to remember for next time, if we ever come back). The room was bigger than our apartment, which isn't saying much but it was nice. We even could put Cora in the front room, and let her fall asleep by herself that way! I could hear her talking to herself, but she was so tired that she fell back asleep finally.

Then, I had to get up at 4:15 the next morning after 4 hours of sleep to get ready. To say I had butterflies was an understatement. Brandon dropped me off, I warmed up and stretched, and the gun went off!

We ran around the island, which went by a lot of the sights. We passed the Southernmost Point Buoy, Ernest Hemingway's house, and came to the beach where I saw the most BEAUTIFUL sunrise.

I had to take a picture, it was so stunning.

We also passed the Key West airport, the Fort East Martell Museum- a Civil War era museum that has a lot of paranormal activity including Robert the doll (a haunted doll that was the inspiration for Chucky FREAKY)- and then came back around and saw the hotel! I texted Brandon to look out, and it was fun to see a little sleeper clad body bouncing up and down on the balcony. Brandon got some pictures (also note our view!)

It was about this time that my ankles really started to give out on me. They HURT, and every jogging step was painful. I tried walking on the outside of my feet, but I could hardly run. I still had 3 miles to go though! So I kept moving, and right when I was about to give up I had a text from Brandon that said "Don't give up you're almost there!" How did he know? Who knows.

At mile 12 there was a bridge we had to cross. THAT was cruel. I didn't even try to run it.

When I hit mile 13 and knew I just had .1 left, I really got a lump in my throat and even some tears in my eyes. I was almost done! And people were cheering... it's sure an ego boost! So I hobbled along to the finish line, and Brandon snapped this lovely shot of me.

Check out that form! I call it "Dying slowly".

As soon as I finished, I walked over very slowly to Brandon and Cora. Cora was not very impressed with my accomplishment.

My goal was to be under 3 hours, but thanks to the ankle and foot/toe pain I made it in 3:27:40 (according to the race results I got in an email yesterday). Oh well, I managed to not be last (503/563), and I didn't hurt myself seriously. So, not too bad.

Cora was starving by the time I got to them, so we had to head back to the hotel. Unfortunately we couldn't afford a second night in Key West so we had to check out 40 minutes after we got home. Cora was so tired, but we had to get lunch. We found a barbecue place (Charlie Mac's), which was pretty good. I had been careful about what I was eating all week, so that was my reward.

We had to decide what we were going to do, and since we didn't want to spend any more money we decided to just check out the Southernmost Point buoy. There was a line to take pictures, and Cora was grumpy, but we got some good pictures!

 

 It is 90 miles to Cuba from that point. They also made the first international call there, by running a big cable along the ocean floor. Cora fell asleep before we even started the car after she got back in, so we decided to just get going.

Going back on the bridges was a fascinating thing. This was over the 7 Mile Bridge, and it was eerie to realize that you could go out in a boat from there and not hit anything for hours.

 Beautiful little key.

We stopped in Key Largo and got some key lime pie. I recommend it for EVERYONE!

I am feeling really good about finally fulfilling my goal of running a half marathon. I even thought at the end "next time-" WHAT. I used to think anyone who ran for fun was ridiculous. Then it was "fine I'll run a half, but I will NEVER run a full marathon". I don't think anything can be off the table now.

I did this for myself, for Brandon, and for Cora. I know I needed to get my fitness back in gear, and I wanted to know that later in life if I have health problems it won't be from a sedentary lifestyle. I wanted to show Cora that anything she puts her mind to is possible, and that an active lifestyle is a good one. Brandon has wanted me to get in shape for a while (he has never said that, of course) so that I will play frisbee and Spikeball and games with him outside.

Training for a half marathon has really helped me with my post partum emotions. Yes, I was super discouraged for a while when my training wasn't really taking off. I am still SO slow and hurt after many runs. My body still doesn't look the same as it did before my pregnancy. I still have some weight hanging on for dear life. But instead of sitting around thinking "Ugh I hate my body!" I am trying to DO something about it! And this just goes to show- if I can do a half marathon, anyone can. They just need to want to and be willing to put the time into training. Now, I have a goal to improve my speed before my next half. I know I'll do at least one more in my life, because I want to have a better PR.

General Conference Weekend

Has General Conference already come and gone again? The weekend always flies by when that happens!

This post is a combination of cute pictures (and a video), and my reflections on some talks.

I took Cora on a run early in the morning Saturday, she loves it.

She had her sweet little hat on that I dubbed her "Cora the Explora" hat, an homage to Dora.

We had a birthday party to go to, so Cora didn't get her morning nap until almost noon and was pretty tired. She slept for most of the morning session, which was nice!

She did wake up and we had her watch the afternoon session with us.

(Distracting Brandon.)

We told her to be reverent and this happened... so obedient.

But she just wanted to watch us! Little Tinky Winky. She fell asleep by the end of the afternoon session, snuggled up to Brandon.

Brandon went to dinner with a friend for his birthday then to watch Priesthood session, so Cora and I had the night to ourselves. We partied it up.

 We have been working on getting her hooked on a pacifier vs a thumb sucker... so far it has been ehhhhh.

This face kills me! She has been making this expression a lot and it makes me laugh.

Sunday morning, Cora woke up at 6:45 and didn't want to go back to sleep. We could see that the sun was about to rise, so we loaded her in the front pack carrier and walked to the beach. It was stunning! I'm going to blow up one of these pictures and put it on our wall.

Cora enjoyed being out. Although, it was 72 degrees, downright FREEZING in Miami! So she got cold. Which means we get to wear pants hooray!

Between sessions of conference we caught the CUTEST video of Cora laughing. She really is a serious baby and doesn't laugh as much as some other babies might, but she is pretty ticklish.

That was just before she went down for her nap. When she woke up, she was NOT ready to be awake. This was the look I got from the other couch for a solid 20 minutes.

I think she was offended that I handed her to Brandon.

So yes, what a great conference! That was a great first Conference weekend with the 3 of us. 6 months ago I was laying on that same couch, but hugely pregnant and ready to pop. And Graham had just been born!

There were so many great talks this past weekend.

Like most of the young mothers who watched conference, I  have to say my favorite talk was probably Elder Holland's. He spoke so eloquently of the trials that mothers go through, and what they put into raising their children. And it SO SPOKE TO ME. I have been wondering if I am stimulating Cora's brain enough, and if she will be able to see her potential through what I am doing. It doesn't help that she acts so bored at home... but anyway. It was so wonderful to hear someone speak of the love a mother has for her child, because it is true. You carry your baby for more than 9 months.

I love hearing from President Monson. It is so sad to see the years catching up with him. Ever since his wife passed away he seems to have aged much faster. And who could blame him? He is a saintly man, and I hope we get to hear from him again.

Elder Bednar's talk touched me. When he got emotional talking about his 6 friends who have passed away since he was called as an Apostle, you could really feel his sadness and pain. Those 15 men must be such good friends, and they mourn with each passing and welcome the new men in.

Other great talks included (but are not limited to): Sister Marriott, Elder Oaks, and Elder Nelson. I will be reading a lot of these talks in the next few months!