Marathon Mom

 My little climber Wow, 10 months already and quite the big personality. Ophelia is such a happy baby, most of the time, and loves people. You can just tell she is thinking about everything around her and just taking it all in. Over the past month we’ve gotten more adventurous with her food and what a difference that has made. It seems she likes “real” food much better than the boring flavorless baby food. Some of her favorites are lentil taco filling, curry vegetables, vegetable chili, fish, and corn bread. She is standing on her own and has attempted a few steps, but tends to just throw herself forward whenever close to someone forgetting to move her feet. She loves to climb anything she can, I'm just waiting for that first ER trip and hoping it isn't in the near future! It is so interesting to see the difference between her and other babies close in age. We were at the in-laws on Thanksgiving and her cousin who is 1 week younger is not even crawling yet, but he is an exc...

For the first time ever I was one of those crazy black Friday shoppers. Every year I look through the ads and then decide sleep sounds better then crowds and cold, but not this year my mom and I were at Target at 6am getting toys, movies, and clothes for Ophelia and most importantly a new coffee maker for Matt and I. Then it was off to Kohl's for more toys for Ophelia and finally to Borders for the free coffee for me and books for Ophelia. I hate to admit it but I kind of wish I was out there earlier since I missed a couple of the deals I was hoping for. I think this might become a new tradition. I guess I need some sort of Thanksgiving tradition since the only part of the meal I like is the pumpkin pie.

A short report of my final race of the season. The day was perfect for November weather, sunny and upper 50s. I think this race was a good preparation for the later start of Boston, since it not only started at noon, but on the day we changed the clocks back so thanks to Ophelia I had been awake since 5am. It was a small race and the thanks to the laid back race director I was able to get through the bathroom line before the start. The race was chipped timed, but all based on a clock start so I wanted to be near the front. I headed out with a couple other women, but quickly realized I wasn't going to be keeping up with them. I ran a quick but comfortable pace and then the hills came, one after another and I was passed by another woman around mile 4 pushing me back to 4th. I tried to catch her and kept her in sight but never quite got there. I knew this was a hilly course, but wow it was much tougher racing on it then running a 20 mile training run. I started with high hopes of a...