Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut Sometimes You Don't

Sometimes you feel great in a race / run, and sometimes you just plain DON'T.

Two weeks ago I ran the Leavenworth Half Marathon and I felt AMAZING.  I pushed myself, saw splits on the Garmin I never expected, saw a total time a good 10 minutes faster than what I HOPED, and just plain felt great.

Yesterday (okay at this point it was last weekend!) I ran a half marathon and I felt HORRIBLE.  Okay horrible might be exaggerating a bit, plenty more could have been worse, but I did NOT feel good.  If I had been by myself I 100% would have stopped at 5 miles (if I even got that far).  That's how far my body felt like running.  And no wonder - since I struggle to fit in weekday runs at all and they are all only 3 miles - 5 miles is practically a "long run" for this body. 

Let's back up a bit.  Coming off of Leavenworth, I have Ragnar Vegas and the Seattle Half coming up - and I REALLY want to be in good shape for both of those.  I want to not let my team down at Ragnar and I would love to sub-2 at Seattle.  But I also really want to baby my hamstring.  If you've been following along for a year or so you know coming off of Ragnar Northwest Passage last year I came back too quick - wanting to get right back to training for Hood to Coast and an ultra I had planned (that never happened), and high hamstring tendonitis plagued me despite all kinds of treatment until pregnancy (and the related rest) cured it.  But I still feel it waiting in the wings sometimes, and I want to majorly baby it.

How you baby a baby.  And a hamstring.

ANYWAY that was a tangent off of a tangent.  So I rested the week after Leavenworth, but knew I needed to get right back to it.  When Lindsay and Robyn suggested a very small, very cheap half marathon in Robyn's neighborhood (hellloooo opportunity to play with her new kitten) I debated a little (I also didn't want to be away from Baby J that long since this was my first full week of work away from him and I was majorly missing him), but knew it was the best thing since there is no way I'd probably tough out a long run on my own.

So - I signed up for a race 2 days before and there we were on an incredibly foggy (i.e., no beautiful West Seattle views) day ready to run the Salty's Half Marathon.  Seeing the very small crowd I instantly started begging Robyn to try to win.

I couldn't find the exact clip I wanted but you better believed I referenced Katniss' promise to Prim.

And the freaking rockstar got THIRD PLACE OVERALL!!!!!!  Someday when I grow up I want to be as fast as Robyn.  Too bad that will never happen.

Meanwhile while Robyn got top 5 pretty sure Lindsay and I got bottom 5.  Not exactly sure how many people came in after me (I wasn't dead last) but it was NOT VERY MANY PEOPLE.  Nearly last place over here.  Woot woot!

 I totally stole this picture of the medal from Lindsay because I'm too lazy to take my own.  Mine looks slightly different.

There's not much else to say except it was pretty much a death march after the turn around.  It felt like we were never ever ever ever getting back together going to be done.  I walked some in mile 12, that's how bad it was.  I would have walked again even in mile 13 if this random girl hadn't come up behind me and start to pass me and I insisted on staying with her which made me push it for the last half mile, which I swear was the longest half mile of my life. 

Total Time: 2:12:05  (this is an average pace of EXACTLY 10:00 somehow)
Splits:  9:54, 9:29, 9:53, 9:36, 9:50, 10:34, 9:56, 11:05, 10:03, 10:07, 10:03, 10:13, 9:22, 9:12 (.22)
How's that for a positive split?!

A few last thoughts:

• Robyn's kitty Jasper is the cutest kitty ever.  
• We got little glass fish as our "medals". 
• I was starving in the last 3 miles which added to my pain, so at the finish I scarfed down some stuff and then proceeded to feel sick for several hours afterwards.  
• How could I ever run a marathon?  
• Baby J is precious.  I need a part-time job (that pays the same) so I can hang out with Baby J way more.

And now ends the post of 10,000 tangents and no "race" pictures (major blogger fail!).  Sometimes you feel like a nut great running sometimes you don't.

A Baby J 3 Month Update!

Well, we made it through the dreaded "4th trimester"!  Baby J is 3 months old!  Okay okay, I'm so far behind on posting this that he's actually more like almost 4 months old.... whoops.  So look for a 4 month update next week?  Ha... right.

It's hard to believe how big Baby J has gotten!  It's appears that monster babies are both born and made.  Nature vs. nurture you see.  :-)  Because although Baby J was only 6 lbs 13 ounces when he was born, he's now over 15 pounds!  I'm excited to go to the doctor for his 4 month appointment and get his official stats.  I'm NOT excited for his shots. 

Look how big he's gotten!

 

Karla - we still LOVE your blanket you made us!

Everything is so so so so so SO MUCH BETTER.  Like a ridiculous amount better than before.  It's crazy to think back on how different it is now.  Sleeping - not so much - but that's for a different paragraph!  Everything else is SO MUCH BETTER! 

Baby J smiles at us ALL THE TIME.  He rarely cries, except when he's hungry (and he can go from 0 to GIVE ME FOOD NOW I'M STARVING in about 15 seconds so it's very important to be very ready to feed him IMMEDIATELY!) and when he's tired and starting to get fussy.

I just feel so lucky that he's just so freaking smiley all the time - I don't feel like all babies must smile this much?  We are blessed.  He's just so adorable and he smiles at you like he loves you SO MUCH and it just makes you so happy.  Making him smile is my #1 priority.  Which is why the dishes are never done and the laundry piles up.  :-)

SMILEY!  And just look at that belly!  

He still LOVES bath time and now thankfully rarely cries when we take him out. 

He still doesn't LOVE tummy time but now he *sometimes* tolerates it for a minute or two.  He does kind of have a flat head on one side from when he was a newborn and majorly favored laying on one side of his head.  I don't think it helps that his head his ginormous and in the 90th percentile, especially compared to his 50th percentile weight.  It really has me worried he'll need to wear a helmet someday.

But his head control is getting a lot better!  He is not even remotely close to rolling over which has me a bit worried as well, he's definitely not a prodigy in that department.  But I guess since he was 3 weeks early he needs an extra 3 weeks to do everything?

Can you tell we had a photo shoot one day?  This was during the monsoon so the lighting was poor and therefore the pictures aren't as crisp as I'd like, but we had some fun with costume changes and background changes!  Baby J was a good sport.  :-)

He still for the most part doesn't really like his pacifier, which is frustrating.  He is like his Mom and Dad I guess, in that when he's hungry he's STARVING and no fake look-a-like will do.  Those Biggest Loser people who tell you to chew Extra gum instead of eating real food are full of crap by the way.  :-)

He IS starting to hold on to stuff and grab at stuff though - which I noticed for the first time with his wubbanub pacifier thing, on a rare day when he liked it!

He also sometimes kind of holds on to the elephant and frog that hang from his playmat now, instead of just swatting at them!  He is also tracking toys with his eyes - he's been tracking us for a long time but never really focused on toys before.

He's also found his hand / finger is fun to suck on all-the-time now, not just when he's hungry. 

We're on a decent schedule - nothing rigid or really timed but we do eat-play-sleep cycles during the day of about 3-4 hours.  I try to force him to eat a lot during the eat segments, but I don't know if he's just not really eating as much as I think he is or it's because of his monster baby tendencies, but we're still not doing that well at night.

So let's talk sleeping.  I feel like I should do an entire post about this but here's the Cliff Notes version: Sleeping has gotten worse, if anything.  The last time I posted I mentioned how Baby J had given us one 6 hour stretch and one 7 hour stretch and I was feeling encouraged by these occurrences.  Now we're back to being lucky to get 4-4.5 hour stretches (more often it's 3-3.5 hour stretches), and we haven't really gotten anything longer than that in a LONG TIME.  He's up at least 2 times a night on work days (when I get up at 5-6am anyway and therefore he gets up too) - but technically 3 times a night if he's sleeping until 8am like on weekends.  It's EXHAUSTING.

   

He's also starting to really struggle to fall back to sleep after the 2nd time he wakes up.  He'll be asleep in our arms but as soon as we lay him down in his crib he's awake.  Repeat a thousand times or until you're so tired and frustrated that you negotiate with the terrorist and put him in his swing.  This happens nearly every-other-night.  And at the rate we're going he's going to outgrow that swing in the next month and THEN what will we do?!?!?!? 

 Again - can you believe how big he's gotten?

So as always, sleep advice is GREATLY appreciated.  I swear I've read every book out there and I swear I'm doing *most* of what they say - eat-play-sleep schedules, white noise, good naps during the day, trying to feed him plenty during the day, trying to see if he'll go back to sleep without eating (he NEVER does - he's a monster baby after all), a nightly routine, etc.  We have stopped swaddling since it scares me he will suddenly learn to roll over while swaddled even though he doesn't seem to be close to doing that.  Yes, I'm crazy.

I refuse to straight-up cry it out, at least this young, but am open to gentler approaches.  Or perhaps he's just still too young to do much for now?  It wouldn't be such a big deal if I could sleep a bit later but I have to be AT work by 7:30am at the latest.

But besides the sleeping issue - everything is great!

Pretzels, Brats, & Beer, Oh My! (A Leavenworth Half Marathon Race Recap)

WOOOOOTTTT!

I don't have a lot to say about this race besides that.  At 3 months post-partum I not only finished this half marathon, but I felt like I ROCKED IT.  I'm not bragging, in fact my time is 18-ish minutes off my PR time.  That's a lot.  But compared to what I expected, I dominated.  And compared to how bad I was prepared to feel - I felt GREAT!  Every race should feel like that.

This race was straight-up amazing.  I LOVE Leavenworth (you already know about this, I've posted about Leavenworth practically more than I've posted about Cooper and Baby J... okay maybe not really!  But maybe the same number of times as I've posted about swimming?!?!).

The views were amazing, I felt GREAT, and I had a philosophical journey while running that made me so appreciative of my life.  Yep, we're going there.

Seriously - check out the views from the course:

There were snow-capped mountains, gorgeous rivers, blue skies, best-friend-horses, people wearing Gumby costumes, a beer station (just the smell made me want to throw up!), cute little bridges that felt like they were about the break under our weight, etc.  What more could you want in a race?

Anyway, to the race recap.

The race swag.  Average.

It's cool that the medal is a bottle opener but it is seriously the exact same medal from 2011 except with a different color.  Also, since I didn't register early enough I had to go to the "leftovers" shirt table and all that was left was X-Large or Small / X-Small.  Turns out XL is the right size because WHY DO THEY MAKE THE WOMENS SHIRTS SO SMALL???  I seriously hate women's race shirts.  I'd rather have the men's fit.  But I digress.

 

It was a chilly morning and I was majorly wishing I'd brought a parka or at least a fleece to stay warm in before the race.  IDIOT!  But pretty soon we were off and running and I had taken off my long sleeve by mile 5.

Jordanne and I ran together at an easy-pace and talked the whole time through mile 5.  Then we walked up the steep steep hill, took off our long-sleeve, and put on our music.  We stayed together through mile 8-ish, together for a bit, then she pulled ahead for awhile, then I did, then her again, then I did.  At mile 8 I decided to just go hard and see what happened, and I felt great!

Too bad the last mile is the hardest mile of the whole race - on trail with rocks to look out for that was loose sand at times and constant rolling up and down.  

But then I was sprinting to the finish!

Total Time: 2:02:28 (Average Pace: 9:23)

Splits: 10:00, 9:25, 9:24, 9:32, 9:33, 10:55 (the walking up the hill mile!), 9:12, 9:08, 9:03, 9:09, 9:00, 8:43, 9:02

Talk about a negative split, baby!

The course itself was pretty flat except for the steep hill I walked at mile 5 and two out-and-backs that were both gradual downhill out and gradual uphill back.  The rolling hills in the last mile were very short but were more like mountain bike hills so they were just really annoying.  

 Total elevation gain of 397 feet.

We're done!

Anyway, about that philosophical revelation of mine.  While I was running the last 5 miles or so, I just kept thinking about how I felt like ME for the first time in a long time.  I had gone through this long tunnel - through pregnancy (which I don't consider very fun, no offense to all of you who think it's the grandest experience on earth), through childbirth (ouch ouch ouch), breastfeeding woes (double ouch), not sleeping (well, I'm still not sleeping, but that's okay), and the crying, oh the crying.  But most of that is behind me now!  And here I am with this wonderful family - this great husband who I love more and more as I see how Baby J adores him, and of course, this perfect smiley Baby J (who cries much much MUCH less than he used to - and smiles a TON, which just melts your heart).

And not only all of this, but I was also out RUNNING, in the SUNSHINE no less, running hard and feeling good, and actually kind of competing (with myself anyway) and pushing myself hard, and I just felt like ME.  The new me anyway.  The new me that is a MOM.  And none of this probably makes sense, but it was glorious.

Too bad Baby J was not impressed!

Then we headed off to Oktoberfest and had a BLAST in the sunshine.  Polkas, brats, pretzels, and beer - what more could you want?

And although JMan totally didn't want to wear this shirt - we got a TON of compliments.  He was so annoyed because every time someone told us they loved our shirts he was like "they're just reinforcing this kind of behavior!"

And that's a wrap.  I still LOVE Leavenworth.  Now it's time to focus on training for Ragnar and the Seattle Half!

7 Summits Adventure Race

The good people at 7 Summits Adventure Race (7SAR) randomly contacted me last week and asked if I wanted to run their race this weekend.  I had NEVER heard of this race which was surprising since I'm often all over crazy adventures like this.  Which is why I figured maybe YOU hadn't heard of this race either and should!

The more I read about this race, the more intrigued I was.  It certainly does sound like an adventure.  The website could be more informative, but from what I've gathered it's either a 7 mile or a 3 mile obstacle course style race - with 20+ obstacles inspired by the 7 continents, and summiting the highest peak on each continent.  If you do the 3 mile race I think you only get to go through obstacles from 3 continents. 

 

The obstacles have weird funny names so you can't always tell what you'll be doing, but judging from their Facebook page pictures, there's definitely mud, wading through scary "South America" muddy ponds, barbed wire crawls, and a freaking ZIP LINE people.  How fun would that be???

 

The more I read about it, the more I REALLY wanted JMan and I to do it.  It seemed another opportunity to "feel like me again", and have an adventure together, which if I'd given you the chance to read my half-written half marathon report, you'd know what I was talking about! Ha. :-)  But after trying to find a babysitter to no avail, I gave up on that dream, and tried to convince some friends to do it with me.  Turns out everyone and their mom is either a) pregnant, b) already doing a race that weekend, or c) busy.  Turns out I should probably give people more than 5 days notice. 

 

It doesn't help that although the race says "Seattle", it turns out it's actually in "McCleary", which I'd never even heard of and had to google.  Turns out it's actually EIGHT-ONE (yes, 81) freaking miles south of Seattle.  Anyway, so I'm not going to do the race, sadly.  But just in case you somehow can do it (it's THIS Saturday!), use this $70 off code (FB70) for the 7 mile race and $35 off discount code (FB35) for the 3 mile race.  Go register here!  And please please PLEASE tell me everything and how much fun that zip line was. You can bet I plan on doing this race next year!

And yes, I promise someday to finish the 10 blog posts I have started, including the half marathon report, Baby J's 3 month update, his finished nursery, the books I've read lately, etc. etc. ETC.! 

So, I'm Running a Half Marathon This Weekend

Hmmm.  My half marathon that seemed so far off in the distance is suddenly upon us.  Am I ready?  DOUBTFUL!  Very very very very very doubtful.  But am I proud of how far I've come since Baby J was born?  Yes.

Can you believe how big he's gotten???

6 weeks ago or so I ran my first 5 miles post-baby and was ecstatic.  It took about 51 minutes.  Last night I ran 5 miles in 46:34.  That might not seem like a big difference to you, but that's almost a 1 minute per mile difference!  I'm proud of that progress.

 I'm also proud of the 3 month photoshoot I did with Baby J the other day.

I am very nervous about the race though.  Although I've put in the long runs, including an 11 miler, a 10 miler, an 8 miler, and two 7 milers, I've been majorly lacking in the weekday runs, which are rarely more than 3 miles, leaving my body mostly comfortable running... wait for it... 3 miles.  But I did run 70 miles in September, definitely the highest month so far this year by about 20 miles.  So we shall see! 

Um, thanks Baby J, that reminds me, I should probably start hydrating with Nuun?  

All I've had so far today is coffee....

I'd be lying if I wasn't super secretly hoping to run the half in less than 2:20, and lying even more if I wasn't super secretly hoping that number to be closer to 2:10.  Not so secret thoughts anymore, eh?!?!  But I seriously could also care less if that number is closer to 3 hours or if I walk half of the race.  I JUST WANT TO FINISH.  Seriously.  I have no expectations and just want to not die, and to have a semi-fun time (how much fun can you really have when you're running 13.1 miles?!).  So, here goes nothing!

Happy weekend everyone!

Breaking Bad's "Ozymandias" (*spoilers*)

I have never ever ever written a post about an episode of TV.  Until now.  Granted, I wasn't a blogger when Lost was on the air, and you can bet your britches (what? who says that?!) I would have blogged about each and every episode.  Especially ESPECIALLY the season finale of season 3.  Best episode of TV EVER.  You know, the one where you realize it's not a flashback but a flashFORWARD. 

 What?  It's a FLASH FORWARD?!?!  Mind exploding. 

But I digress.

My husband is a long time fan of Breaking Bad and he tried to get me to watch it a few years ago.  I made it until they started disintegrating bodies in bathtubs (so probably only 3 episodes!) and called it quits.  Just not my cup of tea.

But flashforward a few years and a ton of time on our hands spent watching a newborn sleep (especially during the first two weeks home when JMan was also home) and I decided to give it another shot.  I was hooked, and we flew through all 5 seasons and impatiently awaited the return of the second half of Season 5 and the last remaining episodes. 

Let's be clear, I'm not a fan of Walt.  While he was a nice-ish guy in the beginning it's clear he's just plain EVIL nowadays, which became blatantly obvious to me when he killed my favorite character Mike.  JUST. PLAIN. EVIL.

But his evilness came to a head during Sunday nights episode. 

First - the knife wrestling scene.  I seriously and literally COULD-NOT-WATCH.  I had my hands over my eyes and was yelling I CAN'T WATCH I CAN'T WATCH I CAN'T WATCH.  I was 100% certain someone, likely Skyler, Walter Junior, or maybe even possibly Baby Holly, was about to get stabbed.  AND I COULD NOT WATCH THIS HAPPEN. 

 

Second, stealing Baby Holly.  What the heck Walt?  That was just plain stupid.  Why would you do this?  If you had just left and run, the police would have looked for you for like 5 seconds.  Just another domestic dispute.  But taking a BABY?!  Hello crazy Amber Alert and everyone in the world looking for you.  JUST. PLAIN. STUPID.  And so terrible.  Talk about the worst possible thing he ever could have done to Skyler. 

Seriously, my heart breaks just looking at poor Holly in the firetruck.

Third, sentencing Jesse to death.  Walt's supposedly on death row anyway.  Why does it matter if Jesse lives?  He's protected Hank all this time "because he's family" but he sentences Jesse to die even know he's pretty much family too?  Why can't Walt just let it go, run away, kill himself, or turn himself in?  Hasn't he done enough bad things to last a lifetime?  Isn't time running short anyway?  Why? 

 

He tried to save Hank but couldn't care less about Jesse.

Fourth, what's with berating Skyler on the phone?  Do you think he a) meant all of those things he said, or b) do you think he said those things to absolve in her in the eyes of the police?  At first I thought it was a, but then the fact that he was crying at the end of the conversation made me think b.  Or maybe it's a combination of both? 

 

Fifth, what do you think he "still has left to do"?  Who did he buy that gun for?  What could there possibly be left to do?  Everyone is dead.  What loose ends are left?  It seems unbelievable that he'd have a change of heart about Jesse, given that two seconds ago he basically spit in his face telling him about Jane when he could have saved him.  Does he need revenge on the Nazi guys for killing Hank?   And how does his house get destroyed?

 

Sixth, what the heck does "Ozymandias" mean?  Thanks to a Google search, it is apparently a famous 1818 poem and means "ruler of air" or "ruler of nothing".  "The mighty one has literally fallen, and so has everything he accomplished."  Fitting, I guess.  

Finally, how do you think it will end?   Will Walt die?  If so, will he succumb to his cancer or be killed off by someone / something?  What will happen to his family? 

What do YOU think?  I want to watch the episode again to gain some clarity.  But after it felt like nothing was happening in Season 5 (boorrinnggg) it was sure nice to be on the edge of my seat the whole episode!

A Baby J 11 Week Update

Oh hello there.

It's been awhile you say?  Sorry.  There's not much to report in this neck of the woods.  Time is just tickin' by, it's hard to believe that this little guy:

Is now this little guy:

 Look at those cute onesies Becky made!

Baby J is still as adorable as ever.  Him smiling is the absolute BEST THING EVER and makes up for all of the not-sleeping and fussypants wearing he's been doing lately.  I seriously LIVE for those smiles.

 

It's my last week of full maternity leave.  Granted, I've been working pretty much half time now for about a month now, so that's nothing new, but much of it has been done at home or included bringing baby to work.  I have gone in a few times for full days away from Baby J and let me tell you that pumping at work is not my favorite thing.  AT ALL.

Pumping and I have come a long way in our relationship though, from pure hatred to more of an affectionate annoyance.  I have about 190 ounces stored up (yes, I actually counted yesterday!) which makes me proud.  As you all know, I'm planning on doing Ragnar Vegas with Team Nuun in November, and while I hope to not have to throw away ALL of my milk while I'm away (any ideas? That stuff is liquid gold man), I'm going to plan like I will have to.  I'm estimating I'll need about 70 ounces stored just for that while I'm gone.  Plus I'm already fearing there won't be much time for pumping while I'm at work, judging from the few days I've gone in, so I'd really love to have a decent stash to help supplement if my supply starts dipping.  My goal is to breastfeed for 6 months, and we're nearly halfway there!  But I know the harder half still awaits.

 Seriously, I'm a growing boy mom.  You have that milk ready.

Anyway, short story made long, pumping at work is a whole other story!  So far I have been walked in on by both my boss AND our brand new young custodian, both male, both of whom were VERY embarrassed.  THE DOOR WAS LOCKED FOR A REASON PEOPLE!!!  Needless to say, they have learned their lesson and I also have a lovely picture of a cow hanging on my door when needed.

 

Moooooo.  That's me alright. 

Other things.  Let's see, sleeping.  It's a 1 step forward, 2 steps back kind of world.  Baby J has slept 5 hours straight a few times, most of which I didn't get to enjoy because we were either driving or it was on one of these random thunder and lightning stormy nights where COOPER was the one we needed to be worried about keeping us up all night!  Man Cooper hates thunder.  A LOT.  Baby J also slept SEVEN HOURS STRAIGHT for one glorious night, which I also didn't really get to capitalize on, but it still gave me hope.  

Hope that has since been dashed since we seem to be regressing back into waking every two hours at night.  NOT FUN PEOPLE.  It makes me really worried about going back to work - I will be a zombie when I have to get up at 5am if the current pattern keeps up.  Please be a growth spurt!  

 Baby J also likes walks, in the stroller and in the pack, and being on the changing table for some reason.

Baby J's fussypants are also sticking around.  It is WAY better in that he will now play on his playmat for a bit, be read a story, etc. before getting upset.  He LOVES to look in the mirror and at faces, but still doesn't seem to look at toys much yet.  He even tolerated tummy time for a full 5 minutes yesterday, which is a record by about 4 minutes and 55 seconds!  But he's still often fussy, and we just don't know what to do for him to make him happy.  We even ended up leaving our friends' house at 10pm on Saturday night when we intended on spending the night and driving the hour home because we just couldn't get him calm and the car always does the trick instantly.  Sure enough, he was out for 5 hours straight, even through the transfer from car seat to crib!  It's hard to be away from home and all of our "weapons for the war on fussyness" (like the swing!).  I'm just hoping this is temporary and part of the "fourth trimester" like everyone says.

Loving his playmat.

Running was AWESOME for two weeks the week before last.  I felt really strong and like I was improving and ran 18 miles and 21 miles respectively, including two 7 milers and an 8 miler.  Then last week hit and I was just so freaking tired, plus it's definitely noticeable how dark it is getting earlier now, and so the time I've been going out for a run is now dark.  I really did try to run 9 miles on Sunday, but left at the exact worst time possible and caught in the biggest downpour of all time complete with scary thunder and lightning very close.  I hid under someone's garage eaves (sorry people!) until my sweet husband came and rescued me unprompted.  Stellar 1 mile people, for a total of 8 miles last week.  Suck.  That half marathon in 3 weeks is going to kill me!

Last, but not least, firsts!  Baby J has met his future spouse:

I swear she did this all on her own!

He also learned that his future best friend will arrive January 31st!

If you are pregnant you MUST do a gender reveal party.  It was the funnest thing EVER.  I wish I'd captured the Dad's joy at learning he was going to have a BOY on video.  Best. Thing. Ever.

And he took his first trip to the fair, where he enjoyed lots of delicious food vicariously through Mom and Grandma:

Whoops...

And that's about it!  Baby J is precious, sweet, and adorable.  I need to get back on the running train.  Baby J needs to sleep longer.  The end.  As always, baby tips GREATLY appreciated.