Carly laughing

Sweet baby girl

A lot of times, Carly cracks us up. This is something she's been doing for the last little while (videos above) - she loves to talk and make new noises. She also loves shoving anything she can in her mouth - she's getting pretty good at it. 

 This was a time when she was acting sleepy and just chilling, sucking on her binky, and I swear she's trying to read the tag on her dolly. So funny. Lots of times when she's sitting in her carseat, she will stare at the warning label on the side of it. Maybe she can read and I just don't know it yet :)

 This was an afternoon when I went for a run and came home to find this. So sweet.

 Yesterday was a really tough day for Carly, she was super fussy all day long and nothing seemed to make her happy. Her happy times yesterday were her bathtime and when she got to eat her oatmeal baby cereal (she loves that stuff - actually started crying when it was all gone). She calmed down a little bit in the evening though. She was sitting by me while I was eating dinner and was just staring at me, especially when I would take a drink from my cup. She started whining, so I put my cup up to her mouth (didn't actually give her any juice) and she loved it and got mad when I took it away. So we got out a cup for her and put her pear juice in it and gave her little sips. She LOVED it. I guess I wasn't giving it to her fast enough because she grabbed it with two hands so she could be in control.

Love these little elephant jammies (thanks aunt janene) and her soft little elephant (thanks lorrie). She is the sweetest little thing.

Carly was back to her sweet self today. Thank goodness. And today was actually amazing for our 1pm church time. She slept through most of it and she's never done that for the 1pm time! Morgan took her during the last hour and she did great! It was great to be able to really pay attention to the testimonies & lessons.

St Patty's Day

Truth. We celebrated St. Patty's Day by going to the beach with our good friends. We thought by going to a less crowded beach, traffic would be ok. False. It was probably just as bad. We did get lucky with a parking spot though :) Later in the evening we had some burgers & some green velvet cupcakes. It was a great day!

4 months!!!

On March 9th Carly turned 4 months :) This is what we've been doing since then. This week was Carly's first time swimming in a real pool (because the bathtub is has been her pool in the meantime). She did really good. We did floating on her back and I dunked her quite a few times (ok so only up to her eyes so far but she is only 4 months). We also practiced kicking on her tummy, although she seemed more interested in drinking the water in that position :) At her 4 month appointment she weighed 12 lb 13 oz in the 25% and was 25 in long in the 75%.

Carly's new sounds

It's been fun listening to Carly's new sounds & new volume range. This video is from this morning.

back into running

I couldn't figure out why my knees were hurting so bad when I ran. And I really wanted to be able to run. I was sure it was my form, or the fact that I was only running on sidewalks or roads, or maybe because I've put some weight on since having the baby. Over the past couple of weeks I've heard really good things about Brooks. I almost wanted to think that a pair of shoes could eliminate my knee pain, but I kind of brushed it off at first. Then last Sunday I was talking with a friend about running and she mentioned that she got a new pair of running shoes every 6 months. First of all I couldn't imagine doing that, but then again, I don't run every day like she does. I started thinking about my own shoes. When did I get them? Oh yeah, it was in Vancouver, WA.... Which means I got them at least 4 years ago... We did buy another pair of running shoes out here, but my toes were hurting (I guess I didn't allow enough toe room when I bought them oops). And since the pregnancy my feet have actually grown and those shoes don't fit me at all anymore.

I started talking with my brother, who is a hardcore runner and currently works at a running store. We started talking shoes. He explained some things to me about running shoes and found me a running store - comparable to the one he works at in Idaho. He found Running Wild. I went in Monday night and watched me walk. I had only taken 2 steps and they already knew what I needed. They told me that I over-pronate when I walk. They pulled out a few different shoes that were a good match for me - designed with a stiff inner border (medial aspect of the shoe) to keep me from over pronating when I walk. It makes great sense. I have really flat feet so I would be over-pronating. They had great customer service and I bought the shoes that felt light and the most comfortable. These happened to be Mizuno Wave Inspire 8.

I went for my first run on Tuesday - just 1.5 miles - but it was amazing. I was paying special attention to my knees and actually expecting them to still hurt. Previously, as soon as I began jogging or running, my knees would immediately hurt. So I couldn't believe I completed even that amount of a run without knee pain. Woohoo!!! I've been on a total of 3 runs this last week with absolutely no knee pain. My shoes were expensive, yes, but I consider this to be an investment toward my health and fitness. I've already started looking at races. Ultimately I would like to get up to doing at least a half marathon. I would like to do races along the way working up to it (not just running a half marathon when I can make it that long) because I want to be competitive and do well. My sister-in-law and I are hoping to run a race together this summer. Very exciting!!