Underwater Swimming!

This was actually his third underwater swim, the first two times was with Patti, a seasoned baby swim instructor at the pool. 

He was pretty close to tears, but rallied and it turned out to be a great time! 

The Bouncer Part Deux

A clip of Reed getting his jig on.   It's early run training! 

Food Glorious Food!

As it is officially Reed's 6mos bday today, he has been venturing into the realm of food!  Glorious food!  We started him with a bit of rice cereal, just because it's easy - easy on the digestion system and easy to make.  Plus they are fortified with iron (so it didn't make sense to make my own) and this is the one concern at 6 months, their iron stores are low, so pick foods rich in iron.  The ones where you just add breastmilk, are good, nothing more than rice (and iron).  The ones where you only add water are convenient but they also contain milk products, which didn't make sense to me, since you aren't supposed to introduce cow's milk until way later.... our midwife told us 2 years, although Alberta Health says 9months - 12months.

In the first three days of sampling, he let us know that he knew what he was doing when it comes to chowing down.  Next stop on the food train, was the irrestible sweet potato (or is it yam?) and boy that was way better than boring cereal!  He has been gobbling it down, we actually have to stop as he would far exceed the recommended 1 tbsp per feeding in the first attempts of a food. 

Some friends (thanks Paula and Jeff!) have lent us their baby bullet, and I've been bulleting away!  Next is carrots, then peas or zucchini. 

Here is his first try at cereal, he immediately goes for the bowl (probably more because it's bright orange!) and takes control of the spoon (we have been letting him play with his spoon for a while now in preparation).

I had to upload in two parts... by the end, of course the cereal was everywhere, because we just gave him the bowl and spoon and left him to his own devices...

Reed's First Weekend Getaway - Mom's First Race

Last weekend we went to Cranbrook, to do the Wasa Lake olympic tri.  I cannot tell you how nice it was to getaway.  As a mom of a 6month old, I am definitely feeling the effects of staying home!  Lately there is a lot of house-boundness, as I am trying to get Reed on a nap "schedule", it's hard to be out when it's nap time.  Reed is one of those kids who just doesn't seem to want to nap, he needs a lot of help to get to sleep, he just doesn't want to miss out!  So I read, in cases like these you need to do all that you can to get your baby to sleep.  For us, it means lying down on the bed beside him, and letting him nurse to sleep.  Not exactly the best solution ... but the best advice I ever got from my birthing instructor was "Don't worry about the next step, or the next day, if it works for you today, do it."  I like that, because it seems you spend your time worrying about the next thing, but by the time it comes around, it just seems to happen all by itself anyways.  (So our next steps are: Reed sleeping the whole night in his crib and taking nap in his crib... if I wanted to worry about something...!)

Anyways, the drive took a little over 5 hours with a couple stops along the way.  We had a beautiful picnic lunch somewhere in the Purcell mountains, I think.  Our car was jammed packed - both of our tri gear, two bikes, Reed's stuff, and baby's have a lot of stuff! And Pearl was somewhere in there too!  We couldn't fit the stroller, that had to come with the grandparents.  We need a bike rack for sure.

The last 30km was a nightmare, Reed had had enough of the trip, he wailed and wailed, and mom and dad sat in silent agony for 40min. 

After a couple of awkward sleeps in a double bed with a baby, we decided to not even try to bring the pack'n play since we knew he would end up in our bed anyways, we were super excited to race Sunday morning.  The weather was crap, cold and rainy, but we neither of us had been in a tri for 2 years now, so we were loving the anxious excited energy of race morning. 

Skip to the race....

Due to the cold water temp - 13degrees!  Are you kidding me!!?  The swim was cut in half.  I was pissed about this.  Swimming is my strength, it's where I get to put a little distance between me and those crazy good cyclists and runners!  I had also rented a wetsuit with arms, since I only own sleeveless, I hate wetsuits, I never feel comfortable in them, my arms and shoulders feel tight and restricted, every rotation feels like I'm wearing weights on my wrists, getting my elbows and hands out of the water is struggle.  I absolutely hate them.  But 13 degrees, is another story!

So my swim was very mediocre, actually pretty sucky.  My arms immediately felt tired and every stroke was tiring, couldn't relax, couldn't stretch out.  Came out of the water in 4th or 5th, ran up from the beach and as I heard someone yell out: "Watch out, very slippery!".  My legs shot out and I went down hard on my tailbone.  WOW!  It was a moment from America's Funniest Videos, but since it was my tailbone, not very funny!  I writhed around on the ground, a nice lady was helping me, trying to get me to come and sit down, but as I watched what seemed like 20 women (probably only 3) run past me, I just asked her to help me up and I hobbled in T1. 

The excess adrenaline from the fall made me stumble and fumble through a very long transition.  Hands were numb from the swim, couldn't get my helmet on, couldn't get my sunglasses on (although no sun was visible!), couldn't buckle up my race bib.  It was terrible.  All the while, the time ticks away and my swim split gets slower and slower...  There ends my terrible swim excuses.

The bike was also pretty mediocre.  I just didn't seem to have much power.  My endurance seemed fine, I could go steady no problem, but as soon as I got to a little rise in the road, power just dropped off.  In retrospect that is totally from all the tempo riding I have done on the trainer, just steady-state stuff.  I had only done two outdoor sessions of hills, so it makes sense.  My back also felt a little off, every so often I would feel a twinge of pain if I shifted to a different spot.

Never have I been passed by so many women, I slipped to 9th spot.  I got passed on hills, it was pretty demoralizing, but kept repeating to myself, "I will try and catch them on the run." 

T2 was much better, but as I came off the bike, my back did a big seize, and I thought "Oh crap, I can't run!"  But again, as I saw another girl whiz into T2 I went on auto-pilot and pulled on my shoes and exited to the run course. 

Legs and feet were numb from the cold.  It is such a bizarre feeling to run on legs you can't feel.  I ended up being able to turn the legs over quite quickly at first and got away from that other girl.  I was running pretty well.  I have to say it was a different feeling, usually I swim great, bike well and then run ok.  But this race was opposite. 

As I came to about 6k, I saw Colin and he said I was about 20sec behind two girls, so that was super motivating.  He failed to mention that there was a girl hot on my heels....

I passed by two women, then in the last 400m a girl zoomed by me, obviously her strategy, I had no opportunity to respond.  So I ended in 8th.

If you asked me 2 years ago how this race went, I would have said - sh-**ty.  But having had a baby less than 6 months ago, I have to say - Amazing!

---

PS  Reed had a fine time hanging out with grandma and grandpa McArthur during the race.  He didn't know it, but he was cheering mommy and daddy on.  And enjoyed the drive home, eventhough he slept the whole way!

PPS  Colin had a good race also.  He also finished in eighth.  With some bad transitions also and a slow start to his run, he is still overall happy knowing that it is good fitness and good preparation IMC.

PPPS  My tailbone is badly bruised.  I have had to take it easy.  Painful to even bend over.  I can't run yet, and swimming doesn't work either.  I have done a bit of bike trainer.  So who knows how long this injury will keep me down... I am trying to be optimistic.  I have Great White North half at the end of the month to try and focus on.

Before and After - It Ain't Much... But It's A Start!

I have a new passion.  Gardening.  I love it.  Maybe more than triathlon right now, but I am definitely more excited about waking up and checking on my little babies growing in the yard.

We had a pretty small budget for beautifying our property, but the yards had never been touched in the 30 years our house has been standing, but I was determined to plant something!  This is our first house, I've never had a yard, but I always knew I would get into gardening someday....

So I started in early March, bought everything I needed to grow seedlings, which seemed to be the cheapest way to start a garden.  In our front (east facing) window, I had some annuals and also decided on some perrenials as well as some herbs growing, and I tended them with such care, every morning Reed and I would check them out to see what was growing, I love it!  Let me preface all this by saying - I have no idea what I'm doing.  I read a couple books, and have been following a couple good local gardening blogs, but really I have no clue!

For annuals, I got fast-growing flowering beauties: cosmos and morning glories (my mom later gave me a bunch of left over nasturtiums), then a whack of perrenial flowers (or so it says on the package....): columbine, lupins, shasta daisy and bee balm (which is proving to be a little slow-growing, must be doing something wrong).  I didn't plant all the seeds I had bought, thinking that I would staright sow the ones that said they grew easily from seed, like black-eyed Susan, and Everlasting Pea. 

Now, I had also planned on buying store annuals, for the planters out back and front.  Because, I am fully aware that I may never see a flower on any of these little tender seedlings!  I planted those too early (May long weekend), and spend the next week or so pulling the pots inside and covering the barrels with sheets overnight!  Lessons learnt, don't plant until June around here.

Here are the BEFORE pics.  We have been having pretty crap weather, cold and rainy.  Yesterday, I decided to put some of my little babies into the front bed and then severe thunderstorms hit us.  Even a tornado not  too far away!  Crazy weather here in the foothills. 

You can play Where's Waldo - Where's Pearl...?

 The front of our house.  I planted (a friend bought me some) hostas, and some other unknown perennials she divided from her garden.  I will be adding my wee little seedlings around, hoping for some flowers...  PS most of our budget went towards the soil needed to build / give nutrients to this dirt!

 A closer look

 Planted a couple of pots.  Left one, geraniums, pansies and nicotania.  Right one petunias (which have been cut back in hopes of fuller growth).

 You can't even see the seedlings - herb garden: chives, basil, and thyme.

 We have had one hummingbird so far.  The feeder has been out for 3 weeks now, I think this bird has flown!

 Our side stoop, off the kitchen, going to the backyard.  Two pots of geraniums on left, and seedlings getting hardened off on right.

 This bed on the right, will require lots more soil, so I may have to plants these (the divided perennials) into pots until next year.

 There are three barrels.  This one I tried to use to cover Pearl's fave pee-patch.  Here she is telling me "It ain't gonna work!".  It's a barrel full of (cut-back) petunias, beside a little pot of impatiens.

 This barrel of impatiens is sick.  Yellow leaves with whitish spots...

 Mixed barrel = pansies (my new fave), marigolds, nicotania, ivy geranium, and the little white flower, I forget the name, reminiscent of baby's breath....

 A little hokey idea I saw on a blog, hang old mason jars along ugly fence, or here old ugly garage trellis.  They have nasturtiums growing.

 And finally after 3 weeks, the bare patch of dirt, where the shed used to sit, is showing signs of the grass I planted.

And there is my garden in early June!  Can't wait to see what will thrive and how it will look in a month!