15 Months!

Posted on July 29, 2014 by thefasteryoupedal

Stats: 21 pounds and 30 inches. Her percentile for her head went from 90 to 75 percent. Hehe. She hasn’t gained anything from her 12 month appointment, but the doctor said that is typical for a toddler who is now running around like a psycho…and she is.

Favorites: Monks…I’ve been trying to ween her off him and only give him to her for emergencies and sleeping. We are working on having her quit him slowly. She LOVES anything with wheels. She likes to push the stroller around in nursery and plays with cars a lot. She loves to play with dad. They had a lot of bonding on our beach trip and now she prefers him more than me when it comes to play time!

Lifesavers for Mom and Dad: The fact that she is pretty good playing on her own has been awesome. I also love our little classes we go to..they keep her busy and entertained.

Dislikes: Today we found out it was the doctor…she put up a good fight. Also, she hates people dressed up as characters…but do you blame her??

Facts: She LOVES the ocean! She would have walked right in and had no fear of the waves at all. She loved building sand castles with dad and grandpa. Her new thing this week is to walk in the room and go “Heeeeyyyyy!”. She was cheering the Tour De France. We would ask her where the bikes were and she would point to the TV. She is really good at pointing at things in books if we ask her where pictures are. 80 percent of the time she is right! She knows things like apples, bananas, ball, bubbles, dog, kitty, etc. It’s pretty fun to see her learn!

Sleep Habits: It’s always one good nights sleep followed by a crappy night’s sleep. I’ll take it. She has more good nights than bad so it’s getting better.

Doctors Visits: Well…she hated everything about her appointment, but she survived. The doctor told me he sees this a lot in 15 and 18 month old kids because they are starting to remember the doctor’s office.

Eating Habits: She loves her milk. She drinks 3 glasses a day (which is what the doctor says she needs) and then loves her water too! She eats bananas in the morning along with eggs or pancakes. She loves spaghetti, peas, carrots, egg rolls, and mac and cheese. She is a pretty good eater. She especially likes to eat anything Mike eats.

Milestones: More talking! Her vocabulary is getting bigger and bigger!

Looking Forward To: Teaching her colors and numbers. I need help with this early childhood stuff. I only know middle school teaching stuff! 🙂

Easter 2014

Posted on July 15, 2014 by thefasteryoupedal

It was Olivia’s first Easter this year since she decided to take her sweet time getting here last year. 🙂 I was super excited for her to go through all the celebrations. Really though, when a kid is one year old, it is more for the parents than it is for the kid.

We had an Easter BBQ over at the Stewart’s house with a whole bunch of friends and family. I love it when Olivia is around other kids, even if they are older than her.

The Stewart’s were so awesome to have Easter eggs and the kids went on an Easter egg hunt.

I made Mike go with Olivia since I usually make him search for eggs in our house too. The poor guy.

Then on Easter morning Olivia put on her pretty Easter dress from Aunt Debbie and we went to church. It was really funny because she wasn’t walking yet so she hated how long the dress was on her knees and did this weird “spider crawl” across the room.

The Easter loot! I WILL dye Easter eggs next year. I always forget to do that!

Overall, it was a fun Easter to have the family around and to make memories!

14 Months!

Posted on July 15, 2014 by thefasteryoupedal

Stats: I haven’t been to the doctor yet but when I stand on the scale with her she is about 21-22 pounds. She has gotten so tall! Stay tuned next week for her real stats!

Favorites: PLAY! She is always playing with toys. Now that she is walking, it is all about the shopping cart and dragging it around the house. She doesn’t play with her car as much because she can walk all by herself now and she was using it more as a crutch. She loves to play with cars and her Klip Klops while making car sounds, of course.

Lifesavers for Mom and Dad: The fact that she is more independent now. I can hand her things and she entertains herself. I am loving jogging with her still in the BOB.

Dislikes: Wiping her face, sleep, being taken away from her toys when she is not done…to be honest I can’t really think of things she doesn’t like. She’s pretty easy going, except when she is tired..you know how it is!

Facts: She is a great walker. She is saying words like “shoe”, “ball”, “sock”, “ear”, and “bubble”. She knows a lot of words, especially bike. We are watching the Tour De France and I ask her where the bikes are and she points to the tv. She knows words like light, banana, apple, ball, and Jesus. She will point right to them when I ask her. She loves music and bobbles her head back and forth to it.

Sleep Habits: It’s still a feat! Some nights she is great…others I am pulling my hair out!

Doctors Visits: Next week! Today I took her to get her blood drawn and she didn’t even make a sound when they put the needle in her. The only thing she cried about was that I wouldn’t let her touch the needle!

Eating Habits: She is weened off of formula and on straight milk now during meals. She loves food! I give her things like bananas and pancakes for breakfast, as for the rest of the day she eats oranges, turkey (she loves meat), applesauce, goldfish, spaghetti, quesadillas, beans, mixed veggies, the list goes on and on… She can use a fork and spoon!

Milestones: Walking as of 13 months! The baby gates are up!!

Looking Forward To: Hearing her say more words and communicate more to me! I love to hear her sweet voice!

Coyote Classic 2014

Posted on July 8, 2014 by thefasteryoupedal

The Coyote Classic is the first race of the NMORS season and it is always a good welcome to the mountain bike race series. Luckily this year we had a little bit of cooler weather. It took place on March 30, 2014. Because I am such a slacker with blogging and I’m writing this in July, I will try to recap as much as possible!

Normally Mike and I both would have raced this race, but after doing the 12 Hours of El Paso, I realized I definitely was not ready for the sport course of the race. Sometimes I wish I could go back to the beginner days just to build up my stamina.

Here is a pic of Mike and Eric Sortemme, a good biking buddy of his. This was Eric’s first race and he placed fifth out of a lot of people. Awesome!

Olivia came along for the show and was pretty excited to watch all of the mountain bikes. She is all about anything with wheels!

During the race, the bikers make a loop through the start line and then go out for another smaller lap. It was cool to see Mike come in so soon. I knew he would podium after I saw him come in on the first lap. And he did! He got third place in his large 30-39 category!

Mike pre-riding before the race!

The crowd that showed up. It is always a big race!

Right before the starting whistle for all of the categories!

Overall, it was a success. It is really competitive to get a podium in this race, so it was awesome to see Mike get a plaque!

12 Months!

Posted on July 8, 2014 by thefasteryoupedal

Stats: According to doctor’s records…18.8 pounds and 2 feet 5 inches.

Favorites: From her birthday party…her green push car, Baby Stella, and the Klip Klops!

Lifesavers for Mom and Dad: The fact that she is more independent and wants to play with toys by herself. She is not walking yet, but is so close! Her toys keep her pretty entertained. Also her outings with other kids and her mother goose class keep her busy!

Dislikes: Being left to go mountain biking, sleeping in her crib, being changed on her diaper table

Facts: She is definitely getting close to walking around. She uses the couch and wall to stand up. She hasn’t tried the stairs or climbing yet. She likes to eat bananas and pancakes for breakfast.

Sleep Habits: Overall, if you don’t count her waking up at night, she sleeps from around 8:30-9:30 until about 7 in the morning. She still wakes up at night and screams. It is easier for me to just go in and touch her than to sit and listen to her scream for an hour. She doesn’t want to eat and she doesn’t want to be held either. It’s so weird…

Doctors Visits: She had a pretty bad ear infection that led to croup. I swear she got it from this indoor playground we went to. Boo! It was so sad to have such a sick baby. She had to get a steroid shot.

Habits: Still using the bottle 3 times a day. It will be interesting to start her on milk. She likes to play with her toys right after breakfast and sometimes spends her time in her high chair watching Bubble Guppies.

Milestones: So close to walking…says words like “Ball” and “This”…

Looking Forward To: Walking and summertime!

12 Hours In The Old El Paso 2014

Posted on July 8, 2014 by thefasteryoupedal

Holy cow! It has been three months since we did this race, but I am going to try to recap what we did. So yes, one of our long-term goals this year was the return of Lady Cluck and the Boys.

Mike, Brent, Jared (and Brad), and I signed up for 4 man co-ed race for the 12 Hours In the El Paso race on February 1, 2014.. It started out with me on the first lap. I have never started a twelve-hour race. In case you don’t know, you have to run to your bike in your bike shoes to start the race. (That was very interesting!!) The other factor I didn’t think about was how we were ALL starting at the same time! It was really hard for me to keep up with the fast people and then I would get stuck behind slow people. I ended up averaging about a 1 hour and 15 minute lap!

Not to jump the gun or anything…but did I tell you that we got first place??? 🙂

Every single person on our team ended up riding two laps and it worked out perfectly. The timing for me was impeccable because the baby took her nap when i went out on my second lap. The boys kind of got jipped because each of them had to do a night lap. I was the last person to go at sunset….so lucky! I am a terrible night rider!

If you look closely, yes I am holding a baby on the podium! Haha. She lasted the whole day!

This is Brent going out on his night lap. The first part of the race is pretty fun because you are doing a section called Lazy Cow that is super windy. Then you hit an uphill climb for a huge portion of the race and then it is all downhill from there…until you head back to camp. This year they added a little more miles to the race and had you come into camp and take off on some more treacherous trail. I hated it! It was pretty hard and mentally hard on me.