Strep Throat

I am so upset by the fact that Bria and I have strep throat once again that I had to blog about it.  I cannot believe that our family has been so sick all year and we somehow keep getting this nasty bug over and over again.  All of us, except for Chadd have been affected by this illness and I have had quite enough of it! 

Growing up, I got strep throat a lot.  I feel like it was pretty much constant in my younger years.  I remember having the sore throat, headache, tummy ache, sometimes vomiting and feeling downright terrible over and over again.  Lying on my mom's lap and having her scratch my back always made me feel better.  She had these awesome nails that were perfect for this type of TLC.  When we had ear infections, I can still picture this burnt orange Tupperware container that she would fill with steaming water to let us lay on.  We always took baths as they too have magical healing powers.

Now that I am an adult with children of my own, I find that I am the mommy filling up that water bottle(heating a fleece rice bag), scratching my kids backs and giving them snuggles and baths when they are feeling under the weather.  The only bad part?  Having the illness as well.  Where is my back scratcher? Bath giver? Water bottle filler?  Oh yeah, she has a life of her own and lives an hour away so coming over to scratch my back isn't necessarily on her list of top priorities.  In all honesty, if I asked her I bet she would come.  Sometimes being an adult stinks!

I ended up with strep throat for the first time in my adult life last summer.  Since then, I have had it four additional times.  What is with that?  You would think that my body would say, "Oh you again, yeah, well I recognize you and I am going to kick your ass right on out of here."  Wishful thinking, I know.  I wash my hands and use sanitizer like crazy and yet I still get sick.  Blast it all!

I am going to heat up my own hot pack, watch some movies and snuggle with my kids on the couch.  If you have had strep throat as an adult, you know how badly it can make you feel.  Too bad I still have kiddo's to hang with otherwise I would be lying down resting right now.  I feel badly for Bennett who has been building Lego's all day long.  I finally let him make some Jello instant pudding because the guilt of allowing him to watch movies and play Lego's essentially by himself all day long was too much for me to handle.  Ah, such is life.

Training

It is official ladies and gentleman, training for my Triathlon has begun.  I am very very excited for this years Tri and cannot wait until August to hopefully beat last years time.  I have all of these lofty ideas to get a road bike that will help speed up my time, take a masters swim class at my gym and run longer race distances to hopefully improve my running time.  But, with numerous weddings, engagements, camping trips, dance, karate etc....I just think that I will try to stick to training my butt off on my own and leave the gear upgrade until the end of the season...or next year :)

The tri that I participate in is called the YWCA Women's Triathlon, and it is a sprint distance.  They have awesome staff who are always there to assist with any questions or concerns that you may have.  They even email out a training program if you want one.  I used it last year and it was awesome.  This year, I had it emailed to me again but I have increased most of the workout times and distances since I am no longer a beginner.  Yesterday was officially a rest day.  Now, I am not sure about most of you but when it comes to rest days, I struggle.  I felt like I was just itching all day long to do something...anything that didn't make me feel like a lazy fool.  From everything I have read about racing, rest days are as important to your body and race as days where you are doing an activity.  Mentally, I just cannot seem to process that thought!  So, I managed to hold off on all types of exercise until after dinner when we went on a family bike ride.  I made sure not to push it too much, after all I do have three little ones following along.

Today's training consisted of swimming 500 meters.  I normally take a strength training class on Tuesday mornings so I kept with my routine saving swimming for afterwards.  It has been since last August that I have attempted lap swimming and it took everything I had to make it those 500 meters today.  I struggled, a lot!  It took me over 15 minutes and I had to rest literally every lap.  Sometimes I feel like such an idiot in the pool...no, make that every time I am in the pool.  I never feel like my form is correct.  I know it isn't because my lower back and neck ache all over after a few laps.   Clearly, I am plowing through the water instead of gliding on top of it.  I get tired about halfway back on each lap and either look like a caught fish flailing in the water or change my stroke because its either that or drown.  Ugh!  Swimming is rough.  I am still considering the masters swim class.  Especially after today's fiasco. 

I feel completely exhausted after today's swim.  I want to crawl into bed and take a nap, but two little honey's prevent me from doing so.  I am going to suck it up and read them some stories...maybe they will fall asleep :)

Mastering Skills

Lately I have felt like such a bad mommy.  When your oldest child masters new skills you get every stinking moment of it on video, plus you take thousands of the exact same picture just for good measure.  After you have more than one child, pictures and video's somehow show up less and less.  In my house, it is to the point that I feel badly that I never got professional photo's of the twins taken save for 3 months and 1 year.  You really have to try a lot harder to be on top of things when you have two other kids running around.  Sometimes life just passes you by and you realize that you missed a lot of great moments because you were not Johnny on the Spot this week. 

In an effort to document some newly mastered skills I whipped out my trusty old camera that takes short video clips and got the twins riding their bikes without training wheels for the very first time.  In all reality, Bria rode hers without training wheels last year when she was 3, but after a few spills she demanded they be put back on.  This spring, they both blew out their back tires so Chadd ordered them new ones.  When they came in the mail 3 weeks ago, the twins were so excited to ditch their scooters and hop on their bikes to ride.  Since they were the back wheels, the training wheels had to be removed.  I will never forget the look in Chadd's eyes when he asked if we should just keep them off.  Yep, lets go for it...after all they are 4!  So, they hopped on and much to our surprise both of them rode like the wind!  It is amazing!

These video's were taken yesterday.  So, they have been riding for a few weeks now...but, the point is that I got it on video :)  Even if it wasn't the very first time that they did it!  Go Bennett and Bria!!!

The other newly perfected skill in our house comes from Avery who in Kindergarten and age 5 can finally read a level 2 chapter book.  I was pretty shocked.  Each time I try to read a story with her, I point at words and she will sound out/read a few of them and act all frustrated and say, "You read it Mom."  So, I thought it was just not going to be a skill that she mastered this year. 

Now, let me preface this story by saying that I am the parent who gets annoyed with people who brag about their uber intelligent kids as if intelligence alone will get them anywhere in this world.  People bragging about how their kindergartner can read perfectly and isn't it oh so amazing were especially bothersome to me.  Why?  Because reading is a skill that ALL kids will master by the end of 1st grade.  Just because your kid could read while wearing diapers will not make him/her any better at reading.  It just makes your ability to discuss private matters by spelling out words no longer an option!

In lieu of not being a braggart, I will simply say that I am incredibly proud of my darling 5 year old who can read her favorite stories to me at bedtime instead of me reading them to her.  Lap time is important and it is so fun to have your child do all the talking while you get to do all of the cuddling.  Way to go Avery!  You are my Fly Girl!

(after four attempts at uploading video of her reading, I continue to get an error message).  A photo will have to do :)