Training

Typically this blog tends to be all about the The Boy, but I've realized that some of you might actually be interested in Sterling or me, too, so here's a little something about me! I am training for my first half marathon! I'm hopeful that if I can make it that far, then I can do a full marathon in the fall, and cross that off my list of Things To Do Before I Turn 40.

Sooo.. I have signed up for the Raleigh Rocks 1/2 Marathon on April 10th. I'm planning to run it with my neighbor, Brent, who has done this sort of thing before. Should be a totally awesome race for my first big one. There are live bands all along the course (hence the name) to help keep spirits high right when you want to just lay down and die!

So I'm officially in training! Basically, I do a few 3-4 mile runs during the week, and run a long one on the weekend, stepping it up 1 mile each time. Yesterday was my 6 mile run, which was a little weak, but I still did it! The weather was GORGEOUS, and Shelley Lake was MOBBED.. I had to dodge people left and right, and go off the trail a few times to get around people who think that it's ok to walk 4 abreast (fatheads)! Hard to complain when it's been so long since you've seen the sun, though. Technically, it's 6.75 miles if you go around it thrice, but there was definitely a cool-down and some walking, so I'm pretty sure I only ran about 6 of those miles.

It was still a tough run. Bojangles, while great for a 3 mile run, is not a good breakfast if you're running anything MORE than 3 miles! I keep reminding myself that I did that much when I did (my first!) 10K in November, so I know my body is capable... but what am I going to tell myself next week when I'm up to 7?!? Technically, that will be further than I have EVER run at one time. Time to add some new tunes to the iPhone to keep me movin', and maybe I'll eat a better breakfast! Wish me luck!

Don't grow up...

Every morning, when I drop James off at school, he gets out of the Jeep, slings that backpack over his shoulders and SKIPS into school. Without fail, regardless of the weather, he skips. Like he hasn't a care in the world and he's the happiest kid on the planet. There are alot of things he's outgrown, but when he outgrows that, I know it will make me very sad.

Gueth what we lotht today?

Another tooth! This is the 2nd tooth that's been knocked out by a girl! Mommy took care of the first one, and his buddy Maggie slid down on top of his head at the playground, taking care of the 2nd one. Poor little thing has a WICKED lithp! But, he'th exthited about the Tooth Fairy!

Resolutions

My only real resolution was to get around to posting Christmas pictures before next Christmas.

Check.

http://woodruffblog.shutterfly.com/

here's a sneak peek!

Packed in like fish in a can

Poor little Mister Man is sick this week... our little buddy has the sniffles, stuffies, and a sore throat. So...there's been alot of lying around and just generally being pitiful!

He came in to snuggle with me yesterday (I should point out that James' idea of snuggling is basically wrapping every inch of his skinny little body around me like a Snuggie), and after he got wedged in, he said, "we're like fish in a can".

I said, "what? you mean a net?", and he said, "no, you know, fish in a can. like little fish in a can". It took me a minute before I got it, and asked, "do you mean sardines?", and he said, "Yes! I like sardines!". I told him "you've never had a sardine in your life, how do you know if you like them?". "Well, cats like them...Newkie likes sardines". "James, Newkie's never had a sardine, either". "Have the dogs had them?", "no".

"Oh... well we look like sardines now".

yes we do.

Funny assumptions

This is about a week late, but I keep forgetting to update this! Time has gotten away from me lately!

So about a week or so ago, we were going a bit stir crazy from the long vacation and bad weather, and I was trying to cook, while James hung out at the counter. He kept messing with stuff and asking for things, and I said, "Hey, would you like to make your OWN BUTTER?!?!". Heck yeah that boy wanted to make his own butter! So, we put some heavy whipping cream in one of my canning jars, and I set him to shaking! I figured that would keep him busy for a while and burn off a *little* energy.

We did have to trade off a few times, as his little arms got tired, but eventually it stopped sloshing and we knew we had succeeded! I opened it up to show him, and he looked at it for a sec before he said, "wow, I thought it would be square!".

Year-end dryer tally

Wow, this year was a big for the dryer cup! If you don't recall from the last few years, the Dryer Cup is a plastic cup I keep beside the dryer, and throughout the year, I drop in any random stuff I find when I do *someone's* laundry. It's kind of amazing how much stuff *somebody* leaves in his little pockets, and it's kinda funny to go back and tally it all up at the end of the year. So, this year's inventory includes:

• 1 American dollar
• 1 Chinese dollar (Bethany went to China this year and was kind enough to bring James some Chinese money... clearly he appreciated it)
• $1 in quarters
• $.30 in dimes
• $.02 in pennies
• approx. 1 dozen red rubber bands (where the heck did those come from?!)
• 2 buttons
• 1 zipper pull
• 1 lego pieces
• 1 cord for something, still wrapped in the twisty
• 1 BRASS CASING (thanks, Daddy)
• 11 beads, various sizes
• 3 sequins
• 1 rubber wheel
• 1 dino gem
• 1 hair rubber band (ok, guilty, that one's mine)
• 1 Nerf bullet
• 1 small rock
• 2 pieces of candy trash
• 1 entire roll of stickers that got washed down to a sticker lump
• And strangly enough, his ENTIRE NAME in stickers, found throughout different loads of laundry!?

This concludes the 2010 laundry inventory. I look forward to next year's, tally, which I'm sure will include acorns, at least one more rock, and enough money for a massage (ok, just wishful thinking there).

Happy New Year!

Naughty or nice?

Tonight, James told Sterling, "Daddy, if you keep yelling at me, Santa might not bring you any presents for Christmas. You're lucky Mommy and me wrapped you some presents today". Sterling tried to counter with, "James, perhaps if you weren't naughty, I wouldn't have to fuss at you.", and Mommy just tried not to pee in her pants laughing.

Loth anuver toof!

Look whose smile just got even cuter!

SuperMom

How tough do I feel? Momma just ran her first 10K, baby!

Holy Growthspurt, Batman!!

James has grown 1 full inch in the last month! Boy does THAT explain alot! Shoes that I just bought him about a month ago, which I bought a 1/2 size too big, are close to being TOO SMALL! He's eating like a horse, and doggone he's been lazy in the morning (needs more sleep it would seem). Holy moly, who knew how agressive one of these spurts could be! Now I need to go shopping for new shoes and probably pants, too! Sheesh.

Completely unrelated: Sterling showed James a can of Manwich, as he's planning to make Sloppy Joes tonight. James said, "Yay! Chili Hamburgers!"

Happy Halloween, Ya'll!

Another awesome Halloween! The day was gorgeous, and the neighborhood kids covered our bushes with "cobwebs", threw the football around, and had a Sterling-led bike ride around the lake. Naturally, they needed to recharge with some ice cream sandwiches before running around SOME MORE! (I can't believe Sterling didn't fall asleep by 7pm).

It cooled off by evening, and wasn't outright cold, but was a little chilly.. perfect Halloween weather! After a dinner break / costume change, all the kids regrouped for the neighborhood candy circuit and loaded up! It still astonishes me, but these kids were COMPLAINING about how heavy their candy bags were getting... poor things.

An awesome day all around! Pics posted at the Shutterfly site.

That's all, folks!

They went HOW FAST??

According to James, he went "exscreamly" fast on his bike the other day. I said, "do you mean *extremely*?", and he said, "no, when you go so fast that you scream, it's exscreamly fast!".

Also, totally unrelated, but did you know that the first few words to "YMCA" are "young man, get your pants off this song...". Yeah, neither did we. Thank goodness James cleared that up!

I only worry sometimes...

Every day, since James has learned to ride his bike, we hear, "can I ride my bike today?!". The only exception is at night, when he asks, "can I ride my bike tomorrow?!".

So... there's no school today, and guess what that little monkey is doing? Now I get that it's exercise, which warms you up, but it's been a tad nippish today.. it's about 61 degrees right now and he's riding around in short sleeves. I asked him if he wasn't cold, and he said, "Mommy, don't worry about me". I reminded him that, as his mommy, it's my JOB to worry. His response? "You can worry about me being hurt, but don't worry about me being cold".

Just so long as we have the rules downpat.

New pics!

You asked (well, not really, but Sterling gave me a hard time...), so here they are! Recent pictures! Here's a sample of what you'll find on our photo site: YMCA Soccer Season, State Fair, James learning to ride his bike! ACT NOW!!!

FINALLY!!!

The boy learned to ride a damned bike! We put a bug in his friend Max's ear, and Max got on him to learn... and we have SUCCESS!!!

How many 6-yr olds does it take to play Mario Cart Wii?

Three. One to hold the wiimote, one to hold the toy musket, and one to hold the Nerf gun.

Just... ew

I was upstairs yesterday when I heard James rummaging around downstairs. Monkey that he is, when he needs something from the upper cabinets, he just scrambles up on the counter to get them. So I heard cabinets bumping, and the fridge opening, and I thought to myself, "self, you need to get down there and find out what your boy is up to!"

Much to my chagrin, he informed me that he was about to make Chocolate Milk Orange Juice. Sure enough, on the counter was a glass, a crazy straw, a spoon, the Hershey's syrup, Milk, and... Orange Juice.

I quickly informed him that he could have Orange Juice OR Chocolate Milk, but not together. He negotiated for just chocolate orange juice, which... still... EW!!! WTF?!?!

Eventually we settled on chocolate milk, but he reminded me, "Mommy, you know I like weird things".

(yes, he does like weird things... his favorite sandwich is mayo, bananas, and honey. Before you ask how we even came up with that little gem, it's a hybrid of PB/Mayo/Bananas* and PB/Honey/Bananas.)

(* and yes, I think both of THOSE are gross, too, but Sterling does not)

Wedding Etiquette

James comes up with some whoppers at times. He came in today and said, "mommy, it feels like I'm going to a wedding". What?!?! "These shorts don't feel good.. they feel too small, they feel like wedding shorts". We surmised that for some reason, they just felt a little too stiff / formal (yeah, I know, they're SHORTS... we're talking 6-year old logic here). Sooo.. we changed into some different shorts.

Then I asked, "how do you know what it feels like to go to a wedding?". and he said sometimes they pretend they're having weddings on the playground. Now, he's mentioned, once or twice, that there's a certain young lady from his class last year that he'd marry, if he had to get married someday! I asked him if he'd asked her, first? He said, "NO!!". And I explained how you typically have to ask someone before you marry them. I explained how Daddy had asked me, "will you marry me", and then I said, "yes, I would love to".

It kills me how differently kids look at things.. his next question was: "can I chew gum at the wedding?". I said, "well, when you get married, you normally give each other a quick smooch, so you probably don't want to have gum in your mouth.. it might fall out and land on her pretty dress or in her hair.". He thought about this for a second, then said, "maybe after the cake.. I don't want gum in mouth when we eat cake either. Hey, I know, I can keep it in my pocket until then!".

And folks, I'm here to tell you, 20 years from now, it will STILL be that simple for him. His wife will be worried about the caterer, the music, if everything's on schedule, the photos, if everyone is having a good time, did they register for the right stuff...

.... and he will be worried about when he can chew gum. He'll maybe add "beer" to the list of things to keep him occupied.

Aren't we punny?

Honey and Grandaddy drive a Prius, and it has a little backup camera so that you can see what's behind you. Obviously, James thinks this is the coolest thing ever, and when Honey got in it today, he ran behind the car and said, "Honey, can you see me?" and started to put on a show. He continued to entertain, until I said, "James, it's not a toy", to which he smartly replied, "but Mommy, it says TOYota!". Har har.