Where to start?

It's been a while. Does anyone else just wonder where the day goes and then wonder where the week went? And now I'm looking at the month wondering where it has gone. Some things of note that have happened over the past month or so:

Two of my children had birthdays. Big J is now 9 and Little Man is now 3.

Big J chose to take his best buddy to Worlds of Fun for his big day. We had a little celebration and cake here and he had donuts for a treat in his class at school, but there was no big party, just the amusement park. It was just me, Big J and his friend. It was perfect weather and not crowded. It was fun. Except for the fact that after 3 rides I puked. And they weren't even hardcore rides. This is from someone with season passes to Six Flags growing up - the bigger the ride the better. I am holding to the theory that the medication I am on can cause dizziness and so I think it made me even more sensitive to the motion of the rides; however, it was pretty lame by any standards.

It started on the very first ride. Then Big J wanted to go into that ride that spins really fast and the floor drops out from under you and you stick on the wall. I used some serious Jedi mind tricks to not send puke flying all around to stick on the wall, too. When it ended, I was sweating and could barely walk down the ramp. Just for the record - that ride is NOT FUN. But I was sucking it up trying to be the cool mom and all, so then we went on a roller coaster. It wasn't a big one, but it was called the Boomerang because it went forward then came back the same route backwards. When I got off of that I knew I was going to hurl. I was scoping out my strategic path of acceptable bushes as I walked off just hoping I wouldn't puke right there on the platform. Then I saw a bathroom across from the ride exit and pretty much abandoned my parental responsibilities as I ran in there and tossed my cookies. I was better after that, but still a little queasy. Lucky for me the boys thought the log ride was the best ride ever and rode it like 20 times.

Little Man had a small celebration with us on his actual birthday, but then we had the big party this past weekend when my parents were in town. He had a Hot Wheels party. Originally, he told me he wanted a "blue" party. Not Blue's Clues, just a blue birthday party. But then he opted for Hot Wheels because he is all about motor vehicles and manly things like that. It was a relatively calm party and I think he and his guests had a lot of fun. We had the big car mat out with a box of cars and then a few of the ramps and things for them to play with at will. We played pin the wheel on the race car. We decorated individual race cars to take home and had a Hot Wheel pinata. Then everyone got to take home a goody bag of Hot Wheels themed items like gummy race cars, chocolate cars and tire-shaped bubble gum.

It's hard to believe both these boys are the age they are. I love them!

I ran the 5k I committed to here. I finished it in 30:36, about 3 minutes slower than my "normal" time. I knew that was about where I would finish, although my goal was to do it in 30 flat. However, I was surprised to see that in my age division for females I was 13th out of 83 and 152nd out of 669 total women running the 5k. So despite still not feeling like I'm in shape (except round is a shape, right?) I was ok with it all. And I was really proud of my husband for running his very first 5k. He beat me by 8 seconds.

And since we are on the subject of commitments brought up in that post, I am reporting on my weight loss attempts and can say that since that post I have lost 8 more pounds. So obviously I am not going to make my goal of losing 14 pounds by the end of October, but it is heading that direction slowly. I have not been as diligent as I should have been the last 2 weeks, so I am recommitting to step it up right now.

Little Miss is 4 months old. Now tell me that didn't just fly by! I took her for her 4 month check-up and she weighed in at 16 lb. 12 oz. and 25 1/4 inches. A RUNT compared to her brothers at this age. All of them were at least 2 pounds heavier and at least 2 inches longer. I guess it is good she is more petite since she is the girl. And who am I kidding? She's got thigh rolls that don't quit! It was still weird not to have a baby that is off the chart, though. She is hanging out in the dainty upper 80s to mid-90s percentiles. She is still wonderful and the best baby ever!

I have a lot more I could write about, but I will leave it at that for now, except to say that we finally figured out what to have Little Miss be for her first Halloween - a ladybug!