Baby Bear Brick

Bear insisted on going outside to play before dinner, so I brought the trike out and he climbed right on. With the help of the slanted driveway, he totally pedaled all the way down to the sidewalk and partway down the block!

Then, of course, he lost momentum and couldn't keep it going so easily. After trying for a while he gave up and went all Normann Stadler on his bike. It was hilarious.

After he threw his bike, he took off running. It's a great day, so I figured I'd see how far he'd really go and trotted after him.

Dudes. He ran. I mean, RAN. Around the whole 3/4 mile block! In a totally haphazard, adorable toddler, splay-legged, flailing arms, Phoebe in the park kind of way.

It was awesome.

Calorie Nazi Status Report

Just told The Calorie Nazi about the curried alfredo pasta I had for dinner. Flames shot out the back of my computer.

Note to self: when in doubt - and if the entree is based on butter and heavy cream, go with "doubt" - calculate the calories in a dish BEFORE eating a big plate of it.

In other news...reached another low weight this week - haven't been this since before I was married. Was really excited about it and refused to say for days for fear of jinxing it. Then I had to tell my husband and best friend. And then promptly gained 4 pounds in water weight. Apparently Aunt Flo doesn't like braggers.

Doctor Visit

I'm sure I've hinted here and there that Bear's not the easiest kid to live with. I love him more than life itself and I wouldn't change having him for the world. But there are days - and they're more often than I care to admit - that he reduces me to a sobbing mess. When he hasn't reduced me to a shrieking shell of my former self.

His daycare teachers half-jokingly refer to him as the kid they had to make special rules for. My best friend -a former child care professional - frequently reassures me that his behavior is atypical and it's not because I'm a bad mother.

It takes sharing his care with daycare, grandma and close friends for me to maintain my mental health. My best friend calls me almost every morning and evening, partially to make sure I'm doing ok after a day alone with him.

Seriously. He's THAT hard to take care of.

He's 22 months old now, and for the better part of this year everyone who's ever had contact with him has asked or suggested if he's ADHD, autistic or hearing impaired.

I basically blew it off because, well, he's 1. But now that he's almost 2 and had a frightening number of behaviors on an autism checklist, I decided it was time to bring it up with his pediatrician. She told me she doesn't feel qualified to diagnose these things in such a young child and referred me to a pediatric neurologist for evaluation.

We just got back. He said:
- Bear's definitively not autistic. (PHEW!)
- Bear is much too young to diagnose anything like ADHD (that's what I figured... but it's not ruled out)
- certain behaviors aside, Bear does not appear to be hearing impaired (I didn't think so)

What Bear IS, the neurologist feels, is "significantly speech delayed." He recommended immediately getting him into speech therapy. The goal is to keep him from backsliding from crazy smart to developmentally delayed by the time school rolls around.

The good news is that his 'receptive' speech is age appropriate (and possibly even advanced). It's his 'expressive' speech that's behind. Basically, he understands everything you say, he just doesn't talk back.

It doesn't explain the outrageously challenging behavior that characterizes my Bear, but at least it's a plan. It beats crying from frustration at the end of the day and not knowing if there's anything I can do to help him.

Open Letter to the Powers That Be

Took my measurements so I could order a Halloween costume. Because we all know they run about 3 sizes smaller than the size on the label, and if you don't order by measurements... and the individual manufacturer's randomly generated size chart... and then still order a size up... you're likely to get an outfit that will look lovely on a doll, but has no actual connection to clothing an adult could get into.

Anyway. I discovered I've lost 4 inches off my bust.

Yeah.

So THAT'S where that last 10 pounds came from. Well. At least it 'splains why my shirts suddenly fit so much better.

But if I could make a request to the Powers That Be... next time you're carving 4 inches off my bod, couldja please take a whack at my ass?

And now for a little Geek Out

Not sure if it's more geeky to admit I read XKCD or that I find this particular strip LOL funny...

(If you're new to XKCD... read the hover text. It's the best part!)

Missing Madison

This is the first time in 3 years I'm not heading to Madison to work IM Moo.

Been thinking about it for a few weeks. Wondering who's going to be there. Wishing I could be.

But if I don't even have time to keep up with my buddies' blogs to know who's gonna be there, I clearly don't have a weekend to devote to actually being there. Just not the right thing for me to do this year.

Part of my heart will be in Madison this weekend. I hope everyone there has an amazing time and I can't wait to read all the race reports.

We'll be here instead, taking Bear apple picking on a local farm.

Different Kind of Fitness

I remember about 10 years ago - before my diagnosis and meds and lifestyle change - giving up on planting a single bush after only 2 or 3 shovel fulls of dirt. Simply could not do it.

Last Friday, I installed 4 bushes. After which, I felt tired but fine.

Monday, I installed 8 more feet of retaining wall. After which, I felt tired but fine.

Tuesday, I installed 8 bushes. After which, I felt tired but fine.

But. Dudes. Went on a 2 mile, 10 minute bike ride with the family this weekend and wanted to die. Was actually thankful Bear threw a tantrum and we had to go home.

I've got enough base fitness left over from a few years of training that I'm cool with a few hours of hard landscaping work now. But my cardio fitness has fallen farther than I thought possible.

Well. At least I know what my new priority is. (After I get those last few bushes in...)

Evil Cross Training

Actual tri-oriented workouts are still scarce because of Bear logistics, but to my surprise it's been easy to keep up with Evil Cross Training. Specifically: landscaping.

I can do it when he's napping because I'm still home, and he sleeps longer and better because there's no noisy treadmill. And there is no question I'm getting a good workout.

Sometimes it's just weeding (because OMG, the WEEDS!). Yesterday it was 2 hours of planting 4 new shrubs. Most weekends this summer it's been a couple hours of building the retaining wall.

Ironically, The Calorie Nazi says I'm burning twice the calories with trench digging and wall building than if I'd jogged on the treadmill for the same time. Who knew?

And with that... I'm off to dig a trench work out.

Confessional

The week Kramer was missing I was all 'Calorie Nazi WHO?'

I wasn't a total idiot about it, but even that short break in diligence made me gain back almost 5 pounds.

I guess some of it was water weight, cause after only 2 days back in his controlling arms I've dropped 2 pounds.

I'd gotten lazy before that little drama anyway. Now I'm trying to be good again. I'm even pretending there isn't 3 kinds of ice cream, hot fudge, caramel sauce, whipped cream and maraschino cherries in the kitchen (for a birthday this weekend) and am forcing my poor PMSing self to go here:

Mmm... chocolate flavored styrofoam. I just looove my Calorie Nazi.

Biker Bear

One day a couple weeks ago, I noticed Bear studying the neighborhood boys very intently as they rode up and down our street. It was a nice day and we'd been outside trying to teach him to ride his trike (he's *this* close to pedaling). A big honkin' light bulb sent on that day - his trike did not look like the big boys' bikes.

He can't even ride it yet, but he was officially DONE with the trike.

He has another bike. But we didn't know he knew that. A good friend found it at a garage sale the day of my baby shower and got it as a joke. It's been hanging from the ceiling waiting for him to grown into it.

He went in the garage and proceeded to point and grunt at his other bike until we finally got it down to humor him. He climbed on like an old pro and looked at us like "well, make it go!"

Someone should tell him if he's big enough for the bike he's too big for the pacifier.

When Bear gets something in his head there's little to do but go with it, so Wonderful Husband set it up for him.



Like any good cyclist, Bear double-checked his mechanic's work.

Bear putting the final adjustments on his brake. Note the total ignorage of a perfectly nice trike.

Now every time we open the garage Bear rushes over to his bike and demands I get it out. Here's hoping he'll master pedaling before the weather turns this fall!

(And yes, I did go out the next day and buy him a helmet. I just can't get him to sit still long enough to take a picture of him wearing it.)