(Image sourced from Google)

So, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard about #TheDressThatBrokeTheInternet. I’m not going to go into detail on the story; here’s a fun article from the Washington Post if you need the background.

I was was offline when the story first broke, and when I logged into Twitter on Friday morning, it was Dress Central. My feed was full of #whiteandgold and #blueandblack. I quickly googled, found the original image, and threw in my two cents. (For the record, I saw blue and black.)

Hubby and I had a fun, silly debate about the dress later that morning when we met up for a parent-teacher conference. He saw white and gold, but not to worry – our marriage will survive. I got some more good laughs out of the story over the phone with my BFF – she and her boyfriend both saw white and gold, but she got really into the dress phenomenon and texted me about the science of brain teasers the rest of the evening.

And that was pretty much it for me. At least, until I saw this opinion piece on Time.com.

The dress is (according to comments on the Facebook post of the article) everything that’s wrong with America?  (Even though the picture originated in the UK?) We should all be ashamed of our lack of rudimentary scientific knowledge?  We have to stop talking about it RIGHT NOW and only discuss real, hard, important news?  The author says she’s not going to judge us because ISIS destroyed priceless art and Twitter was yelling “WHITE GOLD” and “BLUE BLACK” – except, look there, she just did.

Please, spare me the pearl-clutching.

I had a couple of thoughts in response to the Time opinion.  The first thought, I’ll be honest, was, did someone get scooped?  Just a little?  No one likes a sore loser.

Okay, serious snotty response, though.  (Complete with Downton Abbey gifs, for no reason except that it’s my blog and I like fun.)  First of all, slow clap to the author for remembering everything she learned in sixth grade.  We learned about vision in seventh grade, so I guess my education was inferior.  And while I remember discussing colorblindness at length, I don’t remember learning that everyone perceives color differently.  Maybe we did learn that and I forgot, because I was 12 then and I’m 33 now, and some of the trivia I learned in middle school has been pushed aside to make room for stuff I needed to remember in order to pass the Bar.  BOOM.  Drops the mic, walks away.

And what is so wrong with fun, anyway?  What’s the big deal about someone photoshopping llama heads into the dress?  C’mon, you have to admit, the llamas in dresses were funny.  Is it a problem because Taylor Swift weighed in on the debate?  (Maybe the writer saw white and gold and she’s jealous that Taylor and I totally saw blue and black, which is the right answer.)  Is there a problem with taking five minutes off from worrying about the state of the world and chiming in on a silly online debate?  Seriously, Time, why do you hate happiness?

Now, before you jump all over me, I do realize that the piece was filed under “humor.”  So maybe it was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, and just inadvertently came across as obnoxious and sanctimonious.  I’ll extend a bit of the benefit of the doubt and say that was the intention.  But it does grate a little – and I have to say, I’m tired of seeing “why is this news?” every time a news outlet publishes a piece of entertainment journalism, or “shouldn’t we all be thinking about the situation in [insert unstable region here]?” every time something a little bit silly goes viral.  Believe it or not, it is possible to be very concerned about ISIS and also think it’s kind of neat that people see different colors in the same dress, at the same time.  LET THE PEOPLE HAVE THEIR FUN.  Soon we’ll all forget about the dress, and the llamas, and be back to our workaday lives and worries.  Can’t we get a break, have a silly debate, maybe re-learn a little bit of science (for those of us lucky souls without perfect memories of the torture that was middle school, that is)?

It’s not “a new frontier in stupid,” for goodness’ sake.  It’s a little bit of harmless, mildly educational fun, and it’ll be over soon enough.  You’re clutching those pearls so tightly you’re going to snap the strand.  Learn to let go and relax a little… can I interest you in a yoga class?  Or maybe a llama meme?

Well, here I am at 37 weeks pregnant today (early term!) and just now getting around to talking about running in my second trimester.  As you probably know, running brings me a lot of joy – especially training for and participating in races.  I’ve run many 5Ks, 8Ks and 10Ks, one ten-mile race, and four half marathons (one of which I ran at 11 weeks pregnant).  Because I enjoy running, I wanted to try to run as far into pregnancy as I could.  Some women are running right up to their due dates; others stop earlier.  For my part, I planned to stop running as soon as it got too uncomfortable.

First trimester running went fairly well.  I tempered my expectations, increased my fuel and water intake, and just went with it.  Some runs were great – like The Color Run at nine weeks pregnant – and some were really tough – like the Biggest Loser Half Marathon at eleven weeks.  Starting with that race, I implemented a walk-run strategy of four minutes on, one minute off, and I continued that strategy into my second trimester.

My second trimester saw me running a lot less.  I was still fatigued from the first trimester and never really experienced that wonderful second-tri burst of energy.  I guess that’s to be expected.  When I was pregnant with Peanut, I was constantly exhausted – to the point of falling asleep at my desk and crashing on the couch before 8:00 every night – and I never got the magical energy burst I’d heard so much about.  The best I could say was that the second trimester rolled around and I was able to get back to my normal life without taking quite as many naps.  With Nugget, I definitely experienced first trimester fatigue, although not to the extent I did with Peanut.  (Nausea was Nugget’s preferred method of making his presence known.)  And once again, I didn’t get to enjoy that second-trimester energy – thanks, I think, to a demanding job, a stressful fall, and an energetic toddler going through a clingy phase.  So while I tried to muster up the energy to run, I didn’t have much in reserve.

Most of my second trimester running was done on the treadmill.  I liked the treadmill for a few reasons: it’s easy to control the speed, it’s right there in my basement, and it’s hard to fall down.  I did a fair few training runs on the treadmill, running my intervals and enjoying the fact that I could keep two big bottles of water at easy arms’ reach.  We had a big snowstorm that would have kept me off the roads no matter what, so I sure was grateful to have a safe option for running right in the warmth of my house.  Even treadmill runs felt challenging, but I slogged through them because I had two races to prepare for.

At 21 weeks, I ran the Greater Buffalo Track Club Cross-Country 5K with my dad.  That’s right, in a “Running for Two” shirt, so that everyone would know that I had a good excuse for being wheezy and slow.  We had a great time, but man alive, that was a tough race.  I think I would have found it challenging no matter what – running over leaves and grass and tree roots and lots of uneven surfaces is always going to be difficult – but toting along a very noticeable baby bump added a whole new level of difficulty to the run.  I enjoyed running with my dad, and I felt pretty accomplished after completing the race, but the run itself was kind of miserable.

Three weeks later, at 24 weeks pregnant, I ran the Buffalo-Niagara YMCA Turkey Trot.  (Uh-huh, in my “Running for Two” shirt again.)  I’ve run the race twice before, and – as expected – this was my slowest time.  Still, I was happy with the way the race went, and I did find it easier than the cross-country 5K, even though it was almost two miles longer.  (It’s amazing how running 3.1 miles in the dirt can make running 4.97 miles on pavement feel like luxury.)  I stuck to my 4:1 intervals and just enjoyed the scene and the fact that I was still out there.

And then I decided to go out on a high note.  Or maybe I didn’t decide… but in any event, the Turkey Trot was my last run of this pregnancy.  I felt good about the fact that I’d kept up my running for more than half of my pregnancy, and while I never made a conscious decision to hang up the running shoes, I haven’t gotten them out since.  I’ve switched to lower-impact cardio – namely, hiking and walking – and I’m feeling good about that.  Nugget has run four races with me now, and we’ve covered quite a few miles together, and I do hope we have another couple of hikes and a few more walks in us before he officially joins us here on the outside.  But the Turkey Trot felt like a good natural break point, and I’m happy with the way it worked out.

Tips for Second Trimester Running 

I’m no doctor!  Consult your practitioner before beginning any exercise regimen, especially if you’re pregnant.  These are just some tips that worked for me, in my personal experience.  So please keep in mind that I have no idea what I’m talking about and take everything I say with a grain of salt.  Thanks.

• Consult your doctor.  This was my most important tip for the first trimester and it’s my most important tip now.  Make sure your obstetrician is on board with pregnant running.  I had the green light to run as long as it felt comfortable and the baby was doing well.  I got a clean bill of health at my mid-pregnancy anatomy scan, which was why I felt comfortable continuing to run as long as it was fun for me.
• Hydrate and fuel!  Another one recycled from the first trimester.  Pregnancy puts your body through the ringer, and hydration is more important than ever.  I aim to drink 64 ounces of water every day, whether pregnant or not, and I usually exceed that goal.  And fueling might be even more important than hydration!  In the second trimester (and the third, too) you need about 300 extra calories per day to fuel baby’s growth.  If you’re working out with intensity (which running is) you need to make sure that you are not only replacing the calories that you burn, but adding those 300 extras on top of that.  Extra GU or sport beans help if you’re running any kind of distance.  And you can’t go wrong with a turkey trot – you know you’ll make up all the calories you burned and then some at Thanksgiving dinner!
• Give intervals a try.  Running 4:1 intervals kept the sport manageable and fun for me.  I’m not the most talented runner out there by a long shot, and I know there are many women who can keep running at a pace which would be impressive to non-pregnant me, well into their third trimesters.  That’s not me.  And if it’s not you, either – if you’re a back-of-pack hobby jogger like I am – intervals might be the strategy that keeps you going well after you’d otherwise have stopped.  Give them a try – it doesn’t have to be 4:1; it can be any interval that feels comfortable for you.
• Know when to stop.  Running will always be there.  When it gets uncomfortable, or too hard, or you just don’t feel like running is the right activity for you anymore, hang up the running shoes and don’t feel guilty about it at all.  They’ll be there when you’re ready; the most important thing is to cook a healthy baby.  Pay attention to your “tells,” and give yourself permission to stop, switch to lower-impact cardio, or hey, just rest, when running no longer feels right.  For me, that natural end point was 24 weeks.  Running was starting to feel really hard – harder than usual – and it just wasn’t as fun as I wanted it to be.  So I quit – temporarily.  And while I miss it, I know that I’ll have lots of time to chase goals in the future.  Speaking of which…

What’s next?  I’ve got some big plans for postpartum running, and I can’t wait to put them into action.  I was hoping to run my first marathon in October of 2014 – I’d even registered for the Mohawk-Hudson River Marathon – but I chose to defer my race entry once I learned that I was expecting.  So I’m now targeting this coming October for my first marathon, which means that as soon as I’m cleared for exercise after Nugget’s arrival, I’ll be working on building up my running base in preparation for marathon training.  I’m also hoping to try some trail running this summer, and to get in another half marathon – the Mighty Niagara – in the fall.  I’m psyched to get back out there when I’m ready, and I’ll be sure to share how it’s going.

Moms, did you run while pregnant?  What are your tips for second-trimester running?  Friends without kids, any good tips for making a zero-to-hero comeback?

On Wednesday, my friend Katie posted her “alphabet of right now,” sharing snippets of her daily life through the vehicle of an alphabet.  Then she invited her readers to do the same.  I loved the idea, and although my alphabet is probably a bit prosier than Katie’s lovely one, I’m sharing it anyway.  These are the ABCs of my current day-to-day.

A is for air.  I’m feeling a lack of it lately.  It’s been too darn cold to venture outside for much of the month.  I’m hoping that this weekend will be a little bit warmer and less windy, so we can go for a walk.  Even a short one.  I need big gulps of fresh air.

B is for bedtime, battles and bedsharing.  Battles are what we have at bedtime most every night – battles with a toddler who doesn’t want to settle down.  And bedsharing is what we have been doing as a result.  Usually starting at around 1:00 a.m. when Peanut wakes up and realizes that we’re no longer sitting next to her crib or standing over her, rubbing her back.  But lately it’s been as early as 9:00 or so, when we’re tired enough that we want to go to bed too.  It’s just a phase, it’s just a phase, it’s just a phase…

C is for countdown.  Four weeks to go until my due date!  I can’t believe I’ve actually gotten this far.  I expect to go a bit early, just based on my last pregnancy and how things are going with this one; my goal is to get to 37 weeks, which is one week from today.  Nugget has done a great job baking away and while I would like him to stay in until he’s really fully cooked, every day feels a little bit safer.  Every day I breathe a little easier and allow myself to hope, just a little more, that we will avoid the NICU this time.  And every day is, of course, one day closer to meeting our newest little love.

D is for dragging.  Which I am.  I’m constantly exhausted.  Between pregnancy, being mom to a toddler and being swamped at work, it’s all I can do to get through the day sometimes.

E is for excited.  It took awhile for me to get past the anxiety about having another preemie, but I’m genuinely excited to hold Nugget in my arms and to experience the next phase of parenthood… in a few weeks!  I might be excited to meet him, but I’d still like him to stay put until full term.

F is for frigid, which is what this weather has been recently.  We’ve scrapped entire weekends full of plans because it’s been too cold to leave the house.  Temperatures at -9*F, with windchill up to -30*F?  This is just ridiculous.

G is for girl time, which is necessary for my sanity.  Lunches and friend dates with Zan have been a lifeline in a season of stress.  I always leave a lunch with her feeling lighter.  I’m also trying to cultivate some friendships with some of the moms of other kids in Peanut’s class.  We have a nice group of families in our class and I’d love to turn some of those friendly acquaintances into real friends.  I’m working on it.

H is for homesick.  Which I have been, particularly, of late.  Just when I think I’ve cried every tear I have to cry over leaving D.C., I find that there are more.  Moving was the right thing for our family, and there’s plenty of good to be said for our current living situation, but… it’s hard when I wish I could be having lunch with my girlfriends, snuggling their new babies (so! many! new! babies!) and still living in a place I loved so deeply for so long.

I is for Ithaca, my college town, which won at winter humor when the local tourism board updated their website to encourage people to visit the Florida Keys instead, due to this “ridiculously stupid winter” we’re all having.  I got a good laugh out of this article, which my alma mater shared on Facebook.

J is for jokes.  I’m endlessly grateful to be married to a guy that I laugh with on a daily basis.  Lately, most of our jokes have revolved around certain of Peanut’s favorite books and TV shows – especially Curious George.  We refer to the Man with the Yellow Hat as “Ross,” make up hilarious stories about his love life, and crack each other up with impressions of the other characters.  It’s good to laugh like that with someone.

K is for karma.  Our city rental from our first year here is up for sale after our landlords were unable to re-rent it.  I’m not proud of this, but I feel the tiniest bit gleeful about that.  We had a lot of issues there, especially shortly before we left, which I didn’t get into then and won’t go into great detail about now, because I try to keep this space positive.  The major issues, though, were pretty serious, especially at the end – a flagrant breach of the lease and a flat refusal to let us take on a month-to-month arrangement or a short-term lease extension – we were told to either renew our lease for a year or get out.  It wasn’t a healthy living situation for any of us, but especially Peanut, and we knew we couldn’t stay another year, but the rigid stance they took on our short-term proposal contributed in a major way to the debilitating stress we felt over our housing hunt.  I don’t wish ill on anyone, but after the shabby way in which we were treated, a small part of me got a bit of a smile out of the fact that they lost out on a lot of rental income when they refused to work with us, and that they are now trying to unload the place.  I’m not proud of it, but hey, I’m human.

L is for lists.  Gosh, I’m making so many of them lately.  Work projects that must be completed before I head out on maternity leave.  Work projects that are ongoing and will need to be passed off temporarily.  Tasks that need to be done in the nursery.  Activities to do with Peanut before the new little guy arrives.  And so many more.  So far, it’s been mostly lists, and not many check marks.  I have a lot to do.

M is for monkey.  And not just any monkey: Curious George.  Peanut is really into George lately – always wanting to watch the cartoon and read the books, and she loved visiting the special George exhibit at the Buffalo Science Museum.  I can’t wait for our next visit!

N is for Nugget!  He’s on my mind all the time these days.  Who will he look like?  (I’m predicting hubby, because Peanut is my mini-me, and Nugget’s sonogram pictures don’t look anything like hers.)  What will his personality be like?  What will be his favorite food, sport, book?  I’m loving speculating about who my boy will turn out to be.

O is for Ollie.  That’s what I named my new (well, new as of this fall) car.  Lately, every time I get in the car, I am overwhelmed with gratitude to have it.  Ollie is an SUV and happens to be particularly good in snowy and icy conditions (even among other SUVs).  When I imagine what it would have been like to try to navigate this winter with my old car, I am genuinely frightened.  I feel so safe in the new car and so thankful that I didn’t have to face this hideous winter slipping around in an unreliable fourteen-year-old sedan.  Honestly, I don’t know how we would have gotten to the store or to work, some days, without Ollie.

P is for Peanut, and soaking up every minute of time we can with her while she’s still an only child.  And brainstorming ways to help her adjust to the new arrival, and to make sure she knows that she is still loved and cherished just as much as ever.

Q is for quiet, which is sort of lacking at the moment.  Work is crazy – I’m trying to transition and wrap up a bunch of projects because I’m getting the feeling that I’ll be going out early again (although not as early as last time, obviously, which is a relief) and I’m also moving offices.  I come home wiped out at the end of the day, but with a two-and-a-half-year-old in the house, there’s no quiet refuge to be found.  I have to find some way to get even five minutes of peace into my day.

R is for reading.  Reading to Peanut, which I do every single day, and reading to myself, which I am finally making more space to do.  I’ve finished some very good books lately, and it feels good to be excited to turn pages again.

S is for snow.  It snowed the other day and I was actually happy to see the flakes, because that meant it was getting warmer.  That’s right.  For the past week or so it’s been too cold to snow.  Let me repeat that: too cold to snow.  That’s when you know winter has defeated you.  When you’re actually glad it’s snowing because that means the temperature is on the upswing.

T is for trades, which everyone in Buffalo has been talking about – specifically, the major trades the Buffalo Sabres have concluded recently.  I was sad to see some of my favorite players leave, but happy that the team got some really talented guys in return.  I hope it works out and that next year they have an exciting season.

U is for understanding, which I am trying to be when it comes to some of Peanut’s current phases.  We’re dealing not only with the bedtime battles I mentioned above, but also with food-throwing and general disobedience.  Yesterday found me cleaning the kitchen floor on my hands and knees (36 week baby bump and all) after she threw her entire dinner plate.  (And before you get up in arms, hubby had a late work call and wasn’t home, or he totally would have taken one for the team and done the cleanup.)  No meal is complete without at least three time-outs for throwing food.  She just seems to enjoy pushing our buttons right now.  We’re a pretty lax household without many rules (no playing with sharp objects, fire, cleaning supplies or anything that could kill you; don’t climb up your slide because you could fall and hit your head; treat books with respect; no throwing food – that’s about it) but she takes pleasure in breaking the few rules we do have and then laughing gleefully as we carry her to time-out.  I think the mealtime shenanigans have a lot to do with teething – she’s cutting molars and it’s been beastly – so that’s what I’m trying to be understanding about.  But there’s a lot of general toddler disobedience going on right now and I am running out of patience for some of those antics.  Deep breaths.  I’m trying.

V is for vacation, which is not actually happening right now, but sure is on my mind lately.  The more the temperature plummets, the more I look forward to burying my toes in the warm sand of the Outer Banks this summer.

W is for wiggles.  Also kicks, and stretches, and pushes, and rolls, all of which Nugget has been doing.  (He’s wiggling as I type this).  I love every single movement I feel from him, because they let me know he’s still okay.  And many of the kicks and pushes and stretches have been strong enough for Daddy to feel, which is new and fun for both of us.  Peanut was never strong enough for Daddy to feel a kick from outside, but busy little Nugget has more than made up for that.  I love the amazed look on hubby’s face every time Nugget wallops him in the hand.

X is for xylophone.  Peanut recently unearthed hers in the playroom and has been having a fabulously noisy time banging on it.

Y is for year, and this past one has kind of been rough.  Lately I keep looking back over the past twelve months and cringing.  I’ve been a ball of stress pretty much since this time last year.  First there was the stressful housing hunt that we started last March (and that stretched into June), followed by a really difficult move in my first trimester of pregnancy, then an entire season in which everything broke, and now toddler antics and the impending arrival of a newborn.  It has been a year-long onslaught of stress events.  I really hope that things ease up soon, but somehow I don’t think they will.

Z is for zingers.  I’ve been coming up with some good ones lately, because I’ve been so frustrated with so many situations.  Of course I’ll never be able to share any of them.

Thanks for the idea, Katie!  Friends – what’s your alphabet of right now?  Share in comments or let’s keep the posts going.

Happy 2015, my friends!  I hope you had a rollicking good time this New Year’s (or went to bed before 9:00, if that’s your thing… sounds pretty good to me) and that you’re ready to make 2015 the best year yet.  It’s no secret that I love celebrating the new year.  Blah, blah, blah, no one keeps their resolutions, and blah, blah, blah, why do you need a new calendar year to make the changes you want in your life, and yes, I know, but I love the thought of a blank slate.  All that time and space just waiting for me to fill it with laughter, and fun, and learning, and adventure.  So let’s talk 2015.

I have big dreams for this year.  We’re finally settled in a town and a house and jobs, and I think we can turn our attention to really living well this year.  These big dreams have been taking up a lot of my head space lately, and here’s what I’m thinking.

Have a baby.  Ideally, a full-term, healthy baby!  Just about two-and-a-half months to go in this pregnancy, if I make it to full term, which I am trying so hard to do.  I feel pretty good about how this pregnancy is going, so far, but I also know how quickly everything can fall apart.  So I’m grateful for every day that Nugget bakes happily away, and I am focusing on doing what I can do to keep him in there as long as possible.  Grow, Nugget, grow!

Focus on immediate family.  Hubby and I have had a lot of conversations about this in recent months.  We’ve leaned heavily on our “village,” really, ever since Peanut was born, and they’ve come through for us in ways I could never have imagined – especially my parents.  But we’ve also learned some important lessons about not letting ourselves get too wrapped up in, or letting our identity be defined by, extended family.  We’ve both been feeling that we need to spend 2015 really focusing on our own little unit of three (and eventually four, when Nugget joins us in March but not before, okay little dude?).  I think it will be good for us to spend more time bonding as an immediate family and less time worrying about what’s going on outside our own four walls.

Keep growing in our new region.  I’ll probably always be homesick for northern Virginia, and I’m not going to fight against that because it’d be a frustrating, pointless battle.  But there’s so much good stuff to discover here.  We worked on that last year and we started to find “our places,” which are so important to making a home in a new city or region – but I know there’s more out there waiting for us.  I expect we’ll be hibernating for a little while when Nugget first arrives, but come spring, I’d like us to get out there and keep making WNY our own, because we plan to be here for awhile.

Those are some major plans for the year, and I expect 2015 to be pretty eventful as a result.  But when I think about what the year will look like, I also think about smaller things – smaller, but still important.  If at the end of the year I can say I’ve accomplished some of these littler goals, I think I’ll be able to look back with a big smile on my face.

Plant a garden with Peanut.  I have been wanting a special activity to do with Peanut, just the two of us, after her brother is born.  I know he is going to need a lot of love and attention, and I want her to know that she’s still cherished just as much as she always has been.  I think some one-on-one Mommy-Peanut bonding is in order – and what better way to bond than by digging in the dirt together?  I’ve never had a successful garden – we tried a few times in Virginia, but it never worked out – but I’m determined to do this one right.  I’m not sure if the first spring’s garden will be a full-blown effort or just some pots on our back patio, but either way it’s going to be our thing to do together, and I hope it will also yield some yummy treats for us to cook up in the kitchen.  (WNY friends with gardening expertise, consider this my plea for help – any tips you can share on planting a successful garden will be much appreciated!)

Marathon or bust!  I really, really, really wanted 2014 to be the year I tackled the big, bad 26.2, and I was hoping that 2015 would see me going after marathon number two.  It didn’t happen last year – although pregnancy is its own kind of marathon – and I deferred my entry to this year’s race.  I’m planning to start building up my running base just as soon as I’m recovered from Nuggetpalooza, and I am determined that this year will be my year.  This is a big, long-term dream of mine.

Start juicing.  When we lived in the city, we were just a short walk from a funky little juice bar, where I would stop a few times every week for fresh juice.  (My favorite was the “Elvis Parsley” – carrot, cucumber, lemon, and parsley.)  Now that we’ve moved to the country, I can’t just trot down the street for my juice fix.  For months I’ve been saying I wanted to start juicing at home, and I’ve even tried a few times with my VitaMix (which works, but straining the juice is a paaaaaaain).  I got a juicer for Christmas and I can’t wait to start using it and get my veggie juice fix whenever I want it.

Use my dSLR more.  I’ve done really well with using Instagram to document our family moments almost every day, and I’m planning to keep that up.  But after I toted my big camera to Knox Farm to capture some pics of Peanut playing in the snow, I was reminded of what beautiful pictures it takes.  Now I’m motivated to use it a lot more in the hopes of getting some special family pictures to display in our home, and making our family yearbook a better product than ever.  And of course, with our new little buddy, I’ll have another adorable photography subject!  The big camera needs to make many more appearances this year.

Do at least one home project every month.  Our house has great bones and a lot of potential, but it’s very dated and needs a lot of cosmetic help.  (Unless you think the eighties were some kind of decorating renaissance, in which case… well, I’m not sure what.)  I have a few high-priority items, including painting the brick fireplace and installing a new mantle in the family room, updating the paint colors in the rest of the house, and changing out some dated fixtures.  There are also a few longer-term goals we have, including new windows and new floors, and we’re exploring whether one of those items might be in the budget for the year.  And then there’s the little fella who is joining our family and is going to need a cute nursery space all his own.  We have a lot to do!  We’ve already done a bit (scraping the popcorn ceilings before we moved in made a huge difference) but there’s still a lot to do.  The good news with all of this is, we have plenty of opportunity to make it a really personal space.  I have lots of ideas for updating and personalizing the house, and I hope to put quite a few of them into action this year.

Get back into yoga, and try out barre classes.  I love yoga, and it really bugs me that I haven’t made more space for it in my life.  Now that Stroller Strides is over (sniff) I have more free workout time and dollars, so I need to get back to the studio.  That means prenatal classes for a little while, and then hopefully a regular vinyasa practice.  I also want to try barre classes, which have intrigued me for some time.  Pregnancy’s not a great time to start new workouts – even though I hear barre is a great prenatal workout – so I’m sticking with light jogging, walking, and weights, all of which I’m used to doing – and saving the barre classes for a fun new workout adventure post-Nugget.

Get organized.  I’m counting on late pregnancy nesting urges (if I get that far, please stay in, Nugget!) to give me a boost of organizing energy, because my closets and pantry desperately need it.  I am always staring wide-eyed at those impeccably organized storage spaces in Martha’s magazines and wondering why I can’t seem to get that organized.  (Toddler?  Law firm job?  Life?  I dunno.)  Once again, I’m going to try.  Hand-in-hand with getting organized, I think, will go efforts to live greener.  In past years we made a habit of certain green practices around the house; some of those, we’ve kept up, but others have fallen by the wayside as we have been focused on settling into our new space.  I expect that the more organized I am, the better I will be able to re-establish those green practices that we’ve slacked on recently.

Lose the baby weight.  Duh.  It’s for a good cause and I don’t mind doing what I need to do to grow a healthy baby, but I want to be back in my jeans in a reasonable time frame after Nugget arrives.  We’re not supposed to say that, are we?  It’s all about how I feel, etc.  Well, yes, but dangit, I want to lose the baby weight.  There.  I said it.  I did lose all the baby weight after Peanut, very gradually, so I’m confident I can do it again.  That’ll mean a few Whole30s, for sure – tried and true for me at this point – and I’m also hoping to join the Y and make a habit of going.  But if I focus on making the healthiest choices possible each day, I’m sure I’ll get to where I want to be.

Hike in a different place every month.  This goes hand-in-hand with my ongoing mission to explore and learn to love our new environment, but I also think it will be a fun project for the year.  We’re planning to continue our seasonal hikes, this time at Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve in Depew, but I also want to explore some different trails and profile fun local hikes in this space.  Some might be repeats – I’m sure we’ll be back at local favorites Tifft Nature Preserve and Knox Farm State Park – but I hope to discover some beautiful new outdoor wonders and of course I’ll share.

Take a family vacation – or two!  Hubby and I have not been on a real vacation – one where we are away, unwinding and exploring, for a week or more – since 2011.  2011, people.  For two people who love to travel as much as we do, that’s just unacceptable.  A lot has happened since our October 2011 jaunt across the pond to England: a pregnancy, a preemie, tough times at work, a big move and new job for hubby, a stint as a SAHM and resulting budget-tightening, a new job for me, another pregnancy…  We desperately need to get away.  The good news is, we have one vacation already in the works for this summer, and I’m hoping that we’ll both be established enough at work and comfortable enough with two kids to make another one (probably closer to home) work for the fall.  We need it.

Date nights, for realsies.  Another thing we have let slide.  I can count the number of date nights hubby and I have had since Peanut was born on one hand.  One hand, people.  And I don’t even need all of the fingers.  That’s just sad.  And it’s another thing we’ve talked about a lot lately: the need to focus on keeping our marriage strong.  With another little one on the way, it’s not exactly going to get easier to leave the house.  So finding a trustworthy local teenaged girl to call on for babysitting services is high on the agenda.  And then I am going to need to figure out how to drag myself out the door and away from the kids when the time comes.  But we’ve got to make this a priority, and we’re both committed to getting out and enjoying some time as a couple, without being Mommy and Daddy, for a few hours on a regular basis.

Wow, that’s quite the list.  In reading it over, I’m sure I won’t get to all of these things.  But that’s okay – 2015 is going to be all about doing what I can do, and adjusting to life with two kids (whoa).  Some of these plans are more important to me than others, and I really, really hope the garden and the vacations happen, but really I’m just looking to have a good year, enjoy life as a family of four, and try to be as healthy as possible every day.  I think I can do that.

What’s on your agenda for 2015?

Oh, 2014.  You were some year.  Some year, all right.

At the beginning of the year, I said that instead of setting goals or making resolutions, I was going to set an intention for the year and try to live by that intention – turning 2014, ideally, into one long yoga practice.  My intention for 2014 was “a better life.”  So rather than assign myself tasks with the plan of grading my efforts at the end of the year, I just wanted to live better.  (I mean, I always want to live better… but in 2014, I really wanted to make a practice of it.)

Of course, I had some ideas about what “a better life” would look like.  I’ve put a few of them into practice, and ifallen short on others – isn’t that always the way?

A better life means getting organized.  This is always a process, isn’t it?  I am doing… okay… on the organizing front.  I really wanted to organize my life while we were living in our little city rental, especially because just on the basis of square footage, it was a major downsizing.  But then… opportunities happened, and I found myself heading back to the office, which both gave me less time to organize things and also gave us the financial wherewithal to buy a bigger house.  So we did that.  And I’ve been gradually unpacking and organizing the new place ever since.  I wish it was a faster-moving process – I don’t think anyone enjoys living in a sea of boxes – but my parents’ hardworking visit back in November certainly helped me move in the right direction.

A better life means a life lived outside.  I think that I did really well living my life outside last year.  We enjoyed family hikes almost every weekend, including four seasons of hiking at Tifft Nature Preserve, multiple visits to Knox Farm, a trip to Letchworth with our friends Zan and Paul, and even our first two Adirondack high peaks!  In addition to all the hiking, we spent hours exploring our city neighborhood and then, later, our big country yard.  I ran three half marathons.  We hosted Peanut’s second birthday party at Chestnut Ridge State Park.  We’ve just made it a family habit to spend our time outdoors whenever we can, and I’m proud of that.

A better life means unplugging.  Meh.  I could have done better with this one.  I’ve done relatively well with not being on my phone when I’m hanging out with Peanut, because I want her to have my full attention, and scrolling through Twitter is not giving her my full attention.  But another thing I wanted to do this year was use Instagram more to capture daily moments for our family.  So I’m still holding my phone up quite a lot, chasing the perfect adorable shot.  I’m not sure how to balance this, but I’m working on it.  I always feel a little guilty about the incessant picture-taking, but I like having those memories.

A better life means running a race that scares me.  This didn’t happen.  I had high hopes for tackling the big, bad 26.2 this year, but life (pregnancy) intervened.  I deferred on my registration for the Mohawk-Hudson River Marathon and hope to be ready to run it in October of 2015 instead.

A better life means cooking more.  I think I did decently well with this.  It was a challenge for awhile, when we were living in our crummy rental with the worst kitchen ever (seriously, even my pocket-sized kitchen in my first law school apartment was at least cute, with pretty stainless steel counters).  But once we moved into our new house, with its beautiful kitchen (made even more beautiful by the installation of a Bosch double wall oven, come to mama) it’s been a lot easier to feel inspired.  I’m hoping that translates into even more cooking in the new year… and who knows?  Maybe I’ll even have the occasional recipe to share on here again.

A better life means exploring my new environment.  Working on this one, always.  I’m not going to lie to you and say that I don’t miss DC every single day.  Still, after more than a year of living in WNY.  But I’ve been working on finding new happy places – looking for new local hiking trails to explore, getting to know Tifft Nature Preserve in every season, letting Peanut run around Knox Farm, grabbing a tea in East Aurora before a family stroll, working out at Glen Falls Park with my local mom friends… and I know there are lots more great places here, just waiting for me to find them.

A better life means improving someone else’s life.  I’ve done my best with this one, and tried to keep a focus on donating my time and money where I could this year.  I spent about five months of the year (and a few months in 2013, too) volunteering as a tutor for Literacy New York, but ultimately had to take a step back.  I was paired with a student who did not really have the time for tutoring, and no-call-no-showed about half of our scheduled sessions, leaving me frustrated when I’d spend two hours sitting in the library waiting for her.  The program directors were in the process of placing me with a different student (nothing personal, but they have a waiting list and it’s not fair to make others cool their heels while one student only comes to half the sessions) but work heated up and we were in the lengthy process of looking for housing, so I went inactive on the volunteer rolls rather than commit time I no longer had.  I’m still hoping to get back to it, but with everything that’s been going on and with a new baby on the way, it’s probably not going to be an option for awhile.  After I withdrew from active volunteering, I made it a priority to donate my money instead, and over the year I’ve given to several causes that I feel strongly about, donating to both national and local organizations.  I’m proud that I’ve made donations a priority this year and plan to continue, but I’m also looking forward to the day when I can share the joy of volunteering with Peanut.  I want her to grow up with volunteering as a big part of her life, and I can’t wait for mother-daughter trips to pack food at the local food bank.  That’d be chaos right now, though (can you imagine?!) so monetary contributions will be the focus for at least a few years.

Overall, I tried hard to live well in 2014.  There’s always room for improvement, but we did better our lives in a major way when we moved out of our cramped city rental and into a big, comfortable country home, when we focused on spending time together as a family outdoors, and when we worked on exploring our new region and finding places and things to enjoy together and separately.  And next year should be even better – with a new little buddy to love and shower with kisses and snuggles, and a whole year to fix up our new living space and make it more “us” – I can’t wait.

One day you won’t be able to do this.  Today is not that day.

Now that I’ve spilled the beans about Nugget, I thought I’d write about a topic that I’ve been thinking about a lot over the past few months: pregnant running.  Running is one of my favorite hobbies – I might be slow, but I love getting out there – and it’s my preferred way to get a workout in.  And I love lining up for races; spending a weekend morning jogging along with a few thousand of my closest friends is always going to be high on my to-do list.  So when I learned that Peanut would be a big sister, one of the first things that popped into my mind was, “Can I still run?”

When I was expecting Peanut, I tried once or twice to run, but something about it just felt wrong and off.  Deep down I knew that feeling was more than just the extra huffing and puffing, or that weirdly bouncy, ungainly feeling that comes with pregnant running – it was a sign that I should not do this.  So I stopped.  I walked as long as I could before ending up on bed rest in my third trimester, and I was very, very glad that I didn’t push myself to run.  I’ll have my whole life to be a runner and chase after new fitness goals, and slowing down felt like what I needed to do, just then, to put Peanut first.

With Nugget, I’ve felt differently.  Oh, not about putting the baby first – that’s clearly the most important thing, and the first indication I have that running isn’t good for us, I’ll hang up the running shoes until after Nugget makes his grand entrance in March (and hopefully not before).  What I mean is that I’ve felt differently about running.  With Peanut, I was worried and apprehensive.  With Nugget, running still brings me joy.  With Peanut, a short run knocked me out for the rest of the day.  With Nugget, running leaves me more energized than before.  Knowing that the general recommendation is for moms-to-be to exercise as much as feels good, and that you can generally keep up what your body is used to (or even start a fitness routine, if you’ve been sedentary, with your doctor’s approval of course) I resolved to ask my doctor if I could keep running and training for races.  If she said no, in light of the complications I had with Peanut, I’d have been fine with it and obeyed her recommendations.  But I was hoping she would say yes.

So one of my first questions at my first prenatal appointment was, “Can I run?”  The doctor was well aware of Peanut’s early birth, so I expected her to say no, or at least to tell me to dial it back.  But I explained that I had just recently completed a half marathon, that I had several more distance races – including two half marathons – lined up for the rest of the summer and fall – and that while I was planning to defer my planned marathon I did want to run the two half marathons if at all possible.  She immediately agreed, and I rejoiced.

Having gotten my doctor’s blessing, I continued to work out as much as possible, and I found that it really helped me during those first few weeks.  When I made the effort to get up early and get in a run or a kickboxing session, I felt better all day – no morning sickness! lots of energy! – and slept marginally better at night.  (Pregnancy insomnia has hit hard and is still going.)  I wanted to work out because running means something to me emotionally, but I was shocked at how much better I felt when I exercised.  With Peanut, an easy hike would take so much out of me that I’d end up napping all afternoon and crashing on the couch before 8:00 p.m., but with Nugget, a good sweat session was a sure-fire cure for queasy tummy and afternoon yawns.  I fell off the bandwagon a few weeks later, between a crush of work deadlines and moving house, but I still managed to get out for a lunchtime walk and to get in a run or a Stroller Strides class on the weekends.

And I’ve kept up my racing schedule.

At nine weeks (and already looking thicker around the waist – ah, second pregnancy), I participated in the Color Run.  It was a perfect event to do while pregnant, because there was no timing chip, lots of walkers, and no pressure.  I ran the entire distance, with the exception of the water stop, but I kept the pace easy and fun and at the end of the run I felt that I could have gone much longer.

At eleven weeks, I ran the Biggest Loser Half Marathon.  As you know from my recap, this was a tough race for me.  I huffed and puffed through the majority of the race, and spent a lot of time ruminating on the fact that I had comfortably run a 2:24 – a great time for me – just two months earlier.  I didn’t beat myself up over it, though, because I knew what had changed in those two months: I had a little passenger along for the Biggest Loser half, who hadn’t yet appeared on the scene when I crushed the Fifty Yard Finish.  I needed more fuel, more water, more oxygen and more time.  Still, as hard as the run felt, I was so grateful to be out there.  I know that any run could be my last for awhile, and I made it my mission to enjoy the experience.

I really do feel thankful for every step I get to take, and for every time I lace up my running shoes.  I know how quickly a situation can turn, and if a day comes when my doctor won’t approve any more runs, or when running just feels wrong – as it did with Peanut – I’ll put my hobby aside for the good of the baby.  But until that day comes, I’m still getting out there and doing what I love to do.

Tips for First Trimester Running

I’m no expert!  These are just some tips that worked for me, in my individual experience, and helped me to run through my first trimester (and hopefully beyond).  Most of them are common sense, but PLEASE, don’t take my word as the be-all-end-all.  Consult with your doctor about what sort of fitness or running routine is best for you, ESPECIALLY if you’re pregnant!

• Consult your obstetrician before implementing any kind of pregnancy workout routine!  This is the most important of the tips I have read for pregnant exercise, and was the most important thing I did.  The general recommendation, at present, is that pregnant women should continue to exercise if at all possible.  Exercise during pregnancy has been proven to benefit both mom and baby in a host of ways.  Most doctors will allow moms-to-be to continue the same types of workouts they’ve been doing.  That wasn’t a given for me, though, in light of my past bed rest, so I made sure to ask my doctor for permission before doing any kind of workouts.  I was very clear in my explanations of what I wanted to do – run the half marathons I’d already committed to – and I was also fine with hanging up the running shoes if that was her recommendation.  Happily, it wasn’t – for now.  But I plan to continue to keep my doctor informed about my activity level throughout pregnancy and if the recommendations change at some point, I’m good with that.
• Don’t be too hard on yourself if you can’t do what you used to do.  On June 23, I PRed in the half marathon – by thirteen minutes.  By early August, an easy two-mile route to the library and back had me huffing and puffing.  If I wasn’t pregnant, I’d be beating myself up over it.  But I know exactly what changed in between those dates, and I also know it’s temporary.  I expect my pace to slow, and while that’s occasionally painful to see – especially during a race, when I want to do well – I try to be philosophical about it.  Running is more about the joy of it right now, and less about setting new records for myself.  There will come a time for chasing goals again; now is the time to go easy on myself.
• HYDRATE and FUEL like a maniac.  I am well aware that if I want to keep running safely throughout my pregnancy, I have to be smart about it.  That means making sure I am more hydrated and more fueled than ever.  I adopted the following philosophy: if you think you’ve had enough water, you’re wrong; if you think you’ve had enough fuel, you’re wrong.  I wore a Camelbak to the Biggest Loser Half instead of relying on the aid stations (I could have relied on them; they were well-stocked even for those of us in the back of the pack) and I took in more fuel than I would have had I not been pregnant, both during and after the race.  (Not before; although I’m sure I could have used the extra calories, there’s only so much I can tolerate in my stomach at the beginning of a long run.)
• Be flexible, and change your running strategy when appropriate.  As I wrote in my recap of the Biggest Loser Half, I really struggled through the first two thirds or so of the race.  I was walking more than I was running and starting to get pretty down about that.  At mile 9, I decided to go back to my Galloway roots and run by the method I used when I first picked up the sport.  I normally try to run the entire distance, but walk through aid stations – but that wasn’t working.  So I adopted a 4:1 ratio of running to walking.  I told myself that I had to run for those four minutes, and then I could walk.  It worked.  The four minutes of running got me over most of the remaining distance, and the regular walking intervals let me recover, sip from my Camelbak, take in fuel and bring my heart rate down.  The moment I decided to go back to Galloway running was the first moment I felt in control of the race, and once I finished I decided to stick with the strategy for the rest of my pregnant runs.  I’m now doing all of my regular runs Galloway-style and hoping that strategy shift buys me a few more races before I hang up the shoes for the duration of my pregnancy.
• Have FUN and remember why you’re out there!  It’s not just about the benefits that exercise provides for a growing mommy and baby.  I could get those benefits by doing barre (which I do want to try), or prenatal Pilates (NEVER, I hate Pilates), or my kickboxing DVDs, or in any number of other ways.  I choose to run because I enjoy running, and I like participating in races.  I get a mental benefit from running – it relaxes me, gives me strength to face the rest of my day, makes me a nicer person, and I find it weirdly fun.  I’m not grinding out runs with a grimace on my face; running is my happy place, and I’m grateful for every step I get to take.

Have you run through a pregnancy?  What got you through it?