Sisterhood of the Jogging Strollers

As a lot of ya'll know (I posted about it on Facebook, so all of you are probably clued in), I am and have been training for my 1st half marathon coming up on November, 23rd-The Magic City Marathon in Birmingham downtown area. It has been good for me in multiple aspects. I have always had this on my bucket-list; well, it has been on my bucket list probably since I have been competitively running since high school. Originally, I thought that there was no way in heck that I could do this with little ones, all the moving around we've done in the last few years, and how incredibly out of shape back-to-back pregnancies has left me. No, this item on my bucket list would come to fruition after all my children (and future children) were grown and gone when I was probably in my 50's and had "time".

However, obviously things change. Now that Facebook keeps me updated on numerous friends and family who are running half and full marathons, it has motivated me even further. Every time I would see in my newsfeed another friend with the exhausted yet victorious look on their face, medal around their neck, standing close to the finish line of their half, I would feel a little twinge of motivation and jealousy combined.  I wanted this...but it seemed so distant. The final straw that did it for me and pushed me into training now was seeing a good girlfriend who at the time had 3 little ones (the youngest at the time was around 9 months old and also breastfeeding like Benjamin is for me) run this with her little sister, also a good friend, last fall. Thank you (you know who you are!)!

Training has been a little difficult at times, I'm not gonna lie. Some of the obstacles I've had to work with are:  My neighborhood doesn't have sidewalks and we live off a busier street with through traffic everyday so neighborhood runs are basically non-existent. I do have a dreadmill, oops, treadmill in the basement; however, now that my runs are mostly 4 and 5 miles and up, it gets old real fast. Christopher's busy schedule also keeps me on my toes with scheduling my runs with friends. I can only go if he's there to watch the kids. Most days, I squeeze in my runs after getting the kids all to sleep, on the treadmill, late at night, and that's assuming I haven't fallen asleep while putting Benjamin to sleep.

A new thing I've started doing recently is going on my runs after dropping Gabriel off at school. This way, I can use our double stroller with Gianna and Benjamin and I don't have to wait until late at night on the treadmill. This whole scene is challenging for me. First of all, I have to have enough distractions for them to keep from crying, whining, trying to get out, etc. My essentials for them on these trips include stickers, drinks, snacks, and a few favorite toys. Secondly, I feel pretty safe since it's pretty heavily traveled by bikers, walkers, joggers, dogs, kids, skateboarders, and even the occasional elderly person pushing their lap dog in an umbrella stroller (seriously). But still, the paranoid momma in me is always looking behind my shoulders for creepers. Thirdly, I have some big kids; Gianna and Benjamin are actually my biggest, percentage wise. When they are both in the stroller, we're talking about pushing 60+ pounds of kids, and that's not even mentioning pushing uphill or against the wind.

Now that I've done a few of these jogging stroller runs with the little ones, I can't help notice a trend with the other jogging stroller mommas and myself. I call it "the Sisterhood of the Jogging Strollers". It is an understanding between the jogging mommas that is unique to any other person on the trail.  Most people I pass on the opposite lane have a pretty focused look on their face, eyes fixed on the path ahead, and with no trace of acknowledging my existence next to them. I get it; I've been there. They're in "the zone". It's a different story when I pass another momma pushing a stroller. First, it's the empathetic smile and look on their face. The "I know what you're dealing with" and the "keep it up, momma" and the "I know you're tired pushing the weight of your kids plus trying to finish your run" look. Then, it's the "Hi" we both muster up in passing. Or a wave to the little ones in the stroller. Or both. And then after we pass, I smile to myself because they've just given me some more motivation to keep going. And we've also shared in the sisterhood of the jogging strollers.

October's Library Favorites

1. First of all, I personally love Eric Carle. His name on a book catches my eye and I just HAVE to bring the book home. I love his artwork and his stories and usually I learn something or there is a tangible lesson I can teach the kids after reading his stories. This one was a board book I found in the little baby area of the library. The kids kept asking for this one over and over again. Mister Seahorse helps Mrs. Seahorse by carrying and protecting their eggs before they hatch in a special pouch in his belly. He keeps swimming along, randomly meeting some of his other "guy" friends who are also carrying the eggs for their wives. The last page was all of our favorite with about 10 little seahorses swimming out of his pouch. It was cool to explain to the kids how all those mommy fishes did NOT have the babies-the daddies did!

2. Okay, I'll admit it: I love pop up books. Like, I seriously love seeing the origami-like, 3-D, folded surprises literally "pop" out of the page. David A. Carter is one of my personal favorites for the 8 year old pop-up-book lover inside of me. I first knew of him from the "Bugs in Boxes" books and have a few in our home book collection. So, when I saw this board book in the baby section, I snatched it up! No surprise, the kids also fell in love with it immediately! This book is, like the title says, about opposites. The first page has a few other colors, but mostly it's in black, white and yellow, which the little ones love.

3. In honor of my sweet Gianna's 3rd birthday in October, on our first October trip to the library earlier this month, I purposely picked some birthday themed books for her. This one happens to be from another series the kids and I love...and the bonus is that it is also dinosaur themed (a win-win since it is about Birthdays for Gianna, and about dinosaurs, which Gabriel loves).  So this author and illustrator have made quite a few in the "How Do Dinosaurs..." series. My first introduction to them was the book, "How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?" which is in our home library. One thing I love about these books is how the illustrator picks really cool and unique dinosaurs for the pictures and then - like a boss- very discretely inscribes the name of the obscurely named dinosaurs alongside their bodies. So, when you read it to your little ones, over and over, you can -like a boss- point out the strange, unique and weird names to your kids. I'd like to think that they then think I am the smartest person on the planet. Anyway, these books in the series start by asking questions about the theme and answering with crazy, wrong answers. Then, the second half of the book tells how dinosaurs answer the question of the book the appropriate ways. Gabriel just loved the dinosaur illustrations and it was fun talking about birthday etiquette with them throughout the story.

4.  This one I picked up from the animal section in the preschool area of the library. We have a bear puzzle that the kids love so I thought that they'd enjoy learning about some bears. This book was asked for a lot and I think it's because it was sing-songy, which my kids love, and most pictures had a baby bear and a mommy bear. Gianna is my baby-doll lover, so I knew that would just hit the spot for her. At the end, it shows a map the world with the locations of the 10 or so bears it talks about, which Gabriel really marveled at since he's been into the planets and solar system lately.

5.  This one I found in the Caldecotte Medal winner section of the preschool section of the library. (The Caldecotte Medal is awarded to illustrators and is very prestigious. Check this Wikipedia link for more info on Caldecotte Medals http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caldecott_Medal.) I wanted to grab a few from that section to see if the kids were drawn to the award winning books...and they were definitely drawn to this one! This is an oldie, but a goodie. It was illustrated and written by Lynd Ward and published first in 1952.  Just a little warning, if you are uncomfortable with the idea of guns, you may not like this one or reading it to your little ones. I read it to my kids and told them it happened a long time ago, in a different era. It is also a good time to bring up gun safety since the main character is probably 8 and owns and shoots a big old gun during the story. Anyway, the story is about a little boy who is jealous of all his country neighbors who have hunted, found or otherwise ran into and shot big bears; he was especially embarrassed that their barn had no bear skin hanging on it like all the other barns in the valley did. He is determined to go hunting and find the "biggest bear". He gets in the woods, hears a noise, and finds a little baby bear. He falls in love with it, brings it home and keeps it until it's a big bear that gets into trouble with the neighbors crops, meats, maple syrup, etc. The neighbors want the bear gone, so Johnny tries to take him back but he keeps coming home. Finally, at a loss of what to do, Johnny and his daddy (mostly his daddy) decide it's time to put the bear down and Johnny wanted to be the one to do it. When he takes the bear to the woods to put him down, the bear takes off after a scent of something which leads them to a trap (see the cover page for that illustration). When the men come to the trap, they tell Johnny that they are collecting animals for the zoo. This is the perfect ending to the story and Johnny is happily visiting him at the zoo on the last page. I really did love the illustrations in the book and my kids did, too. They each had their favorite pages and although it was a rather long story, and it sort of revolved around hunting/guns/shooting, I liked it!

6. Speaking of Caldecott Medal winners, here is another one. I was surprised my kids liked this one so much mostly because I think the story line may be a little advanced for them; it is not the typical Three Little Pigs story. In this book, the pigs jump out of the story before the wolf gobbles them up (after huffing and puffing and blowing the houses in). They sort of wonder in and out of a couple other stories, including "Hey Diddle Diddle" and some story with a dragon and a rose. By the end, the jump back in their story and the dragon scares the wolf away when they are in the last pig's brick house. I enjoyed reading it because it was different. I like to be surprised when I pick up a book and this one definitely surprised me!

7.  Gianna picked this one from the baby section and it was a board book. This one quickly became a favorite.  Before we even left the library, I had already read it probably half a dozen times to Gianna and Benjamin (Gabriel was in school that day). First thing I noticed was how new it was; it was copyright 2013, so the pages still had that new book smell that I just love. The second thing we noticed was that the pages all had shapes cut out that led into the next page. It starts out with his yellow eyes, then adds his blue-ish green-ish nose and ears, then adds his little red smile and white tooth, etc. Midway, through it shows a star and says it's time for bed so then the pieces of the face disappear again and ends with stars and a moon shining on the last page. I loved how I could also work on colors with Gianna when I read this one.

8. This one is probably the most unique book I've read to them yet-from this past summer or ever, really- and we all love it...even daddy! This book has no words, except the title, "Chalk". The illustrations are pristine; I stare at them in awe that someone actually created them and that they are not in fact photographs. The detail is insane...like seeing stray hairs on someone's head on one of the pictures. The story is basically about 3 friends walking through a park on a rainy day and they find this bag of magic chalk hanging on the spring rider dinosaur. It's magic because whatever they draw comes to life! The first girl picks yellow and draws a sun and sure enough, the sun comes out and it stops raining! The next girl draws a butterfly and butterflies come out of the pavement and start flying around. Lastly, the boy grabs a green chalk and draws a t-rex (this is the part that Gabriel says the little boy isn't very smart) and of course, the t-rex crawls out of the pavement and the kids are absolutely terrified (the illustrations are so good that you can see the kids' artery in their necks flexing while they are screaming!). The same little boy saves the day by drawing a cloud with raindrops with some blue chalk. Then, miraculously, the dinosaur melts away and it ends with the three kids walking away with the magic chalk bag hanging where they found it. I like letting the kids tell the story with each page. I like hearing what they see on each page.

9.  This is a really sweet bedtime story about this little guy, Sam, who thinks his mommy and daddy are having wild and crazy adventures in his house while he's sleeping. He's bound and determined to find out what's really going on and he's taking his little bear, Petey, along for the ride. The kids and I all love it. I love the rhythmic rhymes and I think we all love the adorable illustrations. There's also some adult humor when he discovers that his parents are doing nothing fun at all: mom's reading a magazine and dad's doing a crossword, with the words "boring" and "bedtime" on the crossword.

10.  I picked this one out of the "new books" section and it's a really cute book about adult eating metaphors in correlation to how adorable a new baby is. Big Brother Tom thinks his family is planning on eating his new little brother (who he calls "the Blob" since he can't do "one single interesting thing") since he keeps hearing them say things like, "I could eat those cheeks," and "Look at those juicy thighs". This makes my kids giggle, and it's also a good way to explain some silly expressions adults say. I'm also impressed that she is the author AND illustrator-brownie points.

11.  Another "new baby" book I grabbed about a big brother who is tired and annoyed with his little sister, the "no-good baby who is good for nothing". He's fed up and telling his mommy all the reasons why she should leave. In doing this, he discovers a few things she is good for, like being louder than him in the library and throwing cheerios on the floor to crunch on and step on. The kids also like this one, but I can't help but wonder if it's because they feel like this about each other sometimes. The books ends with the baby going to grandma's house for a day and big brother spends the day with just mommy. A good reminder to squeeze in that quality time with each little one we have.

12.  Gianna picked this one from the baby board book section. Fascinated by it, she had me read it a few times in the library before we even made it home, and then multiple times a day for days on end after that. This book only has a word on each page (like "huntsman" when showing the huntsman). I liked how I could read the story once, pointing out random things that caught my eye, and then ask her to read it to me the next time. It's always amazing what they notice on the pages compared to what I notice.

13.  Aw, a good old classic. I also love the Berenstain books. After checking out this link, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berenstain_Bears, I learned that not only were Stan and Jan married, but they also met in 1941on their first day at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art. After being separated during WWII, they were wed in 1946. Have I mentioned that I really like older authors for some reason? They also worked with Theodor Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss. This is a quick read (sometimes those are daddy's favorites on a busy night of doing dictations), with a few words on each page. I think it's a favorite because the kids can easily guess the words as the pages go on and it's a little silly. The bear wants to trade in his old hat for a new hat except every hat has something wrong with it. Happily, he finally settles for his old hat in the end.

14.  This is one surprised me when the kids fell in love with it. This little pig (I think it's a girl?) is sledding alone, even though her mommy and daddy don't allow her to sled alone. She keeps almost crashing into other animals on the hill but escapes by using some preposition like "over", "around", "under" or "between" and then keeps on sledding until she meets the next obstacle to overcome. She ends by crashing into her mommy and daddy!

15.  Another birthday book in honor of Gianna and Benjamin's fast approaching November birthday. I just love when my babies start actually paying attention to the stories inside the books instead of trying to savagely rip and eat the pages of every book in sight. This is a board book from the baby section of the library and Benjamin especially loves this book. It is a flap book and like pop-up books, I am a HUGE fan. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree because my kids are addicted to flap books as well. I love how Benjamin has enough fine motor skills now to actually open up the flaps on each page and my kids all love singing the "Happy Birthday" song at the very end when the baby finally finds his birthday cake!

16. This one I also grabbed from the new book section. I generally like to read my kids really silly, happy, sing-songy, rhythmic, moral-of-the-tory, rhyming books. But every once and a while, I'll accidently grab a book that just about leaves me a crying hot mess in middle of story time with my kids. And this one is one of those books. I seriously just randomly grab books most of the time at the library because I'm also keeping track of my three little ones in the process. I read this one at home for the first time with them and was choking back tears the entire time. It's about the little bear's grandpa, who has Alzheimer's (though they never call it that). Sometimes, Grandpa gets lost, acts like a kid, etc. But, this little bear loves him just the way he is. I think this book made me teary-eyed because it reminded me of my sweet grandma who passed away 3 years ago this December. She fought Alzheimer's for years (at least 6 years) in the nursing home and watching her relationships with her children and us grandchildren deteriorate, evolve, and change into something new, different, and simple was an experience that is sometimes difficult to describe. I don't think people truly understand how it affects a family unless it hits your family personally. Surprisingly, I was not prepared for the emotional trigger this book hit for me, but I really did love the story. The simple illustrations captivated both my children and me and again, the author is also illustrator, which wins more admiration from me every time.  



That will probably do it for the month of October. I'll be hitting the library end of October with a backpack full of more books for us to discover! Until next month's favorites appear...happy reading!!