The really fun part of our day at the children’s museum was the paint wall! Here’s our budding artist at work.
Finally, we’ve had a couple Saturdays where we didn’t have plans! It was nice after having a crazy busy October. Last weekend we took in a high school playoff football game (for which Allie barely last the first half, now we know!) and this weekend we hit the Madison Children’s Museum! We’ve been members since April, but this was only our third time going!
Allie was really into it this time! We went in and just let her go explore. First we went to the water room.
Then this hut that had all kinds of hut toys (I don’t really know what else to call it).
Next was the hut that had all the drums and other musical instruments. There was a constant banging from the big drum behind Allie, kids were always banging that drum! Allie didn’t get a chance to bang on it, but she seemed to like the smaller ones better.
Next we found a table with some magnetic blocks. We had fun building with those, but Allie seemed to like the tree stump stools better.
In a corner was a learning spot with cabinets to open to see samples of the leaves and bark of trees that are found in this area.
And there was also a telescope!
And that was just on the first floor! In the photo below, theres all these wooden tracks that are stuck to the wall by magnets. You can arrange the tracks and them watch the wooden ball roll down. Allie really liked this activity.
Next we went upstairs, where Allie took quite an interest in all these pictures on the railing. One of the pictures turned. I’m not sure it was supposed to, but Allie really enjoyed turning it around and around.
Upstairs is the art studio, which we’d never really looked at before. Allie had fun doing a little coloring here. The girl working there traced Allie’s hand to make a turkey. She thought that was really cool.
There are some other fun photos from the art studio that warrant their own special post to be forthcoming.
We had so much fun at the children’s museum! But we had to get home for Allie to take her nap. But first we had to quickly head to the third floor, which is actually the roof. Here’s the puppy by the elevator that Allie really liked.
There’s a clubhouse and garden up there, including a chicken coop! Allie was excited to see the chickens, but they were hiding. We didn’t stay on the roof too long and I didn’t end up taking any pictures!
But here’s the dinosaur bench Allie sat on while waiting for the elevator to go back down!
This was such a fun day. There are so many other activities there that we didn’t get to. We really could have stayed a lot longer but we were all tired. Allie fell asleep in the car on the way home. We took Allie home and put her right to bed. We plan on spending a lot of time at the children’s museum this winter!
Talk about the perfect storm, body-wise. I sprain my ankle and can’t work out. I’d been going up and down in weigh-ins, but a bit more up. Then in the span of a week, I rip out two pairs of jeans!
I was surprisingly level-headed about the whole thing. The jeans were old. Almost all my jeans are at least four years old since I bought them the last time I was losing weight. And both pairs that ripped out last week were older than that, one was WAY older. Both had been mended multiple times. So I didn’t get upset.
I wasn’t working out, but I also toned down my diet a bit too. It was like my appetite was shrinking since I wasn’t working out, made sense. I started working out again this week and for the most part I’m keeping my eating in check. And the good news is… my weight is back down in my usual range! My usual right now seems to be between 174 and 176.
So here’s where I got the encouragement. I went yesterday to Goodwill to buy some jeans to replace the worn out ones. I’ve been thinking maybe I could fit into a size 10 now. I was nervous and going back and forth on whether or not I should try some. So I decided to do it, and a couple of them fit! Wow! I didn’t end up buying any though because I had a couple 12s that I liked better. And I had a little too much muffin top in the 10s. I have some muffin top in any jeans I wear, but a bit too much in the 10s. I wouldn’t be comfortable wearing these yet and there’s no reason to spend the money if I’m not going to wear them!
But thats definitely encouragement when I need it! Going into the holidays, the goal of really fitting into size 10 will help me keep my diet on track. Already in the last few days Doug and I have been tempted to go out to eat or to buy get some Ben & Jerry’s. We’ve eaten at home and we bought the healthier version of ice cream. When I went to Starbucks the other day, I got a skinny drink. I don’t need to use the holidays as my excuse to eat everything in sight. I want to fit into those 10s!
In other news, I went to the chiropractor yesterday and had some electrical stimulation therapy on my ankle. Today my ankle feels like its improved after being pretty much the same for a few days! It still hurts, but any improvement is encouraging to me! I did make an appointment for physical therapy, but its not for a week and a half. I’m on the cancellation list and hoping to get in sooner. But I’m also going to the chiropractor twice next week for therapy too. Here’s hoping I’m getting a bit closer to running again! I have the Berbee Derby to run, or at least walk on Thanksgiving Day.
When Allie really likes something, that new recipe becomes part of our treasury of keeper recipes.
And the tomato and basil noodles I made last week are definitely included in that treasury!
I was so excited to finally get to the gym yesterday! But too busy to write about it until today. I guess there’s not really that much to write about. I used the elliptical for a half hour and it was kinda hard. I took 8 days off from working out. The last time I took that much time off was after giving birth.
The last time I sprained my ankle in August 2010, I took 7 days off and started running again on day 8. Unfortunately I won’t be running anytime real soon. As I write this, my ankle is sore just sitting here and the swelling still isn’t completely gone. I have a spot on the inside of my ankle near my achilles that hurts and hasn’t improved much since the initial injury. I’ve been contemplating going back to body pump, maybe even tonight. But considering how my ankle has ached today, I think that needs to wait until the weekend at least. This is so frustrating.
Last Thursday Allie had her 2-year check up. She’s a growing girl and she’s perfect!
The stats…
Weight: 29.4 pounds, which is in the 82nd percentile
Height: 34 inches tall, 56th percentile
Head circumfrance: 49.5 cm, 93rd percentile
So as the last few stat reports have shown, she’s still short like her Mama, at least compared to her weight. And she still has a big head… to house her big beautiful brain! Compared to the percentiles she’s got a big head, but it looks pretty darn perfect to us.
She passed all of the development screenings and physical exams with flying colors. The only slight concern continues to be talking, though like the last few appointments, in the week since we talked to the doctor about what she should be doing, she’s doing it! I didn’t know until last week that its important for the child to start identifying “me” or “mine,” I guess to start perceiving herself. Well, we started talking to her to get her to say those words and now she says them a lot! We ask “who wants milk?” or “who wants to go to work?” and she yells “meeeee.”
The other talking goal is to have her saying two- and three-word phrases. Since we started working on that, she repeats phrases when we say them, and she does say a few on her own too. She’s a smart kid and learning more every day.
Allie seemed to like the flashcards, but considering how she likes to tear and destroy paper, we may wait awhile before we start trying those. Yes, the bag that Monk is sniffing is how we gave them to her. Mama never found time to wrap.
The highlight was her Leapfrog laptop. Tied for a close second was her coloring book and her new baby.
She was quite intrigued as Dada went worked on getting it out of the package. Once Dada had it opened, she carried it around as long as she could.
And she played on her computer the way Dada plays on his. It was precious.
I spent two hours Friday night in the immediate care clinic to find out my ankle is indeed just sprained. I knew it wasn’t broken, I wouldn’t have been able to walk around all week if it was broken. I was mad I wasted the time, but it wasn’t a total waste because I got a snazzy new ankle brace out of it. Its a nice lace-up one that I don’t think you can buy in stores. This is good because despite the fact that I sprain my ankles regularly, I couldn’t find the last ankle brace I bought. You’d think I’d keep my ankle braces around.
I was kind of mad though that the doctor didn’t even examine me. He just read the xray and came in and told me its not broken. No examination to determine the severity of the injury… though I guess that doesn’t really matter. It wouldn’t change my recovery I suppose.
Oh, and I’m referred to physical therapy. A referral isn’t even needed for PT anymore, I should have called for an appointment this week and saved the time. At least this will be an opportunity to seek therapy for my other ankle thats been hurting for a couple months now with no apparent injury.
I went to the doctor Friday because my foot/ankle were still really swollen. I think it would have gone down faster if I hadn’t been working all week, I just couldn’t put my foot up much. I had also stopped wearing the air cast. I think the compression of my new brace has been key to restoring my foot back to its normal size.
It hurts a bit more in some places, but I feel like overall my ankle is regaining strength and flexibility. I’m doing some stretching exercises, pointing and flexing, tracing the ABCs. I had hoped to do some kind of cardio workout this weekend, but I’m going to wait another day or two. Its been a week since I worked out last. I’m frustrated, sad and just ticked off.
The Girls on the Run 5K next weekend is out. Luckily I hadn’t registered for it yet. I’m not sure about the Berbee Derby. I think I will run but maybe I’ll drop to the 5K. That will depend on when I can start running again. I would be ever so happy if I could run before the end of this week.
The wounds on my hands are healing nicely too. So I could do cross training that uses the hands! Its been so annoying this week trying to do things one-handed, just because I took off a layer of skin when I fell. I’m happy though that it looks like it’s not going to scab. Its WAY less painful than it was two days ago.
So thats where I am now. I’m trying not to whine.
She looked so cute, but she didn’t like the hat. She doesn’t like any hats. These pictures are the only good ones I could get with her hat on.
We decided she looked like a little court jester with the black dress with the pink collar. A cute court jester!
Ask Allie how old she is and she answers “tooooo.” Its really cute how she says it.
She was excited to party last Sunday and so were we! We had a small party at Grandma and Grandpa Swanson’s house. It worked out well since everyone but us lives down there anyway. Grandpa grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and we made the rest of the food. I wanted to find something that was a bit more creative than just your normal pasta salad. This is what I came up with:
Snack-o-lanterns! It wasn’t my idea. I found it on a blog. You just scoop the orange out of the rind and then carve them and they’re little fruit cups. It really wasn’t too hard to do. It took me about an hour and a half to prepare them. They didn’t go over super well at the party, I think its better suited for parties with more kids.
We just had lunch and then presents and cake. It took Allie a few minutes, but she did catch onto the fun of opening presents. She really enjoyed it since one of her favorite things to do is tear paper!
Allie really liked her cake. It was on the seat next to her when we drove down to Rockton, and she kept yelling for us to give her Elmo. The Elmo and Big Bird are actual toy cars that Allie got to keep.
I think it surprised Allie at first to have everyone in the room singing to her. But she enjoyed it. And then she blew out her candle. She blew it out all by herself.
Life as we know it 