Traveling with Kylie

For our trip to Tennessee, we had a 2 1/2 hour drive to Orlando and then a 1 1/2 hour flight. I thought you might be interested in some of the things I got to occupy the kiddo. In this picture, Kylie is working on her Holes coloring book with her pencil box in her lap. I picked up the sliding pencil box at Michael's craft store for $1 along with a brand-new set of crayons and colored pencils. The slider box was much easier to handle than the original crayon boxes or a plastic bag.

Coloring books

Holes!: A Coloring Book (King of Play)
I don't remember which "Mom Blog" I saw this coloring book reviewed but I remember that I put it on my Amazon wish list right away. I'm so glad I got it for this trip because this coloring book is awesome. There are holes in each page that Kylie would fill in. For example, she would color some holes in a girl's sweater yet when she turned the page, she was also coloring apples in an apple tree. Polka-dot holes became spots on a snake or raindrops on a whale. I encouraged Kylie to not peek at the next page until her coloring was complete. She did so and was tickled with each page that she turned. The only downside was that she flew threw the coloring book on our flight out to TN. She was determined to finish it before we landed. But she was completely absorbed in the book so I was able to really relax and enjoy my own book.

The Dora coloring book was one we got for Christmas and hadn't used yet. I kept this coloring book along with her crayon/pencil box in a backpack for wherever we went during our trip. Kylie appreciated having lots of crayons and coloring pages to choose from while we sat in restaurants or sat around visiting with our family.

Dora's Super Silly Coloring Book

Dot to Dot Books
I bought two of these but really I only needed one. Kylie did about 5 pages flying out and the same flying back.

Dot-to-Dot Count to 20

Dot to Dot Count to 25


Sticker books
It's been a while since Kylie played with one of the reusable sticker books I made for her a while ago. But I saw these in the book store and thought they would be good for the trip. My mom must have been thinking the same thing because she got Kylie the fairy sticker book. Kylie played with the Noah's Ark one while playing at her Nana's house and the other two on our drive home. It's still easier for her if I rip out stickers from the center of the book and place them in between the pages.

Storytime Stickers: Magic Fairy Forest


Noah's Ark (Sticker Stories)

Berry Patch Tea Party: Sticker Stories (Strawberry Shortcake)

Magic pen books
These are normally around $11 but I saw these two on sale for half that at our local bookstore. She colored in half of each of these before she tired of them.

Giddy-up Dora Color Blast Activity Book


Giddy-up My Little Pony Color Blast Activity Book - 9401763

Movies
I picked up two Strawberry Shortcake movies from Target that were on sale for $5. And I ordered from Amazon the Olivia Christmas DVD and two Max & Ruby DVD's. Kylie loves Max & Ruby these days. I also got a few new episodes of Blue's Clue's, SuperWhy and Little Einsteins for my iPhone.

All this may seem excessive to you but my little one loves to be stimulated, especially when she's confined in a car or plane. And it all worked beautifully. Kylie was tickled and happy (even when tired) on our trip. And having her be whine-free was invaluable to her moms! Stay tuned for a few trip photos!

Triathlete- May 2011

Hello everyone! We've had a whirlwind few days. Kylie had her last day at her Discovery Preschool. And over Memorial weekend, we went to TN to spend a few days with our families. We took in the Knoxville Zoo, saw Kung Fu Panda 2 and have had time to visit with everyone. I'll be posting pictures of our adventures this weekend when I have time to process the photos. But I wanted to post May's Triathlete post. So here we go:

Swim
Oh my goodness! I'm actually getting stronger.

When I first started swimming with my coach, I could only swim 1 lap (25 yards) and then I would hold on to the side of the pool to catch my breath. Because of this, I would only swim about 4 laps (with rests in between) to warm up and then we would start with the drills for the day. When I started feeling stronger, I would try to swim 2 laps without stopping. But this panic would rise up in me. My belly would feel tight, my legs would feel heavy and sinking and I would feel like I couldn't breathe. A panic attack while swimming is not a pretty thing. I would get frustrated to the point of tears. But I stayed with it. I kept on swimming with fins, with a kickboard, anything to keep me moving.

This May, Gus started having me swim 5 minutes anyway I would like (freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke whatever) to get warmed up. The next week, we did 7 minutes and the week following 10 minutes. And I could actually do it! I would swim my warm-up breaststroke and I would simply touch the wall and go...no flapping up an arm to the side of the pool to catch my breath.

On 5/17 on a solo swim, I pushed myself to swim 17 laps (1/4 mile) without stopping. I did it in about 15 minutes (I didn't have a stopwatch to get the exact time). I swam it all breaststroke. I stayed calm in the water the whole time and wasn't out of breath at the end. Dang! I actually swam 1/4 mile!

And then on 5/18, I had one heck of a swim practice. I swam 8 50's (2 laps) freestyle with only 10 seconds in between. And I did it! I swam a ton of drills before and after, mostly with a swim parachute which slows me down so I can concentrate on swimming properly. It also builds endurance. By the end of practice where I swam around 1500 yards, my shoulders were shaking with fatigue. Karen helped me get iced and took a few pictures.


I'm so proud of these pictures. I actually swam my shoulders to exhaustion.

Then on 5/27, I swam my first 100 (4 laps) freestyle without stopping. I was scared but I didn't panic. I did it! I did little happy dances for the rest of the day.

So overall in May, I had 6 practices with my swim coach and 5 practices by myself.

Bike

With regards to the bike, my strength coach Joy challenged me to get at least 20 miles in a long bike ride. I managed one 21 mile ride and another 25 mile ride. The new bike seat is working out well and I no longer have pain when I'm riding. I'm still gaining confidence and trying to figure out how to gain speed. I still average around 12mph on my rides. Let me tell you, running legs aren't the same as biking legs. I feel on the bike the way I did when I first started running and could only manage a 12 minute mile. My mantra is "It just takes time Wendy. It just takes time."

One treat this month was when Karen and I took a bike ride together. Karen is fantastic on her bike; she zooms around like a kid and looks at least 20 years younger when she's flying around. It was great to ride with her and not feel like a complete idiot. It was awesome to do this healthy fun thing together with her.

So here is the breakout of my bike rides:
12.5 miles in 1 hour 7 minutes
10.36 miles in 51 minutes.
15.63 miles in 1 hour 17 minutes
10.36 miles in 51 minutes
25 miles in 2 hours 5 minutes
21 miles in 1 hour 40 minutes
10.5 miles in 53 minutes.

And here is a picture of me on my bike going by our house. Just ignore my locked elbows; I don't really lock them that bad when I'm not grinning for the camera.


Run

Karen changed her schedule so that she could take Kylie to school one day a week. This allows me to wake up at 5:30 and get in my long run before it gets too hot. There is nothing like watching the sun come up over the ocean and fill the sky with it's pink glory to get you happy for the day. I'm really pleased with my progress on my long runs.

I got the Runner's World Smart Coach app for my iPhone. I like that it suggests interval runs for me. I don't really want to plan out those intervals so I like that it does the thinking for me.

Here are the runs for the month:

Intervals:
1/2mile at 8mph then 1/2 mile at 9mph for three times. Total 4 miles in 35 minutes. 8:75 pace.
1 mile at 8mph then 1/2 mile at 9mph for three miles. Total 5 miles in 43 minutes. 8:60 pace.

Tempo runs:
4.5 miles in 40:46. 9:04 pace.
3.5 miles in 30:30. 8:65 pace.
4.5 miles in 40:50. 9:00 pace.
5.0 miles in 42:46. 8:49 pace.

Easy Runs:
After 21 miles on bike: 3 miles in 28 minutes.
In TN, ran 7.5 miles in a really humid 85 degree temperature in 1:14.

Long Run
14 miles in 2:16. 9:43 pace
15 miles in 2:27. 9:80 pace
15 miles in 2:27. 9:80 pace
16 miles in 2:42. 10:12 pace

Strength and Weight

I did three strength training sessions by myself and 3 with my coach Joy. I feel so much stronger than I did 6 months ago when I started with Joy. She is an awesome resource for triathlete training and manages to kick my but and make me sore for days.

I maintained my weight at 116 all month. I want to post another blog entry about food for the month. Let me get my thoughts together and I'll share that with you later.

I want to end this post with a huge thank you to Karen. Thank you for listening to all this crazy triathlete talk. Thank you for making changes in your schedule to support my training. Thank you for always supporting me so perfectly. You are awesome and I love you more than I can say.

So that's it for another month! Thanks for reading! And if you've made it this far, please leave me a comment. Comments mean the world to me.

April 2011 summary
March 2011 summary
February 2011 summary
January 2011 summary
December 2010 summary


Goal: Triathlon in 2012- initial post from December 2010
One Little Word: Triathlete post

Happy Day

It's a happy day when your preschooler decides she can buckle her seatbelt by herself. She did it several times today and is giving me two thumbs up in this picture. Hooray!



Here's a little lullaby video.

{this moment} 05/20/11

{this moment} - a Friday ritual. Some photos capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.











This moment posts are inspired by SouleMama's Friday posts

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Wordless Wednesday 5/18 More Dinosaurs

Water-spraying dinosaurs


Riding on the merry-go-round without one of us standing beside her. My little girl growing up!

Saturday things

Momma Karen reached over with her iPhone and nabbed this shot of Kylie and I relaxing on Saturday afternoon. She's playing with my iPhone and I'm playing with her Find It toy. We still haven't found the marble, the pony bead, the candy cane or the elusive penny. We keep this toy by our living room table and hardly a day goes by where one of us doesn't shake and turn it in an attempt to find these last few items.

Other things:

I'm tickled... to be knitting again using my favorite afghan pattern and my favorite cotton yarn.

I'm inspired ...by the Unstoppable Tour.

I'm enjoying reading riddles from this book as part of our nighttime routine. Kylie loves riddles. Each riddle has its own page. Some of the riddles go over her head but she laughs at most of them and is trying to memorize a few. We have several of these Helmer riddle books.


And am also enjoying books from this author.

Lastly, I wish I had more time to visit your blogs and to comment. Time has seemed very precious and hard to come by lately. Just know that I'm thinking of all you dear readers and sending you my best wishes.

Funny Animal Stories

Lately, Kylie has wanted to hear animal stories, particularly funny animal stories.

It's wonderful because I've been able to reflect on all of my pets (and I've been fortunate enough to have a LOT of pets). Kylie's favorite story is how my cat, Pumpkin, used to sneak lizards into the house. He would hide them and offer them as toys to his cat-mate Crystal.

I've told dog, cat, fish and hamster stories. And that's led to mouse, skunk, raccoon and snake stories (fortunately these last ones all happened while camping as a kid).

And now Kylie wants to hear camping stories too. Sometimes her demand for stories feels like her demand to be entertained and I want to resist because I'm tired or whatnot. But for the most part, it's pretty cool.