It's Springtime!

To say the weather this spring has been good so far is an understatement. I keep forgetting it's only May and keep thinking I'm behind in the gardening. The fact is, for the past couple of weeks we've been getting the garden ready for the summer. I don't have the greenest of thumbs. I do my best in the garden, trying to keep all the weeds out of the beds and the garden looking tidy.

Charlotte LOVES all things flowers. The house now has plants again (and I can actually say they are still alive), we've planted seeds for the flowers for her flower bed (they are coming along very well), and she cries when she sees me pulling out the dandelions. No, I'm not kidding. At the moment her flower bed has one pansy, an easter lily that is finished for the year and pulled dried up dandelions. I'll remove them when she's not watching.

Last week we repotted the seedlings. Charlotte got ready to go outside, put on her gardening gloves and helped me put the soil in the pots. She then watered the plants she has so far (said pansy and easter lily). She loves her flower bed. We need to fix the actual box, but she doesn't seem to mind. She just wants flowers. Which we'll get. Once we know the frosts are over with. After all, it's springtime in NL.

Harrison was more interested in his hat

Miss Charlotte potting the seedlings. She chose her outfit.

Watering the lily

Motivation - the heat is on!

Back in January I wrote about starting a new regime of eating, exercising and feeling better. Well, almost 6 months later, I can say I'm doing a lot better than I was then but I've gotten off my schedule a little.

Over the past 5 months or so I've started to eat smaller meals and more slowly. I went off the diet a couple of times but usually got back on it pretty quickly. I always started to feel crappy after awhile so it gave me the incentive to get back on that eating-well train. I also started running. Last year, my friend Sarah who is an avid runner and I pinky swore that we'd run a 1/2 marathon together (well, run the same race) this year. As I'm not one to break a pinky swear, we're running a 1/2 in September. As part of my training, I'm also running the Tely 10. It being the winter, I ran on the treadmill downstairs, but I kept up with the schedule and got better at running longer distances. While I haven't lost oodles of weight, I have lost some and trimmed off a couple of inches. I feel a lot better, have more energy and while I still don't really enjoy the running, I have run a couple of longer distance runs (13km being the longest so far) outside.

Up until about a month ago, the running was going well. I finished said 13kms run knowing that the next one would be 15km. I was going to be in Toronto the following weekend so I knew it would be a couple of weeks before I got that run in, but that wouldn't be a problem. Well, a couple of days later I came down with a cold and by the time I got back from TO I had a full blown cold complete with sinus and chest infection. Needless to say, running was the last thing on my mind.

While I usually enjoy the running once I'm doing it (sort of), I don't consider myself a natural runner. In all honesty, if I could get away without doing any exercise, I would. I don't live to exercise like some. Instead, I have to make myself. Last week was the first week that I felt any bit ready to run again. The headaches had finally subsided and I hit the road for the first time in over a month. While it was a little painful, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. But, me being me and being rather busy at the moment, it was the only time I ran last week. This week though, that's going to change.

Yesterday, a couple of friends of mine ran the Bluenose 1/2 marathon in Halifax. One of the lovely ladies, Sarah has been running for a long time and loves to run.  As I mentioned above, we're running a 1/2 marathon in September and while we won't be running the same pace, as Sarah's a lot faster than I, I'm determined to run a good one. That brings me to my next friend who ran the 1/2 yesterday. Like me, Colleen ran a marathon about 10 years ago and while she ran over the years following, she decided 5 months ago, to train for the 1/2 marathon. We've run a couple of runs together over the past couple of months (along with Jennifer who is running a marathon this weekend) and I have to say, they helped me get through those longer runs as we encouraged each other when we wanted to stop (or at least I did...stop that is). Colleen ran a great race yesterday, beating her personal goal by 7 minutes.

To say Colleen has inspired me is an understatement. Seeing someone who has admitted to not enjoying running (much like myself) run such a great race has been the motivation I've needed to get back into the training for the Tely 10 and my own 1/2 in September. Starting tomorrow, I'll use this week to get back into running and I'll be back on my schedule this weekend. Colleen plans on running the Tely 10 this year as well and I hope, once she's had time time enjoying her high from running such a fantastic run, she'll join me on the tarmac so we can encourage each other to the next race. Knowing how well she ran the marathon gives me the motivation I need to train so that we can run together in the Tely 10 if at all possible. No, let me rephrase that. I will run with Colleen in the Tely 10. If she lets me. ;-)

So, I say it here. I'm upping my game for the next part of my training schedule. The Tely 10 is in 9 weeks (well, 8 weeks 6 days) and I just registered for it. I'm going to follow the training schedule they have posted on their website and on July 22, 2012, watch out. The heat is on.

8 weeks, 6 days and counting!

These puppies have a number of kms behind them. Me thinks it'll soon be time for another pair.

Harrison is Nine Months Old Today!

Harrison is nine months old. Three months to the big 1. Time isn't slowing down and neither is the little man.

It's been a very busy month for little Harrison. He's constantly on the move, crawling, climbing and really wanting to walk. Everything Harrison sees he tries to climb. It doesn't really matter if it's low or high, he makes his way over it. If it's in his way, he doesn't go around it, he goes over it. One of his favourite things to do... crawl under chairs. The dining room chairs (complete with rungs), Charlotte's little chair. Doesn't matter. Under he goes. He's so different from Charlotte in that respect. I guess it's a boy thing.

Harrison is such a happy little boy. He rarely cries. He's always smiling. Especially at his sister. If he is a little tired and cranky, all Charlotte has to do is talk to him and he smiles. When he's tired and put in his car seat, she comes over and well, all is right with the world. And with Harrison. They get along great. He's fascinated with her and all she does. It's wonderful to see.

So far, Harrison has two teeth. The bottom middle ones. They gave him a hard time coming out - fever, runny nose, sleepless nights, but they are so cute. Just like him.

Harrison is a good little eater. He eats everything we give him. He prefers to feed himself and usually gets most of it in his mouth. And keeps it in there. Usually.

He's a great little sleeper, sleeping 12 hours at night and still two naps. He started pulling himself up in his crib two weeks ago and I worried that he would start standing in his crib and not sleeping. Not the case though. He settles down quickly and then, once he's awake, he pulls himself up and calls out to us. Then, we're greeted with the biggest of smiles. It's such a great thing. It melts my heart each time.

Today was Mother's Day and it was a wonderful one. I told Charlotte today that this was the best one yet. It was because both she and Harrison are in our lives and our family is complete.

Love you babes!

No Mommy, let me show you

Boy, do I hear that a lot. I pride myself on being an independent person. I've never been a fragile wallflower. I'll get my hands dirty as the next person in order to get things done. If there's something I don't know, it's usually, I'll admit, so I don't have to know. While I'm all for women's equality, it's sometimes nice not to know something so the man in the house can look after it instead. That's one reason why I don't know how to use the snowblower. Know how to use it, there's no excuse not to.  I'm pretty good with electronics. Again, while I don't run to find out how to change the TV over to the playstation, I do know how to do it.

Well, on the weekend, I was shown, by my three year old, how to use the ipad. In my defence, I only had it in my hand for a second and hadn't really had the chance to look to see what had to be done before it was taken from my hands and the words "no Mommy. let me show you" were spoken. As she clicked and swiped her fingers on the screen, she opened up the app she needed to get her game to work. I just sat there, speechless, as well, there wasn't much to say. I had just been put in my place (not for the first or last time) by my three year old daughter.  She knew exactly what to do and proceeded to show me what apps she uses, how to search for new apps, how to open up itunes and play her music and well, do just as much on it as I can do.

The scary part is that this is only the beginning. When I look back on what has happened in the past 20 years with computers and technology, I can't even imagine on what the next 20+ years brings. I like to think I'll remain relatively in the know, but if I'm honest with myself, I'll be calling Charlotte and Harrison in 20 years time asking them for help.

As for now, I'll accept Charlotte's help. I love Charlotte's independence and always will. She's like me in that respect. She does everything herself (most of the time) and it's what makes her the wonderful little girl that she is. Yes, it's sometimes hard not to stop her from doing some of the things she does, but I keep telling myself that it's her way of figuring things out. Like her need to either be constantly changing her clothes or being clothes free (except for panties). Maybe she's either planning on opening a nudist colony or being a fashion guru. Whatever she does (preferably the latter), the important thing is that she's happy.

Charlotte in her usual ensemble, playing on the ipod

Just hanging around

I've been a little quiet on the blog front lately. It's a combination of not really having a lot to say and working on my project that I hope to be able to tell you all about in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, while I've been quiet here, there's been no quiet time in the Wellsman household.

Harrison has taken to crawling like a baby takes to milk. Crawling, pulling himself up on everything he can get his hands on and just wanting to walk. He's ahead of Charlotte in doing this but we suspect she's the reason he's crawling as he wants to be able to chase her.

All...

most...

there

Climbing the stairs....yup. Climbing the stairs.

Charlotte is great. She's now riding her bike outside after a scare she had last month when she fell off her bike. It's taken all this time for her to build up her confidence to get on the bike and ride it outside (she's been riding it inside no problem). Well, today, with Daddy by her side (it was Mommy who was with her when she fell), she went zooming around the park. She was very proud of herself. Yay!

There's no place like home

I attended a course this past weekend in Toronto. I'll have more on that in the coming weeks.

I left early Friday morning and met my sister who lives in ON at the airport and from there we spent the rest of the day running a couple of errands and enjoying each others company. The course ran over three days but left the evenings to explore Toronto with my sister. We walked the main strips of downtown TO many a time, had some great food, and laughed so hard we cried.

While I had a fantastic time, my thoughts often went to Andrew and the kids at home. When we told Charlotte last week I was going, we made it as positive a thing as we could and even let her pick out a dress online that I would get her while away. While she kept saying she didn't want me to leave, we hoped that the promise of a new dress would help keep her from acting out too much while I was away. It worked pretty well.

I had my computer with me and we spoke each night on skype. Charlotte and Andrew would relay their day's activities to me and I would tell them mine. It was always hard to say goodbye though as Charlotte kept saying she missed me and wanted me to come home.

While I enjoy being away from the kids sometimes, I do miss them terribly. I found that the three days away was fantastic in so many ways but it made me also realize how much I love my family and how much I appreciate my husband and the kids.

It was so wonderful seeing them this morning when they woke. While I was super tired after only a couple of hours sleep, it didn't matter.

Getting a hug and a kiss and being told how much you're missed....it's the best thing in the world.

Telling me all about their day.

Having to say good bye was hard