Oliver turned 1 a month ago!!!!

My little boy turned 1 on September 24th. It must be painfully obvious that he's the third child because Kelly forget to get the day off from work and we didn't buy him a single thing. (Dear Oliver, I want you to know that your father and I love you very much! Just as much as the other two. Sometimes even more! So don't take offense to a less than exciting first birthday party) By the time dinner rolled around and Kelly had come home from work, the poor birthday boy was exhausted. We quickly fed him dinner and hurried up with the birthday cake. I went all out and bought an over-sized piece of vanilla cake from Vons, stuck a candle in it and we sang a hearty rendition of happy birthday...

After an unsuccessful attempt at getting Oliver to eat birthday cake, I let him squish it up and dump it over the side of his high chair. He got a quick bath and then off to la la land.

Some things about Oliver:

-He took his first step a week before his birthday and everyday after has walked more and more.

-He loves to just wander around the house and play and get into everything. He's happy to entertain himself and I love that.

-He won't drink milk.

-He's a tiny little thing and remains in the 5th percentile. It's so funny to see such a little thing walking and sometimes he looks like a little garden gnome. Kelly accidentally called him a troll once, though. He meant gnome.

-He doesn't do lots of tricks. He really is just a sweet little boy and definitely the most complacent out of my three. Although now he doesn't like to be confined in a carseat or stroller since he's mobile, but that's to be expected, I guess.

-He's got a pretty good scream on him when he's mad.

-He doesn't like to wrestle or be tossed in the air. You can see the panic in his eyes if you start to get a too rough.

-We all just love him and have so much fun making him laugh and watching him grow.

Ragnar Relay 2010 (my version)

I tried to ignore it as best I could, but it was inevitable that Ragnar was coming and I was going to have to do it. And I did want to do it, I just didn't want to too. Follow me here? Anyway, the week leading up to the race I had some serious nerves and had nausea and couldn't eat (except for chocolate which was weird and yet also totally made sense). Finally it was Friday and my nerves had gotten so bad that I felt light-headed and on the verge of passing out a few times. Once we all met up and started decorating the van I felt a little better. Just glad to be starting it at least.

Our team name was Return of the Rookies and we were one team of 12 girls, or shall I say women, but in 2 different vans. The first van started the race at 8:45 am on Friday and van 2 took over by Lake Mead around 2 p.m. I think. I ran my first leg around 4:45 and forgot to put on my headlamp and rear light and just remembered it about a minute before we saw Lindsay coming towards the shoot. I was annoyed at myself but it didn't take long to get the gear on and get going. While I was standing there waiting for Julie to get the lights, the official was telling me how silly I was to forget them and another runner was being a jerk as well. So, when I finally started running I was hyperventilating and it took a while to catch my breath. It ended up being a pretty good run and a little shorter than expected (which is always good). My first leg was about 3 miles.


Here are some of the girls sporting our socks (Kelly, Emily, Julie and Lindsay)

I ran my second leg around 1 a.m. Saturday morning and it ended up being a little longer than expected (booo!!!) at 4.3 miles all up a gradual incline running against the wind. My final leg was 5.3 miles, uphill, around 1 in the afternoon. I wanted to cry the whole way...and walk. But I did neither so I guess that means I'm super tough. (not really)

Even though I whined the whole time I really really loved it! I'm so proud of how hard everyone worked and it was great to be on a team where everyone did their best. Our team ended up coming in 3rd place overall (women's teams) and 2nd in our submasters (age division). It was a great experience and I hope to do it again. And I'll try not to complain quite as much.