Baby hug attacks and whiny ankles

We survived a round trip to NC with a crazy 17 month old kid and lived to talk about it! It was touch and go at points, but we managed to get there in one piece. I can credit three things that allowed us to make the trip in relative peace:

• The Wiggles. We had a stack of kid DVDs, but this is the only one that Faith liked. We tried others, but she just whined the whole time, but when the Wiggles were on, she just sat in slack jawed awe. Luckily for us, the Wiggles aren't that bad on the annoying scale. Since I was in the front seat and have never seen what any of the "Wiggles" look like, I amused myself by listening to their Australian accents and imaging that they all looked like this:

This would explain why the kid was so transfixed.

• Sea Bands. I get really bad motion sickness. It's at the point where even watching jumpy footage on TV makes me feel queasy. I'd never tried Sea Bands before (honestly, I thought it was hokum) but it really worked. When we drive with the kid, I end up having to turn around a lot to hand her stuff or calm her down and end up feeling really sick. Wearing these things resulted in me feeling great the whole drive.

The placebo effect is awesome

• Halloween candy. I weighed the cost/benefit of giving the kid sugar when she was stuck in a seat all day, but it worked out pretty well. Twizzlers were a big hit.

We had a really good time in North Carolina and Faith got to hang out with her uncle for the first time in almost a year (he's been in Afghanistan). He is only home for 2 weeks before he has to go back and finish his deployment, so I gave him a pass on changing diapers, but I still put him in charge of endlessly reading "Goodnight Moon" to Faith:

I don't remember the three little bears cursing so much before...

My in-laws were also there for the weekend, so Faith enjoyed some quality time with her Grandma and Grandpa:

Grandmas wear the best jewelry 

One of Faith's favorite things lately is giving hugs, especially if the recipient isn't expecting it:

Are you ready for this?

Hug attack!!

We went out to eat a lot this weekend and Faith was a champ about waiting for her food (for the most part). Also, she actually tried to color with crayons for the first time. She was really just dotting the paper and occasionally scribbling, but I still thought it was the cutest thing ever:

Mommy, why did you draw fangs on that sun?

I am an ARTIST

My brother-in-law and his wife were dog sitting this scared little beagle while we were there, and Faith was convinced that he just needed a baby hug to feel better. He actually did seem a little less scared after some (highly supervised) toddler loving:

Peanut likes it when I hold her nose shut, I promise

Baby hug attack!!

A fun development over the weekend is that Faith is definitely saying "Dog!" when she sees a dog and then she says "Woof!". She has said it before, but I thought it was a fluke. I have a high standard for accepting new words, as I expect consistency and repetition. :)

On the running front, I had a rough weekend. I headed out for a 14 mile run on Saturday morning and I think the combination of the tilt on the road and the hard hills resulted in significant ankle pain. It's hard to describe, it's almost like a muscle cramp that starts on the inside of my ankle and extends up to my calf. It was getting worse as I was going, so I decided cutting the run short was a smarter move than trying to push through and for the first time I had to call my husband to come get me on a run. I only ran 8 of my 14 miles and then I also skipped my run the next day so I could rest my ankle/calf/whatever.

On Monday, my ankle felt better, so I drove to a park with a 2 mile trail loop around a reservoir. It was perfect because I could stop whenever I needed and the soft footing and lack of road tilt allowed me to run relatively pain free. I did 9 miles there and didn't even get bored, mostly because I went down some random side trail and had a fun little "Oh crap, where am I?" adventure. 

Our drive home yesterday was a little rougher than our drive last week (the novelty of the DVD player was gone). After 7 long hours dealing with this:

I am NOT happy with this confinement seat

I needed a run! I only went for 6 miles, but it felt really good and I'm feeling pretty confident that my ankle pain is some kind of muscle strain that happened during the MCM. It responds to ice and Advil, but I've been avoiding taking Advil because if I can't feel the pain telling me when to stop, I'll probably keep going further than I should. 

It's 10 days until the JFK 50 and 2 days until we take Faith on her first plane trip! I don't know which I'm more nervous about. :)

Have you ever had to call someone to get you on a run?

Anyone have any tips on giving a kick ass maid of honor speech (or tips on what NOT to do)?