Learning to Let Go

I don't consider myself to be overly sentimental about things. I don't find myself saying "If only Faith could stay small forever!" and in general, I've enjoyed every age so far. I will admit it's been hard for me to send her to "school", even though it's only one day a week. For the first two times, I wasn't able to relax at all at home and basically watched the clock until pick up time, all while waiting to get any potential phone calls from the school.

For the first time today, I came home from dropping her off at school (which involved so much crying!) and felt like this:

It helps that even though she screams when I leave her, when I pause outside her room to sign the clipboard, I can hear her already stop crying. I know this whole experience is important for her development, more so than other kids because she is so naturally shy, so that's alleviated much of my guilt about forcing her to go.

It's still really strange to be in the house by myself, well not counting the dog. I never realized how much noise a 32lb person can make until she's not home!

Let's drop off the kid and have a Kibble and Bits party!

I decided to try running today, so I did 5 miles on the treadmill and then woke up the dog and took her for a mile outside. Normally the dog is gung-ho about running, but today she acted like I was bothering her by forcing her to go outside on a beautiful fall day, so we mostly walked. I guess her enthusiasm is more about the stroller full of snacks than my company.

The run felt really good rib pain-wise, but holy crap I'm felt super pregnant for this run. I keep thinking I have so much time left, but I guess I am getting pretty close (5 weeks to go!). I often daydream about effortlessly flitting down the road next spring, so that helps me be get through the slogging feeling of my current runs. Let's not kill my dreams by pointing out that even non-pregnant runners can feel heavy and slow some days...in my mind, you are all floating on fluffy pink clouds of lightness and endorphins.

When I went to go pick up Faith from school, she was the only kid still asleep and one of her caregivers was trying in vain to wake her up. I had to laugh because it's good to know it's not just me who has a hard time with that. If she's this hard to wake up as a toddler, I can't imagine how she'll be as a teenager.

True on so many levels

She normally naps for 2+ hours at home, but she only naps for 45 minutes at school and this equals one crazy overtired toddler for the rest of the day. I was literally playing fetch with her using dog toys this afternoon and she was laughing so hard that she almost fell over. In my defense, the fetch game was her idea, not mine. Parenting gold star for me!

She was still crazy after we picked up my husband from work (his stupid truck is STILL in the shop), but that's just amusing for me. This is basically what goes down, except imagine the guy in the football uniform cracking up hysterically at the dude yelling and then repeatedly doing the very thing that inspired the yelling in the first place.

Toddler parenting is not a task for the humorless. Nothing makes Faith laugh harder than the word "No" or "Don't touch that!" or the best is "Get down from there!". That's toddler comedy GOLD and worthy of endless repeating. She loves to climb on forbidden things all while yelling "GET DOWN! GET DOWN!" and laughing to herself.

At least school days with their short naps equals an early bed time. It's so easy to put her to bed early since she can't read a clock.


How do you mentally get through hard run days? Are you like me with daydreams of effortless running?