Sunday, April 4, 2010

Easter Fun

We had a fun and full day today! After not sleeping very well last night, Sam was up at 6:15, so after feeding her and playing for a while, I dragged Ryan downstairs to witness Sam's super exciting first taste of real food around 7:15. Well, I was excited, anyway!

After lots of research, I decided to skip the typical rice cereal that most people do as a first food, and go with avacado instead. It's a bit of an alternative track that we'll be following initially food-wise, but to me it makes sense. Rice cereal is constipating and bland. And Sam, as a breastfed baby, has been getting different 'tastes' of food through my milk, so why should she start with something bland? And why constipate a baby? Avacado is thought to be a great first food by many, as it is low on the allergen scale, is nutritious and doesn't need to be cooked. So, without further ado, we put her in the highchair and she got her first taste of real food!

Yum, avacado!

I don't know, do I like this?!

More, more!

I am not sure she really knew what was going on. She didn't spit it up or out, and actually ended up taking in a few good spoonfuls, but as Ryan said, her reaction was more 'curious indifference' than anything else. They say it can take up to 20 tries for a baby to decide whether or not they like a food, so we'll keep trying and see what happens! Plus, at this point, it's not really about getting them to eat a meal, but getting them used to eating with a spoon, etc. All told, the first solid food feeding was over in about 5 minutes, as she probably didn't eat more than a teaspoon or so, and then it was back to our regularly scheduled program... :-)

After putting Sam down for her morning map, I headed out for my morning excitement - to finally run my 16 mile run! It was a gorgeous morning, and I went out clad in shorts, a t-shirt and my pink Moeben sleeves. My plan was to run the powerlines, then head through the Mt. Ararat trails to Highland Green, where I would run the 9-hole golf course before heading into the Cathance River trail system. The birds were chirping as I ran along the powerlines, but otherwise, it was quiet. I was feeling a bit stiff and tired, and hoped that I would loosen up and get into the groove of things as I continued on. Otherwise, it was going to be a long 16 miles (or three hours, whichever came first).

I took my first Gu as I was coming back to the Mt. Ararat trail system, and that perked me up. So did the next stretch of my run - running the 9-hole Highland Green golf course. The wide, nicely graded, rolling gravel cart paths made for some really good running. I was feeling strong and was keeping up a good, but sensible, pace. As I wound back to the clubhouse, the Garmin was reading right around 9 miles. From here, I headed onto the Cathance River trails to run the loop that I ran when I was out a few weeks ago for my 10 mile run. This time around, there was no snow and the river was running even higher than it had been last month. The Rapids Trail certainly lived up to its name! Amazingly, despite all the rain we've had recently, most of the trails were pretty dry, with a few mud holes here and there to keep things interesting.

As I wandered along the river and through the woods and fields, the day was heating up and I was running a bit low on fluids. But I was still feeling good and running solidly, although the pace definitely slowed in the final 7 miles of this run, as the trails twist and turn this way and that. By the final 3 miles, I could tell I had been on my feet for a while, but I was still in good spirits, and amazingly in the end, I timed things perfectly, and the Garmin was reading 16.03 miles about 100 feet from our door. I finished in 2:37:13/9:48 pace, which I am very happy with.

After a quick shower, change and bite to eat, we headed over to have dinner with my parents, Kristen and the kids, my grandmother, Susie, Jon and Lillie. My parents are house/pet sitting for my boss and his wife while they spend the month in Florida (sounds nice, huh?). This is perfect for all parties involved, and it was really nice to all be able to get together for Easter! Sam was a really good girl, and thoroughly enjoyed all the attention from the family! We had a great time, and some yummy food too :-)

I'm cute!

Showing off at (or on) the table

What? I'm not supposed to chew on this?!

It was a really nice day, and well, now I'm tired :-)

4 comments:

Scout said...

Great job! It's hard to put in such an effort on little sleep.

I found that my Sam was way more in to eating when we were eating. Ryan didn't care what anyone else was doing...ever.

John said...

Avocados have the high calories per volume that breastfed babies need.

pathfinder said...

We had kids....they ate stuff...I think they liked it...I couldn't give them beer....then they grew up.....they kept eating.....and as far as I know they are still eating and they can have beer now.(from a man's point of view)

Sparkplug said...

Kevin, you're funny! :-) I know, I think about these things too much. I'm sure she'll grow up to love bacon more than anything, so what she ate as a first food can't possibly matter much!! But John, yes, it's nice to feed her something healthy! And Val, all kids do their own thing, don't they? You just never know! Keeps things interesting anyway. As for the sleep deprivation, I figure it's just another sort of training :-)