Babies do not Travel Lite

We are getting ready for two family vacations back-to-back. A week long visit to Holden Beach with the Hammocks and Murphys (leaving TOMORROW--so excited and so stressed at the same time!!!!), a five day respite at home, and then a week long trip with my family on a boat. A program the cruise offers is called Babies Travel Lite- an ingenious idea that provides you with diapers, wipes, baby food, etc. in your state room......but with or without that option, there is still a TREMENDOUS amount of stuff to take.

I think we would be best off if there was some way to encapsulate our entire house in a suitcase. Justin and I should seriously consider buying our own semi-truck just for future road trips.......and this with one baby! Each day, my carefully thought out list adds ten items to each one item I am able to cross off. All scenarios must be thought out and anticipated, from the realistic to the absurd........
What if Ainsley's daily diaper consumption grossly multiplies? Better pack enough diapers to provide for four infants.
With our daughter's predilection for spit up, we always have three extra outfits on standby each day, and sadly we have often times surpassed this number! Best if I just pack her whole closet.
What if the North Carolina weather takes a sudden turn for the worse and we experience snow at the beach? Better pack her snow suit just in case.
What if Ainsley decides that she is going to skip crawling and go straight to walking, or has a sudden growth spurt? Better take the 12 month clothes and some shoes to be prepared.

Ok ok I jest, but I think I have made my point.

Deep down I just know every item that I scrimp on and decide not to pack, we will find ourselves in need of. The cruise packing list is probably going to end up just as long-and we have to get on a plane! And of course being new parents, we probably severely overestimate our needs--- last week's conundrum- do we take the travel system, jogger and umbrella strollers??? (Don't laugh, Justin and I actually had a prolonged discussion about this)
The same can be said for our own needs. During our recent last minute prepare for the beach shopping trip, I almost conceeded to buying a box of cereal- mind you cereal that I haven't eaten in over two years, but perhaps this would be the week that I eschewed my customary bagel and took cereal up again.

In the end, I hope that we will use our heads and manage to reduce our items to only the essentials, but a heads up to anyone heading to the North Carolina beaches this weekend............if you spot a blue Tahoe with a U-haul, a trailer, and a roof overflowing with items, don't be afraid to wave hello to us!

Confessions of a Crackberry Addict

I am ashamed to admit that I have become one of those people I never thought I would be, a Crackberry Addict. I don't know when it happened exactly, but I now cling to that silly phone like it is my personal life preserver, and if I let it go I might sink into the depths of obscurity- or more realistically for the briefest moment become disconnected from the world. Oh shudder at the thought!
How did I ever survive with a regular old cell phone? Now, every time I see that little red light blinking, I rush to my phone, heart rushing that I might be a minute late in reading my newest email or responding to a text. Pathetic I know.
At night now, while we are watching tv and winding down for the evening, Justin and I both spend half of our time fiddling with our phones, checking the internet, reading and returning emails, following Facebook activity.
What has happened to me? Why do I all of a sudden feel the need to be so connected all the time? Oh that I may find the strength to ignore that satanic red light for just a few moments each day...................
I will boldly state it here, next phone I get, I am going back to a basic one, in hopes that I might encourage myself to get some me time back!!!!!!

Amazing Ainsley

I don't want to look like a bad mother and not mention my daughter in a post! I am sure if I can keep this up she will be the star of many of these.
Too keep it quick as it is nearing my witching hour....................I love my baby girl. I had been told many times while pregnant that motherhood would change my life, and it is most certainly true. I fell in love the day she was born, and she never ceases to amaze, entertain, and enthrall me.

Today she mastered sitting up...............where oh where has my newborn gone? It is as if she just disappeared one night and a BABY replaced her. I actually broke down and almost cried the other day when she went to bed on just four feedings rather than her normal five, she doesn't need me as much anymore and it is slowly breaking my heart! How in the world am I going to manage when she is a teenager???? Don't tell her, but for the first few weeks of her sleeping 12 hours at night, I actually missed her and my 3am facebook surfing.

This weekend she was baptized- and I couldn't help but feel goosebumps standing up on the altar with my baby girl having her welcomed into the Catholic Community by the entire church. I hope she will find in her faith some answers and comfort throughout her life.

My wish for her is that she always knows how truly she is loved, and that her Dad and I will always be there for her. She is blessed with an amazing extended family- from first cousins, second cousins, aunts, uncles, great aunts, great uncles, grandparents, and great grandparents- she is a VERY loved and treasured child and I hope we succeed in letting her know that every day.

To finish up---- Ainsley, to quote your book we have read many times at night- "when you are sad, I will hold you, I will let you cry. When you are sick, I will sit by your bed quietly watching in case you should want something...when you are lonely I will show up at your doorstep with my heart in a basket. I will whisper 'I love you' until your loneliness grows wings and flies off...when you are afraid I will take your hand and not let go except to borrow stars to spell out the words 'you are safe', they will shine above you forever, even in the darkest dark. When you are grumpy I will make you giggle. When you are lost I will search for you...and when you are happy, OH when you are happy."

This book makes me cry every time I read it for her, "When You Are Happy" by Eileen Spinelli, but I cannot find a truer expression of the love I feel for this child (or the love of any parent for their child). I will go to the ends of the world for her, and may I prove that to her on a daily basis.

Run Courtney Run

Okay- new to this blog thing, but I have been fighting the urge to write for a while now.............

Recently my sister Palmer and I signed up for the Nike Women's Marathon. One most likely trivial part of the registration was answering the question, 'why do you run'. Off the top of my head, I answered something so generic and boring I cannot even remember now what it was. Fortunately the powers that be at Nike didn't deem that answer too important in their decision making process as to who got in, and thus we for the first time made it into the run. Now the countdown is on until October.

My point actually being though that it got me thinking........why do I run? And now that I have the time to actually ponder this question, the answers come spilling out of my mind faster than I can seriously contemplate each of them. So here goes it.

I run......because I can. I do not want to be one of those people who have resorted to couch potato-ism. I do not want to wake up one day and decide I would like to go for a jog only to find it so excruciatingly difficult that I cannot muster one step. But also, I am fortunate to be in decent enough health, fit enough, and fully mobile. There are numerous people out there who could never and will never be able to run because of some physical handicap, and perhaps deep down a part of me runs for them.

I run......because I love how it makes me feel- during and after. Even now, as I struggle to get this post-child-bearing body back into its former shape, a body which if you ask me at any given time during the day I will tell you "I am working on" and sigh in frustration at in the mirror, I can still appreciate its beauty and strength when I run. When I run, those last ten pregnancy pounds seem to magically disappear. I recognize my body for the tough cookie it is, marvel at the actual strength it has, the ability to conquer just about anything. For that hour or so that I run, I forget about that bit of flab. And after I finish running, although deep down I know I'm not quite there, I feel about as beautiful and fit as a supermodel!

I run......to clear my head, to repress if only for a little bit those stresses and frustrations of the day. Perhaps I take those out on the pavement, or my poor knees, but I often find that when I am done running I may not be able to remember what I thought about while I was running, or what I talked to someone about during it, but either way I am a lot more carefree.

I run......for the camaraderie. My running partners have changed over the years, but I always feel that there is a bond established between runners that cannot be put into words, but that means a lot. No matter how trivial the conversation, your running partner is your 'brother/sister in arms', and every distance seems a lot easier, each hill a little smaller when you have someone matching you step for step. Oftentimes, we don't even need to say anything at all, our labored breathing reminding each other that we are there, we are not alone.

I run for social reasons. Running is perhaps my biggest thing in common with several of my friends anymore. They can understand your excitement at having a new PR at a 10K, or the thrill and exhaustion of finishing a punishing 20 mile training run. Names of races are dropped like celebrities amongst runners--- you want to run Boston, or just entered Owl's Roost............I have even made several temporary friends during races, striking up conversations with those runners who have been hovering near you the entire race, whose pace just seems to match up well with yours, who seem to be able to use a little friendly conversation to get them those last few miles.

And now I run for my daughter. I want to be there for her for as long as possible, and I know that my being healthy helps those chances. But I also want to show her that running can be fun. I remember growing up dreading the mile for the Physical Fitness tests, now a mile is just the start to my run, 1/26th of a marathon. If her watching me run can inspire her to take it up, wonderful, if not, then so be it. I will not force her to join me, but I relish the possibility that years down the road, maybe, just maybe she will lace up her running shoes and take to the pavement with me early in the morning, her youth and energy pushing my old body to go just a little faster, a little further. I eagerly look forward to those conversations we may have, and sharing many miles with her.

Needless to say, I think anymore I'd be lost without running. Nike: I run to run, and I will see you in San Francisco.