I heart Running...

I'm SO Happy to report that I am running again withOUT pain!! I've only run on the track so far. The true test will come this week when I take it the streets! I've been working on the excercises that Kevin Maggs gave me at Rev3 Quassy and focusing on form when I hit the track. In my running absense I've also been hitting the weights. Full "ass to the grass" squats (video to come) ROCK my world. I love them.

From the things I've read and advice I've gotten regarding my running and nagging injuries my glutes and hips are weak and causing everything to basically go to shit. So that's what I've been working on, and I gotta tell you I think it's really helped. I feel much more powerful on the bike (hills), my knee is feeling SO MUCH BETTER and I seem to be able to hold splits (at the track) at the same speed, if not faster, than I used to, but am more comfortable. All good stuff!

So now I know YOU ALL want to know... what all does this entail.

Well, I do the following (care of Kevin Maggs) daily. (okay MOST days.)


And like I said I LOVE SQUATS! Real ones. I had never ever done them like this before. If you want some extra challenge (for your back) do some overhead squats!!! Use less weights than you do for the regular squats.



(that knee buckle in thing is another thing I'm to be working hard to avoid)

For more info check out Stumptuous. I'm loving her "learning" section.

And here is a demo of the overhead squat... back strength GALLORE to be had from this one!


Other great "big girl" barbell exercises for the legs are split squats and good mornings or deadlifts.

Split Squats


Good Mornings


Deadlifts


I know we aren't bodybuilders... well, by we, I'm talking to my endurance friends.. we are endurance athletes... we swim, bike, run.... but you know what.. this stuff keeps us balanced and strong... and keeps us out there. I will NEVER neglect my strength workouts again. They are getting me back out there and damn I feel strong just going and playing w/ the 'real' weights. Don't get me wrong I still play w/ the 'girlie' weights! I'm not too good for them!

So do you hit your strength training workouts too or do you neglect them to 'save your legs'... might want to think again about that!

Do you lift heavy? Do you lift lighter, but higher reps? Or do you adjust your lifting w/ whatever "period" you are in in your training cycle?

About lost it today...

both kids crapped their pants today... at the same time. Imagine.. one getting cleaned up and while you are up to your arm pits in crap the other kid is playing in the toilet the "washing" their hands all while you plead w/ them to just GET OUT of the bathroom. It's all you can do to not scream at the top of your lungs and grab the clean kid and toss it out of the bathroom...

Only sharing to 'keep it real' so you don't think my kids are all great at potty training and to not only share the good stuff as to paint a not so real picture.

I had a long day today... so that's all I got.

Oh wait, I'll share this. Jason woke up from his nap and I went up and grabbed him and took him in my room. We snoozed together for another 30 mins all snuggled together. Those are the good times... they make the poop tolerable. :)

No poops in the pants today!

I was getting really frustrated w/ poops yesterday, but am happy to say that all the Mounts pooped in the potty today! :) YIPPEE!!!!! Lily wasn't happy about it, but she eventually did it. Jason pooped FIVE FREAKIN' times today! I'm not exaggerating. He woke up saying his back hurt... didn't hurt by the end of the day! :)

No more updates really... it's gotten colder here.. in the high 50s. Tom comes home the day after tomorrow and the kids start their first art class tomorrow. :)

These kids are smart!

So Lily did her poop on the potty last night.. and I am still OH SO proud of her, but today she pooped on her chair.. :( A few minutes later Jason ran into the bathroom and pooped on the potty so I gave him a date and a sticker - more to incentivize (is that a word?) Lily than to reward Jason - and as I was giving him his sticker Lily asked for one and I told her she would get a sticker when she pooped on the potty .... her response: "I pooped on the potty last night."

Indeed she did... and she got no reward - besides my VERY EXCITED praise. So she got a sticker too...

So smart of her!!!

Wasn't going to blog tonight...

but I am so proud of Lily I have to document it.

We had a good day today.. lots of fun w/ friends and a pretty decent potty day. Lily had a couple of accidents and Jason only had one and well, a half I guess. :)

I had to wake them up to go to my hair appt today so I put them down for bed a bit early.. I heard Lily opening and closing her bedroom door and thought, "Crap she totaly isn't going to fall for this early bed stuff." So I went up there to check on her and she held her butt and had a pained look on her face. I assumed that she had pooped in her diaper and I started heading to the bathroom to get a diaper and she ran in ahead of me and went straight for the potty.. I usually make them sit on the potty after an accident.. when I took her diaper off NOTHING! She hopped right up on that potty like a pro and went poop. She wouldn't poop all day today. (after waking up w/ poops.) I am so proud of her for 'telling' me she needed to go instead of telling me she already went - as she had been doing. I just can't believe how quickly things can turn.. (well, both ways really).

Jason was great today. His one pee accident was right after I had him on the potty and he wouldn't do anything, but in his defense all the other kids were headed outside and he really wanted to go w/ them. He peed not moments after we got out there. Oh well. And I caught him mid poop and got him on the potty to finish.. his 1/2 accident.

All in all it's going well and we are getting out of the house... w/ many visits to the potty... all fine by me. I gave away the last of our diapers today so we wouldn't be tempted to go back when the going gets tough. :)

Watch out world.. we're big kids now...

I'm sure I will stop talking about this at some point!

Tom comes home on Wed and I'm sure he will be amazed!

We (well I) are excited to watch Ironman Wisconsin this weekend... our Sunday will revolve around naps and IM! The athletes run by only blocks from out house and I'm going to try to see the bike out portion w/ the kids. :) My TNT coach Chris and his girlfriend Jackie are both doing it this year so it will be fun to try to see them on their voyage!

D4

It's 8:15 and I'm seriously getting ready for bed. FYI.. in the midst of potty training is not the time to skip your mid-day coffee!!!

I'm tired of talking about/thinking about/worrying about poop/pee. It really was a good day, but I"m tired of detailing it and rehashing it. Both kids pooped on the potty.. amidst accidents. I will spare you the oh so boring details.

It was 90 degrees again today... supposedly it's going to be in the 70s the rest of the week thus introducing us to an abrupt fall. I'm jonesing to turn over the kids' wardrobes.. don't ask me why.. it's part of the seasonal change I guess... brings on the next step.. I don't know.. it's just something I like to do.

Tom is in Germany now - he was in London. I love hearing from him and talking to him, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't jealous of his trip this time around. He called from a lake side eatery in Friedrichshaufen (no clue how to spell that and too lazy to look it up). He told me where he was and what he was doing and - as I always do - I responded, "I'm in Madison, Wi, it's 90 degrees and I was just about to mop the floors." I have a really sweet gig here don't get me wrong, but I am insanely jealous right now... I want to be in Europe! ha ha

Anyway... we had a lot of fun today.. here are some photos.

We made crowns and the kids put stickers on them. The activity only took about 2 mins, but they loved it and wore the crowns off and on all day. I'm looking for things to do around the house that I can do w/ them and not want to slap myself silly bc it's so boring! ha

Jason saying CHEESE for the camera




Sharing the monkey bars


Playing in mommy and daddy's room before naps. (Why do I look so disgustingly tan... I haven't been in the sun that much since training ended.)

Note that Jason got in on the nail painting today. :)

Potty Training day 3.

Happy Labor day folks...

things have been oh so exciting around here that I got out our winter stuff - despite the high of 90 - to see if we have stuff that fits the kids. I might be a bit stir crazy?????

Good news.. there stuff from last year fits. They had to try it on.



Does it get cuter than this?


This is my hat, but we tried his on too and it fit.


Today went pretty well. J and L are certainly not interested in being on the potty every 20 minutes. Today I just kind of rolled with it and I tried to at least get them on the potty every hour or so. Jason only had a couple of accidents (3) and Lily only had 2... well, she pooped in her pants, but I don't really count that. :)

Lily tried so hard today! She was running around w/o her undies for a while and she ran to the potty herself and peed. She tried REALLY hard to get to the potty to poop. She would get there then I think she was scared. She did this about 3 times before she pooped mid run. She was very disturbed by this. It really freaked her out. She wasn't successful at pooping in the potty. Oh well. She tried really hard. Bless her heart. She also woke up from a 2.5 hour nap dry.

Jason had a small poop accident, but that was it. He must have been holding it today. I got to see some more imagination development today. Jason and I were hangin' in the bathroom (our new favorite place to hang.. ha) and he started throwing an imaginary ball up in the air. We played w/ imaginary balls for a good 20 mins. It was so cute to see him show that level of imagination.. that is the first time he has done that.

We had another good day today.. though the kids did watch much more tv than I like them to, but hey we've been here in the house/yard for 3 days now. All things considered we are hanging in there. I don't have any outings planned until Friday... we'll probably start taking some longer walks before then. We took a short jaunt to Trader Joe's yesterday and a walk up the street today. They seem to be able to hold it for over an hour at least... before I put them on the potty. Maybe we'll have naked day tomorrow. Seems that's what might work for Lily.

It's funny to think that I originally had planned to just potty train Lily b/c she seemed more ready than Jason and I didn't want to have to be sequestered again later. Jason is doing such a good job. I'm so proud of them both!

I will say I'm EXHAUSTED. We're having really fun / good days, but I have to pay close attention to what they are doing and it's taxing to be picking them up and carrying them (often screaming and kicking on Jason's part) to the potty. Gosh that makes it sound dramatic.. it really isn't... he's just busy and doesn't want to take the time. I'm constantly negotiating w/ them.. if you sit on the potty we'll do xyz.. it's tiring. ha Welcome to parenthood huh? :) I'm actually kind of enjoying it.. just watching them grow up so much in a matter of days is great.

It was funny.. I looked at lily this evening w/ "that" look on my face and said, "What are you doing Lily?" and she said, "not pooping" made me laugh out loud.. guess I've been asking her that a lot over the last couple of days.

Potty Training day 2.

If you have kids to potty train ... I hope you like your bathroom!

Okay... so the first thing we do now is sit on the potty. This a.m. when I said, "Let's go potty" (all sing songy like it was the most exciting thing to do in the whole wide world) I was greeted w/ two kids saying, "I don't want to sit on the potty." Jason cried. Poor guy. He wakes up fairly slowly and generally just wants to snuggle... not be forced to remove his pants and sit on the potty. Neither of them peed and Lily was dry... ???

All-in-all it was another good day. I didn't even mind being sequestered here. I actually got some stuff done that I normally don't get to b/c we're out running around. The kids don't seem any worse for the wear either. I thought they (well, we) would be going bonkers. They do start to get a bit punchy/antsy mid-morning then we just go out in the yard and roll around and we're all good!

Jason had a couple of pee accidents in the a.m. - two of which were when I said "Time to go to the potty" after the timer went off. He was dry when the timer went off, but by the time I got over there to drag him into the potty (he doesn't exactly come running) he had peed his pants. Learned my lesson. Go get kid then mention that it's potty time. :) He did poop in his pants... no biggie. Caught it once and he did some in the potty - oh, and one in the bath tonight. I think both kids are bit nervous about the pooping in the potty thing... which apparently is normal. He had NO accidents this afternoon. He was even drinking quite a bit and I was trying to push the visits to the potty a bit further apart bc he was freaking about going every 20 mins and he started holding it and wouldn't go on the potty every time. I know he needed to go b/c he was drinking juice and water, but still no accidents. So he's clearly figured out how to hold it. Yeah Jason!

Lily had no accidents this a.m. (same as yesterday), but she doesn't seem to like to drink too much in the a.m.?? She id pee almost every time she got on the potty though. She had two poop accidents today, but both times she ran to the potty. I'm pretty sure she realized she needed to poop and started running and didn't make it, but who knows.. she may have pooped and run into the bathroom afterward to be changed. All she said was, "poop goes in the potty." Bless her heart she tried. She had a couple of pee accidents in the afternoon. She too was drinking a lot of water and juice. She doesn't seem to mind being wet either. I had to drag her in the house to change her pants.

I know you are have been waiting all day w/ baited breath to hear all about my kid's bathroom habits! :) So far it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be, but I am having a hard time getting my mind around how we will ever be able to leave the house again. The guidance I've been following has me putting the kids on the pot every 20 mins. Hmmm... how does that transition to "you go to the potty when YOU have to go not when Mommy puts you there."??? Anyone have any advice to share on that aspect of this!?/ I want to leave my house again some day!