Happy Birthday Travis!!

I can hardly believe it has been seven years since I became a parent.

I've learned a lot in those seven years. I've learned that parenting rarely turns out like you think it will, and the best-laid intentions can be left in the dust when reality sets in. I've learned that it's a lot harder than I thought it would be to watch my kid grow up. I've learned that there's no way to describe the feeling of vulnerability I have when it comes to my kids and their life experiences. I've learned that crayon stains from a melted crayon in the dryer almost NEVER come out of clothing.

But mostly, I've learned how awesome it is to be a mom. Especially to such a terrific kid.

I love you, buddy. 

Beach on Lake Michigan

Carriage Ride

Canada 2006

Favorite yellow hat

First day of pre-school

First Notre Dame football game

Christmas 2006

Kids craft project at Lowe's.

Christmas 2007

Canada 2008

Christmas 2008

With Swoop at the Silverhawks game

Loving the Jeep

At the park with buddy Una

Family Pictures

First day of Pre-Kindergarten

Healthworks Kids Museum

Christmas 2010

Curious Kids Museum

Biking with dad

Happy 7th Birthday!!

That's a questionable profession for a three-year-old.

Sophie's been dancing around the living room with moves that slightly resemble ballet dancing, inasmuch as a three-year-old's haphazard movements can. She spins around with her arms in a circle above her head, or outstretched as though she is contemplating performing a pirouette.

Ben and I were discussing this. Has she seen ballet dancing on TV? Or is she just a natural-born ballet dancer?

Sophie says, "Hooray! I wanna be a belly dancer!"

In other news, we took her to Build A Bear on Friday evening for her birthday. She'd never been there before, which is a travesty given how much she loves stuffed animals. 

She quite enjoyed the experience.

At the urging of Noah, and to his utter delight, she picked out a penguin for her stuffed animal.

Here she is, giving her penguin his heart.

Here, she is showing the Build-A-Bear "stuffed animal creator" how old she is.

Sophie loves her penguin.

Uh....Noah does too.

Here's all the kids helping to give Pengwee a bath.

And, finally, a shout-out to our friend Colin who celebrated his fifth birthday this week. The kids enjoyed the Chuck E Cheese party.

The boys giving a round of applause.

Sophie, of course, loved ol' Chuck.

The birthday boy!

That, my friends, is the look of a kid who's not sure he knows what he's gotten himself into.

Let the ticket blasting begin!!

Happy Birthday Colin!

Happy Birthday Sophie

Sophie,

Today is your third birthday.

Three years ago today, I held you in the hospital, with your little ankle band that read "Baby Girl Davidson" because we hadn't yet decided on your name.

We had gone into the hospital with three possible choices.

Sophie, Hannah, or Ashley.


As soon as you were born, I threw Ashley out of the ring. You didn't look like an Ashley. Not one bit.

I was torn between Sophie and Hannah. The rest of the family was leaning towards Sophie, but I just wasn't sure. I didn't want to make this decision lightly. I wanted the name to suit you.


I was holding you, and you had a little red and green hospital knit hat on. I was still debating, Hannah .... Sophie. I just couldn't decide.

Just then, I took your hat off. I wanted to see your cute little fuzzy head.

In that instant, it became clear to me that you were a Sophie. Don't ask me why. I'm quite certain it was mostly to do with my insanely hormonal post-pregnancy emotions rather than any sort of logic whatsoever. But I was adamant. You were no Hannah.

The nurse, who happened to be in the room at the moment I made this decision, smiled at me and said, "I was hoping you'd pick that name. I like it better."

I'm fairly certain she would have said that either way.

But she's right.

You are most definitely a Sophie.

Happy Birthday.

Gingerbread Run and Santa Train

Last weekend, we headed to the northeast side of the state for some visits with Ben's family, celebration of Sophie's upcoming birthday, and a train ride with Santa.

Since we were over there for the weekend, I signed up for a 4-mile race in Fort Wayne that I had found online.

I've been looking for longer races than a 5K, but haven't been able to find many 10Ks in the area. When I found this 4-miler, a bit longer than a 5K, I decided to go for it. Fort Wayne is about an hour south of my in-laws, and I thought this would be a good entry into longer races.

The race started at 8:30, but I made it down there about 45 minutes early.

It was freezing.

I mean, sub-freezing. Eighteen degrees, roughly.

Standing outside on the start line waiting to get the race underway was nothing less than miserable. But, by a few minutes into the race, most of the misery had subsided. About a mile into it, my lungs stopped burning, and I felt pretty good.

I was shooting for 36 minutes (9-minute mile pace) and managed to cross the finish at 35:06.  That put me at 52nd place of 206, and 7th of 43 in my category of 30-39 Female. (Plus, I beat the roughly 50 runners that signed up for the race but apparently stayed home in bed, likely because of the frigid temperatures.)

True to form, I slept fitfully the night before the race -- I guess that tradition holds true even if I'm sleeping in someone else's home. I pretty much woke up every hour (at least) starting around 1:15 a.m.; I think I was nervous about oversleeping.

I'm still looking for a 10K to run; then my next big race is a 10-miler that I've signed up for in April.


At any rate, after the race, I drove back up to Angola, showered, helped Ben get the kids ready, then we headed up to Coldwater, Michigan for a 45-minute train ride to Quincy, Michigan and back, along with grandma & pa-pa, Uncle Mac & Aunt Jody, cousins Trevor & Nathan, and Jody's parents. Santa happened to hitch a ride on this same train as well, so the kids got to head back to the caboose and visit with him.

Travis asked for a Nintendo DS.

Noah was too nervous to ask for anything, but he was pretty agreeable to whatever Santa decided to bring him and was ecstatic about the candy cane he got as a parting gift.

Sophie asked for a snow globe.


She loves snow globes.


And people.


And Santa, in particular. I had to drag her off his lap so she didn't monopolize the entire train ride talking to Santa about snow globes and birthday cakes and her friend Colin's upcoming party at Chuck E Cheese that she can't stop talking about.

She's exhausting.

But cute.

Boarding the train

The boys in the "boy square"

Me, Soph & Ben

Nater

Noah

Trevor

Travis, and Santa (not the real one)

Mac & Jo. Mac with a cheesy smile, and Jody not really aware that I'm taking a picture.

That's more like it, Mac.

Pa-pa and Grandma

Halfway through, we got out for a bit to stretch. Wait, who is that exiting the caboose??

Noah was excited. Look who I saw, ma!

Not so sure

Okay, not so bad