We all know what happens when a groundhog sees its shadow, we get six more weeks of winter. But what about when a toddler sees their shadow? Well, I mean when they first acknowledge they are the ones making that silhouette on wall or any other light-colored surface.
Avery recently discovered her shadow and seems to get a kick out of her dark twin. I’ve been pointing it out to her when changing her diaper for a while, but just the other week she finally reacted to it and made her hand move across the wall. She’ll say something in toddler talk and smile, and I smile too because it keeps her occupied while changing her.
Now anytime we are somewhere that her shadow is visible, I can say look at your shadow and it will keep her busy at least for a minute. I love watching her learn something new and can only imagine what’s going on in her head as I explain how the light casting down on her creates that dark object called her shadow.
Just the other day, she was busy removing every item from her basket when I asked if she could find her shadow.
She seemed stumped and maybe a little hesitant at first.
But then she turned right around to come face to, ummmm, face? with her darker, less detailed self.
I asked her if she could find her shadow again and she immediately pointed to the dark figure. Still working on getting toys out of the basket, of course.
She closed in to investigate further with an almost accusatory point of her finger.
Hey, what are YOU lookin’ at?
Squatting down, she was amazed at how her shadow followed suit.
Back up and a little hand movement just to test the boundaries and she finally accepted her shadow was there to stay.
That’s when she looked away and saw there were more toys to take out of her basket and drop behind me as I cooked in the kitchen.
That’s also when I politely asked her to stop everything! To which she replied with….
Yeah, heart = melted. Oh, and look, she has a heart! Then I offered her a green smoothie which she happily accepted.
It makes me so proud when she enjoys drinking the healthy green smoothies I make. What doesn’t make me proud is when she then proceeds to climb on the couch, throw the pillows off, and eat the rim. green mouth and all.
But I digress, she’s hard to stay upset with for long. I guess those days are coming though, huh?
Can you remember when your little one first started to notice their shadow?
Do you find random teeth marks with food on furniture around your home?
Hopefully our 4th of July 5k won’t get rained out like the Mother’s Day race we were going to do this year. I planned on running a half-marathon, but since it was canceled, I ended up rowing the distance in our garage. Yeah, and that’s when the whole staph butt thing happened….
Moving on, I’m hoping for a good, non-rainy run for our 4th of July 5k. A 5k is great, it gets you up and moving for the day, but doesn’t take forever or zap all of your energy to do anything else the rest of the day. Of course, it is at our favorite craft brewery, Martin House, so if anything, it’s the beer that would zap me.
I don’t plan on having more than one drink, and that’s only because it’s good quality beer they are giving for free. Why wouldn’t I enjoy a glass after pounding the pavement for 3.2 miles? I don’t have a set goal, and my best time from way back when being under 18 minutes, so that’s not happening again. I’d like to keep it around 20 minutes if possible though. Last year I pushed Avery in a 5k and made first place with a time in the 19 minute mark, so it’s doable.
Placing 1st in our first race together!
This will be the first race in my Soft Star Shoes which has me excited to see how they’ll perform. If it’s anything like my regular runs, they’ll be great! Maybe Avery will wear hers so we can be Soft Star Rock Stars!
Going Mom refuses to let out anything about her goal time for the 5k thinking she’ll jinx herself or something. I get it, but I know she’ll do much better than she gives herself credit for. She’s make good use of our squat rack at least 2 times a week and knocks out heavy sets of dead lift and squats. The leg strength alone will prove useful as she races this weekend.
Thanks to my wonderful Mom, Avery won’t be subjected to sitting a stroller to get pushed in a race. This time, she gets to hang with G-Ma and watch from the sidelines to cheer us on. Judging from how she runs to her with open arms, I think Avery will be happy to have the company.
Look for how we did in a post next week. I hope to share some good race times and to let you know that we had a good time.
Speaking of good times, we had a pretty crazy family walk the other evening. It was a typical hot day even as the sun was going down, and we set off like normal with Avery in the stroller. Side note: I always keep 35lbs of kettlebells in the stroller just to make it extra work for myself because, stubborn and strength.
We were relieved to have a big cloud cover the sun for us which meant not battling the bright light in Avery’s eyes and giving her extremely tan legs (from sitting in the stroller on sunny walks) a much needed break. Then a little wind picked up, and then a few fat rain drops started to fall.
Meanwhile, we kept walking and I was saying how refreshing and nice it was to walk in a little shower. Because, at that point, it really was nice. I love walking a light summer sprinkle of rain! But then it got heavier and heavier until we were sloshing in our sandals (Yeah, go us) with our clothes completely drenched.
Kelley mocked me for saying how I enjoyed walking a nice shower as we continued our walk watching the streets already accumulates mini rivers (commonly known as streams) of water. We were right in the middle of our walk, so turning around would be the same as continuing. And continue we did. We had a few neighbors standing in their garage watching the rain and looking at us like we were crazy. In retrospect, I don’t blame them!
As we turned a corner, we faced the heavy rain head-on as the wind whipped it into our face. This set Avery off and she began to cry in fear and probably pain. Despite having flip-flops on, we knew we needed to run to get back as fast as we could, so run we did. It was at this moment when I cursed myself for having those damn 35lbs of weights in the stroller.
Then we hit what I call “the big hill” part of our walk and I seriously questioned what the point of the weights were. Screw you, fitness, I don’t need this! It didn’t help that I started cracking up while trying to breathe when as I watched my wife practically doing a high knee run through a giant river of deep water. Seriously, the view was priceless.
We made it up the hill, increased our speed as the rain poured on and Avery wailed, and finally made it back to our garage/safe haven.
Of course we took the obligatory crazy family picture afterward. Avery quickly calmed down, as you can see, with the help of a towel thanks to Going Mom. We both kissed her and asked for forgiveness too.
And just to be really annoying, we took turns taking a picture with our drenched little girl. She was not that amused.
Still cute as a button though. A really really really cute button! I pretended to hold her back out under the rain because, dad jokes, and she actually gave a little smile. But just a little pity smile.
After our soaked family photo session was over, we went inside for dinner and laughed about a rainy walk we won’t forget any time soon.
Have you even been caught in the rain?
Do your kids love getting drenched in the rain or despise it?Avery loves the water, just not when it’s stinging rain in her face as she sits defenseless. Can’t blame her!
A few weeks ago, I wrote about my strength gaining goal and the issues I face with sticking to it. In sum, training is not the problem, it’s my lack of a caloric surplus.
After that post, I had a couple people reach out to me offering their help and support. One of those people is Tony Huynh, a personal trainer and owner of the site Good Guy Health. Tony has been extremely helpful by creating a solid nutrition plan and training routine. I urge you check out his site and reach out to him about your own fitness goals.
I did make changes to his original strength routine, but mainly because I have Avery in the garage with me and felt it might take too long for her patience to hold. That, and it gets hot fast in there, like our own personal sauna. Too bad we can’t control the heat, I literally have my shirt and shorts (even my socks) drenched in sweat after just 30 minutes!
Here’s my current routine:
Saturday and Sunday are rest days, but I always include some conditioning by running, swimming, or rowing. Nothing too extreme, but enough to get my fitness “fix”. I’m currently on the 85% week and will take it down a notch next week before increasing my RM (rep max) and going through the cycle again.
This, along with following the macro breakdown Tony setup for me, is yielding results. Nothing big (yet), but mainly b/c I’m still struggling with eating more than I’m used to and being less active than before.
For eating more, I’ve reduced the over-abundant amount of raw veggies I usually eat with more calorie dense foods like nuts, seeds, and dried fruit. Extra spoonfuls of NuttZo with Greek yogurt and cherries do the trick too, and I’ve been enjoying them daily!
I just have to be sneaky or Avery will go crazy and demand it all to herself!
I know what you have….GIVE IT!
Which leads me to why her crazy toddler temperament as of late just might help me with my strength/weight gaining goals. You see, I’m one to constantly keep pushing myself when working out despite what my mind and body is trying to tell me. This results in overdoing it most of the time, and therefore, burning those precious calories my body needs to use to grow.
Since Avery’s early onset of the terrible twos only seems to grow in intensity each day, her mood can change in an instant. And patience? Fogettaboutit!
Long gone are the days of quite little Avery hardly aware of her surroundings….
I love that picture. But her patience level has dropped dramatically in the past 2 weeks which means I need to get my lifts in and be done with it. No more messing around trying to think of some elaborate “finisher” to get that burning pump and sweat pool going on. As much as her fussiness has been driving me up the wall, I find the silver lining is possibly helping me on my journey to strength.
Time will tell, and then I’ll tell you, but hopefully I can look back and thank our crazy little girl for being, um….crazy.
Can you find the silver lining in your kid’s craziness?
Do you get a “free” sauna in your garage during the summer too?
An at-home dad on a mission to keep it real when it comes to food, fun, and raising a healthy, happy family.
