What happened to Ms. Independent

LAYLA:

She is communicating so well now...I am constantly surprised by what comes out of that little mouth and enjoy a pretty good laugh on a daily basis as well.

She's been going through a really strange stage lately that I think is pretty normal but it tears me apart. She's always been SUPER independent and has never been one who required a ton of my attention. Lately though, she's been stitched to my side (which I kind of enjoy right now). She cries when I leave and when I'm not here if she happens to wake up before I get back from a morning run. She wants me with her in gymnastics--even though she doesn't pay me any attention.

What I really think is happening is this: I feel like at this age, she has started to experience some real independence with the potty and with doing things (like gymnastics) on her own without my help and without me around. And while she loves being independent, I think it is a little overwhelming for her and probably a little scary. In my mind, I'm comparing it to when I left for college and how I wanted so badly to be back at home for the first couple months.

Fortunately since she's our only one right now, I'm able to arrange my schedule so that I minimize my time away from her and make sure that I'm here when she wakes up. I'm also learning a lot in toddler gymnastics, like how to walk like a crab and do a proper front roll. I hope I'm not making her rotten, but I really feel like this is a temporary stage where she needs me to be predictable and she needs me to be present and more importantly she needs me to encourage her to do things on her own. We are now on week 2, so we'll see how temporary this is :-) I may be soliciting help with a rotten child in a few months...

BABY:

She's growing and moving like crazy. In fact, she wakes me every morning at 5:15 for our morning run with some very strong kicks to my ribs. Its funny--the other day I was determined to sleep in and run in the afternoon but baby girl was so persistent that I crawled out of bed and answered her call to go out for run. I think it must rock her to sleep or something, because I swear she's addicted to it. I think the first thing I'll buy her is a sleek pair of running shoes :-)

RUNNING:

I almost gave it up last week due to some CRAZY round ligament pain. Its getting incredibly taxing to even finish a 7 mile run. I feel heavy and lethargic until about the 6-7th mile. Which makes 5 mile runs sort of hard, but strangely enough 8+ mile runs easier. I am starting to feel the weight of my belly when I run and am going to look into a running skirt with some support. I'm hoping to maintain my 12 mile long runs for a least another month or two before I start cutting it back to 8 or 9 mile long runs. I'm hanging on ad hard as I can...and trying to prepare myself for the time when I discover that I have to do more walking than running. Hopefully that won't happen until my 8th month :-)

Finally, Neil and I have started making a point of doing devotions together each morning and we are learning so much about God and about each other. I can't wait to fill you all in on the things that God is doing in our lives, but for now it'll have to wait...I heard my laundry buzzer go off 10 minutes ago and if I don't hop to it, I'm going to have a nice little pile of ironing to do.