Norah Starts School and a Marathon Update

 

This picture makes me so happy! She's just smiling soo HARD!

Picnic at People's Park with Kirsten, Lilia, and 2 week-old baby Rowan. Look at this Mama, out with her 2 1/2 year old and her newborn baby!

 He is so scrumptious and perfect.

This is Lilia's new baby brother! My dear friend Kirsten's newest baby boy - Rowan (2 weeks old).  Big YAWN!

Double buggy? Who needs one. I can fit two 3 year olds in this thing, just fine. :)

Norah and Lilia in one of the rides outside the grocery store.

You know you have a daughter when.... (Norah brushing teeth before bedtime - ever so nonchalantly - in her tinkerbell dress)

Wayne absolutely killed it on this 5K race - WHILE Pushing Norah in the buggy. He finished in just over 25 minutes. I ran (sans buggy) and finished in just seconds under 25 minutes.

After our Marlay Park 5K race, Norah's reward (for sitting in the buggy while we ran) was this face paint. She loved it!

Our friend Donal from the running group. Norah adores him and...he's not so sure about kids. :) haha! No, he's great with kids but it was making Norah laugh SO hard.

 

Yes, I cut out her pears with tiny heart cookie-cutters. I can only imagine her teachers' over-the-top eye-roll when they saw this. I can hear them now, "Come look at this, first day of school fruit-cut-outs. Just wait until next week when "lunch" is two saltine crackers, a meatball from leftovers and a juice box". I am soooo THAT mom, on the first day of school for my 3-year-old. She loved her cucumbers though and I think that's all she ate.

First day of school for our 3 year old daughter, happened to be on our 4th wedding anniversary and it was amazing to see what can unfold in 4 short years.

Norah on Day 1 at Montessori School.

Walking past a beautiful church on our anniversary. I was by myself, Norah in school for her first day and I wanted to snap a photo. :)

Just reading the Sports' section on the train.

Norah in her toddler-crate

MARATHON TRAINING UPDATES: (feel free to skip, may be boring) :)

So here was last week's 16-Mile Run on Sunday:

An example of a Tuesday night group run:

Wednesday Track Session:

A Friday run by myself:

And then Saturday's long one again:

That gives you an idea of what a week in the life of "Gloria-consumed-by-marathon-training" looks like. :) Today, after the 14-mile run, I felt great. Last weekend, after the 16 miles, I felt... not-so-great. But I'm learning things about hydration and what to consume on each of these long runs, and thankfully, I'm getter better at it. Today we took it really slow and were able to trace 14 miles of the marathon route (including the worst hills) and I loved it.
Tomorrow morning (September 1st) we pick up Wayne's Aunt Helen and Uncle Jeff who are coming from Calgary, AB, Canada. It's a long trip and we have them for five days so we hope to show them some incredible sights in that short amount of time. Pictures to come, I promise. Until then I'm going to put my feet up.