Brief Hiatus

After Wayne's mom left, there was a week (or two) where I fell back into our normal schedule and, mostly, focused on getting myself back into my training schedule. Norah has school on Monday and Tuesday, music class on Wednesday, running and/or play group on Thursday, and then we have an "open" day on Friday. So, while I've been doing really well with that, I've been really bad at writing my blog 'updates'. Please accept my apologies, faithful loved ones. :)

And while my training has been going well (half-marathon in 6 weeks), my health has not been great lately. It's a long boring story of a chronic illness and I won't get into it here but suffice to say, my body is not cooperating with my desire to be in tip-top shape and fighting the fatigue has been tough this last month. Despite this daily setback, I'm training 6 days a week - I am determined to defeat Connemara. Or...rather, to not let Connemara defeat me, let's put it that way. Connemara is not a landscape to be defeated.

Last night we got a babysitter so Wayne could come out on one of the long training runs. It was so exciting for me to be able to run with him. (we've done a few together but always with Norah in the running buggy and that's just plain tough) We finished 8 1/2 miles that were particularly greulling and he finished the entire thing, including full-on hobbling with a hurt knee by mile 4. He told us to go ahead and even with this horrible pain, he managed to finish the entire thing only three minutes behind us. I am seriously proud of him.

  Also - the most exciting thing to happen this year - my sister Mimi, little Marko and new baby Simon are...COMING TO DUBLIN! Arriving March 29th. She booked her tickets a couple days ago and I could not be more excited. We've talked about this for a very long time, (since we moved here) and I am elated that they're finally able to come. They will be here for Easter, for my 30th birthday (April 3rd) and for the half marathon (April 7th) that both Wayne and I will be running together. I am so giddy about all that I get to show them and about meeting my newest nephew Simon (he'll be almost 6 months by then!) and for Norah and Marko to play and on and on and on. I am so excited to have them here.

And here are a few random pictures from the last week:

 Norah wanted to put on my coat and hat and then said, "We have to go to SuperValu to get an avocado..." (in her 'mommy-voice'). We can't get over how grown-up she looks here.

 I just loved this. Looking our our bedroom window (down onto the courtyard), I saw this woman with two small children trying to fly her kite. There was no wind, and it was a fairly large kite and I just thought it was beautiful. Her two kids are in the shot, on the left - maybe a 3 year old boy and a 1 year old girl. Clearly, they asked to take the kite out and not only did she agree but she was genuinely trying to get it in the air.

 A walk on the East Pier on Valentine's Day

It's still quite cold but look how light it is at 5:30 pm! When Norah started school in December, I would pick her up at 4:45 pm, and it was pitch dark by then. These we can get used to.  

 Norah chasing Geordan chasing Kara chasing Norah (outside the Bray Aquarium this last Saturday)

"I'm coming to get you Geordan!"

Norah's Weekend

Of course, the day after Nana leaves, Dublin produces this, just off our balcony. Come on!! It was sideways-raining for 2 weeks straight (only when it wasn't dropping tiny cannon balls of hail) and then we have the most beautiful, clear weekend in a month. Come on!!

When Nana was still here, our two year old saw a tiny advertisement for a play-place (slides, ball-pool, tunnels) on a tourism map and she became fixated on going there. I mean, when she first saw it, she started crying when I told her we couldn't go there that moment. It's called KidZone, of course. For four days I had to explain where it was, what time it opened, how we could get there, who has the keys, what day we would go, which roads to turn on.......I'm not kidding. So, we bit the bullet - took one for the team - and took the 45 minute train ride to Wicklow's KidZone. (All in all, we spent €20 on the one-way train ride, €5 to get in, and €20 on the 2 hour bus ride home (there are only 2 trains per day and we weren't waiting until the 8 pm train to come home). To say it was a mission would be just a slight understatement. (also, I found out the next day, there's one in Cabinteely which is a 20 minute bus ride from us) Was it worth it though? Yes. Absolutely.

If for nothing else, than the moment she got off the elevator and saw this:

Norah, dumbfounded.

Train ride, beautiful day

 Super Fast Slide action sequence! (1)

 (2)

 (3) Wooo!

Parents weren't technically allowed in the "play structure" but I was playing the odds until the told me I had to get down. 

This is just the "tiny" structure in the corner for 2 to 4 year olds and it was HUGE. Here I am about 15 feet in the air on the top level, looking down on the cafe (I hesitate to call it a cafe, it's more like a seating area in a roller skating rink that serves chips and coffee from an automatic machine). 

Wayne up at the top too. We decided we'd tell them Norah was stuck if they scolded us.... 

I wish I could show you these next ones in a sped-up slide show. Hilarious. She was a crazy banshee runnin' around, going over everything head first with her legs flying up in the air behind her. Despite how some of the pictures look, she was never hurt and never cried. haha!

She looks like she came flyin' through that hole at 40 miles an hour!

Ahhh! I'm having so much funnnnn!!!!

Yes!! Wooooo!

Love Wayne squeezing through the foam circle in the background!

Wayne was saying "here, take my picture and call it, 'Father of the Year'" but I kept telling him, "Quit it! People don't know you're joking and they'll think you're some drunk Irish Dad passed out in the corner." And there's Norah flying off the stairs again.  

Now these pictures are for my nephew Marko - this is in the BIG play structure for 5-7 year olds and this is the MEGA SLIDE! 

Or maybe these are the mega slides. We'll have to try them out and figure out which are better. 

Here's a side view of the MASSIVE "big kid" structure that Marko can take Norah in. This is only one side of it, (not even able to fit the whole thing in the shot) and then it's as DEEP as it is wide. Mimi, if we go here, we better bring a sleeping bag and maybe, as Wayne said, a flask. =)

People's Park New Year's Festival (the festival paid for by Dun Laoghaire to help us all make it through the winter). It was scheduled to "ring in the New Year" but was moved because the weather was so bad - so we had it on February 3rd instead. This is Kevin, the face-painter and he's really good at his job. Not to mention there was a perpetual line-up, 12 kids deep and he did each of these in 2 minutes flat. 

They had 10 or 12 bouncy castles, games for kids, balloons, and face-painting, all free of charge. (plus the normal farmer's market) All in all, they did a pretty good job.

Seeing herself in the mirror!

Grrrrrr! (Dalmation, in character)

We said, "What's your name puppy?". And she replied, "Jennifer, ruff, ruff".

 

This weekend, we were good parents.

My Mother-in-Law

Baking a second pie with Nana - Raspberry this time.... Mmmm

 It means the world to me to see Norah baking a pie with her Nana.

 

 Poncho from Aunt Joyce - She's not quite getting the concept.

 "No, arms down honey. You don't have to pull it over your face."

 "Oh, you mean like this??"

A couple of knitting nerds (ok, I'm crocheting). Case in point.

I can't tell you how much I love this woman. I've said it before but the term "mother-in-law" is fraught with negative connotation, and that's why I don't even like to say it. It comes out of your mouth and people automatically assume there's tension and animosity. I even mentioned to the ogre of a washing-machine-repair-guy my mother-in-law was in town and his response was "Ohhh....gotta be on the best behavior then right?!?" (with this sort of, *nudge, nudge, wink, wink*). I always want to explain it's not like that with her. Anyway, it doesn't take a psychoanalyst to figure out that simply having a mother (in-law) would be particularly meaningful for me. As a woman, when your mother dies when you're still only a child, the chance at getting a second one, is not something you take lightly. I cherish her and any time I have with her - she's a resource I haven't had since I was 16 and being a young mother means there are volumes of questions for a "mother figure".

She is such a wonderful mother too - it only takes one look at her Pinterest page to see what a perfect Nana she is(how hilarious is it that she knows what that IS, let alone HAS one). She has posted nothing but pictures of decadent cakes & baked goods, yummy casseroles with loads of melted cheese and then, knitting and crocheting projects. That's it. She's the Nana of the future. Versed in all things home-making - cooking, cleaning, clothes-making and wisdom and yet, also, slightly obsessed with the internet (ok, Facebook). ;) I love that we can tease her about having Bailey's in her coffee every morning (on vacation! she'll kill me for typing that.), and how much she checks facebook (which, admittedly, is the same amount as I do). The fact that we can be so playful with her is half the reason I adore her so much. She can answer any question I throw at her, she laughs at herself (and us) and she has never ever made me feel inadequate. I've heard some horror stories of the dreaded mother-in-law overstepping parenting boundaries, marital boundaries and just-plain meddling. Wilma has never so much as given me a glance that made me feel she disapproved of anything I do as a wife or mother. (Which is not even to say that she doesn't disapprove of some things - that'd be fine - but she certainly never lets it be known and that either means she doesn't feel it, or is a saintly pillar of self-restraint.) Either way, I'll take it and will forever be thankful for her in my life (and Norah's especially).