Week 81

Dear Jorie,

Another week marred by sickness. :( It seems like it's happening a lot lately.

Thursday we headed over to Jaimee, Bill and Zetta's for a "study night" for me and Jaimee, and some play time for you and Zetta. You guys had a blast running around together, and us adults had a great time working on our respective projects after you two went to bed. Zetta is turning out to be a great friend for you to have! Apparently you guys are inseparable at daycare, and you get along great. It's really cute when you guys hug before we leave, and how you guys ask for each other when you're apart. I hope you guys stay friends for a long time (it helps that I really like having Jaimee and Bill as friends too!)

Friday morning your father noticed you were warm when he was getting you dressed, and you actually told him "Brrrrr." So he took your temperature, and lo and behold, you had a fever. So he stayed home with you on friday. Saturday morning, I was sick, so your father let me sleep in, and then by the time I woke up (at 11!), he had a migraine. So you went down for a nap and so did he.

We did manage to get all of us relatively healthy feeling for dinner with Nannie and Grandpa O on saturday night, but that was about it. And you slept awfully at their house, you didn't go down to sleep until almost 10:00!

Sunday we did a little better, and managed to go to the consignment shop and get you new shoes, some new PJ's and a few new shirts. We went up another size in the clothing so hopefully you wont out grow this stuff for a while!

We had dinner with Grandma and Grandpa R early this week, Monday instead of Tuesday, and unfortunately your Uncle Michael came down with the flu, so it was just us and the grandparents.

This weekend my big accomplishment was getting the kitchen set your Grandma & Grandpa R got you for christmas put together. It was quite hard to get together, and I'm very proud of myself for doing it all by myself. You really love it too, so it was worth it.

This week we graduated you out of the Infant tub and into the "big tub." You reacted similarly to the way you did when we removed the infant sling. You cried and clung to my arm when I first put you in the tub, but eventually relaxed and enjoyed playing in the tub. The second bath you got in the big tub you spent a really long time splashing around in it, and seemed sad when I made you get out.

Lately you're starting to show a preference for certain  types of play, you really like "pretend play", like where you have a play cup and spoon and pretend to eat from the cup or to feed one of us. You also really like "drawing" with your crayons, and either having us read to you, or pretending to read to us. It really makes me happy to see all the things you're into, and that they aren't all typical "girl" stuff. I was (and am still always) worried that you'll get pigeon holed into the role of "girl." I want you to feel free to pursue whatever makes you happy.

Recently I was thinking about why I run, and also similarly, why I am still working. I am still working mainly because we need my health insurance, but now with the Affordable Health Care Act, we might be able to survive without my income, and get insurance through that, so I had to think seriously about why I'm working, which ties into part of why I run.

I run so that when you look to me, as a role model, you see someone who is strong and capable. Someone who does something that makes them happy, and can balance their life. I want you to see that women can choose their own path, and it can be working, or staying at home. I want you to see that being healthy is important, and that exercise is fun. It's hard, a lot of the time, for me to justify to myself taking the time away from spending time with you and your father to go for runs, or even to be at work. Recently I've started to realize that I should not feel bad for taking this time, because it shows you how strong you are capable of being, how dedicated, and how independent. It shows you the importance of making yourself a priority, even among the myriad of other demands on your time.

I love you baby girl. I hope you learn all of this from me, and become the strong, capable, independent wonderful woman I know you will be!