three quarters

Yesterday we went for Maggie's 9 month checkup and everything looks good, yay. This whole time we had been thinking she was a big baby but she is actually not! Here are her measurements:

height - 28" 67%
weight - 18.0 lbs 35%
head - can't remember but it was 87%

So actually her head is pretty big. She has really thinned out some though (her weight was at 75% or so at her last checkup), so from now on we will be giving her more food to fatten her up! Hehe :) Dr. Laura said she can pretty much have everything we eat now, as long as it's soft enough, except for eggs, honey, and milk. But she can have other dairy. She had some full-fat greek yogurt today which I tried and it was GOOD. Much better than the non-fat version we usually get...tastes almost like sour cream actually.

Also, her teeth are coming in! We were feeling along her bottom gums and there are some sharp things poking through there. I was surprised, because drooling and fussiness are supposed to be precursors to teeth coming in and I hadn't noticed a spike in either recently. She's definitely been drooling a lot for a while now.

So she keeps on getting more and more grabby. Yesterday at Trader Joe's she was sitting in the shopping cart and yanked down a sign from a display and started chewing on it. Also it seems like her old toys aren't as interesting to her as all these new things that she's started to notice around her. For example, at the dinner table, she'll go for the place mat, or cup, or napkin, or anything else but her little pink piggy toy which is also on the table. Go figure.

And, of course, I have to include some photos. Here's Marlon opening his Father's Day card with the girls:



And Maggie playing with a container of banana puffs :)




On the running front, still no running for me. This tendon is really taking it's time to heal...apparently it's a slow healer because it gets used just walking around so it doesn't get to rest much, but if you wear a walking boot then all the muscles around it will just atrophy and you'll end up with different problems. I've been doing some stationary biking and strength stuff at the gym in the meantime but nowhere near as much as I used to run - maybe about 30 min 3-4 times a week? Better than nothing though.

wriggly squirmy

I've realized recently that Maggie is really starting to be able to do stuff and I really need to start being more alert. For example, I normally try to make sure she doesn't grab the faucet handle when I'm giving her a bath (in the kitchen sink) so she doesn't turn the water to hot and burn herself, but today she managed to evade me and turn the water off twice. She also pulled out the tap to drink some water and spent half the bath trying to climb out of the tub, so of course there was water everywhere by the time we were done. She also can't stay still when getting her diaper changed anymore so I've had to use those straps that come with the changing pad finally and buckle her down so she doesn't roll off the changing table or make a big mess.

So even though she doesn't do a real crawl, she does get around. I realized this the other day when I left her on the floor in her room to go take a shower, thinking that this was still completely safe as she wouldn't go anywhere. But by the time I came back she was about 10 feet from where I left her, in front of the sliding closet mirror door, and on her way out the room. Speaking of which, every time she sees herself in the mirror she gets really excited and just has to go towards her reflection. Anyway, so it does seem that the combination of scooting, rotating, and rolling is more effective than I had given it credit for.

Also, she just wants to get her hands on everything these days. Here she is trying to get to the cell phone as I'm trying to take a video of her:



But it's not just fun things like balloons and cell phones and toys anymore these days. It's dirty napkins and slippers and metal forks and mugs full of liquids and all sorts of other inappropriate things. Today she made her way to a big metal weight (a taichi ball, similar to a bowling ball except that it weighs 40 lbs) that Marlon works out with and gave it a slobbery lick before I stopped her.

Well I'm still not running these days. I realized today that it's the middle of June now which means it's been 6 weeks since I've been able to run regularly, which makes me so mad at myself, because if I hadn't tried to jump back into it in so quickly in order to try to run that half marathon, I could be much further ahead by now. Argh. It's been about 1.5 weeks since my last run, and the improvement has just been very, very slow. But on the bright side I can now use the elliptical without any pain so that's a step. Also, I read a magazine on Crossfit Endurance the other day and thought that I would try out the toned-down beginner plan that was included with the article. The first workout was 3 sets of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 20 sit-ups, which seemed easy enough as long as I did assisted pull-ups, since I can't even do one of those. So I tried it on Monday...and realized that I totally overestimated how many sit-ups I can actually do. In fact, I couldn't even make it through the second set! :/

excess

Hmm, there were actually many more strawberries and grapes an hour ago.

another one down the tubes

People continue to ask me if Maggie is a boy. Even if she is wearing a pink shirt, they always have to make sure: "It's a girl, right?" Well maybe I should put one of these flowers on her head all the time (and no, flowered shirts don't convince people that she is a girl either).



(Yes, that is a foam roller wearing a skirt and scarf in the background).

So we need to go for a 9 month appointment which I have yet to schedule, but I suspect she's going to grow out of her car seat pretty soon which has a limit of 22 lbs. or 29". I guess we could take a tape measure out and see how tall she is but lately it seems like her feet are starting to hang off the edge of the seat. Well, it's a good thing she doesn't sleep in this thing anymore:



Also, I'll admit that she does look like a boy in that outfit. Haha.

So, I didn't run the half marathon today. I was in a state of indecision all week as to whether to run it, switch to doing a 5k, or not run at all. Yesterday, my ankle was feeling sore so I had to admit to myself that racing 13 miles on it would probably be a pretty bad idea. I almost changed my mind this morning but Marlon made me stay home. Which was fortunate, because later on this morning I went out and ran 9 miles slow, during which both ankles were bothering me, and right now the left one is still pretty sore. So back to more cross training this week :(