Heather Bird Photography » Blog

You might have thought today was Christmas morning with how many times Ricky said yesterday, “I can’t wait for Valentine’s day” and how excited he was this morning.   He can’t wait to hand out his Valentine’s and is so excited to receive the Valentine’s from his 21 classmates.  He’s told me about 27 times this week that he will be getting 21 Valentines!

This picture is my entry into the I Heart Faces “heart” challenge this week.  It’s been awhile since I participated, and coincidentally I had this picture already ready to post today.

Hope you all have a lovely day!

Love,

Heather

Earlier today, I read this post on my friend’s blog about how personable and cool it is to receive handmade cards.    I’ve had an idea in mind for a card for Ken for awhile and this encouraged me to finally make it.

I got to work and dug out my gluestick to find this:

What in the world is growing in that gluestick you ask?   Yes.  So did I.  But I was in a hurry, threw it on the counter and grabbed a new one from the drawer.    A few minutes later I look up to see this:

Apparently, after we started hiding the chapstick from Benny (he makes a mess, looses the caps, etc.) he found an alternative.     And the growth inside the chapstick?  Oreos.  Yep, you need a good dose of chapstick while eating Oreos.    Glad the mystery is solved, however I have no idea how long my baby has been spreading glue on his lips!

While Benny proceeded to lube up his lips, I finished up Ken’s card.

I’ve seen these scrabble images on pinterest for awhile and each time I think, “that is so perfect for us.”  Ken and I spent the first year of our marriage playing Scrabble almost nightly.    It brings back such fond memories for me, that I knew I had to do something with a photo like this.    So that is my wedding ring, those our are original Scrabble tiles and this is my Valentine’s card for Ken tomorrow.    Way better than paying for an unpersonalized, generic card!

Love,

Heather

The spreadsheet making, list crossing, accountability needing portion of my brain has been nagging at me to set them.   I’ve thought lots about what I want to do, visually crossing things off of my mental list because, “that’s not challenging enough, that’s too ambitious, etc.”   But, today is the day I’m doing it.

Today is February 12th.   I’m 43 days behind the rest of goal setters in setting my New’s Years Resolutions, but today is the day.

I’m a procrastinator and the type of person that needs a good milestone day to start something:  “I’ll start the diet tomorrow.”   “I’m already 4 days into this week, I’ll start running again next week.”    If I screw up on a Tuesday, I might as well wait until Sunday to start over with a new week.    I can’t let a good milestone day pass me by or I may be in trouble … you know,  “It’s only 323 days until next year, might as well start then.”

So today is it.    One year ago last Sunday I ran the Surf City Half Marathon, and sequentially set my 2011 goal to run 6 half marathons.   So here, on the one year, one week anniversary of me setting my 2011 New Year’s Resolution, it’s time to set mine for 2012.   And do a little recap of 2011:

My friend Sandy and me, prior to running the Surf City Half Marathon.

• Surf City Half Marathon   1:55:51 (8:33/mile)
• Salt Lake City Half Marathon 1:54:59 (8:46/mile)
• Legacy Midnight Half Marathon 2:05:46 (9:36/mile)
• San Francisco Half Marathon 2:03:14 (9:24/mile)
• Moab Other Half Marathon 2:09:12 (9:51/mile)
• Halloween Half Marathon 1:59:39 (9:09/mile)

I list these here as a reminder to myself that yes, I did accomplish my goal of 6 half marathons last year.    And while I don’t want to diminish that fact (6 half marathons was a great accomplishment for me) when it was all said and done I was pretty disappointed.    Seeing them recapped here, staring me down in black and white, I AM pretty disappointed.      I remember being elated with my time in Surf City.   I remember the mentality of thinking my half marathon pace IS 8:30 even when clearly, half marathon after half marathon I didn’t come close to 8:30 again.   I’m actually not sure that it ever really hit me until after the Moab Half Marathon that, “no, Heather, you really can’t run an 8:30 pace.”    I know why.  It’s not rocket science.  I stopped training.   I told myself I was faster than I was, I stopped following my training plan and I kind of gave up.   So this year, I’m pushing harder.     I don’t necessarily mean running more than 6 half marathons, although I may, but I mean truly training more, eating better and losing weight, in hopes that at the end of the year I’ll be feeling good and running fast (because let me tell you, I felt anything but good during that Moab Half).   So my goal for 2012:

• My goal is to run 1000 miles in 2012.       That’s 83 miles/month.   Approximately 20 miles/week with a couple weeks of leeway.  I’ve got 97.75 miles in already, which is behind where I need to be but I’m on my way.  Only 902.25 to go!

My training partner. I'm not sure I can do 1000 miles without the iPod

My New Year’s Resolutions always seem to focus solely on fitness, because I’m always trying to lose weight and they are easily measurable.   However, there are many other areas of my life that need some resolutions too.   The one I am most focused on is Balance.    I don’t seem to have much balance in my life.    I tend to throw myself into something 110%, gung-ho, nothing else matters, until the next thing comes along.    Case in point, I ran 12 out of the first 14 days of the year .. all gung-ho, nothing else matters, I’m going to run 1200 miles this year, fanatic.  And then got busy planning a Superhero party and didn’t run for 11 days straight because nothing mattered but sewing Superhero capes.   THAT, has to stop.   I’m not really sure how to measure it, but I’m shooting for more balance.  So, goal two:

• Balance!   More undistracted time with my family, more focus on the little things that mean the most

Dinner before the San Fran half, with my husband who deserves more un-distracted time.

So, there they are documented for me and all of cyberspace satisfying that “accountability needing” portion of my being.
I’ve got many other goals and things that I am going to work on under the theme of “balance” starting with more quality sleep (ie not staying up until the wee hours of the morning writing blog posts!)   So, G’night!
Hope your resolutions are well on their way of being accomplished.

Love, Heather

I say it often, usually when referring to my growing boys, “Time flies.”   I’ll go a few months with my head down, buried in the tasks of every day life and then look up and realize, “yes they did it again… they grew up while I wasn’t looking.”    I like to think I “look” every day.   I do my best to take it all in, to notice it all, to be present in all of the little things and then all of a sudden in the span of a few hours or days I realize, “wow, they’ve changed and I didn’t even know it.”

The other day Ricky came running to me and said, “Mommy, you HAVE to see this.   You HAVE to come and see what Benny did.”    Benny is my resourceful one, moving chairs, climbing cupboards, figuring out how to get what he wants while typically making a mess in the process.    Knowing this about Benny, I figured I’d be opening the door to a dumped box of cereal, spilled jug of milk or other mess.    However, I walked into the room honestly not knowing what I was to be looking at.    “Look,” Ricky beamed.    Confused and a little hesitant, I slowly said, “Yeah?”    Ricky beamed more and pointed to a row of Hotwheel Cars lined up on the floor, “Look what Benny did.  All. By. Himself.”

Ken and Ricky have a game (or maybe more of a Saturday morning routine) of dumping out the entire bin of cars, digging through them for “their” cars and lining them up either in lines or parking lot style squares.  This has been going on for years.   They love it.   They sort and trade and sort some more, each lining up their favorite cars.     It’s really not that big of a deal but while none of us really paid attention Benny was watching and learning the routine and is now part of the club.    Having a little follower thrilled Ricky.

***

Monday, after way to many hours of background TV noise, I stopped my cleaning, turned off the TV and asked the twins if they wanted to color.   We color fairly often.   Usually Nolan colors on his face and hands.   Usually Benny completes his coloring task with colored lips after sucking on each and every marker that he has scribbled with.   On this particular day Benny selected one lime green marker, picked a specific dump truck coloring page and colored space after space, circle after circle.   He was truly coloring, not scribbling and not sucking on his marker.    “Hmm, when did this happen?” I wondered.    I watched, thinking it was a fluke, but no, it wasn’t.  He sat and colored page after page, headlight after headlight, dumptruck tire after dumptruck tire.   The end result may have looked pretty similar to his previous undirected scribbles but the actual process was nothing like that.   Ever color mark was deliberate.   I watched his little brain search for another spot to color, then color that spot until it was done before moving onto the next.

Ricky got home from school as we were cleaning up the coloring pages.   When he looked at Benny’s dump-truck masterpiece he said in his same proud voice, “Oh look, he’s trying his best.  He’s learning.”

***

One weekend morning not long ago, I was consumed with catching up on email, reading Facebook and all types of tasks that were prohibiting me from be anything but present in what my boys were doing.   Benny brought me my cell phone and instead of listening to what he was trying to say I grabbed it without looking and said, “thanks bud.”   He took the phone  back, whined something at me and tried to give it to me again.  This went on for a bit until Ricky said, “MOM, Benny is saying ‘Angry Birds.’”   I stopped, looked at Benny and said, “what?”  stunned with what Ricky had claimed.   Sure enough, he was asking to play Angry Birds?!?     Ricky again beamed, “I showed him how to play, mommy.”

Just like that, my 2 year old plays Angry Birds, colors masterpieces and is part of the Saturday Morning Car Club.     I couldn’t be prouder.   (Well, truthfully, I could do without the Angry Birds.)

***

And while I am so proud of my Benny for learning and doing new things I was equally proud in observing Ricky’s reaction to each of these.    Ricky took such pride in being a role model, encourager and teacher to his little brother!

To all you parents out there, watch out, your toddlers will grow up without you knowing.  But if you’re lucky, they’ll have a big brother who notices all the little things you miss when you’re not looking.

Love,

Heather