Elise to English Translation - by Ben

So, you may find yourself lost and alone with Elise one of these days, and if you use this handy translation guide you should be able to find your way back to civilization. I have no doubt that Elise has as extensive a vocabulary as her friend Addie (http://www.theaddieupdate.blogspot.com/), it's just that this translation guide is incomplete. I will continue to update until I know how Elise is saying "Daddy, I'm fourteen," and "it needs new batteries." Elise is much too smart to simply learn English. Instead, she has invented her own language. And we are so proud.

Now, before anyone goes judging, please note that Elise is meeting all of her developmental milestones--she's not showing off, and not falling behind. She's right in the meaty part of the curve (credit: Seinfeld). Besides, she can identify and say her entire alphabet excepting a few letters (see number 12 above). So, take that Addie!!!!

Wiggles

It's a sad day here in the Paxton house. Elise has discovered The Wiggles. I saw her rocking out to them one day at the daycare at the gym so we decided to get one of their cds for her. Elise has always loved music and dancing around to songs so The Wiggles are great for her. It's her poor parents who are stuck with the songs in their head all day long. Even Ben, Mr. Smashing Pumpkins, can't get these out of his head. If you don't believe how catchy these songs are, watch this video, at your own risk. And if you don't have kids, just don't go there. You wouldn't understand.



This one is her favorite song though the video is nonexistent.

Picture perfect

Ben wanted me to put some of these pictures in an actual post because the expressions on our faces are pretty funny. We went up in the mountains a few weeks ago to take some pictures with our friends the McBrides. We watched as their girls sat quietly and smiled at the camera, and then it was our turn.

We have hardly any pictures of us all together as a family and this is why: Elise does not respond well to direction and dislikes sitting still, especially if her friends are off running around without her. She really has a mind of her own. It is also physically impossible to get a baby to look up a camera too. Oh well, at least we tried. It was a miserable failure, but it was our failure.

5 things I don't like about running

I've gotten back into running and I love it. There's just something so simple about being outside and running. But I have to admit, there are things I don't like about it. I guess it's not the actual running itself, but certain parts of the running experience. I thought these up on one of my runs the other day.

1. Dead animals: If you think it's bad looking at it from a window going 50 mph from a car, imagine having to run right next to it, and in some cases, leap over a carcass if there's oncoming traffic. And maybe it's just me, but it seems to be worst now that we're living in Virginia. I definitely see much more of a variety than I used to in Baltimore.
2. Roads with no shoulder: Seriously, why would they make a hilly, windy road with no shoulder? All I'm asking for is a couple of inches. There are some parts on certain roads that I am always nervous to run on.
3. Daylight savings: Why is it suddenly dark at 4:00 pm? And it's not even that much lighter in the morning. I can't win.
4. Cars that honk: I don't know why you do it, but please please don't honk at me. It is wrong on so many levels. Ben says cars honk at him too. It's not the good kind of honking either.
5. Keeping my heartrate below 150 (just kidding Coach.)

Then there are the things I'm still on the fence about:

1. Live animals: Birds and squirrels are fine. But then there are deer (huge potential to end up as roadkill), barking dogs (especially scary in the dark), and then the small unidentifiable animals that rustle around in the leaves and trees (also scary for some reason).
2. Hills: I like running up hills, but they have a tendency to kick my heartrate up and exponentially increase the risk of receiving a nasty email from coach. Plus there are some mean mean hills here.
3. Country roads: I like running with as few as cars around as possible, but I also don't want to be a lone female running alone in the dark on some back road in Virginia. I guess it's time to break out the pepper spray.

Well, none of these reasons are enough to make me stop running but they do make for some interesting stories when I come home. So long for now!

Our Year in Review

Hello everyone, welcome to our blog! I know it's not the end of the year yet. But I'm a mother of 2 small children now and it takes me forever to finish something once I start it. So, my reasoning is if I at least start this now there is a slight chance it will be done in time for an end of the year retrospective. And if it's done early, I look even better! It's a win win win situation.

So, what have we been up to this year? We've had a lot of change this year: Ben graduating and starting his residency, a change in location, a change in family size! But things are still pretty much the same. Ben still checks his fantasy sports teams constantly and tries to get away with as much as he can at work and I'm still running around after Elise since luckily Chloe is still pretty immobile. I'm training for the Boston marathon in April; Ben's training for the Louisville Ironman in August. Elise just turned 2 and loves books and puzzles and swings more than anything else in the world. Sharing her toys, not so much. Chloe is sleeping through the night so life is wonderful.

Why am I doing a blog finally? It's not because Ben has been pestering me for forever to do it. I think it's a good way to stay in touch with everyone, especially with all our moves and friends scattered everywhere. I'm not sure what I'm going to write about. Probably the kiddies, maybe some running stuff. Tune in to find out.

Here is what our year looked like.

Love,

Ben, Juli, Elise & Chloe