Why can't my children crawl normally??

Carson army-crawled for the longest time, and then he finally switched to a sort of crawl/bum scoot/walk with one foot. Everett's been crawling normally for a couple of weeks now, but these last few days he is starting to do the one-leg thing like his brother! Is it me or them??

26.2.

I did complete the marathon!
I did not reach my goal of doing it in 3:40.

I did run it as hard and fast as was physically possible for me that day.

I did not enjoy the cold, and the hilly downtown Charlotte course.

I did experience the miracle of my knee pain (IT band) not being a major problem on race day.

I did have the most dedicated support team of any runner, with my dad and husband biking on either side of me for the last 10 miles of the race.

I did collapse as soon as I crossed the finish line and was taken to the medical tent. Embarrassing!

I am in serious pain right now: my quads and knee are still very sore, the bottoms of my feet feel like one big bruise, and my right big toe one of the most painful things I have ever experienced. (See nasty picture, if you dare.)

I am so glad I trained for this marathon. The four (early!) mornings a week spent running with some of the most wonderful ladies I know were absolutely priceless!

And I am so grateful for two good baby boys and their wonderful grandmother who took care of them all day!

This must have been taken in the very beginning of the race, hence the smiles.

Me and my dad.

The swollen toe that is my nemesis right now.

Robyn, Emily, Page and Ann.

This knee.

This one little knee could just cooperate and make tomorrow a wonderfully rewarding experience, or... it could give me trouble and make the last four months of training all for nothing!!!!!!!

Let's see if it can hold out for 26.2, 8:23 pace.

A typical playroom scene.

Carson outfitted to fight the nearest fire, laying on the floor singing and talking to whomever or whatever will listen. (If you sneak in, you can hear streams of thought like, "I haf hel'copter cake...Daddy bwow candles wif Carson!...Hel'copters haf pwopellers...Go to hospital... Doctors hewp sick people...Kate is sick...She in bed...I eat quesadilla!...Yummy dinner, mommy..." He just goes on and on.)

Everett trying to crawl, making it a couple of feet and then sitting back down, looking a little puzzled as to what just happened, often ending up on his hands and tip-toes, bum in the air. Everett nearly always, always, always happy as a clam! An excerpt from my entry in Everett's journal last night: "You may look like me, but I believe you have your father's perpetually optimistic nature... You smile and laugh when others might cry, you are so patient with me, you eat anything I serve you, you make me smile all day long...just like your dad!

We sure do have some sweet boys over here!

Book Review.

With Christmas crafts to finish, a trip to Utah to prepare for, and so many errands to run, sometimes I joke with Rick about pulling an all-nighter to get things done. Well, last night I sort of did that on accident. But I wasn't crafting, or running errands... I was finally finishing my book for Book Club!

And I couldn't even get to sleep once I finally crawled into bed, because I was still completely taken with the story. This book is one of my new favorites. The story is oh-so tragic, which provides a wonderfully good cry. It is also symbolic and deep, which teaches life lessons and leaves you thinking about your life and the way you treat your loved ones. It is obviously a book that you can't put down, since I read almost all of it in one night!

For a super quick re-cap, the main character is a former heart surgeon who left his trade after his wife, victim of a genetic heart defect, tragically died. Their love story is so sweet, and the book often flashes back to their childhood and short years of marriage. The story opens as Reese meets a little girl who also has a heart defect, and little Annie is determined to receive a heart transplant. There are a million more parts to the story, but it focuses on Reese's quest to mend Annie's broken heart, as well as his own.

I LOVED this book!

He had a good Thanksgiving.

So did he.


We all had a good Thanksgiving!


And apparently Everett didn't get his fill, because the day after Thanksgiving he (and his three chins) kept trying to eat this dog's nose.

Birthday Weekend.

This boy is TWO!!

And we had quite a busy weekend. I have been so excited about nap time today just so I could have a little down time!!

The weekend's events went something like this: Friday: FREE day at the Children's museum (what a fun place!!), ran errands to get ready for Carson's super last-minute little birthday party, planned our training run and stashed the water, made Carson's cake and party food (I have NO expertise on cake decorating, but decided to make a HELICOPTER cake. Oops.) Saturday: Ran 20 MILES, threw Carson his party, then spent the evening making three different kids of soup. Did I mention I ran 20 miles??????? Sunday: church all morning, then spent the afternoon re-arranging the house (multiple times) to accommodate 10 guests for dinner, hosted a wonderful dinner group full of delightful guests including some elderly ladies in our church (where we served all that soup), then Rick sang in a musical event at the church later that evening.

The evidence, in pictures:

(Except we didn't get pictures of yesterday's dinner group. I was so proud of those soups, and I totally should have taken a picture of the spread!! And no pictures of the 20 mile run either, although Salem Lake was so beautiful!!)

At the Children's museum, cooking up something yummy.

Ok, at the museum, Carson found this nursing pillow and took quite a while to sit and arrange himself with it around him. Once he got all situated, he looked at me and said, "I need Everett." Yep, after I handed Everett over, Carson lifted up his shirt to "give mommy milk." This should be embarrassing in a few years!!

Eating a free donut after "working" at the Krispy Kreme factory.

More fun at the museum.

This is my "wait, WHY am I making a cake into the shape of a helicopter???" look. And, after examining this picture, I think I need a major hair cut.

We had a little story and singing time featuring helicopters. (In case you're worried about Everett's face plant in the above picture, see the next one for the recovery.)

Still can't believe these presents are all for him!!

A rousing game of "ring-around-the rosy." (Like the propellers on the helicopter go around and around, get it??)

The yummies. (Note: everything but the cake has a fruit or vegetable in it!! Zucchini muffins, pumpkin cookies, and apples with dip. Keeping your children healthy!)

Ok, now that I've done fondant once, I'm sure I could make a good looking cake with it. This was my first attempt, and it is quite lumpy. But I'm excited to try fondant again.

We had to do some convincing to get him away from his new books to come eat cake.

Carson is such a big boy, and we loved celebrating him and his birthday!!


What??? Nap time is already over??? There goes my break...

I do love my boys!

De 2009 Otto Family

*photo by Rachel

He's taking a sick day.

That nose hasn't stopped running for four days straight.

He must be feeling a little better, though, because just now when I went in his room to tell him to please lay down and take his nap instead of running around his crib yelling, "What's goin' on!! What's goin' on!!" he looked at me, said, "I do Hokey Pokey!" and started spinning around and around.

This little thing has a slight runny nose as well, but he is still my happy boy!

And he still spits up! (For once, on himself instead of on me.)

I am reminded that I think the WORST part about motherhood is having sick children!!! Especially children who, when they are sick, cry and whine allllllll dayyyyy looooong. I'll just hope this really is the end of it!

I finally figured out how keep the boys busy while I make dinner.

Carson's sudden desire to play in an exersaucer allowed us to have enchiladas with home-made tortillas last night. Yummmmm.

Thumb out; food in.

I didn't really take videos of Everett's first feedings, so I wanted to get one now, especially to show how he sucks his thumb between bites. He happily eats all of my home-made baby food so far.

I have also been trying to get videos of Carson's sweet voice and the way he sometimes makes one-syllable words into two, but he just goes on silent mode whenever he knows I am taping him! I love that he is such a good talker, especially when he asks me questions, "Where'd dat come from??" and "What's dat fo-wah?" and when he brings things up that happened weeks ago, like, "We forgot to see cows!!" (when we went to a farm a while back), and "I remember Marshall!" (a friend who stayed with us for a night.)

So, this is a recent video. It's quite long and won't be interesting to most, but be sure to watch the middle where Carson sings (says) some of a song about being a missionary. And excuse my embarrassing mommy tone telling him to stop touching the camera!

This sweet little thing

turned 7 months old yesterday.

is always looking for something to suck. He will even suck on your face if you're not careful.

giggles and giggles when tickled.

is on a wonderfully predictable 2-naps-a-day schedule now. (I loathe the third nap.)

does not roll. Big brother had been rolling all around for months at this age! This baby just lays there, content to watch everyone else. I know he can roll, and he has done it both ways, he just chooses not to!

does bounce up and down on his bum, sometimes resulting in a face plant.

is seriously so sweet that if all babies were like this, I would have a dozen more.

has an intense love for Cheerios, and is surprisingly good at self-feeding.

was my perfect 12-hours-a-night sleeper, until a few weeks ago when he decided he needed an occasional midnight snack. I think we've found the solution, though, (which was actually my fault...long story...) and he's back in business for the most part.

endures LOTS of mauling by big brother.

can shoot out quantities of spit-up that you wouldn't believe. This creates lots of laundry and mopping.

looks identical to the baby pictures of his mother.

loves to suck his thumb. This makes him an extremely good at self-soothing. I can count on one hand the number of times he has truly cried hard, because he nearly always just sticks his thumb in his mouth instead of crying. I'll worry about weaning him later; this is great!!

is soooo snuggly and cuddly. Oh, how we love him!!

A Happy Halloween.

I've never really loved Halloween, but this year was pretty fun! Planning and making Carson's costume was quite rewarding. The festivities started with our church's Trunk or Treat activity, where we really tried to get a good picture of the boys. Obviously, what we got was Everett stuffing his face with leaves. Pappy and Grandmama were in town for the actual Halloween day, and we went to the fire station so Carson could really get into character. He kept his ultra-serious face on the whole time we were there, and he examined the fire truck carefully.
Lastly, we did a little trick-or-treating. There is a street in our neighborhood that is blocked off just for trick-or-treating, and lots of the houses are decorated. We stayed out long enough to get me, I mean Carson, a little treat supply, and headed home soaking wet!

It was a happy Halloween!

Another T-Shirt.

Is it just my husband, or does every boy dream of owning an intramural champion T-shirt for every sport under the sun??

I don't know how many championship teams he was on in undergrad, but Rick's count for med school jumped to TWO last week when he made some tricky defensive moves to help his team beat out the law school.

The field. That's the REAL Wake Forest football stadium!!

The defensive player of the game.

The team, including one self-declared coach.


The wife.


I am also so grateful that this champion husband of mine supports me in my athletic pursuits, like this morning's 16 mile run! He does diapers, early morning feedings (I do supply the milk), and understandably cuts out his Saturday morning football so I can do my long runs. He is a champ.

I just made lasagna.

I only make it about once a year. I blended up tons of fresh veggies and mixed them into the pasta sauce. Take that, Carson, Mr. I-Pick-Anything-Green-Off-Of-My-Plate-And-Feed-It-To-My-Mom.

And now I'm having a very hard time finding the motivation to wash all the pots and pans.

Usually I would let Rick, Mr. I-Can-Wash-Any-Mountain-of-Dishes-in-Ten-Minutes-Flat do it, but he has a test on Friday, and it's been a while since he had a free night to study. So, I will force myself to go clean the kitchen, hopefully before the singing and cooing I hear from the respective bedrooms gets louder and more demanding...

But first, a couple of cute pictures. One, Carson loves to feed Everett. Two, all the boys ready for a Sunday walk. Enjoy!

Yesterday was one of those days...

That happened about four times.

You know your baby really loves you when he aims the spit up so it goes not just on your neck, but down your shirt and into your hair, too.

Also yesterday, Everett showed his definite preference to rolling, rather than napping. And somehow there was never a moment when both boys were asleep, meaning I had to strategically plan even a bathroom break without a little companion. I also managed to create a disaster in the playroom while trying to hang the boys' names. And finally, I was suffering from a mother-of-a-newborn type state of fatigue, since suddenly my perfect 12-hours-a-night sleeping baby decided he needs a 3 a.m. feeding again.


Today was a much better day, and I'm going to check off one more item on my to-do list with this catch-up post.

Everett's eyes are still blue. (And last night, he remembered how to sleep through the night again, thank goodness!!)

And this little blondie chows down his solids!! I tried to start him a couple of weeks ago, and he just wasn't getting the whole swallowing thing. So I put it away and brought it out a couple of days ago. Now he does great and has eaten sweet potatoes, avocado, and banana.

Love that he's still so bobbly, but he sure does lean in for the bite!

This guy is proficient at taking his sleeper off, and he also knows exactly what to do with a breast pump.

This was one of the best days of Carson's life, getting to be so close to a tractor.

He and Sadie were buds during a Stake Youth Activity at a farm.

Is this place pretty or what??

The babies are calling... guess that's all the pictures for now!