It's pretty common knowledge that I was worried about N's speech for a while. Though she has been excellent at comprehension and overall communication, actual articulation of words that sound like complete words, seemed to be a bit lacking. Well, I don't worry anymore. Why? Because for most of the summer she was saying "uhhhh," ie. the vowel sound in the way I said "ruuuun!" when she was running, everytime she would see running shoes or someone running. One day, shortly after our return to VA, I got her out of bed, and as we were walking down the hall toward the kitchen, she broke into a run, and shouted, clear as a bell, "running!" So there you have it. She may have a lot of weird designations for things, but I know one day, all of a sudden, she'll just say them correctly. And that will be that.
Here we are in a sequence of soccer moves. Not only does N like to be active, she also likes her "friends" to be active. How many mornings have I gone into her room to find her making her doll, Violette, (I named her that because she's, well, purple.), do sit-ups, or to find poor Violette being made to run laps around the crib. I am so happy that N is imitating lives that include core and cardiovascular fitness instead of say, smoking and fighting. (Though she does hit- just me, thankfully, not other kids - from time to time, not sure where she has seen that since she doesn't watch any TV except for an 1/2 hour of Sesame Street and she certainly has not seen violence in our house.)
What also makes me happy is that N loves to eat green peppers, lentil & butternut squash soup, turkey chili, and cooked carrots, to name but a few healthy food items she will always pick over sweets. In fact, I have given her small tastes of chocolate recently, and she has virtually recoiled in horror.
What else can I update you on the Moop? Well, she loves the alphabet. Not so much being read to, that involves too much sitting still, but she is constantly asking me to write the first letter of names of people she knows and can already identify A is for apple, M is for mama, D for dada, N for Nadia, Y for the Y, G for GG (my dad), B for Batman, R for Rambo (my brothers, as you recall), O for Oh No! and E for Emma, (Her other doll.) And yesterday she counted to two. So things, they are a moving along! (We won't go into the increased defiance and crying of late, I'm trying to stay positive;)In other news, I'm proud to announce I just completed the 6 week course at the Y and was FINALLY able to break the 120 lb. plateau, something I haven't seen since before I got pregnant with N. I'm now 117.5 lbs, and down 2 percent body fat (lower than pre-preg days!), 2 inches in the waist and 1 inch in the hips. I feel fantastic. My leg is also getting better so I'm able to run more and am doing a couple of races this month. A 5k military race in which I hope to beat my un-raced PR of 24:16 and maybe even place in my age group, depending on who shows up, and a thanksgiving day 10k, in which I hope to break my un-raced PR of 53:29 (though I'm pretty sure I ran the first 10k of the half marathon this summer faster than that) and have no hope of placing in anything. Regardless of chip times though, it should be a fun month since my workout/runner friend K is visiting from Sicily. In the new year I'm hoping to take the second level of the class I just completed and move on to bigger races like a valentine's day 10 miler and a St. Patty's half. We'll see. I'm just glad I have things to motivate me during and after the porky holiday season;)






