Vranicar Family: Party of 5

Better late than never with this... Parker had his one-year well check earlier this month and as we have come to expect, he's above average.. at least in terms of growth :) Weight: 32lbs Height: 33" If you don't have another one year-old to "compare" this too and get an idea of how big this little boy is, when you look at a growth chart of babies, Parker's height and weight are above the 100%, way above. Which means he is bigger than more than 100% of babies his age. :-) He has two teeth on the bottom, right in the middle and is working on one on top, on his right side.  He is signing a handful of things and can say "mama", "dada", and "ut oh". He really is a smart boy- he understands most of what we say to him and seems to be frustrated that he cannot yet use words to answer us. He is primarily walking everywhere and tries to run away from us on occassion. This is usually accompanied by lots of laughter and

Oh how I wish those words applied to parents too! Yesterday morning I woke up at 3:15AM, not on purpose. I'm not sure what initially woke me up, but once my eyes were open, I noticed Kevin wasn't there. So I did that courteous thing and walked out to the living room to tell him to stop sleeping on the couch with all the lights on and come to bed. Apparently, that short walk from our room tom the couch was too much excitement for me because once I got back to my nice warm bed, I was wide awake. I tried to lay there for awhile and just let myself fall asleep..... that didn't work. Next I decided I'd check my email on my phone to distract myself and become tired again....nope. In fact, that did the opposite- I had a work email that was now bugging me so I finally got out my laptop and sent the reply I had already written in my head. As I as composing this email I decided I might as well make a pot of coffee since I had two free hands and would need it eventually anyway. Th

For me, most mornings look something like this.... and I'll admit that sometimes, just prior to this I'm all warm and snug in my dark bedroom, longing for just a half hour more of sleep. But, I know that a half hour of sleep isn't going to make me feel as good as a half hour at the gym. So I throw back the covers and just get out of bed. Before I was a runner, I would hear people talk about the runner's high and thought they were nuts. I would later learn that you need to run more than a mile to feel this.... Before I started posting updates on Facebook or on the blog about my real love of being at the gym or doing something to become more fit, I too would become almost annoyed by those ultra-hyper workout queens who were so happy and motivated and positive. I realized recently that I may be turning into one of those people who post about going to the gym, about finding a new healthy alternative to something, who really does feel pretty freaking amazing after a