Half Marathon, check!

Chris and I have been training for the Asheville Citizen-Times Half Marathon since the beginning of August and the race was last Saturday. Do you know how hilly Asheville is? The 13 mile course seemed to highlight many of those hills, but I was prepared for everything but mile 9, which was entirely uphill. I was able to hang with my sister up until this point and finished the race in 2 hours, 9 minutes (which I think is a pretty respectable time). I have always wanted to run a half marathon and am happy to be able to cross it off of my life to-do list. I'm even thinking about making this race an annual event.

People keep asking me, "What's next?" I had originally hoped to do something a little more physically challenging for my 30th year, but honestly, I've got a lot going on right now and it was hard to find time to get my training runs in for a half marathon. So I'm thinking I might try to do a triathlon to celebrate my 35th or 40th birthday.....we'll see.

We went to my niece Riley's baptism yesterday. She wore the same gown that Shelby wore at her baptism last December and was a perfect little angel when the minister was holding her and sprinkling the water.
Afterwards, we had a delicous lunch at Grant and Chris's house. My mom emailed me the pictures she took. Here is Harding attempting to get his sister and cousin to stay still. He kept saying, "look at the camera princesses". They did not oblige.

Speaking of Harding, he wore a necktie for the first time yesterday. As we were walking into church, my brother-in-law, Grant said to him, "Nice tie, H", to which he replied, "Your tie is pretty, but mine is handsomer." And as you can see, he did indeed look very handsome.

15 month update (feeding frustrations)

Shelby Frances was 15 months old on September 5th, so we had a check-up with her pediatrician last week. Have I mentioned how much we love Dr. Love? He was pleased with all of Shelby's recent accomplishments (she is now scooting around pretty efficiently on her belly and using a few words and signs). He told us repeatedly how great she is doing (which we already know) and what a wonderful job we are doing with her (which is always nice to hear).

Shelby now weighs 18 lbs, 4 oz. We are glad that she has gained some weight, but unfortunately she is still in the 2nd percentile and could stand to gain a whole lot more. I haven't written much about our difficulties with feeding, but they are pretty significant. Shelby doesn't tolerate texture, and gags if her food isn't a very smooth stage 2 baby food consistency. When she gags, it almost always leads to her vomiting up everything in her stomach. Sometimes she throws up, even if her food is smooth. It takes us a very long time to feed her, so it is frustrating when it doesn't stay down.

She is seeing a nutritionist and a speech therapist who focus on her feeding and calorie intake, and there has been a lot of progress. Shelby now drinks whole milk (with formula added to increase protein and calories) out of a sippy cup. She is also taking in more food. On a good day, she usually eats a couple jars of baby food plus yogurt and half of an avocado (when she keeps it all down). We add melted butter or olive oil to all of her foods. This is a huge improvement, but it still isn't enough intake to increase her weight percentiles.

My hope is that she will keep improving and soon start to take an interest in some self-feeding. Our neurosurgeon has told us that feeding issues are very common with kids who have hydrocephalus. I am certainly open to suggestions from any moms who have dealt with similar problems.

Camping in Hot Springs

For a Labor Day celebration my parents (Momo and Bop) were kind enough to treat us to a weekend camping trip in Hot Springs.  We had quite the set-up:  they brought their camper and kept the kids while we slept a couple of spots down in a tent (at least we did for one night, until Tiffany decided it was too cold to sleep in a tent and left Bailey and me in the tent by ourselves).

If you have never been to Hot Springs, NC, it is a neat little mountain town.  The campground is within walking distance of downtown (and the hot springs) and right next to the French Broad River.  Also, as you can see, it was right next to an old caboose which was a big hit with Harding.

On Saturday, we all went to the local pub for lunch, and to watch GT play their first game of the season.  This is one of my new favorite restaurants, Iron Horse Station:

Because it was Labor Day, Hot Springs had a festival downtown.  There was food, music, bounce houses and a great fireworks show to cap it all off.  I think the bounce houses might have been the family favorite.

Here's Shelby Frances and me having fun in the maze:

Momo and Harding in the maze:

Do you think Harding was excited about the gigantic slide?

This boy loves his ice cream.

On the last day, we sent the kids on a walk around town with Momo and Bop while we took a more strenuous hike with Bailey to the top of Lover's Leap. H really enjoyed this walk, and Momo and Bop bought him this frog walking stick, which he LOVES.  It now goes everywhere with him.

Harding posing for the camera:

So, we had a great weekend with wonderful weather and both the kids had a blast.  Thanks Momo and Bop!