Katy Perry: There's a message here..right?

Anna has taken a liking to a few rther racy Katy Perry videos. And I introduced her to them. OK it's not that bad. It's California Gurls, Friday Night, and Firework. It started with the innocent Firework. Then she was so enthralled...

At any rate she asks to watch them on my iphone all the time. I was thinking on some level I suck as a mom for letting her watch this crap. But then again, she's too young to really get the "racy" parts of it that's clear to you and me, and it's a chance for me to let her know that girls can be pretty all glammed up, but also a leader, a normal person, and able to make their own way. I'm not exactly in love with Katy Perry but I do think she's pushed her way in and has some level of talent. It takes guts as well as boobs.

She also has started liking Jewel's music (she's easy and not nearly on the racy side). I got to explain that she can be smart because she writes her own music as poetry, pretty, is married to a cowboy and has a new baby so she's a mom, too.

Then there's Lady GaGa. For some reason Anna's taken a liking to a few of her songs. So we watched her New Year's performance together and the look on Anna's face was more of: "WTH is SHE WEARING? I don't know about this..."  I explained that Lady Gaga likes to wear lots of different costumes. But that's about all I know about Lady Gaga :)

...out...

13.1 done!

Beat our best previous half marathon time by 6 minutes on Sunday at the Houston Half marathon! I've done the Houston Half in 2006 and in 2008. In 2009, 2010, and 2011, we did the Disney Half. All have always been in Jan which makes for a completely doable training season. We opted out of the Disney Half this Jan, and the associated Disney World, Fl trip that accompanies it. That's made me particularly sad because it's been fun benchmarking Anna's growth every year there. But we've decided to go in September instead to what was going to be the Wine and Dine Half but is now the Tower of Terror 10 miler. Oh well, screw you Disney for foiling our plans and shorting us 3.1 miles. But to be honest, I bonk at around mile 10 anyway!

A few things to note based on this year's Half:

-A full night's sleep without a kid's foot in my ribs and cramming our bodies into a smaller-than-Queen-size bed at Disney makes an apparent difference. It seems 1 hour of sleep = 1 minute overall trimmed off my run time the next day.

-Not tip toeing around 30 bodies in the Disney Wilderness Cabin at 2am conserves energy. Apparently by 6 minutes in the end.

-How the Hell did we walk the parks every year immediately after running 13.1 and a shower? The power of family pressure. Note to self: there's something to be said about all that post-race walking: cuts down on the stiff muscles.

-The closer you get to the finish line, the more clueless runners piss you off (translated: I'm trying to beat my time, DON'T YOU HAVE A GOAL? MOVE OUT OF MY WAY!).

- Running faster overall means you finish earlier. How about that?

-The last two miles suck the worst. Make that the last 2.1 miles.

-Houston has more of a cheer crowd than Disney

-Not sure how it's geographically possible, but Houston has more freaking hills than the Disney route

-Houston clearly handles the logistics better: better crowd control, wider running route, a post-race meal, and even better goodie bags!

-Houston has a later start time of 7am which means DUDE I GOT TO SLEEP UNTIL 4AM, unlike Disney's start an hour earlier. Eastern time. Do the math.

-Disney has more idiot walkers who just won't get out of your way (no offense to walkers, unless you're the idiot who walks 5-friends-wide across the route. TO YOUR LEFT!!!!)

-Get Anna a play date for the remainder of the day the next time we run 13.1 miles. We were sore and tired and we really didn't want to convey a negative message that RUNNING MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE CRAP the rest of the day, but she kept asking why we weren't doing anything fun that day. We told her that really it's just that sometimes it's good to just chill out, relax, and lay low. Life is not always go-go-go!

I can't even for the life of me now fathom the feat which has been for the previous 3 years of what we did regarding the travel, family, and half marathon experience of Disney. And oh yes, each year I was also there in Orlando a week early to work a major conference. Work, family, travel, a half marathon, DISNEY PARKS. One single trip to Disney alone can destroy a family's stress levels by itself!

WTF?! My GOD, people will clearly do whatever hair brained thing I dictate, won't they?!

HAHA. Those were the best trips EVER :)  Miss you Disney, see you in September, albeit 3.1 miles short.

Night 4: Incident- Fell out of bed at 1:30am. Dry on wake up. Night 5: wet Weeeeeeee.....

Night 3: Dry

Staying Dry

Anna's been potty trained since just before she was 3 years old...but has never managed to stay dry at night. She's still in pull ups at night, and most usually they're soaked by the morning. We've had week-longs stretches of dryness occasionally in the past, but that's a rarity. This is such a sensitive issue, we've taken her pediatrician's advice on not pushing her too hard on this. But if you ask around long enough on all of this, it seems the issue is split: ranging from behavioral to physiological to hereditary bases. I've been told to "just put her in her big girl undies, and after a few wet nights she'll get the idea!" (behavioral). My physiology books say that there's hormones that are regulated by the light/dark cycle, some of which are involved in bladder control, that develop later for some kids than others (physiological). I've read some Baby Center articles that say the muscles to control the bladder at night and the link to the brain telling the child to "not pee!" may take longer to develop in others.

What the hell.

I don't know what the answer is. But since she'll be 5 in March and she seems ready to participate in staying dry like a big girl, we've decided to go with big girl undies for bedtime instead of pull-ups. We talked with her about it just before Christmas, and miraculously starting with that night, she stayed dry all week (even though we hadn't switched to undies yet). Then the next week when she was at my mom's, she was wet all week. We'd agreed that her first night back at home, we'd start the big girl undies.

We doubled up the mattress pads and the sheet layers for quicker middle of night changes. We've prepped her for "just do your best, we won't get mad if you wet the bed! But the idea is to do your best." No water before bed, potty before bed, and that will be evidence of her best!

Night 1: Wet bed, 2am change
Night 2: Wet bed, 6:30am change

I don't think she's been trying her best because the battle over the water right before bed is still tough. She swears she's dying of thirst. My take on this is if you decide to drink water before bed, you're deciding you're wetting the bed. And that's that.

But our pedi says that limiting fluids like that isn't really going to help much anyway. When she wakes up wet, she isn't really upset. It's just more matter of fact, which is all likely a reflection of my own attitude on the whole thing. If I'd be upset over it, she would too. So what to do?! It's a Catch-22 for us: I try to get the point across that we're not mad when she wets the bed, but it's still not OK to wet the bed exactly. The goal is to do your best. If you've done your best and you still wet the bed, that's all we can do...

...Until these middle of the night wake-ups start to take their toll on us all...

For me it's a fine line between nudging her along and pushing. No one wants to push but we have to nudge a little or else risk no advancements at all. Like everything else, we'll just have to play this by ear.