Born a Brit...

Usually when I talk about "Brit" I'm referring to the one and only hot mess, Britney Spears, but today I'm referring to someone born in Britain. Obviously with parents who's last names are Ellington and Warbington there is a lot of British in our heritage so it is no surprise that my mom thinks she is a Brit.

And what do you think this group of British Texans were doing at 4:00 am this morning? We would be having a party in celebration of the Royal Wedding. A party even my dad couldn't miss out on. Yes, even he made it up to the media room in time to see Will and Kate walk down the aisle.

As we watched the Royals walk the red carpet at Westminster Abbey in their fabulous hats, we were enjoying homemade scones and authentic English Tea. Authentic to the point that Shari said it was so strong she won't be able to sleep for a week. So just like Harry's "Survivor's Breakfast" that he will be hosting Saturday morning in honor of those that make it through his brother's reception, we will be hosting a "Survivor's lunch" at MiCo for those that are still awake at 2:00!

Here we grow again ~ Part 7 Incredible Shrinking Baby

Maison had her 18 month wellness exam today. She is still making progress and gaining weight which is great.

Age Weight Height
Birth 7 lbs 9 oz 21"
2 weeks 8 lbs 11 oz 21 3/4"
2 months 11 lbs 14 oz 24"
4 months 15 lbs 2 oz 26"
6 months 17 lbs 7 oz 28 3/8"
9 months 21 lbs 0 oz 30 3/8"
12 months 22 lbs 10 oz 32 1/4"
15 months 23 lbs 5 oz 34 1/2"

18 months 24 lbs 4 oz 33 3/4"

Notice anything odd about her measurements from 15-18 months? Apparently you can gain almost and entire pound in 3 months while at the same time shrinking 3/4 of an inch? How is it possible to become shorter and fatter at the same time?

Hop, Hop, Hop...

The Easter Bunny (E.B.) brought Maison books, coloring books, and crayons because he heard that she could still not have sugar.

But Nooey is more resourceful than E.B. and when Maison got to Camp Gooey she got a Sponge Bob basket filled with sugar-free Easter cookies and candy. So when everyone was eating our traditional Krispy Kreme donuts for breakfast Maison was enjoying her "sweets".

After breakfast, we took Maison to the egg hunt at my grandmother's church in Murphy. It was not very organized. Pretty much the older kids ran out of the back doors when church was over and started grabbing all the eggs. Maison was more interested in the chaos than picking up eggs. Considering she had her own private egg hunt waiting for her at Camp Gooey, I knew she would have plenty of opportunities to pick up eggs.

Egg Hunt at Murphy First Baptist:

Naked chocolate egg eating:

Camp Gooey Egg Hunt:

We spent the afternoon chasing bubbles from the super bubble blower and finished the day with our traditional Easter feast that my mom makes every year.

HOPPY EASTER!!

HOP!

Adam bought a groupon months ago for 4 Studio Movie Grill tickets thinking we would have no problem using them. Uh I think the last movie we saw in the theater was Avatar...I'm not kidding. I wasn't the least bit surprised when he told me today that they all four expire on the 28th. So we decided to take Maison to see Hop. I know that it is not an animated movie and that an 18 month sitting in a dark movie theater for an hour and a half may or may not go well but we decided it was worth a try since the tickets were going to expire anyway. We agreed up front if me made it through 45 min of the movie we would consider it a success.

When we got in line to get our tickets, (aside: why when you purchase things via the iphone you still have to wait for a paper version. what's the point of paperless if the end result is not paperless? where's the green side of this?) Maison began hysterically crying. She would not calm down. Adam took her outside to see if that would help....nope. This was off to a great start. The previews had already started so we had to go in and get a seat.

Once in the theater, Maison was mesmerized by the large screen. She sat in Adam's lap, ate her crunchies, and drank her milk. She didn't make a peep the entire first half. The second half she was so into the movie she even hollered out cries of joy! Maybe now we'll make it to movies more often...just the kid ones.

That's a major appliance, that's not a name!

Since having Maison we have realized that naming a girl a boys name and changing the spelling to the French word for house is not the slightest bit odd. In fact, we are just down right traditional at this point.

Let's take Maison's swim class as a first example...

Would Hudson like to go down the slide? Would Ashland (that's a girl) like to ride on Mr. Duck? How many seconds can Axel swim under water? Yes, Maison is pretty normal for our swim class.

I thought I had heard it all until last night we were at the park and Maison was playing with a little boy named Blaze. Yes, Blaze. Why on god's green earth would you name your child after fire?

As Ducky said in Pretty and Pink, "Blaine, Blaine? That's a major appliance, that's not a name."

D, D, D, D-ora ~ Happy 18 months!

Maison turned 18 months old today and she is all about Dora, or "Door" as she likes to call her.

Sometimes you have to watch Dora from your Dora ball house while wearing your Dora shirt:

Sometimes Dora is only good if you can watch while you eat chips:

Sometimes you need glasses so you can see Dora clearly:

Happy 18 months, Mais!

Egg Hunt Competitor

Maison achieved another first today...she mastered her first egg hunt. We took her to our neighborhood egg hunt thinking she would just grab an egg or two and be happy to sit and play with them. Apparently you can have a competitive spirit at 18 months old.

She was raring to go as we approached the registration table.

Sizing up the competition. I wonder where she gets this competitiveness from!

I literally had to hold her back until they said it was time to go.

I have no idea how she actually understood the point of the game was to gather as many eggs as possible and considering she was competing against mostly 3 year olds she did quite well.

Mommy helping me sort through my eggs:

Unfortunately, all her eggs were filled with candy which she still can't have but she was over joyed to just play with her plastic eggs.

Daddy congratulating me on a good hunt:

She was not too keen on the Easter Bunny but had a much better reaction than when we tried to take a picture with him at Willow Bend.

So for a first egg hunt it was quite a success!

Woman versus Caveman

Last year when I competed in the Caveman tri I was recovering from a bad cold, Maison had hives due to an allergic reaction to penicillin, and thus it wasn't the best circumstances to be competing in my 2nd tri (see A trying tri). So this year I was bound and determined to do better...I was not going to let the Caveman get me this time. I had grandiose plans that I would get in a solid 3 weeks of training after I got back from my half marathon in Moab. Nope...not so much. Not feeling the training. I swam exactly one time last week; first swim since my last tri in Oct and biked only twice. Let's just say I wasn't exactly prepared.

All week I was watching the weather. We had been having unbelievably high winds in the high 20 mphs and it was supposed to come a big storm. High winds are awful but high winds and torrential rain was just more than I could bare. So this morning I was pleasantly surprised with the 22 mph winds, no rain, and 70 degree weather.

The swim was completely uneventful...no one passed me, the people I passed let me by politely, and I ended up with my best swim time ever (5:01). I felt good going into the bike transition and had high hopes as I made the first turn onto the main road. Then the gusts hit me as I was trying to go up the first hill. 22 mph winds hitting you head on when you are soaking wet on a bike wearing a tri top (think long sports bra) is just a wonderful experience (yes! that is sarcasm!). How come when there are high winds they never seem to be in your favor? Where's gusts to my back when I'm going up hill? Why do they always seem to be working against you? Some how I kept an ok pace and finished at 49:43 which was 2 min faster than my bike time last year.

The run was horrible. My legs were like jello from pushing through the wind on the bike. It was already close to 80 degrees (yes, at 8:30 in the morning) and I was really having to push myself to keep going. Then I saw Adam and Maison! I was so excited to see them and so determined to beat my time from last year despite the high winds that I felt a surge of confidence that I could do this...I could beat the Caveman.

The run was 2 loops so I passed Adam and Maison for the third time and felt an odd strain in my right quad. My right hamstring had been very tight since the half marathon and now it was going into the front of my leg. I was really worried I was going to blow my hamstring when I had only 1 mile left to run. If I were to blow a hamstring in a race and not be able to finish I would really hope it would be at the beginning so you could just pack it up and go home. To blow it at the end of a race when you are so close to finishing would just be too heart wrenching.

I passed Adam and Maison for the 4th time and could see the finish line. I just gave it everything I had. If I blew my hamstring now I could at least walk or crawl across the finish but I didn't have to. I did it! I finished at 1:27:42 (3 minutes better than last year), I had my best swim time, my best bike time at this distance, and ended up finishing 8th in my age group. So in this battle of woman vs caveman, WOMAN WINS!!!

Running to the finish line:

Maison checking out my medal:

Ready, set...

6:18 and transition is set. Going to check the ins and outs and go line up. It's 22mph winds but the good news is it's already 70. It's me against the caveman with 22mph winds on his side. Wish me luck!