ingrid leafblad's house of curl

I gave Ingrid her first hair cut tonight ... an inch off the bottom to give her more of a 'bob' cut. Actually I probably didn't even cut off enough for an inch, but being that I have zero hair cutting skills I thought I'd better play it safe.

It, however, got me reminiscing about when her siblings had their first hair cuts and I couldn't help but notice the vast differences between parenting a first ... or a second ... or a third child ....

Take the first hair cut for example:

Child #1: was taken to a *real* barber. In fact, the one that cut Lars' hair all growing up. It was a big to-do and so exciting. Every second was documented. Heck, we probably took him out for ice cream afterwards.

Child #2: quite a bit less pomp and circumstance. To our defense, she really didn't have much hair at the time so it didn't seem necessary to pay someone to cut her hair. Nonetheless, her first hair cut was thought out and planned for. Had both parents there to document and experience the first hair cut. It was a family event ... and photos were taken.

Child #3: I made a rash decision after bath tonight that it might look kind of cute to cut her hair in the back. Only AFTER cutting did I realize that not one single picture was taken to document this first hair cut. And NO, it wasn't a *huge* hair cut by any means, but cutting those first locks of hair is a big deal. A milestone. And I felt, and feel, horrible. Not so much about the hair cutting itself, but more about the vast differences of being child number three compared to child number one (perhaps a blog post in the future?!) .... At least I remembered to keep a few locks to put into her baby book. *sigh*

So, back to her hair cut.... I started to panic a bit while cutting her hair wondering if I was going to be cutting the curl out. (Like I said, it was a rash decision and not well thought out.) I continue to be shocked and amazed that we have a child with curly hair. I wondered if her curls were merely the curly hair that babies can have that eventually straighten out as they age ... or it gets cut out. But based on the amount of curl she has I am banking she will continue to have curly hair no matter how many hair cuts I give her ... right??

And my other panic tonight about Ingrid's hair is her "bald spot". Remember how we had to give up the pacifier because she was developing a bald spot due to wrapping her hair around the pacifier and YANKING it out? Well, her hair is still noticeably thinner on top and I can still see the hair follicles of where hair should be growing, but isn't.

Not a pure bald spot, but definitely thin hair. She was pulling her hair out for just a few months so I can't imagine that would have caused permanent hair damage, but I am no expert. However if you are reading this and are in fact an expert, I'd love to hear you say, "don't worry about it. Her hair will grow back".

But only if you really mean it.

xoxo, the blad pad

run, maren, run!

Now you wouldn't believe me if I told you, but I could run like the wind blows.

From that day on, if I was ever going somewhere, I was running!

Forrest Gump

Recently I ran in my first race. It was the Get Lucky 7k and it was my first time running outside. Sound crazy? Up until the race I had been a 100% treadmill girl. I started running towards the end of October so by the time I started it was too cold to run outside ... hopefully I will be able to lay some tracks outside soon. That is if it ever does warm up.

I ran the race with a couple of friends - Cara who has participated in a bunch of races and Shawn who was also running her first race. We were looking forward to a beautiful, sunny 45-degree morning which ended up being a beautiful, sunny 25-degree morning. Yikes. It was freezing. Once we were running it was okay. But waiting for that start was a killer. My goals were to run the entirety of the course and to finish between 45-50 minutes. I succeeded at both!

This was the first race of a few that I am doing this spring. I have a few 5k's and a 10k ... all to get ready for running Grandma's half marathon in June which I will be running with my marathoner sister-in-law Kate! I have a panic attack just thinking about running 13.1 miles, but there is plenty of time to train. At least that is what people tell me.

me ... shawn ... cara

The half marathon will be almost 1 year to the day of when I signed up for my gym membership ... when I couldn't have run a mile, or a block for that matter, without wanting to give up. It was my first time joining a gym and I went into it thinking it would be nothing but a waste of money. Never in a million years when I started at the gym did I think I would be at this point. No, it's not climbing Mount Everest or competing in the Iron Man. But I *believed* I couldn't do it. All I kept thinking when I was running in the race was "wow, I am really doing this!" It's a great feeling to be proud of yourself.

Up next ... Goldy's 5k with Cara!!

xoxo, the blad pad

like grandpa, like granddaughter

Think Ingrid has just a little of that Leafblad laugh in her?

You be the judge....

fearless

New family winter activity: swimming.

We are very lucky that Lars' gym has a heated pool. They crank the heat starting Friday afternoon so it will be nice and toasty for swimming lessons come Saturday morning (... and after those are over they turn the heat back down). We try to hit the pool late Saturday when it is still really warm, but no matter the temp of the pool it is a great place to forget about winter, put on a suit and play in the water.

Thankfully we have had fairly cautious kids around the water. There was never a huge threat of one of them jumping into the pool before they were ready or someone was ready to catch them. They have been able to wait for mom or dad. Wear water wings or life jackets.... That's not saying we don't exercise caution around water, we just have had kids we could keep under control around the water.

Until now.

Like everything else, Ingrid is a free spirit around the water. She is fearless. This past week we had Aunt Megan join us at the pool and I was so grateful because we needed one-on-one coverage with her. The more Ingrid is around water, the more adventurous and uninhibited she becomes. By the end we were literally chasing her between the hot tub and the pool trying to grab onto her teeny-tiny little arms before she could get the opportunity to fling herself into the water. Because she would. And man, does she have quick little legs.

After about an hour of making sure my kids' heads stay above water my nerves hit their limit and I am ready to head out... which is usually about the same time the kids are tired and ready to eat. It has been a great winter activity for us being that I am not a great winter mom. But anytime I can bring some warm weather activity into the winter for the kids .... I'm there!

xoxo, the blad pad

lunch date

Annika's lunch date today