Polar Plunge (aka What the Hell was I Thinking)

Posted in Goals, Isabella/Munchkin by teamtradermom

I did it. Yesterday I waded into freezing cold water just for the fun of it.

OK so there was more to it than that. The Polar Plunge is a yearly event that sets out to raise money for Special Olympics. My work put together a company team of nearly 200 people and I was ~~suckered~~ talked in to participating.

The plunge started at 11 a.m. and we were told to arrive between 9 and 10 in order to get decent parking and breakfast.

There were 3 or 4 tents and my company had its own because by far we had the largest group of jumpers. The tent was heated but with all the people coming in and out, it was still chilly.

Isabella was a bit overwhelmed by all the people there. It was a lot to take in!

What she did like were all the characters present. This polar bear was the official mascot of the plunge.

Then there were a couple guys dressed up a super heroes. They actually wore those costumes in to the water! Isabella was really excited to see them! She kept saying, “Let’s go see the Green Lantern and Captain America!”

I don’t think they intended to be entertainment for the kids but they sure were for Munchkin!

We sat around for about 90 minutes waiting for the games to begin. Isabella started getting antsy but for the most part she did a great job!

Here’s the ramp leading to the water. We basically start at the orange cone line and head in from there.

A common misconception about the Polar Plunge is that you actually have to jump in the water. In fact, it’s just the opposite. There are signs all over the strictly forbid diving, splashing or running. Because the water is so cold (probably around 20 degrees) they want it to be orderly and safe for everyone.

As part of my shtick, I wore a shower cap and carried a rubber ducky with me. Next year some of us are going to get together and come up with a group theme like some of the other folks did. But since it was my first year, I didn’t really plan for much more than the shower cap!

Hot sexy!

At precisely 11 a.m., we headed outside to get started. I stripped out of my warm coat and pants because I was only going to wear a t-shirt and running pants for the actual plunge. The worst part was standing around waiting for your turn because it was cold and my nerves started to creep up. I started having second thoughts and wondered what in the world I was thinking when I signed up to do it. Then, next thing I knew, they were calling my group and it was time to run in!

I’m the one in the green shirt with the shiny head.

It took a while to feel the cold. At first it didn’t seem too bad at all! Then the frigid waters hit my, um, sensitive area ifyaknowwhatimean and HELLO! THERE IT IS!

We had to run out to a dummy set up on the edge of the ice and then turn around and come back. The whole thing took about 20 seconds.

The worst part was getting out of the water. Once the cold air hits the frozen water on your body everything goes numb. You can see in the above picture that I only got wet up to my chest. That was enough though!

They explicitly instruct you not to put your hands underwater because if you do, they would be too frozen to get your wet clothes off when you’re done.

That’s good advice.

It’s quite tricky doing the clothing change. For one, there are like 50 women shoved in this tent all franticly trying to peel off they’re frozen clothes as fast as they can. Then of course there’s the challenge of peeling off wet sticky clothes, drying off your skin and putting new dry clothes back on. There’s no way to do it fast. And forget about being modest. You have to pretty much strip down naked as fast as you can. No one really looks or cares. They’re too worried about their own frozen toes.

When I came out, I saw CJ and Isabella coming toward me.

That sight warmed me up more than my wool socks.

The whole thing wore Isabella out more than it did me.

All day she kept saying, “Mommy jumped in the cold water and went BRR!”

She also enjoyed wearing my shower cap.

All in all I’m glad I did it. The whole experience was a lot of fun and the actual going in to the frozen lake part wasn’t nearly as bad as I anticipated. I will definitely do it again!

Here is a link to the local news coverage of the event. You can see me and my green t-shirt pop up real quick in a few of the shots.

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Running and Remembering

9Feb2012

Looking In

Posted in Isabella/Munchkin, You Capture by teamtradermom

Do you ever feel like you’re on the outside looking in? I hate that feeling. Always have. Some people don’t mind it. They don’t feel the need to be included in everything. They’re fine going on about their lives and letting others do the same.

I am not one of those people.

I love the abstractness of this photo. It was taken looking in to the kitchen from through the backdoor. I like how the darkness of my clothing allows you to see in to the kitchen on one side, yet the bright snow pops up on the other side, showing Isabella all dressed up and ready to play. The weird yellow bits in the middle are my Pittsburgh Steelers gloves!

In grade school I felt the need to be in every friendship bracelet making circle. In high school, I was devastated if not invited to a sleep over. In college if someone had a study group or party and didn’t invite me, my world was turned upside down.

That’s just how I roll.

When I first started at my current job 4 years ago, I was put at a desk that was sort of by itself, on the outside of the “pod”. I could hear everyone chit chatting and laughing but was not included. It’s not that they didn’t want to include or didn’t like me, they just didn’t think of it because I wasn’t sitting with them. Out of sight, out of mind.

I hated it. I always felt left out and alone. It took 2 years for me to be moved to a desk within the circle and that was a happy day. Suddenly I knew what was going on. I got the inside jokes and invited out to lunch.

I would much rather be on the inside than the outside.

And so would Samson.

Samson looking in the backdoor during the snow storm. I’m really happy with how the ice crystals are so clear and defined while his fuzzy head is, well, fuzzy.

Maybe I was a Labrador in another life?

As an added bonus, I’ll include some video I shot of Isabella dancing during the Super Bowl half time show. She was standing up in front of like 30 people bouncing away! She wasn’t “looking in” – she was seizing the moment! The other kiddos joined in too! I was so proud of her.

My heart grew 10 sizes.

* This post was linked up to the You Capture challenge.This week’s theme was “looking in”. Head on over to I Should be Folding Laundry to see some more great photography.

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From the Mouths of Babes

Posted in From the Mouths of Babes by teamtradermom

Tonight’s special feature to entertain Isabella while she brushed her teeth was “Mommy singing songs and doing voices.” Her requests included the “Hi ho” song from Snow White, the “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” song, the “Hot dog dance” and the Good Night song (which is really Good Night Sweetheart by The Spaniels).

After all those, she asked me to talk like Pluto, then Mickey, then Goofy. Let me tell you, I do some mean Disney character impressions. I have Pluto, Mickey and Goofy down cold. Donald on the other hand is more difficult. CJ can do Donald but not me. Of course she requested him next. I told her that I can’t do Donald and she said, “Yes you can mommy. Just try it.”

So I did and failed miserably. I laughed and said, “I know, that wasn’t even close.”

She walked over to me, patted me on the butt and said, “That’s ok. Keep trying Mommy. You can do it. That’s a good brave girl.”

My heart grew 10 sizes in that moment.

Later that night….

As I was getting Isabella ready for bed, the phone rang. She said, “We have to be quiet when people are on the phone.” I agreed and told her that was correct.

She went on to say, “Today Daddy was on the phone and I wasn’t quiet. He told me to be quiet and I cried. Then I did crazy things.”

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From the Mouths of Babes

Hittin’ the Sauce

3Jan2012

Parental Warning

Posted in Isabella/Munchkin by teamtradermom

Parents. Whatever you do. Do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT under any circumstances give your baby a pacifier.

It may seem harmless at first. In fact it may seem like a life saver to stop that little new born from crying.

But trust me, one day, that seemingly small decision will come back to bite you in the ass.

And nearly kill you.

We’ve spent the last 3 days trying to break Isabella from her “oobie” habit and I think it’s breaking us instead.

First we tried taking her to a 12 Step meeting and having her admit she was powerless over the oobie. She didn’t really get it though so we had to go another route.

We did it gradually. The first step was to limit her oobie use when we moved in to our new house in September. We basically said she could only use her oobies for sleeping, so during naps or at night but not otherwise during the day. She resisted at first but eventually was super good about it. She’d even remind us that we forgot to put her oobie away if she brought it downstairs after a nap.

Then I started limiting her to only one oobie while sleeping (normally she would use 3 – one in her mouth and each hand).

That one was harder for her to buy in to.

5 days ago, while thinking of what New Year’s resolutions I wanted to make for 2012, I decided to take them away from her for good, starting January 1st. I told her about it too, to prepare her. Basically I warned her that in 2 days she would have to give all her oobies away to other little babies that needed them, like how we gave them some of her toys after Christmas. She seemed on board with the idea! No protests. We talked about it many times over those 2 days. Then, come Sunday morning, we packed them all in to a baggie and put them out in the donation pile (secretly I stashed them in a cupboard when she wasn’t looking, just in case. I guess I needed a safety net too!). Again, she was cool about it.

Until nap time. She wouldn’t lay down and sleep for anything. She wasn’t crying, she was jumping and singing and talking and running back and forth. Anything BUT lay down. I fought with her for over an hour. Finally I gave up. I knew we were going over to my sister’s house later and that she’d probably fall asleep in the car. She did.

Then nighttime came. More lolly-gagging. We pretty much ignored her and let her do her thing.

That’s when the crying started. And it kept going. And going.

We’d check on her every 20 minutes or so. At one point she looked at CJ and just pointed to her mouth like, “Um dude, did ya forget something?”

Finally, after an hour, I gave her on old broken oobie (one that had the top cut off). It was no good for sucking on but I figured she could hold it and get some comfort that way. My heart was breaking for her. I knew it was like we had taken away her best friend, one that she’d slept with every day for over 2 years. We had ripped her little heart out.

And my heart was broken too.

CJ couldn’t take it anymore and retreated to the basement, wearing headphones, and worked out on the elliptical. Finally after about an hour and 20 minutes of crying, she wore herself out and stopped.

Silence, sweet silence.

We were both afraid to move or make a peep though for fear of waking the beast!

And we dreaded the next night.

Monday morning when I got her out of bed, I told her what a good job she did sleeping without an oobie and how proud I was of her. She said, “I didn’t have an oobie in my mouth…it was very hard…I cried…mommy gave me a broken one…” She already knows the art of a good guilt trip. I dread the teenage years.

The same shenanigans happened come naptime on Monday. Goofing around and not wanting to sleep. Finally after about an hour she fell asleep. Last night, more crying and carrying on. I don’t know how long it lasted because I was super exhausted, pleaded for mercy and begged CJ to hold down the fort while I went to bed at 8:30pm. I think it lasted for a while though.

Then tonight, more crying. Only this time it stopped after 40 minutes. Progress? I sure as hell hope so. Some of it was that she didn’t nap at all today so I know she was exhausted. But I hope it’s progress too.

My nerves are fried. I feel like a PTSD victim. Every time I hear a cry or wail, my blood pressure shoots through the roof. It’s horrible. It was all I could do tonight not to curl up in our closet and hum gospel hymns to myself in hopes of a miracle.

I read somewhere that the transition could last anywhere from 1 night to a week. A week! Dear God, no. I don’t think I can take anymore. I’m liable to break at any moment!

So parents, let this be a lesson to you. No matter how cute they look with one. No matter how tempted you are. No matter what your parents say.

Do. Not. Give. Your. Baby. A. Pacifier.

This message has been brought to you by PDLPGP (Parents Don’t Let Parents Give Pacifiers).

Thank you.

28Dec2011

Hittin’ the Sauce

Posted in Isabella/Munchkin by teamtradermom

We are trying to be real with Isabella when it comes to body parts. We call everything by their proper name – even genitalia. One day she walked in on CJ changing his shirt and saw his nipples. She asked what they were and he told her, mentioning that she and mommy have nipples too.

Today when I was changing from work clothes to pajamas, and I took off my bra, she grabbed it and said, “I want to wear nipples.”

I explained to her that a bra was ~~a torture device~~ an item of clothing women wear to support their breasts and nipples. She didn’t get it.

Then she cried out, “Thomas wants to wear nipples too!” and promptly did this:

That’s Thomas wearing my new rainbow striped bra. She said she was decorating him with nipples like how we decorated the Christmas tree.

Mmm, k.

We left the room and went off to do other things. When I went back later to get something, and saw Thomas covered in a bra, my first thought was that he’d been sneaking some booze again. That or visiting the strip clubs. Guess we need to start teaching Isabella about a little thing called “rehab”.

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From the Mouths of Babes