running safely

I haven't posted about my workout routine for awhile, I was waiting to get the clear from my Dr's that I was healthy enough to continue with my work outs and that the stomach pain wasn't anything more than an ulcer. Now with my ulcer medications and cutting out certain foods I am feeling better and sleeping more at night because I am not up all night from stomach pain. Now that I have the clear from my Dr's I can really start digging into my workout routines.
This morning after I got Judah back to bed I decided to do two of Jillian Micheal's DVDs. Her 30 day shred and her ab workout. Judah woke up at the tail end of the ab work out so I put him in his highchair to eat breakfast and he laughed at me while I finished my workout. After he finished eating I stuck in a Sesame Street dance DVD so Judah can "pretend" he is working out while I had a mini snack of fruit and yogurt.

 After the video's I packed a few things so I could take Judah on a long speed while around George Masons's campus. When I go on a long walk or run outside of my house I always bring the following. I just stick these items underneath my Ironman Bob stroller. If its really sunny outside I bring extra sunscreen but I typically put some on Judah before we leave the house

- I always bring mace, you can purchase mace at any running store. If I am in a crowded area then I keep the mace on the bob so I can grab it in case something happens and its out of reach from Judah. If I feel I am in some sort of danger or walk by a person who sets off red flags then I make sure I have the mace in my hand, visible enough so the person knows I am not one to be messed with.

- water bottle for myself and a sippy cup for Judah

- plenty of snacks for both of us.

- tiny amount of cash

- sunglasses

- some of Judahs favorite toys, he likes to hold one while we run.

- an emergency diaper, we don't stray to far from home but its always good to have a backup.

When I go out for my long runs or walks I like to choose paths that I think are relatively safe and I prefer to go during the day. If I am just walking really fast I like to go to George Mason University Campus because its close to me, they have great wide sidewalks, students are always out and walking around and they have security always patrolling the place. In the news recently their has been a few local attacks on students walking home after school and some attacks are targeting women running alone. I am extra sensitive when I am out running and like to keep Judah and I as safe as possible. Today when I walked up to the campus this man was walking closely behind me. I found it a little odd but figured he might be late for class. I walked down different paths around the campus and even backtracked a bit and re walked down some streets. At one point I managed to get behind the guy (I realized he was not a student) and my red flags went off because he paused, pretended to throw something out in the trashcan so I could get in front of him. Once I was in front of him I stopped grabbed my mace and stared at him, he saw I was looking directly at him. He stopped, pretended to tie his shoes and walked away from me down a different path. This man was already following me for 2.5 miles. I walked in a different direction (he was still in sight) and flagged down a security truck. They got out and stared down the man who at this point was retracing his steps back towards me, once he saw the two security men standing near me he walked out of the campus. 

The reason why I am posting this is because I wanted to encourage everyone on running safely. I am extra cautious when I have Judah with me and I never wear headphones. I make sure that I am aware of people around me and make sure I check behind myself to see if anyone is acting a little strange. Also I carry my mace, take pictures of people (once they walk away) that are a little off and I have the campus security number and the non emergency number programmed into my phone. I also text my husband when I leave and when I come home so he knows where I am at in case something happens. 

Once the security guards left I took Judah over to a cute lake on the campus and I let him watch the fountains and wave to students. I wanted to make sure enough time has passed so I could take a different route home to ensure this strange man wasn't following me. 

Getting out and walking or running with Judah is allot of fun. When we are on the campus it barely feels like we are working out because we are so distracted by the beauty of the campus and the interesting people walking around us. By the time we safely made it home we walked 3.6 miles and it was lunch time. I always try to have something pre-made so I am not crashing and grabbing junk food when I get back from an extra long workout.  Its always good to eat something with in 30 minutes after your work out. Today I made sure I had a cup filled with blueberries, strawberries, greek yogurt and granola chilling in the fridge and some leftover salmon salad from last night. 

I know to some people my safety measures for taking Judah out on a run may seem a little extreme but I don't want to take the chance of being targeted by someone for an attack, I also don't want to live in fear and not take advantage of our beautiful weather and local campus. I want Judah to experience the outdoors and have memorable and fun walks with his mama. 

I would say my best advice is to be prepared, I always carry mace. To be aware of your surroundings, this is why I don't listen to my iPod while I run with Judah or if I run outside alone I listen to it with the volume turned down so I can hear someone approaching me. Lastly just trust your instincts. 

Do you have any safety things you like to do while you are out?

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sometimes a teething boy needs ice-cream

Sunday morning started at around 6 am for us. Judah woke up in his crib screaming. We both ran over and he was rubbing his jaw and looking at us for help. I knew his molars are finally coming in (or at least trying) so we gave him Tylenol, Hylands and brought him into bed with us. But at this point Judah wanted to run around. So we all went downstairs, I made breakfast and we let Judah run around for a bit until his hugged his pillow on the ground and tried to fall back to sleep.

After a few hours of fitful sleep Judah woke up and we took him to a local park. Right when we pulled in an ice-cream truck appeared! We ran to get into line because we love ice-cream, Judah has never had ice-cream from a truck before and he is teething so this might feel good on his gums. Lately he hasn't really wanted to eat much but milk and yogurt because everything hurts his mouth. 

We stopped by the skatepark, this normally puts Judah in a good mood but he looked pathetic watching the skateboarders. Also a handful of high school kids were hanging out right behind us cussing and smoking cigarettes. I  feel like I am getting old because I was tempted to say something about blowing smoke towards my child and them being underage smokers, but figured I don't want to spend my energy on the drama and we took Judah to the swings instead. 

He was happy on the swings, but after awhile he didn't want to be at the park and didn't want anymore pictures. He wanted to go home and take another nap. 

After a good nap we took Judah to McDonald's so he can have ice-cream with Grandma Judkins. I'm pretty proud that he held the cone by himself and managed to not get ice-cream everywhere, although he did manage to get some on his Grandma's nose. 

He looks so cute holding the cone with one hand. 

We typically don't give Judah many sweets, he actually prefers a banana or an apple over the sweets. But my little boy is teething something fierce and I figured since the ice-cream soothes his gums, then sometimes a teething boy needs ice-cream twice in one day. Today we had a few play dates planned, but Judah was up screaming every 2-3 hours last night and I finally got him back down to sleep. I may just take him for a long walk and attempt to run a few errands with him instead. Hopefully these pesky little molars will pop through soon, I hate to see Judah in so much pain. 

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never outgrow my love

Yesterday was one of those chilly spring days where you just want to stay inside and cuddle. But Judah wanted to walk around outside, on his own and not let me hold his hand. I just kept looking at him in disbelief that my baby is no longer a baby but a mini boy who thinks he can do everything on his own.

As soon as we got to the park he threw off his jacket, grabbed a stick and started running around. When did he learn how to take off his own jacket? I was cold and was trying to chase him to get him to put his jacket back on him. But he ran away from me giggling that his "mama can't catch him" and that "he got his way and is running with out a jacket on". 

"mama you can't catch me!" 

Sometimes at night I will find him sleeping like this, my heart skips a beat because he reminds me of how he slept when he was a baby. I have to stop myself from picking him up and bringing him back to our bed because I know he won't fall asleep in our bed like he used to.  He will toss and turn kicking us both in the ribs till we finally bring him back to his own bed. So instead I just lean down, kiss his sweet chubby cheeks and let him dream surrounded by his doggies.

I hope one day when Judah looks back on his mamas blog, he will know that I love him from the tips of his wild hair to the bottoms of his sweet chubby feet. 

I hope he knows that every moment spent with him is an adventure and he makes life so very sweet. 

I hope that he will know, that he will outgrow his crib, his cloths and shoes, but he will never ever outgrow my love.

I fell asleep last night and forgot to announce the giveaway winners! 

The Giveaway Winners Are!

Pink Pixie Toddler Hat

Baby White Pixie Hat

Congratulations Ladies! I will contact you on facebook to get your address and mail your hats out tomorrow. If you didn't win and are interested in a hat feel free to check out my shop at mycharmingcolors.etsy.com, I will be adding hats tonight.

I do monthly giveaways from my shop, if you want to be part of the giveaways feel free to follow My Charming Colors on Facebook to be the first to enter. Facebook.com/mycharmingcolors. 

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Judah Style

Good news! I saw the last Dr today who spent an hour giving me a sonogram of my stomach, kidneys, gallbladder ect., it looks like all my pain is an ulcer and not my gallbladder like one of my Dr's thought it was. Im not sure why he thought it was my gallbladder since the gallbladder is located on the right side of our bodies and my pain is consistently on my left. I've recently cut out all my coffee and other acidic foods while taking my stomach medication and have already seen an improvement in the pain. I just now to get over the coffee withdrawals and I will be great.   

Here are a few pictures of Judah from today. 

hat - gift from my sweet friend Natalie D

shirt - thrifted 

vintage windbreaker jacket - gift from another sweet friend Crys

jeans - old navy - thrifted

shoes - black vans - thrifted

Almost all of Judah's outfits are thrifted, hand me downs or gifts from friends. I do like to dress him up with a cute hat, bow tie, suspenders or cute vintage shirts. Today he was a bit more laid back in his look since he accompanied me to the doctors office. 

When Judah woke up from his afternoon nap we heard lots of loud music. I walked him over to George Mason University and they were having a "Mason Day" carnival. Judah and I sat and watched the students on rides, getting cotton candy and endured a pretty bad band on stage. Judah kept trying to flirt with all the college girls that would walk by. He would wave and say "hi" then start talking in gibberish really fast and show them his ball. Im pretty sure he won a few hearts this afternoon.

 He didn't want to leave, he was having to much fun people watching. 

We finished our afternoon kicking around the ball till Daddy came home. 

The weather was gorgeous today and I am so grateful that we can spend every single day outside next week and not have to stress about Dr's appointments. 

Fun will be had. 

We will play at parks.

Look for dogs. 

Wave at trucks.

Make friend with new people. 

Kick around balls. 

Go on lots of walks.

Then each night Judah will wind down taking a bubble bath to wash away 

the wonderful smells of the great outdoors.

naked for strangers

I'm tired of being naked for strangers, meaning the Dr's I've seen over the past two weeks. We decided to finally tackle my stomach issue's because they have been affecting my daily living to the point where I called Scott up from work two weeks ago because I felt like I could barely walk. Since I've had Judah my stomach and Cesarean scar hurts. I can normally manage the stomach pain during the day, but when I try to sleep at night it occasionally acts up to the point where I have to walk around the house popping tums and praying that the pain goes away. Almost every other day in the past two weeks I have gone to several different Kaiser locations to visit Dr's to figure out what is wrong. I get naked, let them prod and poke, give them my blood and wait. Scott has been a great help and has met me at some of the locations during his lunch break to watch Judah. On a few occasions I would have to strap Judah in his car and bring him with me. Its not to bad when I get my blood drawn with him because he is a good distraction.

A few days ago I went to the radiology department for an internal sonogram, my OB has been wanting me to get one since I had Judah but we wanted to get my root canal fixed first. The radiology tech was going to check my ovaries and make sure my c section scar healed up correctly. When I first entered the room I let the tech know that I am seeing my OB on Thursday and  asked if I could have my test results by then. She said that they probably won't be in because they take over a week to process. She said my Cesarean scar is perfect and in a few years it will fade away even more. But when she checked my right ovary she voiced her concern, it looks abnormal and I might have ovarian cancer but quickly said she can't really tell me anything, my OB has to see me and talk to me herself. She then said that my OB will definitely contact me before Thursday about my results. Then she left the room to get a second opinion and all I am thinking is "she said my OB won't have my results by Thursday, how can this be that she is getting them sooner, am I really sick". I took a picture of my scans with my iPhone so I could try to research it on my own later.

After I left my appointment I found Scott and Judah playing in the Kaiser courtyard. I told Scott the news and my brain was going in a million different directions. I don't think ovarian cancer runs in my family, although my grandmother did pass away from some sort of stomach thing. I just don't know the medical details of my family history. I kept asking Scott "wouldn't have this shown up in my blood work already, why didn't it show up".  I showed Scott my picture of my scans and I tried to google the information. Lesson learned, don't ever google medical information, it will only freak you out more.  

Yesterday I didn't have any appointments. I just hung out at home and waited for an email or phone call. I distracted myself by planting lots and lots of flowers in our backyard with Judah.

Today Scott and Judah joined me when I saw my OB. She sat me down and said everything is okay. That I don't have ovarian cancer (thanks Kaiser tech for freaking me out) and that I just have a cyst that should go away soon, thats what has been causing my ovarian pain. She is going to run a few more tests but she said that she hopes that I come back in just a few short months with "happy news". When I asked her what she meant and she said "Oh it would be nice to see you pregnant again".  I laughed and said she sounded like my husband. Although it would be nice to have a baby with a Spring birthday. 

I have one more Dr's appointment tomorrow where they are going to do a sonogram of my stomach. My primary just wanted to double check that my stomach is okay, she has gotten most of my test results back and she believes I have an ulcer. I've been taking ulcer medication for the past two weeks and have already seen a difference in stomach pain (not as much) especially on days when I skip the coffee or any other acidic foods. If it is just an ulcer, it should clear up in two months if I am consistent with my medication. 

After tomorrows visit we can just focus on happier things. Like not getting naked in front of strangers, going to Myrtle Beach, Virginia Beach and going with Scott to San Francisco in June while he attends the WWDC conference and maybe...just maybe...make another baby. Judah does need a little sister or brother and honestly I really do miss Judah being so tiny. 

If you haven't entered the Pixie Hat Giveaway you have till tomorrow! 

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pixie hat giveaway

Good Morning!!! The sun is finally beaming down sunshine and its gorgeous outside! I wanted to share with you these adorable Pixie/Gnome hats I recently started making. They are unbelievably sweet and they remind me of when I was a little girl living in Germany or something from a fairy tale. I think they look adorable on Judah and I wanted to get some feedback from my wonderful followers. To do so I wanted to offer up two of the Pixie/Gnome hats for a My Charming Colors Giveaway.



I'll let the giveaway run for the rest of the week and close it on midnight, Friday April 27th  (eastern standard time). On Saturday I will announce the winner and mail the hats on Monday.   
Here are the two hats I want to offer. A light pink toddler pixie hat.

The second hat is a white infant/baby pixie hat. 

Judah's big head won't fit into the baby hat anymore so I used one of his stuffed animals to model it for you. The hat should fit any baby from infant - 10 months. Both hats tie in the front. 

Both hats are perfect for the occasional cool spring day, a photo shoot or you can give it away as a gift or save the hat till fall.  I brought Judah to Target yesterday in a red Pixie hat and he received many compliments, they are simply adorable. 

How to enter this simply sweet giveaway. You get four separate entries. 

The first one is mandatory and the rest are just bonuses to help you win the hat.  

((please comment on the facebook picture of the hat, you will need a separate comment for each entry to enter to win and you can try to win both hats))

1. "like" Facebook.com/mycharmingcolors on Facebook and comment on the picture (mandatory)

2. follow www.mylittlemustache.com

3. Share this giveaway (by copying this link) and posting it on your Facebook or blog.

4. Tweet about this giveaway.  

Make sure you leave a separate comment on the hat pictures on Facebook for each entry. Once the contest closes on Friday night I will tally up the numbers and choose the winner from random.org. The lucky winner will be announced on Saturday morning!

If you just can't wait till Saturday to find out if you have won the hat I will be updating my shop on Thursday with a handful of cute Pixie/Gnome hats.

mycharmingcolors.etsy.com

Good Luck!!!

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whimsical afternoon

First before I share with you our whimsical afternoon let me show you two of the cutest picture's I have of Judah. He is wearing one of the Pixie hats I recently started making. This one is for my friend Deb but I am making two more to giveaway tomorrow on my Facebook page. Don't you just think all kids are cuter with a Pixie/Gnome hat? 

We had a mail drop off errand this boring but have pretty much been stuck indoors all day. I thought it would be fun to bring out Judah's tent and try to set it up for him to play in it. I had this fantastic idea of setting it up and letting him eat lunch in it with his stuffed animals. I tried for 20 mins to put together his tent and this is what it ended up looking like. I didn't know you needed an engineers 

degree to put up a child's tent. 

I didn't let that discourage me from my dream of a whimsical afternoon with my son and I grabbed some sheets, blankets and things to tie them all together and made a tent in the living room. The picture below is my 2nd tent. Judah destroyed my first tent before I could take a picture. Right next to the blue mirror on the wall used to be a gorgeous large lamp that is normally blocked by that vintage green chair I have the tent tucked into. Judah saw that the lamp wasn't blocked and pulled the it down, destroying the tent and shattering glass all over my floor. When I put him in another closed off area of the room so I could pick up the glass and vacuum, he decided to break apart some of the cloths pins he found that I was using to hold some of the tent together. Glass was picked up by then and I went to search for any cloths pin pieces on the ground so he doesn't try to eat them, he then pulls this container I have glass in off of our large dining room table. I was beside myself in tears because everywhere I turned my son was trying to break or eat something that dangerous for him. I had to put him in bed while I searched the area for any glass or cloths pins. Once everything was cleaned I fixed the tent and made a mini snack lunch for both of us in the picnic basket and brought him back down. 

I filled the inside of the tent with his favorite books, his dinosaur cup and his chair with stuffed animals. I made sure it was really cozy for him and full of pillows since you could hear the cold rain hitting against the living room windows. 

The tent was a hit! He ran down the hall and crawled right into the tent. Wore his little gnome pixie hat and screamed while I read a doggie book to him.

He was kind enough to dump out the snacks to share with everyone.

He was also very polite and didn't forget about his doggie friends and gave each of them a hug. 

Judah spent the rest of the afternoon, tantrum free reading to me in the tent. 

It was a rough start, but we had a pretty whimsical afternoon. Scott just came home and picked up Judah so they could go and grab sushi for us. I am going to keep the tent up for a few days because its hard to put up it up with a mischievous toddler running around and Judah loves crawling inside. 
Make sure you check My Charming Colors Facebook page tomorrow to enter to win a Pixie/Gnome Hat so you can also have your very own whimsical afternoon, hopefully glass breaking free.
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sunday is a fun day

After I wrote my last post on us being lazy the past few days we decided to make up for it this afternoon. Its been raining non stop for the past 24 hours and we were just itching to get out of the house. I wanted hot chocolate because I couldn't stay warm and Scott wanted to stop by Home Depot, so we did both. We decided to replace this 20 year old light fixture in our dinning room area with a lighted ceiling fan. Our dining room opens up to one of our large living rooms and we don't have good lighting in either room. Scott thought that a fan would not only add some lighting but it will help us keep the AC off during some of the warmer summer days. I'm a Florida girl, I prefer the ceiling fans over AC any day. 

While we were at Home Depot we looked around their flower section and I noticed that their prices are much higher than this little flower stand next to Trader Joe's. So we left and went to my favorite little flower stand. If anyone is in the Fairfax area, the flower stand in the Fairfax Trader Joe's parking lot has the best flower selection for half the cost also the owners are really nice!

I bought an entire pallet of gold marigolds, more lavender and a tiny rose bush.

I'll be planting everything once this rain lets up. Its supposed to rain for a few days. Right now I'll enjoy all the pretty flowers lined up on my dining room table. 

We stopped by Duncan Donuts to warm up with some hot chocolate and donuts.

Also I found out that a sex offender works as a cashier at this duncan donuts and we will not be going to this specific store again. I would encourage if you haven't done so already to check your local government's database for local offenders, especially if you have children. People may not be 100% honest about where they live on the list but they do have to list where they work and I avoid the places they work at. You can never be to careful with your child. Before we confirmed that our cashier was on the list, Judah was blowing kisses at him and everyone behind the counter. 

When we finally arrived at home, Scott installed our dining room ceiling fan (pictures to come soon) while I read book after book to Judah. I didn't mind, he was keeping me warm and it was fun hearing him try to "read" the book to me. He is talking so much more, its mainly gibberish with some of his regular words thrown in, but I feel like he is going to bust out with some sentences or lyrics soon. 

Also now he walks around the house stomping and humming the Imperial March. After I get him on video tape doing this I have to teach him something else, like maybe the moon walk or dancing like he is a robot. 

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