Jumbled Up III

I missed quick takes this week, so let's re-visit the jumbled up style of posting in celebration of blogging randomness.

*I've been on a huge pumpkin binge lately.  Just can't get enough.  The other morning I got up early and made baked pumpkin oatmeal

Yumsters.

C, who as I've said before loves mushy breakfast foods, was a big fan.

The recipe did not use the full can of pumpkin, so the next day I used up the rest by making a pumpkin smoothie:

1 cup vanilla yogurt, 1 banana, 3/4 cup pumpkin, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1/2 cup vanilla soy milk, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice.  It was super delicious and way better for me than a pumpkin spice latte (although less caffeinated).

I consider all of these things warm ups for the several slices of pumpkin pie I will be eating come Thanksgiving this week.  Good thing we'll be running our annual road race that day!

* Speaking of the road race, I'M SO EXCITED! (And I just can't hide it.)  This will be my sixth running of the race and it's such a fun tradition.  I know the course so well, I simply love running it with my bros, my dad, and my hubby, and the spectators are awesome.  I know exactly the places on the course where I can look forward to hearing the trombone quartet (about mile 1.5), the live classic rock cover band (mile 3.5) and the people who drag their gigantic speakers into their driveway to blast the Rocky theme each year (about mile 4... that one really gives you the push to the finish line).

There will be 15,000 runners on this 4.8 mile course, so it's always extremely crowded (albeit exciting).  One can never really expect to run one's best time because the more narrow places on the course tend to get really clogged and slow down.  I don't really have any goals for the day, other than to have fun.  My best time was in 2012 at 52:36.  It would be nice to shave a few seconds off that, but if not... oh well!

* In the last week, M and I have eliminated two commitments from our schedule.  I feel a profound sense of relief about this.  Maybe I'll talk more later about specifics once the knowledge is more public, but for now I'll just say that I'm feeling really good about these decisions.  Having more breathing room in our schedule, less stress, and more freedom to try new things will be amazing.  And hopefully this will mean more organized blogging from me after a few months time!  Hooray!

* A quick pic of N and L enjoying their Kiwi Crate:

* This little girl has been such a joy lately:

She has the typical 1-year-old forehead boo-boo from falling headfirst off the couch.

She's had an explosion of new words and sentences, so there's a constant stream of chatter, and she has such expressive inflection.  I had a violin teacher once that told me that those who have a good musical ear can also easily pick up on and imitate the inflection in others' voices.  Maybe that's the case with C, or maybe it's just the natural language capability she has as a baby learning to talk, but she's a little parrot lately, especially of her big sisters.

Yesterday the girls built a couch cushion fort in the living room and were all playing together.  Here was the conversation:

L:  N, wake up!  It's the wicked witch of evil!

C:  N, wake up!  Witcha emu!

N:  Well if the witch is outside we can't go out there.  Let's get some pizza from Papa Johns.

(a few minutes later)

L:  The pizza's here!  I got it!

C:  I got it!

(L pretends to open the box and munch on a piece.  C watches, and then imitates the num-num noises exactly.)

With her purse ready for "work"

She insists in sitting in the "big girl seats" at the table now, and puts up a fight whenever we try to get her into her booster seat.  It's one of the only things she ever gets angry about.

* Lastly, a little blast from the past for your Thanksgiving enjoyment: