Why Is Ernie Wearing a Dive Watch?

A perfectly reasonable question if you ask me. And you’re crazy! Who cares? More importantly, who notices? Well, I do. You know how showers are supposed to be relaxing, a place to gather your thoughts, take deep breaths, etc? Well, my shower is now home to a Sesame Street bath tub adorned with diving muppets, whale wash cloths, baby soap, and what we affectionately call “the rinse boat”. Its really a toy boat with a spout. So, it’s a little cluttered. What does this mean? Instead of contemplating life’s great mysteries, or thinking of clever blog entries as I enjoy the tingly sensation of my herbal shampoo, I’m trying to figure out why Ernie has bothered to put on flippers, a mask, and a dive watch, but no breathing apparatus. Yes, seriously, a dive watch. I couldn’t make that up. Never mind that Big Bird isn’t even that well equipped for underwater exploration. Although his trunks did have a tail hole which I thought was nice. And it’s been so long since I’ve seen Sesame Street that I have no idea who the Elmo-looking girl muppet is. But I suppose since Oscar the Grouch spends his life in a trash can, he can’t very we’ll go diving, so they clearly needed a fill in.

And these are my deep thoughts in the shower. A lot changes when you have a kid. Like what you perceive as reasonably attainable in a day. My help has all left so consequently I have two loads of unfolded laundry, a load in the on deck circle, a floor full of dog hair tumbleweed, and I’m out of fruit. Grocery store run needed. I got sick this weekend, so my motivation to both cook and grocery shop were about zero. Perhaps tomorrow. I did get my meal planning done, so that was a win. And clearly, as evident by my in depth study of the Sesame Street bath tub, I snuck in a shower.

Jon heads back into the office tomorrow, so it’s just me and Owen. Thank god I got that shower in! Hopefully the weather will be nice and we can get a good walk or two in. It’s seriously the only time he sleeps during the day. The kid carrier is a life saver! Although we did try out the Chariot stroller this week and he did super well! It was a good sign for our upcoming return to the world of jogging. I checked with the pediatrician and basically, we just have to test Owen and see how he does. We have the infant sling with a head/neck support, so she gave us the go ahead to try it out and just watch his head. If he’s a total bobble head, he’ll have to wait a bit before jogging with mom. If not, we’re golden. It’s not like I’ll be breaking any land speed stroller records the first few weeks. It’s been nearly six weeks since I’ve done anything other than walking and I haven’t run since I was about twenty-six weeks pregnant. Yikes! Although I was able to Nordic ski until about 39.5 weeks, so I’m optimistic. Until I try to push that beast of a stroller up a hill… My tune may change!

But I’m not super bothered by the laundry, tumbleweed, or grocery situation. My friend who was just visiting would ask me what the goals were for the day. Honestly, with a five week old, I had very few. If I get three thing accomplished, it’s a win. So we would set three goals each day. Usually one of them was get outside. One day a bath for Owen was in there, dog walking, I even got in my first soak in the hot tub in almost a year! That was a huge win. But usually we get a few things done, feed, burp, and change Owen about 100 times a day and that’s pretty much the day.

So too have my jogging expectations changed. I’m actually just so grateful for the prospect of running again that I’m really okay with taking it slow. I’m fine with walking the uphills. I’m good with stopping to check on Owen. In the first few weeks there will be no time checks, no distance goals. Just running for the joy of running. And I think that’s a reasonably adjusted goal. Now, if I can just refocus my shower musings to something more meaningful, I’ll be unstoppable!