I plopped Michael in his tub yesterday and filled it up with him sitting in it (after I checked the water temperature). He kept trying to grab the jet of water from the spigot and was flummoxed that his hand kept going through it. It was so, so cute.
A mommy milestone: I went for a run today, for the first time in almost a year! I haven't been jogging since I developed sciatica when I was around 4 or 5 months pregnant. (Up to then, I was jogging 4 days a week, 4 miles a day, plus walking an additional 2-4 miles a day.) The sciatica went away as Michael shifted a few months later, but I was so unbalanced at that point I stuck to the elliptical and stationary bike in our apartment complex's gym during the remainder of my pregnancy. After Michael was born, I was mostly confined to the elliptical machine in our living room since I couldn't leave him alone to go for a jog, plus I've been having some knee pain which means I haven't done any exercising, period, in a few months as I've been trying to recover. That was a twist for me, as before I was a fervent exerciser (as in, 7 days a week, close to an hour a day).
But the stars were aligned today: no sciatica or pregnancy, no knee pain, and my parents could watch Michael. So I dusted off my old jogging shoes and took off for the bike trail. Needless to say, I was slo-o-o-ow, just trotting along at some points no faster than if I were walking but still technically "jogging" (i.e. I did not have constant contact with the ground). I did about a 5k (slightly over 3 miles), but I walked maybe a quarter mile at the beginning and end. So it's not too earth-shattering, but you know what? I finally went for a jog, and that is a good thing.
People in Wisconsin are so much friendlier than California. Everyone (except one) I passed waved and said "hello" to me. In California, people often ignore you on the sidewalk even if you greet them, and they generally aren't the ones to initiate a "hello." The other thing about Californians is that they don't share sidewalks well. They'll walk you off the sidewalk if there is a group approaching from the opposite direction, rather than file in a line to pass you. I wonder what Texas sidewalk culture is like!
Since you'll be so close to UT, I'm not sure what that campus (and the surrounding people) are like, but you reminded me of when I would visit my friend at A&M. You can't pass a single person on that campus without getting a "Howdy!". And it's a huge campus--I don't know how they have voices left at the end of the day, never mind after 4 yrs! Hopefully Austin proves itself friendly. I had the same culture shock when we moved to Stanford. 3 times in a row, I almost got knocked down at the grocery store, without any acknowledgement or apology, and I was 7-8 months pregnant! I was ready to move back to the South after a month! And Dad almost got run off the road there, too. A very self-centered atmosphere, to say the least. I was sooo glad to leave!
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