Two Kids and Me

I love my kids – aged 15 months and 4 years.  And they love each other.  The challenge is that recently they both want me  – at the same time – all the time.  I’m very pleased to be in demand but its makes takes a bio break, writing this post or making coffee all the more challenging.  The sibling rivalry recently got more intense – now when one wants me to pick him up – then other wants me to hold her too.   If my daughter is sitting in my lap my son has now decided he needs to get a piece of action too.    My daughter recently complained that I only have time for the baby – I felt bad – but I had just spent hours at the park with her along so not sure I really got it either.  Oh well, again, nice to be in demand.

Most times I find this extra attention amusing but sometimes I just need a break.  Long live the Saturday afternoon escape to get a pedicure!   I’m doing my best to find activities that both like – and my daughter sure does love helping me take care of her little brother.  On Memorial Day we took out the double wide stroller and ran to the local parade – it was a blast.  I got my exercise and the kids enjoyed the firetrucks, marching bands and free candy too.     My husband stayed home to install our new swing set – thank goodness they each now have their own favorite swing and I’ve already perfected the art of pushing them both at the same time. 

We’re working on sharing and doing things as a family – hopefully it is paying off – to teach the kids that they can each have me (and my husband) without losing out when the other has that special time. 

How do you you teach your kids to share (you)?

Frontlinemom Here

At long last! My fits and starts are hopefully over. I have relaunched my personal blog where my plan is to talk about the fun and challenges of being on the front line – staying on the top of my career and trying to be an innovative marketing while helping my family thrive. As a time-starved marketing professional juggling the run and chaos as a mother of two young kids, I’ve always got multiple balls in the air so blogging is going to have to be a new discipline for me. No more unpublished posts backlogs! Okay, almost no more… I’m going to blog about being a Mom, about ideas related to marketing & innovation, about my global perspectives (I lived most of the 1990s in South America/Europe) and about my hobby of choice – trying to stay fit.

Why is my blog called Frontlinemom? Well, I very often feel like I am fighting on the frontline – with deadlines, household chores, work assignments and the like, but still enjoying the excitement of the battle so to speak. In this blog, I’ll try to share some tips about being on the frontline, and trying to make it all work. I also invite you to share yours with me. My first tip is to put things in perspective – when push comes to shove – ask yourself what are you really fighting for?

How do you survive on the frontline? What are your tips for making it all work?

Top of the FitBloggin Mornin’

Yay! It’s finally here – FitBloggin that is. FitBloggin is a rocking fitness and wellness conference for those that blog about all things related. I’ll disclose that my employer, Sears Fitness (@searsfitness) is a sponsor this year, but that’s not why I am writing this. This event brings together a group of people that share a passion for health and wellness and they enjoy talking about it. This morning we started with a 5K run/walk….I honestly had not participated in a group run like this since before my son was born 14 months ago. It was fun, and actually a bit challenging (the pacesetters certainly did their part). The conference is in Baltimore this year, and on our run we weaved along the inner harbor, discovering cool condos, inviting coffee shops, sailboats, tall ships and an old lighthouse along the way. Fun, fun. For me, a run is the best way to see a new city – and to chat with new friends to pace the way. That being said, I’m still feeling out of shape, so perhaps I wasn’t as chatty as I normally would like!

The run energized me and made me feel more welcome – by the time we finished – I felt like I already had made new FitBloggin friends.

How did you make your morning Fit?

Remembering Grete Waitz

It took me 36 years to run my first (and thus far only) NYC marathon but growing up in the suburbs of New York City, I always wanted to run it. This marathon is and continues to be an event that brings the whole city together. I love the international flavor to the event – people seem to come from everywhere! It enables the city to showcase awesome neighborhoods full of ethnic and religious diversity that make the city what is it, a true melting pot or as some of my New-Yorker-centric friends like to claim the “capital of the world.” Growing up, I was in awe of the many great runners who took on this amazing and yet very challenging course (don’t let those bridge hills fool you!).

One runner in particular, Grete Waitz  from Norway, not only ran the course, but she dominated it – winning the event 9 times between 1978 and 1988 – more than any runner in history. She set the course record three years in a row – and blazed the trail for women runners everywhere. In doing this, she became my female sports hero, together with Joan Benoit Samuelson, who took the Gold Medal at the Los Angeles Olympics, while Grete took the silver. Both women inspired my love of running as a child, which I bring forward each and every day with me.

I was very saddened to hear that Grete Waitz died of cancer on April 19, 2011, aged 57. I still remember her poignant last marathon in 1992, when she ran with NYC marathon great Fred Lebow, who had been suffering himself from brain cancer. Since her retirement Grete continued to impress as a great ambassador for running and for great charity organizations. It’s hard to believe somebody so strong could succumb to cancer. But she’s definitely not going to be forgotten – not by me, or by the countless number of New Yorkers – and runners – she inspired citywide and worldwide.

I’d love to know: Do you have a sports hero?

Rave Runs

As you’ll start to see in this blog I love to run. While since I starting having kids four years ago I haven’t been as consistent with running as I would like one thing continues to remain true; I love to run to see the sites when I travel. It is the best way to see the sites! I have tripped while staring up at the Eiffel Tour in Paris, gotten lost running while running around Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, braved impressive rainstorms along the Río de la Plata in Montevideo and taken in the peace of Hyde Park in London, all during some of many memorable and touristic runs.

I have experienced altitude sickness running in the historical Peruvian city of Cuzco, appreciated the majesty of Chile’s lake region, pushed myself hard on the super steep hills of Steamtown, aka Scranton, Pa and enjoyed the amazing oceanside views of great running cities in Brazil like Florianopolis and Rio de Janeiro.

When I travel I don’t only go the running path or the park to run– sometimes I just like to weave through where the people are and take in the action. When I lived in Sevilla, I had a route that took me along the River Guadalquivir but also through the dense action of the Triana neighborhood. When I visited Puerto Rico I loved running through the colonial section of Old San Juan, checking out the many feral cats that greeted me along the way.

Running through the Plazas in Madrid is amazing as well (however tempting it is to stop for tapas) although I still love the Retiro park as well, especially on weekends, teeming with families and friends enjoying the outdoors. San Francisco is another amazing running town, with great calf muscles made not only along the Bay but also up and down the hills (again, like in Scranton, what an amazing leg workout). Portugal is also a spectacular place to run – my favorite run there has to be Sintra , the westernmost point on the continent of Europe, which the poet Camões defined as “where the land ends and the sea begins”  

These are just some of the memorable places that I have run – there are so many more that I want to run still! Every place I have I run lives on with me in some way – through a funny story, a beautiful image or a cultural or historic appreciation. Through these runs I have connected with the locals, found nooks and crannies far beyond the typical tourist eye and garnered great fodder for storytelling.

What runs – and where – do you rave about?