Diaper Derby Recap

If you read my original post leading up to the Diaper Derby, let me just say the cupcakes were delicious!

Ok, so that’s my silly way of trying to say that Baby Girl didn’t win. But also, the cupcakes from ShotCakes were actually very good!

As any racer knows, packet pick up can be significantly before the start time. Add onto that, racers were assigned to their heats (6 baby per heat) in order of arrival. We had a bunch of time on our hands! Baby Girl ended up in the 7th heat, which was 90 minutes after we arrived. We had plenty of time to wander the mall, read the rules they gave us, and check out the sponsors.

The rules were hilarious! To give you a brief sample of the 20-something rules (these aren’t direct quotes, but as best I can remember):

1. No live pets are allowed at the finish line to entice racers
2. Parents are not allowed to push their children along the course
3. Parents are not allowed to push other children down or hold them back

Crazy that they had to tell us #3, right? One of my other favorite rules was that if after 5 minutes, no baby had crossed the finish line, they would declare the baby closest to the finish line the winner. That rule wasn’t used the entire time we were there. There was always one baby who was ready and raring to go!

Also in our 90 minutes to kill, we hit up all of the tables run by the sponsors. We enjoyed the cupcakes by ShotCakes, we got a goody bag including a rubber ducky from WIC, and we signed up for all sorts of raffles… because, well, we had time to kill! And we took a picture with a shoe:

Because New Balance was a sponsor… and why not?
That’s my dad with me and Baby Girl. I dressed her in a hot pink track suit because I thought it was funny, what do you think?

We also watched some of the other heats, but it was a little hard to see because there was such a big crowd. Whatever we could catch was adorable/funny though!

Now, Heat 7, how Baby Girl did:

There is Baby Girl in her little pink track suit in the yellow lane.

The cutie pie next to us in the red lane had very funny parents. The parents and all of their spectators came wearing matching home-designed shirts saying “Team [Baby’s name].” I can’t remember the baby’s name anymore. They had bananas drawn on the shirts too, so I’ll call them Team Bananas. It was funny. When I complimented the mom, who was sitting next to me, on the shirts, she said “Go big or go home, right?” I hope she was joking, it was a crawling race after all. She seemed silly though, so I’m going to guess it was at least partially a joke.

The cutie pie in the blue lane cried the entire race! She just laid on her tummy like she had been abandoned and wept. Poor girl! Her father was super friendly though and we had a nice chat.

The cutie pie in the orange lane won the heat! It took her awhile to figure out what was going on, but once she got moving, she was fast! In total, the race was under a minute long. It wasn’t even a close race.

The red and blue parents and I had a conversation about how the kids couldn’t see us. In order to see the finish line from the starting line, the babies had to stare into the sun. If I could suggest any changes, it would be to reverse the start and the finish lines. Plus, the DJ was blasting music right behind us so there was no hope of the babies hearing us. Team Bananas mom even brought a bunch of bells and it didn’t attract any of the babies. I don’t think they could even hear the bells.

And how did Baby Girl do? Well… she loved the starting line. Each lane had a laminated sheet of paper saying “Start.” Baby Girl handed it to her daddy 3 times during the race!

All of the babies stayed at the starting line except the orange lane (winner) and the red lane (Team Bananas). The baby in the red lane crawled about a foot into the shadows and then stopped.

Baby Girl didn’t win the race, but I can’t really say she lost either. Since we spent so much time entering all of the raffles, we actually won two of them! Baby Girl won a gift certificate to Toys R Us thanks to Relay for Life! And I won any 1 pair of shoes I wanted from New Balance! Since all of the shoes were roughly the same price, I selected these:

Cute, no? They are also super comfy. I can’t wait for spring to arrive so I can start wearing them! My dad suggested that I get new running shoes instead, but the selection in the store was really limited, so I chose shoes I could wear to work.

The Diaper Derby was free to enter, so all of the free goodies were an awesome upside to a fun event. All in all, we had a complete blast! It was a day of laughs and cheers and winning raffle prizes! I’m super glad we all went!

Nine Months Up, Nine Months Down

The baby is officially 9 months old!

When I was pregnant, I read a book called The Girlfriend’s Guide to Pregnancy

and I really liked it. I would totally recommend it. It has a fun sense of humor and makes you feel less alone if you don’t have a lot of mommy/pregnant friends (I don’t). It’s written by an L.A. resident, so maybe it has a few concerns that I didn’t have/feel while living in occasionally arctic New England and never feeling much societal pressure about my makeup and hair, but I still really enjoyed it.

One of its tips that I loved and want to share (but can’t remember the direct quote… although it was said a few times) is basically: it took you 9 months to gain the weight, don’t beat yourself up (or be surprised) if it takes you 9 months to lose it.

It really made me feel ok with my body for the last 9 months, especially the early months after her birth. I had been warned that I would still look 6 months pregnant when I left the hospital (and I did!), but I didn’t expect to look 4 months pregnant when she was 3 months old. But I rolled with it with the thought “9 months up, 9 months down.”

And you know what? I think it was totally right for me. The baby is 9 months old and I fit in almost all of my pre-pregnancy pants now, there are two hold-outs but whatever. My body doesn’t look exactly the way it did before, but it feels to be roughly the same size. I feel like I’m back to living in my old body, more or less. And when I see myself in the mirror, I’m no longer surprised by the reflection. The image of myself that I hold and the image in the mirror finally align again!

And the bonus of this mantra is that I didn’t beat myself up for no good reason while I was enjoying this tiny human being that my body incubated!

Also, yay for fitting back into my old clothes!

Diaper Derby Video from 2012

Hi! Right now, the baby and I are at the Diaper Derby! Let’s hope she’s crawling like the wind, not howling like the wind! 🙂

Also, someone sent me this video from the 2012 Diaper Derby (from a different yet also nearby-ish mall). Check it out, it’s adorable!

And if you don’t want to watch for very long, skip the first 75 seconds, it’s the babies “warming up.”

Enjoy! And I’ll be back next week with the baby’s first race report!

What was your favorite moment from the video? I love the “tough guy” going for the bottle and the girl with the little, top pony tail who scoots.