10Kx2

For those of you getting sick of reading about running you had best stop reading now. For everyone else, today I ran my second 10K run. It was the Bridal Veil Falls Run up Provo Canyon. There were hills. There are no hills on which to practice in Kansas. I was very nervous. There is also that whole altitude thing. Again, very nervous. I was surprised. It was great. I shaved three minutes off my time ( I am still slow, but less so) and it felt wonderful. The scenery was absolutely breathetaking and I think my body is starting to get the hang of this. My knees and achilles are no longer sore and after a run I feel fantastic. It was wonderful to run along that beautiful trail and to feel so great. I know this is getting a little repetitive but I am so thrilled to have found something new that I love and makes me feel so good. So, enjoy the photo and relax in the knowledge that I don't have any races scheduled for a while so you all get a little break.

filthy dirty

As some of you may know we are in Kaysville visiting my half of the family. By we, I mean me and the kids. Today we went to the park with Adri and Jen and their respective broods. It was lovely. Lovely to spend time with people I have literally known forever, lovely to let my little boy shed the fancy manners that he has been using for medical school graduations and baby blessings and just play. Tommy spun on the merry-go-round for an hour straight. We fed the ducks and followed the little walking trail that conviently leads to steep hills with dirt paths to climb. We drank chocolate milk and chased seagulls. We had temper tantrums when it was time to go because we were having such fun. The best indicator of the quality of a day in the life of little boys is the amount of dirt in which they are covered. It was a good day.

pretty in pink

Chloe Ostler joined our family a few weeks ago and we are so thrilled to have her, she is our first girl. Her parents are Cassi and Allan Ostler. Isn't she beautiful?!

bugged

I found one of these in my baby's mouth this morning. He found it between the storm door and the regular door which I had stupidly left open to allow for circulation. It had a bite mark on it. Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew!!!!!

these are the days of our lives...

When people ask me if there is anything new and exciting in our lives I usually have to say , "nothing much." We're pretty boring this week as well, but there were lots of little things of note to no one but us.

-Johnny started crawling forward. Hooray! He has, of course, been crawling backwards for several weeks but he finally figured out how to move towards what ever it is he desires instead of away from it. He is thrilled, as are the rest of us.

-Tommy and Johnny have started playing together! I love having little boys. Tommy has never shown one ounce of jealousy (knock on wood) and now that John is mobile on purpose they are sort of playing together, driving trucks and such. It makes my heart happy to watch them together.

-Tommy has been telling us for several months that when he grew up he would like to be a ninja. He doesn't know what a ninja is but his father taught him to say that as his idea of a joke. This week he informed us that he would like to be a train engineer.

-We spent several hours on Thursday playing dentist. Mom had a check-up in the morning stirring memories of Tommy's own visit several weeks ago. Three hours of successive, two minute long check-ups from Dr. Tommy followed by toy surprises. " I am just going to poke your teeth."

-We visited Riverfest with some friends of ours. The kids got to ride rides, jump in bounce houses, see police horses, climb on fire trucks, eat homemade corndogs and shaved ice, marvel at the 25 lb. catfish and finally, fall asleep in the car from sheer exhaustion.

-It's really summer here in Kansas this week so we pulled out the trusty backyard pool and the water guns. We have spent several afternoons just puttering around the backyard in the sun. The boys smell like grass and sunscreen at bathtime every night and the bottom of the tub is always covered with sand.

So our week was full of little things that mean nothing to most people, but everything to us. I have been feeling this sense of loss lately because it feels like our lives are flying past us. I am loving these days with little ones and they are growing faster than I can believe. I am afraid I am missing too much in my rush to do the laundry or clean the bathrooms. I am having a hard time finding the balance and I have to admit that this week I am behind on the laundry and the bathrooms are a disgrace but we had days worth remembering.

stereotypical perfection

Today was Tommy's last day of preschool. They did a little program for the parents. All of the other children sang adorable songs about Jesus and animals. Tommy chattered on at the top of his voice all about the lights on the stage. He did, to be fair, sing intermittently, and when he did, he did it wholeheartedly. The commentary on the lights was hilarious. He also flashed his tummy to the audience because he apparently felt the show could use a little spicing up. I was sitting on the floor snapping away with my camera, my husband and baby in the chair next to me. Everyone in the room was smiling, including baby John. It was a pretty perfect morning.

Happy Mothers' Day!

so I went for a run...she said offhandedly

I did it! I ran my first 10K today. Wichita has a big street festival every year and they kick it off with a 10K race in which I participated. I, obviously, did not win. My time was 1:08- this is not very fast but it was faster than lots of other people who ran the race. I got a t-shirt and even a medal. It felt great and I continued to feel great all day. I am training for several other races and unfortunately for you good folk you will probably have to hear about all of them, for a while at least. I am almost embarrassed about how much I am loving this whole running thing. For once, I am thrilled to have been wrong.

let them eat cake

Anybody want to hazard a guess as to Tommy's favorite part of the cupcake? Hint: It isn't the cake.

today I'm loving poetry

Simply
Can you and I always be touching?
I mean, even times when we're
Buried in the couch and
Reading separate books, totally engrossed.
Can we remain yet in contact
Somehow, like our legs slowly rubbing
Up against one another's
And our toes can be touching?
And when we sit and smile someday
In green vinyl lawn chairs
At the beach, wearing UV-blocking sunglasses,
Deaf to the monotonous ocean crashing,
Our hands, you know, might start digging
Through the sand and tunnel together,
One last give and we'll break through.
We could be touching, then.
Keep your hand there, OK?
No thought makes me happier
Than sandy fingers clasping in the cool damp.

Mark Haggarty

confessions of an unfit mother

If you happen to be a social worker or otherwise employed by DCFS I ask that you not read this week's post, I don't have time for the investigation that you would undoubtably have to open after reading it, thank you. Now for the rest of you, I will begin 9 months ago just before Johnny's birth. We had recieved a baby seat by Bumbo as a gift. I was thrilled. I had been wanting one and hadn't gotten around to purchasing one. I receive a monthly email detailing recalls for baby and children's products. That month's email mentioned that there was a recall on Bumbos. I went to the website only to find that it was what I call a "Darwin recall". They were being recalled because people were leaving their children on counters and then walking away. Their babies were then wiggling their way out of the seat and falling off the counter and sustaining head injuries. The company would send you a sticker to put on your seat reminding you not leave your child in high places and walk away. Fast forward 9 months. Johnny is now 8 1/2 months old. He is tiny. He just broke 15 lbs and is still far too small to use the high chair that we originally bought for his brother. We have been using the Bumbo seat with it's accompanying tray to feed the poor child. I usually set it on our kitchen island and stand nearby to feed him. In the last few weeks he has started to feed himself. I put cheerios or something on the tray and off he goes. I do feel the need to state that I have never left the room, but I have a large kitchen and have taken to wandering around getting things done while he eats. Herein lies my mistake. Yesterday morning he was sitting in his seat happily eating his morning banana. I walked across the room to check my email on the laptop. Suddenly Tommy yelled at the top of his voice, "Mommy, look at Johnny!" I did. He had somehow knocked the tray off and was completely out of the seat. He was lying on the counter on his belly grinning at me with all of his might, his bottom half supported by nothing but air. I was across the room in a second and rescued the little monster before disaster struck. I will be purchasing a new high chair better suited for his tiny highness today and the Bumbo has been relagated to the storage room. Darwin, indeed.