Captain Underpants

Please allow me to introduce you to Captain Underpants. Chris' arch rival on the course - he was only passed three times throughtout the entire race, twice by CU. A fast man running in his monogrammed briefs "CU" and red cape...

HTC more highlights

There are some really great shots from the race...here are a few more of the group off the course. Our full team out to dinner before the start; Ade and Gaston; Blaine and Courtney; Carrie, Courtney and me; me can Carrie.

HTC highlight photos

A few highlights from the race: me geared up befor my night leg; carrie bringing it home big on her last leg; hubby and Courtney at their transition going into the night; carrie and blaine at transition; and hubby, ade and gaston with our team time sheet.

One more set coming through...

HTC-complete! Wow, amazing. Team members each had best runs ever. Awesome experience. Beautiful course. Cool people. Can't wait to do it again. Congrats all!

I'm finished!! Ended with 8:15s, so excited to be finished. Carrie up next, Chris brings the team across finish line in couple hours. And then beer and beach!

Just (foolishly) ate giant bfast before running again. Slept on ground for 30 min. Last leg. On deck.

V2L2: complete. Everyone had amazing second legs, surreal in dark, lite rain, unpaved roads. Getting ready for final rest period before knocking out 3rd legs!

Subway and one hour nap on floor of gym and we're on course again. Gaston out, me next. Very dark. Pretty much crazy sleep deprived. But still fun.

V1L1: complete. Getting dark. Everyone is hungry & tired. Driving to next major transition w/goal of some grub and shut eye. Leg 2 is my killer. Wish me luck!

HTC - 1st leg done, 4.55 in 38 min. Will be my fastest leg, so fun to get one under my belt. And I got 7 "roadkills" - people passed!

Just drove Gaston's "Hard" course, holy s*#$ we are toast. Toast. Thank God my first leg is "easy"

Gaston out on the course. I'm next up. So excited!! More to come.

On way to exchange point. Still need provisions. Lot of logistics, lot of cooks-i'm hangin back, excited to channel energy on course. Perf weather.

"Super Zeros" waking up refreshed in Portland. Need to get organized, paint van, hit road in couple hrs to meet Van 1 (fast, experienced), already on the course

Puzzle pieces

One of the things that continues to amaze me is the process of learning that Ben visibly goes through every day. It's like his universe is a giant puzzle just dumped from the box. He picks up each piece, examines it, tests it out, puts it down and later revisits it again. Sometimes the pieces fit and he moves on, other times he keeps turning and turning, working at it until he makes a match.

I've said it before but it is almost like you can see the wheels turning in his mind.

His hands, oh does he stare at them. Front and back. Fingers flex and curl. Reach and grab for something. Miss. Try again. He doesn't know his strength. His is trying to sharpen his hand/eye coordination, which means some times he can lift a toy, other times he completely misses it.

And just because something happens once or twice doesn't mean it has been mastered. You may not see it again for weeks. I mentioned our eating adventures. A dinner full of carrots and wide-open mouth doesn't mean tomorrow when we try our oatmeal that we won't be back to square one...

It's all just amazing. So very simple, yet fascinating to watch it unfold.

Ben - 5 1/2 months

The cutest ever, right? I think so :)

You can't tell in these pictures but his hair is totally growing in. White blonde, which is why it isn't showing up here. And tonight he plowed through nearly an entire jar of carrots. Amazing. We've been putzing around with oatmeal and rice cereal for a month with little interest. Introduced carrots last night and suddenly he knows how to open his mouth and wait for food. So far the only indicator that he is actually my child. He seems to like his veggies. Sweet potatoes this weekend.

HTC - 10 days out

You may recall my previous post on Hood To Coast, now just 10 days out. A race I've always wanted to do and the perfect motivation for getting back in shape.

With the start line looming I find myself pondering the logic of this commitment. Have I been running? Yes. Have I adequately trained for this race? Absolutely not. Perhaps a 10K would have been a more appropriate goal, especially given the reality of only having 45 min tops (at 5:30am) to squeeze in a daily run.

We pulled out the course map Sunday night and found ourselves in hysterics over how unprepared we will be. To shed some light on the situation, I've included the elevation chart below for my second of three legs here:

Would there have been any way to train for this nearly six mile, 1300 foot ascent in Chicago? Unlikely. My run on Monday night included a couple bridges in the hopes that it will give me a little extra confidence when I'm running up this hill (would 'mountain' be more appropriate?). In the middle of the night (remember this is a relay over 36 hours). Course notes on this portion are as follows: "No provisions available. Cell phone communication unlikely from legs #20-32. A bandana or scarf is recommended to ease breathing due to dust on gravel road."

I can only hope I find this as hysterical next Friday night when I'm gasping for air, begging my quads to deliver the performance of a lifetime, and wondering why I left my baby for this punishment.

Ah, the joys of running :)

Pig Roast highlights

The 5th annual pig roast was this weekend and an extraordinary success if I do say so myself. A few highlights above. Ben pictures will come separately because really, wouldn't he just overshadow everyone??

We spent a long time debating whether to host the event this summer. It has gotten really unwieldy in recent years, topping out at more than 150 people. Last year put me over the edge and I didn't even have Ben at the time. Anyway, our deliberation caused the invite to go out later than usual and it seems to have decreased the size to something much more manageable. I'd guess we had about 100 people, zero randoms and a few great guest appearances (awesome surprise Scotty). The weather was perfect, we had plenty of food, and everyone was gone by 10pm.

Could you ask for anything more?

More things Ben loves

His hands. He seems to be more interested in them everytime he finds them, whether first thing in the morning or five seconds after that. He catches a glipse of them while he is flailing around and then everything slows down...he looks at his palm. Then he turns it over and looks at the top. He wiggles his fingers. His eyes widen. Flips back to the palm. Every time. Seemingly 100x a day.

Screaming, as seen in previous video. And laughing, talking to himself (and eventually me) in his crib in the morning.

Touching everything. My face. Stella. Stuffed animals. Rain.

Noises, sounds, rattles, music.

Shoulder (power) naps at 4:30.

Books and reading (finally).

People, attention, prodding, tickling, smiles.

warming up the lungs

lots of great pictures coming from the pig roast but wanted to share what I woke up to this morning (at 5 am). ben has found his lungs and now regularly just screams out loud. and you know you're in trouble when you find this hilarious (not so sure the people eating breakfast around us this morning would say the same). i'm sure I'm encouraging him by laughing but I can't help myself.

Swimming

It was HOT in Chicago this weekend so we took to the pool both Sat and today. It's amazing how brave the little guy is, the water was freezing yesterday but he didn't seem to mind. Today we flipped over and waded through on our belly. A big hit. He immediately started paddling his arms and kicking his feet. A natural swimmer :)


Pig roast is next Saturday. If you're reading this, you're invited. Come on by, we'd love to see you!

We've got a flipper! He started squeaking on the monitor about 5am - imagine my surprise when I saw him laying on his back! So awesome.

Bisco Needs a Home

Bisco needs a new home.

I have read countless emails like this over the years and always wondered what kind of person could possibly give away their pet? Frankly it is just unthinkable. I don't know what more to say. And yet, I think I will become one of them.

Bisco is our cat, one of two. She is about six years old. We rescued her from the alley as a kitten and in the beginning she was awesome. She fetched like a dog, had a funny personality, and is absolutely beautiful. But she is aggressive, torments the other cat and even Stella is afraid of her.

She has gotten progressively worse over time and this summer we decided to start letting her outside in the back yard during the day b/c she would just sit at the back door crying to go out. We thought it would make her happier, it seems to have made things worse.

I won't go into all the detail but I'm sharing b/c we need to start exploring options. I no longer let her in the house b/c she scratched up Chris pretty badly about a month ago and is increasingly aggressive when I feed her. I do think she can be rehabilitated but it will take work, a lot of love and likely no other pets in the house. With the baby here, I just can't take the chance.

I'm looking into no kill shelters but wanted to start here. If you know someone up for the challenge, please let me know. I'm being honest because this isn't going to be easy and I want to make sure she goes somewhere safe.

I am sick that I'm even writing this but leaving her outside is no less cruel.

She is fixed, has all her shots, etc. Please let me know if someone comes to mind. Thanks.

Rolling into the weekend

Ben rolled over today!! Of course neither Chris nor I were home to see it (I shudder to think this is the first of many firsts we will miss...), but Paula said he managed to turn over twice today in his crib while napping.

And much like a turtle, he found himself stuck and unhappy on his back and started to cry. Hopefully we'll see a repeat of it this weekend and perhaps even capture on film!

Cleveland Rocks #2

A couple more pictures from the Cleveland trip, including hitching a ride with grandma Es, hanging with cousin Jen and uncle John, and snuggling with grandma Marsha.

The giggler

A great video of Ben and his grandma Es...about 30 seconds in he gives a solid belly laugh but overall this is the best capture of his giggling yet!

As promised...

A few good pictures from Cleveland...grandma Marsha to be added tomorrow, different camera and still having some difficulty getting myself organized. More great pics of cousins too.

PS - I'm home!!!

Home again...and then off

I'm electronically disorganized right now as I downloaded all of my moms fun Cleveland pictures on to my work laptop, yet am posting from the Mac so I currently have no photos to share but they are coming soon.

We had a great visit home, albeit it fast and crazy. Ben was literally too excited to sleep and took virtually no naps the entire time we were away. Even on the six hour car ride home where his only option was looking in the mirror, he opted to stay awake. So many hugs and kisses and squeezes from aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, dogs. He was the star for three days straight and loved every minute of it.

Off to Miami for a couple days and hopefully will have time to post while I'm away. Plus it will be a good Ben project to keep him close while he is so far away.

I predict he will turn over this week. He showed some serious potential yesterday afternoon and basically did it this am in his crib but the side wall stopped his full rotation. His legs are SO strong.

I miss him already :(