Something Fishy's Going On Here...aka Nathaniel's 3rd Birthday

Last Monday, Nathaniel turned three.  Because of work schedules, grandparent plane flights, etc.  We decided to celebrate the Saturday before.  The day definitely had a theme to it.

First, we went to the aquarium with Nathaniel wearing the new fish shirt created by his Grandma Howard.



Next, after lunch and his nap, we had Rainbow Fish cake (based on the book Aunt Jennifer gave Nathaniel for his birthday.



Then came presents, which included a fishing shirt, a musical fish card and a fishing game.





Needless to say, Nathaniel thoroughly enjoyed his day, and he still talks about it. Click here to see the rest of the photos. Here's a video highlighting the day.



Christopher

Mamas don't let their babies grow up to be cowboys (and especially not bull riders)

About two months ago, I was bouncing Nathaniel up and down like a "bull rider."  Since he wanted to know what a bull rider was, I went to youtube and found some bull riding videos.  He was fascinated.  When we were looking for a Halloween costume, I told him that the cowboy costume was a bull rider costume - well, he found what he wanted to be for Halloween.  He turned out to be one adorable bull rider. Yee-Haw!

Children's Farm

Since 85% of Nathaniel's play involves animals, it's not hard to imagine that he would like a farm.  There is a children's farm about 30 minutes from our house, and we like to go around this time of year because they sell pumpkins and have extra activities beyond petting the animals.  Nathaniel was very cautious around the animals and often would stand back and silently take it all in.



But, his energy and enthusiasm returned when he discovered the corn pit. First, he carefully tested his environment.



Then he made a lot of "star fish," which uses the same technique one would use to make snow angels.



Then he tried jumping off the side wall into the corn pit and thought that was the funnest thing ever. I won't go into how long he stayed in there (many kids came and went) or the bribery we had to do to get him out.





We finished off the day running through the corn maze a couple of times.



Of course, on the way home Nathaniel had a lot to say about the day.

Any Idiot Can Run, But It Takes a Special Kind Of Idiot To Run a Marathon!

At least that's what I saw on one of the shirts of someone running in the Chicago Marathon this year.  I guess I'm once again in that group of special idiots.  That makes three marathons completed in four years.  Although the year "off" was during Nathaniel's first year, which was a special kind of marathon.  It also makes three marathons run in unseasonably warm weather (albeit, this one was slightly cooler than the two previous years).  Interestingly, the year I didn't run, the temps were in the 50's.  Hmmm...some people are starting to suspect a pattern and will be checking my plans before signing up for any subsequent marathons in Chicago.

I had a really tough five weeks prior to the marathon with my health.  I fought something that kept traveling up and down my sinuses and throat.  Fortunately, it hasn't reached my lungs and had relatively little effect on breathing through my nose.  However, I still ended up on antibiotics three times, tried homeopathic treatments, and suffered through some horrible bouts of sore throat and sinuses.  It also meant I had to cut way back on my running.  I still did my Saturday long runs, but I skipped all of my Tuesday runs and a few of my Thursday runs to try to recover.  I didn't run one bit for 8 days before the marathon.  Psychologically, I wasn't in the best place. 

Unfortunately, Kristina's commitment to her yoga teacher training program (every Sunday except holidays for 6 months) prevented her from coming out to cheer me on.  She had to do all her support watching Nathaniel while I went on long runs every Saturday for 4 months.  Kristina confided to me a few days before the marathon that she was feeling sad that she wasn't going to be out there cheering for me.  I had to admit I was sad, too (but understanding).  However, we made plans for our Friday trip to the Expo and a night out of carbo-loading (i.e., eating yummy Indian food).

Fast forward to that Friday morning.  I received an email from my sister sent early that morning telling me she was told my present would arrive at school by 5pm.  She has made a habit of sending creative and useful gifts for my previous marathons.  Well, Jennifer truly outdid herself because in the middle of my Animal Behavior class, she walked in saying, "Sorry.  Am I late?"  Apparently I had a pretty shocked look on my face.

Needless to say, I was thrilled she came to watch me run, but I told her I wished I was going into this with a better physical and mental state.  However, I think her coming out gave me a bit of a boost!  She joined Kristina and me at the Expo and we all carbo-loaded as originally planned. :-)

When the day of the race came, I left at 5 am to drive to Stephanie's place (a friend who ran the marathon with me last year and this year).  We parked at her work and walked to the start.  Jennifer's morning started a bit later with a walk to the Metra train with a well thought out list of directions, a sign, phone, and some supplies for me (she planned to meet me at miles 9 and 18 and at the finish).  Perhaps I should mention this was her first time using the Metra and El by herself.

I'm going to cut out a bunch of stuff here, but let me just say that there was a little bit of drama/difficulty getting into our starting area...

The race started on time and we crossed the starting line 19 minutes after the gun went off.  Because of the aforementioned difficulties, we were caught in a group running slower than we would have liked.  So, we tried to sit back and relax and pass when we could.  However, it did kind of set the tone for how fast we'd be able to run this race.

Other than the pacing issues, things were going pretty well, and we were looking forward to seeing my sister around mile 9.  Unfortunately, we didn't see her.  So, we kept going, but I was worried for the next 9 miles.  Otherwise, this race was feeling better than my other previous marathons...probably because of the slower pace we had to do from the beginning.  I became worried again when we got to the 18th mile and I didn't see Jennifer.  We were just getting ready to stop so I could call when I saw her fluorescent green sign.  I was relieved to know she was okay and to refresh my supplies (and get my hat).  I would later learn what happened.

The last eight miles were as tough as one might expect, but they were better than my previous marathons.  I started lagging a bit around mile 23 through 25, but Stephanie kept pushing us on (but not too much).  Finally, during the last mile she started to push us harder, and we ran very fast the last 200 m.  In fact our last mile was around a 9:30 min/mile pace (faster than any other mile we ran during the race).  When it was all said and done we crossed the line 4 hours 53 minutes and 38 seconds after starting.  We beat our time last year by almost 7 minutes.  Given my state the last month before the race and the warm weather, I was pretty happy.  On top of that, I felt better physically than I had after my two previous marathons, another happy accomplishment.  In fact, I had no blisters or sore knees and feet.  I was amazed.  Later on, the only thing that ended up hurting were my thighs.

After the race, I got a call from my sister, and after a little coordinating, we found each other.  I learned that she had quite an adventure, including losing her directions (recovered by a good samaritan), being escorted by friendly Chicagoans to her train stops, and being trapped on the wrong side of the street at mile 9 because she used the bathroom at the McDonalds.  That's why I didn't see her.

After a long stretching, cooling and chatting session, Jennifer, Stephanie, Nancy (Stephanie's friend) and I headed back to the car.  Nancy drove us to Stephanie's where we cleaned up, and all of us enjoyed a nice meal at a nearby restaurant.  Jennifer had her own sort of marathon traveling all over the city and Grant Park.  So, she was as hungry as we were.  After dinner, Jennifer drove us back to our house where I dozed in my chair for a while before going to bed.  Overall, I'd say this idiot had a pretty good run.





































Stephanie and I are looking pretty chipper for two people who just ran 26.2 miles!


This is my surprise cheerleader and her awesome sign!

Christopher

Nathaniel's Labor Day Trip to the Aquarium

Just a quick post to show a movie that gives the highlights of Nathaniel's trip to the Shedd Aquarium last week.  Big surprise...He loved it!  Here's the video.  It's a little long, but we hope it gives you a smile.  We smile every time we watch it.



Christopher

He's Got Moves, and He Knows How to Use Them!

Today, Nathaniel had the opportunity to listen to two live bands at different events.  Both times he seemed to lose himself in the music.

The first one was at the ice cream social our church had this weekend. He headed off to his own space and just enjoy the moment.


The second one was at our neighbor's party across the street. The band was really good, and Nathaniel really got into the music. Unfortunately, the lighting isn't that good, but I think you get an idea what kind of sweet moves Nathaniel has. The kid's got rhythm and creativity, that's for sure. Kristina laughs every time she watches this one.


Christopher

I'm a Fish! I'm a Minnow!

Slowly but surely, I'll continue to share stuff from the recent past.  This time, I'm once again taking you to the Lake in Minnesota.  During most of our 11 days at the cottage, Nathaniel preferred to stay in the knee/thigh depth water wading and splashing.  Toward the end, however, we decided to push Nathaniel a bit past his comfort zone and were amazed to see how far he would go.

First we started by having him jump to us from the shore side of our side dock.  Slowly but surely, I continued to move around the side of the dock.  I got him to go a little further each time, until I had him jumping off the deeper side of the side dock (but he could still stand at that depth).

The next morning he started where we left off and he got more and more enthusiastic.


After we were done with that, he decided to lay down in the shallow water and pretend to swim.  I thought that was a pretty big step because he was insisting on keeping his feet on the bottom up to that point.

By that afternoon, Nathaniel started jumping again, but started walking deeper and deeper until he couldn't touch.  Then, he lifted his feet up and started kicking and paddling with his hands.


He continued swimming further and further. Eventually, he declared he was a fish. Then, he clarified his statement by declaring he was a minnow. He swam until he teeth were chattering and he was getting tired. In the video below he swam pretty far from his mommy to the dock declaring "the little fishy is coming out of the water."


Sadly, this was our second to last day, and the last day was filled with storms and heavy waves, so he never got to continue working on his mad swimming skills.

Check out more of his swimming/jumping photos here.

Christopher