Pickin' pumkins

While Brooklyn and mommy made brownies, Sydney and I went way out in the country to get pumpkins from Uncle Wally's Pumpkin Mart.

"Whoa!  Where did all these pumpkins come from?"

"I think I can pick up all of these.  Lift with your legs, not with your back."

"I can pick up this wimpy one with just two fingers."

"Some guy in the parking lot just told my daddy he had a good looking son.  Seriously, dude, I'm wearing pastel polka dots!"

Syd reading?

Syd decided to wake up at 6AM one day this week, so Daddy had the priveledge of getting up with her.  We've been working with her on singing the alphabet, and she'll get bits of the song here and there, which is good for a 17 month old.  Back to the story- We're watching the wiggles, and they're doing a segment about one of the main guys, a fellow named Jeff.  Behind him on the screen in big letters is JEFF.  Sydney, who had previously been quiet, belts out "E-F-G!"   Pretty cool!

Running in Memphis...

I've signed up to run the St. Jude Memphis half-marathon on the first Saturday in December.  Hopefully we can get some friends to come with- get there Friday afternoon for the packet pick-up, eat a ton of pasta, go to the Grizzlies-Clippers game (which is essentially Celtics-Lakers), and then run the race in the morning.  There is also a 5K, so something for  everyone.

Brooklyn's Good Hug

On Saturday a couple and their two kids came over to see our house. They're building the same model house as ours, and wanted to get ideas on where to put lighting, furniture, etc. They have a five year old girl, and four year old boy who we invited to play and watch TV in the living room while Krista showed the couple around.

On the ground floor our rooms form a big circle around our stairway, and the girls love to run laps around it when they're excited. Sydney was excited to have kids over, so as soon as Krista put her down to show the couple our kitchen, Syd took off on a dead run. The boy and girl thought she was cute, so they ran after her and eventually caught up to her near a corner in the wall. They stopped her, and, with one on them on each side of her, proceed to give her a hug. I was keeping an eye on this from about 10 feet away, to make sure they weren't choking her or tackling her. To me, it was just two kids being nice and giving a baby a hug.

This view was not shared by Brooklyn. As soon as she saw the kids stop Sydney and grab on to her, she sprinted up and put Sydney in a bear hug. Even though Brooklyn was smaller than the other two kids, she was able to wrestle Sydney out of their hugs. Then, still holding Syd in a bear hug, Brooklyn pushed Sydney into the corner, with her back to the other kids in an effort protect Sydney. After a few seconds, Sydney tried to get out, but Brooklyn wouldn't let her go. I still hadn't quite figured out what was going on, but eventually it dawned on me that Brooklyn had 'rescued' Sydney. Brooklyn let her go when I got over there, and Sydney took off at a dead run back into the living room.

Brooklyn went over to Krista and said 'Hold hands, mommy, hold hands, I want Sydney.' She was trying to get all four of us to be holding hands. Then, when the two kids wanted to play with her toys, she wouldn't let them have them. Finally, she let the girl play with her drum. I tried to talk her into letting them play with her toys, but I wasn't too hard on her- I knew she wasn't being bratty, she just didn't want to have anything to do with kids who would try (to her) to hurt her little sister.

After the couple left, I told Krista what had happened, and she just about started crying with pride. Krista said, 'Wow, that's why she was giving that boy the icy glare the whole time. I thought Brooklyn was just really tired and needed a nap.'

We brought Brooklyn over and praised her for hugging Sydney to protect her. I asked her what happened, and she said, "Kids trying to get Sydney!". Of course, the net result was that she thought we were praising her for bear hugging Sydney, rather than actually protecting her, which meant Sydney spent most of the rest of the evening firmly in Brooklyn's arms whether she wanted to be or not. But we're still really proud of her.

Old Hickory Lakes Triathlon

My second triathlon was a success.  The tri began with a 400 meter open water swim, then 1.5 mile run, 12.5 mile bike, and finished with another 1.5 mile run.  Most tris are swim-bike-run, but this one was a bit different given the distance of the lake from a working bike transition area (i.e. parking lot).  They require you to put down your goal time for the swim when you sign up so they can place you for the start. I'd rather optimistically put down 12:30 (which is still a slow time by tri standards), but by the time race day arrived I'd never done better than 12:55 in a pool where I could just look down and follow the guide line. I was a bit nervous about my first open water swim.  I knew I could do the distance (I've done up to 1000m without stopping in a pool), but its so hard to swim in a straight line if you can't see anything.  It's like swimming a 400m square in coffee.  They tell you to practice 'sighting', which means to look up about every other stroke to see where you are and aim for next bouy.  This is much easier said than done. At one point, I went at a completely right angle to the course and almost hit a retaining wall.  I also wasn't used to swimming in a group of people either, and accidently kicked a couple swimmers who caught up to me.  Finally I rounded the last bouy, headed for shore.  As I emerged from the water, I looked down at my watch, I fully expected to see something like 15 minutes.  Instead, it read 12:30, one second off my goal time.  Not bad.  Next came the first run, which wasn't too eventful, as I only passed one person, but was passed about by about 15 people.  

I made it to the bike area, hopped on, and finally started getting in a groove.  Rather than getting passed like I had on the run, I started passing people.  All told, I probably passed about 4 times more people on the bike than passed me.  My goal pace was 16mph, but 2/3 of the way through I was closer to averaging 17mph.  Then came the hills.  These were steep hills than just seemed to come right after the other.  I tried to speed down one to get a good start on the next, but I still ended up having to stand up on the bike and slowly peddle up.  This knocked down my time to about 14.5mph for the total time.

I hopped off the bike, changed into my running shoes, and took off.  This run was much better, as I averaged a 9 minute mile pace.  I realized I'd practiced running after biking several times this summer, but I'd hardly ever run after swimming.  Luckily, this is about the only triathlon where I'd have to be ready for that.  I passed several very worn out people on the way to the finish line, but I felt like I could have kept going.

Kevin Herrington, my neighbor and practically semi-pro triathlete, and my friend from church, Ross Stevenson, cheered me on at the beginning and end of the run.  Kevin finished 7th in our age group, Ross finished in the teens, and I finished 34 out of 47 in our age group (30 to 34), with a time of 1:34:20.  

All in all, it was a success, and I'm looking forward to completing an Olympic Distance Tri (1500m swim, 40K bike, 10K run) next year.