Up North (& Out There doing it)

A definite favorite outing of all time

D was sick again with his usual coughing stuff (thought the sick season was over) and so I convinced him to let me put him in a stroller and have him go out for a run with me. We haven't done this together in a long time, at least since he could talk, maybe at least 3 years (?).

With a little prodding and a small little bribe (one episode of 'Special Agent Oso' when we get back and a 'Little People race car from Target), I convinced him to go to the North County Trail with me.

At the last second, I threw the iTouch into the stroller as well and the 42 lb D, the 21 lb stroller and myself heading out.

It was completely awesome and one of the best runs I've had in a long time. It just felt so good to be out there and D really seemed to enjoy himself.  And I only had to tell him one little fib.

He was insistent that we only go '1 mile' and I knew in his mind that was just arbitrary, he had no ability to determine how long 1 mile was and I knew I wanted to get at least 3 miles in so I just adjusted how long it took us to run '1/2 mile' before turning around (read 1.5 miles).

It was slower than slow, but so much fun.

I couldn't keep thanking him enough for making my day.

 

Reposted on RunningThree65 (I'm going to do this from time to time).

 

Out there doing it

Took the older little guy to his first organized soccer practice. The whole adventure started yesterday by going to get him some soccer cleats at the local sporting good store.

And when we got there, he was a little clingy, but I think he'll really get into it.

In my unbiased opinion, I thought his hand - foot coordination was really at the top of all of the kids. Although, he likes to follow the rules in big groups so he'd only shoot on the goal when the teacher told him it was his turn.

He also was very concerned with how many people were watching practice -- he wanted a little smaller audience. We'll see how the 6 weeks go.

Will D understand 'Work' at all?

I've been working from home quite a bit in 2010 so I'm always curious what this concept will translate to as D and G get older (this wasn't even remotely a possibility when I was growing up and in fact, just talking to Dad during the business day was a big deal).

But D is funny. He asks me what I'm doing that day and then does a spot check against what I'm wearing.

For example, today he asked "Are you working?" (I didn't yesterday because G was sick) and I said 'Yes'

To which he said, but you are wearing that (t-shirt and cargo shorts).

To which I said, true, but I'm just working from home today.

"Oh, OK"

"But sometimes, when you go to work at the office, you wear those shoes"

The shoes he is talking about are my green cap toed Stan Smiths. Which is true, I used to work with a friend who was a sneaker head and he got me into really expanding my desire for Stan Smith shoes (picked these up at Undefeated) and so on Fridays I would often wear jeans, collared shirt and my Stans.

So funny that D notices these things.

Even crazier, if I say that I went to the City and am not wearing pants -- another 'red' flag that he calls me out on.

Sometimes all you can do is laugh

Much to my chagrin, I got some first hand experience in this last night that I couldn't do anything but laugh.  Giving the bath to the boys last night, I noticed all of the sudden some bubbles coming from under the water that shouldn't have been.

I asked G if he was feeling OK and if he needed to use the potty.  He vigorously shook his head.  A couple of minutes later, we've got a 'Babe Ruth'  situation right out of Caddyshack going on, so everyone out!

Not 60 seconds later, as I'm trying to figure out how to get the 'babe ruth' out of the tub, I hear D start vomiting up chucks of hot dog behind me onto the floor.

Ok, now this is getting gross and I ask him if he is OK and why he was throwing up.

He replied "THE POOPIE! THE POOPIE!" to which I had to chuckle.  It was nasty, but the one two punch -- all I could do was laugh.

Do a little Dance

We've been dealing a little bit (less these days actually) with D doing just about everything except going to bed. The latest has been 'going potty' about 7-8 times (at its worst) over 2 hours before finally going to sleep.  (Strangely enough, he really is going pretty significantly -- how big can this kid's bladder be anyways).

Sometimes, I'm downstairs already and it requires a trip back upstairs to close his door. Other times, expecting the behavior (and perhaps encouraging it), I slip into the den to do stuff like this and so I'm right there and able to quickly shut his door.

One night, after he opens the door and asks 'Can I go Potty? (which he always does ask), I say sure and I'm distracted by the computer.  5 or 6 minutes pass and I realize I hadn't  heard anything more from him.  When I look over, I notice that he is standing in front of the full length mirror on the outside of the bathroom door, not having gone to the potty yet, but rather watching himself dance and make silly faces to himself, and enjoying every minute of it.

When I catch him and ask him what he's doing, he quickly gets on task and goes about his business, but it's really funny.

The actual funniest part?  I used to be just like that.

I can remember the way our kitchen was set up, the microwave door was eye level and to my left as I sat at the kitchen table for dinner.  I used to always be trying to catch my reflection in the mirror and making silly faces, etc. Much to my parent's chagrin. 

Here comes the payback I guess. :)

Too Funny, my own superhero

D & G have books read to them every night. I know that's not every parents way to do it, but we love it and the boys seem to as well.  Recently, D got $5 for his birthday so he took the $5 to Target and decided to buy something with it.

Instead of another car, that he didn't really want, he went to the $1 section and bought 5 things.  One of the 5 things was a Spiderman Board book called 'Spide * Sense Amazing Powers.'

Typically, these days when I'm reading with D he is sitting right next to me or laying down across my lap. But recently he's been a little fidgety and sprawling all over the place. And it wasn't until tonight that I figured out why.  At each page in this 5 page board book, D was trying to get into the same position as Spiderman was in the picture.

So he would start the book making the two middle fingers down, index and pinky extended in order to 'shoot out spiderwebs' and then for each of the pages he would change position, sprawled out as if he is laying across the speeding train like Spiderman, swinging through the air on a spiderweb, etc.

When I realized what he was doing tonight, I had to bit my tongue to keep from laughing out loud. It really was too funny (and pretty darn cute).

Secret Life of D?

It was fairly obvious to us that D might not be going to bed after he is quiet. In fact, the evidence tonight pointed to perhaps he was sitting at the top of the stairs, with a party blower just listening to us.

Very interesting.

Christmas Poo(h)

Driving to drop Aunt G and Uncle T off at the train station, D proclaims from the backseat that we all missed 'Christmas Poo'.

"Christmas Poo?" I say to him.

'Yes!' he relies.

"Ok, we'll have to catch it on the way home."

As we drive home, we almost miss it again, but then it became clear.... Christmas Pooh.

In my opinion, this is what its all about.

Took D over to go biking along the Hudson river a week ago and to get there we had to load up the car and drive over to the trail.  So of course, as soon as D figured out that my bike was going on top of the car, he wants his bike to go on top of the car too.

So, I used some bungie cords to make it work and in my opinion, that's what it is all about.

Sometimes, at 3, there is nothing more exciting that being under the table while out to eat.