::climber::

My little guy could turn into a bit of a scary climber.

He's always trying to climb up on the couch, and anything else that seems accessible.

I'm probably exaggerating a bit though. He's not like some kids, truly climbing on everything. Sandy's so easy going you really don't have to worry too much about him. He's mellow and measured. So the climbing is happening, but not at too extreme of a level.

But when he gets up on something he's SUPER psyched. Like the couch. He bounces and chortles and looks like he's going to pitch off straight backwards.

And yes, he got too enraptured by Sesame Street and fell off the box at some point. Before that though, when I tried to push him bottom onto the box more he looked at me like I was SO RUDE.

Babies are ridiculous.

::my birthday 2::

So on my birthday Kris and I were flying back from Florida. We went for a big pediatric dental/orthodontic conference and Kris mom was sweet enough to come and watch our boys. We had a great trip together, first time in forever we were all alone. I barely knew what to do with myself the first few days!

Anyway, we flew home the morning of my birthday. It was a long flight, but kidless it was so easy! We watched a grown up movie, we read books, I took a nap. It was amazing. It made me remember that flying isn't ALL that bad after all.

We got home after lunch and came home to a very festive lovely house.



It was so cute. And we found out that Sandy LOVES love LOVES balloons. He sat and played with the balloon that was tied to his chair for ever. When he got done it was all covered with peanut butter and jelly smears, ewww.



And we had to wake poor Sandy up from his nap. He was sleeping so solid that it took me a few tries to wake him (unusual for our little light sleeper!) and when he woke he was so cranky that he wasn't even excited to see me! But he warmed up after a while.

Grandma helped Max pick out a gift for me--he got me a heart shaped pillow (cute!) and a little countertop fountain. He was so excited and proud of it--what a darling.

Look at Sandy's face! What is Kris doing there in the background?



It was a great birthday. Kris had some lovely gifts that he had bought for me early and they were waiting, and Kathy did so much to make me feel special. What a lovely day, after a nice and relaxing week. I'm pretty lucky I have to say!

::happy birthday to me::

Here's what I came home to today for my birthday: (Kris and I were on a business trip--more about that later).


Kris's mom was here taking care of our boys, and she helped Max (and we all know what that means) set up for my birthday. It turned out so cute!


More later, but now I've got to go and get some sleep after all the revelry!

::::

This is the kind of thing that happens when a young boy basically lives in a dental office.

I thought this pile was so hilarious when I found it. Silly boy.

::new room::

The boys, especially the baby, spend so much time at the office with us. Up until now the setup hasn't been perfect for that situation. We had a rather small office for Kris and then a break room in the back for the whole staff to use.
When Sandy would take a nap, he would do it in Kris's office and Kris couldn't got in or make phone calls. If we accidentally left something important in there it was either get it and wake the baby or else do without. Max didn't really have anyplace to hang, he'd just go around bugging all the employees, stealing my chair in my front office and doing all sorts of obnoxious stuff.

Anyway, it wasn't perfect, so we decided to try to do something about it.
We had a back bathroom for the staff & us and also two other bathrooms for the patients. We decided to make the patients use one unisex bathroom and turn the one right next to Kris's office into some useable space for us.

It took a week or so for the contractor to do it, right before Christmas. The space turned out so nice!

We moved Kris into the bathroom space and made the other into a hangout space for the boys. We have a computer for Max to play educational games on, something to watch Sesame Street on, a place for Sandy to sleep, a little crummy couch and a bunch of toys!

I can even work in there at the desk while the guys noodle around. It's really perfect.

And Kris was a sweetheart to take the smaller space. He likes having an office he can use anytime he wants.
We have a sliding pocket door between the two rooms so they can be separate or one big space.

We love it!

::waiting for max's race to start::

Just found a couple of cute pictures that we didn't post when reporting on the race. I like them, so they get their own little spot here.
I just have to say it again, the weather was SO NICE there! We were so lucky.




That's it for tonight!

::::

Just playin' some tunes.


It's a group activity.

Sandy is obsessed with the string bass. And who wouldn't be, really.

Disney Kids Race

By Kris.
As part of the Disney Marathon weekend, there are a series of kids races. Max's age group had to run a 400m race. We tried to get him to practice running in preparation, but he was basically uninterested. Still, once we got to Disneyland, he was convinced that he would win the race. He kept insisting that because he is 3rd fastest in his school class, he would surely be the fastest at Disneyworld. Ginna was not about to let him get away with such an unmerited cocky attitude. This scenario led to many parenting discussions of how to manage the situation. On the one hand, we know that Max isn't very fast or coordinated at this time in his life. On the other hand, we want to encourage him to be active and we don't want him thinking that he isn't athletic. Also, do you just let your kid parade around with some stupid cocky attitude only to get his butt kicked in a race, or do you encourage him to go out there and really try to win?
Ginna/we decided to try to at least introduce to idea to Max that winning would be very difficult because there was going to be a big field of very fast runners.

Finally, we made it to the ESPN zone for the race and there were people everywhere. Max said, "wow, there's too many people here."
Naturally, I got an emergency call from the office and got to spend much of the pre-race time talking with a parent from my practice. I'd complain, but if we didn't have the office, we wouldn't have been taking a trip to Disneyworld either.

We got him lined up and he was pretty nervous, but still confident that he could win it all.

After a long wait for all the younger kids to go, Max finally got to run.

He pushed and shoved his way through the kids after the gun and was losing ground, but not too badly until the inevitable happened--he tripped. (keep in mind that Max has crashed/tripped in every race he's ever done)

Honestly, I thought he might quit after falling, but he didn't. He got up and ran his way too the finish.

He certainly didn't win, but since it's Disney everybody wins and he got a medal, which he wore with pride the whole weekend.

We're proud of him too.

::our race::

The half marathon started at 5:30AM on saturday. We'd only arrived on thursday afternoon, so we definitely weren't acclimated to the time difference. So 5:30 really felt like 3:30, yikes.
Worse than that, in order to get to the starting gates on time, we had to catch the bus at 3:30AM. SUPER yikes. It was kind of like not sleeping at all. Crazy.
So Kris and I slept out in living room where we wouldn't bother the sleeping family, got up and 3 and headed out for the bus.
The weather was so perfect. It was chilly but not freezing, not a hint of wind or rain and not unusually humid.

We had to wait around a pretty long time before everybody started walking up to the starting corrals. And when I say everybody, I mean EVERYBODY. There were supposed to be about 27,000 people running this race. It was kind of like a sea of humanity.

Kris and I split up to go to our respective corrals, me in the next to slowest and Kris faster. It was kind of a bummer not to have him to chat with, but I talked with the girls standing nearby and got to know a few people whom I never had any chance of seeing again.

I felt a little goofed up with the early wake time and the time change, but I was excited and ready to go.

They set off fireworks at the starting line every time a corral got to leave--this was pretty fun since we could all see them. It was exciting.

When I started running I felt like I could go forever. The low altitude and the wet air combined to make me feel strong. I had to slow myself down after a while so that I could save some energy for later.

Kris did awesome. He didn't walk at all and he kept up a nice strong pace for him.

I ran and walked and walked and ran again.
There were people on stilts at one point cheering us on. There were characters that people were waiting in line to take pictures with. There were high school bands by the side of the road playing tunes and cheering. There was one guy with a big boombox and huge mickey hands cheering us on. There was a hot air balloon in the median at one point.
Then of course we got to run through the Magic Kingdom and right through the castle. It was really fun.

And the sheer number and variety of people kept it interesting too. So many different kinds of people--colors, shapes, sizes, outfits.
At one point I had to stop for a portapotty (ICK) and people just kept streaming by as I waited. It seemed kind of like I just jumped back on the train when I was done, people going by everywhere.


This doesn't even give you a good feel for how many people there were.

We ended in Epcot. I saved just enough energy to run the last mile. I knew Kris was going to be waiting and I wanted him to see me finish with a little gusto!


I was exhausted and sore when I got done, but I felt really proud of myself for doing it. I worked hard to get ready and I was able to do better than I every thought I would've!
And it was fun to have Kris there with me, I knew he was proud of me and impressed.
This is not my favorite picture, but it's the only one I have at the finish, so here you go.


And here are our medals as we rode back to the hotel on the bus to see our boys!

So cool, right?

It was only about 9:30 or so when we got back, but it felt like the middle of the afternoon. Kris and I got to nap later in the day while Kathy took Max out to have fun. Then we limped off on our broken sore legs to meet them.

It was really a great first race. I'd love to do it again sometime!