The Cub's Hobbies

A few months ago, we had to do an "All About Me" poster for Cub's day care.  It felt a little odd, like writing a personals ad for someone else.  But we did it, and I may have gone a teeny bit overboard with the photos and descriptions, as compensation for not documenting his every move on this blog.

The poster came back a few weeks ago, and I'm glad I went overboard.  It's hanging in the boys room, and we all like looking at it a bit.   Without the benefit of all the photos, here's the summary of our 20.5 month son!

"Hi!  My name is Sam.  I was born in Hershey, PA.  This is my family (immediate and grands only, as there's over 20 people if we start counting uncles and aunts and cousins).  I love my big brother.  I like to climb and hide.  I like playing football, going outside and listening or dancing to music."

In the few months since that happened, I realized we could add another hobby to the list:  coloring.  It's more accurate to say "scribbling", and probably the MOST accurate to say "graffiti" since he writes over EVERYTHING.  Really.  Kaden's homework, cards people have sent us, newspapers, books, tables, the floor, the walls.  Yes, plural: walls.  While he will write/scribble/graffiti will any writing instrument he can find, he tends to prefer colored Sharpies.  Yes, the permanent ones.

It's a bit disheartening to have a new masterpiece pop up before we're finished cleaning the last one off the wall.  We have already moved all the pens and markers and crayons out of reach, but somehow there's always one escapee.  Or perhaps his climbing comes in handy?

Also- in the few weeks since we wrote the post about his words, his vocab has exploded this past week.  He's not quite stringing together sentences, even the 2 word kind, but he is great at understanding what we mean (go get the blue shirt).  He's decent at making his wants known, if he's not in a meltdown that is, too.  He likes to put on his shoes and point to the door, "Go?  Go?"

He's also a great little parrot, repeating (or trying to) almost everything we say.  Unless we're in church, when he just wants to talk loudly or cry.  But that's another post.   It's funny that he will also parrot animals (woof, woof) or other people we pass by (hello, baby).  He's on the verge of all the fun preschool exploring, and it's good to see him growing in wonder and starting to master skills.

Super Day for EVERYONE

It seems like we've been here before...

Click back to that blog and you'll see the 2009 SuperBowl, in which the Steelers beat someone in the final seconds. (Also, a very cute pic of our niece, who celebrates her 2nd bday today! Happy Birthday littlest E!)

But THIS year, you'll notice the team has grown. Not only is our star QB actually running his own plays...


But Jim's folks are visiting! Hurray!


Now, we're off to the neighbors for a par-tay. And it seems like the Steelers are in the Big Game more often than not, and we'll certainly all be cheering HERE WE GO STEELERS HERE WE GO. But win or lose, any day filled with friends and family (especially long distance ones) is a Super one!

Dreaming about Beaches and Football

This morning, we had a great park play date with a good high school friend, her hubby and their 1 yr old son. Really fun times, but I forgot my camera, so you have no images of the boys walking together, or Kaden waiting for his turn at the stairs, or Wesley's incredibly cute smile. So I'm recycling beach photos from a few weeks ago :)



The other night, Kade woke up and came out to find us in time for a coughing fit. We re-settled him into our bed. After he was really asleep, I picked him up to move him back into his room... he started a bit, and muttered "I fell out of the car." Then went back to sleep. He is his father's son...

They continue their football training, and now Kaden has a mean look he gives you, right before he bowls you over. Seriously! If you're not paying attention (ahem), he'll knock you down. As I type this, he is napping with "Bucs", a build-a-bear alligator with a Tampa Bay football uniform (including helmet and cleats). Bucs had to take a nap, or Kade wasn't going to.

He is my son, too, as you can tell by his fascination with digging. Any beach, any park, any scrap o' land with sand (and there's a bit of that down here), and the boy starts to dig.

Finally, this last photo of Jim, aka TriDad, who got in a bit of open water training that same day. He saw a tiny shark (2 or 3 feet), and so swam on the other side of the sandbar. Notice that he still swam! He finished the 5k the other day in about 40 minutes, which isn't a great time for runners, but IS a great time for a beginner triathlete who hadn't trained in a week and was literally running uphill both ways (the race was on a bridge)! I'm proud and impressed with his dedication to being active and competing.

Fall = Football (and laughter)

I know you THINK we're 100% Steelers around here, and that is mostly true most of the time, but Mama still likes the Bucs a teensy bit, and don't forget our college's football program: undefeated since 1965, or something like that.


Why, no, the University formerly known as Allentown does NOT have a football program.



That doesn't stop us from practicing our tackling.

I don't think I'm ever quite as happy as I am with a lot of little faces right in mine, all of us laughing...

Subcultures

So THIS was an interesting weekend!

I did indeed wake up at 4.35 am, and was out the door at 4.43 am. Aided by some incredible packing at 11pm the night before, and a trusty 4 point note:

1. Drinks in fridge

2. Drinks in freezer

3. Bags in car

4. KADEN!

For some reason, Jim laughed out loud when he found my note upon our return tonight. But The sleepy babe, ah, toddler DID come with me yesterday am... and never quite got back to the sleep. The upside is that the VBS music soothed him, AND I got to the event before they closed down the roads, so we only had to walk a half mile or so AND I brought the stroller.

Anywho, the TOP GUN Triathlon had over a thousand people in it, and wow it felt like it. It seemed less coordinated than the Mad Dog one, but I'm guessing that impression is due more to the amount of people than their actual work (which was pretty darn good). What else I found out, as I was searching for our team, is that Tri's are a pretty cool place to people watch. First of all, there's ALL kinds of people there-- honed athletes, posers with expensive equipment but no experience, first timers, kids, senior citizens, dogs... Second, every competitor has much of their body uncovered or tightly covered (not in a bad way) AND their age inked on their leg. So as they're walking toward me I guess, and then check their calf as they pass. Totally unfair, I know, but interesting.

It's an interesting subculture in general... with it's own abbreviations (T1 = first transition, from swim to bike, an actual marked off space) and catchphrases (see ya at the swim start as a general goodbye). It's an individual sport, but lots of times folks have their own cheer squad on race day, and lots of folks belong to a club to train with. Both these groups sometimes have custom shirts. My favorites this weekend: family "My mom is a Top Gun Triathlete" and club "If you think you're in control, you're not going fast enough". There were quite a few with a skull and crossbones, so I think that must be a local group, which makes sense with all the pirate/Gasparilla/Buccaneer vibes.

The guy on the PA would call out some folks names as they went through T1, and he gave a shout out to a local triathlete who had won last year, and said we could recognize him because he was covered in tats. He made it seem like he was the one to beat... but the guy who took first overall was actually Josh, the son of Jim's coach! Which was pretty cool. Jim's team of 3 was 4 out of the mixed relays (men/women) and 4th out of 31 relay teams overall. It's not really fair to compare to the individuals who did all 3 sections themselves... but Josh's time beat all the relays too! Jim was very happy when he got his time today (official times and placing are posted later in the day, broken down into each section and transition times too): he BEAT his personal goal and averaged 3min X seconds per mile, doing all 10 miles in less than 35 minutes. His goal had been to finish in 35-40 minutes. Yay, Jim!

One of the odd things about triathlons is that you often have a distance to cover between sections. For example, Jeanne swam 400 yards (against the current, in rough waves), then had to run/walk about a quarter mile up the beach and through a knee to waist deep tidepool to transition. Jim biked and then had to run/walk 150 yards to get to his relay guy. It doesn't seem like much until you're doing it (or watching people do it!!) during the race.

Another thing I learned this weekend is that the races are much more fun when there's more of a support/cheer team there. The courses are so spread out that it's hard for, ahem, an out of shape person to sprint to each area and get the photos of everyone. Susan's hubby Joe manages to do it, which is pretty amazing.

****

Sunday we slipped into a totally different culture, the NFL fan. We had thought about getting to a Steelers camp, but the timing and prices didn't work out for us. So we visited One Buc Place to see the "home" team. (Yes, I still root for the Bucs, out of loyalty to my Dad and the orange losing days.) Despite the heat- close to 100, I believe- it was pretty neat. They were in full pads, and ran different drills, changing every 4-5 minutes. In the 2 hours, I only saw about 3 "breaks", though they did have a ton of water boys out there with gatorade, water and towels. It was also fairly cool to be "so close" to the action, as they moved around the field a bit. Right in front of us, we saw the QBS and RB/FB drills, and later some defensive ones. There was about 20 minutes of scrimmage, but no real tackling. Some *awesome* catches, though. Afterwards, we got a few autographs and I got a smile and wave from Earnest Graham from about 20 yards out :)

This was also an interesting place to people watch and eavesdrop. The tix were free, you just needed to get them in advance. Most folks wore *something* Bucs colored, and some were totally decked out. Just like at a game! Listening to guys who were obviously talking loudly to impress others... watching cute, innocent little kids asking the MASCOT for an autograph (what does he sign?)... watching older, more calculating kids jockey for autograph position... hearing ladies swoon over players... quite the fun day. We taught Kade how to yell GO BUCS, which he did at the most random times, to the amusement of our neighbors. Jim also had him yelling "Hi Mr Parker" or whoever he was trying to get an autograph from. Kaden was a bit disappointed that "the football guy" got to "color" and he didn't, and he was even more disappointed that no one gave him a "football helmet", but he seemed to have a good time overall. Drinking gatorade straight from the bottle, being able to dump water on himself, and eating a hot dog contributed to the fun, I think!

TACKLE!

Here's 12 seconds of football season at our place: