Passive Paranoia

Tidbits

2012-01-31T18:43:00.002-05:00

Johann lost his first tooth yesterday in gym class. It wasn't an injury, he was just chewing on his sleeve and his loose tooth fell out.

I used to chew on random things like that when I was a kid, too.

Johann noticed that the wall guys in Super Mario Galaxy 2 say something resembling "Eeroo" before they try to fall on you. Now he uses that as an exclamation when he's upset.

After a while sleeping in the pack and play in Johann's room, Gwen is now sleeping in our closet. I find it a little disturbing but Arial got the idea from someone else, so maybe it's not so weird.

Gwen is learning to talk but she doesn't say "yes" or "ya" much. Instead, a hard "No!" means no and a soft, meandering "noooo" means yes.

I'm teaching Frances and Johann how to solder using these little kits. Frances is better at the fine motor skills required but they are both doing really well. It's possible that their kits will work at the end of it all.

I'm coaching Frances' basketball team. I don't know how I turned into someone who coaches my kids teams.

mwz

Johann's First Hawkeye Football Game

2012-01-31T18:32:00.000-05:00

Another post from a long time ago. This one was from fall.

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The week before last saturday, I took Johann to his first Hawkeye football game.

We got a pair of season tickets this year for the first time since we were students. The plan is to each take one of our kids a game. Frances wanted to go to a color game, where the fans are encouraged to where a specific color. So Johann got the season opener.

Before we left, I looked at the sky. It was cloudy but it looked like the big storm clouds had passed. My guess was there might be some light drizzles so I grabbed a couple kitchen garbage bags just in case. I didn't look at an actual forecast. (How is that for some foreshadowing?)

We parked at a ramp near campus and walked to the stadium. It started to sprinkle so, we stopped and I fashioned a vest out of one of the garbage bags. It fit Johann just perfectly (as well as a trash bag shirt can). The rain stopped and I removed it.

As we got to a parking ramp across from Kinnick, it started raining hard. While, we waited for it to let up, I took the remaining garbage bag and split it to make a sheet of plastic which I put over Johann's head as a hat.

The rain got a little lighter and I decided to go find some poncho's to buy. We had a half hour until game time, so we went to one of the streets with vendors and they were all sold out.

As we decided to just go into the stadium without ponchos, it started pouring again. That was the only Johann said, "Let's just go home".

We each gave our tickets to be scanned (which was made difficult because the tickets were wet). When we managed to get into the concourse under the stands, Johann felt a little better since we were out of the rain.

Because I had gone poncho hunting, we were on the wrong end of the stadium. The concourse was packed with people. There were slow moving streams that you could get into and make some progress. I held Johann's hand tightly.

We passed a consessions stand. Since we weren't moving that quickly and no one was in line I thought it prudent to buy food then (rather than attempt it at half time). I asked Johann if he wanted a hot dot. He said that he wanted pop corn. I pointed out that pop-corn would get soggy in the rain. He got a hot dog (and also a bottle of water).

The hot dog was in a little plastic bag (which would come in handy later) and I just squirt some ketchup inside and closed it up.

We found our seats. The were higher up than I thought they would be (really high up) but that actually made it easier to see the plays. We stood because the seats were wet, well covered with water is a better way to describe them.

The game started. It was difficult to see because rain spattered my glasses. At the beginning of the game, I kept a running commentary of how many yards to the first down and how many tries left. I taught Johann how to recognize the quarterback (aka the guy with the ball).

Johann picked up enough to be able to start following the plays. So much so that he was able to see McNutt make a juggling catch near the end-zone in our corner of the stadium.

The first time Johann saw a punt, I heard him say "wow". I think he was impressed at how high they could kick the ball.

We were both pretty much drenched. I would periodically wring out the bottom of my shirt just to watch the water fall. Johann faired a little better with his garbage bag shirt but the clothes underneath were still completely wet. It wasn't comfortable but fortunately, it wasn't *that* cold.

As the weather got better, we could see the field so much clearer. It was as if the curtain we were watching through got lifted.

Johann had been taking bites of his hot dog through the first half. He would expose a bit from the bag and eat it. I was surprised at how well the bag kept it dry even though I had taken to putting it down on the wet bench. I shared the last couple bites and it was delicious.

The water sat undrank because we had had enough of water.

In the last couple minutes of the half, Johann noticed that we were sitting right in front of a giant scoreboard. He craned his neck to look at it. There wasn't that much going on in the game (Tennessee Tech was driving), so I told him that he could stand up and turn around to get a better look.

The very next play we intercepted the ball. I grabbed Johann, spun him around and stood him on the bench in time to see most of the run back for the touchdown.

I picked him up and put him on the bench a lot (every time there was an exciting play where everyone stood up and he wouldn't be able to see). He told me that he didn't like that. I think he was afraid of falling off the bench. I kept doing it but made sure to hold him steady when he was up there. (He says now that he almost fell off once.)

At half time, Johann wanted to watch the band. So we did. He liked the shapes that they made. We talked about the golden girl and the drum major. Nothing interesting came of that.

With 10 minutes left before the second half, we went to the bathroom. There was a *huge* line. I'm glad he didn't have to go badly. After a fair wait, we got into the bathroom and it was filled with people.

We got in lines next to each other. My line was slightly shorter so I could wait for him to finish (rather than him getting swept away into a sea of people when he was done). When it was his turn he got up there and peed like a champ. My little guy is growing up.

I was going to get pop corn then but the game had already started, so we went back to our seats.

At one point, Johann asked what the far end-zone said. I told him "Hawkeye". Then, I spelled it for him, "See, H-A-W-K spells hawk and E-Y-E-S spells eyes, even though that's weird". He said "Oh, I thought it was Hawk-Guys". I thought that made more sense than Hawkeyes.

In the third quarter, there were a few heavy drops of rain. That prompted everyone to put back on their ponchos. I put the garbage bag back on Johann (which I had removed in the vain hope that he would dry off). This time I put the flattened bag over both of our heads, which helped to keep the rain off my glasses.

Then the sky gushed water.

Later, I saw clips on TV of water flowing down the steps like a waterfall, a fast flowing waterfall.

At the time though we were just huddled under the garbage bag. We yelled in support the defense but also in a bit of defiance of the rain.

The crowd got loud. The rain was loud. When there was an announcement, I couldn't make it out in the slightest. The rain started letting up a bit (from the torrent) and that was a bit nicer.

Soon after though, on third down, the refs refused to start the play. There was a bit of confusion and then they announced that there would be a thirty minute delay due to lightning.

Apparently, that was the first weather delay ever at Kinnick. We picked a great game for Johann's first.

We went underneath the bleachers to get out of the rain. We made our way into the pack of people hoping it would be warmer. There was a place where the wind wasn't too bad and it was almost warm. I held Johann close to me trying to keep him warm. It would be bad for him to die of hypothermia so near a hospital.

After a bit, we got up to finally get some pop corn. There was scare when the guy said that they were out but then they scrounged up some (they were out of pretzels, which I guess is the preferred lightning delay food for the masses). Then we went back to our out-of-the-wind spot and ate our pop corn.

As we sat on the concourse, Johann on my lap for warmth, we finally drank the water that I had been reluctantly carrying around with us. I felt mildly prepared for something.

The father and sister of Frances' best church friend found us there. Talking with them helped pass the time, which was good because apparently every time there was lightning, we had to wait another 30 minutes before the game would start. The delay was somewhere between 1 and 1.5 hours.

When we went back in, all four of us decided to sit together (since at that point 80-90% of the fans had left). We decided to go stand at the top of our section, next to the giant score board.

Johann was amused by the back wall which was covered with this giant sticker thing to make it look like brick. He asked "Is that real brick?". I told him to touch it and find out. He discovered that it was in fact fake. I let him walk down to where the wall bent a little to see if it was fake there too. It was.

The weird thing about the wall sticker was that the bricks were too small. They were about 2/3rds size, which made it look odd up close but it looks fine on TV.

When play resumed, the whole thing felt like a scrimmage. The game was well in hand for the Hawks and the second string players were in.

Eventually we sat down on the top row. I held Johann on my lap again. It had stopped raining but Johann still felt cold. With about 2:00 minutes left on the clock, he fell asleep. The whole day, with the excitement of the game and being out in the rain for so long was exhausting. I thought about trying to keep him awake (the fears of hypothermia still in my gut) but decided against it.

When the game was over, I picked him up but it was apparent that it was too dangerous to try to carry Johann down the steep steps. He woke up pretty easily and we said our good-byes.

On the way back to the parking ramp, I carried him some and some he walked. I was torn between my desire to go to Hardee's and get a big, warm hamburger into my stomach and wanting to get into dry clothes. By the time we got to the car, I had decided that the clothes were the more pressing issue.

To help keep us warm, I turned up the heat in the van and we took off our cold wet shirts. We still had wet shorts and shoes that you could drink from but it was better.

That evening, I was wiped. The combination of the excitement, the cold and carrying Johann got to me. Arial let me take a nap but I was still sore the next day.

All in all, it was a great experience. Even with the misery, it was worth it to spend time with Johann at a football game. Johann enjoyed it too. He said he wants to go to another one...

...as long as it's not raining.

mwz

2011 Triathlon

2012-01-31T18:27:00.000-05:00

I wrote this post last August but never got it off my netbook and onto the web.

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I don't have the energy to do a full story on the triathlons that we did a couple weeks ago. So here are some highlights.

The Night Before the Kids Races:

We camped. It was hot when we started setting up our camp. It was hot a lot.

We went to packet-pickup and to eat. The restaurant that we chose had lost its air conditioning. They gave us free drinks and we ate on their patio but I would have preferred cold air.

When we got back we had a camp fire with Mrk and Mg and Mtt and Mtt's family.

Matt tried to start the fire with me giving useless advice. Mg came and saved the day with her mastery over fire.

Mrk and Mg are camping experts.

Marshmallows were roasted and s'mores made.

The kids all played together and had fun.

Bedtime was late for the kids, after 10pm. Not really ideal for pre-race sleep.

It was a challenge getting Gwen to sleep. After letting her cry her-self to sleep outside the tent (thankfully we weren't at the "quiet" camp ground) and a failed attempt to transfer her to the bed, I wound up sitting with her in the van.

There were no bugs in the van and it muffled the sounds of her crying.

Eventually, she fell asleep but according to Arial, spent a good chunk of the night awake and moving.

Then there was a vicious thunderstorm.

Kids' Triathlons:

Both Frances and Johann did great.

There were no major problems for either of them.
It was really cool to see them each gut it out all the way to the end of the run.

When Johann got his medal, he beamed with pride (and looked like he got a second wind).

When Frances got her medal, she was tired. She posed nicely for the picture but she had left it all out on the course.

I couldn't be more proud of them.

The Night Before Adult Races:

That night we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows (for s'mores).

The kids played together again, although Frances was bummed because there weren't any girls to play with and her ear hurt (which turned out to be infected).

Around 11pm Johann threw up in his sleep. We bagged up his pillow pet, cleaned up the spot on the air mattress and put down the extra sleeping bag we had brought.

Meanwhile, Johann had curled up and fallen back to sleep. He slept through me finishing cleaning him up.

Frances and Gwen slept through the whole vomit episode.

At 4am, I woke up to Frances screaming bloody murder. It took me a bit to figure out that Johann had rolled onto her hair. After extracting the hair she stopped screaming and went back to sleep.

At 5am I got up for the tri.

Adult Race:

My race went great. I had decided to just have fun and I did, even when I was tired.

I did well for me. There was a bit of amazement where I saw that I took 9th in my division (later I found out there were only 14 people in my division). Arial told me that I had the 22nd fastest bike time overall (later I found out that she didn't read the results correctly and that I had the 22nd fastest T2).

T2 went fast. I just wore the same shoes for biking and running.

On the swim, the moment that I was thinking about how few swimmers were around me, I got smashed in the face by someone wearing a wetsuit. Cheater.

Oh yeah, the water was too warm for wet suits. It slowed everyone down but it did make for a comfortable swim.

Mrk had a rough time with leg cramps during his (Olympic distance) run. Even with the cramping issues he beat my Olympic time from three years ago (and wet suits were legal that year).

It was a lot of fun. We're looking forward to doing it again next year.

mwz

Summer Triathlon

2011-09-10T23:39:00.000-04:00

This is an old post that I wrote about the triathlons that we did this summer. I didn't get around to posting it though.

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I don't have the energy to do a full story on the triathlons that we did a couple weeks ago. So here are some bulletted highlights.

The Night Before the Kids Races:

We camped. It was hot when we started setting up our camp. It was hot a lot.

We went to packet-pickup and to eat. The restaurant that we chose had lost its air conditioning. They gave us free drinks and we ate on their patio but I would have prefered cold air.

When we got back we had a camp fire with Mrk and Mg and Mtt and Mtt's family.

Matt tried to start the fire with me giving useless advice. Mg came and saved the day with her mastery over fire.

Mrk and Mg are camping experts.

Marshmallows were roasted and smores made.

The kids all played together and had fun.

Bedtime was late for the kids, after 10pm. Not really ideal for pre-race sleep.

It was a challenge getting Gwen to sleep. After letting her cry her-self to sleep outside the tent (thankfully we weren't at the "quiet" camp ground) and a failed attempt to transfer her to the bed, I wound up sitting with her in the van.

There were no bugs in the van and it muffled the sounds of her crying.

Eventually, she fell asleep but according to Arial, spent a good chunck of the night awake and moving.

Then there was a vicious thunderstorm.

Kids' Triathlons:

Both Frances and Johann did great.

There were no major problems for either of them.

It was really cool to see them each gut it out all the way to the end of the run.

When Johann got his medal, he beamed with pride (and looked like he got a second wind).

When Frances got her medal, she was tired. She posed nicely for the picture but she had left it all out on the course.

I couldn't be more proud of them.

The Night Before Adult Races:

That night we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows (for s'mores).

The kids played together again, although Frances was bummed because there weren't any girls to play with and her ear hurt (which turned out to be infected).

Around 11pm Johann threw up in his sleep. We bagged up his pillow pet, cleaned up the spot on the air mattress and put down the extra sleeping bag we had brought.

Meanwhile, Johann had curled up and fallen back to sleep. He slept through me finishing cleaning him up.

Frances and Gwen slept through the whole vomit episode.

At 4am, I woke up to Frances screaming bloody murder. It took me a bit to figure out that Johann had rolled onto her hair. After extracting the hair she stopped screaming and went back to sleep.

At 5am I got up for the tri.

Adult Race:

My race went great. I had decided to just have fun and I did, even when I was tired.

I did well for me. There was a bit of amazement where I saw that I took 9th in my division (later I found out there were only 14 people in my division). Arial told me that I had the 22nd fastest bike time overall (later I found out that she didn't read the results correctly and that I had the 22nd fastest T2).

T2 went fast. I just wore the same shoes for biking and running.

On the swim, the moment that I was thinking about how few swimmers were around me, I got smashed in the face by someone wearing a wetsuit. Cheater.

Oh yeah, the water was too warm for wet suits. It slowed everyone down but it did make for a comfortable swim.

Mrk had a rough time with leg cramps during his (Olympic distance) run. Even with the cramping issues he beat my olympic time from three years ago (and wet suits were legal that year).

It was a lot of fun. We're looking forward to doing it again next year.

mwz

Handful

2011-08-25T00:11:00.000-04:00

Gwen has started to become a bit of a handful.

She likes to carry things around the house now. Shoes often get separated from their mates. Bath toys wind up in our bed room.

The worst is that we think she has hidden (or maybe thrown away) our DVR remotes (both of them). I don't think she likes the TV. Especially when we are watching it instead of her.

Gwen has also started climbing. We just got bunk beds for Frances' room (in the unlikely event that Gwen leaves our bed). Gwen can clime the ladder to the top. She can't get up to the bed from their though, which is good because one of the things she does when she gets up their is throw her legs over the side like she'd getting off a regular bed. It's better she get stuck than fall from the top bunk.

Basically, we now keep Frances' door closed.

She also can climb onto the dining room table. And tonight she climbed to the top of the cat tree. We got the cat tree so the cats could climb up to their food but Gwen wouldn't. That plan is shot.

As an aside, Gwen seems to really like owls. We went to the natural history museum and there was a case with about 20 different stuffed owls. She would point and say "Owa". She also said "Oo" which could have been a try for "who" (like an owl says) or just regular old ooing. We had to go back to that case a second time to see them again.

mwz

France's Race Report

2011-08-02T21:19:00.002-04:00

The following was written by Frances about our recent trip. I cleaned up the very few spelling and punctuation mistakes. - mwz

My Trip

We went to a stat park in Wisconsin. We went camping there. We went there because I had a triathlon there. We got to stay up late.

At the triathlon, when I was swimming I was faster than when I ran in the lake and every time I swam I needed to breath. Next I had to bike 3 miles. It was 2 laps around. For the run I was so tired.

I had fun on my trip.

Transformers III

2011-07-13T02:18:00.003-04:00

Arial let me sneak out to see the late showing of Transformers 3.

It's been getting pretty bad reviews but I loved it.

It had Transformers fighting other Transformers; People fighting Transformers; Transformers transforming.

There were even scenes where there weren't Transformers, if you are into that sort of thing.

I had to see it in 3D since that was the latest show and I'm kinda glad I did. There were a couple spots where it was incredible but for most of the film, I didn't really care.

Where the 3D did help was during fight scenes. In previous movies, sometimes robots blended into one another during fights making it hard to tell what was going on. But the depth really helped sort out where each robot was. I never felt confused.

The only thing that took me out of the movie was the crazy amount of product placement. It was more than just noticing new guns that attach to Autobots for the express purpose of selling new toys. There were product shots everywhere.

For a little bit, I thought one of the companies in the movie was Lenovo. It wasn't until I saw another Lenovo computer somewhere else that it dawned on me that that was strange.

All in all, I had a great time. I'm glad I didn't take the kids though (it was pretty brutal).

mwz

T-Ball

2011-07-06T13:30:00.002-04:00

Frances and Johann are getting so much better at T-ball.

At last nights game, they both hit the ball without using the T.

Johann showed a lot of guts. During his first at bat, he tripped on the plate on his way to first base. His knee got skinned up pretty good. But Johann got right up and ran to first. It wasn't until he got back in the dugout did anyone notice that he was bleeding.

Arial got him a big band-aid and he played the rest of the game (albeit with a slight limp).

I was very proud.

mwz

Walking

2011-07-01T12:45:00.001-04:00

So, Gwen took her first steps not too long ago and now she has started toddling all over the place. Crawling is still her long distance travel method but for short journeys it's walking all the way.

mwz

Gwen

2011-06-21T23:23:00.003-04:00

For Father's day, Gwen gave me her first "high five for daddy".

Then, today while Frances, Johann and I were getting out team t-ball picture taken, Gwen took her first step. Or so I'm told...

mwz

Weekend

2011-06-05T22:03:00.000-04:00

This weekend, Arial and Gwen went up to Wisconsin. This left Frances and Johann with me.

I wanted to make it a fun weekend for the kids (since they would be missing Arial). The following is a recounting of yesterday's events.

Friday, I had shown them these little typing games (TuxType) on our netbooks (which are the perfect size for their small hands). Johann was terribly excited to try them out. (So much so, that he got up at 6am and wanted to play them. I made him wait until I got up at 8:30.)

The default word lists were too difficult for him but the game allowed me to add new lists of my own. So, I made a list consisting of "asdf", "fdsa", "jkl" and "lkj". Johann was able to do these and it emphasized the need to keep your fingers on the home row.

They both had so much fun that it kept them busy most of the morning while I did some work.

For lunch, I had a special "Things on crackers" meal planned. The night before, I had purchased several interesting things to put on crackers. The one rule that we had was that they had to eat one whole cracker with each item on top.

We started with little squares of Spam. Predictably, Johann liked the Spam and Frances didn't.

Next up was kippers. Also unsurprisingly, I was the only one that liked them.

Third was sardines. I figured there was no way that they would like sardines but it's a good thing to be able to say you've tried. Strangely though, they both liked them (I got a slightly upward turned thumb from Frances indicating that she sorta liked them).

Finally, I brought out the Easy Cheese. Actually, it was Hy-Vee brand, which was a mistake because Easy Cheese is better than store brand. They still liked it.

After everyone had eaten one of everything, then we could eat whatever we wanted.

The cheese got a lot of use, of course. Johann ate quite a bit of the Spam and they both ate a fair amount of sardines. I mostly ate kippers.

They liked the meal so much that, when given the choice for today's lunch, they chose it again.

After lunch (and after more work), Frances asked me to play Red Light Green Light on the deck. I agreed. But when she stepped out on the deck, she immediately said, "It's too hot" and came back in.

I decided to have them put on their swimsuits and run through the sprinkler. They did that until they started tearing up the yard. That's when I had an idea.

We have this yellow slide that came from a backyard playground thing. Sometimes we lay it on our hill and the kids slide down it. Yesterday was the perfect time to try it out as a water-slide.

I put the slide on the hill, set a running hose at the top and cleaned it off (it tends to collect dirt and grime). Frances went first.

There was a worry that this wouldn't be any more fun with water than it was without. That fear was alleviated when she hit the water that collected at the bottom of the slide with a big splash.

From then on they had a blast splashing down the slide. At the end of the slide, Frances tended to run right down the hill whereas Johann would slip and slide on the wet grass. Frances was the first to go down on her stomach feet first but Johann didn't like that because it was too scratchy.

While they were doing this, I made a poor attempt at weeding the garden.

They were fairly muddy, so they got rinsed-off in both the bath and the shower.

Catching up

2011-05-23T13:12:00.003-04:00

Haven't posted in a while. Here's a rundown of things that are going on with us.

- Gwen has been crawling all over the place for a while now. We're not terribly good at picking up the Cheerios and puffs (baby treats) that have dropped on the floor. So, she tends to crawl around scavenging for them. I'm pretty sure she likes having a snack available sometimes. We have to be quite careful not to leave non-edibles on the floor though.

- Sometimes at night while Ariel is putting the other two to bed, I'll let Gwen crawl down the hallway and into Johann's room. Frances is always happy to see her.

- Gwen can say "mamama" but it may just mean "parent" to her. She can also say "bababa" but I don't think that means anything.

- Both Johann and Frances have learned to ride their bikes w/out training wheels in the last couple weeks. We've been trying to teach them this spring because Frances will need to ride w/out training wheels in her triathlon. They were both very scared but moving them into the street (with me along side) helped a quite a bit. There they had enough room to weave a little. Johann had "Bike Day" at pre-school last Friday and so we made a big final push to get them to ride by going to parking lots. Apparently, it worked. He had a great time (I'm told). At one point he told me "I can't believe I was scared".

- Gwen still doesn't have any teeth.

mwz

Gwen Update

2011-03-22T20:00:00.002-04:00

Gwen is now cruising.

Also, trying to eat bits of paper that the other kids leave lying around. She's getting better at her fine motor skills, so it won't be long until she's succeeding.

nwz

Sleep

2011-01-17T16:11:00.002-05:00

Gwendolyn has turned me back into the "Sleepinator (hat tip to Rob Schneider). More than half of my interaction with her is putting her to sleep.

We sit in the computer chair. I hold her in one arm and play on the computer with the other. She usually cries a bit when we sit down but shortly, either through exhaustion or lack of hope, she fall a sleep.

As an aside, because one hand is being used by Gwen, the games that I can play are limited to mouse only (or otherwise one-handed) games. I'm currently playing Plants vs Zombies (which is quite good) but there are a fair number of other one-handed games.

mwz

Tooth

2011-01-17T15:44:00.000-05:00

Some time in early December, I was vigorously brushing Frances' teeth. She winced, put her fingers in her mouth and pulled a tooth out.

I didn't even know her tooth was that loose. Arial and I thought the whole thing was awesome but Frances just cried.

This was also the first tooth where I got to play Tooth Fairy. That was 50 cents of fun.

Bigger

2010-10-26T12:51:00.002-04:00

Two days ago, we used the last newborn diaper. Gwendolyn has moved up to size 1.

There is one thing I can do that reliably entertains/stops Gwen from crying. With my right hand, I hold on to her torso and support her bottom with my left. Then I move her in a clockwise circle while singing a circus song. The effect is like a little Ferris wheel.

The Ferris wheel doesn't run as long as it used to. When I first discovered the trick, I could keep it going nearly indefinitely. Gwendolyn's weight didn't seem to add that much to my empty arms. Now, I can only keep it going comfortably for a couple minutes.

It's amazing the difference that a couple pounds makes.

mwz

Parenting Tip

2010-10-24T17:00:00.000-04:00

If it's been a day or more since you baby has pooped and you finally hear her go, don't wait until she's "finished". You will wind up cutting her out of here new Hawkeye onesie (fortunately, you got it at Wal-Mart in a three pack for only $10).

Don't let this happen to you.

mwz

Baptism

2010-10-21T19:59:00.000-04:00

We finally got Gwen baptized. So now there is a little less pressure to keep her alive (but only an itsy, bitsy bit less).

One of my brothers and my sister came down, each of them bringing their three boys. It was crazy to have 9 kids (including Gwen) around. They played together amazingly well, so there wasn't any difficulty involved (other than trying to figure out where everyone was going to eat).

My parents and Arial's mom were there too. There were a lot of people in the house. Fortunately it was nice out, the kids played outside a lot.

Really not much else to say other than the Hawkeyes beat Michigan. The only flaw was that the game pulled my attention away from the people who weren't watching.

Finally, a shout out to C who was there but didn't get mentioned in this post.

mwz

Cute Noises

2010-10-20T12:58:00.001-04:00

Over the last week, Gwendolyn has progressed to making vocal noises other than crying. She makes these cute little uh's.

They seem to be warning noises, her way of saying "I'm not happy with the situation but not mad enough to cry... yet". She probably isn't trying to imply the "yet" on the end but that is the practical application.

Ignore them at your peril.

mwz

Hokey Pokey

2010-10-19T12:35:00.001-04:00

A while ago, Frances, Johann and I went to Fry-fest. It's a little celebration of Hayden Fry, long-time head coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes.

The reason we went was because they were going to try to break the world record for most people doing the Hokey Pokey together (the previous record was something like 4,000 people).

Arial was really pregnant at the time, so she asked me to go alone with the external kids.

I knew that parking was going to be bad because on my bus ride home, I listened to the bus driver chatter about how the park and ride shuttles were packed. So, when the traffic started to get thick, I pulled off and parked in a motel parking lot. Others seemed to be doing the same.

The walk was pretty long, somewhere between a half mile and a mile. Johann and Frances did really well with it.

When we got to the festival, we could see a large field where the band was playing and a lot of people were standing. There was a long, long line of people. I couldn't tell really where it was going but after a little search, we found the end and took our chances by standing at the end.

That was a wise decision because it lead to the entrance of the "free" Hokey Pokey section (there was a concert later that night and if you had tickets you could get right in *and* be in front of the stage). The line moved rather quickly which was nice because we had arrived around the time they said they would start.

At the gate, they gave each of us a wrist band which I believe was how they were counting us (there were also a couple people with clickers but I doubt that is very accurate).

After attaching the wrist bands to each child, we were funneled off to the side. I was later told that they had to expand the "free" section because there was a bigger turnout than they thought (or maybe they had higher expectations for ticket sales).

We found a place at the fence which was actually next to the gate. That was interesting for me since I got to see the procedures being used to count people. When someone would leave, they had to cut the band off their wrist, presumably so they wouldn't be counted. There were Guinness people walking around presumably making sure everything was correct.

The kids weren't as entertained. I held them up to see the cheerleaders but that was about all the entertainment they had. They did well though. I guess a new experience was enough for them.

Finally, the buses stopped dumping people out and stragglers were encouraged to hurry. I don't recall if anyone was actually locked out but they closed the gates.

Some people spoke, including Hayden Fry (but we couldn't see the stage since we were off to the side). They did a warm up round of a few verses and then we did it for real.

The music started, we danced. Frances and Johann had fun. They did great at putting various body parts in.

The song ended, a cheer went up, then the music started again. I found out later that to get the record, we had to dance for 5 minutes, which was two play-throughs. I thought it was a celebratory dancing.

So, we danced again. It was a little harder to keep Johann interested but he stuck with it.

Then it was finished. We had broken the record with 7,000+ people dancing. So, now the Frances, Johann and I are part of a world record.

After the event, we went to look for cotton candy because Frances had seen some. I couldn't find any. We saw a lady whose kids had some. I tried to ask her where she got it but she was busy arguing with her child and I couldn't get her attention.

On the way back to the car I alternated carrying them. Johann declared he had to go to the bathroom.

I had one child wanting a treat and another needing to relieve himself. I thought that the McDonald's near by could solve all of our problems.

Unfortunately, that McDonald's had been torn down.

So we hurried home, used the bathroom and had ice cream.

mwz

Johann Quotes

2010-10-07T00:26:00.002-04:00

Johann recently made a couple statements that I wanted to save for posterity.

All of us but Frances were at a Doctors appointment for Gwen. We were getting ready to go when Johann said, "Don't leave me here, otherwise they will think I'm a tiny doctor".

I love the image of Johann being handed a tiny lab coat and taken to see patients.

-----------------------

Another time Johann showed his frustration with having a sibling by telling Arial, "I wish there was a parent for each kid". When she told me about that, I accused her of watching Sister Wives with him in the room. She denied it.

mwz

Bottle

2010-10-03T00:16:00.002-04:00

Just so there is no confusion, our newest daughter will be referred to as Gwendolyn or Gwen.

A few days ago, Arial had a dentist appointment and left Gwen and I alone for the first time. She was kind enough to supply us with a small bottle of milk. Enough to tide Gwen over until Arial returned.

I waited to use the bottle until what I thought was the optimal time, less than halfway through the alone time but before Gwen became really upset.

When that time came, I warmed up the bottle by pouring hot water over it from the faucet (which works really well). The whole time telling Gwen that she would appreciate having the bottle and that this effort was totally worth it even though standing in one place like that made her cry.

With the bottle warm, we sat down. In an attempt to make her understand what we were doing, I tried to hold her like Arial does when she feeds her.

Then, I put the bottle in her mouth. She was crying and didn't really notice/care that something was in there. I squeezed the bottle to let some milk out, hoping that she would recognize the sensation of taste. She didn't.

After a bit, Gwen stopped screaming long enough to realize that something was up. A test suck on the bottle resulted in a tiny bit of crying. Probably because the world was not behaving as it should.

Soon after though, Gwen decided to give the bottle a real try. The whole time that she slowly ate, she gave this look that expressed how dubious she was about the situation.

Gwen fell asleep after nearly finishing all of what Arial had left for her. I finished watching the episode of Supernatural that was on and lay down on the couch to nap with her.

That's where Arial found us when she returned, happily sleeping after a triumphant experience with a bottle.

As an addendum to the story, the next day, I was trying to entertain/distract Gwen with a fish-rattle. She gave a tentative look and opened her mouth hoping it was another bottle. I think that was a disappointment for her.

mwz

Facebook Birth

2010-09-15T00:45:00.003-04:00

The following is a recap of the facebook posts made leading up to our newest daughters birth. The names have been swapped to protect identities.

Note: Arial had a non-stress test at 10:30am on Day 1. We had already been in the hospital for a long time before the first post.

-----------------------------------------
mwz Day 1 at 7:42pm
We're in the hospital. Inducing (induction?) is happening.

LMBR Good luck I hope everything goes well .
Day 1 at 8:02pm

MNS yay! good luck!
Day 1 at 8:14pm

JC Whoa!! Thinking of you, hope it goes well!!
Day 1 at 8:49pm

KJB Congrats!! You're having a Labor Day baby! Wishing you and Arial the best.
Day 1 at 8:52pm

CS Wishing a speedy delivery! =)
Day 1 at 9:21pm

KYC Oh, wow, good luck, brutha!
Day 1 at 9:33pm

AB Wishing you guys the best.
Day 1 at 9:56pm

JC Good luck!
Day 1 at 10:32pm

JR Good luck mwz!
Day 1 at 11:06pm

-----------------------------------------
mwz Day 2 at 9:16am
Still waiting for the baby. Our room has a view of Kinnick. That's pretty neat... would rather have the baby though.

-----------------------------------------
mwz Day 2 at 10:26am
Epidural in just fine. They wouldn't give me one. Well, I didn't want it anyway. :_(

-----------------------------------------
mwz Day 2 at 10:45am Attempt to comment on a friends status:
If you were camping, how did you comment on my FB status? That doesn't seem like you were roughing it.

JC I'm back now! And before, I think I was on my way back. We really were roughing it! No cell service :( so good thing arial waited for us to get back!! Although now she has to labor on Labor Day, literally...
Day 2 at 10:50am

mwz Hmmm.. That didn't attach to Josie's status. I'm going to take that as a sign that I need to nap now just like L is doing.
Day 2 at 10:51am

-----------------------------------------
mwz Day 2 at 1:01pm
Still no baby. I think Arial may have been making it up.

MNS Arial is a pretty good faker! Are you getting any closer to baby though??
Day 2 at 1:02pm

AB What a great comment from a loving husband.
Day 2 at 1:02pm

mwz Supposedly, she is progressing. I'm prediction an October baby.
Day 2 at 1:05pm

DK Good luck!! And congrats... when the baby finally arrives.
Day 2 at 1:12pm

EF Awe! Be nice to her!
Day 2 at 1:13pm

AB Rather than a Labor Day baby have a Columbus Day baby.
Day 2 at 1:15pm

mwz Arial suggested Halloween.
Day 2 at 3:10pm

AB That may be way too long of labor for Arial.
Day 2 at 3:15pm

-----------------------------------------
Arial Day 2 at 1:38pm
Arial thinks the epidurals in Iowa are better than in Cleveland.

MNS i have been getting a big kick out of mwz's status updates but am glad you're online too! if its gonna be a long induction, might as well be entertained by facebook! hope the baby makes an appearance soon though! did you ever pick out a name??
Day 2 at 1:56pm

EB Hang in there...! People wondered how I could be on Facebook during labor...you know, it was something to do! Keep up posted.
Day 2 at 3:20pm

-----------------------------------------
mwz Day 2 at 3:05pm
Arial's started throwing up. The nurses say it's a good sign. So begins my distrust of the nurses.

KCT You should stop feeding her Flaming Hot Cheetos and Cherry 7 Up.
Day 2 at 3:23pm

-----------------------------------------
mwz Day 2 at 3:59pm
They broke her water. I didn't think they had succeeded yet, so I took a peak the stick they were poking towards my daughters head. Then the midwife pulled her hand into view (the midwife's hand, not my daughters). What was on it didn't look especially gross but I don't want to think about it anymore.

AB You need to print all of these posts. They are a very entertaining.
Day 2 at 4:08pm

DK I'm sure these posts will make nice additions to the baby book.
Day 2 at 5:53pm

AL MWZ! What happens in the delivery room, stays in the delivery room.
Day 2 at 6:01pm

YCL Previous post was actually from me. (I was logged in as A)
Day 2 at 6:15pm

-----------------------------------------
mwz Day 2 at 6:05pm
Arial's resting amid tubes and cables. A machine squeezes her arm and takes her every so often. Occasionally, it beeps at her for having the audacity to have an elevated blood pressure.

Maybe if you stopped cutting off the blood supply to her arm, she could relax a bit, Machine.

-----------------------------------------
mwz Day 2 at 8:12pm
I've been assured that the baby will arrive on this calendar date. In fact, Arial gave me a dirty look when my question suggested that it was possible for it to last longer.

-----------------------------------------
mwz Day 2 at 8:13pm
Arial mentioned something about being in transition (a while ago). I googled that. She didn't care for me to read about it out loud, saying something about having experienced it before.

YCL Walk lightly mwz....and be prepared to duck!
Day 2 at 8:20pm

-----------------------------------------
mwz Day 2 at 9:04pm
*BABY'S FULL NAME*

MNS Yay!!! Congrats you guys and good work, Arial!
Day 2 at 9:13pm

JO Congratulations mwz!!!!!
Day 2 at 9:13pm

YCL WOooHOOoo! The 's are excited! Congratulations family!
Day 2 at 9:18pm

SC Good name! Congrats.
Day 2 at 9:19pm

SB Welcome *BABY*!!!! Congrats Mom and Dad!!!
Day 2 at 9:20pm

RP Congrats!
Day 2 at 9:33pm

AB Hope mom and the baby are doing great.
Day 2 at 9:38pm

MS Congratulations! Love the name :)
Day 2 at 9:55pm

GC Yea Arial and mwz! Congratulations!
Day 2 at 10:47pm

JB Congrats to both of you!
Day 3 at 7:50am

DK Congrats! And you didn't even have to wait until October!
Day 3 at 9:46pm

-----------------------------------------
mwz Day 2 at 11:09pm
She's asleep and beautiful.

EF *BABY* or poor Arial?! Congrats! Can't wait to see pics!
Day 2 at 11:43pm

MO Praise be to God. Congratulations!
Day 3 at 7:06am

KYC Congratulations, mwz!
Day 3 at 8:01am

JC pictures!
Day 3 at 3:55pm

JR grats mwz!
Day 3 at 10:56pm

mwz

Shonen Knife

2010-08-12T13:17:00.002-04:00

Arial and I were each reading books last night. Music was coming from Johann's room and we had the following conversation.

Me: The kids are listening to Shonen Knife. When did you give them that CD?

Arial: I don't know where they got it from.

After discussing it with the kids, apparently Johann had just grabbed it from our CD collection in the basement. He made a pretty good choice. It could have been pretty bad. We have some CDs that aren't appropriate for children, like the New Kids on the Block Christmas album that I bought for a quarter because I thought it was funny or the All-4-One disc that Arial has for no logical reason (possibly because she's a girl).

Johann liked the album but there is one song on it that sounds like a more traditional Japanese (or at least asian) tune. We heard Johann say "I don't like this song. It's too slow." and Frances chimed in with "And it's in Spanish too".

We didn't correct her. I'm sure that at some point she will learn that there are more than two languages.

Ben

Frances' Tri

2010-08-04T13:21:00.001-04:00

Frances had the second tri which followed Johann's. Arial and Frances hurried off to the starting line after Johann finished. When Johann and I made it back, Arial was waving for us to hurry. Frances' swim cap was nowhere to be found. It was imperative that she have one because she wouldn't be eligible to race without it. I ran to transition and a helpful volunteer grabbed Johann's cap for me (which was also the cap that I would wear the next day). After we got Johann's cap on Frances, Arial found the other one in her pocket. Frances wanted to switch to her pink cap, so we did.

After a long wait in the start line (she was one of the last in line, since we didn't get any better at lining up early), she was off on the swim.

The swim was just the right depth for her to walk or swim. And she swam a lot of it. The pattern was something like wade-wade-swim-swim-swim-swim-wade-wade-swim-swim-swim-swim. Most of the distance she covered was swimming. It still amazes me that she can swim. Later, she declared the swim to be her favorite part.

Out of the water, Arial ran with her (since for some reason a single parent couldn't help two kids, so the crazy pregnant lady ran into transition with her). Together they got her dressed (again slower than her competitors, we'll work on that for next year). When it came time for shorts Arial asked if she wanted to not wear the shorts. I yelled, "Skip the shorts. Get her out on the course". But Frances would have none of that. Strangely, she looked to me like she was going to cry if she couldn't wear shorts. (I understand though, I also put on shorts in T1. Were a modest family.)

The bike went pretty well but it was far (1 mile). I trailed along for some of it but I let her go when she reached the corner to a long stretch. When I got to the corner, she was long gone.

Then I waited.

And waited.

After a bit I grew concerned, so I started walking down the long road. Another dad was walking on the other side of the road. I asked him if he had lost his kid too. He said that he had.

Eventually, that guy spotted his kid and I spotted a kid that I knew was ahead of Frances. Apparently, a mile bike takes some time, especially compared to Johann's bike around the parking lot.

Frances finished the bike strong. She later told me that she passed a few people on the bike. I'm not sure if it was during the time she was missing or on the last corner when I was there and wasn't paying attention to the competition. Maybe it was both.

Arial went with her in transition. I quick took a long range photo of them racking the bike, then told Johann, "We should go to the run-out. That's when I saw her running out of transition. It was a fast transition.

Arial took charge of Johann and I ran along with Frances, cutting corners when I could and snapping pictures.

Her age group had an aid station on the run. We hadn't talked about that. But she did a great job walking and drinking like a pro. The only issue was that she didn't know how to get rid of the partially full cup. I'm pretty sure she would have taken it with her the rest of the race (careful not to spill) if a volunteer hadn't noticed and asked another to take it from her.

She ran her heart out and crossed the finish line just as tired as Johann was. I got a picture of her with her medal and let her pick out two things at the concession stand (she chose two different types of granola bar, Johann had chosen trail mix (w/ M&M knock-offs) and a giant rice crispy treat).

We were all very happy with her performance and I couldn't be more proud.

The kids played on the beach, while we waited to get the stuff out of transition. They probably like that just as much as the triathlon.

All in all a great weekend and three great Tri's.

mwz

Johann's Tri

2010-08-01T18:10:00.000-04:00

Johann had the first tri of the day. He was one of the last kids to start (timed start not wave) because we aren't very good at lining up early. We were concerned that he would be to "shy" or scared to do it. But that wasn't a problem. He waded through the water like a champ.

Coming out of the water, Johann looked like he was having a great time. We took too long in transition putting on socks and such. It was better than Frances' first tri where I made her do everything (I thought it was the rule) but still not good compared to the other kids. We're learning with every kids tri we do.

Of course, Johann took off on the bike. He even passed a few kids (after I told him to). Later he said that the bike was his favorite part.

T2 was quick and he was off on the run. Johann was getting tired at this point but he kept gutting it out. The one problem with the run was that he kept trying to follow me, rather than the path. That slowed him down a bit since he was unsure of where he was supposed to run but he kept going and made it to the finish line.

I am terribly proud of his effort. He was completely spent but happy when he got done. And now he is a triathlete.

mwz

Triathlons

2010-07-30T13:03:00.001-04:00

Everyone in my nuclear family that gets their oxygen directly from the air is now a triathlete.

Johann, Frances and I all did triathlons this last weekend. They all went really well.

This retelling will be in three posts. First the least important (mine).

My race went extremely well, especially for not really having trained. Nothing terribly interesting happened (which is good).
However, toward the end of the bike, a guy that I had been trading passes with the whole time sped up after I had legally passed him (my front tire was significantly passed his. I had to push to complete the pass. That irritated me a bit. He passed me on the run and for a while I thought I'd catch him but I never did.

The other odd thing was that my brother (who I don't know if I've given him a pseudonym, so I'll call him "my brother") passed me on the bike without either of us realizing. (He started later than me so it took him a bit to catch up). We did see each other on the run going opposite ways which was nice.

We both finished (he significantly before I) and had a nice rest of the morning culminating in eating at a restaurant that appeared to be a nursing home cafeteria masquerading as a bait shop.

mwz

Bad Jokes

2010-06-23T13:40:00.002-04:00

Apparently, I go with the lame jokes a little often.

We watched The Never Ending Story a week or so ago. All the expected jokes were made.

Yesterday, we went to the library and picked up The Never Ending Story II.

On the way home, one of the kids asked if we could watch it that night. It was getting close to bed time so I said, "We can start it but we won't be able to finish it tonight because...".

Johann broke in with a weary sigh "Yeah because its the never ending story".

mwz

mwz

Xtreme

2010-06-23T08:27:00.001-04:00

The other day, I was working on the computer and Johann was playing with a PlaySchool motorcycle. I said something about a wheelie and he asked if motorcycles could do wheelies on their front wheel.

After a brief explanation of the techniques behind doing a stoppie, I pulled him onto my lap and went to YouTube.

We spent the next half hour watching various X-Games type sports. First, we watched motocross tricks which lead into skateboarding, followed by BMX videos and ending up a flatland bike tricks.

It was a lot of fun. Only once did I have to stop a video because the lyrics were bad.

When I told him why we were moving on, he wanted to know what the naughty words were (which seems reasonable but I figured it was better if he didn't learn them quite yet.

Then Johann said, "I know one naughty word". I asked him what what letter it started with and he said "P". Curious, I suggested that he whisper it into my ear.

He got really close and sheepishly whispered, "Pee".

I laughed and told him that it wasn't a naughty word as long as he didn't call anyone a "Pee-pee head".

mwz

Father's Day

2010-06-22T12:38:00.001-04:00

Outside of working on a race, I had a very nice Father's day.

Frances and Johann made cards. Frances' was very nicely colored with her and me holding hands in the middle with text that she wrote saying "Have a great day everyday".

Johann's looked really simple in comparison. It was just bunch of shapes and two people (Johann and me). I didn't really get it until he said that it was a depiction of when he and I drew shapes in the wood chips at the park last week. That made me happy.

Both cards are now displayed at work.

Frances also decided to try to ride her bike w/out training wheels again. (The last time we tried, I got overly frustrated and Frances wound up crying in Arial's arms. It was horrible and I'm not really proud of that.)

So, with pads in place, helmet on and a promise that I would hold on to the handle bars like Frances wanted, she tried again. We went up and down the street until I could no longer ensure her safety. (It is really tiring to run hunched over a little bike.)

She did great. There were brief periods of balance. But more importantly, she is getting better and wants to try again.

Oh, and for Father's day, Thrice kicked me in the face.

mwz

Frances' Head

2010-06-21T13:34:00.000-04:00

So this weekend, I took Frances in to the local walk-in clinic (which is associated with our hospital).

When meeting with the nurse practitioner, I explained that Frances hit her head on the corner of a wall on Wednesday, had blood come out of her ear on Thursday and that we wanted to get it checked out. I also told her that she still has a tube in that ear which may also explain the bleeding.

I was hoping for a "Well, we probably can't do anything here but let's take a look at her ear" followed by an "It's no big deal" or a recommendation to go to the hospital for X-rays.

Instead, she said "So, this happened on Wednesday... and today's... Saturday", followed by condescending look. She then asked "What made you come in now?" with the undertone of "why didn't you come in right away sooner".

I told her that she had seemed fine and wasn't exhibiting any other symptoms of head trauma, no dilated pupils, no grogginess. She had been acting normally and wasn't complaining of any pain other than the obvious bruise on her head. We just wanted to get another opinion.

The nurse told me that you should go to the emergency room right away for every head injury. (Which I guess means that we should be going each time the kids smack their head against something. So, about twice a week. I didn't say that because I was to busy trying to convince her not to call social services. Also, I didn't think of it.)

After being informed that we should take her to the emergency room (and that I am a terrible father) over and over, we went home.

We consulted with various family members, noted the continued normalcy of Frances' behavior and decided to just keep an eye on her. Which is what we probably would have been told to do had we taken her to the hospital.

mwz

Funniest Home Videos Moment

2010-06-18T23:54:00.002-04:00

Well, it has happened to me, what Funniest Home Videos has taught me happens to every father.

I am always very careful when the kids are swinging a bat or throwing a ball. My reflexes are usually good enough to save the day.

But not tonight.

Tonight, Frances, Johann and I were sword fighting (with Nerf swords, which are awesome). I was distracted by making sure Johann didn't hit Frances in the head with his sweeping blows.

(Incidentally, we are worried that Frances may have a skull fracture which she got by running into the thermostat in the hallway. She seems fine but later her ear was bleeding a bit. We are going to take her in to the clinic tomorrow to get her checked out. Hopefully, it's just the tubes in her ear falling out and not the hit on her head that caused the bleeding.)

Maybe, it wasn't that I was so distracted but that my top priority wasn't protecting myself but Frances' head.

Johann's sword slipped past my defenses and he got me with a powerful strike.

I haven't been hit there in years. It was a excruciating reminder that I must stay ever vigilent.

Fortunately, no one was filming the incident.

mwz

Uninteresting Gardening Story

2010-06-08T13:29:00.001-04:00

All 5 of us were in the garden planting tomatoes (including Thrice who was along for the ride). I turned a strip of the garden for planting. Arial pulled the weeds and got attacked by a colony of red ants. The ant colony then had vengeance rained upon it (in the form of a shovel).

I'll gloss over the tramatic part here where, when planting Johanns sunflowers that he grew from seeds, I accidentally destroyed them and made him very sad.

The kids helped plant the tomatoes by spraying water (with the gun-like hose attachment) and pushing dirt around the plants to fill in the hole. After filling in a hole with water, Johann dropped the hose to the ground. It landed in such a way that the lever was slightly depressed, creating a sprinkler right next to all of us.

Johann got the worst of it but we all got wet (except Thrice who is perpetually swimming). I kicked the hose over and it turned off. We went back to work.

After finishing, we ate at Taco John's.

mwz

Mildly Interesting Thing We're Doing

2010-06-07T20:54:00.003-04:00

The kid's and I are signed up for a triathlon this summer. We all need to train for this but for different reasons. I'm out of shape, Francis is afraid of biking quickly and Johann likes to ride his bike fast (okay, he doesn't need to train but he likes to).

We have a park near us that has a bike/running path in a half mile loop. We've started going down with their bikes. I run and the kids bike. Frances and I bike/run together and Johann bikes ahead (until I holler at him to wait for us).

Arial has been going down and waiting at the playground. After a couple laps the kids can stop and play at the playground while I continue.

The first day was tough because Frances was going significantly slower than Johann and she was terrified to go any faster. In fact, she bailed on a turn that she could easily have made if she wasn't scared. To her credit, she was speeding up by the last lap (even though I made her miserable by hollering "Pedal! Pedal!" more often than I should have). She has figured out how to take that turn like a champ.

We also went three laps, which was about a lap farther than we should have started with. Halfway through the third lap, Johann kept saying "I'm tired of pedaling".

Despite the first time problems, both of them ask to go again even after the third time.

We'll see how long their enthusiasm lasts.

mwz

Begin Again

2010-06-07T18:30:00.001-04:00

New baby on the way. So, I need to get back in practice of blogging.

Now let's see, what are the pseudonyms again? Ariel, Francis and Johann. I'll have to pick a pseudonym for the baby. I don't think Thrice is going to cut it. Maybe I should pick a name that Ariel likes that I don't. Then it'll get taken off the table... We'll see how vicious the naming discussion gets.

mwz

Halloween 2

2008-11-23T00:18:00.000-05:00

This is being posted way late.

On Halloween, we went out trick-or-treating.

We made some modifications to Johann's robot costume to shorten it up. Unfortunately, when he was trying to get up a step it was obvious that we had not done enough. I wound up cutting slits up the front to allow the cardboard to bend with his legs. This made him happier in his costume.

We completely abandoned the robot helmet in favor of a stocking cap with some lights attached by Velcro. It wasn't as cool as the robot head but it was more functional.

Even still, I don't think Johann really liked being in the costume. His mobility was hindered, the hard sleeves made it so he couldn't touch his hands together and it made it really hard to carry him from house to house.

But we went out. Arial's mom was visiting and she was nice enough to hand out candy while we went out (that way no one had cause to egg our house).

Trick or treating was a lot of fun (when the people with lights on where home). A lot of the houses we went to had stairs to climb to get to the door. That was hard for both Johann and Frances because of their costumes (Frances had a long dress-like thing that she was afraid to trip on). Some of the nicer people sat at the bottom of the stairs giving out candy.

After about 40 minutes, Johann grew tired and asked to go home. Arial took him, while Frances and I stayed out for a bit longer. Frances was a trooper but there was this one house that had spooky music and skulls on the stairs. We started up the stairs and she became to scared and wanted to leave. I thought that was fine. It was actually pretty spooky.

The next house they just had one of those bowls with a motion sensitive hand that "grabs" at you. Frances didn't want to get the candy because she was still spooked. I encouraged her to get some and she did. I thought she was very brave.

After that we went home and the kids had fun eating candy.

While we were out, I saw a happy little kid about Johann's age dressed as a cowboy. That meant a cowboy hat and a neckerchief. There's a lesson in that.

mwz

Halloween 1

2008-11-12T23:45:00.000-05:00

This is being posted extremely late. Sorry.

The Sunday before Halloween we went to a Halloween carnival at the local rec center. Frances went as a butterfly and Johann was a robot. Arial made a pretty skirt thing for the torso of Frances' costume. With wings and antennae, she looked very cute.

I had a hand in Johann's costume. We spray painted some boxes silver and then I hot-glued on various electronic components. It looked pretty cool although there were some issues. His mobility was hindered because the torso was a little too long. Even more worrisome was that the helmet was relatively heavy and we had a tough time keeping it on his head (it was a box that was way bigger than his head, it fit more like a space helmet than a hat). We wound up using little sticky Velcro tabs to attach it to the torso.

Before the carnival, there is a "parade" where the kids walk to the carnival. We thought that would be fun. What we didn't think of was the wind.

We parked at the start of the parade (about a quarter mile from the rec center) and got the kids into their costumes. People seemed to like Johann's costume even though he could barely walk. The parade started (going in the opposite direction as the rec center). Johann and I quickly fell behind but soon Arial and Frances came back to us and declared it too windy to do a parade.

Arial suggested we take the kids out of their costumes and drive to the rec center. I stupidly said that we should just walk. It didn't seem that far but what I didn't count on was the wind.

Like I mentioned before, Johann couldn't walk very fast and the wind was quite cold. I needed to pick Johann up and carry him but there was really no place to grab him with his costume in the way.

I gave the helmet to Arial and the fan on the back promptly broke off (a sign of things to come). Then, I scooped Johann up and lay him across my arms. That began a long, cold, tiring journey to the rec center.

I had given him my stocking cap since he didn't have his helmet to keep warm. It managed to blow off his head. Arial had to come back and get it. From then on Johann was concerned that the wind would blow off his hat.

We finally got to the rec center. Some of the electronics were coming off but nothing too bad. However one of the shoulder straps was broken and the glue on the Velcro sticky tabs pulled off. I think that caused by a combination of the cold affecting the glue and spray-paint separating from the cardboard.

After finally getting in and giving up on the helmet (which didn't have anything holding it on his head since the Velcro fell off) we went into the carnival.

They had a bunch of stations where the kids would do something like "pin the nose on the felt jack-o-lantern" and then get a small prize. Both kids had fun with that although Johann seemed a bit bewildered when some stranger put a blindfold on him and spun him around.

They both enjoyed the ball throwing events while the "fishing" (put a string over a divider and someone clips candy to it) is always a bit strange.

Eventually, Johann became really tired and tired of having his mobility hampered. So, we took him out of his costume. I took it back to the car and the wind threatened to tear it apart even more. Stupid wind.

Arial and I didn't really have that great of a time because we were kicking ourselves for trying to do the parade. But I think the kids had fun (or at least an experience), so I guess it was worth it.

We needed to make major costume modifications before trick or treating.

mwz

Teddy Bear

2008-10-29T20:45:00.002-04:00

The other day, Johann was playing with my old teddy bear. I told him how that was my teddy bear when I was a kid. He went and found his bear and told me "This is a daddy bear and this is a baby bear".

Then, at bed time, we had to go looking for the bears. Johann had been playing with them together, so that's how we found them. On the way back to his room, Johann went into our room and put my teddy bear on the bed, presumably so that I could have it when I went to sleep.

I thought that was very considerate.

mwz

Checkers

2008-10-27T23:50:00.000-04:00

The other day, I taught Frances how to play checkers. She picked up on the rules quickly. Even though she is still getting the hang of the strategy, still she periodically surprises me with a really good move.

We have been playing every now and then. We've started handicapping the game by starting me with fewer pieces. Frances is fairly competitive that way as long as I tell her when pieces are in jeopardy of being jumped.

Frances really likes to get kings or princesses as she calls them. It's an exciting event when she gets one. The second game we played, she looked sad said, "I didn't get any kings" (she hadn't started calling them princesses yet). So, the next game I made sure she got at least one king. It makes her happy. Now that we are handicapping though, she can get her own princesses.

The only downside to the games are that Frances has the attention span of a four year old. I have to keep her on task the whole time.

On the whole, it is a lot of fun to play with her. I just feel a little bad
because Johann wants to play too but he is to young yet.

mwz

Soccer

2008-10-21T23:26:00.000-04:00

Francis has been playing soccer again this fall. The last few games she has been playing really well. She runs all over the place and has had several drives with the ball. I've been so proud.

Finally, this week Francis scored a goal after being so close several times. She has had instances where a teammate has kicked the ball in after she dribbled it all the way to the goal and then last week she drove it down and then a girl from the other team kicked it in.

But this week she stole an inbound kick and took it right to the goal. She hesitated a bit in front of the goal but there was no one near by so she kicked it in.

During this whole thing, Johann plays on the sidelines. Either Arial or I will kick a ball around with him for some of time but he usually watches some of the game. He is very good about the whole thing (until the team gets snacks and he doesn't but Francis usually shares something with him).

All in all, soccer has been fun. The next thing she is signed up for is tennis. :)

mwz

Stupid Far

2008-09-28T19:52:00.000-04:00

I ran a marathon.

It was far

mwz

Frances Sings

2008-03-09T23:17:00.002-04:00

I've written a few posts in a row about Johann and I don't want Frances to be left out. She is still doing interesting things but since she is older now, her interesting things are more like thing adults do, like putting on her own shoes. So I never feel like writing about it. Sorry Frances of the future.

One thing Frances has started doing which I am fond of is making up songs. Like today, she told me that she knew a song about pirates and proceeded to sing a song about getting a boat and getting in the car (which we were doing at the time). She just makes up the words on the fly. In fact they sound a lot like the stories that she tells sometimes. They don't rhyme but she is getting better a setting the meter.

We've also started learning German. I took German in college and have a general fondness of the language (I find it a comforting language just like everyone else). So we are listening to a phrase a day podcast and learning bits and pieces. Today we learned danke and bitte.

mwz

ABCD

2008-03-02T00:38:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago (you'll notice it takes me awhile to write these) Johann brought me the They Might Be Giants album "Here Come the ABCs". As he handed it to me, he said "ABCD". I was pleased that he had recognized the CD cover.

Later though, when he found some other CDs he said "ABCD". This made us realize that he really meant CD.

When you say "Not 'ABCD', it's 'A CD'", you begin to understand why he thinks that's the correct word.

Now whenever we go to the game store or he sees DVDs or CDs, he says "ABCD".

It's really cute, so we don't press him to stop.

mwz

Hold Me

2008-02-23T00:49:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago, Johann looked up at me and said "holdjou" (rhymes with Bijou). It took me a bit to figure out that he was saying "hold you".

I looked at him and tried to understand why he wanted to hold me when it dawned on me what he meant.

I said, "you want me to holdjou?" and he replied, "yep, holdjou". So I picked him up and everyone was happy.

mwz

Nominee

2008-01-31T23:52:00.000-05:00

I started this blog as a place to write my thoughts on politics. Then it got taken over by my desire to chronicle my kid's lives. But something has been niggling at my brain for a few days and I thought I would get it out there.

For a long time, I've been saying that I could never vote for John McCain. Mostly this was due to his support for the McCain-Feingold assault on free speech (but I don't really mind his being a "Maverick" since I believe in principles over party, it's just that his principles don't line up with mine... at all). For most of that time it was pretty much academic because he was languishing nicely on the bottom of the Republican pile.

Unfortunately, he seems poised to get the nomination (unless the remainder of the Republican voters show some sense). This has gotten me thinking about who I vote for in case of a McCain nomination.

Even though how I vote doesn't impact the outcome much but it important to me, personally. I have to vote my concise. The way I see it, I have three options:

1. Vote for McCain anyway. It's a long time until the election. The Democratic nominee could suggest something so heinous that I have to vote against them. This is pretty much why I voted Bush the second time round (because Kerry was/is that bad). I really don't think this is an option. The only good thing that came out of having a liberal with a Republican affiliation in the white house was his supreme court nominations. Another "Republican" liberal isn't going to be any better. It is just demoralizing to conservatives.

2. Vote third party or abstain. Ideally a good third party candidate comes out (ie not Bloomberg). This would give me something to do with my vote. The only down side to this is that I feel like I would be shirking my responsibilities to help decide the election. I really shouldn't just take a pass.

3. Vote for the Democrat. Sadly, this is actually an option, especially if/when the Democrat nominee starts to tack right during the general election (as to not scare independents). Taking this option feels more like owning up to the situation.

What I finally do depends largely on who the Democratic nominee is. If it is Mrs. Clinton, I probably go option 2 (third party or no vote) because I don't really want to contribute to any perceived "mandates".

If Mr. Obama takes the nomination, I could potentially vote for him. Even though he is a big liberal (and when I saw him talk he said something like "I know Iowan's are fiercely independent but you expect a good job and a college education and blah blah" without noticing the cognitive dissonance involved in being "fiercely independent and yet needing the government to help with every facet of your life), I don't think he has the experience to allow him to do much damage. Basically, I think he will be ineffectual.

It should definitely be an interesting moral quandary. Maybe I'll get lucky and Romney will solve this problem for me.

mwz

Fracture Update

2008-01-29T22:56:00.000-05:00

It's been a week since Johann fell down the stairs and fractured his leg.

All week we've been making sure that he didn't walk on it. It was surprisingly easy and, as Arial pointed out, showed that he must have been in a lot of pain if it made him avoid walking. He did get around pretty well by crawling or walking on his knees.

It took a little bit of convincing to get him back on his feet because he had gotten used to not standing but now he is back to using walking as his preferred mode of transport.

He is still afraid of the stairs (which is fine with us for the time being) and periodically points at the stairs and says "Fell down stairs. Hurt leg." Hopefully, he hasn't been psychologically scarred for life. I'm guessing that he will be fine though.

Now, we just have to keep him from climbing and jumping on things for another week while Johann's leg strengthens. That is not going to be easy.

mwz

Fracture

2008-01-24T00:24:00.000-05:00

On Monday evening, both kids were hanging out with me in the office as I talked to Mrk on the phone. Johann left to play in the play room. I didn't think anything of it because he has free reign over the house. Arial was up stairs so there was someone up there in case he decided to go up.

Frances was sitting on my lap when I heard the "thump...thump..thuMP.THUMP" of Johann falling down the stairs. Sadly, I recognize the sound as he has fallen down before.

I hung up and raced out to him and he was lying on the landing just starting to cry. After giving him a look over to make sure that picking him up wouldn't hurt him, I picked him up and held him while Arial came down.

After questioning him (which is more of an art than a science) we think that he was at the top of the stairs and a cat ran by him, knocking him off his balance. He kept saying "Up stairs, fall down" but he responded when Arial asked if a kitty ran by him.

Arial held him for a while (because there is no substitute for Mommy). After doing a lay-persons exam for broken bones, I figured I should call Mrk back (since I had left kind of abruptly).

Shortly after calling him, Arial brought Johann up and told me that he was limping. She showed me and sure enough he didn't want to put any weight on his right leg.

We were convinced that he hurt his knee because he kept saying "knee hurt". That resonated with me because I have been having knee problems lately. We decided that he should go to the emergency room.

I took him while Arial stayed back to put Frances to bed.

At the hospital, Johann was very good. He learned that fish take a bath all day long (which he repeated periodically for the rest of the night. He was pretty tired (it was kinda late) so he didn't fuss much. He lay extremely still for the X-rays.

After examining him the resident told me that it wasn't his knee (I was quite relieved) and the X-rays proved him correct. The senior doctor explained that it was a "toddler's fracture". Apparently, it's not all that uncommon for a twisting fracture to occur when tumbling down the stairs.

The X-rays showed a small crack on one side of his shin bone.

The doctor suggested that he didn't need a cast since it was a "stable fracture". But Johann, won't be able to walk on it for a week and shouldn't jump or go down slides for 2 weeks.

Now, Johann is getting frustrated with not being able to walk but the pain keeps him from doing it (I guess that's what it's there for). It just so sad to see him try to stand. We try to stop him when ever he tries.

He has gotten pretty good at walking on his knees and standing without putting weight on it. But you can tell that he wants to be walking and running again.

So now we are taking turns (Arial's turns are longer than mine) holding him or playing with him on the floor. It's going to be a long couple weeks but it should heal with no lasting effects. Hopefully, Johann isn't now afraid of the stairs.

mwz

Mom and Dad

2008-01-18T01:07:00.000-05:00

Frances has stopped calling us Mommy and Daddy. She now refers to us as Mom and Dad. She just abruptly changed. It makes me a little sad because I'm guessing that some other kid probably told her that calling us Mommy and Daddy was babyish.

It's very strange though. I didn't really have a problem with calling Arial Mommy when the kids were around because I don't remember calling my own mom that. But I call my mom "Mom". It's going to take some getting used to.

mwz

111

2008-01-02T22:55:00.000-05:00

Tonight, Frances and I were playing catch with a plush football. We counted the number of times we each caught the ball.

The first try, we caught 5 in a row before Frances dropped a pass. Then I thought she had lost interest because we couldn't get past 3 for a little while.

Then we caught 49 in a row. We would have kept going but I tossed the ball off center and it bounced off her shoulder.

The next try we caught 111 passes in a row. I was quite proud that Frances both kept catching passes and didn't get tired of the game .

Proud enough to post this.

mwz

Tookie

2008-01-02T22:53:00.000-05:00

When Johann wants a cookie, he says "Tookie" or "Want tookie". It's so cute that we usually give him one.

Fortunately, he doesn't ask for tookies very often.

mwz

Knockyadown

2007-12-16T19:04:00.000-05:00

Johann's new favorite game is Knockyadown. When Ariel or I are sitting on the floor, he will come up and say "Knockyadown" (as one word) and then try to push you down backwards. Since he's not strong enough to actually knock us down, it is a controlled descent and he rides all the way down.

Then, if he wants to do it again, Johann will say, "helpen" and try to help you up. You get up only to hear "Knockyadown" again.

"Helpen" is also one of his new favorite words. He uses it to mean "I need help" and so say "I am helping".

mwz

Good TV

2007-10-24T00:00:00.000-04:00

The other day, the kids and I were watching some kids program that we had recorded on the DVR. For the most part they were playing and I was watching. That happens sometimes.

When it finished, I just left it on the channel that the TV was on, which happened to be the Food network and went to talk to Arial in the kitchen.

I came back after a couple minutes and both Frances and Johann were sitting on the couch just watching TV. It's pretty unusual for them both to eschew playing at the same time to watch something. That peeked my curiosity so I went in to see what they were watching (plus they looked pretty cute sitting next to each other on the couch).

It was Good Eats. They were captivated by Good Eats. It's a good show and all but I didn't think that it would attract 1 and 3 year-olds.

I found that amusing.

Arial's First Triathlon

2007-10-15T00:15:00.000-04:00

This post has been on my plate for a long time. Which is a shame because I am very proud of the subject matter.

A couple weeks ago, Arial completed her first triathlon. It was a sprint and she finished it... well, I'm not going to say "easily" since it wasn't an easy task but she did it without depleting all of her energy.

I'm not going to give a race report (for one, I didn't do the racing), so this is going to be from my perspective.

Arial doesn't have a wet suit. The tri was late in the season, so we knew the water would be cold. I asked her repeatedly if she wanted to get one but she refused. When she started swimming, I could watch her for awhile. It looked to me like she was stuck behind some people. Her head was up out of the water like she was looking for a way around.

After the race, she told me that I didn't understand what I was seeing. The water was so cold that she forgot how to swim. I think she still did a faster swim that I did even though I wasn't fighting hypothermia.

It turns out that it is harder to be in charge of the kids than one might think. In a strange place, you really have to work not to lose track of them.

We cheered Arial on as she came out of the water. I had forgotten the signs we had made for her and didn't have the camera but we made due. It was my first tri as a spectator, hopefully I'll get better at it.

We played in the beach sand during the swim and most of the bike. The sand time was the easiest for me. The kids pretty much entertain themselves when sand is involved.

When we left the sand and went to where the bikes came in, I had to keep a closer eye on them. Without anything immediately interesting, they kept trying to wander off. They both tried keeping their balance on those cement parking things.

Frances tried to play with another group of girls but they all knew each other and so they just ignored her. She was pretty bummed about that. It was hard to get her to cheer when Arial arrived on her bike. But I sent her running with Arial (with a fence in between) as she walked her bike in transition and that seemed to cheer her up.

During the run, we played at a play ground. There were a lot of kids there making it a little stressful. About this time I started being thankful that it was a sprint and not an Olympic because this would take less time.

There was an kind of merry-go-round at the playground that a lot of kids were playing on. The other kids were really good about making sure the younger ones were safely on. Both Frances and Johann road on it but Frances stayed on a lot longer. It may have made up for the snubbing she had received earlier.

Around the time that I figured that Arial would be finishing her run, we walked up the race course a little ways. Not to long after that, Arial came running. She looked good, not dragging or anything. We cheered and she ran faster than I could while I carried the kids. She beat us to the finish line by quite a ways.

We hung around for a little, while Arial got food and drink (no first aid tent needed for her). And then we went out to eat.

I am very proud of Arial for finishing the tri. Now both of us are triathletes.

mwz

First Olympic Triathlon: Post 8 Lessons and Repercussions

2007-09-25T00:32:00.000-04:00

So, the biggest thing I learned from doing this Olympic tri was that my hydration and nutrition plan was lacking. I had thought that I could just take my schedule from the sprint tri and double it. That was not the case.

While the distances were pretty much double that of the sprint distance, I didn't take into account that at the sprint I was able to dip into my reserves. I was quite thirsty and hungry at the end. The water I drank and the gel I ate were obviously enough to sustain me (well obvious now after some thought).

At the Olympic, I had just two bottles of water and two gels (and then the water and Gatorade on the run course). I'm pretty sure that an extra bottle of water and an extra gel may have made the difference. The next time I do this, I'm certainly going to add more than that to the plan.

For one, I'm going to try to have a better breakfast. The medics seemed to think that a couple bagels was not nearly enough. They were probably right. Bringing a gel along with me on the run probably wouldn't have hurt either.

Unfortunately, the other big thing I learned was that I have a breaking point. I've always known that there was a point where I couldn't continue but this was the first time that I actually hit it. Part of me believed that I could just push through the pain and keep going, that if I could handle being increasingly uncomfortable, I could finish any race.

But now I've seen the breaking point and I know it's there. I'm worried that I'm hurt psychologically.

Now that I'm slowly getting back to exercising, I've been to a couple spin classes. What I've noticed is that when I get going and I start to get a little uncomfortable, my head goes back to when I was stuck a mile out from the finish. The discomfort seems like it is going to last too far into the future to handle and I begin to wonder if I can continue much more. It's almost like the breaking point has been artificially shortened in my head.

I have a 10 mile race coming up. I'm hoping to use that to prove to myself again that I can accomplish things past my comfort zone without quitting.

I just hope that I'm not broken.

mwz

First Olympic Triathlon: Post 7 Recovery

2007-09-23T22:58:00.000-04:00

After finishing the tri, I was helped over to the first aid tent (which wasn't really near the finish line at all, much to my dismay).

I sat down on the edge of a cot while the aid lady put ice packs on my chest and back. I suppose the packs were to cool my core body temperature but they didn't really feel that good. They didn't feel bad either, just kinda neutral.

She asked how I felt and if I felt nauseous. I told her all my miseries and that at points during the race I felt like I was going to throw up. She told me that a lady had already thrown up. I think she was trying to make me feel better and it did help a little to know that some other person was suffered from the same race that I was suffering from.

The aid lady then declared that she could see sweat beads forming on my forehead which was a good sign. I wasn't really sure I believed her but I wasn't going to argue.

Arial, the kids and Mrk and Mg came over next to me. They brought a Gatorade and water as well as bananas and grapes. That was really good. I ate and drank as quickly as I thought I could without throwing up.

The kids shared in the refreshments. It was nice that they were there and being chipper. They helped keep my mood up (or at least kept me trying to look like I was happy and okay, so I wouldn't scare them).

I lay down because I was getting a little light headed again. That didn't really make me feel any better but sitting up again made me feel worse. My abdomen injury hurt a lot worse laying down. It took me a bit to find a position the didn't put me into agony.

I started shaking. It felt more like muscle spasms in my arms and legs than regular shivers. I asked if it was cold because I was worried that it was some sort of symptom but they said it was a bit chilly. The aid lady gave me her sweatshirt to cover myself with (which was nice of her to do even though I was sweaty). That helped but I was still shaking. I eventually asked for more banana because I thought the potassium might help. The shaking did eventually go away, so maybe it did help.

At one point, I heard them announce that the final triathlete was finishing. There was a big cheer. I was glad to know that I wasn't last even walking the last mile.

The aid lady asked if I wanted the paramedics to check me out. I thought that would be a stellar idea. It would be pretty stupid to die from doing a race. At least it would be a lousy thing to do to the kids. I decided that any precaution was a good idea. Plus the aid lady seemed a bit worried.

The medics came and they were so professional that it was a little scary. It made me realize that if I needed rescue workers that I wasn't in very good shape. They took my blood pressure, took my pulse and asked me a bunch of questions.

By the time they were done with the questions, I was starting to feel a little better. I tried to sit up. I was successful and other than a bit of dizziness from sitting up, I was feeling a lot better. I didn't want to mention the dizziness to them since I didn't want to bother the medics anymore.

I told the medics that I was starting to feel better and they asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital. I said "no" and they made me sign a waiver stating that I refused a ride to the hospital. I was very grateful for the help from the medics and since I was a lot feeling better at that point, I just wanted them to be able to go back to whatever they were doing before my crisis.

During that time, Mrk was nice enough to gather my stuff from transition and bring out my bike. That saved me from a big hassle. Not only would have been hard physically for me to do that but I think the transition area was being torn down before I left the tent.

I thanked the medics and the aid lady. Pretty much everyone had left by the time I got up. I was near last off the course and had spent over a half an hour in the aid tent giving people a chance to leave. It made it pretty easy to find our car though.

We walked to the cars and then all went to subway where I ate more than I thought I was going to and it was good.

The rest of the weekend, I had quite a bit of pain from my abdomen injury. Strangely, my muscles weren't that sore but I hobbled about in pain anyway. But now I'm mostly okay (although I'm still trying to shield my abdomen from more damage).

mwz

Tots Soccer

2007-09-15T22:58:00.000-04:00

Frances has started soccer.

We've been to one session so far. They do a little "practice" and then scrimmage with one of the three other teams.

Frances is in a 3-4 year old division and I'll admit that at first I was a little intimidated. A good portion of the kids had shin guards on. They looked really serious about it.

The whole thing is just amazingly entertaining. Little kids running around who have basically no idea what they are supposed to be doing.

Things from having to find a partner to kicking the ball back and forth with that partner were completely new concepts to some of these kids (including Frances). It was obvious that one kid only really played "goalie" with his family because it took a while for the coaches to stop him from diving on the ball each time it came to him.

But the real fun came when they started the scrimmage. It was just barely controlled chaos. These kids had never done anything like this.

There were kids joining the opposing teams huddles (after goals). There were kids crying because they weren't allowed to use their hands. There was a ball and a pack of kids all trying to put a foot on it.

There were a couple kids that looked way bigger than the others. They did most of the scoring.

It took Frances a couple minutes to figure out what she was supposed to be doing. But then she was right there in the middle of it. She even scored a goal.

One of the bigger kids dribbled toward the goal from the right but overshot it. In the ensuing melee, Frances got the ball, kicked it a couple times toward the goal and then kicked it in. That was pretty neat.

It was hard not to try and yell directions to Frances. Generally speaking, I'm pretty competetive. Now, I understand all those "crazy" parents who are always yelling to their kids. I had to work hard to keep quiet.

Frances really enjoyed the experience. So did we. It should be fun next week too.

mwz

First Olympic Triathlon: Post 6 Failing

2007-09-11T23:39:00.000-04:00

Not long after the 2 mile mark, the pain started.

Since high school, I've had a recurring abdomen injury. It might be a tear in some abdomen muscles. Most of the time it is fine (it does heal). But sometimes, when I run hard or do a lot of twisting motions (like a tennis serve), it will re-injure. When that happens it can hurt a lot.

It started to hurt around this point. I was kind of expecting it and I've played tennis through the pain before, so I wasn't that concerned. At this point it was only dull pain anyway. This it turns out was the least of my worries.

The roads were severely arched to let the water run off the sides. That meant that my left foot was always a little bit hirer than my right. That was driving me crazy. I started to get a stitch near my left kidney. That was irritating.

There were also turns where the road actually banked, which just exacerbated the situation. I thought about making a joke to the volunteer at one of these turns about it needing to bank to control my high speed turns but I was too tired.

At the mile 3 water station, I took a little Gatorade. I say little because this station was rationing liquids like the others.

The pain was slowly getting worse. I was still going but I was also going slower. People were passing me pretty regularly now. (I'm normally passed quite a bit so this really wasn't a surprise.)

I tried running on the other side of the road (which is the side you are actually supposed to run on). That helped a little. It made the stitch over my kidney feel a little bit better. But I was hoping for more. It turned out to be annoying when cars would come and then be confused with runners on both sides of the road. I eventually went back to the side most of the runners were on.

It was really starting to get to me that they didn't have mile markers up. The aid stations weren't set up on the mile marks and it seemed like I could just be running forever. It pretty much made it feel like there was no end in site. One lady who passed me even said something like "I wish they marked the miles". So, I wasn't the only one.

One of the guys I had seen when I completed the loop passed me around here. I was a little bit disappointed but I couldn't do anything about it.

By the time I reached the fourth water station, I was feeling pretty bad. They kept saying "just two more to go" and that seemed like forever. I dropped to a walk to drink the water (which I do sometimes). They gave me a little more than half a cup. I felt special.

When I started running again, the pain hit me all at once and I even exclaimed "Ow" (to which one of the volunteers said something inspirational like "you can do it" or "two miles left"). It was one thing for the level of pain to grow slowly but to be thrust back into it like that was not pleasant.

I had tried to memorize the race course map before the event but I was having a lot of trouble remembering what it. There would be curves in the road where I would think we should be going one way (a way that would indicate being near completion) only to see people ahead go the other. It was just hard. The "mile" between the fourth and fifth aid stations felt like it took me an hour.

When I reached the fifth water station, I knew pretty much where I was on the map. I felt somewhat heartened to know that I just had roughly one mile left. Well, I told myself that I should be heartened. My body wasn't convinced.

Having learned my lesson, I asked for two waters. To my surprise, both cups were filled nearly to the brim. I drank most of one and then felt strangely guilty about asking for two, so I tried to drink the other. I didn't come close to finishing it before getting to the trash bin where I threw it away.

I should have kept one cup of water and run with it a ways but at the time, I just automatically through the remaining water away. (It makes me a little thirsty thinking about it.

I kept telling myself, "just a mile to go". But my body understood that to mean "a whole, long, life-sucking mile".

Around a quarter mile (maybe less) after the aid station, I started feeling dizzy and nauseous. I knew that wasn't a good sign. I tried to keep going but then I really started feeling the "I'm about to pass out" feeling. That's when I knew I had to walk.

I still felt horrible but it was better than running. Since I was so close to the end, I tried to run again. After about 10 seconds, I just slowed to the point that I was walking again.

The dizziness and nausea didn't go away right away when I stopped running. I was still breathing in very fast, short breaths. It felt like I was simultaneously not getting enough air and having too much oxygen in my body. Not to mention, that I still wasn't entirely sure that I wouldn't pass out. I wasn't even sure that there was anyone still on the course (I could see for quite a ways and couldn't see anyone).

Eventually, people started appearing behind me. One lady came up to me and tried to get me going again. She said "I'm a slow runner, you can run with me". I tried to tell her that I was also a slow runner but she didn't seem to care. I didn't really think it would be wise for me to push myself anymore but I didn't really want to discuss it with a stranger. So, I tried to run with her but I couldn't keep up for more that 5 paces. As she put distance between us, I dropped back into a walk. It was nice of her to try though.

I could see a bend in the road up ahead. In a way, it was taunting me since I didn't know how much further I would have to go after it. I still felt really terrible, even walking. The lower half of my body was in pain and the top half was contemplating the benefits of throwing up over passing out.

Up near the bend I could see a couple volunteers. I thought that maybe if I leaned on a mail box for long enough, they might see and rescue me. Unfortunately, it looked like they were walking away from me.

I did eventually get closer to them and it turned out that they were taking pictures for the event. They asked me if I wanted my picture taken, I said "sure". I posed for the picture but I stayed at a walk. I didn't figure there was any point in trying to fool the visual record.

I asked them how far I had to go, and they said "just down there" and pointed to a place much farther away than I wanted it to be.

As I passed the photographers, I heard one of them say, "Let's walk back again, until we see another competitor". That explained why they had been going away from me earlier and why I was able to catch them.

I was worried then that they were going to pass me as but they were nice enough to walk slower than I was trudging along.

Not too much later, I saw Mrk coming back for me on his bike. That was a welcome sight. He gave me some Gatorade which I was very thankful for. A part of me worried that I would be DQ'd for receiving outside help but a bigger part of me didn't want to die of dehydration.

I told him that it was going pretty badly and that I wanted to find the first aid tent when I finished. (I don't know what renal failure feels like but I was feeling pretty bad, so I didn't want to risk it.) With less than a block to go and the finish in sight, he zipped off to ask some people where the first aid tent was.

There was an empty lot on the corner before the finish line. Arial and the kids were there. Frances was holding her big "YAY DADDY" sign and yelling "Yay Daddy! Yay Daddy!" over and over again. She looked very happy to see me. She was adorable. I put on as big a smile as I could manage and said something like "Yay Frances". She deserved to see a happy daddy.

It turned out to be a little difficult to find the finish line. There wasn't a big "FINISH" banner or anything. I had to ask where to go. Off on the side of the road, there was a little chute with a timing mat. I just had to go to that.

So, I walked over to the mat (I didn't feel like pretending that I had been running) and touched it.

Immediately, I asked the three volunteers (the only people over by the secluded finish "line") where the first aid tent was. Only one seemed to know. They made me stand there for a second while one of them took off my timing chip (which was fine since I didn't want to get charged for forgetting to take it off). Then one of them helped me over to the first aid tent.

I had completed my first Olympic distance triathlon. At the time, I felt disappointed that I was unable to run the whole last leg.

And you know what. I still do.

mwz

First Olympic Triathlon: Post 5 Faltering

2007-09-10T23:13:00.000-04:00

I don't remember much from the second transition. I've been trying to remember it for about a week. That's probably a not a good sign regarding my health at the time. I remember that I had a little problem racking the bike but nothing else from entering transition until I exited. Maybe nothing worth remembering happened.

I came out of the transition area at the same time as a guy in a white shirt who I was catching up to on the bike (but was just way to far ahead to really get near him). I wondered what he was doing during transition that took him so long. (In retrospect, I think he was putting on shoes.)

Mr. Whiteshirt ran just a little bit faster than me. I was fine with that. Within the first block, he stopped to stretch. That made me feel good. Not only might I catch him (I didn't, he started running before I got to him) but I wasn't feeling any cramping.

In fact, I was feeling relatively good. My legs didn't feel as funny as they had after the bike in the other tri. To be sure, I was tired but not in pain. After about a quarter mile, I thought to myself "I can do this all day" (that's a direct quote from my thoughts). Of course, that was assuming that I stayed at that level of discomfort.

Pretty soon I was at the first water station. It came way to soon, around the half mile mark. That confused me somewhat. I am so used to aid stations being at the mile mark that even though I had studied (and even driven) the race course before hand, I asked if this was the 1 mile mark. The sad thing was, they couldn't tell me. They didn't know.

I took Gatorade at this station. The cup was less than half full and I drank it down in two quick gulps. I should have stopped for more but I had just been drinking on my bike. I figured that I was okay and maybe Gatorade just goes down quickly.

Around the actual one mile mark (which wasn't actually marked) there was a little loop (about a half mile or so). I was still feeling alright at this point. When I finished the loop, I saw some others just start it. This made me feel good that I wasn't the last person on the course.

The next aid station wasn't until around the 2 mile mark (I think, again the miles weren't marked). This turned out to be too long between water stations. I was starting to feel thirsty (which is not a good sign) and the aftertaste of the Gatorade was starting to bug me (I'm sure that if I drank Gatorade more often that this wouldn't be an issue).

I took water at this station to wash the Gatorade flavor out of my mouth. Again the cup was less than half full (which is mostly empty in my book). It wasn't even enough to get all of the sweet taste washed out. At this point I really should have stopped and asked for more but I was just following my hydration plan (drink at every station). I wasn't really thinking about it and just kinda hoped that it was enough.

Not to long after this station, I started feeling pain.

mwz

First Olympic Triathlon: Post 4

2007-09-07T22:34:00.000-04:00

After finding my transition station, which wasn't that hard in a race as small as this. I removed my wet suit and threw on my shirt.

For some reason, I didn't sit down to put on my socks and shoes. I'm not sure why. The ground was wet but so was I (after the swim). I wound up leaning on a fence.

I discovered that I had not prepared my stuff very well. I took a little time getting my shoes on because I had left them tied (double knotted). On top of that, I hadn't made sure that my toe clips were open far enough (I worried about a repeat of my first tri where someone (Johann) had tightened one of the straps so my foot wouldn't fit in)). It turned out those were fine though.

Arial came by with the kids. Through the fence, I told them about panicking in the water. Then, when I was finished putting on all my gear, I had a gel and pushed my bike out of the area.

What I didn't realize was that traffic had not been blocked off. When I turned on to the main road, I got lucky with the traffic since I wasn't really looking. There was a small gap in the cars that I squeaked into. Riders next to me stopped but I really had plenty of time. (Although, if I had stopped to consider the move, the safe window might have closed.)

Right away, I passed someone, that made me feel good. There were a couple bikers just ahead that I was catching too.

I was within 10 bike lengths of them when, just below my front tire I saw "OL" with an arrow pointing to the street that I was about to pass. The other bikers had already gone passed that intersection and I wasn't even thinking about a turn yet. But I quickly surmised that this was where the super-sprint and the Olympic separated.

While trying to yell to a volunteer (who didn't hear/respond to me) to find out if I was really supposed to turn here, I hit my brakes and started to make the turn. I couldn't believe that the people I was about to pass were on the super-sprint (because of logistics of when they when they started) and that made me nervous that I was going the wrong way. Finally, I saw someone up in the distance. When I passed him, I looked at his leg to see if he was in the Olympic race (he was).

I was passed by a few people and I passed a few as well, but on the whole, I saw very few racers out there. In fact, since the turnaround was actually an ~8 mile loop, I only saw the first 7ish competitors going the other way. (When I saw the leader, I was amazed that I was as far as I was considering my swim problems and the fact that a lot of these people in the race were in better shape than I.)

This race, I didn't seem Mrk on the bike. He was somewhere in the loop when I got to it. I did think that I saw him at one point. Off in the distance ahead of me was someone who was wearing a red shirt like Mrk was wearing. I was slowly catching this person.

I was hoping that this wasn't Mrk because that would mean that he had some sort of major problem. My best case scenario (if it was him) was that he had to fix a flat and figured he would then go slow to finish the race with me. When I got closer, it became obvious that it was actually a heavy set woman and not Mrk.

I mentioned at the end of the last post, that at the end of the swim I started realizing that this was going to be a challenge. That was really only an inkling. It didn't come to the forefront of my mind until I was on the bike for a while and it wasn't the breeze that I thought it would be.

That's not to say that it was really painful or anything. It just took more effort to move myself at the pace that I wanted to go.

In retrospect, I may have pushed myself a little too hard on this leg. When it started, I was thinking about making up time from the swim. I was also pushing myself to get a faster average speed than I had for the sprint because I now have a much better bike than I did. (As an aside, I was having trouble keeping my pace up and later Mrk told me that he found the course more challenging. That explained my speed issues but also made me wish that I hadn't put so much energy into it.)

At one point, I was close to passing someone when I dropped my water bottle. I yelled "Crap!" and slammed on my brakes (I really like that bottle). The guy just ahead of me looked back to make sure I was okay (I think) and then rode on.

I grabbed the bottle started again and eventually passed the guy (who turned out to be 76 years old). The rest of the bike, I was thinking that I *should* further ahead if I wouldn't have dropped the bottle. That made me push myself even harder.

By the end of the race I had drank both water bottles and eaten another gel. (That had been the plan.) I felt pretty good, better than I did at the end of the bike at the sprint tri.

I dismounted with none of the problem I had at the sprint tri (no volunteers thought that I was going to ram them this time) and that was the end of the bike.

mwz

Frances in Preschool

2007-09-05T19:38:00.000-04:00

Frances started preschool this week. She is gong two days a week this year. It's kinda stressing me out.

I always had pretty bad anxiety going into a new school year (actually starting at the end of July leading up to the school year). So, I've been kinda dreading when my kids go because then I get to live that all again through them.

But it turns out that isn't what is bothering me. Frances is really excited about school, so that really takes most of the anxiety out of the equation.

What is getting to me is that now I am having to relinquish control over Frances' experiences. Arial and I aren't the only ones shaping her anymore.

This was driven home when on Tuesday when Frances told us about a mean girl at the gym's child care. I'm not sure what all she does but we were able to discern that she picks up Frances even when she doesn't want to be picked up. Frances also said that she was mean to Johann, too.

Frances says that all the kids at school are nice (and I believe that they have been up to this point) but they won't be forever. Even though I know that she has to learn to handle it on her own, I really wish I could shield her from all the mean kids that she is bound to encounter as she works her way through school.

We're now relegated to giving her advice. It's actually pretty hard.

mwz

First Olympic Triathlon: Post 3 Calm on the Low Seas

2007-09-05T19:10:00.000-04:00

Apparently, I'm not the only one who has had problems panicking at the beginning of the swim. I've been reading a book about peoples first triathlons and some of those people hyperventilated right away too. It gives me a little comfort knowing that I'm not alone in that.

Anyway, after calming down from panicking, I concentrated getting to each buoy ball. I swam passed two and decided to try the breast stroke. However, it didn't make me feel like I was moving forward at all. It seemed like my legs were kicking in the air (which might actually have been true since the wet suit changed my positioning in the water). I pretty much used the crawl (and some treading water) after that.

By the time I reached the first turn of the triangle, most of the women had passed me. I was left with the women who were roughly my level (although they didn't waste their time considering quitting).

One of the women cut just inside the big, orange buoy that marked the turn. I'm not sure if she noticed or decided that it wasn't a big deal because she just kept on going. In actuality, it wasn't a big deal because she only cut a couple meters off the course (and it's not like we were competing for the prizes back where I was).

Along the back stretch, I noticed that my wet suit was filling with water. I'm pretty sure that helps negate the positive affects of the suit. I felt my back and without the collar fastened, the zipper had come half way down. I basically had a small parachute on my back.

I grabbed the zipper cord and zipped myself back up. I tried to get the collar re-fastened but it just wouldn't because it was a little twisted and velcroed to itself. I gave up because it wasn't easy treading water and fussing with my collar. Also, I was losing time. It didn't really matter though, since I didn't have any more problems with my zipper.

I decided to not bother with re-attaching the end of my zipper cord the the velcro patch at the base of my back. I figured that it would just nicely trail behind me as I pushed through the water. I was wrong. It spent the rest of the swim tangled in my arms and around my neck (trying to strangle me).

There were some issues with swimming straight ahead. Since I was breathing on the same side, I wound up swimming in little arcs. My arm hit the inside rope a quite a bit as I arced into it. I was also running into the same people a lot (some of it wasn't my fault but some of it was). After a couple of times I wound up just trying to stay a couple meters wide of anyone else. That only partially worked, as I still would wind up close to people.

When I made it to shore, I saw Arial and the kids. I think Frances was holding a "YAY DADDY" sign they had made (but I can't be sure, my memory of that is kinda fuzzy because my eyesight was fuzzy). Arial told me that I had done the swim in ~35 minutes. That was amazing since I thought it was going to take me 50 minutes to do it. The wet suit helped.

Running up to the road to the transition area, I had to ask for directions since I couldn't see. Someone nicely pointed me in the right direction and I found my station with no problem.

I didn't feel that bad but I could feel that I had used energy than I had thought based on the sprint distance I did. I started to realize that an Olympic distance is much harder than a sprint and that this was going to be a serious challenge.

mwz

First Olympic Triathlon: Post 2 - Terror on the Low Seas

2007-09-04T19:34:00.000-04:00

The swim started, or rather the wading before the swim started. For a little bit I tried out the running method that the guy I took swim lessons from showed me (kick your leg sideways over the water like you are running hurdles). It made for faster running but I splashed a lot and felt silly since no one else was doing it. So I went back to trudging like everyone else. I'm a follower.

I figured it was time to dive in and swim. I got a couple strokes in but I noticed that the guy running next to me was passing me. So, I got back up and ran for a bit more before diving back in.

Before the race, I had decided that I would just breath every two strokes (and keep it on my right side). I just wanted to keep my breath and push through the distance. Just about 20 strokes in I started to have trouble with my air. I felt like I wasn't getting enough oxygen even though I was breathing after every 2 strokes.

I wanted to swim through it, hoping that I would find a good rhythm but then I really started to panic. There was too much water ahead of me for me to survive like that.
I tried to roll over on my back to catch my breath and got splashed in my face. This normally wouldn't have been that bad but the wet suit doesn't bend very well at the waist. It kinda puts you into a good posture position which when on your back, pushes your upper body back towards the water. Even though I knew that I would still be able to hold my face out of the water, it felt like the suit was trying to pull me under. Couple that with the tightness of the wet suit (relative to no wet suit) which feels very constrictive when panicking and I was sure that I wasn't going to make it the full 1.5K. I couldn't think of anything other than not being able to breath.

While treading water, I felt for the bottom to hopefully stand up but I was too far out. I looked for a rescue boat but there were no race officials in sight (which without my glasses really isn't that far). Had I seen a boat, I'm pretty sure I would have flagged it down to pick me up.

Making the decision to go back to shore, I flipped on my back and pointed myself toward the beach. I thought "Arial will understand" (which is probably true, she is a very understanding person). My next thought though was how much effort we had taken to get to this point. Not only the cost of the tri and the travel expenses but all of the training. If I quit, I probably wouldn't try another Olympic again.

I really wanted to continue, but wasn't in any shape to do it. So, I undid my collar to give my neck some space, flipped on my back pointed in the correct direction and tried to relax. It wasn't easy but I began to regain control over my breathing. Then, I thought that I might as well move toward the goal and started slowly using my arms. After a little bit, I added some kicking to the mix.

By this point, I was feeling better. The open collar helped me so that I wasn't feeling as constricted and using my muscles was helped my feel like I had a little bit of control over the situation. I rolled over and started to crawl. This time it felt better and I felt like I was getting enough air.

When I looked up to see if anyone was even close to me, most of the men were gone. There were a couple stragglers that weren't too far ahead. One of them even looked like he had been holding onto a buoy (but I really can't be sure because my vision is not that good without my glasses). That made me feel a little less alone (even if it was just a trick of my eyesight).

A very short time after, I saw the women start behind me. Most of them passed me in short order but at least I was going forward and feeling okay. I didn't have to rest on my back for the remainder (mostly crawl but a little bit breast stroke) and I finished the swim in a much better time that I had hoped going in (mostly because of the wet suit) even with the delay of almost quitting.

mwz

First Olympic Triathlon: Post 1

2007-09-03T17:54:00.000-04:00

This weekend I completed an Olympic (International) distance triathlon. That is 1.5K (~1 mile) swim, 40K bike (~24 miles) and a 10K (6.2 miles) run. It was pretty rough.

I'm going to do this recap in chunks, I'm not going to do a post for each leg of the race. I think I'll just stop when I think a post has gone long enough.

-- Pre-Race
The race wasn't near our house so we got a motel room for the night before. That actually worked out pretty well. I slept pretty well, so that was a plus.

For breakfast, I had a bagel that Arial had picked up from the Wal-Mart near the motel. We packed up the car and headed out to the race site. On the 25 minute drive, I had another bagel (this one a mini-bagel). It turns out I should have had more.

When we got there, we had to park in a field. The grass was long and wet which made me glad that I wasn't wearing my running shoes. I put my stuff in the transition area, got body marked and then set my stuff up for the race.

I walked down to the beach area and looked at the swim course. The night before we had come down and the swim looked really long. But after letting it sink in over night, it didn't look as bad. The buoys were still a long way out but I didn't feel as much fear looking out.

We found Mrk and Mg, did some other pre-race things (this time, I used the port-a-potty before taking my shoes off).

Wet suits were allowed in this one, so I donned mine, removed my glasses and found Mrk by wandering near his transition spot and shouting his name until he responded.

We went down to the water. I said my goodbyes to Arial and the kids. Walking into the water, I was surprised that it wasn't that cold. I sure it would have been worse without the wet suit but my feet were colder walking on the dewey grass.

They kicked us all off the beach so they could count us and hand out the swim caps. (I had been joking that they hadn't given to us yet because they were late to be delivered but then I heard a volunteer say "The swim caps have arrived"). I said good bye to Arial and the kids again, got my swim cap and went on the beach.

The men started first (with the women starting 5 minutes later). Everyone was wading into the water up to some imaginary line between some boats. I was going to stay behind most everyone in a less dense section in the middle, but Mrk pointed out that because of the curve of the beach, being on the far outside was actually closer to the first buoy.

The announcer said he would give a countdown from ten and say "Go" but then he made some joke about making a buzzing noise instead of "Go". I thought that was lame but I now I don't even remember what he wound up doing. I just no that the 10 second countdown when rather quick and then we were running in the water.

mwz

My Baby's Going to School

2007-08-29T00:21:00.000-04:00

Frances has started pre-school. Well, she had her pre-pre-school orientation. But it's all down hill from here. Next thing you know, she'll be in high school and I'll have to beat up some guy with a baseball bat for breaking her heart.

Scratch that.

She's never dating.

mwz

Ding Dong

2007-08-16T00:00:00.001-04:00

Today, Frances invented her first imaginary friend.

This afternoon I was working in my office and Frances came down. She said she had friend named Ding Dong. I asked the following questions.

Q: Where did you meet Ding Dong?
A: Outside.

Q: Is Ding Dong a boy or a girl?
A: A girl.

Q: What color is her hair?
A: Umm... yellow.

Q: Is she nice?
A: Yes, she always shares her toys. (I later learned that Ding Dong also shares her books.)

We then went upstairs and told Arial about Ding Dong. She and Johann were outside with a bunch of purple flowers in her lap. They had been pretending the flowers were bells, hence the name Ding Dong. I actually think I may have misunderstood Frances at first.

She may have meant to tell me that they were playing with the flowers and saying "ding dong". But I heard something like "I was playing with Ding Dong". Based on my questions, Frances may have picked up on what I meant and ran with it.

Later, I was downstairs and I heard Frances yell "Surprise!" from upstairs. I hollered back "I was surprised." I was then informed that the surprise was for Ding Dong and not me. It turns out that today is Ding Dongs birthday. So, she was getting a birthday surprise.

As an aside, Frances gives interesting names. She has three toy horses. One is named Comet (because that is what the box said). One is named Boy and the other is named Biggie (it's bigger than the others).

mwz

Night Run

2007-08-15T01:08:00.000-04:00

This evening, I ran almost 5.5 miles. It has been a while since I have run at night. I still enjoy it.

I like that it is cooler and it is somewhat peaceful. Plus, in some ways, being outside at night feels like being inside.

However, if I do run at night again, I am going to take a different route.

Tonight, I ran on a bike path that goes out of town into less developed land. There are patches of near-wilderness (I say near because it is really close to the city, so it shouldn't be able to support large predators) and it can get pretty dark. It didn't give me the creeps or anything, I am simply aware that a deer would beat me in a fight if it thought that it needed to.

I saw three deer during the run (lest you think I am just being paranoid). The first was off in the distance but the second encounter was with a pair just off the path. They were in a well lit area so I could see them for a while.

In order to let them know I was coming, I stomped my feet. That got their attention but it wasn't until I started waving my arms that they ran away. Even though that took some energy, I was glad that they didn't decide to start their violent rebellion against man at that moment.

That was when I decided to stick to city streets on any subsequent night runs. But to punctuate the point, I had an encounter with a dog.

With a mile left on my run, on a straight stretch of path, I heard a loud bark (from a large sounding dog). I could barely make out the shape of a fairly big dog about 50 yards away, right in the middle of the path.

I was not pleased about the prospects of being mauled and exhausted on a dark patch of bike path. There was a row of houses whose backyards lined the path. So, I figured that the odds were good that this was a pet. But I didn't really want to take many chances.

So I slowed to a walk (actually I did that immediately when I hear the bark) and just kept going. I saw the dog shape move off the path and into a back yard. That was either good or it was trying to flank me.

Shortly afterword, I think I heard a doggy door open/close at the house the dog was closest to. I'm pretty sure it went in because I didn't see it again.

I walked for a little while passed the house (I didn't want to look like prey) and then started running again.

The run was good but I'm going to stay out of the country (-ish areas) at night.

mwz

Mama and Dada

2007-08-12T23:59:00.000-04:00

At Target today, I checked out and Arial pushed the cart (with the kids) back to the cart area. As they went away, Johann reached towards me and yelled "Momma". Arial said "No, that's Dada".

The guy behind me said, "When they learn a word, they use it for everything."

That was when I had to say "No, he really calls me 'Momma' and her 'Dada'".

He laughed and said that I would have to tell him about that when he gets older. I almost said "that's what I have a blog for" but I just left.

But it's true. Johann thinks I'm called "Momma". I think it is because when he is in distress either one of us responds (whoever is the closest and/or the least weary). So sometimes he cries "Mommy! Momma!" and I will respond. I think that is what has confused him.

He will occationally call me "Daddy". Hopefully, he will eventually stick with that.

mwz

We're Sick

2007-08-08T23:22:00.000-04:00

Our family has been run through a wringer with this last cold.

Johann started with a cough a month ago. Then, he and Frances got runny noses. Two weeks ago, I came down with runny nose, cough and just general tiredness. Arial was still healthy.

I thought I was getting better. We ran the Bix (7 miles). The cold reactivated. This time it added a soar throat and a bit of muffling in my ears.

When Johann had a really bad day on Sunday (he was really cranky) and I was having a hard time swallowing, we decided to go to the doctor. I hate going to the doctor for a cold but Arial convinced me that it could be strep and she was starting to come down with symptoms. So for the sake of the family, we went.

They told us that both Johann and I had ear infections. I didn't know that adults could get ear infections. But that was the cause of my hearing loss.

We got scripts for antibiotics which I feel a little guilty taking since we don't know if it's bacterial. But I've been knocked out by this thing for 2 weeks and I need to get better. So with a heavy heart, I started the treatment.

Two days after starting the treatment, I feel a lot better. Which makes me think that the antibiotics weren't needed (although there is something to be said for the placebo effect. I'm still going to finish the regimen because stopping early is a good way to develop drug resistant bacteria.

mwz

Sayings

2007-07-19T23:50:00.000-04:00

The kids have been saying interesting things lately. For the past month (probably more), Frances has been asking "why?" to everything.

Get your shoes on.

Why?

Because we need to go to the gym.

Why?

To get in shape.

Why?

...

That is pretty normal for a three year old.

But now Johann has started asking why, too. I don't think he really knows what it means but I think that he likes that we keep talking to him as we explain things. It's just kinda strange to hear him ask "why" when he doesn't really do much other talking (other than "bite" for "can I have a bite of that", "mil" for milk and of course "No. No. No. No No." for "No. No. No. No. No.").

He really does seem to appreciate the answers though because unlike Frances, he will stop asking why once you have explained it. And he is adorable when he is asking.

Frances said something interesting today after I sneezed. I normally say "gesundheit" to a sneeze but Arial says "bless you". Today, Frances decided to combine the two with "Goodblessheit".

mwz

10K

2007-07-09T22:31:00.000-04:00

Arial and I ran a 10K this weekend. It was to be an indication of how our training was going. If we sucked, that would have made some of the longer races and triathlons coming in the future worrisome. If we did well, we could feel a little better about ourselves.

Two days before the race, I ran by myself for 4.7 miles. That went poorly. I finished but I was completely dead by the end. I was really worried about the 10K because I knew that I was going to be pushing the children in the stroller *and* going farther.

But (to kill any suspense) we did pretty well. We wound up running an average of 10:41 miles and while we weren't in the front of the pack (or the middle) we did beat some people.

When we started, the whole crowd zoomed ahead. There were maybe 8 people behind us. It was actually kinda neat to see the river of people ahead of us.

At about the 2 mile mark we got caught up with the 5K people (they started later than us and we shared some of the same route). That made it hard to know how we were doing against the 10K people.

It was a pain to get through the walkers. Most were good about giving us room but some just seemed to be in their own world. That did feel good to pass some people though, especially knowing that they were doing a lesser distance.

We dodged a few sprinklers that good-intentioned people left in the middle of the street. Both kids slept (Johann more than Frances). We met up with and passed the 5K people again (the route was a loop) and finished.

We both felt pretty good at the end. Neither were gasping for air or falling over. I'm not saying we felt like doing the race again but we felt great for just having run a 10K.

So, I am now feeling a little better about our training. I am still afraid of swimming nearly a mile, though.

mwz

Something fun

2007-07-09T22:25:00.000-04:00

This site is pretty fun.

This is the one I made:
http://roxik.com/pictaps/?pid=a748238

mwz

Fourth of July Parade

2007-07-04T14:57:00.000-04:00

Happy Independence Day.

Today, we went to the 4rth of July parade. They are pretty serious about their parades here. A number of people put up shade tents for sitting under and for good reason. The parade was over an hour and a half long.

We did find pretty good spots facing away from the sun. There were two little girls next to us about Frances' age. I thought it would be nice for Frances but it turn out that they were just competition for candy.

There was a lot of candy. It was like I remembered it as a kid (not like how they did it in the city we used to live in. Although, there were no marching bands. It didn't seem right. Not even a Scottish, bagpipe group.

I was very proud of Frances. She and another little girl were going after the same piece of candy. Frances got it and the other girls started crying. Without any intervention, she went over and gave the girl the candy. She is a nice person.

I proceeded to taunt the other mother by chanting, "My daughter is nicer than yours is". Okay, that's not true but I was very pleased by Frances' actions.

We ate lunch at church and now the kids are taking naps.

If all goes as planned, there will be swimming and fireworks later.

mwz

Post-Race

2007-06-28T00:18:00.000-04:00

Executive summary:

Finishing a triathlon is good but it makes you wobbly.
Food is delicious after a race.
Kids like drinking from bottle water bottles.
Kids also don't like to be taken away from sand and their impromptu friends.
Raffling off an ugly bike does not make us stay through the awards ceremony.
Having a stranger come up and ask if you did the triathlon is cool.
Triathlons are a lot of fun and I recommend them.

Long Form:

When I crossed the finish line, I was pleased. Although, I didn't feel the same sense of accomplishment that I did when I finished the Bix (I think it's because I still plan to do an Olympic distance and so this was just a stepping stone). I was certainly happy though, both to be done with it and to be able to call myself a triathlete.

They stopped me to take the timing chip off of my ankle. I could barely stand still, I was too wobbly. We were under a little canopy and I could reach the top supports, so I used one to keep my balance. Though, I was careful not to pull the whole thing done.

An aside about the timing chip because I really haven't mentioned it yet. The chip was attached to a Velcro strap. It was reasonably comfortable (for someone not used to anklets). When I put it on, it was well before the race and I just wanted to make sure I didn't lose it. So, I didn't really tighten it at all.

Unfortunately, I didn't remember to tighten it later. It was just too comfortable. When I began swimming, I remembered it because it felt like it was going to fall off my foot. Once I convinced myself that my foot was actually big enough to hold it on, I grumbled (internally) at the extra drag it was producing. But then, I started to struggle with the swim and it was forgotten.

I actually didn't have any problems with it the rest of the way. I don't even remember having to deal with it when putting on socks. The timing chip worked out for me.

Back to the main story. After they removed the timing chip from my leg, I was handed a "finishers" towel and a bottle of water. The towel was a little smaller than a hand towel and had the name of the tri with the word "Finisher" below. I guess I'm supposed to hang that up or something. Hmm... Actually, not that I think about it, that's not a bad idea. Just a couple nails and I could have myself a nice wall decoration...

I hobbled around the food shelter (I just grabbed some grapes that time) and found the family walking back from where I found them last. We talked a little and there were some congratulations. The kids found a weird sand pit whose real purpose I can't even begin to comprehend. They played in it with some other kids. I let them both drink from my water bottle. Johann really seemed to enjoy drinking from the bottle. We have some cute pictures of that. Then, Mrk and I went back to get food.
They had a nice array of fruit; bananas, sliced oranges and grapes as well as a variety of bagels. I grabbed some orange quarters and a bagel quarter. The bagel had some sort of sugar glaze. It was delicious. I wound up getting another later.

We walked around a bit more, my water was gone so we tried some of the "sports drink" that they had mixed up in coolers. I guess it was made from a powder whose company was a sponsor. It pretty much tasted like they ground up some Pez and diluted it in a lot of water. I was not impressed.

After discovering that there wasn't much else there other than food, we went back to the family. Mrk and Mg disappeared, I think Mrk wanted to shower off down by the beach. I wanted to tear get my transition stuff, so we pried the kids away from the sand (Frances particularly wanted to stay and play with another little girl).

Non-participants weren't allowed in the transition area so Arial and the kids waited outside. I packed up my stuff and wheeled my bike to the exit. They were checking body markings to make sure the number on the bike matched. My number was covered by my shirt sleeve and I had my arms full with the bike and my bag. So, I pulled up my sleeve with my teeth. The volunteer checking numbers said that was the first time he had seen someone do that. I thought that was strange.

Arial happened to spot Mg waiting for Mrk at a picnic table. We went over and sat with her. Actually, I stood most of the time. I'm not really sure why but it had something to do with the kids.

When Mrk came, we headed back to the car. When we got there, we heard the announcement that they were handing out raffle tickets. We didn't know how long they would be handing them out, so we hurried a little (after all there was a bike on the line). I got the bike strapped back on the back of the car and Arial put my bag into the car. And we went to get a raffle ticket.

It turns out we needn't have hurried. There was a line for the tickets and even after we got ours, it took a while before they started. While we were in line though, we saw the bike they were giving away. It was pretty much the ugliest, *new* bike I've seen.

For one, it wasn't a road bike (like you would need in a triathlon), so it wouldn't have replaced my old bike. I think it was made to dissuade people from going into the army. It was army green and had the army star on the chain guard. I think you could make a fine bike with army colors but this was not a fine bike. I can't really describe its ugliness other than to say that it was obvious that the bike shop wasn't able to sell this one, so they decided to give it away.

We didn't win anything but that was okay. Other than a couple gift cards, the prizes were a little weak. They gave away gift bags, and in them was a large container of the Pez-like drink powder and a bottle of gel (with a dispenser). Other than the novelty of having a bottle of gel, those gift bags were suited for someone more into it than I.

Another of the prizes was a pair of men's running shoes... size 9. They also had a women's pair. The guy who one the shoes was just ahead of us and he pointed out the obvious problem with "I don't wear size 9".

After the smaller prizes were given out, they started presenting the awards to the division winners. Since we didn't want to sit through that for the prospect of winning a bike we didn't want, we left.

We decided to go to Applebee's since I knew were one was. It was a fine meal. When we left, a guy in the parking lot asked me if I had done the tri. He had noticed the body markings. That was really cool to be noticed like that.

We parted ways with Mrk and Mg and spent the rest of the day with naps and lounging. All four of us were tired from getting up so early and having such an eventful morning.

In retrospect, I'm glad that we did the triathlon. I want to do another, longer (Olympic distance) tri later in the season. The whole thing was a lot of fun and I would recommend it.

mwz

Run

2007-06-26T00:42:00.000-04:00

Executive summary:

Running after biking after swimming sucks.
Especially, if you haven't really been training that hard on the run portion.
A mile is longer than you think. Three miles is triply longer than you think.
Strangers will lie to you by telling you that the finish is "not much further".
It is good to have family there when you are suffering.
I finished.

Long Form:

The run course was 5K, with the first 3/4 mile on park trails and the remainder on road. There was a section of about a mile after the trail that was an out and back. Then, there was about a mile and a half of road after passing the exit from the trails.

Mile 1:

When I ran across the timing pad and onto the grass I realized the folly of my mindset. I had been thinking that all I had to do was get to the run and I could just push myself through. What I didn't count on was that I would feel terrible during the whole run.

The first part of the run was through grass, running between a series of flags. That was kinda fun. I don't know why but it sorta felt like I was skiing a slalom course (even though the "gates" weren't staggered and I was running up hill).

I was also regretting that I had brought the sweat rag. It just felt like it was weighing me down.

Arial, Mg and the kids were waiting on that section of the course. It was nice to see them, especially so close (there was no barrier). I tossed them my sweat rag (and I was glad to get rid of it) and we said our hellos. They cheered me on and I disappeared down a woodland trail.

Running on the trail was rough. I had heard that the first mile of the run was the worst because your legs are used to the cycling motion. But the softer ground didn't help.

The trail had a number of small but mildly steep hills. One of them (which we were warned about in the race information) really seemed like it should have had stairs.

I was really plodding along with no real stride in my run. My legs were heavy and I was feeling pretty bad. But then I thought back to doing the Bix 7 (7 miles with horrible hills) years ago. I compared how I felt to how I felt with about 3 miles left in the Bix. I decided that the feeling was pretty similar and since I finished the Bix, I could finish this. That realization helped my mindset a quite a bit.

I was glad to get out to the road. The first stretch on the way to the turnaround, we had to run on the gravel next to the road while the returning people got to be on the concrete. I figured that at that point they had earned it. I was glad to get to the park road where we could get on it.

At the park entrance, was the first water station and the 1 mile mark. That made me sad that I had only run a mile.

Mile 2:

I had a couple sips of water at the first station. I passed up the offer of a wet sponge. I felt I was wet enough (although that was a little foolish).

During the second mile, people started passing me more regularly. I began recognizing the backs of people whom I had passed on the bike. This wasn't too surprising since the people on mountain bikes that I was passing looked like they were runners with the bike as an afterthought.

After I made it off the trail and could see the oncoming runners, I started looking for Mrk again (this time looking for a red shirt). When I got to the turnaround I realized that he must have passed the trail exit before I even came out. Mrk is speedy (at least compared to me).

At the turnaround, the volunteer at the flag was trying to encourage us. When I was going around him he yelled "There is cold water at the finish line. Go get it.". My first thought was that I didn't need to be reminded that I was running a water deficit. The second thing I thought was that there was cold water at the water station just down the road. I could just go there and get water. All in all, his attempt to encourage me failed.

Right after the water station (where I refused a sponge again), we were back on the highway. But this time we got to run on the concrete instead of the shoulder gravel. I felt like I had earned that.

Near the trail exit, I thought "They must not have put up a 2 mile marker. I'm probably about the 2 and a half mile mark." About 1/4 mile later I saw the 2 mile sign.

Around this time, I realized that I wasn't really in control of my race anymore. I could really only go the pace that I was going. I couldn't stop people from passing me or decide to pass anyone else. I was moving along at a constant pace and that was that.

Mile 3:

The last water station was at the 2 mile mark. I had a couple sips of water. I regretted that not much later. When I made the turn into the park and started to realize that I was still a good distance from the finish. I was starting to get thirsty and the day was heating up. I questioned my decision to not wear sun screen, particularly on my head. Basically, it was starting to suck.

Then, with about a quarter mile left, I saw Mrk coming back to see me. At that point, I wanted some real information about the remaining distance. I yelled up, "How much further, really?" and on queue a woman near Mrk yelled "You're almost there". That was useless information, being as people had been telling us that for the last mile. Mrk, however, understood what I meant and told me that the finish was a little after the bend up ahead.

Mrk ran with me for a bit. It was a nice way to get my mind of the discomfort. We chatted for a bit and got our pictures taken together by a race photographer (which is kinda neat to have and it makes it look like I was right up there with Mrk).

Up ahead I saw Arial, Mg and the kids. Seeing them was great. Especially, since at that point I began to believe that I was actually going to finish. I waved, they waved. There really isn't that much interaction but it is still wonderful to see them there.

I heard from Arial that Frances said "Daddy's running fast". That's nice to know that my daughter thinks I'm fast even though I was not actually running fast in comparison to other people in my age group.

When we had just passed the family, I asked Mrk if he minded if I finished on my own. I didn't want there to be any sort of confusion at the finish since he had already finished (I'm sure he would have bowed out before then anyways). Plus, I did kinda want to complete the tri on my own. I was a little worried that he would take offence but he seemed to understand.

By that point, I could see the finish. There was a husky woman ahead of me (a different one than the swim). I thought about trying to catch her but then I figured that she was about to finish the tri too and I didn't want to be a jerk that tried to whiz by her right before the finish line. I kept at my same pace. In retrospect I don't know if I would have been able to catch her even if I had tried. She must have picked up her speed because I stopped closing.

Of course then, about 30 yards from the finish, two guys zipped past me. I laughed a little at that.

As I entered the finish area, there was a lot of cheering. I thought that was impressive since I was no where near the beginning or even the middle of the finishers. They were announcing the names of people as they crossed the finish line. I didn't hear mine because the cheering was so loud. I think that was better.

Finally, I crossed the finish line and became a triathlete.

mwz

Transition 2

2007-06-24T23:12:00.000-04:00

Executive summary:

There isn't much stuff to do during Transition 2.

Long Form:

After entering the transition area, I pushed my bike over to my spot (which was much easier to find since I had my glasses on). I put my bike up on the rack just like Mrk had put his up, hanging by the hand brakes. I figured if it was good enough for his bike, it was good enough for mine.

I took off my helmet and decided to keep my sweat rag tucked into my shorts.

Then, I just looked down at my stuff for a little bit, while trying to figure out if I needed anything else for the run. After a second or two, I decided that the run was pretty simple and quickly walked over to the gate where the volunteer was yelling "Run Out, over here!".

The whole thing took me less than a minute.

And I was off on the run.

mwz

Bike

2007-06-23T14:22:00.000-04:00

Executive summary:

Before the race, it's a good idea to check your bike to see if any of your children inadvertently sabotaged the toe clips.
When you only train for the bike, you feel pretty good during the bike leg.
People with nice bikes pass me. People with mountain bikes get passed by me.
Gels are sickeningly sweat unless you drink a lot of water, which is why it is required by law to do so.
The volunteers don't like it when you are threatening to crash into them.

Long Form:

The course was ~15 miles out and back on a set of highways.

The bike started nicely. I pushed my bike to the guy who signified where I could start riding. My first foot went easily into its toe clip.

However, my left foot just wouldn't go in. I looked down and the loop was pulled tight into a tiny circle. Johann had been playing with my bike a little the day before and I suspect that he pulled the toe clip strap. That's what I get for not inspecting my bike properly.

I pulled over, opened up that toe clip and I was back on my way.

The bike leg felt good. I've been mostly training for the bike (doing spin classes thinking that the cardio would help all events), so that was to be expected. It was hard to reserve energy for the run. I tried to stay above 15 mph (although on some of the hills I dipped down). I wound up averaging around 17 mph, so I feel pretty good about that.

It was a nice day for a ride. There was a slight head wind on the way out but it wasn't too bad. The road was a lot hillier than I had imagined it but that made it easier to pass the people that I was catching. The cyclists really bunched up on the hills.

I passed a fair number of people and was passed by a fair number of people. Interestingly, most of the people I passed had worse bikes than mine (and a lot of them were mountain bikes). The people who passed me all had much nicer bikes than I (which made me feel better about being passed). While that is an interesting correlation, I don't think it was the bikes that was making the difference. I think that it is a self selecting group. People who are into biking get better bikes.

I knew that Mrk was ahead of me somewhere because I didn't pass him in the swim and his bike was gone from the transition. After about a mile on the bike I started looking for him coming back from the turnaround. The last time I saw him, he was wearing a black shirt. I hadn't noticed what his bike helmet looked like, so I was looking at every black shirted male that was coming toward me trying to determine if it was Mrk.

Finally, a guy in a red shirt yelled at me. It was Mrk. Apparently, he had a different shirt for the bike than he was wearing before the race. It was nice to see him out on the course. It made the thing less lonely.

My bike isn't the greatest. I believe that it was built in the 80's. It makes some noises when I pedal it. Combining those noises with the knowledge that I haven't had to change the inner tubes since I got it a year ago and I started to worry about whether it was going to make it. I was especially concerned going up hills where I was putting a lot of pressure on the pedals. But it held together and eventually I forgot about my worries.

The bike was on public highways and they didn't shut down traffic. There were a number of cars on the road. I felt a little bad for them. They were stuck in this never ending stream of bikes.

The cars really weren't a problem for me until I got to the turn around. A pickup and a sedan had passed me but didn't pass the guy ahead of me. When they got to the turnaround, they didn't seem to be sure how to get through (there was a cop car in one lane and they were probably on the lookout for bikes). As they slowed down, I thought about passing them on the right but I didn't want to cut them off (and get run over) during the turnaround. So, I hit my brakes a little and went slowly behind them.

That slowdown lost me a bit of time but it wasn't too bad. I was back up to speed in not too long. The people I was creeping up on were a little farther ahead but I caught them eventually and the riders that passed me were going to pass me anyway.

When someone passes you or you pass someone else, you have 15 seconds to get out of their draft zone (defined as 3 bike lengths behind them). During those 15 seconds, you can draft all you want. So I tried it a few times, both when passing and when being passed. Maybe I don't understand drafting but I couldn't feel a difference. It didn't work for me in the swim and it didn't work for me in the bike. I also didn't really like being so close to someone else's bottom. It felt creepy.

On the way back, I used the sweat rag to wipe my brow. I was glad that it actually came in handy. It was warm enough that I was starting to wish that I wasn't wearing the shorts over my track shorts. I think the next race, I may just wear the track shorts. Hopefully, I will be in better shape by then and won't look as funny.

I had my gel with about 3-5 miles left on the bike. Before race-day, I had a couple of them so it wasn't as big of a shock as it could have been. Gels are like eating cake decorating gel. They are really sugary and thick. That's why it's the law to drink water with them.

And drink water, I did. I successfully finished my water bottle by the end of the bike. I was happy about that and it probably saved me during the run.

The last mile or so of the bike leg was in the park where the triathlon was based. That portion is shared by the runners. I was feeling pretty good, so I yelled some encouragement ("Good Job") to some of the runners

As I approached the transition, there was a volunteer hollering that we needed to dismount by the time we got to him. I was cool with that. I slipped my right foot out and brought it over so I was coasting. I was going slow enough that I could stop the bike by hopping off.

Unfortunately, my other foot was stuck (darn that left foot). I hit the brakes and swerved off to the left. The volunteer was a little freaked by that. I think he thought I was going to crash (I wasn't sure that wouldn't either). If there had been someone coming up behind me on the left, I probably would have. But, I brought it to a stop and extracted my foot. I quickly pushed the bike into the transition.

Final Thoughts:

The bike was a lot of fun. Probably the most fun leg of the tri. Passing and being passed was interesting and I felt strong doing it. I was very relieved that I had made it passed the point where mechanical failure could ruin the race.

mwz

Transition 1

2007-06-22T17:29:00.000-04:00

Executive summary:

It is nice to see your family when you are racing.
A rotund woman beat me up the hill to the transition... badly.
Glasses are useful when looking for your bike.
Wet feet don't want socks.
I like to start paragraphs with the word "I".

Long Form:

When I came out of the water, I saw Arial and the kids. They were cheering for me. Well, Arial was cheering for me, Johann was looking at me and Frances was playing in the sand. I waved at them and they waved back.

Then I had to climb a hill between the beach and the transition. The chubby lady who came out of the water just ahead of me, zoomed up the hill. I felt like I was trudging but I forced myself up there. But in all fairness, I think I had been swimming for longer than her.

I took a couple steps in the wading pool to get the sand off of my feet. It felt like I was going to slip but I didn't.

Since I didn't have my glasses, I found my row by counting from the far end. When I got to the end without finding my stuff, I realized that I hadn't been able to see all of the rows and was one row off.

I found my bike and set myself to the task of putting socks on wet feet. It wasn't easy even after drying them with a towel. Putting on my shirt wasn't great either. I was still wet but I figured (correctly) that I would dry on the bike.

Apparently, by this point Arial and the kids had come to watch me in transition. They had plenty of time to walk up there during my long T1. I didn't see them but they were in the background of a picture Mg took.

There were people getting ready for the run but also people getting ready for the bike. I took comfort that I wasn't the only one there.

I almost forgot my shorts. That wouldn't have been that bad but I had my gels in the pockets. I had to put them on over my shoes.

I tucked a sweat rag into the waistband of my shorts, put on my helmet and unracked my bike.

I wheeled my bike past a couple people getting ready for the run and pushed out the gate.

And then the bike began.

mwz

Swim

2007-06-21T22:49:00.000-04:00

Executive summary:

I look like a dork running through the water in in my track shorts and swim cap.
The water was nice and warm.
I felt good initially and passed someone.
Then, I was passed by more people than had signed up for the race.
A good portion of the swim was spent alternating between the crawl and the back stroke.
A race volunteer in a kayak almost tried to rescue me. I gave him a thumbs up because that's just how I roll.
When I finally got a good rhythm, someone kicked me and that was the end of that.
Being beaten by a fat lady is both mildly humiliating and "inspirational".

Long Form:

The course was a 600 yard triangle in a lake. There were three legs to the swim; out to the first buoy, across the lake to the second buoy and back to the shore. The second leg was the longest.

Leg 1:

The guy told me "Go" and I jogged to the water. I ran until the water was up to the middle of my thighs and dove in.

After seeing the pictures from this point, I found that I was pretty much guaranteed to look like a dork running into the water. A swim cap is not the most flattering head ware and even the most athletic person looks a little silly running through water. Compound that with my near-naked (track shorts only), flabby body and the end result is really quite sad.

Once I hit the water, that didn't matter any more. The water was warm and I felt strong. I didn't have a wet-suit to distract me and I thought I was doing well. I passed a guy who was doing the side stroke. I felt great.

It turned out that I wasn't quite as prepared for the swim as I had hoped.

Unfortunately, before I was halfway to the first buoy, my breathing started to get more difficult. I tried to breast stroke but I was still having trouble catching my breath. It was around then that people started to pass me.

I flipped over on my back to catch my breath but that let me see a swarm of people behind me. That kinda scared me so I flipped right back. I tried to press on, alternating between crawl and breast stroke.

I tried to draft off of someone at this point but someone else had the same idea and cut me off. I then tried to draft of the next person but it was confusing and by the time I had worked it out they were gone.

Soon, I realized that I wasn't going to make it to the end if I just used the crawl and breast stroke. The swim seemed very long at that point.

I swallowed my pride and swam on my back. My breath was still fast for awhile but eventually it calmed down. I then alternated between crawl and backstroke. I was still pushing forward when I was on my back. It isn't fast but it does make some progress.

While I was on my back, I saw one of the guys in a kayak yell something to me. I couldn't hear him but I turned over to look at my surroundings. It turned out that I was dangerously close to cutting on the inside of buoy one (I probably would have hit it).

I immediately fixed my direction but the kayak guy was still coming up to me. In retrospect he was probably going to rescue me. I gave him a thumbs up (mostly to thank him for correcting my direction) and he waved and I made my way around the first buoy.

Leg 2:

The back stretch was not the greatest. I was still alternating between crawl and backstroke. Many people passed me. I tried to stay on the inside and out of the way (I wasn't going to go to the outside because I had enough distance to swim as it was).

During the last quarter of the second leg, I started feeling a little better. I tried drafting again but couldn't keep up.

Finally, I got the the second buoy.

Leg 3:

After the second buoy, I could see the end. I really started to hit a rhythm with the crawl for about 10 strokes before someone kicked me. I went back to crawl/breast stroke (I didn't want to flip on my back so close to the end).

The last leg seemed to take forever. I could see the goal the whole way and it wasn't getting closer as fast as I thought it should.

When I got reasonably close to shore, I decide to drop my feet to see if I could walk. The water was up just above my waist. I tried a thing where I used my arms to crawl but pushed on the bottom with my legs. Eventually, I got up and ran.

Just ahead of me was a rather chubby woman. I'm reasonably certain that she started behind me. To be honest that hurt my pride a little but she beat me fair and square.

Final Thoughts:

The swim was a rather odd experience for me. It seemed to take forever. It felt more like I was stranded out in the middle of a lake than I was in a race.

But I finished it and it was good to get out of the water knowing that I had that under my belt.

mwz

Pre-Race

2007-06-19T18:21:00.000-04:00

Executive summary:

A pork tenderloin sandwich with onions is not a good night-before meal, particularily onions.
It's hard to sleep the night before a race even though you know that you have to get up at 4:15. I woke at 2:20 and was awake for a full hour.
Body markings are cool. You can show them off to people when you tell them that you did a triathlon.
If the water is too warm, don't care that you spent a lot of money on a wet-suit.
Trackshorts alone make you feel more naked than clothed.
Going shoeless in a portapotty is gross but at least I was able to jump in a lake shortly after.
Waiting on the beach 50 minutes before the your race begins allows you to get really nervous... and then not so nervous... and then nervous again.
Family helps with the nerves.

Long Form:

The night before the race, we met up with my brother, Mrk and Mg, his wife. The race was in a neutral city between our two homes, so we met there. The place we had supper was very meat heavy. So, no carbo-loading for me. I had a pork tenderloin. It was delicious.

After packet-pickup, we came back to our place for the night. I still had to pack my gear. Mrk helped me attach the bike rack to my car, which was good because the instructions were inscrutable.

He also helped me make sure that I had everything I needed for the race. It turns out there is a lot of stuff that you need to keep track of; goggles, bike gloves, wetsuit, shoes... I went through the race in my head and tried to figure out what I would need at each step. That worked pretty well but I should have just used a checklist from the internet.

We managed to get to bed around 10:30.

At 2:20 am, I woke up. I was nervous and that made me worried that I was sick. (I had the same feeling on my wedding day, when I woke up thinking, "I hope I'm not hung over". I wasn't). The onion taste in my mouth (from the tenderloin) didn't help things at all. I wound up brushing my teeth three times that morning to get rid of the taste.

I went back to bed but I was so nervous that I just rolled around. The last time I remember seeing was 3:30. I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I new it was 4:15 and time to get up.

I felt pretty good when I got up. I grabbed some cereal (bran flakes) and watched a little bit of Red Eye that we had recorded.

Then, I woke up Johann and got him dressed (Arial had set out clothes the night before. He was so adorable. He barely cried while I was dressing him.

Arial had gotten up by that point and she got Frances dressed while I loaded the car.

We managed to get out of the house a little after 5 am (we were shooting for 4:50). We arrived at the race location a little before 6 which turned out to be the perfect time because people we were able to park right next to the start. Any earlier and we would have had to park about a block away in another lot, any later and I don't know where we would have had to park.

Mrk and I got body marked with our race numbers and age. There was hardly a line and so it was very quick. As it turns out, body markings are neat. They are like a badge that says "I recently did a triathlon."

It was around this time that we discovered that the water was too warm to wear wet-suits. That bummed me out because wet-suits make it easier to swim. Plus, I had put out a fair amount of money for it (more than my bike). Slowly it dawned on my that I didn't really have a true swim-suit and that I was just going to have to wear the track-shorts that I was essentially planning to wear as underwear.

We then set up our transition areas. They had assigned numbers alphabetically which meant that Mrk and I were next to each other. That was really nice. It would have been lonely setting up otherwise. Instead, we were able to complain about the lack of wet-suits and discuss how we were going to find our spots and other such things.

Eventually, the time came to strip down to my track shorts. Keep in mind that I do not have a beatifully chisled body. I would dare say that my body is not really attractive at all. Fortunately, there were other guys in similar condition also running around shirtless in too-tight shorts.

One thing that really made the near-nudity easier to deal with was that I had to leave my glasses at transition. When I don't have my glasses, it is like I am in my own world. In a way it's like when a child covers their eyes to hide, it is irrationally comforting. If I can't see, maybe no one can.

We had to go down to the beach at 6:45 to hear the opening instructions. A touch before that, I joined the giant portapotty line. Mrk gave up his spot in line to join me in the back. He is very considerate.

I just have to say that going into a portapotty without shoes is disgusting. I tried not to think about what I was standing in and I wiped my feet on the grass a quite a bit. Later on, I swam in a lake.

While I was in line, I ate a gel (you are supposed to have one 15 minutes before the race). Since it is required by law to have water with the gel, I needed water. Arial found me water far above the beach (but it was better than no water at all).

We hurried down to the beach only to learn that the instructions were being broadcast over their speaker system. The real reason they wanted us down there was to chear on the elite starters.

So Mrk and I waited on the beach. I occationally waved at Arial and the kids who were watching from the grass. Arial wore an orange shirt so I was able to spot her without my glasses.

On the beach, we noticed that everyone else had brightly colored swim caps (provided in the packet. Ours were black. I'm reasonably certain that someone hoped we would sink and not be recovered. Arial says that she saw a couple other black caps but I didn't (granted I didn't have my glasses).

Finally the race began... but not for us. It was a time trial start, which meant that one person started every "3" seconds. They were using chip timing so it wouldn't affect our times. At three seconds a person, it should have taken 30 minutes to get the whole field started but with 30 minutes gone, only about half had started. That kinda sucked.

While we waited, the announcer talked. And talked. He started by doing play by play of the leaders. But when they got out of the water (about 7 minutes later), he started to just tell us how much better the time trial start is over the traditional wave start. It was almost like he was being defensive.

I was able to make out the leg markings on the guy in front of me. It said "70". It took me a bit to remember that that was his age. My next thought was that he had lied but when I saw his face, I believed him. He was in incredible shape.

Around 15 minutes after the start, Arial, Mg and the kids came down to the beach to hang out with us. That was nice since it made me a bit less nervous. Frances played in the sand and Johann walked (and bounced) on the beach chairs that had been flattened to provide some sort of crowd control. At one point he walked three chairs away. Arial had to run after him.

We got up close to the start, where the mob of people funneled down to a line. It was then that I started to crash from my gel-induced sugar high. That was not idea.

Soon, 35 minutes after the official start, Mrk was next in line to go. We said our good lucks and he was off.

3..2..1..

My race began.
mwz

My first Triathlon

2007-06-19T18:13:00.000-04:00

I completed my first triathlon this last weekend. Mrk, my brother and I raced together (by that I mean we were in the same race and that he is way faster than I (but he is my big brother)).

In the following posts, I'm going to record my experience in the next few posts. Each section will have a summary of things I found interesting and then a longer, boring section with all of my thoughts.

The second, long section is really written for me to read years later. Skip it guilt free.

mwz

Eye Brow

2007-06-06T23:29:00.000-04:00

One of these days, when I am shaving my head in a sleepy haze, I am going to mistakenly shave one of my eye brows.

So, if you see me sometime and I am missing half of an eye brow, you will know what happened.

mwz

Wetsuit

2007-05-30T23:53:00.000-04:00

The other day, I bought a wetsuit for the triathlon. It was on clearance. Apparently, people don't want one with grey accents. I on the other hand would look silly in any wetsuit, so it didn't matter what it looked like.

On the way home, we stopped by a beach (we wanted to let the kids play at a park but a beach works too). So I donned the wetsuit and gave it a try in the lake.

My first swim was horrible.

The water was cold (although the wetsuit really did help with that) and it felt like I couldn't breath. It felt like the wetsuit was making it harder for me to breath. For each breath, I had to push against the suit.

To make it worse, I tried to lay on my back to catch my breath and the wetsuit wouldn't let me easily bend to keep my head out of the water. It was like it was trying to drown me.

After talking to one of my brothers, I have concluded that it actually was trying to kill me. I can't blame it. It seems it would rather float in a lake on a dead body than spend most of the rest of its time in storage (only to occasionally be taken out for a race or a rare open water training session).

After I managed to get to shore (and spent a while huffing and puffing), I tried again. The second time it went a little better. I think the suit has decided to wait until race time, when I'm in the middle of a lake, to try again. I suspect that I'll be safe for a while.

Now if I could just get over my fear of deep water...

mwz

af2

2007-05-30T23:36:00.000-04:00

Last week we discovered that we have an arena football team near us. It is in the af2 league which is basically the minor league of the main arena football league.

On a whim we found out that they were playing that Friday and we just decided to go.
I was a little leery about taking the kids. They are pretty young. But they had a great time. There was a lot of music for them to dance to and cheerleaders to watch and scoring to cheer for.

Frances even seemed somewhat interested when I tried to explain what they were trying to do on the field. I don't think she completely understood but she did figure out that they were playing some form of catch. The next day, she found a plush football and asked me to play catch "like the guys".

I almost caught a T-shirt twice. Both times I got a hand on it but couldn't pull it in. It didn't help that each time, I had a child in one arm.

But that was made up for when a girl about Frances' age came across the aisle and gave Frances the shirt that she had. (We think it was a "first X number of people get a shirt" promotion.) We really don't know why this girl wanted to give it to Frances. (We also think that she might have wanted to give it to someone else further down but her mom wouldn't let her go any further.)

The kids got a little tired for the second half (game-time was only a little before their normal bed-times). They weren't acting badly but it was obvious that it wasn't as much fun as it was at the beginning of the game.

When it was down to the last play of the game, I explained that if they scored, they would win but if we stopped them, we would win. She said in a tired little voice, "Then we can leave?" I told her yes.

The whole thing was a lot of fun. I would recommend it. And the kids slept great that night.

mwz

Frances Loves to Run

2007-05-30T23:32:00.001-04:00

Frances really seems to like to run.

Lately, she wants either Ariel or I to run with her (race back and forth on the sidewalk in front of our house). On occasions that we are to tired from our own workouts, she asks for something to run with.

As strange as it sounds, if we give her something like keys or coins, she is happy to run with it down to the lot line and back. When she returns, she asks from something else to run with.

Hopefully this will continue on as she grows up. It would be more fun for me if she turns out to be athletic.

mwz

Johann Loves the Outdoors

2007-05-30T23:22:00.000-04:00

As the title suggests, Johann really loves going outside. If you put on his shoes, he will run over to the door and wait (and if he waits to long he may start doing a frustrated wimper).

Once I told him that we needed to put on his shoes because we were going to go outside. He imediately plopped down on the floor and presented his feet. That would have been great, if I had his shoes on hand.

To be fair, Frances also loves going outside but I don't recall her being as into it at Johann's age.

Once outside, Johann will carry around a ball or push his little lawn mower (which is incredibly adorable, especially when I'm out mowing) or drag around a toy garden hoe.

He is very good about not going into the street. The sidewalk is the boundary, so that gives us a little time to get there if a child decides to make a break for a passing car. Johann will push our little, push hippo onto the sidewalk from the driveway and then turning it to simply go down the sidewalk (although today he started pushing the limits which means we have to be even more aware of him).

mwz

Vacation to Georgia

2007-05-30T23:11:00.000-04:00

A while ago now, we took a vacation to Georgia. My niece was getting married and we parlayed that into a driving vacation.

The wedding was nice and it was good to see everyone.

We spent some time in Atlanta. It wasn't as terrible as everyone seems to think. While there, we went to Benihana. The food was decent but quite expensive. It turns out that paying $10 for a kid's meal for your 2 year old isn't really worth the price.

We saw a lot of children's museums. We have a membership that allows us to go to other children's museums for free. That was a lot of fun. Frances seemed to like them a lot. Johann was happy to play in the sand-equivalent at each place (sometimes it was sand, in Atlanta it was recycled rubber and one other place had pebbles).

It was a good trip but it was good to get home.

mwz

New Posts

2007-05-30T23:06:00.000-04:00

I have been neglecting to post for awhile now. So I have decided to just make a flurry of posts (unless I get distracted).

They probably won't be that interesting but at least they will put on record.

Sorry.

mwz

Frances Illness Update

2007-04-05T01:13:00.000-04:00

Frances is feeling better now. I hope that didn't spoil the suspense.

After my last post, I went to bed downstairs since Frances' bed didn't have any bedding and she was in our bed with Arial. I move around to much when I sleep, so I decided to go elsewhere.

I had just barely gotten to sleep when Arial called (intercom function on our phones). Frances had thrown up again. For the rest of the night and much of the next day, she was throwing up every 30 minutes to an hour.

Only Johann got much sleep but Frances got a handful of baths (she started requesting a bath even when she had cleanly puked into the bucket but we only gave her a one when she had gotten some on her).

Finally, around 2:30 in the afternoon Arial lay down with her and they both slept (I had caught a nap earlier in the day, so I wasn't jealous). Arial got up around 5:30 but Frances slept 'til 7ish. I figured she would be up for a long time but at 8:30 she told Arial that she was tired. I wound up laying with her at 9pm and we both slept straight through to morning.

She has seemed much better today. Although, every time she coughs she says "I okay", meaning that she isn't going to throw up, which I guess is pretty thoughtful of her to let us know.

mwz

Frances Is Sick

2007-04-03T02:33:00.000-04:00

Frances has had a cold for about a week. We thought she was getting over it so today I took her with me to the gym.

She didn't have a very good afternoon nap (it is questionable whether she slept at all) but we gave her a 25 minute power nap right before supper. I don't think she really understood what a power nap was about because she was quite unhappy when I got her up to eat.

When I picked her up from the child care room at the gym, she was sleeping in a crib covered in stuffed animals. This was strange because "playing with the kids" is one of her favorite activities. I just chalked it up to missing her nap.

She seemed fine until about an hour after she went to bed. She had been sleeping contentedly but then I heard a noise. I went to check on her and I heard her throwing up.

We cleaned her up in the bath, started washing the cloths and tucked her into our bed. She has never puked twice in one night, so we figured that was fine.

It wasn't.

She threw up again in our bed, hitting both of our pillows.

When I was giving her the second bath of the night, she told me that she was going to be sick again. I held a large bath cup to her mouth and asked Arial to get the larger bath bucket. She didn't throw up then.

This time (since we were out of beds), we set her up on the couch. I sat with her while Arial cleaned up. She threw up 3+ more times but this time into the bucket (all the while pleading "I all done", which is enough to break my heart).

Arial went to the store with Johann (since by this time he was awake) and bought some 7-Up. That helped Frances have something to throw up while she was on the couch.

Currently, Johann is asleep in his crib, Arial and Frances are in our room and I am going to try to sleep on the futon in the basement. Hopefully, the worst is over. It is no fun watching your tiny, little girl be miserable.

The weird thing is, she doesn't have a fever. I have no idea why she keeps throwing up.

Well, I thought I should chonical Frances' first real illness. Now, I am going to try to get some sleep.

Good night

mwz

Inspirational

2007-03-31T01:23:00.001-04:00

So I've been doing spin class at the local gym for a couple months. It's been going pretty well and I've started to become familiar with some of the others who go to the classes.

There's this one guy who, it turns out, does triathlons. He doesn't look like the prototypical triathlete, he's kinda stocky but pretty well built.

Anyway, after the last class, I ran into him (not literally). He said something to the affect of "Thank you for coming, it's nice not being the only guy in the class". I returned the thanks, since I too prefer not to be the only one of my gender in class.

Then he said "You're inspirational." Okay, whatever. I didn't know what that meant but he followed a little bit later with "It's good to have someone else in there with a BMI over 25."

He does have a point. On the whole, the people at the gym are a lean sort and thinking back to that particular class, the women were very stick-like.

But, now I think that the reason I am "inspirational" is because I'm chubby. I'm apparently the fat guy who "gives it his best".

mwz

Big Sister

2007-03-23T09:33:00.001-04:00

Frances is such a good big sister. I don't know how she learned (since
neither of her parents had younger siblings) but she is a great big
sister.

A couple weeks ago, I went to the gym late in the evening. Arial put
the kids to bed and was satisfied that they were asleep. So, she went
downstairs to run.

While she was running, she noticed Frances on the stairs. She then
pieced together what happened.

At some point after Arial started running, Johann woke up and started
crying. Arial couldn't hear him over the treadmill but this woke up
Frances, who then went in to comfort Johann. This was evidenced by
Johann's light being turned on. She most likely sang to him since she
often sings to him when he is upset in the car (isn't she a good
sister?). When that failed to calm him, she went down and got Arial to
help calm him.

All said and done, Frances did everything right. She tried to solve the
problem herself and when that failed, she got help. I'm very proud of
her.

Another anecdote: I have been taking Frances with me to the gym when
they have child care open. She absolutely loves "playing with the
kids". But last week, I started taking Johann with us.

The first day I dropped him off, I told Frances that she needed to help
Johann. She immediately ran over to this stand-alone door thing and
indicated that I should bring Johann. Together, they played with the
door and Johann seemed like he was enjoying himself, so I left to work
out.

When I came back Johann was having a fine time watching a movie with all
the other kids. It wasn't traumatic for him at all. Even yesterday
when I left, I told Frances that she should take care of Johann and she
immediately stopped what she was doing and ran over to him.

I don't pretend to believe that they play together the whole time (in
fact I know they don't) but she helps him feel comfortable there. And
I'm sure if he ever became upset, she would help.

She's a good sister.

mwz

Walking and Talking 2

2007-03-22T00:28:00.000-04:00

Johann is turning into a little person. We think he is legitimately
talking. He consistently calls the cats "ee" (although he has said
something more like "kitty", which we are calling his first word, he
mostly calls them "ee").

Arial says that he said "broom" tonight, even though mostly he just
drags the broom around and says "Ta-da".

He is talking a lot. Not necessarily real words but they sound like
they could be. He is mixing different sounds and Arial thinks that he
might actually be using real words sometimes and we just can't
understand him. I try to discern any possible meaning and act
accordingly, even if that just confuses him. But if Johann says
something that sounds like "down", I'll put him down. If he says
something like, "you need to invest more money in bonds", I tell him
that I find the idea of bonds weird.

To add to his personness, Johann is also walking a lot more normally.
He runs pretty well now (well it's more like walks quickly). Walking is
now his primary mode of self-transportation.

It's just so strange...

mwz

Walking and Talking?

2007-03-10T00:36:00.000-05:00

Johann is walking all over the place now. He still does the Frankenstein walk (as Ariel calls it) but he is getting confident with it. He can step over small things and... well that's about it.

This last week, he has been saying things that sound a lot like on-topic words. Unfortunately, we can't get him to repeat any of it. Ariel says that she gave him a bottle and he said "Botta".

Another time, I was holding Johann while I pulled yogurt out of the fridge for him. I said "Do you want some yogurt?" and he said "yo-gurt" (in a very staccato way with each sylible like a small explosion). It's a little strange.

Ariel finally got him to say "Mama" too. That made her happy.

mwz

Shaving

2007-03-07T23:59:00.000-05:00

I've been buzzing my hair for a while now, basically ever since I realized that I was losing my hair. Yesterday, I took the next big step. I shaved my head.

I've never done that before and it was not as easy as I hoped. I didn't get a real close shave, mostly because it is boring running a small razor over a large skull.

I suspect the inventor of Velcro shaved his head. Today, I have head stubble and when I put up the hood of my coat, it pretty much stuck to my head. It was really difficult to shift the cloth around on my head and sliding it off my head was near impossible (I had to lift it off). I was impressed at how much my head stubble grabbed at the fabric.

I have a theory on why I decided to do this now. I have recently started going to the gym again and yesterday (after my shaving experience) I noticed that the guys either have a full head of hair or they shave it all off. I think that is because you spend a fair amount of time around mirrors when you work out and you are constantly reminded of how sad your hair looks.

Apparently, I'm vain.

mwz

Mikey Likes It

2007-02-24T15:18:00.000-05:00

I've always thought the old Life cereal commercial with Mikey was weird. If Mikey will eat anything, why are they so amazed that he likes Life? He'll eat anything.

[Update: An anonymous commenter helpfully pointed out that Mikey actually hates everything. I completely mis-remembered that comercial. I found the actual commercial on youtube and it is pretty much exaclty how I rember it, except they say "He won't eat it. He hates everything" instead of "He'll eat it. He'll eat anything". Now I'm wondering why they thought he would try it in the first place.]

Johann will eat anything too. He'll eat fruit or vegetables, meat or dairy. He can put away a bowl of cut-up grapes with surprising speed. We never have to pressure him into eating. He will often eat more than Frances. He must need it for growing because he isn't getting really chubby.

What he really likes is meat.

He is very much a carnivore. It took us a little bit to figure out because Frances is the opposite. She doesn't like much meat at all. But we started noticing that the meat portions of meals would disappear first.

Then we noticed that he wasn't really very happy when we would have pasta meals. At the end of one, we thought to give him a cut up hot dog. He ate a whole one (minus the skin, yes, I peeled his hot dog). This was after he had stopped eating the pasta.

He's our little eater.

mwz

I not dirty, I Clean.

2007-02-12T00:13:00.000-05:00

In our kitchen we keep several containers for the kids to play with; egg cartons, empty syrup bottles and whip cream containers. Both kids can (and do) get them out of the lazy susan to play with.

Today, when we got home from church, the containers were strewn about on the floor. One of the two (probably Johann) had got them out earlier and we hadn't picked them up. After removing her coat, Frances said "It's messy" and proceeded to put the containers away. It was incredible. We are trying to figure out who she takes after since obviously, neither of us bothered to pick them up.

But Frances is a clean little girl (as clean as a little kid can be). For a very long time now, she has kept her toes clean of lint. I never really even thought of trying to remove the lint. Maybe that's why she does it herself but she just started doing it on her own. At first, she would only pick the lint out occationally, when she had an opportunity. Now, it is part of her nap/bedtime ritual. One day, I tried to tuck her in and she said "No, I have to clean my toes". Before her feet get covered, she must declare "all clean" and then I know that she is ready to have her feet covered.

Recently, she has started washing her hands by herself in the bathroom too. It started as her playing with the water in the bathroom sink but now after pretty much every meal, she goes in there and washes her hands. We don't ask her to, she just does it. She has even learned to use the soap dispencer. Surprisingly she doesn't play with the soap, she pumps out just enough and that is all she uses.

As a final note, if you ask her if she's poopy (meaning a poopy diaper), she'll say "I not dirty, I clean".

Frances is an interesting little girl.

mwz

Johann is Walking

2007-02-02T01:08:00.000-05:00

I am a bit behind in my posts. I was going to post about how Johann was standing up without holding onto anything (which he started doing a week or two ago).

But today Johann took his first steps.

Earlier in the day, he was standing in front of Ariel and he moved one foot forward and then sat down. We then had a discussion about if that constituted his first step. I didn't think that it counted because he didn't move all of his weight to that foot but Ariel thought it was enough of his weight to count.

Later though, our disagreement became moot when Frances pulled away the push toy that Johann was holding onto. He stood for a little bit. I held my arm in front of him to catch him if he fell and he took four steps. He later repeated the performance.

We're all very proud.

He can also go up and down stairs (with adult supervision of course) and he eats cat food (without adult supervision). We had to move the cat food up on a shelf because he kept getting into it. He really seemed to like it.

mwz

Bopper

2007-01-08T00:43:00.000-05:00

I realized the other day that Frances now says the word "diaper" correctly. She used to say "new bopper". It was adorable but she hasn't said it like that for months.

We successfully taught her how to say it correctly but now I kinda miss it. My little girl is growing up.

mwz

Handful

2006-12-27T01:19:00.000-05:00

On top of the usual holiday stress and the fun of moving, both our children have moved away from the nice peaceful stages of their lives that we have grown accustomed to.

Frances is in full "terrible-twos" mode. Her two favorite phrases are "By myself!" and "No Johann, that's mine" (even if it actually is his).

Johann has progressed to the point where he can be a pain to his sister. He often tries to play with what she's playing with or using. Frances has become pretty good about not letting him get to her pancake syrup or eat crayons.

To top it all off, he has learned to climb stairs. He started sometime last week by climbing 2 steps to get to a landing. Tonight he made it up those steps and up the next 3 before we noticed him. (It was my fault. I was watching him. I thought he was still in the planning stage but apparently he was finished with his research and went for a test run.)

He was doing fine though, climbing very solidly. He might have made it all the way up if he hadn't gotten distracted by us 3 watching and cheering him on (while making sure he was safe of course).

He did feed me a bit of his "Biter Biscuit" today though. Stuck it right into my mouth. I thought that was very considerate of him to think that I might be hungry.

mwz

Recent Accomplishments

2006-12-01T00:31:00.000-05:00

We are pretty busy suffering from colds and packing but I thought I should mark some recent accomplishments of the children.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, Johann learned to crawl at his uncles house. Now he is crawling all over the place. He can even crawl over to a coffee table and pull himself up to standing. It's pretty impressive when you realize that he was hardly mobile at all a week before.

This evening, I was taking down my desk (which is one of those modular things that you have to assemble) and Frances was "helping" me. She thought it was fun that I had the desk turned upside down (it did kinda look like a fort).

At one point though, she picked up my screw driver, which I had set down for a second and wouldn't give it back. She was sticking it into one of the pre-drilled holes and turning it. Being completely unsuccessful at getting her to give it back to me, I decided to try something else.

I guided the screw driver to one of the pegs that needed to be unscrewed and showed her which way to turn. To my amazement, she continued turning it in that direction until it came out.

We were both very excited.

After that, she started another one and again she correctly unscrewed it. She wound up doing 8-10 pegs, most without direct supervision. That freed me up to do some other packing.

Today, Frances went from "helping" to actually helping. I think I have Handy Manny to thank.

mwz