Next stop...Ironman.

Editor's note...just realized I never posted this.  If I compare this to teaching, it's like a kid doing their homework and not bringing it to school.  What's the point!?  Sigh.  Read on...
 
On June 3rd, I did something I had never done before - I was a spectator at a triathlon.  And not just any triathlon...a triathlon my husband was participating in.  Never mind that this is his second season to participate and that this was only my first time to see him.  Do you know what time you have to get to a triathlon as a participant to set up your stuff in the transition area? - normally like 5:30...in the AM, people!  And since triathlons include swimming, you also have to be near a body of water (a term I use loosely), and in case you didn't know, Dallas doesn't have so many bodies of water, so on top of having to be somewhere at 5:30 in the morning, that place you have to be is usually a decent distance away, which means getting up even earlier.  So needless to say, this wasn't a great option with a nursing infant last summer, but no excuses this year.  P and I went out to Irving to cheer J on.

 The "large body of water" I was talking about...

 Our dad's out there somewhere...

 Cheering is hard work.  Snacks are a must.

 Can you spot J?  Neither can I. :)

 After watching dad swim and transition onto the bike, we went and ran around in the grass.

 In fact, we were having so much fun, and J was so much faster than he had anticipated (definitely not a bad thing), that we missed him in the bike to run transition.  Boo.  Definitely need some more practice in being a race ninja.

 At the end, P had a complete melt-down, as I lovingly tried to document here.

Here I am with my buddy...so proud of him!

 

So, you ask, what's next for this guy?  Tomorrow at 11 AM, J will be signing up for Ironman Texas 2013.  

For those of you who don't know, an Ironman is an extreme three-sport, one-day endurance event.

2.4 mile swim

112 mile bike ride

24.2 mile run (a full marathon)

The race begins at 7 AM, and in order to be named an Ironman, you must finish by midnight...i.e. you have 17 hours to complete the course.

Needless to say, this is going to be an adventure...for our entire family!

I'll keep you posted. :)

Game of the Month

As soon as you think you know a kid, he changes on you.

A month ago, P couldn't get enough of his rings.  Now, he barely touches them...instead, our go-to toy is a bucket with plastic rings and such in it.  Not very exciting, you say?  Oh contraire, my friend...

 Here we are checking out what's in our bucket.

Here we are emptying out the bucket's contents.

Adding things back in...

 No, we're not spitting at the bucket.  We're making a noise while putting a ring back into the bucket.
  His Grammy Share taught him this, although in her version, she makes a noise that sounds more like,"Kichy-coo."  It's important for you to know that there is a technique involved here.  If P throws a ring in really hard, you have to make the sound really loud.  However, if he drops it in softly (which he will do while staring right at you to make sure that you're really paying attention to him), you make the sound softly.

 Continuing to reload.

Who knew this bucket of plastic could be so much fun?

"P" is for perfection...

There are so many ways that P is like his dad and me, and it's so fun to notice a new similarity - whether it be a physical feature, or a behavior, or an expression - it's just a nice reminder that we are definitely related. :)

Of course, everyone knows that P gets his killer baby blues from his dad, and his chin from yours truly (what, you haven't noticed that!? - Look more carefully next time! ;)) 

He's an extrovert like his mom but is also very thoughtful and takes everything in like his dad.

And thankfully for him (as we always said we'd give our kid back if this wasn't the case) he does appear to LOVE music.

As another example, a month or so ago P hurt himself and had a really good cry, and for the first time, I realized the he cries like I cried when I was little - which is characterized by an inability to catch your breath, which leads to a repeated sniffing sound (not pretty).  Of course, my first response was to comfort my hurting kiddo, but quickly after came the exclamation - "He cries just like me!"

And then there's this one...and I'm not necessarily proud of it.  It turns out that our child is quite the...ummm...how do you describe it...perfectionist.  What?!?  I know what you're thinking...the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.  Well, if you really knew me, you would know that I would NEVER use the word "perfectionist" to describe me - as that would be taking it easy on myself.  Okay, I will admit it - I'm a tad bit perfectionistic, and I have been as long as I can remember.

Well, it turns out that P has inherited this trait as well (it truly is remarkable to see this as an inherited trait and not something learned!).  This perfectionistic side shows itself often - and in many ways - but as an example...when he was little and was first learning to stack his rings, he would begin, and if he put the first two on correctly but then messed up on the third one, he would take all of the rings off and start over.

He does the same thing now with his puzzle name bench.  Now, I'm not one to be super braggy to others about my kiddo (different kids develop at different rates, right?), but I'm pretty sure that most 18 month olds don't do puzzles the way our child does. (Of course, most 18 month olds probably speak more than ONE WORD like our child does, but we recently read that some children are late talkers because they focus all their energy on mastering other tasks - like puzzles and stacking objects and other things that are far more important to one's life than verbal communication.)

 He does seem to have a system and begins with either the last "r" or the "P" or the "k," as those are the easiest to identify and put in.

 There are 2 "r's" of course, and sometimes he decides that the colors really should be in rainbow order, so he'll dump out the letters and start over, making sure the purple "r" is at the end.

 Putting in the final "e," which results in us spelling his name while pointing at the letters and then cheering...

 Another round.

 He has a hard time with the "a" and will often dump the stool over to start over when he can't figure out how to get it in correctly the first time.

A completed masterpiece.

This sometimes ugly trait also rears its head while he's stacking a tower of blocks, and if a block falls off, he will more than likely make a growling/frustrated sound, pick up a block, and chunk it (we're working on this).  A phrase we say very often is, "P, you cannot throw something when you get frustrated."  And amazingly, I am already saying to my child, "It's okay!  It doesn't have to be perfect!"  Sigh...I can only imagine what it will be like when he gets to school... but I guess we have a few years to work on it before we have to find out.