From Her Mouth to God's Ears...

Millie's prayer tonight:

"Dear God, thank you for Simon...even though he's rack-ally (rascally)"

Amen, sister. Amen.

Funny and Fabulous

Si's just killing me these days. He...

* loves these glasses

* doesn't know how to say 'yes' yet, so every single response from him is a shouted 'NO'. You must interpret the tone in his voice to figure out the real answer.

* announces a dirty diaper by grabbing his crotch and shouting 'POOP there it is' (actually pronounced "poop 'der 'tis")

* gives a running commentary from his car seat on all transportation modes...bus, truck, plane, choo choo, copter.

* loves to sing the B-I-B-L-E song and the "Hello" song from Millie's preschool; also, asks for me to play music by pointing at the CD player and telling me "you you". Apparently Millie has played the inappropriate Avril Lavigne song a few too many times around here (Hey, hey, you, you, I know that you like me...)

* runs screaming through the door of Millie's classroom when the teacher opens it for parents to get the kiddos. All the other parents know to step out of the way to let Simon through first. He runs straight to Millie and hugs her.

Mils is a dream. Seriously, a really great kid. We had our first Parent-Teacher conference at her preschool this week and were thrilled at the report from her teachers. She...

* is quite the social little girl. She's great at inviting kids to play with her. I was hugely relieved to hear this. This is a skill that will serve her well as we move around and drop her into new schools and environments every few years. She'll need to feel comfortable inviting kids to play and introducing herself to others.

* tends to the needs of her classmates. She gets pretty concerned when a friend is sad or gets hurt.

* likes to put on presentations and lessons for her classmates (imagine her as the teacher in the pretend game of school). Poor Simon...he has a long life of being bossed ahead of him.

* loves the art studio and is right on track with her drawing/scribbling/writing development. To celebrate Millie's first stellar "report card", Christopher bought her a special treat: her very own hole-punch and a four-pack of scotch tape dispensers. It was like she got a million dollars. She's been punching and taping everything in sight.

Playing with Anna

A golf outing with Dad

Goal...Accomplished

Since before last Thanksgiving I've had a goal rattling around in my head. Yesterday, I accomplished it. It is one of the best feelings in the world.

I did a triathlon. Christopher found a seemingly do-able race for me to try with just the right distances and just the right amount of preparation time. I asked a couple of my friends to join me, which happily became five (most all of us are in a small-group bible study together...we all go to church together...we have 15 kids between us!). Of course, there were tears for most of us at the finish line. What a cool thing to get to do with these awesome friends.

So for the last 3+ months I've been training towards this crazy goal. I know I'm supposed to say that I did it to prove something to myself. I'd say that's mostly true. But I also finished this thing for Christopher, for all the weekends he sacrificed for my long rides and runs, for his own training that was sacrificed for mine, for the encouragement and investment in me. I wanted him to be proud of me, too.

My sister came out to Palm Springs for the festivities and was a huge cheerleader and great kid-wrangler and a great support for me. It was fun to have her with us. The race went really, really well after the swim. I'm thrilled with my times on the bike and run, and even my overall time beat my goal. It was a real bummer (no, it was terrifying actually) to be kicked in the head at the beginning of the swim (turns out I have a damaged ear drum), but I am even more thankful that it didn't take me out of the race.

I know Christopher is waiting anxiously to see if I got bit by the triathlon bug. We're gonna have to wait and see on that one (I need the memory of that swim to wear off a bit). I know I'll always be thankful that we did this one.