gobble gobble hey

i'm not sure when, exactly, i started hating thanksgiving but at some point in my life i decided that spending an entire day shoveling food into my mouth shouldn't be considered a national holiday.  i can do that any day.  in fact, i do that most days and with a lot less ceremony.  since we don't have a lot (any) family here, i wanted to make a tradition for the kids that was meaningful or at least memorable so i signed us all up for the houston turkey trot and spent the morning running the streets of houston with thousands of other people not at home cooking.

the trot included 3 different races, each with different starting times.  there was exactly 1 hour and 30 minutes between the start of the 10k and the kids' run so i figured i could run the ~6.2 miles and make it to run with the kids.  my worst case scenario would have me finishing at just an over (leaving a whole 1/2 hour to get to the kids) but i ended up hitting a PR and finishing in 51:56.  clearly i need to put my kids at the finish line of every race.  the munchkins did very well in their races, both running MOST of the time.  hardie took a cone to the face and spent a minute or so howling in pain but got back down and finished.  i still don't know whether they actually enjoy running.  they are both so! excited! before the race and claim to have fun but seem grumpy before and just after.  admittedly, lining up for a race is terribly boring and finishing is a little anti-climatic so i guess i can't really blame them for not being super happy yay at those moments - i just wish i knew whether they honestly enjoying themselves or just placating me.  

my second attempt at creating a thanksgiving tradition was taking the kids to the houston uptown lighting...thing.  i had a vague notion of what this event was, fostered entirely by a flyer i got in my turkey trot race packet.  it seemed to be a ceremony wherein santa claus would arrive and magically light a twinkling winter wonderland of christmas decorations.  i envisioned blinking trains and animatronic elves and maybe even an ironic window display.  i pictured walking hand-in-hand with my babies, oooohing and awwwing while sipping hot chocolate and discussing what a fantastic new tradition this was and how lucky they were to have such a mother.

this is what the event ACTUALLY looked like.  tens of thousands of people milling about the street and waiting for...yeah, i never quite figured out what we were waiting for but i'm pretty sure it was the 10 minutes of (admittedly nice) fireworks that were half blocked by a building despite the three of us having fought our way through this crowd to get a 'good' spot.  the lights?  a series of trees aaaaaaaaaand that's it.  there were no elves, no trains, no irony.  just a couple dozen cone trees wrapped in white lights.  i am never trusting a flyer again.  we made the most of it and by 'most' i mean the most sugar.

sugar

more sugar

a picture is worth at least 2-3 words

since i clearly didn't learn my lesson with the color run, this weekend the kids participated in a 1K on the beach in Galveston.  they both seemed to genuinely enjoy themselves but i suspect this was due in no small part to the proximity of the water and the repeated promises of post-race donuts.  they both finished middle-of-the-pack and i like to think they get their competitive edge from me.  yay team average!

post-race, post-donut, post-winter-swim, we carbo-loaded because, um, we were hungry?  i like to justify over-eating by reminding everyone around me that i run a lot.  i'm pretty sure that i'd have to run a marathon every day to compensate for the dozen cookies i sometimes eat for breakfast but, meh, i'm happy.  and i love cookies.

i thought bea was trying to make a heart...
but she was making right/left with her fingers.
so much for that touching moment.

legit touching moment

the color of running

saturday marked what i expected to be the highlight of my ~7 years of parenting - the moment that my interests and my child's merged together in some magical cosmic swirl of happiness.  bea and i ran a 5k. 

sort of.

the race was the houston color run and the whole point of the run was to get splashed with dyed cornstarch while shuffling about the streets of downtown houston.  while the 'race' wasn't timed, there was at least a vague expectation of jogging between cornstarch throwing stations (each ~1k apart).  i can knock out a 5k in about 25-26 minutes on a good day.  it took us over an hour to reach the finish line.

bea was only able to run about a quarter of a mile before getting a stitch in her side and spent the remainder of the run apologizing to me.  it was pretty much the lowlight of my ~7 years of parenting.  i have become one of those overbearing mothers that eventually get featured on a tlc reality show berating their daughters for not excelling in something they (the daughter) clearly has no personal interest in.  bea hated running but i think she hated disappointing me even more.  we managed to cheer one another up after some hugging and crying on an overpass and played in the last cornstarch station, yellow.  i am presently googling child-friendly salons in houston for a mother/daughter manicure outing - i figure its only fair to do something that i don't like but would make the beazle happy. 

o beautiful for spacious skies

election day is here at last and the munchkins and i voted this morning (early voting is for non-ceremonial suckers).  it was a little nostalgic since hardie was just a few weeks old and bea a mere toddler when we voted in the 2008 election but that nostalgia quickly gave way to regret as i tried to wrangle too pop-tart-infused kids through the crowded polling place.  both kids kept trying to push buttons and run around and peek at what other people were doing and run around and sit on the floor and run around and run around and run around.  i managed to keep their attention long enough to have them vote on a local school bond issue and then the three of us pressed the big red 'cast ballot' button together.

yay democracy!

where oh where has my little blog gone

since robby's iraq visa has been stalled for weeks, i haven't had much need to update my little blog here.  doesn't make sense to document the kids' life for their dad when he is around, right?  thing is?  i miss it.  i miss being able to reflect on our lives and sometimes maybe have a poignant insight into...yeah, who am i kidding - i like posting pictures of my children.

i'm also having a bittersweet morning since last night i said goodbye to the last vestige of babyhood - hardie now sleeps in big boy panties.  i didn't attempt overnight potty training with either of my kids, figuring the financial cost of pull-ups to be less than the physical and emotional cost of waking up to take a sleeping baby to the bathroom so they don't wet the bed.  i figured i'd just let it go and eventually it would work itself out, hopefully before junior high.  with each, i waited until i could no longer remember a wet pull-up in the morning and just stopped bothering with them.  so last night, a Very Excited Hardie got to sleep in big boy panties.  while i'm super excited to save the cash and cabinet space by not requiring giant bags of disposable underpants, i kept help but look around and see nary a single baby item.  no diapers, no pacifiers, no bottles, no sippy cups, no tiny utensils, no tiny plates, no clothes with snaps, no alphabet blocks.  my kids watch cartoons with plots and brush their own hair and ride bikes without training wheels.  they lose teeth and tie shows and tell each other secrets.  they still come to me when they get hurt or want to be held but, mostly, i am slowly drifting away from the center of their universe. 

i applaud their independence but a part of my heart aches knowing that i will never again inhale the weird cheerios breath of my newborn baby.  i guess i'll have to make due with awkwardly sticking my nose into babies who do not belong to me.  i apologize in advance, present and future new mothers.  

big boy with flashlight