v-day

I'm participating in A.L. Sonnichsen's Valentine's Day contest.

She's asking:

"If you could travel outside your country of residence with your significant other (imaginary significant others are fine), where would you go and why?"

If you visit and read my entry, you'll note that my answer sounds a lot like a second honeymoon. Maybe I'm still feeling a little jilted over our little honeymoon tsunami disaster.

More on that later.

I thought, now, though, that it would be appropriate to remind you that the Chinese New Year season is upon us. In fact, this year, the first day of the Lunar New Year falls on February 14th, Valentine's Day. Incidentally, that will also be the first day of Asiaramblin's Annual Win Chinese New Year Stuff Contest. Be sure to check back this week for details. This year Patrick's running the show. Which means that it promises to be exciting!

china day

Last Friday we got to participate in one of our international community's many fun-filled, family-friendly events.

As all great fun-filled, family-friendly events should, it included . . .

plenty of sugar . . .

lots of photo ops . . .

and even an uncle sighting . . .

Who could ask for anything more?

i love to run

I discovered that I enjoyed running in my freshman year of high school through participating in the winter and spring track seasons. Then in the fall of my sophomore year I fell in love. Cross-country running became one of my passions. Our team both trained and raced on the trails of the Maine woods, and I absolutely loved it. Track became something I endured so that I could keep in shape for the cross-country season. Our three mile race-courses through the woods beat out the mile run around the track any day in my running log.

Since my cross-country days, I've been through lots of running stages. Through all of it I've always owned a pair of running shoes, and have always missed running when I wasn't.

There was the social & recreational stage. Non-competitive runs with friends or roommates just to get out and exercise together.

There was the "imaginary 10k" stage. I kept a tight training schedule, including getting up well before dawn in the middle of the winter so that I could get my seven mile training run in before work. (You'll have to ask my friend Katie about that--she humored me and often came along.) During this stage I was training for a 10k, but at the end of the season there was no race--10k or otherwise--I just needed the training schedule to keep disciplined.

There was the marathon stage. A few of us (chiefly instigated by those who just couldn't get past training for "imaginary" races--again, ask Katie) found out when an actual race was scheduled locally, and trained for that. I loved every minute of that stage, except for a few days directly following the marathon. (This would be the only time in my life that I "vowed off" running; not unlike women who give birth and then declare, "never again.") This stage was followed almost directly by a couple of half marathon stages.

And there's the "I'm pregnant and tired and my back hurts so I'm not going to run stage," and the "I just had a baby and I'm not getting enough sleep to make it through a run yet" stage, and the "I'm really trying, but I can't seem to push this jogging stroller for more than one mile at a time without stopping stage," and the "I'm pregnant again . . . stage," etc . . .

Now I'm in the "I've got a great double jogging stroller and new i-pod shuffle, but I'm still lacking sleep, and it's just never ideal to go out for a run stage." I can now make it more than one mile without stopping, but I've either got to get up and run before Patrick leaves in the morning (the discipline of the marathon stage somehow lacking), or bundle everyone up and push the jogger around our little concrete neighborhood with the children later on in the day, and most likely not get a shower until evening. (Would that sound more appealing if it were through the trails of some beautiful woodland? Would I even care about my shower then?) Let's just say that I've not settled into a routine yet. But I want to.

It's just not cross-country season anymore.

But deep down, I really do still love to run.

(As an aside, if you clicked on my friend Katie's link and took a look, I want you to know that I'm so jealous . . . she's definitely one step closer to cross-country season than I am!)

made with love

Not the kids.

The sweaters.

Okay, the kids too.

But really, this post is about the sweaters. Patrick's grandma made both of them.

I picked out the pattern for Moyer's adorable little two-toned one myself while visiting their home in the North-west in July of 2006. I was pregnant (only a few weeks) with her first great-grandchild, and she graciously offered her baby sweater pattern catalog for my perusal. She presented the finished sweater to Moyer the following summer.

We unpacked Keturah's cute yellow one that same week from their attic. Patrick's grandpa climbed up above the garage to get a few of his old boxes down for us to sort through. I don't know how much de-cluttering we did, but I enjoyed looking through, and even picking out a few items from Patrick's layette. Including the yellow sweater. It was originally knitted for Keturah's daddy, nearly thirty years ago, by his grandma.

You can see both sweaters, on both of our kids, today, in this slide show.



Aren't they gorgeous?

I mean the sweaters.

Okay, the kids too.

a little keturah-love

How's that for sweet?

I love that she loves her baby doll.

more moyer speak

While rinsing off on the way out of the tub this evening, I bumped Moyer's nose. As I wrapped him in a towel, and began to dry him off, I heard a little whiny (very cute, but nevertheless whiny) voice say,

"Can you . . .

In my head, I anticipate the end of the sentence.

. . . pick me up?"

I pick him up. But he didn't say that. I hold him, and in my head he says,

. . . hold me?"

He didn't say that either though. The other likely end to that whiny sentence:

. . . kiss my nose?"

But he didn't say that either.

His little, whiny voice said,

"Can you . . .. . . take me to a doctor?"

Wow, it must be all of the great experiences we've had at clinics in the last few weeks. And all that positive talk about doctors and dentists. He went on to tell me that the doctor could "fix his nose."

I want to know whatever happened to the magic of mommy's medicinal kisses?

After we brushed his teeth and talked for a bit, Moyer assured me that his nose felt better, and we goofed around taking pictures and making this video.*



*If you followed the "Moyer-speak contest" last year at this time, you'll notice that Moyer-speak has really taken off! From one word clips all the way to entire monologues . . . Moyer's speech has gotten so clear that we've banned him from this year's contest. Besides, he's pretty set on saying "anything he wants to say." And we're pretty sure we're not ready to actually let him run the annual contest quite yet.

check up

Moyer had his first dental check up last Friday.

By way of update, the dentist said that everything looked great. She didn't even see a need to take x-rays. So nature took care of Moyer's mouth all by itself. (His teeth are not "back to normal," but have moved back "closer to normal" since his little fall.) Dr. Tracey reminded us as Moyer sat in her dentist's chair, that our bodies indeed are wonderfully made!
While we were there Daddy had a check up and cleaning too. Moyer was allowed to get in on the action.
Pretty great first dentist experience if you ask me!