Urban Assault 2012

Tyson and our friend Chris competed in Urban Assault 2012 again this year. Tyson rode his new (albeit used) hybrid bike and the race was shorter this year, so he said it was easier even though he hasn't been biking much lately. Emery and I decided to meet up so we and our boys could cheer Tyson and Chris on. They arrived at our first rondezvous earlier than we expected, and I needed to change the batteries in the camera, so I didn't get a good shot of them participating in the challenge. But they stopped to check in with Tyler after.

We knew we couldn't make it to the next checkpoint fast enough, so we went to the last checkpoint - the Aquatic Center at Reid Park. Tyler and Noah had a great time stomping in puddles and playing with cars.

Tyson had said he didn't want to get wet, but both were required to get in the pool to participate. I was amazed to see him enter the water first. But I bet it felt good to cool off after all that riding.

We hung out at the after-party for several hours. It was great to kick back, and enjoy good food and beverages. Tyson and Tyler spent some time bonding with Wesley.
 

Doesn't Noah look so cute in that hat?

 
Congrats Tyson and Chris!

The Unfortunate Step-Stool Incident

Last weekend was an unusally rough time for Tyler and me – he is at the age of ultimate egocentrism, so his current behavior is very demanding, and relentlessly naughty. What I mean is that he commits several recalcitrant deeds in succession, so just as I am picking up the pieces from one transgression, he’s already committing another. I’m having a hard time being patient with this, and of course, feelings of guilt and inadequacy surface.

Fortunately, at work Monday, a conversation about bruises led to me sharing a bit of my weekend experience. My wise and experienced co-worker, Julie, began laughing hysterically, and I finally saw the humor in it all, and realized I should write it down.

The conversation began with me saying that I will soon be seeing a terrible bruise from where I hit the door hinge as I ran through it, the kind of bruise that’s so bad, it hasn’t even surfaced yet.

Why was I running through a door?

To hide a step stool.

Why was I hiding a stool?

Because Tyler had just used that stool, first, to push all the buttons on the over-the-stove microwave/hood/light over and over and over, until he managed to burn out the lightbulb. I retrieved him from the stool and scolded him. I walked away to check on the laundry, only to discover that he’d thwarted the child-proof system and turned off both the washer and the dryer, in mid-cycle. As I reset the machines to start over, I heard the sound of water hitting tile. I dashed to the kitchen to find he was now using the stool to reach the kitchen sink faucet, and had flooded the sink. I scolded him while cleaning up the water, then told him he could no longer play with the stool, and put the stool in the master bathroom, closing both the bathroom door and the bedroom door in a futile attempt to dissuade him from retrieving it. I returned to doing laundry, but heard the sound of a door being opened. I ran to the master bathroom just in time to find him pulling bottles of shaving cream and deodorant from the medicine cabinet to throw into the sink.

In that moment, I lost my mind.

And so the race began. I pulled him off the stool, and set him in the shower and shut the shower door. Sure, he can open that door, but it would slow him down. I grabbed the stool and bolted out of the bathroom, pulling the bathroom door closed behind me. I raced out of the bedroom, still carrying the stool, and pulled that door closed behind me, just as I heard the bathroom door open. I dashed down the hallway, and then, to throw the evil genius off track, I slammed the guest bathroom door closed. I continued running, knowing he had now escaped the bedroom and was catching up. I opened the garage door and slammed it closed. Barreling down the hallway, I slammed HIS bedroom door closed. I then collided with the guest bedroom door, but continued onward despite the pain, placed the stool at the far side of the room, threw a blanket over it, and came out of the guest room, just in time to see Tyler storming out of the guest bathroom, intent on finding that cursed stool. I quickly slipped into his bedroom, and back out again, slamming the door decisively, then holding THAT door knob to keep the door closed as he struggled to open it. I refused to let him enter, thus tricking him into believing the stool MUST be in his bedroom. Tantrum ensued. Eventually, an offer of cheese crackers distracted him from the tantrum, and by the time he returned to his bedroom with his bag of crackers, he entered and looked around the room, bewildered, clearly having forgotten what it was that he was so desperate to find. Phew.

Julie's response (amid much laughter) - “I can totally picture the look on your face, anger and panic combined, and I can just SEE Tyler coming down that hallway, with that determined look he gets, because I’ve seen that kid, and he is a TANK.”

Needless to say, I did not live up to my definition of good parenting that day.

But it's been a week, and Tyler hasn't asked for that stool.

And by Thursday night, Tyler returned to his customarily happy, easygoing mood. We had a wonderful day yesterday, and things look good so far this morning...Hoping for continued sunny skies in the Tyler Forecast!

Funny Little Dude

Tyler is one funny little guy these days. In December, he suddenly began referring to me as "Honey." In the car, at home, in the grocery store...Can you imagine walking through the grocery store, seeing a toddler trying to get his mother's attention, and upon failing to do so, shouting "Honey!" to get the mother to look at him? He made so many people laugh during that phase.

Tyler is speaking in full sentences more often now, even 4 word sentences like, "Did you see that?" or "I need help, Mama." It's so nice to know what he's wanting more often. He's identifying landmarks as well - every morning on the drive to daycare, as we pass a used-car lot, he shouts "Circle!" and points to the circular address sign. It seems like the family unit is important to him right now - if I say, "I love you Tyler," he smiles and responds, "Da Da!" And if Tyson says, "I love you Tyler," he responds, "Ma Ma!" If we repeat it, he answers, "Dee Da!" [Vader]. One in a while, he'll tell us he loves us back, but usually, he just calls out the other parent's name.

His diet is finally expanding as well. The only vegetables he'd been eating were veggie packs, but we discovered that if we call peas "balls", he'll eat them. That works on black beans, too.

We find "stomping" to be the most useful distraction technique lately. For example, if I say, "Time to change your diaper," if Tyler protests, then chanting "Stomp to the bedroom, stomp to the bedroom" and making a show of dramatically stomping will get him to join in, and the diaper change is no longer such a bad thing. From Christmas until February, getting Tyler to walk into the daycare room was a challenging, but when the stomping chant seems to have resolved it.

This winter has been fabulous for playing outside,and I've come to truly appreciate the path just outside our back gate - away from cars, with nice trees, shrubs, and cactus to look at, and it leads to an open space where some older kids have built up a mound of dirt to jump their bikes - perfect for our wagon, wheelbarrow, or lawn mower. I've relented and allowed Tyler to play in the cul-de-sac - he's great at shouting, "Car! Game off! Car gone! Game on!" though he doesn't yet initiate the appropriate action.

Walking backwards, saying "Beep, beep, beep" has been fun lately, and jumping continues to be delightful. "Circle Time" with stretches during motor development class is suddenly no longer torturous. Tyler now sits compliantly and even touches his nose to his toes during the "Butterfly" stretch. When Tyler sits in his driving simulator, he wants his seatbelt to be buckled. He loves closing doors.

He loves to feed Vader, and does not believe in portion control. While washing dishes or preparing dinner, I'll let him pour several cupfuls of dog food in Vader's bowl (sometimes even both bowls) for a couple of minutes, just to keep him occupied, then I'll say, "Last one. Time to put Vader's food away!" One day I actually turned from the sink to observe, and watched in surprise as Tyler snatched both bowls of food right out from Vader's nose! and poured it all back into the storage container, and returned it to the pantry. No wonder Vader's been so hungry lately!

Tyler's love of books continues. He refuses to greet Tyson in the morning without a book in hand, asks Tyson to read to him while Tyson is in the bathroom, demands to me, "Sit!" while gesturing to his bedroom floor, to read him books in his bedroom, and of course continues to ask us to read to him in the living room and kitchen. He surprised me last week by counting to 10 for Grandpa Keith, while stacking containers of playdough, and I've heard him reciting the vowels. He also likes to hear the alphabet and is beginning to practice the signs. He requests certain songs be sung to him by showing you the matching gestures (the spider, the wheels on the bus, a twinkling star) and stops you if you sing the wrong song.

No pictures today, but we'll get some new ones up soon!

Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas from the Glass-Keith Family!!!

This Christmas, we were lucky to celebrate with Grandma and Grandma Glass, and Grandma Allaire. We missed Gigima (Great Grandma Allaire) who was sick, Auntie Em who was working, and Grandpa Keith, who was in Amado, but our thoughts were with them!


While the Granparents Glass were in town, we checked out the toy train museum, the Pima Air museum, and the Christmas lights at Winterhaven. On Christmas Eve, we went to church, then walked around our neighborhood, enjoying the Christmas lights. We sprinkled magic reindeer food on our sidewalk, then laid out cookies for Santa and a sign to help himself to some chocolate stout, courtesy of Broken Glass Brewery.

Grandma Allaire, Tyson and I changed into our new pjs and snuggled up together on the couch. The pjs are a tradition started from my brother-in-law Art's family. My sister tipped us on which ones to buy, so we could match with her family for Skype time. Tyler wore Santa pjs to bed, to help Santa find our chimney-free house. In the morning, we changed Tyler into the family pjs.

Tyler started off Christmas morning by asking Tyson to fix his snow globe. We've put alot of miles on that globe in the year we've had it!

A tradition from the days of Dusty, we had Vader initiate the Christmas gift opening ritual.

Tyler continues to love Vader deeply. Vader tolerates this patiently. Is it love, or is it because Tyler feeds him so frequently?

Grandma Allaire helped Tyler open his first stocking gift - a Christmas ornament with his name on it

Grandma and Grandpa Glass got Tyler a wonderful set of art supplies, including his first set of markers.

Do you remember your first set of markers? So different from crayons. Grown up. Moist. So brightly colored. A whole new world has opened.

Grandpa enjoyed receiving Su Doku, nuts, and pfefferneusse.

Tyson and I were psyched for Tyler to open this gift from the Glass-Johnson family...

...a Tyler-sized rocking chair, for his reading pleasure. He didn't seem too interested in it at first, and quickly moved on to his new basketball hoop.

But the next gift was a book from Grandma, with her voice reading it. Without any prompting, Tyler immediately sat in his new chair, and held the book up for Grandma to read to him.

The book, the chair, and the basketball hoop simultaneously captured Tyler's attention.

Tyler eventually returned to opening gifts. I'm so excited to have the smell of playdough in our house. Such a comforting, happy smell. And that pizza party gift is too cool. I have video of Tyler feeding some to Tyson, hopefully he can help me get it on here...

Tyler took lots of breaks from his gifts to survey the situation, and enjoy the ornaments on the tree.

Who can resist a precious face like this?

Between Grandma Allaire, Grandma Glass, and Auntie Em, I'll be styling at work this winter.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Running, Running

One of our family goals is to support each other in healthy activities. This fall was my second year of training for a half marathon (while raising funds for cancer research.)  I'm pretty sure I'm the laziest half-marathoner you'll ever meet. I slacked on training this fall, only running two or three days a week. My coworkers convinced me to try running with Meet Me at Maynards on Monday nights - a grass roots effort to get the community more healthy while also boosting the downtown economy. Cool idea. Nerve wracking for me though. Between trying to find parking to maneuvering a big stroller (with the front wheel locked for stability, but sacrificing steering) through narrow, congested sidewalks, avoiding traffic in crosswalks, narrowly avoiding telephone poles and signs, and by November, it was dark even at the start of the run. I gave up a couple of times, but my coworkers convinced me to go back, especially Dave, with his motivational interviewing expertise - "You said you wanted Tyler to grow up exercising with the community..." On Tuesdays, while Tyler and Tyson attended Li'l Movers and Shakers, I squeezed in a quick run at Reid Park. On Saturdays, Tyler, my co-worker Dave, and I ran at Sabino Canyon or at Reid Park. Sabino Canyon has amazing scenery and wildlife, but the incline is brutal, especially when pushing a stroller. But I definitely got stronger running there. Reid Park is flat and not all that exciting, but Tyler's class is right there. I miss my Greasewood Path runs from my townhouse days - looking down over the valley of Tucson and out at the Catalinas, or looking west towards the Tucson Mountains, plus spending some time at Greasewood Park and the wildlife preserve...I'll have to get over there again this spring when the wildflowers bloom.

I ran the UofA Catwalk 10k in October, with Tyler and Tyson cheering me on. (Tyler's asleep here, but woke up before I finished.)

Dave and I spent the first mile arguing about our pace, thanks to our GPS watches. We'd joked throughout our training that, even as I ran right next to him, his "better-by-30-bucks" watch always indicated he was running faster (and farther) than me. So when my watch read 6.5, I was convinced we were starting the race way too fast. Yet his watch read that we were running much slower.  After our mile of arguing, we realized Tyler'd changed my watch settings to display miles per hour, instead of pace (minutes per mile). Oops.

Pretty soon Dave was wanting to stretch his legs farther than mine could reach, so we split up. He was psyched about his personal record.

It was hot, and I hated every minute I spent running, and was just happy to be done with the race. (Some encouraging words from my sister helped.)

 In December, we ran a half-marathon. Dave injured his knee (technically, his IT band) during the Catwalk 10k, and I injured my knee (again, the IT band) over Thanksgiving weekend. Rest and ice didn't seem to help at all. We spent several days debating whether we should go forward with our plans to run the Tucson Half-Marathon, or take a month to heal and run the Rock-n-Roll half marathon in Phoenix in January. We both held off on fundraising - it just didn't seem ethical to fundraise for a race we might not run. Fortunately, a physical therapist gave me a stretch that really helped, and I passed it on to Dave. After one day of trying out the new stretch, we made a healthy, informed, democratic decision to go ahead and run the Tucson Half-Marathon as fast as we could and deal with the consequences later.

It was cold in Oracle that morning, at least for Tucsonans - about 34 degrees. After I turned my drop bag in, I noticed I was about the only person wearing short sleeves. I saw lots of people wore reindeer antlers, and a few people wore Santa Claus hats. My favorite were two older women wearing Mrs. Claus costumes over sweat pants. About two miles into the race, they stopped at the side of the road, bent over and removed their sweat pants. I can only imagine what people driving by must have thought, seeing two Mrs. Clauses nearly mooning them as they passed by. My knee hurt for the first 6 miles but finally numbed out, and I started letting myself run faster. I still ran conservatively because I feared the last two miles of the race - a killer hill followed by a decent incline. But this year, I blazed up that hill without noticing it - I actually thought they'd altered the course to avoid it. I noticed the drummers drumming, and realized that was a clever trick to help distract us from the hill, and it actually worked on me this year. After the hill, I didn't even notice the incline, and ran faster than I'd run the rest of the race. So I realized, I could've run the rest of the race faster. Oh well. Guess I need to race in some 10ks to figure out what my race pace should be.

Dave achieved his goal of finishing in less than two hours. I achieved my goal of running faster than I did the year before, and I was especially happy to see Tyson and Tyler at the finish line.

Look at the gorgeous men in my life! Definitely worth the 13.1 miles I ran to get to them!

(PS the 7up was for me, not Tyler. He likes soda about as much as he did last July.)

Next Glass-Keith Family Fitness Event:

New Belgium's Urban Assault, starring Tyson and Chris - the "2SixPacks fo shure's ChugLife" on Sunday, February 26th. They don't have to raise money for that, and it has nothing to do with cancer research, but hey, if you want to pretend it's a fundraiser and send money anyway, Tyson won't mind a bit.

Snow Day

The thing I miss most about the east coast is snow. I loved waking up and knowing, by the grey light coming through my curtains, that the ground would be covered with snow. Wolfing down breakfast and rushing to get bundled up with a multiple layers of clothes, followed by a snowsuit, boots, jacket, hat, gloves, scarf...making snow angels, snowmen, eating snow, licking icicles, building forts, having snowball fights...you just don't get that opportunity very often when you live in the desert. Fortunately, Tyson has a four-wheel drive, so we were able to get up Mt. Lemmon early one morning to enjoy the freshly fallen snow.

It's not often that we get to drive higher than the clouds...

I slowly realized we just don't have the right equipment for making snow angels or building forts yet. We don't even have a sled! Soon Tyler, soon.

Tentative Tyler, of course, responded to his first experience with snow similarly to his first experience with grass. He did everything he could to avoid it!

And when overwhelmed, he snuggles up and tries to go to sleep.

We encouraged him to explore the campground. We eventually were able to coax Tyler into touching the snow, smashing snowballs, and discovered that he LOVED eating icicles.

Here's to more snow days like this one!

Thanksgiving

We enjoyed sharing Thanksgiving with Grandma Allaire, Gigima, and Auntie Em.

The day after Thanskgiving, Tyler, Grandma Allaire and I worked on a gingerbread house. I felt very lucky that Tyler did not yet find the taste of the decorations to be appetizing. (When we finally dismantled the gingerbread house, on the other hand, he enjoyed them immensely.)

Ever helpful, Tyler gave Grandma Allaire basic landscape maintenance lessons.

Tyler also practiced his sandscaping skills.

What a great Thanksgiving weekend!