Bear Belly

{{Good Morning Friend}}

Snuggle Monster

Snuggles are hard to come by from our busy little guy, but lately, he has been responding to "Hug?".  He'll crawl (with great force and speed) right up to you and practically throw himself toward you for a hug.  Its pretty sweet.  And if you're extra lucky, he'll come toward your face like he wants to eat your nose or cheek.  The result ... a sloppy open-month kiss!

 

Ten Months

Lovely. 

Tall.

Sweet.

Big appetite.

Sharing.

Rolling. Catching.

Climbing.

Playing [independently].

Standing. Balancing!

Loving.

Apples

North Carolina Mountain Apples

... Fuji, Empire, Honey Crisp, Cameo ...

I didn't pick these myself, but I did choose them carefully after many, many samples outside of a storefront in Blowing Rock, NC.  My intention was to make applesauce, but Alekzander is enjoying the whole apples too much.  He LOVES holding the apple himself and determinedly gnawing and sucking apple juice.  Poor guy cried when I tried to take it away from him. 

Delicious apple and delicious chunky cheeks!

Carpe Viam - "Seize the Road"

The Blue Ridge Relay | 208 miles | Grayson Highlands, VA to Asheville, NC | 27,000' elevation gain | 6-12 person teams | 99 total teams | 1052 runners

Nothing like being spontaneous and having a wicked awesome wife.  One who is understanding and will let you take off to be gone for 2 days running a race through the blue ridge mountains on short notice.

I had friends on a team that needed a last minute runner and since I planned to get an easy 20 mile run in over the weekend I figured this would be a 'fun' way to get my miles in.  My 3 sections totaled 21.5mi but there really wasn't anything easy about it.

Before I knew it I was off in a rental van w/ team 'Carpe Viam' on a wild adventure through the mountains.

2010 Blue Ridge Relay 208 - Team Carpe Viam
(L-R front: Luke, Lucretia, Karen, Stephanie, Emily, Anne Marie, Stephen, Bjorn, George
L-R back: Anthony, Andrew & Eric slightly hidden from view)

Carpe Viam - Van #2 for runners 7-12 & my 'home' for the next 30hrs

With a 12 person team you run 3 legs of varying distances of the 36 leg race.  I was runner #8 running legs 8, 20 & 32 with a total of 21.5 miles.  Organized chaos is the best way I could describe the setting of this race.  Very quickly it became clear that the challenge of dealing with all of the logistics would be just as important (if not more) as how fast you ran the actual race.  Luckily for Carpe Viam we had a captain who had put an amazing amount of work into planning & organizing things for our team.

 

Leg 8 - 4.6mi - 31:48 - 6:52/mi pace - run @ 2pm

Elevation profile: 604' gain & 828' loss

Leg 20 - 7.5mi - 59:41 - 7:56/mi pace - run @ 12:30am

Elevation profile: 1,970' gain & 1,886' loss

Leg 32 - 9.4mi - 1:02:45 - 6:39/mi pace - run @ 10:30am

Elevation profile: 982' gain & 3,092' loss

Icing down in a mountain stream after my last leg.
The water was actually clear and looked nice before we stirred up the silt on the bottom. 
I didn't care how it looked... it was cold and felt great!

We all had a lot of fun and everyone ran really well for our team!  Even though our team said we weren't in it for the competition,  we still placed 54th of 99 teams.  Total time was 30 hours 10 minutes with a team average pace around 8:42/mi (within a minute of the estimated time by Emily our team captain!)

Carpe Viam finishing with team captain and final runner Emily in Asheville, NC

Black and Gold

Happy Steelers fans.

Celebrating a victory by swinging in the sunshine.

More Please

Andrew (and fam) :: Representing Team Carpe Viam in West Jefferson, NC

During 2010 Blue Ridge Relay

View from Jefferson National Forest :: Second Overlook

Gruffalo & Z-Man ::  Hanging on tight

If anyone is taking orders, I'd like to order more of today.

More family time.

More spirit and fellowship.

More sunshine.

More mountain views.

More love.

More fresh apples.

More marveling.

More exploring.

Today was absolutely perfect, 

but another day just like this one 

would make my heart happy happier.

Crunchy

Crunchy [scorched] grass and crunchy [delicious?] leaves 

have found their way into Charlotte...

and into the mouths of sweet [big] boys. 

After a brutally hot summer, fall must be on its way.

We enjoyed some [hot] sunshine and fresh air with the Sunds yesterday afternoon.

The scratchy grass, rough sidewalk, and tempting wood chips 

were no match for our little men.

Brooks cruised around the yard and even let Alekzander have a ride

on his big sister's [pink] push car.

Alekzander sampled his surroundings, scraped up his knees,

and had a great time hanging out with his [almost one year old] buddy.

Sharing Skills

Sweet Alekzander has learned how to share!  So far, he just shares with his Mama and Dada and it is the sweetest thing.  If he wants us to have his crocodile or bear, he drags it over to us using an alternating belly scooch/crawl and then pushes it toward us or hands it directly to us.  If he has a ball or small toy, he balances it in the palm of his cute, chubby hand and lifts his hand out in front of him like an opera singer and lets it fall off his palm onto the floor in front of us.  Its definitely not an accident because we can ask him to "Give the ball to Mama" and he'll make his way toward me or drop/roll the ball in my direction.

Oooo, this boy is smart!  He says "Dada" constantly.  He recognizes the words Mama, Dada, ball, Rye-lee, dogs, water, and up.  He can roll his big, bouncy ball and is learning how to make it bounce.  He will also touch our toggle light switches to turn the lights on or off when we ask him.  He has mastered climbing the stairs; he is fast and sneaky!  He feeds himself finger foods and loves reaching deep into his Gerber Puffs container and proudly pulling out a handful of Puffs.  Sleeping is also a strong-suit, especially during the day.  I can count on him to take two naps a day, nearly two hours each nap.

We are having so much fun watching him grow.  He continues to be so sweet and easy going.  The other night when we picked him up from the church nursery, the lady in charge said, "Your little dude..."  (I started to panic internally.  Was she going to tell me he was bad? Bit someone? Cried hysterically?) "...is so laid back!"  (I breathed a big sigh of relief.)  He really does have the sweetest disposition and quite obviously a proud, proud Mama.

What Goes Up

What goes up must come down.  I heard that numerous times today and am quite thankful for that simple and predictable fact of physics, especially when it comes to running hills.  Big ones.  Long ones.  Frequent rolling ones. 

In addition to remembering a sad, dark day nine years ago,  today we honored the bright, but too short, life of a local five and a half year old.  We ran in a 5K race to support a foundation called Tyler's Treehouse; it was kicked off by Tyler's younger brother saying, "Weddy, Set, Go!"  And we were off.  In a sea of colors... to run down streets lined with people in green and yellow (Tyler's colors) cheering us on.  By the time I made it to the starting line with the jogging stroller, I saw a flash of orange (Andrew's shirt) a quarter-mile ahead rounding the first turn and then I didn't see Andrew again until he looped back to (literally and figuratively) push Alekzander and I toward the finish line (after his overall eighth place finish!). Thanks to Andrew, Alekzander and I finished strong after tackling the many hills in Old Georgetown.  It wasn't pretty, but we did it!

The happy hum of the runners, the excited energy and solemn spirit of the race, the beautiful houses in the neighborhood, and the cool late summer morning made it a perfect start to a good day.

The look of determination :: After 3 miles

Winner!  

And a cute baby!

Yiasou

 Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Catholic Cathedral

A family field trip.

A taste of culture.

A little history lesson.

A lot of food.

[ KATAIFI, GALAKTOBOURIKO, KOURAMBIETHES, BAKLAVA, AMYGTHALOTA,

KOTA PITA, ATHENIAN BAKED FISH, SPANAKOPITA, DOLMADA, PASTICHIO, GREEK SALAD]

And a good dose of people watching.

...At the 2010 Yiasou Greek Festival...

Crucifixion Fresco

Falling

I fall in love with this face over and over again.  

Every.single.day.

{{Incidentally, Alekzander fell backwards onto his rocking horse seconds after this picture was taken.  

A quick raspberry kiss and hug from a smitten Mama fixed everything.}}

Introductions

While bonding with my dad, I met Bob Vila on This Old House over 20 years ago.  Today, my sweet little boy's shirt captured the spirit of any good carpenter like Bob Vila, Tim the Toolman Taylor, and Bob the Builder. Instead of building or fixing things, however, Alekzander prefers to knock things over.  He also likes to examine the construction of his toys, especially his rocking horse which was handcrafted by his great-great uncle.

Tinkering in the bathroom, checking out hinges and drawers is a new favorite activity.

And every busy, budding carpenter deserves a yummy snack after a hard day's play!

Bob Vila meets Jack Johnson :: Eating Banana Pancakes

Porch Play

Rock Solid

This weekend, as a family of three, we celebrated five years of rock solid marriage by

hiking, exploring, laughing, eating, shopping, relaxing in and around Blowing Rock.

Surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Bathed in sunshine.

Wrapped in love. [and blankets].  

[Fall has arrived in the mountains!]

Erwin's View :: Linville Falls

Worth the mile climb

Triple A :: Kiss

After our anniversary dinner at Chetola Resort

Fresh

Even though I love, love, love the smell of a sun-kissed, sunscreened baby, a bath was a necessary and obvious way to end the day yesterday.  Never have we had so much fun with new toys, a too full tub, and a bunch of happy splashes.  And once he was fresh and clean, Alekzander smelled even more scrumptious than when he was slathered in sunscreen.

Waking Up

There's nothing more precious than a happy baby upon waking.  Listening to the  animated coos and unintelligible chatter is priceless.  My little drummer also plays the drums (the back of the crib) with great fervor first thing in the morning too.  I hope I remember these sounds years from now. 

I love scooping up this little guy.  Especially when he reaches up for me and says, "Uh, Uh, Uh," which quite naturally can be translated to "Up, Up, Up." 

Apparently I didn't scoop him up quickly enough.  And maybe he didn't wake up so happy.  Perhaps a(nother) nap is just around the corner.

You Capture - Mornings