2 Year Stats!

Macen had his 2 year check up this last week. And he is still a little dude! He weighs 24 lbs (7th percentile) and is 34 inches tall (36th percentile). The doctor expressed concern over his low weight and has referred us to a nutritionist. We don't think the nutritionist is going to tell us anything we haven't heard but we are hoping for some new ideas. I also mentioned to the doctor about how much Macen drinks daily and she said he was on the high side. She sent him for blood work to rule out diabetes and a thyroid problem. Thankfully, he is healthy as can be! So we have a little boy who likes to eat a little and drink alot.

Other than the continuous food battle, Macen is doing great. He is talking more and more which we love. It has a high entertainment value right now. Ha ha! His latest cute phrases are "I two", " I weet" when we ask him if he is sweet and "you momma, I dada" when playing with me. He has started singing along to the radio or music on tv. He still does not like when we sing along with him. Can't blame him either! Macen has started tickling us and playful pinching. He loves when we say ouch. I am hoping this new discovery does not lead to bad uses. He has become very attached to his friend Nik. He asks about seeing him every couple of days and gets upset if I tell him we aren't seeing him that day.

Little Gym Class

Macen just finished his 2nd session of Little Gym. He loves it but has a hard time sitting still and following directions. The slide and long trampoline are his favorites. He didn't want anything to do with the bar or ring circuits. The instructor has 2 circuits for them to do, then they get free time to play where they want and then they finish up with catching bubbles blown from a fan. The first 8 week session we did, Macen acquired an accomplice and neither one of them would follow the circuits. The rest of the class was busy working and earning their hand stamps. Macen's accomplice didn't come back for the 4 week session so he started following a little girl that always did the circuits. The 10th week he did a full circuit and it was also the only week he did one! He was more than happy to do 1 or 2 stations of a circut but he would just repeat that station over and over. We'll give it another shot in the fall.

Horses

Macen got to see horses up close Memorial Day. We spent the afternoon at Pawpaw and Grandma Angles with the hopes Macen would ride the pony. He finally got up there after much prodding but he didn't even last 8 seconds as James said. He did like following the horse and making his feet sound the same as the pony did when it walked. Pawpaw let him lead the pony too which Macen loved.

Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo

We made the trip to Nebraska to visit the much raved about zoo. It was pretty cool and pretty crowded Memorial Day weekend. Macen enjoyed spending time with his cousins. His favorites of the day were the aquariums where he could watch the fish swim. He had to be touching the glass and when a fish would swim right in front of him, he would say "whoa". He has some pajamas with sharks on them so we pointed out the sharks and he got excited. They were able to swim over us since we were in a tunnel like aquarium and Macen would take off after them once they were over us. Thankfully he had his monkey backpack on so he didn't get far. Another favorite is the train ride. We visited some of the park by train and Macen was so excited to get on it. He kept screaming "Choo Choo" while we waited to board.

It was a really nice zoo and a great way to spend the weekend.

Kansas City Zoo

Macen went to the zoo with his buddy Nik a few days ago. The boys had fun watching and figuring out the animals. So did Shannon and I! Macens favorite part was the sea lion show. He loved when they came by him and did their tricks. He would ge all excited and start laughing and bopping up and down. Before the show started, they played some loud music so Macen was showing off all his dance moves to anyone who would watch. He was more than willing to get on the carousel too. When we went to the Dallas Zoo he didn't like it and wanted to be in a bench as it went around. This time he picked the elephant and enjoyed the ride.

Macen's 1st Baseball Game

And I'm proud to say it was a Royals game. We watched the Royals take the Orioles with some friends Sunday afternoon. Macen had been asking about the game since we bought the tickets earlier in the week. He loves big crowds with all the clapping, screaming and music. Macen clapped when everyone else did and danced for us several times. He even had popcorn for the first time and loved it. He got a Build A Bear Lion that they offered for all the kids at the game and we got him a certificate for going to his first Royals game. We had great seats close to the field. It was a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon and we'll be taking him back several times this summer.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

A 2 year old? When did this happen?

I know I mentioned last week that it was hard to believe Macen is 2 years old already. It seems like not that long ago he was a wobbly walker and squealing. But here we are with a 2 year old that runs everywhere, is forming phrases and has strong opinions. His vocabulary is expanding daily although half of the time it's not very clear. He is using phrases like "Momma, you're home" when I have returned from somewhere or the not so great phase of "no that's mine". He still loves anything with wheels, balls and books. We read a lot throughout the day and Macen's favorite Dr. Seuss books are Ten Apples Up on Top and Go, Dog, Go. He can also count to 10 on his own.

Macen has recently discovered he can do fake hiccups and they are pretty funny. He still dances a lot and recently took up slow dancing (including the closed eyes). His favorite cartoons are Little Einsteins and Wow, Wow, Wubbzy. Macen loves when we go somewhere. It doesn't really matter where we are going but he excitedly says bye, bye and he loves when we come home and he spots the house before we get to it and says "we're home". We've started going on a lot of walks in his wagon and he loves when we take him up and down small hills. Maybe he will love roller coasters. We just finished a parent and tot gym class and have started another short session before the summer kicks into high gear. He loves it! The instructor is fantastic but unfortunately she is leaving at the end of this next session. Macen doesn't follow instructions all that well in class though but he has made progress since we started in the beginning of March. It's good for him though.

He is no where close to potty training. Maybe if I write it he will make a liar out of me soon :) I ask him almost daily if he wants to use the big boy potty when I catch him going but I get "no" every time.

We've been attempting to change his eating habits but apparently he is more determined than us. He has started eating raisins and hot dogs so we've made some progress. He does love chocolate but we are a little concerned he doesn't like ice cream. I guess we won't have to share our ice cream this summer!

We're published!

Last year I found out you can make your blog into a book. I thought this was perfect for us since time keeps getting away from me and I can't keep up with Macen's scrapbook. Or maybe James would say I take too many pictures. Either way, we agreed having our blog published would be great to have to look back on years from now. Who knows what the internet will be like a decade from now. And there will come a point when we reach maximum picture capacity and I don't know if we will lose our early postings.

I had our postings from 2007 made into a book but I went with a company that has since went under so when searching for someone new for our 2008 postings, I found blurb.com. And I have to say they did a great job. They "slurp" all the info and pics from your blog and then you can go in and edit anything to include the layouts for pictures, text and backgrounds. I kept it simple this time since we were in a slight rush to get it done. We went with a hardback this time with the cover picture being something major that went on in our life that year. For 2008, that was James being in Iraq. In 2007, Macen being born was our highlight.

So when you read something and it seems a little silly to have posted it on our blog, it probably is but we want to remember it. Here are pics in case you are interested in starting a blog. We're so official that our book can be bought by anyone if I had selected that as an option but how cool is it to be published!

Dirt Cake - Macen's Birthday Party

We had a birthday party for Macen after James' triathlon on post this weekend. We went with a construction theme since Macen loves vehicles and tools. I made a dirt cake with it looking like a construction site. Super easy and yummy! Macen was not in the mood to pose with the cake after opening his presents. I was able to catch him at the table eating m&m's though. Macen had a blast playing with all his cousins and James and I enjoyed visiting with everyone. Thank you for sharing his 2nd birthday with us!

Here he is with one of his gifts. He didn't know what was going to happen and he didn't want to watch!

2009 CGSC/FMWR FT Leavenworth Triathlon

Well last weekend was the CGSC Triathlon, many of you know that I managed to talk Shantel's sister, Mariah, into doing this sprint distance triathlon and have been working with her training for it since mid February. She has been super dedicated to training for this and was really excited. She also liked the fact that her cousin Jaime was doing the race as well.

Friday night Jaime came in with two of her friends who were also doing the race. Mariah and I along with the other girls went to the Fort to get our race packets and look at the course. The ride route had changed from last year and I had made a mistake and had Mariah working on last years ride route and not this years. We checked out the hills on the route and all of the girls were a little hesitant about the new hill that had been added for this years race.

Shantel had a good spaghetti dinner ready for all of us when we got back and after eating we went over everyone's bikes to make sure they were ready for the next morning and checked the weather. Talk was mainly centered on would it rain, how cold was it going to be and that hill is sure going to suck tomorrow.

Race morning the weather turned off almost perfect, temps around the 50's with a little bit of cloud cover and no rain. Here are the pics.

Here's me during T1. I'd forgotten how much I hated the swim portion. I never seem to swim my race, always letting the adrenalin get me going faster or harder than I want to.

This is me about a half mile into the run. It doesn't look like it, but I'm moving out pretty good. This guy and one other are the only two people who passed me on the run. I spent most of the day biking and running by myself. I've been told there was a big group in front of me and a big group behind me. I was just too slow to catch the one in front and too fast for the one behind to catch me.This is my friend Brian and I after we had finished. Brian talked me into doing a triathlon with him when we were lieutenants together in Korea and we've both been racing off and on ever since. Brian is also doing Ironman 70.3 Kansas with me.Here's Mariah after T1 running her bike out of the transition area. Due to the time trial style start in the pool, she started almost 30 minutes after me. Go Mariah Go!

I'd promised Mariah that I would run with her, so here we are after T2 heading out on the run.
Here's Mariah's sprint for the finish. She finished in 1:47 not too bad for her first triathlon. She's convinced now that she wants to at least two more this summer, all shorter sprint distance races.Mariah went back out to catch Jaime and help her finish, here they are going for the finish line.

Over all a pretty good race. I wanted to finish around 1:15 and would have liked to have been pretty close to an hour, but that hill I was talking about earlier really kicked my butt and I ended up at 1:13. Good for 19/46 in my age group 63/134 among the men and 74/238 total. All solid top 50%. Here are mine and Mariah's splits. Distance was 200yd swim/12mi bike/3.1mi run

Overrall DIVPL SexPl Swim T1 Bike T2 RUN Time
James 74 19/46 63/134 4:10 2:38 42:23 1:02 23:41 1:13:55

Mariah 218 1/1 75/90 5:29 3:17 1:06:44 1:06 30:25 1:47:02

Next race for me is the Kansas City Olympic Distance Triathlon on 31 May. This one is a big step up in distances and will give me a good idea of how I'll be able to do at Ironman 70.3 Kansas. Right now for Ironman 70.3 Kansas I'm predicting a 6:15 finish which is well under my goal of 7:30, 31 May will go a long way to solidifying that prediction.