GO! St.Louis Marathon preparation

About 2 months ago, I decided I needed to put a race on the calendar.  It would, after all, be a shame to let all my hard-earned trail running fitness get spoiled by too much time off.  Originally, I wanted to join my buddy, John Cash, at the McNaughton Park 50 mile trail run.  After a lot internal debate, though, I figured I wouldn't be able to train well for the distance once Miles entered the picture, so I rethought my next event.  I have never done a stand-alone marathon, and I needed to find something that would be less time-consuming than training for a 50 miler.  Enter the GO! St. Louis Marathon (April 11th, 2010).
I signed up and immediately sought the guidance of my old tri coach, Elizabeth Fedofsky Waterstraat.  I plead my case, and asked if she would help me cross the finish line in 3:10:59 or less.  It would be a stretch goal.  That time may sound random, but it is the time a guy my age is required to run in order to qualify for the Boston Marathon.  That translates to an average pace of 7:17 minutes/mile.  No small task, so you can understand why I wanted Coach ELF in my corner.
Training has gone well up to this point, which is all that really counts.  I'm officially in taper mode.  The hard work has already been done.  Money in the bank, if you will.  A few of the challenging workouts included distances of 18, 20, and 22 miles. Most of those ended with me chugging chocolate milk, and then getting into a bathtub filled with ice.  It's very painful at the time, but it makes the next days much more enjoyable.
Tomorrow is the last "long" run of any consequence.  A mere 12 miles (plus a handful of relatively short, snappy runs) stands between me starting line.
What I hope, is that the actual event will be a celebration of all the hard work.  Like the Postal Service, neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, stopped me from getting the work done.  I also hope it will result in my earning the opportunity to choose whether or not I'd like to run Boston.  This is one of those things it might be wise to check off the proverbial Bucket List sooner rather than later.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  The marathon course is not a particularly easy one by all accounts, and it won't just roll over and give up the 3:10:59 without fighting back.
As an aside, I'm really proud of my TESL volleyball girls to whom I am assistant coach.  When the head coach (who is also running the marathon) suggested that the girls all come out to support us, they were really excited.  So we took it one step further, and got them signed up to run an aid station on the course. I think having their support out there at the 14 mile mark will give us a huge boost.  Plus, it should be a great experience for the team to donate some of their free time to other peoples' athletic endeavors.  So many people will be appreciative of their help.  And who knows, it might even be inspirational to a few of the girls!
So it's out there now. The goal has been established.  There's no going back.

It's the 26th

Miles is 2 months old. Here are this month's pictures on his Nap Nanny. I ended up changing his size 3-6 mo. pants after this b/c I felt like they were constricting his big old belly a little too much!! :) Miles is smiling and cooing a lot more these days, but he wasn't interested in giving me one of his cute smiles during this morning's photo shoot.

Quiet time

We have started something new with Bennett. She had been really refusing to take naps lately, and by 5:00 she was so tired that she was falling asleep at dinner. So, we started letting her have "quiet time" instead of a nap. During quiet time she has to stay in her room for 1 hour. She doesn't have to be in her bed. I leave the blinds open and put on a CD for her. She has really embraced this. I think she loves that it's no longer called a "nap." In 12 days, she has fallen asleep 3 times. However, even when she doesn't sleep, she spends the time quietly reading or playing in her room, and it has improved her ability to function at night. I think it's really good for her. The first two times she fell asleep, it was so precious because she got up into her bed, tucked herself in, and fell asleep. However, today when I realized that it had been pretty quiet up there for awhile, I went to check on her and couldn't help myself from laughing out loud! THIS is how I found her...

She recently found this princess umbrella in her closet and has been obsessed with it ever since. Can you tell?

March Madness

We have been watching a lot of basketball lately, because those of you that know us know that March Madness is a big deal in our household. We had a very disappointing weekend with both Villanova and Gonzaga losing, but our kids looked pretty cute! Bennett also sported her Villanova cheerleading outfit, but for some reason I forgot to get a picture of it. :(

Like father, like son!

Go Cats! (oh and Bennett added her own accessory...a dress-up headband around her waist!)

Just Hanging Out

We captured some great shots of Miles smiling and Bennett being her goofy self last weekend, and I've been meaning to get them up here.

Bennett loves to get as CLOSE to Miles as possible at all times!

A little "tummy time"

Smiling at Mommy

Bennett and Daddy being silly together.

Smiles for Daddy too. Happy boy!

Baptism Party

Here are some pictures from Miles's Baptism party.

Bennett had a lot of fun with GUS...He fed her FROSTING!

Miles and Great-Grandma Rull

Bennett entertained the crowd with her rendition of Miles doing "tummy time."

Miles with Great Aunt Kris

Great-Aunt Helen, Cousin Emily, Nana, Aunt Meredith, Miles and Papa

Miles and his Godmother

Miles's Baptism day was also Grandma's 84th birthday.

Proud parents

GAL, Emily and Grandma Joje

And of course some tears were shed over the quilt Nana made for Miles

Miles's Baptism

Last Sunday, we celebrated Miles's Baptism, and then had a fabulous party at Grandma Joje and Pa's house. Here are some pictures from the ceremony. I still need to get the pictures from the party from Mom's camera. Miles's Godparents are my sister, Meredith, and Brandon's childhood friend, Anthony. However, since Anthony lives in London and has been quite the world traveler lately, he was not able to make the ceremony. Miles's Great Uncle Stephen (aka GUS) was kind enough to fill in as the Godfather role on Baptism day. The celebrant was Msgr. Mosley, and we were lucky to have lots of family come celebrate with us.

Miles was the star of the show right from the beginning!

Here I am getting Miles dressed in his Baptism outfit.

Our family with Nana and Papa who were in town from Spokane.

Our family with Grandma Joje, Pa and Aunt Meredith.

Our family of four.

Brandon fed Miles a quick bottle before the ceremony began. I thought this was a cute mother-son-son picture!

This picture is so neat because you can actually see the water droplets coming off his head.

Brandon, me, Miles, Aunt Meredith and GUS

Bennett had a little trouble understanding what was going on and understanding that the Baptism wasn't all about her. Yes, here she is hiding under the Baptismal fount, right at Monsignor's feet!

Luckily Pa came to the rescue and gave Bennett some attention while we finished the ceremony.

Bennett was also put in charge blowing out the various candles after the ceremony was over.

Cousin Ann was also a big help in entertaining Bennett both at the ceremony and also at the party by playing outside with her. Thanks Ann!

6 week check up, weekend and news

On Friday, Miles had his 6 week check up. I knew my little buddy was huge, and his appointment confirmed that. He is officially 22 1/4"- 50%, and 13 lbs- 95%!!

Friday afternoon, Nana and Papa came to visit. Papa and Bennett spent hours and hours playing with her castle and farm...Papa has quite the imagination and patience to make it playing that long! Bennett was just thrilled to have so much attention! We decided that Papa must be short for "popular" because he couldn't have 5 minutes to himself without Bennett asking for him! Nana was a pro at getting Miles to sleep, and they made some wonderful meals for us as well! Thanks for the visit!

Papa and Bennett playing "castle"

Papa read Bennett right to sleep...

While at the same time, Nana put Miles to sleep...success!!

Miles was also Baptized on Sunday, followed by a wonderful party at Grandma Joje and Pa's house, but I'll have to post about that later when I get the pictures.

Today was a beautiful, 70+ degree day. We finally got to go outside! Bennett, Miles and I walked down to Warson Woods park with our new stroller and played, then when we came home, we enjoyed a picnic outside. Miles just loved laying on the blanket and staring at the sky outside. Poor little January baby finally got to feel what outside is all about!

Oh! And Miles has taken a bottle successfully 4 times now! Anyone who remembers our struggle with Bennett taking a bottle knows that this is a BIG deal!

And she's out... Temporarily

Quality reading time for Bennett and Papa

Multimedia message

Nana and Papa are here!

Word World

For probably the last 9 months, Bennett has been obsessed with the show Dora the Explorer, and she would get to watch 1 episode everyday after lunch (if she had eaten a good lunch). Lately, she has shifted gears to a show called Word World. Bennett has been really excited about trying to decode words recently (and of course I'm encouraging her with my love of teaching early literacy!). She knows all of the sounds that the letters make, and she loves to think of words that go along with each letter. Word World has taken this all to a new level for her. For those of you who aren't familiar with the show, it's a cute kids show that tells a little story, but all throughout they are secretly teaching literacy. Also, all of the characters and surrounding scenery are made out of their letters. For example, the sheep is drawn out of the letters S-H-E-E-P. It's pretty adorable. Whenever they need to create something new in the show, they "build a word" by finding the letters for that item, then by pushing the letters together, the item forms. In today's episode, they were teaching the beginning blend "st." One of the items they built was a stage.

After the episode was over, Bennett asked me if I could help her build a stage. I was busy changing Miles's diaper, so I told her I would help her in a minute, having no idea how she thought the two of us were going to accomplish this task of building a stage. She disappeared and came back a few minutes later. She had gotten an "s" out of our "Janosky" name stool, and a "t" out of her "Bennett" name stool, and brought them in to me. She asked me, "now can you help me build a stage?" I asked her how we were going to do it. She promptly put the "s" and "t" down on the ground and said, "Mom, all we have to do is push the letters together to build a word and we'll have a stage!" I thought it was so cute, but then we had to have a talk about how Word World is a magical place where that works, but we can't really just push letters together to build things! I thought it was so creative and I was proud of her for remembering the blend!

Now that I can't be at her every beck and call, Bennett has become much more resourceful these days. Just recently, she has decided to carry her stool around with her everywhere to do things by herself: turn on/off light switches, get up on our kitchen stools, check on Miles in his crib, watch and help while I change his diaper, etc. She's really embracing being a big sister and my helper too, and I couldn't be happier about it!

And just because I can't post a blog without at least one picture of at least one of my children, here is an adorable picture of Brandon and Miles having a "bonding moment" the other night...