A Good Day to Race

Aiden ran his first real road race this past Saturday. He "competed" in a 1-mile fun run called the Shamrock Shuffle in Lebanon, NH, along with his Dadoo, who also ran the accompanying 5K. The little man was pretty excited with his race number pinned on and his new running pants and running shoes raring to go. The day was perfectly warm and sunny, so I sat in a lawn chair on the Lebanon green while the two boys tackled the one mile loop. Andy said Aiden was a terrific runner, a little too fast out of the gate but he slowed down and paced himself later and finished strong. He's so big these days!

5K races are kind of old hat to Andy these days, but this race was a first for him too. It was his first race wearing his new "barefoot" running shoes. Andy was inspired to try barefoot running after reading a book called "Born To Run" given to him by our sister-in-law Becky. It's about a native Mexican tribe called the Tarahumara where individuals of all ages run incredible distances over mountainous terrain with nothing on their feet except flimsy sandals made from old tires. The few outsiders who have studied this tribe and learned to run like them found that they had fewer running injuries and that running barefoot forces your body to run differently than when you have all kinds of padding and springs and air balloons built into your running shoes. Barefoot running somehow convinces your body to be more upright, and your strides to shorten. And apparently, that's easier on all your muscles and your joints, so you can run longer distances without getting exhausted.

Of course, it's a little dangerous to run on debris-filled roadsides (or over mountainous, rocky terrain) with absolutely nothing on your feet. So the choices are to fashion yourself some rubber tire sandals, or get a pair of these babies below. As far as we know, they are the only commercially made "barefoot" running shoes. They look a little crazy, as Aiden loves to point out to his Dad, but Andy loves them.

Seriously?

This is what it looks like at our house now. It's not so much that this is an unusal scene for mid-March in this part of the world (most years, it isn't)... it's just that this year March has been unusually sunny and mild here. Drive 10 minutes south of where we live, and there's no snow. Drive 10 minutes north, same deal. Daffodils are poking up and the grass is greening already. So I have to ask... seriously? what's with the foot and a half of snow at our house still?!?

As Andy frequently points out to me when I moan and groan on this topic, the town of New London is perched on this big-ass hill which basically puts it at an elevation equivalent to the north pole or somethhing, so we can really only expect about 1 month of frost free weather each year. Fabulous !

Which is precisely why we decided to check out the newest craze for warmth-starved, bat-crazy children burdened folks around here: a new "Splash Park" at an aquatic center about a half hour north of us in White River Junction, VT. The water is about 90 degrees and in the toddler section it's only about 2 feet deep, so kids can play on the slides and run under sprinklers and splash around all they like. There is also a looped "river" channel that sweeps you along in a big circle while jets of water arc over your head and waterfalls cascade nearby. It's not much on a Six-Flags scale of things, but it was pretty much heaven for a 3 year old and his parents escaping from their foot and a half of dirty snow on a raw, cloudy Saturday in March.

A small escape...

This weekend we made the short trip to NE Mass to visit Micah and Becky and enjoy the 'banana belt' of New England when we are still under feet of snow. We all met up with Wendy, Max and their two girls Ava and Stella at their house in Medford and zipped into Chinatown for some delicious Dim Sum. I haven't had real Dim Sum since leaving Vancouver so it was an incredible treat to gorge myself on the many varieties of steamed dumplings, balls of red bean paste, BBQ pork buns, and velvety turnip cakes with hoisin sauce. Ava and Stella have eaten this stuff since they were infants (Chinatown is 10 minutes from their house), so they dug right in, but it was a challenge to convince Aiden that he might actually like these small packages of goodness from the steamer baskets. He did manage to try about four different things (with mixed reviews) and had a LOT of cups of tea.

We've eaten about 100 dumplings collectively at this point

Happy Chinese NewYear!

After Dim Sum we stopped at a candy/bakery in Chinatown and, funnily enough, even though Aiden had never had any of these candies before, he was willing to try ALL of them and wanted more and more and more. Hmm... where was this little boy while we were eating dim sum?

Ava decides which candies to try

It was so deliciously warm and springlike when we got back to Wendy and Max's house that the kids played barefoot and coatless in the yard for hours while we adults alternately soaked in the sun and tried to avoid getting pig-piled by three crazed little monsters. It was so wonderful to be outside in the warm sunshine again after months of winter, we could almost kid ourselves that there won't be another huge dump of snow or two before it's all said and done.

Ava the rhythmic gymnast

Stella collecting "hay"

Spring!

Pigpile on Andy!

As our Dim-Sum coma wore off, Micah & Becky made a cheesy-potato and vegetable dutch oven meal over their outdoor oven for dinner. It was a great end to a fun day for everyone.

Dutch oven cooks on the fire

Party!

Colby-Sawyer College, the university that runs Aiden's nursery school, makes kids birthday parties easy by renting out a portion of their large gym and providing kiddie delights such as hula hoops, sports equipment, and a giant inflated bouncy house. Last weekend Aiden had a great time at the 4th birthday party of one of his classmates, Mia. All his friends were there, and there was cake, goodie bags, and a pinata! And did I mention there was a bouncy house?

Digging the Duckpin...

When you grow up with candlepin bowling you don't even realize the regular, big-ball kind exists until you get older and move to some other part of the country. But apparently, if you don't grow up with it (like my sweet hubby), you think candlepin is a totally bizarre alternate reality. Anyway, I treated my two boys to their first-ever experience with candlepin/duckpin bowling last weekend. It may be a strange sport but seeing that each ball weighs about 2 lbs and can be reasonably tossed from a dead standstill, toes in front of the fault line, it works perfectly for a 3 year old and a pregnant woman on semi-bedrest.

Aiden arguably had the most interesting technique (the slow zig-zag off the gutter bumpers) but it worked for him and he either tied or was only a few points behind his parents in every game. He was also SO excited every time he rolled the ball and knocked some pins down, so it was an entertaining day for all of us!