spendin' a lot of time in the bathroom ...

potty training the boo. ook! i think he's starting to get the hang of it, sorta. two poops forward and one poop back :) here he is after his first poop on the potty. i read somewhere that the way a family of a dozen or so kids did their potty training is that they took a picture of each kid after his/her first poop, and then would show them the picture every so often and say hey remember how proud you were when you did that by yourself?

another first this month ... his first ice cream cone! he wanted "brown" ice cream because that was the picture on the ice cream cone box. at least i hope that's why he wanted brown.

my first bumper sticker

the first one i've ever wanted to put on my car! this was a gift from a friend of mine. thank you beth!

(though this year i'm putting a political sticker on too, as soon as my obama sticker arrives!)

"o, it's GORgeous!"

boo's potty training began in earnest today. i'll spare the details. suffice to say i spent a lot of time in the bathroom reading mindless stories today and my brain was about to go bonkers. i was about ready to throw in a towel (because many had already been thrown about the house in cleanups) when he started playing with the door to the bathroom and shut himself in. fine, i thought, i need a little break anyway. a few minutes later i heard "uh oh! uh oh!" and lo and behold, the first #2 in the potty!

so i gave him the "big present" that he had been promised - a thomas the train engine set of duplos. (a 100+ piece set found at a neighborhood garage sale for $6 a few months ago, and waiting for just this sort of event.) he unveiled it and with big eyes and a big 2 year old voice uttered "ooohhhhhh .... it's GORgeous!!!" i just about fell over laughing. i don't know where he got that. certainly not my husband. the only time i might have said that recently was when my mother-in-law was showing me my sister-in-law's wedding dress on skype a couple of days ago. i thought he was playing with a toy somewhere else in the room. clearly he is taking it all in.

the other little phrase he loves today: "i love you little greenie. bon appetit!" he says it and keels over with giggles. (from the book, "i love you stinky face.")

danskin photos!

whew! i'm still pooped! my second danskin triathlon (4th for katherine) was on sunday. a few comparisons with last year:
- MUCH more fun with a friend, especially an awesome one!
- 70 degree weather is infinitely better than 95 degree weather
- boo understood what was going on a bit better. last year, he was excited to see me running towards him, saying "mommy! mommy!" then when i kept running along the race path away from him, he was worried. "mommy? mooooommy?"
this year, he told A in the car "mommy's going running, then swimming, then biking, then running, then biking, then running, then biking, then swimming, then biking ..."
- shaved 8 minutes off my time! 1 minute off the swim (rotating your torso really helps), 4 minutes off the bike (bought clip-in pedals this year), and 3 off the swim (i chalk this one up to running with katherine!). katherine had so much energy, cheering everyone on during the bike and the run. i barely had the breath to cheer myself on! :)


afterwards we treated ourselves to a spa afternoon (massage, pedicure and manicure) and then a steak dinner at Tramonto's (after showing katherine the last few episodes of Top Chef). the 3 of us split a tomahawk!

jc's wedding pics

here are some pictures from my cousin's vancouver wedding ceremony i went to recently. my nephew was the ringbearer (there he is, walking in front of my cousin R, who is the groom's sister) and another cousin was the flower girl.

reception pics to follow. boo was wearing the cutest little blazer and bowtie - heirlooms worn originally by one of A's brothers! unfortunately, i don't have a great picture of him in the blazer, because it was so hot we took it off fairly soon. there are some pictures of him to follow with the reception. he had to exit the ceremony fairly precipitously with A, because as soon as everyone quieted down after the procession and the pastor started to say a few words, boo proclaimed in his loud 2 year old voice: "All done? All done? Clap hands now?"
i thought the bouquets were really unique and gorgeous. check out the bamboo in the bride's bouquet!

secret swap package!

i got my first package from my ravelry secret swap partner!!! check out this oh-so-yummy colorway of alpaca/wool superwash sock yarn! i've also been wanting this book for some time, since there's a scarf pattern in there that i want to make for one of the gentlemen in my family. the boxes are little tea bags - can't wait to try :) thank you secret swapper!

returning

just got back from seattle! more on that later. it's been a bit chaotic. piles of mail and stuff halfway unpacked, everywhere. been trying to get my last real workouts in before the tri this weekend. biked 12 miles yesterday followed by a 1.5ish mile run; today, i'm completely wiped out, i'm getting short of breath just going up the stairs. what happened? i tried to run about every other day in seattle, even ran around greenlake a few days ago (about 3 miles). hopefully it's just getting used to the heat. even though it's not that hot yet here.

speaking of getting used to the heat, dixie's been beat. it's not even that hot yet. on today's attempt at a run, she would seriously slow down and pull back on the leash at every shady spot. she even sat down once in the shade and didn't want to go on. i think she's probably feeling out of sorts - i'm thinking she has kennel cough, despite a recent vaccination. poor thing sounds like a foghorn.

till i have a chance to go through more pictures, here's a family picture taken at the windermere club on lake washington: