Autumn

Two photos taken in the middle of town this weekend, at a conservation park right across the street from Joy  & Rose's elementary school.

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,—

One clover, and a bee,

And revery.

The revery alone will do

If bees are few.

-- Emily Dickinson

Who knows what it is to be running?

Only [s]he that is running knows...

-- PDQ Bach

Pacing the Crazy (legs)

The other week I mentioned (in passing) that I was training for an 8k race, the Crazylegs Classic. Which took place this morning.

In the spirit of the Many post, perhaps I should have mentioned that between the run and the walk versions of the event, there were almost 20,000 participants registered. And I went alone, though I was technically part of a team from the university library system. One consequence of Joy's full therapy schedule is that I generally can't bring family along to cheer when I race, so this was a solo event in a sea of many.

To get that many runners onto a course, you can't start everybody all at once. The top-flight runners get to start first, and then everyone else gets assigned to a different clump of runners depending on your pace. I was in the 36th wave out of 44, which meant that since they were trying to start one wave per minute, my wave started over ten minutes after the race had already been won.

But the neatest thing happened as I lined up with my fellow potential-slow-pokes. I ended up standing next to another mom, just about my age, who was running her first 8k race. And she just happened to have a little daughter with special needs. Like epilepsy. And a tendency to slip away and escape. And communication issues. And a high pain tolerance.

We chattered non-stop while we moved slowly up to the starting line. And then we ran together and kept each other going, surely faster than either of us would have been alone. We had each (optimistically) guessed that we'd make an 11-minute-mile pace, which is what got us assigned to the same wave. I ended up being just a little slower in the last half-mile where she was able to pull ahead -- but she was waiting for me at the finish line. We'd both run the entire way.

My pace per mile was 10:20. Woo hooooo!

I hadn't thought that blogging about an 8k race would be about special-needs mamas helping one another out. But there you have it.

Many

Many tulips in the front flowerbed, glorious in the sun!


Many vocalizations from Joy, quite a few of them word-approximations.

Many "squares" in Rose's hopscotch masterpiece on the driveway.


Many minutes it takes me to run an 8k (and not so many days until I run in the Crazylegs Classic.)

Many splinters in one little Joy-hand (Sigh. And she's more sensitive these days about splinter-removal. Which I guess is good?)


Many buffet options at the restaurant where we went for brunch yesterday with the Wisconsin-grandparents. Something for everyone, picky or no.

Many buds waiting to burst into blossom on the lilacs, and the cherry trees, and the apple trees.

May your week hold many fine adventures as well!

Emerging

It feels like spring. The snow is mostly melted off the garden, and soon we'll take the mulch off our strawberry plants. Snowdrops are blooming on the south side of the house; tulip leaves are poking through in the front flowerbed.

And for the past two weeks, new/renewed vocalizations have been sprouting for Joy like shoots from subterranean bulbs. There've been so many, it's hard to keep track. Some of them are Elvis Sightings: she said "buh-buh" for bye-bye, just once! She said "muh" together with her "more" sign at just one snack time, two requests in succession! She said "bay" for her bagel, just once! Others are more durable: a big explosive "pah!" that might mean "play". A lovely "chew" noise that is associated with her chewy toy (and also with a tickle game).

Rose and I have been attuned for noticing signs of spring. We saw the first robin of the season on Friday morning near Joy's daycare. We saw an animal in the backyard that first looked like a rabbit, but then turned out to be a squirrel with a white tuft on the end of its tail.

I remember one of the concerns I had when I first meet with the Birth-to-Three case manager who came to our house for an intake interview. I told him about how, when I would be on for childcare with Rose and Joy and Joy's daycare buddy, I'd point to a squirrel out the front window. Rose and Buddy would be fascinated. I could not get Joy to look. "Maybe it doesn't mean anything," I said self-deprecatingly. The case manager wouldn't commit to what meant what, but told me to keep paying attention.

This morning Joy was looking out the front window, watching a squirrel. Later in the morning we went for a run, with her in the stroller. She tracked a bird that flew over. She giggled at an airplane. And every time a car went past, she'd turn her head around to follow it, with a great big giggle.

Did I mention we went for a run? I am picking myself back up after falling off the wagon with running during the long dark iciness of January and February. It feels so good to re-emerge onto ice-free sidewalks and sunshine pouring down.

Rose is making great strides on piano these days. The material in her class is getting more and more challenging, and she's keeping right up. She's got the ear... when she makes a mistake, she hears and works to correct it. And it helps a lot to have me play through a song just once when the rhythms get too difficult.

Joy's speech therapist was all set to write up a present-level for Joy's upcoming IEP that said something to the effect that imitation was not something that has moved very far forward this year. All of a sudden, the occasional imitations are popping forth all over, from animal noises to word-approximations. At school during her kindergarten practice the other day, she was playing Row Your Boat on one of those wooden rocking-boat kinds of toys, with a couple of other kids. "If you see a lion, don't forget to roar!" went the music. The kids roared, Joy roared. And then she roared again, to get more roars going. Not just imitation, but initiation too!

There are other things -- more occasional potty successes, getting her coat on and off by herself, making attempts to blow bubbles. The list is getting too long to remember. I've been a little bit hesitant to even write about it, for fear of jinxing the whole thing. But I think it's time to start celebrating, at least just a little.

Happy spring!

Almost 200

The title of this post will surely have faithful readers scratching their heads and saying, "Didn't we have a big fooferaw about Post #200 back in the summer sometime?"

To which I respond, "Yup."

This is the almost-200 miles I have run since I started keeping track in February, when I ran my first 5K race.

This morning's 5K run at 5am (a clear frosty moonlit morning) brought me up to 199.

I plan to hit the 200 mark running with some women from church this weekend. This year's Women's Retreat is this Saturday, right here in town rather than up in the wild woods, but I'm sure we'll manage a wild and wonderful time anyway.

200 miles isn't much of a total for someone like Joy's Uncle Marathon (or UncleDO or Auntie RatM either, come to think of it.) But for me, it's pretty special, particularly since I managed to start back running again after being interrupted by the red-white-&-blue-foot phenomenon this summer.

Yay, wild women!

Similarities

One of the joys of being part of this bloggy enterprise is "meeting" people who share traits and experiences with Joy (and me), whether across town or on the other side of the country or world.

This was reinforced, in the case of one delightful similar-sister we've never met in person, by a comment on the last post -- and by the photos later in this post.

Sweet Rhema and Joy share so much...

Both carry names that reflect their families' faith-rootedness.

They're just about the same age.

They're both fast and strong (and at risk for flight, fences and tags notwithstanding.)

Both have an on-and-off relationship with spoken language -- generally more off than on.

They're both gymnasts, furniture and otherwise.

Both have epilepsy issues.

Both are Baby Einstein devotees.

Both give glorious butterfly-kisses.

Neither can be reliably left alone with an open cup.

Both are dearly beloved by their typically-developing sisters.

And they're both window-dancers.







Rhemashope, I'm so glad to know you and your darling window-dancer too! Hugs across the miles to our sisters.

AMAZING UPDATE:
Ohhhhh. Look at Rhema's latest window-dance, everyone. From yesterday. As in, within a day of Joy's window-dance photos. Separated at birth, or what?!

Random Tuesday Thoughts

It's been a while... the randomness has been building up... it's time for another edition of Random Tuesday Thoughts!

• What a beautiful morning for a pre-dawn run! I am back to being able to slow-jog a full 5K. Emphasis on the slow.
  
  
• JoyDad is running too. I think the last time we were both doing the running thing was back during my fire-eating, bridge-jumping grad-school days. Except that now we have to tag-team. Can't leave the sleeping kids alone in the house and all.
  
  
• Hey, maybe these ARE my fire-eating, bridge-jumping grad-school days again. Y'think?
  
  
• One week from today, Rose goes back to school -- as a second grader. Woo hoo!
  
  
• Tomorrow, I go to my first day of orientation for my leadership training program. Woo hoo times two!
  
  
• It took me three tries to pass the Emergency Procedures and Infection Control test that followed the pre-orientation online training module I took this weekend. I am quite certain that I will never need to know that Security personnel, and not the fire department, are responsible for fire-watch when the sprinkler systems go offline in the university health-care buildings. But now you know too. Just in case.
  
  
• Speaking of sprinkler systems -- we're working with Joy on drinking from an open cup. She likes to put her hand into it to play with the water, and even when she's using it properly, she doesn't always pay enough attention to get the cup put back safely down. She did great the other day at snack with her barista, though, who commented afterward, "That was some impressive drinking -- and I mean that in a non-undergraduate sort of way!"
  
  
• With fall-like weather and school coming on, I sorted clothes for the girls this weekend. Joy has grown into her sister's old 5Ts. There's a particularly cute dress I pulled out for her... checked the tag... yep, 5T, good deal... and then I saw the label name. SPEECHLESS GIRLS. Must have been made for her!
  
  
• Except that Rose wore the dress in her day. And on the speech front, my girls are like matter and anti-matter.
  
  
• Except that I had them on the same tire-swing last night. And it didn't cause a universe-ending, matter/anti-matter collision. I swung 'em high, totally whipped that swing in circles. The grins were immense.
  
  
• Both my ladies continue to be loving the Food Network Channel. Joy's favorite thing about it lately appears to be the logo-bubble image on the lower right of the screen. She keeps trying to pop it.
  
  
• Speaking of bubbles. Must... go... shower. See ya!
  

Quick JoyDad foot surgery update

Yesterday was one month since I had surgery on my foot. I've made way more progress than I thought possible. It's healing up real good...



In fact, yesterday was also the first time since the surgery that I ran. I took it easy, I didn't try to push it. I spent more time walking than running (alternated three minutes walking and one minute running). And I'm not experiencing the post-run pain like I did before the surgery. So I guess that means it worked.

Thanks to everyone who sent prayers, thoughts and well wishes. It helped to know there was a whole mess of people pulling for me.

And now I shall commence running after our dear little Joy...

Of Yawns and Smiles

I did a lot of yawning over our getaway weekend.

Lots of smiling, too!

Goodness knows, there was nothing boring about my first weekend getaway with JoyDad since the kids were born. (Yes, that would be seven years, for those keeping score.)

Even the drive to my college reunion was lovely, with a big long chunk of roadway between wooded bluffs on one side and the Mississippi River on the other. And time alone to talk with my sweetie! Luxury! And then a whirlwind of activity, catching up with friends and roommates of 20 years gone by, attending lectures and receptions, dining, running...

Not boring. And not over-doing it -- we had to take things a little bit easy, since there was only so much that JoyDad's rapidly-healing foot could take. So no late-night dancing or bonfire or concerts. But lots of yawning.

I think it may have been an accumulation of tired, catching up with me just a little bit. Though nobody seems to have the full answer to the functionality of a yawn, one theory is that it's an attempt to acquire an extra burst of oxygen. I needed to breathe deeply!

And then there was the smiling. How I could I help that, with as much time as I got to spend with JoyDad, and with my roommates (one in particular)? Lots of smiles passed around at the reception at the library too, where I worked as a student and where I now have colleagues with whom I occasionally cross paths at conferences.

I was surely breathing deeply and I think I was smiling as I crossed the finish line of the 5K that was an early Saturday morning feature of the reunion. I came in dead last of the 27 runners who started at the whistle together. Apparently only the hard-core runners come out to run in the bright sunlight at 7:30 on a warm reunion morning! I ran within seconds of my top pace, though, quite a triumph since I haven't been training specifically too well lately. And the rest of the pack hung around to cheer for the stragglers, so as I crossed the finish line alone, I had a whole cheering section to myself! Thoroughly smile-worthy!

And then there was the PowerPoint presentation by an alum from the class of '84, a fellow who'd been something of a wild-child during his years on campus but eventually gave up his drum set and took off for Thailand to become a Buddhist monk. He now leads a monastery in New Zealand. He simply radiated peace, groundedness, and gentle good humor. With an incredibly high-wattage smile.

So many reasons for good cheer this weekend, uninterrupted by the need for child-centered vigilance!

Then after we got home on Sunday I dragged the family off to church in the evening because the guest pastor was someone that I knew from way back when. May as well keep the reunioning going on, right?

One of the points he shared during the sermon was a recommendation, something that his wife taught him and practices faithfully herself.

When you get up and get yourself ready for the day, smile at yourself in the mirror. You are part of the work God is doing in the world. Smile at yourself. Acknowledge it.

I'm going to try to remember. The regular ruteen is back at full-blast, after the capable and much-appreciated interlude of the grandparental help last weekend. It's not easy to jump back in... more about that in the next post...

Meanwhile, the yawns are still pretty frequent, though the context is different. Will work on the smiling, too.

Twenty Years

In just a couple of days, JoyDad and I are off on what I think will be our first kid-free weekend getaway since Joy's birth.

We're going to my twenty-year college reunion! After JoyDad's surgery follow-up appointment yesterday, he was cleared to lose the crutches and the wrap and dressing. So he is once again free to shower (whew!) and to wear street shoes and to walk around as much as is comfortable.

GrandpaJ and GrandmaJoy, courageous souls that they are, will be staying for a long weekend, hanging out with Rose and Joy and supervising the various Joy-therapies that will happen during that time.

While it can be fun to occasionally revisit old stomping-grounds and old memories, the big draw of a reunion is the people. I'm looking forward to catching up with two of my former roommates!

So I got a pre-reunion e-mail a couple of days ago, a light-hearted survey of reunion attendees. The last question was the most interesting one, and went something like this:

How different is your life than you'd have imagined it when you were at [college-name]? (Give your answer in degrees; zero is just as you'd expected, 180 might be "planned to be a high-powered investment banker, ended up a rural pastor")

I'm quoting it badly, but that was the sense of it.

Now, one of my least-favorite interview questions is the one that asks you to talk about where you'd like your career to be in five years or ten or whatever. I've never really liked to think or even dream that far ahead.

However, I think that if you'd pressured me to talk about 20-years-down-the-line back in 1989, a lot of what I might have said... has come to pass.

The librarian thing wasn't hard to predict. I was working in the library on campus, and the one career-matching test thing I did at the campus career center had librarianship pop right to the top. Though I might have envisioned a more ambitious career than what I've had so far.

Settling in the Midwest? Uh-huh. Right where I feel at home!

I kind of figured on meeting an awesome guy and getting married someday, though answering a singles ad and winding up with a guitar-slinging tax economist from the big city wasn't exactly how I'd have pictured it...

Centrality of Christian faith in my life, being actively involved with church... check.

Two kids? Yep. I was one of two, and it seemed like a good number.

But the biggest surprise, the most startling unexpected life-changing challenge and blessing? My delightful daughter Joy. Someone I never could have predicted. It's hard to put a number on the degree-of-difference she has brought to our lives. In some ways, it's just another flavor of parenting. In another way, it changes so very much.

One very specific thing that it's changed for this weekend is that we're not really able to bring the girls along to reunion. I'm sure Rose would love the kids-camp daycare setup, but it's simply not set up to work for someone like Joy. On the other hand, if we took the kids along, it wouldn't be a getaway! And I expect that both they and the grandparents will enjoy the weekend immensely.

I don't think I'll attend the session at reunion that involves discussing the next twenty years. That's too far ahead to think right now. Besides, I never did like that interview question.

-----

P.S. If you'd told me in 1989 that I'd be running a 5K race at my 20th reunion, I might have laughed at you!

Monday Numbers, Race for the Cure Edition

Much mum-mum-numbering to report from this past weekend, and yet to come...

• 11,500 - approximate number of runners, walkers, volunteers at our local Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure on Saturday



• 878 - number of runners whose times were recorded via "chip timing"



• 113 - number of chip-timed women runners in the 41-50 age group



• 63 - my place in the standings among those 113



• 30:44 - my official time



• 1 - how many seconds slower that is than my unofficial 5K training record



• 9:54 - what 30:44 works out to in minutes per mile



• 10:00 - what 9:54 is under. Woohoo!!!



• 670 - how many dollars my friends and family chipped in for the cause! AWESOME! Thank you all so much!



• 2 3/4 - how many hours after arriving home from the race we were back on the road, on the way to cousin KJ's bar mitzvah celebration.



• 39.1 - mpg our new Honda Fit got on the highway on the way to the temple



• 90 - about how many minutes long the ceremony was (our new bar mitzvah had to share the proceedings with a bat mitzvah as well, which made many parts of the service twice as long)



• 75 - how many of those minutes Joy managed to witness (we'd have made it through the whole thing if it hadn't been for a certain matter of a stinky diaper)



• 100 - about how many pretzel sticks Joy consumed over the course of those minutes



• 3 - number of other kids who shared with Rose the honor of pushing the challah bread cart in the ceremony



• 1 - morsels of challah that Rose saved for her sister, who missed that part of the proceedings



• 2 or 3 at least - how many weeks of vacation AuntieS deserves after all that bar mitzvah planning! Wonderful job - so sorry we had to skip out of the party early, but meltdowns will be meltdowns!



• 2 - number of years, on and off, that JoyDad has been struggling on and off with pain at the back of his left foot



• 2 - number of weeks he'll be on crutches, if all goes well, after an outpatient surgery tomorrow. Think good thoughts for him, and all of us! Maybe next year we can take the whole family to the Race for the Cure!

Gone Fishin'

I'm about to disappear again for a few days. This time, I thought I'd warn you!

It's time once more for the annual Memorial Day trek to the rustic family lake-front cabins in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. We'll open the cabins for the season, put in the pier, eat bacon & eggs for breakfast, put in the pontoon boat, go fishing (more than likely unsuccessfully), walk in the woods, identify spring wildflowers, and spend relaxed quality time with JoyDad family. Can hardly wait!

Oh, and I might go on a training run or two. Just LOOK at my fundraising page for the Komen Race for the Cure, y'all! [Update: link removed.] I'm currently in third place as fundraiser among timed runners for this event... one more donation and I'd bump up into second place... which is the only chance I have of placing in the race with my poky running pace!! What awesome friends and family I have. By the way, the fundraising grand-total for the event is headed toward $200,000!

Here are some previous lake-visit posts. Look for another one on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Bye now!

Trade-Off

Rose and I went to a neat event at her elementary school last night, a Fun Walk/Run for the kids that was also a PTA fundraiser. There were T-shirts, and race numbers, and goofy warm-ups with one of the first-grade teachers, and picnicking on the lawn, and desserts to share, and the district superintendant & others were handing out little stretchy-bracelets to the kids for every lap completed. The weather was perfect, the turnout was huge.

And, I got to spend time talking with other parents I hadn't seen in a while! Two families in particular were once part of our regular routine but not so much lately -- one family for regular playdates, another we used to encounter last summer at Joy's swimming class. Both those evening time-slots have now been filled with intensive autism therapy for Joy. In fact, Joy was therapy-ing at home instead of Fun-Running and picnicking with me & Rose.

It's a trade-off. Intensive therapy fills a lot of time that we used to have available for other things.

On the other hand, if I'd had Joy at the Fun Run, I wouldn't have been available to catch up with the other parents, because I'd have been Joy-minding...

I also put together in my mind something that I'd not been tracking with, for both these families. They both have older kids in Rose's grade, and both also have younger daughters a little younger than Joy.

Both those younger daughters will be starting kindergarten at the same time as Joy, since we're holding off on kindergarten for another year!

I think I need to make better efforts to keep Joy well-acquainted with these two classmates-to-be. And also to make sure we bring Joy to next year's Fun Run. Wonder how many laps she'll be willing to do, if I go with her?

Monday Numbers

Hey, Kia! Are you doing Monday Mum-mum-numbers this week?

Well, whether you are or not, I am!

• 94 - number of miles I've run since I started keeping count in February. Will hit 100 this week!
  
  
• 2 - number of times I've already had to raise my way-too-modest fundraising goal for Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. You guys rock. Your new challenge - make me do it again!!
  
  
• 1 - number of bell concerts Saturday night.
  
  
• 2 - number of standing ovations (one for the full group, one for an awesome duet played by 2 of our members!)
  
  
• 3 - number of bells I got to ring simultaneously in ONE hand during a certain passage in Bach's Little Fugue
  
  
• 1 - mylar helium fish-balloon I brought home from the concert decorations for the girls.
  
  
• 100 - percent of her time that Joy spent playing with the balloon and its lovely stringy ribbon yesterday until we hid it away.
  
  
• 7 - handwritten coupons received from Rose yesterday for Mothers Day
  
  
• 2 - coupons I have already redeemed (hugs and a big ol' room-cleaning - yes, this mama is hard-core! I helped her with the room though.)
  
  
• 4 - weeks we technically have to test out the 7-Level-Communicator, a voice-recorded communication device that's a big step up from Joy's push-button.
  
  
• 1 - number of days it took Joy to figure out the new tool. Wow.
  
  
• 5 - number of times Joy went to jump in her bouncy castle with her playdate friend on Tuesday.
  
  
• 0 - level of enthusiasm she'd had for the bouncy castle last year when it was her big birthday present. This is a major improvement!
  
  
• 32 - number of pieces of sports equipment in the kit I got Friday from Special Olympics, for their Young Athletes family program that we'll be doing this summer at home.
  
  
• 3 - number of list-items in this post (at least) that deserve blog-posts of their own.
  
  
• 14 - cups of rhubarb that went into the deep freeze yesterday from our one prolific plant.
  
  
• 5 - names I'm aware of for the flowering bush that we planted yesterday: serviceberry, Juneberry, saskatoon, shadberry, Amelanchier.
  
  
• Gazillion - blossoms on the apple tree in our back yard.
  

Oh, and half a gazillion dandelions in the lawn to go with 'em. At least the yellow is bright and cheery against the green grass!

Update: Ooo, forgot an important one.

• 8 - number of months since Joy's last knock-down seizure, as of today. Woo hoo! (And, knock on wood!)

Mother's Day, And A Special 5K

As I type, Rose and JoyDad are upstairs whipping up a breakfast for me that involves bacon and eggs, an unusual treat! I've heard Joy trying out several of her babbly-sounds, and one of them was the long-absent "ma-ma-ma"... now granted, it had rather an air of complaint about it, and was obviously not directed at me because I'm not even in the room. Still, it's in there. And a good day for me to hear it!

Another very cool Mother's Day tribute came from an unexpected source -- my sister-in-law Auntie Running-at-the-Mouth, who picked up a "running mom" meme and added some leisure-studies research findings and turned it into a lovely salute, both to her mother and to me. Thanks so much, RatM!

She mentions that I've got another 5K race coming up... I'd like to tell you about it, if I may.

On May 30, I'm going to be running in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. As you probably know from the amazing pink-ribbon movement, this is a fund-raiser for breast-cancer research. I know all too many people who have had to battle breast cancer themselves, some of them mom-related figures in my life but also friends, other in-laws, a college roommate, way too many. The latest astonishing figure is that the lifetime breast cancer risk is one in eight women.

I'd like to give my readers the chance to help this race count for as much as possible toward funds for breast cancer research and support...

Please consider a visit to my fundraising page for this race and making a donation. [Update: event is over, link removed. Thanks, all!] There's no such thing as "too small" and the page doesn't display who gave how much, only a lovely total. Making every step count for as much as possible!

All good thoughts and prayers happily accepted too. And even though my own mother's journey involved a different form of cancer (renal cell carcinoma), maybe this can be for her too in a way.

In other news, I'm told that I've won a special Mother of the Year award. You have to see this to believe it. (Thanks, Rhemashope!)

P.S. I broke the 10-minute mile barrier on my 5K run yesterday, first time ever. Hoping to do even better at the Race for the Cure!

Monday Mum...Mum... NUMBERS. Dangit.

As a rule, I don't do memes (little games participated in by all the cool bloggy folk.) Then when I do give in and do them, I always seem to end up twisting the rules somehow. So here's this really neat meme started by Kia over at Good Enough Mama, wherein one posts on Monday using a numbers theme, and she calls it Monday Mum...mum... Dangit, I can't say it. Alliteration be blowed, I've got to call it Monday NUMbers. (Me, have a kid on the spectrum? As a matter of fact, yes, why do you ask?!) Look at the button-thingy above if you want to see the real name.

Anyway. Here goes.

1 = number of new Rose hula-hoop tricks this weekend (hoop goes from waist to neck back to waist again, spinning all the while).

2 = number of rhubarb pies I baked on Saturday.

2 = number of big handfuls that Joy grabbed out of the middle of the pie that was out on the counter Sunday morning.

1 = number of pies that I needed to take for Sunday dinner at GrampaK & GrammaJ's. Whew.

2 = number of items I took seconds of at the amazing wonderful Sunday dinner (wine & turkey; very restrained of me, I thought!)

4 = number of pounds I'd lost since I started trying but before the amazing wonderful Sunday dinner.

0 = number of times I've stepped on a scale since. Don't wanna know.

30 = number of miles I've run in March. So far.

10:08 = per-mile average pace on last Thursday's treadmill interval-training run.

3,465 = number of hairs Joy pulled out of My Little Pony manes this weekend.

10,872 = number of hairs Joy pulled out of her own head this weekend.

1 = number of resulting adorable haircuts (I missed my calling as a beautician, no?)

Rose Rides a Bike

Living through winter in Wisconsin is kinda like deliberately banging your head against the wall because it feels so good when it stops. [Update: Check out this cartoon from the Sunday paper: I'm not the only one who feels this way!]

It's spring. And it feels GOOD.

I had a cranky whiny post all lined up to run this morning, but I can't do it. I'll post it Monday, which is supposed to be a rainy day anyway...

Today, I've got to write about Rose.

Unlike Joy, who is utterly fearless when it comes to flinging her body around, Rose has all too good an imagination about where excessive body-flinging might lead. This was exacerbated last spring when she fell and broke her arm on her very first trip to the roller rink.

She's been mighty cautious about bicycles.

We bought her a little bike with training wheels at a garage sale two springs ago. She was very hesitant at first. It took a lot of coaxing and support and a whole bunch of tumbles, but by fall 2007 she was riding quite well. I was hoping that 2008 would be the year to take the training wheels off.

No dice.

I actually did try taking the training wheels off at one point last year. Rose rode that way once, with me holding her up the whole time, and was terrified. Refused to touch the bike again until I put those wheels back on. Over the course of last year, as she grew and grew, she was outgrowing the bike to the point that even with the training wheels off, it wouldn't have been a good bet for learning to balance on her own.

Well, I posted at the end of October about just-in-time blessings, how a new right-size bike that wouldn't even take training wheels providentially came our way. That was the same post where I first announced, I think, that I was going to be doing the Couch-to-5K thing.

Of course we couldn't make any progress over the winter with the bike, but I managed to get to the point where a 5K run is now my regular workout. Yesterday was a gorgeous day, and my 5K in the morning was down to a 10:33/mile pace (with hills, and some wind!) After a day with lots of outside time, much lovely yardwork and such, Rose requested a bike-riding lesson for the evening.

There's a park near us that has an oval sidewalk of asphalt that runs around the lawn and playground area, nice and flat and perfect for toppling into the grass on either side when necessary. A red-helmeted Rose got onto the new big-girl bike with fear and trembling, insisting that mama hold her both by handlebars and waist. Around and around we went, lots of of stop-and-topples but no injuries. She got more confident, I let go the handlebar, was starting to have to trot to keep hold of her waist.

And then I let go for just a few seconds. And she balanced. And squealed with delight!

That was the turning point. Pretty soon I was just having to get her started, then letting go and jogging alongside (which I never could have done last fall before all that training...) Then she was making it all the way around the loop without stopping. Then she got up to a speed I couldn't match for very long.

By the end of the session she had succeeded in going THREE times around the loop in succession, without me at her side, only needing a bit of support at the start to get going.

[Update: We went out Sunday morning for another session. Rose went around the loop 26 times without stopping, and succeeded in starting herself without help a couple of times as well. I think she's ready to practice on our street next. Photo below!]


Kristina at Autism.change.org recently mentioned the concept of kairos, the "just moment," the "right time" when things come together in due measure. (The "just-in-time blessing" moment, perhaps?)

I think we've been there twice now this week, between trike and bike. And yes, Joy did do a little smidge of pedaling herself again yesterday.

Did I mention that I love springtime?

Only She Who Is Running Knows

From the comedic genius of PDQ Bach, in his ground-breaking work Iphigenia in Brooklyn:

Oh God, who knows what it is
To be running?
Only he who is running... running... running... knows.
Running, running knows,
Run running knows, run running knows...!!!

Kleenex, anyone?

Any run outdoors in winter is going to involve Kleenex for me, and yesterday's 5K was no exception. It was a gorgeous day, though. The race started just after 11am, under bright-blue skies, temperature right around freezing, light winds, sunshine glistening on a 2-inch layer of snow that had fallen the night before. Most of the race was along cleared bike-path, so we were really only running on snowpack for a few blocks of city street.

The race was a lot bigger than my friends and I had expected. From past years' posted results, it looked like the usual turnout was around 120. This year? 430! I wonder how many registered same-day, once they saw what a nice day it was.

My personal goal was to run an 11-minute-mile pace, for a total time just over 34 minutes.

I ran it in 33:15, for a pace of 10:42, running all the way. I even had enough steam left to put on a bit of a sprint at the end, passing up the woman I'd been pacing behind for much of the race. I guess if you take off the ten seconds it took me to cross the start line, that's 33:05. Fastest I'd ever gone, even on the treadmill! I placed 383 of 430.

WOOO HOOOOOO!!

I enjoyed having friends along so we could share one anothers' excitement. The woman with whom I shared the Couch to 5K link back in November at the Women's Retreat had been training with her husband, and their two sons (10 & 13) came along for the run too, pretty much without training but they play soccer so they run well. All of us were happy with our times. The young'uns beat the pants offa me, but who's counting, right?

Then last night we all went over to their house for dinner. Joy was in a fine mood, ate well and sat happily at the dinner table for a long time, playing with the plastic from around the ice-cream carton while the rest of us talked. The 13-year-old entertained Rose very obligingly, without a hint of teenaged-guy-attitude. (Rose kept her own attitude in check as well, not complaining about the curry main dish but simply saying "No, thank you" as we had coached.)

Wow. Now I need a new running goal! Shave my 5K? Ten-minute miles, anyone? I wouldn't have believed it when I started...

One thing I failed to bring to the race was a camera. Here are some older running-related photos for your entertainment, though:


This photo from September 1991 was, if we're being picky and technical, my other first 5K. It was a fun-run/walk at a Mennonite Relief Sale, a fundraiser for international relief work. I had just finished a 2-year stint of Mennonite volunteer service in Chicago at the time, and a local pastor cobbled together a team with me and one of my former housemates and a couple other guys. I don't think I trained much if at all, and don't remember much about the race either. Like, I don't remember the starting gun, though I do have some flash memories of the actual running, including near the end when I was passed up by a race-walker! I didn't know enough to look at my time on the clock at the finish line, so I have no idea how fast I went (if they were posting times, I wouldn't have known where to ask anyway).


I wore the shirt again eleven years later, at the SCAATY Run in Chicago, September 2002 (Rose, hiding in the stroller, was seven months old). SCAATY stood for Still Crazy After All These Years, and was organized by Uncle Marathon in honor of his 20,000th mile running. Yes, you read that right. Twenty thousand. He'd been keeping logs since he started, something that I've now been talked into doing, and organized a run to invite friends and relatives to join him in running mile 20,000. It was a nice little bit of post-pregnancy training for me, just to get to the point of jogging a mile, and JoyDad and I had fun joining in the 20,000th mile run and festivities.

Don't worry, this isn't going to become a running blog. I might sneak in updates now and again, though.

P.S. Many thanks to Auntie RatM and Uncle Marathon for the tips and encouragement leading up to this race! Yes, I did start near the back, and double-tie my shoelaces!

Happy Birthday, JoyMama!!!

Yes, that's right, JoyMama is another year older. And another year wiser.

Rose and I just got done wrapping the package that contains JoyMama's gift (can't tell you what's in it, it is a SECRET!). We plan to go out to dinner tonight to a local brew pub, and then come back home and have some birthday cake. Because it's not a birthday if you don't have cake, right?

Join me in wishing JoyMama a great big HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!


UPDATED by JoyMama:
Aww, JoyDad. You stinker. *KISS*

Well, here's the cake. My very favorite birthday cake, spice cake with homemade penuche frosting:



JoyDad and Rose got me a small CD player for treadmilling purposes. Just exactly what I wanted! I assembled a mix CD today. Will try it out Tuesday.

On my birthday, I ate cake instead of running.
Today, I ran outside in the morning. Then I ate cake for breakfast.

Life is good.

One More

OK, one more running post. One more Bobby McFerrin song. Then I promise I'll get back to the anatomy of Joy's days, at least until the Valentine's Day race!

Here's the Bobby McFerrin song that's been in my head today, again from the Medicine Music album. It's called Discipline:

For those who have been trained by it,
no discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful,
no discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful...

Later on however it produces
a harvest of righteousness and peace,
for those who have been trained by it,
no discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful...

Make level paths for your feet
make level paths for your feet
straighten out your feeble mind
so He can make it heal, so He can make it heal,
strengthen up your feeble arms,
strengthen up your weakened knees,
fix your mind on things above
above where we are free
above where we will be...

For those who have been trained by it,
no discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful.

My little foray into pain-spiced discipline this morning was an outdoor run through gently-falling snowflakes with Joy in the jogging-stroller. I love how smoothly jogging-strollers ride in comparison to regular strollers. I also succeeded in picking a 5K route that didn't have any glare ice. Alas, my avoidance of glare ice sent me up a killer hill. Did I mention I had Joy in the stroller, all 40 pounds of her? Puff, pant, gasp, snuffle. Also I'm fighting a cold (JoyDad has a version of the cold that's been kicking his backside for several days now.) Plus Joy woke up at 2:30 this morning, and so did we. All this combined to add about a minute and a half to my running time. But I did run-jog-fasterthanawalk the whole course.

However... while I'm not quite ready to claim a harvest of righteousness and peace from all this running discipline, I have been doing better at fighting colds this winter. And keeping the deep-blue days of the deep-winter season at bay. My weakened knees even feel pretty good. I will not feel at all feeble when I take my bike commute back up this spring -- already the days are almost long enough for it again, if we get the right combination of good temperatures and good snow-clearing.

I'd have done better to pick a level path for my feet, though.