Category: Grandpa’s Sweeties

8-year old Mack ran a 24:07 5K yesterday, taking three minutes off his previous best for that distance (3.1 miles).

He threw up after crossing the finishing line, so I guess we can conclude he gave it his all. It was good enough for second place in his age/gender.

Today, Sunday, both Mack and Aidan ran in the King George Fall Festival Mile.

Aidan took first for “Men 6 and under” with an 8:06 mile. He has improved his personal best by two minutes in less than two weeks! It was head-to-head for the finish line and Aidan pulled ahead to win by a second. It was his first “gold.”

Mack also took first, running his second best mile ever in 7:03.

Mom meanwhile was moving along too. She got a speeding ticket.

UPDATE: Jill says I’m not like other moms.

 

No wusses on the kindergarten playgrounds in Virginia.

 

I don’t know what some parents are thinking, the way their kids dress and style themselves.

Oh, wait, that’s my Sweetie Aidan. He calls that style “teepee on my head.”

I’m missing The Sweeties and thinking about visits. There is this though. First posted three years ago today.

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There are few downsides to visiting one’s grandchildren (as NewMexiKen is currently visiting five of his six grandchildren). One very distinct negative though, has to do with cooties. At home, not working (and not being a member of congress), I rarely hang out with children and their associated germs. Here I do little else but hang out with them.

So, as is the case more often than not, after a few days here I have a rotten cold settling very nicely, thank you, into my throat and chest. I feel so yucky this morning I wish I had a job again just so I had some place to call in sick.

Now, of course, none of The Sweeties is to blame. Kids have runny noses and germs just like they have Star Wars characters and princess gear. Grandpa just needs to figure out how to schedule these trips so that I can maintain some sort of immunities.

 

Easy guys, you’re on the same team. And not only that, but your moms are sisters.

Reidie got this goal but Alex scored some, too. Click for the larger version to see the determination on Reidie’s face.

 

Little Reidie, just 3½, completed a mile cross country race yesterday. You see him here at the start, raring to go. His official time 15:21. He also plays soccer.

He’s looking to break the 15-minute mile his next time out.

Jill reports:

So we went apple picking and then drove out to the [cross country] race.  We had to stop for gas, and ended up arriving later than planned.  Also, they seemed to be ahead of their published heat schedule.  So when we got there, the 6 and under age group was already on their second call, and lined up.  We registered quickly and got Aidan out there, but he was still in his long pants, and wearing a t-shirt, not a team jersey or shirt.  (I had put them in other shirts for the apple picking, in case it was messy.)  I felt so badly for him, looking at the line, because every other kid was in a little running suit or at least a team shirt and running shorts — it was a real x/c invitational, so he just looked kind of ridiculous.  Oh, and he’s wearing his white Target tennis shoes, not running shoes.
 
The age group had to run a 1k, which is a little more than six-tenths of a mile.  They take off, and right away Aidan veers off the wrong way because we hadn’t been there for the course walk through.  But he gets back in line, and they disappear into the woods.  About five minutes later, a kid comes in with nobody even in view behind him, and I was thinking, “Wow, these kids are good.”  Then the next kid comes out of the woods and I see red pants!  Aidan was in second and had several kids right behind him.  Of course, being Aidan, he’s running about ten steps, then slowing down and looking back over his shoulder.  Then running ten steps, slowing down and looking over his shoulder.  I could almost feel all these x/c coaches around me being horrifically damaged by the sight.  I ran out and yelled, “Do not look back one more time!”  He put his head down and kicked it in for second place overall.  He got a silver medal — only top three in each heat (m/f) got medals (there were no “thanks for trying” medals), so I never thought he would get a medal and I was so excited for him.  These kids are all on x/c teams and run all the time, so I thought it was really impressive that he beat most of them.  He does have those flashes of competitiveness every once in a while.
 
Then Mack was up in the 7-8-year-olds heat.  There were a lot of kids in the heat, and everyone in different unitards and tank tops for x/c teams.  At least Mack had a team jersey and running shoes. But he also was not stretched and didn’t know the course.
 
They took off and we had to wait a while — they were running a 2k.  We walked out to where we could see the people as they came up through the woods to the finishing loop.  I heard the host coach saying something about, “I don’t know…it’s going to be a close race.”  But then we started to see people, and we saw about four people blinking by through the trees and none of them were wearing red.  Luckily, it turns out two of them were girls (one of whom mis-ran the course) and Mack came charging out in fifth place, number three boy.  Remember, only the top three boys get any hardware.  There were two boys right on Mack’s heels as he came out into the open area, and I actually thought they were going to get him.  He looked kind of gassed.  But he played it beautifully.  He put on a little spurt and got some distance.  Then he eased it back and I think one of the boys thought he could catch up (the other one was obviously out of gas).  The boy picked it up and closed in on Mack.  Then, with about 70 yards left, Mack started his kick and the kid didn’t have enough left because of the effort he had just put into getting close.  So Mack got third easily.

“Everyone had a different reaction to the thrilling sequence. Each, I think, demonstrates well the way our brains work at different ages.”

Jill has a great new post up at Dinner without Crayons.

Sweetie Aidan is six today — he was born during Hurricane Isabel in a hospital without drinking water. Above with his mommy last month in Baltimore Harbor (complete with warpaint residue from the National Aquarium). Below, from the bus on the first day of school last week.

Aidan’s teacher said she told him he had to be nice, because she was using all her energy dealing with him and she was getting soooooo tired. (Trying to be funny, to loosen him up.) And he looked her dead in the eye and said, “Not my problem.”

(Not that Grandpa approves mind you.)

… makes you feel one-tenth as good as it does me, you’ll have a great day, too.

Jill reports on three-year-old Reidie:

Reid just woke up. He has a cold and he’s also having a hard time adjusting to the new schedule — he naps, and then he can’t go to sleep at night, and then he gets up late, and then he won’t nap and he’s exhausted by 7:00…

Anyway, he just woke up and I asked him (as I always do), “What did you dream about?”

“Darth Vader was chasing me.”

“Oh no! Were you scared?”

“No.”

“Really? I would have been scared.”

“Grandpa was holding my hand.”

To help out her sister, Jill adopted niece Kiley for a day yesterday. Jill reports:

Then she came with us as we ran lots of errands and went to (guess) Red Robin. In all, we were out for six hours — me and my brood of four.

It was fun to have her along as I got totally different comments from strangers. Usually I get variations on “Three boys! Oh my!” Or, “Did you want a girl?/Are you going to try for a girl?” Or the old, “I had all boys, too, dear. You will survive.” (accompanied by gentle patting of my hand).

But with Kiley we got “Oh, all those brothers and just one girl, she has it made.” And, “Just the one girl?” And my favorite, “Your children sound WONDERFUL.” I NEVER get that one when I just have the boys with me.

Also got to watch Aidan and Kiley waltz around Target, complete with dips and turns.

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Update: I think they’re much cuter without Grandpa.

Excerpts from an email today from Jill, my oldest daughter, and mother of three boys (ages 8, almost-6 and 3).

Anyway, [Byron is] going to go to at least three and maybe as many as six European cities and his flight and all the hotels would be paid for. I want to hide in his luggage for some of it if I can possibly work it out.

Would anyone be available and maybe willing to housesit in the first half of October? (I say housesit because I will lock the children in the basement with water dishes and bowls of food, and tell them not to make noise, if it means you are more willing to do this.)

Early October should be a pretty easy time – only one to two sports per kid, plus piano, plus school – a breeze.

All right, not looking for any commitments, just maybe a “maybe” or a “never going to happen” and an idea of when you might or might not be available in October, and how many days is your maximum possible allotment of the Boy Experience.

Your Devoted Daughter, Jill

I wrote her, “I’m in, as much as you need to make it happen.”

Also from three years ago:

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Veronica, official daughter-in-law of NewMexiKen, ran in the San Francisco Marathon today. Arriving home, she showed two-year-old Sofie the finisher’s medal with its depiction of the Golden Gate Bridge.

“Sofie, mommy ran over that bridge twice today!”

And she looks at me like I’m a total nut job and says, “Why?”

From three years ago.

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Four-month-old Reid, the youngest of the Sweeties, had to be taken to the emergency room Friday for some diagnostic tests. (He’s doing OK, thank you.) The urgency meant that his older brothers came along.

An experienced traveler, five-year-old Mack took one look at the hospital’s newly remodeled entry area with its marble and granite and knew exactly what was important.

As his mother checked in, Mack asked the receiving nurse, “Do you have a pool?”

Sweeties Kiley (6) and Alex (4) had a hair-raising experience with static electricity yesterday at the Ontario Science Museum in Toronto.

If Aidan wears that swim cap any lower over his face he won’t need the goggles. He won swimmer of the meet Saturday for his age group.

That’s Aidan (he’ll be starting kindergarten in the fall). I just really liked Jill’s awesome action photo.

‘Cuz they’re the girls.

Six-year-old Kiley competed in her first swimming event yesterday, winning a ribbon in the 25-meter freestyle.

Five-year-old Sofie continues to win ribbons in non sequiturs.

Veronica, Sofie’s mom: “I’m a Saggitarius, so what’s Sofie?”

Sofie: “Hilarious?”

… and took this portrait of her boys (one-half of The Sweeties).

That’s NewMexiKen’s official daughter Jill, official niece Amy (aka aimlsrdhd), and official daughter Emily, 30 years ago today at NewMexiKen’s official younger sister Debby’s wedding. Click image for larger version.

Happy anniversary Debby and Ken!

Yup, yet another Ken in this family.

School ended yesterday for the Virginia Sweeties and Mack, Aidan and Reid were off with Mom and Dad to Hershey Park.

Where it’s raining.

But not all is lost. Jill reports:

Well, steady rain last night – but never too hard. Most things were open and we got to ride 35 rides in our 2 1/2 hour preview (Hershey lets you come for the last 2 1/2 hours of the day if you are coming the next day). At least we had jackets and ponchos.

Looks like more of the same today. Trying to stay positive. We lose the whole awesome water park, but gain that the park is EMPTY. Last night I rode the Farenheit, which has normally a 2 hour wait. I walked on, and even walked on the front row. Then we came around and no one was waiting so I rode front row straight through again. It was crazy.

Hershey lists the elements for Farenheit: 90 degree ascent (121 feet) – 97 degree negative drop – inverted loop (107 feet) – inverted corkscrew roll, cobra element, airborne inverted s-roll – max speed: 58 mph.