Mmmmm....chalk!

Well, this past weekend, Barry and I headed to Austin for him to compete in the Longhorn 70.3 triathlon. I won't go into a lot of details about the race since he will update his blog to describe everything, but he did great! He had his personal best Half-Ironman time and qualified for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships next November. Yes, that means he won't participate in that race for a year, but this was the first qualifier and he's in!! Woo hoo!!!

We decided to leave John with Mawmaw and Daddy John since we knew the drive to Austin might be tough on our little wiggle worm, and race day is tough on a 14 month old when you get up at 4:00 a.m. head out to the race site, and then spend 8 hours outside without being able to go anywhere. I knew John could handle it and probably be quite an angel (not a biased statement!), but I figured he would be better having his normal schedule, normal nap times, and getting a little extra spoiling from grandparents. Now that I think about it, with my parents in town the weekend before and him being with Barry's parents this past weekend, I think he is spoiled more than I ever thought possible! :)

He had a great weekend. One fun point was when he was introduced to sidewalk chalk. I had bought some right before we went out of town, so I sent it with his bags and thought he could try it out. Mawmaw reported back that John did quite well with the chalk...he leaned down to the sidewalk and started making marks...I thought...this is where my little artist is really showing himself. Then, only seconds later, Mawmaw looks at him and my little genius of an artist is chomping down on the big blue chalk piece!! He had chalk all over his face and tongue of course...so he had a quick mouth washout. Needless to say, he is watched VERY closely with chalk. In supplement to that, mommy thought it would be fun to let him color last night. So, I got out these new kids crayons (they are a big animal holder with a crayon inside of it to make it easier for smaller hands)...so pulled out the big coloring book I had bought and sat down with John to let him show me his wonderful artistic talent that Mawmaw and Daddy John had seen. He leaned over...put the crayon to the paper (mommy was just waiting anxiously for him to create his own Picasso...or would that be Brooksasso...heh! heh!)...and as I anxiously waited for those first few strokes of genius, he quickly turned the crayon around and shoved it into his mouth and took a big chomp out of it. Mommy was quickly doing the finger swipe in his mouth to get out green crayon chunks as he smiled real big. Hmmm...this cleaning out art supplies from the mouth is starting to sound familiar! :)

John also went to the park and enjoyed being a big boy on several of the facilities. He loved sitting up like a big boy and showing that he looks at least 16 months old instead of 14 months. Ha! He also got a new outfit from grandparents, I tried to get a picture of the front and back which is quite difficult on an active 14 month old. The front says "Mommy's little treasure" and has a pictures of a treasure chest...and on the back across his bottom it says "open at your own risk." Heh! heh! I've attached some pictures for you to enjoy.

John's words are starting to get better and better. When he wants more, he still signs, but he also says "mo." When we say bird, he will say "bur." He says bye-bye really well and of course mama and dada still come out strong. He is just learning so much each day and we are hearing him talk more and more. It is so wonderful to see everything starting to come together as he begins communicating even more with us.

I've attached various pictures from what I wrote about. The one from Barry is when he's taking off on the run portion of the race. After swimming 1.2 miles and biking 56 miles, he looks like a "man on a mission" taking off for the 13.1 mile run!!!

Until next time.....