Year One in the Books

It's cliche, but utterly true - the time really does fly when you have a brand new, little person in your family.  It seems like just a couple eye blinks ago that I was packing Ruth Ann off to go to school with a sore back, obviously because she had been cooped up in an office chair all day the day before working on grad school work.  SURELY not because she was in labor and before we'd all come home again, we'd have this little thing with us:

Zoinks!

Yep.  And ever since, there's been no looking back.  Ruth Ann has since completed grad school (woot, woot!), we've had a ton of milestones, and endless hours staring at this guy and doing weird stuff in hopes of a little bit of this action:

At the beginning, you sweat every.single.thing.  Yes, we had an app to track feedings and the color and texture details of all diapers.  And then once you start to get a handle on those things and start sleeping again a little bit, you get handed another set of challenges.  Sleeping (through the night, preferrably)!  New food!  How much?  When?  Naps!  And if anyone has found the owner's manual for one of these things, can you please let me know?  I have more concrete documentation on how to operate my remote control than this TINY HUMAN BEING.  I say it a lot, but I know that we're supremely lucky to have such an easy-going kid that makes things a lot easier than they could be for us.  But you take a couple blinks, a few naps, catch your breath, and then wham! a one year old:

Dear lord, child, that is a swiveling rocking chair.  I am in a full sweat waiting to intercept any mishaps, just out of frame.

Last weekend, we had Avett's official one year celebration, which gives me a quick chance to thank Pinterest for raising the bar and one-upsmanship for kid's birthdays to unreasonably high and stress-inducing levels.  That's probably a different blog post.  For now, enjoy a few pics from the pre-party and official party (of which Pinterest can suck it because Ruth Ann did a great job), then wander over to Facebook to see some more.

The Robinsons hooked up the Bentley of wagons

Ruth Ann was also a fan

The Pre-party/actual birthday.  This is why there was no candle or singing during the big party

 

Sizing up the situation (and thinking of how to ditch the hat)

Gettin' to the bidness

Talk to the hand, Carter!

Fun in the photobooth

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For the runners, and those around them...

By now, you all know that in less than 2 months, I'll be running the New York City Marathon (obligatory fundraising plug here).  Running a marathon's no small feat, even if you are a slow runner with no natural talent like I am.  Getting READY to run a marathon is a whole different story.

By my calculations, my training plan will have me running somewhere in the neighborhood of 550 miles in the 24 weeks leading up to the race itself.  I've been very fortunate to this point to stay relatively healthy and mostly pain free.  Now, I'm definitely feeling the 15 miles that I put myself through yesterday, but overall, I'm not that much worse for the wear.

Now anyone that's a runner (or lives with a runner, or works with a runner, or talks to a runner for more than 3 minutes) can attest, someone training for a marathon or endurance event has to be a little bit nuts.  I mean, we go out, voluntarily, to run for hours on end, then feel the need to dissect every part of the run, talk about what hurts and what we should do differently next time, yet continue to run.  Run, whine productively discuss, repeat.

I found a spot-on video series over at YouTube that seems to perfectly document conversations before and after a run.  Seriously, this guy may have bugged our house for some of this material.  There's a very little bit of foul language, so proceed at your own risk, but if you do watch these (and fall into one of the aforementioned categories), don't tell me you're not laughing.

Pre-run:


Post-run:


I am a marathon runner.  I must run.

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Another Roadtrip, a Dedication and Other Updates

Sorry blog, if you've felt neglected.  It's been flippin' busy around here.  As such, this blog's going to be a little heavier on pics than brilliant writing, but let's face it - you're probably here for the pics anyway...

At last post, we'd had our first trip to the beach with the little man.  Since then, we did the Timmons family vacation thang by driving to Indiana, then Kentucky, then home.  That's about 12 hours in the car going there, and about 10 coming back.  That's a lot of time in the car.  Not surprisingly, Avett traveled better than both RA and me.

Lots of this

In Evansville, we got to catch up with my dad's side of the family and Avett got to meet his great-grandma (and she got to meet her first great-grandson).  Grandma REALLY wanted to hold this little bugger, but he's a busy dude these days.  BUSY.  We were able to get him into that pre-nap, snuggly mode and it's safe to say that both parties enjoyed their time together.

Thanks for the great bumblebeeto, Great-Grandma

A whole lot of Timmons happening here

Killing some spare time shopping the intimates.  That's my boy.

Before we shipped out of Evansville, we got to spend some time with my Uncle and cousin's crew too.  High Five "other", good-lookin' Team Timmons!

From E-ville, we headed to Louisville to see my mom's side of the fam, and some of my other favorite folks. Lots of Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and pooches.  Plenty of hospitality and good times had by all.

What's up?  I'm just eating a ball and playing with a doorstop. No big deal.

Shhh, Aunt Lynda

Avett and Emerson were fast friends

This is a crown.  OK, it MIGHT be a tiara.

Avett wasn't impressed by this giant pig

We settled back home for a few days before Ruth Ann had to go back to work and I had to take a quick work trip to Chicago.  Before I got a head cold somewhere along the way, I had a couple nice runs, at least by my standards.

Marathon training paying off?

The aforementioned head cold hit me pretty hard once I got back, which explains why I look a little like I was about to spontaneously combust in Church for Avett's dedication.  It was a really great service and a lot of family came into town to be there, which was great!  And Avett, again unsurprisingly, was a nearly perfect angel during the service.  Sorry to the folks that came - I wasn't trying to avoid you, just trying to keep my germs to myself.

It's getting hot in hrrre

Jill got a baby fix

Nanas and Omas

Mamas and Grandpas

Now, everyone is back into the "regular" work schedule.  It's not nearly as fun as the summer schedule, but that doesn't mean we're not making the most of it.  Enjoy this smattering of random pics from everyday moments with Team Timmons!

This kid likes his Grandpa

He also likes snuggling on the couch

Wrigley sighting!

Does it have wheels?  Then yes, I'd like to play with it

Grubbin'

11 Month photo shoot

And hey, real quick before you leave, can you make a donation to my NYC Marathon/Team Think Pink Rocks fundraiser right HERE?  Thanks!

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