Happy 1st Birthday, Guy!

Yesterday Guy celebrated his 1st birthday. Our house was filled with not-yet-played with Christmas gifts, but it was time for another celebration.

We had a small party with Grandma and Grandpa Hauner and Mary, Randy, and Everett. Guy enjoyed his cake, but wasn't thrilled with it (it's not baby yogurt, you know). He even managed to keep his shirt on - if you remember Lincoln's first birthday, he ended up eating and opening gifts shirtless. Guy received lots of great gifts, including his very own vacuum cleaner and a mailbox that Lincoln's been playing with all morning.

Guy has really come a long way in his first year. He has been walking since Thanksgiving and can even run a bit. He says "mommy", "daddy", and a form of "banana" (I even thought he said "kitty" once, but he hasn't repeated it). He waves bye-bye and tells himself "no" when he gets too close to the stairs (even though he'll still go up). His favorite game is wrestling with Lincoln, and his favorite foods are yogurt and bananas.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone! We've had a great day - luckily last night Santa was able to find our house in the snow storm.

After opening presents, which included matching his- and hers- sweatshirts for Linda and me (courtesy of Lincoln and his daycare), we all bundled up and went out to clear the driveway of the 6 inches of snow we got last night. It didn't take long before we were all cold and crying, so he headed back inside for lunch.

Lincoln and I went out later in the day to practice skiing with the skis Grandma King got him in Colorado last year. He's a natural but was soon cold and wet, so back inside we went.

Now we're off to Mary and Randy's for dinner with them, Everett, and Grandpa and Grandpa Hauner. Best wishes to all.

Santa Pictures

Last weekend, my work had our annual Kid's Christmas Party - complete with Santa, crafts, and cookies. We all went, and Lincoln and Guy had a great time.

Before the party, Lincoln had declared that he would not sit on Santa's lap and that he didn't want to talk to Santa either. Guy was indifferent.

When our turn was up, we assumed it would be a "Guy-only" picture. However, we ended up luring Lincoln near Santa with the promise of candy canes, and at the last minute, we sat him on his lap. It all worked very well.

Although Linda and I encouraged Lincoln to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas, he remained silent and we all decided later that maybe a letter would be more appropriate. Overall, it was a great day.

Belated Thanksgiving

We just got back from an extended weekend in Lincoln, but as most of my time there was spent doing super-secret Christmas stuff we don't really have any good photos to share. Instead I'll give you a belated Thanksgiving update.

After spending the morning with my parents, we travelled to Hastings for Thanksgiving with the extended King family. Afterwards they played the traditional football game in balmy 60 degree weather. Even Lincoln and I got in on the action!

Here's the actual folks that played. Note that they're wearing matching jerseys.

We spent the rest of the weekend relaxing at Scott's parents. We spent one afternoon walking through Werner park with the boys. Although there was a "path" mowed through the grass, it was still an adventure trying to maneuver the sit'n'stand.

Lincoln also demonstrated his hopscotch skills at the local elementary school.

There was lots of other fun events during the week - Joni's baby shower, Lincoln's first attempt at driving a remote-control car, and even (of course!) some Christmas shopping. I don't think the business will let up until after Christmas.

V is for Visitors

My parents were in town this weekend, so the kids got a good dose of Grandma and Grandpa King. They picked both boys up from daycare on Friday afternoon, which is a special treat for Lincoln. He looked forward to it all week.

Friday night, we braved the adventure of restaurant dining and ate at Mama's on 39th street with Mom, Dad, Tracy, and Joni. It's a great diner that's mostly kid friendly and has pages of omelets to choose from (amongst other things).

My parents left for home on Saturday afternoon, and the kids were ready for dinner and bed. As you can see from the picture, Guy melded dinner and bed into one event - is that "binner"? He was beat after a lot of running around (literally) and battling with two new front teeth - that makes 8 teeth in total.

Walker, Baby Ranger

For the last few weeks, Guy has been able to take 1-2 steps on his own. This week he started walking in earnest, at times going all the way across the living room. In this video he's showing off his new skill, although he's moving much slower than he normally does. We started taping this after he'd been chasing Lincoln around all evening, so by the time we recorded this he was pretty tired.

Picture Time Again

We had our fall family portraits done with Stacey Schmitz a couple of weeks ago. As usual they turned out great. He took some great photos of the whole family, but I really like these photos of Guy and Lincoln together.

Trick or Treat!

This weekend, Guy celebrated his first halloween. Luckily, he recovered just in time to enjoy the fun after being sick Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (lucky for Mom and Dad too). As you can see from the pictures, Guy loved playing in the leaves. For all of you that remember this post from November 2006, Guy certainly enjoys the leaves more than Lincoln did.

Since this was the first halloween that Lincoln was really into trick-or-treating, we did some extra walking and visited most of the houses in the neighborhood (at least our little piece of it), and Lincoln has the treats to prove it.

Story-time

We read stories to Lincoln every night before bed, and when he finds a book he likes we end up reading it over and over (and over and over) again. I had no idea how much sank in until he decided to read some books to us tonight. Scott captured a bit of his storytelling on film - this is actually the third book he read to us (and the least memorized). Extra credit to anyone that can name the book he's reading.



There was a snippet of Guy in that last video, but in case that wasn't enough for your daily Guy fix we have some video of him playing with Lincoln's pull-toy. Guy has had a fever off and on since Wednesday (so apparently the daycare wasn't just imagining it...) so I was home with him today. He seemed a little better this evening, and we're hoping he be recuperated by Trick-or-Treating tomorrow. (Double bonus points if you can name the story Lincoln's reading in this video)

Flu season?

Considering both kids are in school/daycare and Linda and I work, we feel very lucky not to have been sick yet this year. That being said, I had to pick Guy up from daycare today - he had a (very slight) fever of 100.1 F. We think his daycare is a bit paranoid about their kids and the flu, which isn't such a bad thing, but it stinks when it's your kid who gets sent home.

Anyway, Guy was acting fairly normal this afternoon, so we'll see what tonight and tomorrow bring. We think he's teething again because he's been chomping on everything in sight for the last few days. We'll keep you posted.

26.2

This weekend, Tracy and I ran the Kansas City Marathon. We both finished the full 26.2 miles and beat our goal times. It was one of the most difficult and fulfilling things that I have ever done. Our entire family was there to cheer us on, and the way the course is setup, they got to see us run by a couple of times.

One Cold Festival

The Shawnee Indian Mission is right next door to Lincoln's school. Each year they put out signs about their fall festival, but we've never actually gone to it. On Saturday afternoon we had some (rare) free time so we decided to check it out (it's free!). Unfortunately for us, though, the high temperature on Saturday was around 40 degrees.

The festival was a lot of fun, but it would have been even more fun if it wasn't so cold. Lincoln won a cupcake at the cupcake walk, and there were historic re-enactors (and tipis) as well as crafts to make or purchase. The boy scouts also had an obstacle course that will be fun for the boys when they get older.

As you can see in the photos, Guy slept for pretty much the entire trip. As for us, the highlight of the festival was the hot apple cider (yum!).

50%

Last Monday I took Guy in for his 9-month appointment. He is almost 19 pounds, which puts him in the 50th percentile for weight, and his 28 inches is the 75th percentile. Guy seems huge next to Lincoln (and weighs almost the same), so it is actually surprising to me that he is *only* in the 50th percentile. At the rate he is going, we're predicting that Guy will outweigh Linc by his first birthday.

Guy didn't have any shots scheduled, but I took advantage of the appointment to get him a flu vaccine. He took it like a trooper (didn't even cry!) and so far doesn't seem to have had any reaction. Since this is his first flu shot he only got 1/2 a dose, and we have to take him back for the second half. Scott and I will be getting the flu shot at our workplaces, and we should be able to get one for Lincoln at his school or our county health department. Now we just have to see if we'll be able to get the H1N1 vaccine...

Here's a few shots from this morning of Guy getting some exercise with his walker. He does great pushing this toy around, but he's not so great at steering. He usually ends up stuck up against a wall until we turn him around.

At the park

Last Friday, we got to spend the evening with Everett. Lincoln and Everett have finally gotten to ages where then can play together and actually have fun. We took advantage of the nice Fall weather to go to the park where Lincoln and Everett got to practice balancing and have good time chasing each other.

Summer League flashback

This is another flashback post. We haven't gotten too many new pictures recently, so we're relying on the "flashback" to keep things interesting

That being said, here's what we've been doing lately -- I've been running a lot getting ready for the KC Marathon, Linda has been knitting Christmas stockings, Lincoln is enjoying preschool, and Guy is getting teeth and practicing walking (and falling).

Now, back to the flashback. In August, Tracy and I wrapped up our ultimate frisbee summer league with the annual year-end tournament. Linda, the boys, and Joni also came out to watch. It was a sunny, fun day.

Tour of Missouri 2009 Recap

Last week was the 2009 Tour of Missouri. My parents were in town, and we spent the weekend riding our bikes, talking about bikes, and watching people ride bikes. It was a great weekend.

The 2010 Tour of Missouri is potentially on the State's budget chopping block. There are many sites/blogs out there dedicated to saving the Tour of Missouri. Check out the sites out and write a letter of support to the Governor of Missouri, if you'd like.

Here are some pictures from the time trial in Sedalia, MO on Friday.

Dave Zabriskie - Tour of Missouri 2009 winner

Levi Leipheimer

George Hincapie

Dance Party

Scott and I never really went to any wild parties in our younger days, so it's somewhat of a surprise that evenings at our house have turned into a crazy dance scene. These videos show some of the shenanigans that go on - the first one shows Guy's new dance moves, including the infamous "head dance". The second one shows Lincoln playing a tune on his improvised "guitar" while a reveler does some damage in the background.

A day at the zoo

Last Sunday Tracy, Randy, and I got up early and rode the 2009 Tour of Missouri Stage 7 circuit in Kansas City. While we were out having fun, our families (i.e. wives) were back at home making us a great re-fueling breakfast of blueberry and chocolate chip pancakes.

After breakfast, we went to the zoo to enjoy the beautiful 75 degree day. We tried to get pictures of all the kids in one shot, but that proved to be quite difficult. Here's the best we could do.

Lincoln and Everett really liked these rocking chairs that overlooked the lake. Guy's sitting in the new "sit and stand" stroller we bought. It proved to be worth every penny as Lincoln hopped on and off throughout the zoo visit.

There's a little cave in the "Africa" part of the zoo, and the boys had a fun time running in and out of it and smiling for the camera through one of the cracks.

Of course, no blog post would be complete without a picture of Guy sleeping. He stayed awake for most of trip, but by the end he was ready to go home and continue his nap.

Let's go jogging

I've been at home this week with the boys while Linda was working in Florida. Yesterday evening, we were getting a bit stir crazy, so we collectively decided "when the going gets tough, the tough go jogging."

I packed the boys up in the jogging/bike stroller, and off we went. After a quick 2-mile jog (with a brief stop at the park), we all felt better and were ready for bed.

Getting an education

Lincoln starts preschool on Wednesday, so Grandma and Grandpa King helped us get an early start on his education this weekend.

We started off with an anatomy lesson, assisted with matching glow-in-the-dark skeleton pjs for Lincoln and Guy (courtesy of Grandma King). This photo was taken while Scott and I were out dinner to celebrate our anniversary - 8 years! Scott's parents and Tracy and Joni entertained the boys while we had a nice evening to ourselves.

Next, Lincoln learned about Tractors (and chickens, and cows, and tepees, and...) at Deanna Rose farmstead.   It was a beautiful, cool day - perfect weather for a morning outside.

Finally, Lincoln took a flying lesson from Grandpa King.  He had a lot of fun watching Grandma and Grandpa fly away in their plane.

Guy may be too young to fly the plane, but he's old enough to help Grandpa do his pre-flight check. Here he is inspecting the underside of the wing. It was an exciting weekend, and now we need a weekend to recover from our weekend!

A big announcement (...but not from us)!

In case you haven't heard, Tracy and Joni recently made a big announcement. I won't spoil it here, but you can read all about it on their new blog. (www.tracyandjoniking.blogspot.com)

Speed Racer

Our boys have proven this weekend that they're both shaping up to be good athletes.  Lincoln entered his first bike race (the kid's race in the annual Tour of Kansas City) and won a gold medal (technically, it's a gold participation medal).  He raced in the training-wheels division, and most of the kids were a lot bigger than him (and fast!).    Scott took some exciting video during the actual race.  I was cheering from the sidelines while Guy took a catnap.

 Guy's daycare was closed last Thursday and Friday, so Scott and I took turns staying home with him.  Also a budding athlete, Guy spent most of his days at home climbing on everything and anything available.  I walked out of the kitchen to this sight on Friday morning:  Guy had pulled himself up on the ottoman.  It won't be long before he's running races, too!

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

As anyone with a 7-month old knows, you use a lot of diapers.  To help do our part in reusing things, Guy is lucky enough to get a new "toy" every week or so.  Here's a picture of him playing in his old diaper box.  He just loves saving the environment.

Lincoln does his part to reduce his carbon emissions too by utilizing his new railroad truck. It's a lot of work, but it really saves on gas! (This is a display from the KC Rail Experience at Union Station, by the way, and it's really cool.).

To complete the environmental trifecta, my Mom "recycled" a bike for Lincoln by rescuing it from being unused in someone's garage. Lincoln loves it (he's been riding every night), and we're impressed how quickly he picked up peddling.