Unposted Pics

Here's some Kiki pics that were hidden away which I forgot to post -- yeah, lots more too. On the eve of Kian's 3rd birthday I'm getting a little sentimental about the little boy days since he's becomes a "big boy".

All growd up.

The Little Big Boy.

Playdoh Snake: Daddy's Got Skilz

Scary at first...

...then fast friends.

Let's Backtrack...

I took a whole series of B&W pics that I thought I'd already posted, but apparently not. Here's a few along with some color pics and some from random other times.

Incoming!

Railin it!

Kian and Daddy's color coordinated bikes.

Father and son day at the Flight Museum: this is where Kian got his
first taste of the Blue Angels with an innocent enough looking exhibit. O boy.

Then onto Chinatown for Quesadilla at a sports pub.

Parting the trees parting shot.

Biggest Day Ever

Those "firsts" monuments seem to come in waves, and today a tidal wave rolled in. A tsunami.

Kian came up to me as he was playing outside and said he had to use the potty. Not a super big deal, he's been peeing in the potty for almost a month or more now, but I asked and he said he needed to go poopoo. Again, the alarms didn't go off for me because I thought it was another false alarm, but Oma took him up and sure enough, today he pooped in the toilet for the first time. Woohoo! This represents potential big diaper savings for us, we're superstoked.

But even cooler than that, for me at least, is today was Kian's first pedal-powered ride on two wheels! He finally guilted me into setting up his little Fatboy (I was trying to hold off until his 3rd birthday in a few weeks -- it's a hand-me-down bike that I bought for my nephew Reid when he was 3 and was also used by his brother Justin, so its becoming an heirloom. I cleaned it up, put on a set of new tires, new chain, we picked out a new saddle for it today, and just as I thought might happen it did: I pushed him off and he pedaled away without a hitch. Never a doubt, hardly a wobble, just some early issues with the coaster brake but he seemed to have that all figured out in 20-30 minutes. Fun stuff, although I'm hoping he doesn't totally give up on the scoot.

This maybe 30-minutes after his first try.

Sorry, no pics of poopin...

... only pedalin'

June's Going Zoom

Yep, more excuses. My excuse this time is that I've been so busy making excuses that I haven't had time to post. We really shouldn't make excuses because its not for a lack of cuteness, and coolness, on the baby front.

Kian is amazing us DAILY! He's heading towards three -- yeah, 3 years old -- and he's blowing us away with his amazing little brain. His vocabulary, and even his grammar, is pretty incredible. He's probably not ahead of other toddlers his age but its a phenomenal occurrence nonetheless. Lots of energy, lots of curiosity, and we can engage him at so many levels now that its so much fun.

Camping with pool access... wait, that's not camping.

Yeah, it was pretty easy camping.

Let's go that way!

Yep, back at the pool with... shhh margaritas!

Here are a few pics we took last weekend on a short but sweet cycling jaunt up into the San Juan islands. We drove the RV up to Anacortes one evening where we had a Tortuga dinner, then spent the evening playing around the Marina: walking the docks and checking out boats, and riding our bikes in the vast grass and plethora of trails. Next morning we boarded a boat for Lopez where we hung out for two days, riding, hitting the pool, and... maybe the pics should tell the rest of the story.

Wawhat, Its June Already?

Flippin Flip Is Finally Fixed

White men can't dance, sure, but what about white babies?
No one ever makes fun of white babies.

Citizen Kiki riding public transportation.



Daygame in April: Kian can wave!

Hippity hoppin on the skoot.

Daddy Goes Down

I've hardly raced all year, so why did I have choose tonight? I almost didn't go, and then when I went I almost didn't race because some friends had just finished their race and were going to stroll home easily and get a beer en route. I was tempted but then a teammate called me out, so I feel like I was forced to race. I needed the workout, I wanted to race, so it wasn't hard to twist my arm.

5 or 6 laps into a 35-lap race some young clown on a semi-pro canadian team who was sitting on the front as we nailed it at 30+mph decided to give the whole peleton that infamous "look". NEVER look back when you've got dudes on your wheel: the first 10-12 guys went down like a trainwreck and I was right in the middle. I lost some skin in very interesting patterns and the bruising on my leg might be equally as artistic in the morning, but what really hurts is that both my wheels might have been lost. My DA front is for sure a goner and the rear is a wonky mess. I won't even mention the retail value of these, let alone my very excellent replacement price: ouch!

Could've been worse, but I could have been swilling a mid-ride beer with bicycle buds while that bike wreck was going on. Could have been waaaaaaaaay better.

Could've been worse.

Long Time Slackin

Play ball!

Its been months now since I've had a regular habit of blogging and now that summer is a coming and so are the grandparents, maybe its a mute effort to start up again now? Naw, who am I kidding: that attitude ignores that I'm doing this for us as much as for anyone else and I've got quite a few pics that need a place on the internet to land. Here are a few of the older pics on our cameras and to follow there will be more, hoping to bring us back up to speed over the next few days.

Spring is here and spring is baseball; baseball has sprung and Kian has sprouted! Kian has had his glove out and is getting his swing down and his arm in shape. He's got a pretty mean little cut, check out the vid. Kian and I coasted down the hill on our bikes to the ballpark last month and caught the most important innings before we'd all had enough (Mariners, especially). We used to have a clear shot of the stadium from our kitchen window but new green leaves on trees have obscured that view.

These parting shots below are from an evening along the central California coast on my way back up from a cycling "training camp" with friends in Los Alamos, CA. 2,500 glorious but spendy miles in the Tortuga! Worth every CO2 particle emitted.

Big City Beach Days: Two Of 'Em

Kiki riding shotgun in the Rickshaw.

One warm day in April we loaded the family and some lunch goodies into the Tortuga and headed out to Alki with the urban masses to enjoy some sun: it was a distant sun, but if you dared bare your skin and ignored the goosebumps, you could faintly feel the solar radiation and could almost imagine that a warm and tropical place existed in the world. Shit, we had fun out there, pics don't lie, check it here!



A few days or weeks later, I forget now, Kian and I took the RV the other direction and parked on Lake WA no more than 2-miles from the house, but waterside. We kicked around on the paths and trails, and I towed Kian in the chariot up Lake WA Blvd to Seward Park with our friend Jonny. Another supergreat day out and about.

Ooooops, Another Month Down

Where to start? How about right now! A few months ago I was about to come clean about how Kian had become this little unruly guy that Annie and I just couldn't control. He was smarting off non-stop, was having tantrums non-stop, and we couldn't figure out what we were doing wrong but as parents we second guessed our talents and our strategies. We thought about counseling, started reading more books and baby raising blogs, but sometime in the past month or two he's magically shaped up and he's back to being the more reasonable, happy little man that he used to be. We relieved, really really relieved, and life is a little easier.

It could be, as has been the case on an almost constant basis since his birth, that he just trained us. It might have just taken us those 4-6 months to respond correctly to his actions as we finally hit on the correct formula.

Waaaaaay Tooooooo Long

It's been a MONTH since we posted. Woooops! Excuses? Yeah, I've got plenty so get comfortable. The first one is that I have created some posts but I haven't posted them yet, they are saved for further editing and photo adding.

In case anyone is interested, a blurb about the GET program, the education credits program that we started for Kian. He's got over 100 credits already and if anyone wants to add more, best to do so by April 30th to get the current, lower prices. http://www.get.wa.gov/importantdates.shtml


Nextly, our excuse is that Annie and I are both simultaneously at work... imagine that! For the past 3-years its been one or the other, a sort of magical thing, actually, considering that Kian is 2-1/2 and so we've had the luxury of more time around the little man. Reality has struck us though and we are both enjoying our respective grinds. Annie is at Virginia-Mason Hospital doing a nursing thing.

Here we go again... no time to finish this post but instead of saving for later I'm hitting publish now. Tomorrow would mark more than a month without a post and we just can't have that.

Luvvies from all of us here!

Daddy Does California

It was supposed to be a family vacation. For all of us the timing was just right: I was start my job in 3-weeks, Kian had a 10-day break from daycare, and Annie was still looking for work but should have been able to do this from the road. With one exception: interview.

So I had to go it alone. My amazing friend Bryn fixed up my RV with just a pair of pliers and blow torch and so I loaded up the RV and set sail on Monday with a couple paying passengers who'm it connected with on Craigslist. Christopher and I hit it off, a good thing because he and his little Chihuahua pooch hung out with me for two-nights. I left him in Santa Rosa to make his own way into the Bay Area while I took my bike out of the bathroom and hit the roads under 85 and sunny skies. Awesome, that first day was one of the best rides of my entire trip: Kings Ridge. An 85 mile epic on steep, beautiful, narrow roads that took me out to the coastline and then back up through the Spring-lush rolling hills.

Next day my legs were knackered so I eased around San Francisco hitting all the sites and cool spots, once again under sunny skies and over 80 degrees. The city was outside after having been beaten by a 2-week storm. I lucked out, finally, and hit the weather just right. 70-miles in 7-hours on the bike: coffee shops, Chinatown quick eats, afternoon beer along Hwy-1, and lots of other stops. That night I drove to Santa Cruz and took out the mountain bike for a sweet 4-hour ride on coastline singletrack, then up into the hills and back via the University. Crazy ride, and all without a shirt on. Felt so good at the time but I would pay for this mistake with a pretty hefty sunburn. Fortunately Bryn was to the rescue.

She and Michael and a large 20-person gang of mostly Seattle cyclists were down in Los Alamos, near Santa Barbara, for a 1-week cycling camp and Bryn was my lotion applicator. The dudes wouldn't touch me. The next 6 days we rode epic after epic, mostly all of them leaving right from the hotel and with much needed warmth and sun.