Yogic Soundtrack

This morning as I was mid-practice of a short form Ashtanga, Fiona grabbed her tambourine, a mallet, and a maraca...my yoga soundtrack, direct feed from the universe special just for me. little moment.

Yesterday, a couple block walk to and from a pool in MJJ Crew neighborhood...someone (who shall remain nameless *ahem*) had the super-fantastic idea Little girl could use the scooter (a 3 wheel Radio Flyer) while friend-Jack used his bike. Fiona proceeded to make her way, slowly slowly slowly toward the pool...she banged her ankle...she banged her ankle again...Mercy dragged her a little while, I dragged her a little while---I say dragged because pull lends the notion that it was comfortable to bend partially over as a humpback might while handling the child-laden scooter. Anyway, we made it to the pool with little incident, thankfully. I was admittedly grumpy at the prospect of the scooter to begin with 'cause I could just see how it would play out....and I was already somewhat hungry.

The pool was great, I'm jealous that MJJ have a practical 25 yd lap pool + kiddie pool in their neighborhood, splendiferous with awnings, chaises, lifegaurds, showers, & lovely bathrooms. All it lacks is an ice cream and taco vendor---ooo, possible career opportunity for me?

So right as we've decide time is up, Fiona dumped a cup of water over a little girl's head, after which she had to apologize, ask if there was anything she could do---this mostly to the mother 'cause the one year old mainly was disturbed by the sudden-ness of it I bet. It was derned impossible to keep Fiona still long enough to attempt to teach her how to hold her breath & blow some face-in-the-water bubbles, let alone take pictures. After some tantrumming & potty breaks, we make it back to the bike/scooter parking area, donned PPE and began the journey back to MJJ house. What a journey it was.

After a decent headstart Fiona showed lots of promise on the scooter, pushing along with her right leg. Then the rest of the party quickly caught up and passed us, she again was somewhat frantic that we (read:she) would be left behind. Try as she might though she just couldn't scoot fast enough to catch up. It was really warm that day, and we were hungry. I'm proud of myself that I didn't lose my temper all the way back, remained encouraging and as positive as possible in the screaming face of Fiona's determination. She clipped her ankle several more times, each time she cried louder and longer. Eventually she just never stopped crying, pushing that scooter along CRYING, and knocking her ankle again, and CRYING, kept scooting...CRYING.

Mama: "Fiona you don't have to keep riding the scooter you can take a break."
Little Girl: "Noooo!" then the ankle again, and she's off scootin' and cryin'. Panic at being so far behind.
Mama: "Look they're waiting on us, they're just waaaay up there, it's okay."
Little Girl: crying.
Mama: at eye level "Fiona, you can stop if it hurts, it's OKAY. You learned how to scooter, that's awesome. You're really determined, that's great! Now you can stop if it hurts, okay?"
Little Girl: "Nooo, I wanna ride scooter!" sobbing.
and repeat dialogue, ALL THE WAY BACK TO PLACE OF ORIGIN.

Eventually, with about half a block to go, she did get off and walk a little ways while I carried the scooter, but immediately upon entering hearing/listening distance of Mercy & Jack & friends, she said she wanted to ride again and finished the trip in very tenacious style.
"My little endurance athlete," I said, "she wouldn't stop, she was totally determined to ride it all the way here...kept going even though it hurt."
To which my newest & dear friend Mercy replied, "GEE, Ada, I wonder where she gets that from?" *snerk*

Lounge Act

Last night's lounge act...


tee-hee! I was in giggly tears.

Fairy Dust

This morning, on the deck, with the bag of potting soil...
A big creative mess! Little Girl apparently enjoys tossing dirt in the air, so as to ensure total coverage. When she decided to come inside, I had to funnel her straight to the bathroom for an early shower (unhappy) to get the finer dust from her scalp & hair. She had dirt down her back as if she'd suddenly grown a strip of dark downy fur.
Preschooler's fairy dust.

Couple of evenings ago, on the guest room/office futon, it was extraordinarily important that she put me to bed. Fiona did it thoroughly, complete with kisses on the forehead, the tucking in, removal of the hairpin, and a lengthy fairy tale story resplendent with a prince, Peter Pan, the Princess, the little Mermaid, the king, and "somesing happens...but then somesing didn't happen"....and a dragon.

I complete my first race of the season this past weekend. It was harder than I figured, I messed up my hydration & fueling (water n' food) pretty bad, got some heat stress, and cried 'cause I didn't hit my goal of a sub 2-hour race. I did see improvement with my bike pacing & especially swim pacing compared to my first sprint. Race Report here. After an insanely busy couple of weeks just before the race things have calmed down somewhat this week, inasmuch as one might say my life with Little Girl is "calm" as busy as we have become somehow.

Fiona started gymnastics again, in her third week today. Was visibly trembling with excitement when I told her she was going to get to attend again, could barely contain herself. Little friend Jack is in the same class, and while he sits there with some solemnity following instructions, Fiona is off bouncing about testing the young teachers' boundaries & limits with them trying to keep her on task. I think she's just so excited it's hard for her to keep on task!

Fairies, again?

We read the My Very Own Fairy Tale book twice today, once at naptime then again at bed time. I almost have the entire book memorized, my recitation lacks accuracy. (The book is about a group of fairies that need to crown a princess, they each bring a letter with a descriptive word that eventually spells out Fiona's full name, a company called IseeMe.) Here's some Amazing: as soon as I'm really starting to get complacent with Fiona's development something new happens, and everything is refreshed. It's always been that way, when I got used to her sitting she started crawling, used to her crawling she started walking,etc. Well, the fairy story has really been getting on my nerves lately, just 'cause I'm so tired of reading it. But tonight, Little Girl, decided that she wanted to identify each letter of her name in the text, she did so very successfully on every page. Wow. Suddenly the book was new again, I found a new zest in its reading.

One of my favorite girl friends came to visit this weekend. It was hard for Fiona to accept that Carrie wasn't here for her. I have to note how comforting it was to have a long time friend around, especially one that knows how to deal with small children so well. Carrie is a bright star. After she flew away on Sunday I realized that we didn't take any pictures at all. Too sad.

We've been spending lots of time with the MJJ crew, if I can find a way to post it, to follow is a video, priceless 3 year old view of the world. Fiona wandering with the camera while it's taking video, ending with a would-be shot of Jack.

In other news, I'm in the hunt for my perfect wetsuit, though it's obvious at this point I will have to rent own for my first race this weekend---hopefully I can find a place that has one available. This race sort of snuck up on me, my head was buried in organization & cleaning last week such that I didn't even attempt to look ahead until today. Essentially this sprint is a training exercise though, probably for transitions, I know I'll make some new personal best 'cause my training times have improved so drastically this past few months. I'm excited!

p.s. there was a beautiful, full arch rainbow today when we left the gym, Fiona said she wanted to to "that way, to tha end". :)

one of my days this week

house cleaning/organizing first thing this morning
to tiny person gymnastics & short run
to home for food, refreshment, carseat transfer to Truck
to Miss M's for The Blankie's Ribbon repair
to far away recycling place for leaves that The Man never took back in November
to home to pick up branches galore from landlord "gardening" extravaganza this past weekend
to B-field branch recycling
to home to reload truck with branches that had been sitting in yard since before we moved in (must trip back to branch recycle later I guess)
then re-claiming cars, clean out plus-numerous wrappers, cig-boxes, energy drink bottles from The Man's truck---'cause that's love ;)
INto house to assess what work remains
after brief explosion at Little Girl for not moving fast enough getting plethora of toys back to her room---realize I'm hungry, I should eat very soon, otherwise there'll be a melt down
to computer to lament that I haven't trained much this week 'cause of all personal agenda, remind myself that this is a hobby and it's okay
on phone to arrange Little Girl care early tomorrow morning for my looong ride & brick

yeauh

next up, dinner, the real house clean, prep for tomorrow hopefully including a bike chain cleaning....
that's been the day