Talking to a 4 yr old

This morning Tyler we were talking to Tyler and he said a few things that made me laugh.

We were talking about Florida somehow
Tyler : We went to the beach in Florida.
Me : Oh yeah, did you like the beach.
Tyler : Yeah!!
Me : You want to go to the beach again?
Tyler : Yeah, but i want to go to a different beach
Me : What do you mean different beach?
Tyler : Another different beach in another place..
I say that truly is spoken like a true Millser!!

Now that he's in charge of his own toilet activities(yay!), we often go to the bathroom and find "surprises" for us(boo!!). Often time it looks a little suspicious. Hence this discussion.
Alan : Tyler, did you wipe your bottom?
Tyler : Yeah...
Alan : Are you sure? I don't see any wipes in there.
Tyler : I did! I'm not lying(a little defensive there.. hehe)
Alan : Well, you'd better, or you're going to get pigu(bottom) owwies(pain).
(I had to of course add in some fear factor)
Me : Yeah, and you're going to get worms too.
(He started to look a little concerned)
Tyler : Then, are the birds going to get the worms from my pigu??
Alan and I had to laugh about it!

Early 4th of July Cake

My company had an early 4th of July barbeque and i thought it was time to debut my cakes at the office. We do have a cookie lady who makes seriously good cookies that even a non-cookie eater like myself, find it impossible to resist!

So, i thought i'd start off with something easy to like and simple. Chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting with fruits. I think it was well received(or they could just be very polite because i'm new!)

Easy 4th of July Cake.

Batman and his stuntman

I always found kids having an opinion about what they want to wear, seriously, quite annoying. Especially when they insist on wearing what they want. So, to make it easier on the process, i often have to resort to their favorite characters.

Tyler and Cody has recently calling super heroes - "tonk tonk to-tonk tonk". It's like a song. Maybe they picked it up from a song or something. So, they would say, i want to wear my "tonk tonk to-tonk tonk" jammies. Makes it worse when i also have to repeat it, "Your tonk tonk to-tonk tonk jammies is in the wash!!" Even THEY found it hilarious when i repeat such stupid statements!!!

Anyways, since we're trying to transition Cody into big boy jammies, we had to go buy more, you guessed it,  tonk tonk to-tonk tonk jammies!!!

You have to look mean!.... Like this??

No, like this!!!

Maybe i'll just blend in

This is what you have to constantly live with.. flying kids!!

And he dared to say, "you made me jump, mommy!!"

Free weekend for the Millsers, no way!

On Thursday, over dinner with the Chandrasekaras, i realized we were faced with a free weekend with no plans! We made plans to have Indian food but only to find out Alan has a run the next day, so i had to cancel(very uncharacteristic of me, especially over authentic Indian food!!).

Anyways, i figured a free weekend was a good chance to catch up with people. I made a few calls and made impromptu plans, some fell thru, some worked out. 

Saturday morning, due to VERY short notice, we managed to sneak in a hike at our local Coal Creek Trail so that Tyler and Mateo can meet while we catch up with Adam. The boys as usual had fun racing each other down the trail, catching bugs, watching wildlife(birds and squirrels, ha!) and oh, rediscovering "treasures".

The kids checking out the fishes in the stream

The boys rediscovering their treasure.. and for once, we had stuff to drop off!

Tyler picked up a new pair of glasses!

Then we came back for a quick lunch and nap while i baked some chocolate cakes. Haven't baked in weeks, so, had to do it! 

Then when Tyler woke up and finished his homework, we went out for a Mommy-son activity. I promised to take him to watch The Avengers. We managed to get Mateo and Vero to join us but alas, a few minutes into the movie, they had a power outage and Mateo left. We stuck around and enjoyed the rest of the movie. Tyler is a big fan of super heroes, so it was fun for him to experience it on big screen. When asked what his favorite part of the movie was, he said, "It was when Hulk roared to wake Ironman up! So funny, mommy!" and of course that made Hulk his favorite also because "Hulk is so strong!". We weren't too familiar with Captain America, Thor(or Thorn as Tyler calls it, tee hee!) or Hulk and thought we'd ask Uncle Damith about them when we see him next. 

He was quite excited to go see The Avengers

While i had my one on one time with Tyler, Alan spent his time with Cody in the pool, working on his swimming which is hopefully coming along.

When we got home, the Heides were already at our house, hungry and demanding for food! We quickly put some burgers on and fries and some veggies and fruits and called it dinner. As it was still nice out, we moved our table onto the deck to enjoy the outdoors. The wind did curiously out of the sudden pick up to try to chase us back in, but we refused to move!! We enjoyed catching up with Jim who we don't see very often and the boys got to show Sienna their rowdy sides, which disgusted Princess Sienna no end!!

The kids practicing t-ball

Dinner on the deck

Sienna has captivated an audience

Quiz : how fast does it take to mess up the front room?!

We had a slow start on Sunday morning because i refused to get out of bed. The kids finally managed to persuade me out of bed at 8:30 am! After breakfast, Alan came back from his run and we got everybody ready to go to Denver to meet Hans to check out a new Malaysian restaurant.

It is always fun to meet Hans at restaurants as we like to critique their food together and make observations about how restaurants are run. Anyways, after that we walked a little to go check out a farmer's market. It was a super hot day and when we got back to the car, i found out it was 105 F!!! Ugh.. no wonder i felt like melting!!!

Me and the boys

My fellow foodie who makes me look normal

Alan and the boys

The heat knocked us out and the kids and I passed out for a 3-hr nap! When we woke up, it was still quite hot and we thought ice cream was in order. And since we had a little time before dinner, we also went to get some new pajamas for the kids!

So, as i said.. free weekend?? what free weekend?

Lyons 5K - Fast hot run

I have the Lyons 5K a couple of times before (2008 and 2009) and both times I managed to record exactly the same time of 23:54 finishing 124 and 126th. So this time I was hoping for a faster time, despite the record heat and threat of forest fires...

I was pleased to do a pretty fast run, finishing in just over twenty two minutes, my lap splits show that I really need to work on my third mile (6:45, 7:02, 7:26), but pretty pleased as I just finished Mt Evans last week

At the finish line !!, okay the back garden.

High heart rate, probably due to the heat

Big Improvement of nearly 2 minutes for this course

Vero's 40th celebration

Veronica had a 40th birthday celebration and i was happy to be included in her hot Latinas party. It's so fun to go out with these ladies as they are so full of life and so funny and loud and they really crack me up. They also do their best to outdress each other and i always feel like i'm part of a Latin soap opera!

We went to Salt in Boulder and had a great time eating good food and laughing at all their funny mother in law stories. It really is like the soap opera! haha!!

The chicas

The birthday girl

Another fun night out!

The rest of Father's Day

Alan had requested for a quiet Father's Day as he had a huge run the day before up a 14'er. So, i was happy to comply and didn't make any elaborate plans.

We spent the morning taking the kids to the park to practice their cycling and in the evening, we went to the pool for a quick swim.

For dinner, i made Alan his favorite - steak dinner and the kids got to sit at the dinner table all made up. Tyler was particularly impressed and was wow'ing at the fact we had candles on the table! hehe..

Our "romantic" candle light dinner

Unfortunately, i overcooked my steak.. ugh..

Meeting Steffen's parents

Steffen has been a dear friend for a long time and when we heard that his parents were going to be in town, we thought it'd be nice to meet them and would love to have them over for dinner. So, plans were made.

So, early in the morning, I got the kids to help me clean the house a little and planted some flowers on the deck and gave them deck a good scrubbing. They were quite happy to help out(especially Tyler).

Tyler proud of the flowers he helped to plant

Cody was the scrubber

Unfortunately, Steffen's dad didn't feel too well and had to back out. But Steffen's mom and Anne still were able to make it. I am sure Helga was worried about her husband but the trooper that she was, she put on a brave face and came to meet with us and we felt very honored.

I had a good time talking to Helga and it was really nice to see them. Apparently she also reads our blogs and have seen hundreds of our pictures. She thought it was funny that we call Steffen our adopted son.

Helga and I enjoying a glass of wine

Grilling sambal shrimp and chicken satay

Anne and Helga

Helga was very adventurous to try all the Malaysian food that i threw at her. Now we know where Steffen got it from!

Our other guests who were there too that day.

Anyways, it was a short visit but we were really happy that we got to meet at least one parent and hopefully we can catch his dad before they head home. But like Steffen, they love doing stuff and keeping busy, so we'll see! :)

Some people are so nice..

So, i had found some cookies in the break room at work and ate them. Turned out to be the best chocolate chip cookie i've ever had. So, i went to the guy whose wife made the cookie and tried to wrangle a recipe out of her. He said, she's more than happy to share.

The next day, when i got to my desk, i saw this:

My own personal pile of warm cookies, nice note, the recipe and even the ingredient

Now, how nice was that?!! 

Then, at lunch, i went to my usual Japanese place and my favorite sushi chef went on to prepare me my special meal. Check out the spread! 

My lunch spread

So, i have to say i was quite inspired to be a better person and want to be as nice as these people. :)

Tyler's initial swimming video

And since i'm on a roll with video uploading, i thought i'd also upload a video of Tyler's first swimming effort! This was taking back in April when he first finally cracked swimming. As he never liked water over his face, getting him here was quite the journey(mostly taken by daddy!).

Tyler's initial swimming

He's since got over his swimming fears and enjoy frolicking in the water without much care. Diving and doing an underwater flips are some of his tricks. He also enjoys using his snorkeling masks to do longer swims. I'll post more pictures when i get a chance. 

Tyler's Brown Bear video

This is the video of Tyler doing his Brown Bear Brown Bear performance. Thought it'd be nice for the grandparents to see it! :) It's been a few weeks, but i've just gotten around to uploading it!

I find it very endearing and so innocent as Tyler was never big on performing.

His turn is about 1:50 of the video.

Tyler's class doing the Brown Bear Brown Bear reading

Tyler finally rides with no training wheels

Tyler was a natural bike rider as he learned to ride the bike at 2 yrs old on his own. However, getting him off the training wheels has been a struggle as he is unwilling to even try.

We saw a guy teaching his son to ride his bike on the grassy slopes at our neighbourhood park and I went over to say hi and to show Tyler how it was done. The next day, Alan took him to try it and when i came to watch the next day, i was blown away when he just rode down the grassy slopes. Riding on the pavement was the next obstacle as he was afraid of falling.

So, to get over that fear, i told him i'd give him "Ironman knee pads". He was intrigued and again the next time i saw him in the park, this is what he was doing!

Video of Tyler's cycling

So, good job to Daddy! Good job to Tyler!! Yay! Now, we just have to work on starting.. !!! :)

Tyler getting ready for his ride

The reward for his willingness - The Avengers t-shirt

Happy Father Day 2012

Breakfast in bed, a new pair of cycling shoes, and the family wishing me happy fathers day.  A great way to start the day..

Is that three people or four?

Three lazy family members

Cycling Shoes

Another 14er conquered - Mt Evans

Mt Evans is the closest 14er to Denver, but it wasn't crossed off as there is a road going to the top, and its a fairly easy one.

So this year I signed up for Mt Evans Ascent which is a 14.5 mile running race up the mountain that starts at 10,600 feet and finishes at 14,264 feet.

They have a cutoff of 2.5 hours for the first 9 miles and the course must be completed in 4.5 hours, which on the flat and not at altitude is pretty easy.  Some people say this is the same effort as running a marathon.

The best time for this is 1 hour 37 minutes which is crazy fast !! The winner this year did 1 hour 47 minutes,I managed to complete it in 3 hours and 45 minutes, , which is okay but I was one of the slowest for sure as there were a lot of good runners on the course.

Great sight !!

I finished in 320 place out of 369 !! (the start list showed 456 people)

Just as it finished, the weather turned nasty and we had to wait around for an hour in the snow and hail while we waited for buses to bring us back down the hill in foggy conditions.

I am pleased to have done this one, not sure I would do it again, as it is basically 14.5 miles of slogging uphill on a mountain.  I would probably have preferred half the distance with the same elevation gain, especially if I had done some training beforehand.

Lucky for me my next race is only a 1 miler and its downhill !!

With my medal

This is a tough course for sure !!

Course gets much steeper over the last 5 miles

Things that Cody says

Cody had a late start in speech but between 18 months and 2 yrs, he had made up the lag and has been fully speaking right after he turned 2(i think, see, this is the problem is you don't blog it right away).

Here are some snippets of conversation we have:

I was driving him to school and had a dress hanging in the car for a party later that night.
Cody : Cute dress, mommy!
Me : Did you say cute dress?
Cody : yeah! It's even got a belt on it!
Me : (i wonder where he learns that from, must be from daycare coz the girls got cute dresses) hehehe..

He was looking in the mirror and saw that he had a little spot on his forehead. He was quite unhappy about it and started to poke it.
Cody : (whining) I don't need this....i don't need this!!!
Me : It's ok, it's only a pimple. Don't poke it, it'll get worse..
Cody : I not poking my pimple, mommy..

Later in school, i heard him tell his friends..
Cody : i got a pimple on my head!!
Me : ha!

And at random times he would profess his love to us. The funniest ones is when we would be driving and he would say it out loud.. "I love you, Tyler!!"

Cody.. Cody..

Tyler is a world record holder !!

Tyler took part in the worlds largest swimming lesson today.  His school was one of the locations where the event took place and Tyler is now officially a world record holder along with Cody.

His swimming has really improved over the last few months, and he loves swimming and snorkeling.  Along with his running and his biking maybe we have a future Ironman World Champion in our midst..

A local report can be found here

Ready for the lesson

Swim time

Supersplash

Its official

Dougherty Museum in Longmont

For the last 7-8 years, on my commute to Longmont, i pass by what i call a tractor museum which i always thought.. "who opens a museum here??" And i always assumed it was closed.

On our way back from the wedding, Alan who's always looking things up and coming up with things for the kids to do said, "Let's go to the Dougherty Museum!" I was like "Dog-a-who??"

So, we rescued Hish from the kids and whisked them off back to Longmont to visit the museum. And since we were still dressed from the wedding, i was surprised we weren't given the award for being the best dressed visitors!

I was pleasantly surprised that it was NOT filled with old smelly tractors but stocked with old organs and pianos and pianolas(go look it up) and some with were fascinating to watch! The other bigger hall was filled with old cars and to the delight of the kids, an old fire truck that they were allowed to climb on! The got to sit on the seat and steered and rang the old fashion bell. They were in heaven as Cody only pretends that he's a fireman EVERYDAY! :) It was cute to watch them pretend to drive and give each other directions.

What's really cute is that this place is run by a bunch of very enthusiastic and sweet old folks who were ecstatic to have somebody visit the place!

Anyways, here are some pictures!

Our tour guide showing us the organ

One of the old, i don't even know if you can call it piano. It's one that you have to pump with your feet, move your knees and play the keys to make music! 

The sweet little old lady explaining how things work

Dancing to the pianola with built in drums and tambourine!

They even let you play them.. this is a square grand

One of the old cars

Tyler so happy to be a fireman

I feel like a beauty queen in a parade!!

The old fashion firetruck

Cody finally wanted to get on