Mommy Ran a 5K!

This was my second annual "Run Wild" post-Turkey day 5K in San Francisco. That's my bud Aimster in the background. This year's was more enjoyable for me though last year's was more of an achievement. Prior to that I don't think I ever ran 3.1 miles in my life, and at my age. This year I was less stressed about it, and was slower by 8 minutes, but the bright spots were that I never got tired and I felt great the rest of the day.

Oh, and, last year's picture sucked! I like this one a lot more. Lucky for me they took two because the other one also sucks. So, yes, this year's was better, much better. (NB I actually remembered to smile, because part of why last year's pic was so yuk was because I looked like I was about to drop dead!)

Next up, hopefully, is the San Francisco Christmas Classic 5K that benefits a women's shelter. Now that's running I can feel good about.

A Banjo-tam for Eri!

When I got home from work last night, Emily told me little Eri asked for a Banjo for her birthday. What a request! She will be two on Saturday and a banjo seems a bit of an advanced request for such a little peanut. Then again, she loves the song "Old Susana" and is often commanding me to "go to car and get it" from the CD player, and as noted on the side, Elmo's Country songs features a talking banjo and a real live banjo playing rendition of said classic.

Anyway the idea has been stuck in my head ever since, so during my lunch hour I did some googling to see what I could see, and I learned a smidgen about a variety of banjo like instruments and kids and banjos. My first search was for "banjo for kids" which lead me to this toy banjo which looked just a little too clunky and toy like, and not really that musical. I also came across a Barney Banjo, which thank god is not available anymore. Then I googled for "baby banjo" and that lead me to this page which discusses "backpacking banjos" , "travel banjos" and, bingo, "mandobanjos". Now those look like the right size. But this is for a 2 year old so it's not prudent to spend $579+ for a fine musical instrument. Finally, I came across the amazing "Banjo-tam" on e-bay, and bingo--baby's gettin' a banjo!

What are you thankful for?

This is a placemat that Katie made in preschool. It is a picture of Momma. As she described it, "here's your eyes, your nose, your mouth and your breastes."

It is interesting in that Katie can't even remember nursing now, while Erin, who calls these "no-ni", is quite a little no-ni girl. It seem s that despite the lack of regular contact with them, the no-ni's still appear to be a prominent part of Katie's internal picture of Momma.

Pretend I got flat and died forever

"No, I died more than you and forever and ever."
"OK, I died forever and forever too."
"OK, pretend you saw me hanging from the edge of that rock."
A few more exchanges like this and then the two victims, one five and one four lie dying, writhing and crying on the floor.
Little sister: "Why is she crying?"
Mama: "She's just pretending."
Little sister: "I wanna have a turn too!"
And the game of death and danger continues.

Future Ballerina Astronaut

Future Balerina Astronaut
Originally uploaded by fastkittykat

Katie's preschool went on a field trip yesterday and I was a chaperone. It was fun, yet, not stress free to be in charge of three preschoolers who seem to have a perfected a system of 'divide and conquer' where they split up and go in 3 different directions and challenge you to reassemble them back into a group at regular intervals. It's good for the brain though, keeps you alert.

Katie had her perfunctory turn in the space capsule--she was the last in line due to the activity describe above. She seemed somewhat interested though even I could see how it could be hard to concentrate. One of the other girls I was in charge of skillfully cut in line about halfway up, and the other lost interest after about waiting for five minutes. So, Katie gets points for good manners & patience.

They get into the darndest things

She doesn't need these yet--perhaps she thinks they are streamlined diapers. Before I took this picture the pads were all in the stroller, but she was too fast for me--she got the last one on the floor right as I snapped.

Fairyland and Halloween 2007

We went to Oakland's Fairyland the weekend before Halloween. Katie & Erin loved it. Lots of fake spiderwebs, other kids in costume and fairytale characters dressed up. That's the girls and the pumpkin. Katie in particular was mesmerized--it was hard to drag her away. Notice Erin with the phone. Anyway, after we parted ways with the pumpkin, Katie interjected: "A walking pumpkin--that's disgusting!"