Two Down, and more to go

I completed my second triathlon last weekend.
My friend Morgan and I trained together and raced.

I had a goal of cutting 10 mins from my
previous time and I did it! Not only
did I reach my goal, but I also ran a
lot more of it then I did last time.
Running more was one of my secondary goals.
I never thought I would be a runner
and I can't yet claim to be, but I am
working on it. I am doing another triathlon
at the end of July with my SIL Tara.
Looking forward to it Tara so no getting sick this time!

This is a picture of Sophie and Morgan's little girl Noah.
The girls are about 8 months apart. What Cuties!

More Twinkle Twinkle, It's our favorite

Playing on the deck

You guessed it,
another post all about Sophie.
Here she is playing on
the breezeway with her tu-tu
(the one aunt Rachael made)
and a pinwheel
from Grandma Beaird.

Sophie’s gymnastics show

We have been taking Sophie to Little Flippers gymnastics for a while now and two weeks ago was the Spring Show. It’s to show off to parents and grand parents and is pretty fun. Unfortunately Sophie was not feeling that good and we almost didn’t take her. But after hearing her say, “Gn-nastics, I so excited” over and over again, we had to take her.
She did really well despite not feeling good and she really has made a lot of progress.

She has gotten much stronger with swinging on the bar.
She can almost lift her toes to the bar all by herself.

She didn't want to stand on the
award block but she still got her sucker.

She finally did her present arms!

Daddy doing some video taping

Mommy doing the heavy lifting

Chocolate Doughnuts!

Pure Happiness right there and a quick shot of mommy!

Somersaults and Handstands

Sophie has shown an interest in gymnastics (I don't know where she would get the idea). We have been practicing walking on hands and somersaults. Here is a video of Sophie showing off her mad skills.

Since she has been doing so well, and because I wanted to have something we could do together, I signed her up for Little Flipper. It is like the little gym. It is a parent/tot class. We have gone for a few weeks now and Sophie is really learning to follow directions and take turns. I have gone to a couple of the weeks and Mike took her one of the weeks too. She looks forward to going to "nastics" as she calls it.

Today (may 5th) for the first time Sophie did a somersault all by herself. I guess once she did one she just wanted to keep doing them. Suzy said Sophie did probably 50 of them throughout the day. It is really cute.

It was bound to happen...

Now this post is about a month late but I wanted to post it anyway. Sophie climbed out of her crib (April 22) at 4:30am I hear THUMP! I flew out of bed so fast that I think I made it down the hall to Sophie's room in about two steps. She was just fine. I was really hoping that she would stay in a crib for another few months, but no such luck.

We changed Sophie's bed to a toddler bed and she also has a twin bed in her room for guests. She did sleep in the toddler bed a few times but she has taken over the twin bed or "the big girl bed." She looks so grown up sleeping in the big girl bed.

A Shower in Seattle

I know what you are thinking. Yes, it does rain a lot in Seattle, but when I was visiting a few weekends ago it was actually really nice weather. I am talking about a baby shower. I went up to Renton to throw a baby shower for my friend Cara and her baby girl Brooklynn. Cara is due the first week of June.

The baby shower went really well and I think everyone had a good time. It is always fun to get together with friends when I visit there. Brooklynn got all sorts of really cute clothes and other baby stuff.


While we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa Olson took Sophie to the Seattle Science Center. The first exhibit was animatronic dinosaurs and it was kind of dark in the exhibit. Well, Sophie wanted nothing to do with it. She was holding on to grandpa with her head buried in his shoulder. Next we went into the butterfly house. That was much more up her alley. She was interested but only for a bit. Then it was on to the childrens' play area.



Now to rewind a day to that Friday. On Friday night we had a family dinner with some family that we hardly ever see. My Dad's cousin Agneta and Valter (his mom's, brother's daughter and her husband), who live in Sweden and my dad's sister Janet, her daughter Kristin and two of her children Sara and Wyatt. I have never met Agneta before and the only time that I met Walter, I was seven. For my Aunt Janet, Kristen and her kids, I haven't seen them since our wedding. Beside those I have mentioned, a bunch of other family came over as well. It was so great to see everyone.

From Left to Right Uncle Laif, Kevin, Valter, Uncle Mark and Scott

This is my cousin Corrina and my Aunt Ann

Of course it can't be a party at the Olson's without food.

Agneta and Valter, what a cute couple!


Brothers and Sisters with their cousin Agneta




I know this is a little photo overload but I love them all!


Here are a few more random shots from the trip.

Sophie loves her Uncle Erik. Every morning she would wake up and ask where he was.



We had such a great trip. Thanks for having a baby Cara so we had an excuse to come visit!

Triathlon

Last Saturday I did my first triathlon. I got roped into doing it because my sister in law Tara was training for it and she talked me into doing it with her. Then a few days before the Tri she came down with strep and wasn't able to do it with me. I was super sad that she couldn't do it and felt bad she was sick. But because she is so awesome, she came out to support me the day of the Tri. Mike and Sophie were also there on the sidelines cheering me on.

This triathlon was 400 meter swim (8 laps on the meter setting), 12 mile bike, and 3.3 mile run (or jog with walking in my case). I don't have my exact times yet, but I did the whole thing in about 1hr and 45 mins. I think that I did it in a really good time. I didn't want to push myself too hard because I had never done a Tri before (except for practicing). I wanted to finish and not hurt myself.

This is the swim, there are eight lanes.
You swim down and back and then into the next lane.

This is when I saw everyone cheering me on after
the biking and gave me the strength to move to the running.

This is at the finish line. I like this picture because
I look like I am in way better shape then I really am.

This is my cute family meeting me at the finish!

Thanks to everyone for all your good
thoughts and support. Tara and I plan to do
another Triathlon on June 26th.

Sophie, This is you...

Your new favorite phrase is "No, I don't like that."

You say it so kind and sweet that it is hard to disagree.

You are also into "No thank you mama." You say it even if you are talking to daddy.

You said your first prayer tonight. (04/05/10) It was very cute and you screamed with excitement at the end.

You have not been sleeping very well as of late. You have been waking up almost every night at least once. You just want mommy or daddy to sleep with you.

You love to color. You only have one coloring book, but you don't seem to mind. You color nearly everyday.

You love to make forts and tunnels with the couch cushions. Your cousin Mia showed you how to do that. It is one of the many games you two play together.

Last month I told you we were going to Aunt Tara's house. You were excited as usual. I said we will see Mia and Tayen. And then you added "and Ryanan?"

You love to make yourself laugh. You will talk and then laugh and then do it some more. I love to hear you and I wonder what you are saying.

Some how you managed to take off your diaper while still wearing feety pajamas.You have also learned how to take all of your clothes off except your shirt. It only comes most of the way off.

Your favorite things to sign are cook and kite. You can sign lots and lots of things.

You can squeal with an incredibly high pitch. Sometimes you are making a happy sound and other time your are definitely not.

Even though you talk about daddy all the time, you are still a mommy's girl.

You still will hold food in your mouth. Why? I have no idea.

I painted your toes this last weekend red just like mine. You like it a lot and make a point of showing them to people. You like that we are matching too. So do I.

You know almost all your letters except maybe two or three and even a few of the sounds.

You can count to 10. Today you were sitting in your highchair counting your color crayons.

You like to stand on the coffee table and look out the window. Bjorn also likes to do this, so it is often the two of you standing there together. You are always looking for the horses in the field.

To you, everything is yellow. What color are your shoes? Yellow. No, they are red. Yellow. Red. Yellow!

You have 8 teeth on the top and 8 on the bottom. You like to brush your teeth.

I mentioned this in an earlier post, but you have not had a poopy diaper in months. I would say since you were about 18 months and the few months before that, they were few and far between.

You ran to your daddy's office (the laundry room) the other day saying "Mike, Mike, Mike"

You often wake up in the mornings asking for one of your cousin. You must be dreaming about playing with them.

You are so good about getting your hair done. You sit fairly still and don't put up a fuss. I have yet to cut your hair, but I have been thinking about it.

There are so many more things to say about you so I will just have to make another list.

Love you my not so baby girl!