Cheese, please and thank you

The above words are some of the simplest of the English language and nowadays a "please" and "thank you" may be hard to come by, but coming from my little guy, these words are like music to my ears. Over the last couple months his vocabulary and comprehension of things has increased so much, sometimes I am caught off guard by it. He understands that to politely ask for something he must say please but it's more of a "peaze" and when given what he desires, a thank you follows but he's also put his own twist on that word with it sounding more like a "tankoo." I am trying my best to record him when he speaks, because it is one of the cutest things. Hopefully I can get that down soon, but these days when I have the camera in hand to record something he's more interested in being the cameraman himself which you'll see from the pictures below. Lately though I have learned it is easier to shoot pictures if I say, "Can you pose for the camera and say cheese?" He will kindly say the word "cheese" and give his best impression of a model-like pose. This is what he did for me when I asked him to pose a couple weeks ago.

And here he is being photographer like mom. Since he had the camera, I had to use my phone to take the picture.

The hubby and I have so much fun with him everyday. We love sharing, showing and teaching him all sorts of new things. Here is one of the more fun activities we can get him to do. (And please ignore my prompting during the video. You will see he was pretty distracted and I was lucky to get him to cooperate as much as he did. When I replayed the video, I was surprised I wasn't moving the camera in the motion I was urging him to do. You can just imagine what I'm doing on the other side of the camera.)

More good times to come in Corpus

At the end of last month, I finally got the hubby to do the impossible--participate in a running event. Never mind that he might tell you the best part for him was the beer they offered after, I'm just glad he joined me in Corpus Christi's Beach to Bay Relay Marathon. Our teammates included some good friends of ours from college and another couple we've become close to here in Corpus. Considering this is the largest relay marathon in the country, with about 2,520 teams turning out for this year's race, our team did really well within our division clocking in a time of 4:27. And this was the first time in about 10 years where I took part in a team-oriented activity. Sadly, I think the last team-type activity I did was some rounds of volleyball during Greek Week at good ole' St. MU. But in my preparation for the race, right up until the night before, the familiar butterflies of teammates counting on you to do your best came back to me just as they used to in high school. And I know that anxiety didn't just affect me but it got to a few other teammates as well, except the hubby of course. He was his usual cool cucumber self sipping on a beer the night before as we discussed how each of us would get to our respective starting points. Not only did our worries include how to get to our start lines, but there was the nonsense of having to actually hold and carry a baton while you ran. So then we added the pressure of making sure to find our hand-off teammate in a timely fashion so as not to affect the overall time. One of my biggest worries was the responsibility of being the lead leg of the group, and to make matters worse the first leg takes place on the beach. But the running gods were on my side since massive amounts of seaweed were washed up with the tide the day before, moving the start line to a different location away from the sand and thankfully so. Just because a gal has ran a couple of long distance races doesn't mean she can breezily stride through the sand a la Baywatch style.

But given all the anxieties that plagued me and my teammates, I can confidently say we will probably do it again next year, including the hubby, because that's what made up part of the fun of the event. Afterwards, we all had stories about how we got to our starting lines, what happened during the run and baton hand-offs and what sort of crazy runners we saw along the way. I actually saw a guy running barefoot on the asphalt carrying a pair of thong sandals under his arm like it was a purse. The way he carried them it was as if bringing shoes was an afterthought once he walked out the door as if he said, "Oh I guess I should bring some shoes just in case my feet do get tired." I wish I had had my camera to take a picture of him and my reaction because I think my mouth dropped open when I noticed him. Luckily my sister ran in that first leg too and saw that runner so she related to my shock of the image. She also shares my weird love of running so she formed a team with some friends and got to take part in the fun madness. Participating in the race with the her, the hubby and friends makes me look forward to more good times to come here in Corpus even if to the hubby's surprise and disappointment it involves a little exercise.
My gal teammates are below. The one in the middle is one of my best girlfriends from college. On the left is her sister who happens to live down the street from us. She has been so great in helping us adjust down here.

And enjoying the cool down with the sis below.