Eat Your Heart Out, Haile Gebrselassie

Was today a lazy, college football-filled day for us?  No, for a lot of reasons.  The first and foremost is that we're in Houston babysitting our nieces while Kevin's sister & husband are in Hawaii. (Jealous much?)  So that means six kiddos, all under the age of 3.  Let's just break that down: 3 two year olds, 1 one year old, and 2 infants.  You can imagine all the sitting & chillaxin' that has not been going on today.

The other reason that today has not been lazy is that the buddies & I ran a 5K race this morning.  It benefitted an organization that provides grants for adoptive families.  I was so excited when I saw this race on Facebook because it happened to be the one weekend we were actually going to be in Houston.  We were glad to support a cause near & dear to our hearts, and I thought it only right to help the boys channel their Ethiopian roots with a good ol' fashioned race.  Because, as I'm sure you know, the world record marathon holder, Haile Gebrselassie, is a fine specimen of an Ethiopian.

We entered Micah in the 1K race, knowing that he wouldn't actually complete the distance.  After all, .6 miles is a long way for a little guy.

What I did not expect was the he would run about 15 paces and then request for me to carry him for the rest of the race.  I obliged his wishes for a bit, but after all .6 miles is a long way for a mama to run while carrying a little guy.  So I cheated and just ran him across the finish line so he could get the full race effect.

Then we loaded the big buddies up in the snazzy jog strolled my marathoning neighbor in Austin let me borrow.  And off we went!  

This was my first time to run with a jog stroller, let alone a double.  Let alone the 60 pounds of child.  Let alone the fact that this was a cross-country race, which meant the terrain was a lot of grass, roots, and hills.  You can imagine how all of that reflected in my time.  Yes, that is in fact a little boy passing me.  I. was. not. fast.

But we finished.  Sam screamed for the last half mile or so.  I think it was because he wanted to come in first place, and we definitely didn't pull that off.   But meeting up with daddy and all the free goodies on the other side of the finish line seemed to brighten his mood.

And oh how were there goodies!  Micah & Sam consumed Skittles, frozen yogurt, a Chic-Fil-A sandwich, and even a cupcake given to me by a college friend I saw there who happened to be throwing a birthday party for her daughter.  Somehow I was foolish enough to think that a race of all places would actually be good for their little bodies.  But the abundance of junk food proved me wrong!

One of the highlights of the race was connecting with a sweet friend from college.  (Living in China, as you might imagine, severely cuts back on my random encounters with friends from my past.  It turns out most of my college friends frequent Target more than they do Da Ren Fa!)  My friend Shayna has two sweeties from Uganda.  It was fun swapping stories and sharing such a special bond of being an adoptive family.

The other highlight was seeing Micah's reaction to the ginormous Chic-Fil-A cows at the race.  He loved them from afar but wouldn't go within five feet of them.

Despite his obvious distrust of the giant jersey-wearing jerseys, I still tried to get him to take a picture with them.  The closest I got was him telling me to stand next to a cow and take a picture of myself.  So just picture Micah standing five feet away, laughing at the fact that his mom's a push over.

The whole thing was actually reminiscent of when we took him to meet Elmo at a bookstore over the summer.  He flipped out completely and spent the entire time in the safe zone by the train table.  

Apparently Sam got all the brave genes in this family.

I can't actually blame Micah.  A cow or an Elmo four times your size doesn't exactly bring glad tidings.  Wouldn't I be a little freaked out if a twenty foot furry guy wanted to give me a hug?  Yes, on so many levels.  Regardless, I promise you for months to come he'll still be talking about the cows at the race the same way he still talks about "really big Elmo."

So that was our day.  A fun morning, a lot of little people in the afternoon, and still enough time for an impressive Aggie win in the evening.