Monday, July 26, 2004

-Shuffle Monster-

Well Keir is really crawling now! He can basically crawl from one side of the room to the other (with a couple of rest stops along the way!). It started off as a sort of shuffle, he wasn't on all fours: one leg was still sort of bent. In this weird position he could "shuffle" around very well. The other day however; he finally figured out how to get both his knees underneeth him and now there is NO stopping him. He really seems to be genuinly enjoy moving about, always with a smile on his face. Actually Keir is a very happy little boy, except for when you ask him to sleep in his own crib!
His two top teeth are really coming in now, and his smile is now REALLY cute as a result (not that it wasn't cute before, he is just cuterer, if that is a word)
As mentioned above, we are having a whale of a time getting him to sleep in his own crib. He really lets you know how he feels, we have tried many different ways of getting him to sleep in the crib but all seem to have one common thread: Keir crying in the end. If anyone out there has any solutions/tips we are all ears, please.
We were at a beautiful wedding of our friends Mark and Mel on Friday. It was really a beautiful ceremony and we had an amazing time. I haven't upload our pictures yet but I will post that soon.
That all for now
Take care
Ewan

Monday, July 19, 2004

-Triathlete 1.2-
 
Well this past Sunday I did another triathlon, it was the Graham Beasley/ National Capital Triathlon. It was another Sprint Distance Triathlon which means it was a 500m swim, 20km bike, and a 5km run. My goal for this triathlon was to beat my time from the first triathlon I did in June.
I got to the race area in the morning at 8am figuring that it would leave me with loads of time. Well I had loads of time, but the transition area(were all the athletes equipment is stored) was almost full. So  I ended up getting a bad spot for my transition area. Next time I will get there a little earlier.
My swim start was at 9:30am. I adopted a different strategy for the swim portion, swimming more in the middle of the pack rather than out to the far left. This seem to work as I was really please with my swim, I even actually passed some people. I settled into a good rhythm and finished the swim in 10:31 on my watch, up to my transition area.
My transition to the bike didn't go so well. My top wouldn't go on without sticking, so I really struggled with it and in the process I ripped 3 of the 4 pins holding my race number off. After re-pinning my number and getting my shoes on I was off, by the time I got on my bike it was about 13mins. Did it really take me that long in the transition area? No matter, focus on the bike.
The Bike course was nice, the road was rough in some spots but wasn't to bad. It was not a flat as the the first triathlon but that is ok cause I passed a few people on the hilly sections of the course. I Kept a good pace on the bike and made it back to the transition area under 37mins. You have to dismount your bike and run to your transition area, well my area was at the far end of the end of the bike/start of the run (that was from being "late" in the morning). My transition from bike to run went a lot smoother than swim to bike. The temperature was heating up so I took a last swig gatorade from my water bottle on my bike and I took of on my run.
I was a little disappointed with my run, For the first km that last swig of gatorade was swishing around in my stomach, it didn't feel nice. I did not take any water at the first water station  By the first km my stomach settled down and I got into a nice groove, passing people and maintaining a nice rhythm. Just before the 3km marker there was another water station but I didn't wasn't to risk that sloshing feeling again so I didn't take any water. Then at the 3km marker my left hamstring cramped up, so I had to easy back on the tempo. I was worried it would turn into something worse, but by 4km marker it was completely gone, so I was able to finish the run strong.
There was quite a crowd at the finish, included was Keir, Jen, my Mom and Dad, and Jen's Mom and Dad along with our nephew William and niece Scarlett. Our friend Sara and her daughter Paige was there also.
I was very happy with my swim and bike and a little disappointed with my run.
The times break down as follows:
  • Swim 12:46
  • Bike 36:29
  • Run 23:56
  • Total of 1hr 13mins 10secs
That is better than my first triathlon, so I accomplished my goal. I now I can go faster, but I think I did improve (especially in the swim and Bike) from the last triathlon I did.
Here is the "tooting my own horn" portion of the blog: ended up 24 out of 117 me, 5  in my age group, but here is the best part because the top 2 men in the race were from my division they get medals for the overall, so that means the next 2 in the division move up. So I got the 3rd place medal for my age group! I certainly was not expecting that, but it was a nice surprise :-)
Non triathlon related: Keir was 8 months old on Friday! Keir's two top teeth are really coming in now and we both think it won't be long till he is able to stand up by himself. If he is on the ground now he can get right up to a sitting position and he try's to stand up after that but but he hasn't got that motion figured out yet.
That is all for now
Take care
Ewan

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

-New Look-
Well I figured it was time for a change. I have changed the look of the page a bit.
You can now comment on any of the post. You don't have to be a member you can just post anonymously, but just sign your name so I now who you are.
I will still be changing some of the graphic stuff (it is the stock templates from blogger) to make it a little more personalized.
Let me know what you think.
Take care
Ewan

Tuesday, July 13, 2004

-Welcome Back-

Well I have not updated the blog in a couple of weeks. I have an excuse though, we were on VACATION!!! July 1st is a National holiday, it fell on a Thursday this year so I took Friday off and then the whole of the next week as well. Jen, Keir and I went up to Jen's Grandmothers cottage (which is just outside of Perth, about an hour out of Ottawa)
The cottage was wonderful and relaxing, I got a couple of swims in, and a couple of good runs also. But it was really nice just to spend the whole day with Keir and Jen. I have a ton of photos from the past weeks, and have only had a little time to go through them.
Keir in the Lake
Keir and I on the dock at the cottage
Keir swinging on Canada Day
Keir walking with my dad
On of the things Keir likes to do is bang on the drums with his unlce Neal.
Keir is doing so many new things,


  • His top two teeth have come trough

  • He can pull himself up to stand

  • He is very "talkative", he say's "Ba" a lot and laughs out loud for no real reason


This past weekend we also went to a beautiful wedding, in Toronto. It was Mark and Pascale's wedding. We left Keir with Jen's mom, aunt and uncle and cousins for the evening and left for a wonderful night. The wedding was all held at the MacLean House on the Sunnybrooke Hospital Estate. It was a beautiful setting, it was hard to believe that you were in the middle of Canada's largest and busiest city! The ceremony and meal was excellent. At 9:30 Jen was a little anxious to get home to Keir so we left the party at 10ish, we missed dessert :-(, and got home at 10:30. Jen said it was very hard for her to leave Keir for that long, eventhough she new he was in great hands. Well when we got back to Keir, he was all smiles. He had a great time with everyone. Hopefully it will get easier, for the parents, to leave Keir so that we can go out a little more and enjoy some time "sans-baby".
Here are a couple of random pics from the wedding:

The Bride walking in
The Ceremony
The Kiss
After the Kiss
The Hardie Family and the Bride


That is all for now
Take Care
Ewan