The Wasians and the Rest of Us: Speed Racer

After Kinsley arrived, one of the first things on Lela’s mind was when she could start running again. While Lela didn’t have extreme problems, the second time around it seemed it took her a little bit longer to get rolling to the extent that was acceptable to her (note to her, not to a normal personJ) . We found that after Emma was born it was good for both of us to have race goals as it forced us to keep working out and figure out how to work around the new post child workout life. So I ran in the KC half, Lela ran in the gobbler grind about a month later. This time around I am still out of commission because a hex has been put on my feet by somebody who misinterpreted my use of the term Wasian and thinks that I am a racist rather than a white person who loves all things Asian (rice, noodles, spice, dark complexions, etc). That’s my interpretation of how plantar faciitis occurs. Anyway, Lela decided to get back on the saddle and run in a race. At first we thought about doing a race on memorial day in Columbia. It was all women, sounded neat, all that. Well that and the race that comes the week after that is Hospital Hill. Lela and I have run in the 10k a few times and our comments always involved the phrases/words “sucked” “hotter than humans should run in” “why does God hate Kansas City runners and create these hills that somebody really dumb decided to turn into a race”….well you get the point. We had generally dismissed the half marathon as a venture that should be left for others unless we wanted to see if we could faint during a race. So HH wasn’t high on our list of to do’s. But then we got to thinking (by we, I mean Lela saying “should we thinking about this” and then me thinking about it. . .yes, my brain is slow and linear, like Casey Weigman). Do we really want to go 2 hrs to run in a race with the whole crew, one of which might be up all night in a foreign place? Do we really feel comfortable amongst that many people who are Mizzou fans? Could we get pulled over 5 times for having Kansas plates with hawkeye decals (sorry about that whole Insight bowl thing Mizzou fans)? Also that race started at 7:30 instead of 7, just wasn’t adding up. So we signed Lela up for HH. So memorial day came and it was hot, that Saturday morning the low was 75 and my boy Gary Lezak kept talking about how a cold front was going to move through. I monitored the race day weather like it was a 4 star hawkeye recruit who was wavering on going to Iowa. As the race became more near it was apparent, we were going to have a nice morning on our hands, some relief was coming into the house. We went to Jaspers and carb loaded (even spectators need to do this just because). We put the girls to bed with no real fits, Emma was excited to get up and watch mommy run really, really fast. I was pretty apprehensive at this point to be honest. Its somewhat daunting to get everybody out the door with no tantrums on time, get Lela to the start line and then occupy to lil Wasians for 2 or so hrs. Everything went smoothly, we dropped lela off with time for her to get to the start and the girls and I headed to starbucks around 40^th and main. If any of you have been to this sbux you know, it has an interesting mix. I am pretty sure a young couple was working on their drug business on their Apple computer - at least that’s how I interpreted combining showing a lot of mid drift with pajama pants while being 30 lbs overweight yet having the latest and greatest Apple gear. We high tailed it out of there and headed to the hood to watch Lela first in the hood, then in Brookside. We timed it well and while Emma was a bit shocked to see Lela, she thought it was pretty neat and had some big smiles. She also almost knocked over a police motorcycle. . .not really kidding. Anyway, we headed to the finish line and got to see Lela finished. She did great, was near a PR, which considering she had only been able to run for 3.5 months and it was hospital hill was quite an accomplishment. It was a great day, we were so proud of Lela.

Our house is filled with a lot of laughter any more. Sure there are those moments when we question whether we will be able to make it without losing sanity, but Emma has a knack for saying the most amusing things. I can’t even remember most of them, just that you can’t help but to crack up. I think she knows she’s funny also, so its going to get dangerous around here. Emma is very confident and not the most prissy girl. As in her favorite thing right now is Lightning McQueen, not that there is anything wrong with that and Emma finds various girls princess things interesting, but she doesn’t seem to really care about what she is supposed to like or not, she just does her own thing. We hope this individualism carries her through in life because at times it creates some battles at our house that shouldn’t be so hard. She has also become obsessed with spray bottles, so if we want to keep her entertained, we just take her outside with that. Knocking on wood, but Emma continues to love the role of big sister. She tries to comfort Kinsley if crying, entertain her if Kinsley seems bored and is generally excited to take Kinsley with us places. We hope that continues!

Kinsley’s natural pose is to put her hands behind her head. When she is mad she does it. When she is relaxing she does it. is she going to be laid back, with her mind on her money and her money on her mind (snoop dogg style, minus habitual marijuana use and the other things not so great about snoop)? We’ll see, Emma was also the most chill baby in the world, and she is now, well not so laid back.

Anyway, here are some recent pics, more later.