Love Kevin

(A friend of mine writes a yearly “birthday letter” to her sons, capturing the growth and highlights of the previous year.  Thanks Hava – I’m stealing this idea!)

Dear Kevin,

You turned 3. You made it through the “Terrible Twos” basically unscathed (and, honestly, they weren’t so terrible either). You are growing into quite a curious, active, and smart little boy.

You went to preschool at the Jewish Community Center for the first time shortly after you turned 2. Your teachers, Wendy and Anastasjia, were charmed by your silliness and impressed by your verbal abilities. You made good friends in Ben, Reiley, and Adam. You reached the epitome of goofiness when you were near them. You also taught Mommy and Daddy a few things about Judaism. One night you we had soup for dinner and you started singing “stir it up, nice and hot, get it ready for Shabbat!”

You spoke your first word shortly after your first birthday. For the next two years, you exploded verbally. You speak in complex sentences, using proper tense. You speak loudly and clearly, so even Grandpa can hear you. Dr. Lan said a typical 3 year old should be able to put 2 sentences together and a non-family adult should be able to understand 75% of what he says. Dr. Lan was impressed and excited about how easily you spoke, rattling on about your favorite colors and wanting to be an astronaut. You ask questions like there’s no tomorrow – about how things work, why things are, and how to do things.

Your obsession has moved from lawnmowers to motorcycles (more interesting, certainly, but we hope this obsession passes before you reach driving age!). You can spot a motorcycle from your car seat quicker than Mom or Dad, and can hear them on Saratoga-Sunnyvale from our house. We stop in every parking lot to observe (not touch!) the nearest motorcycle, naming the parts, learning new brands, and wondering if the owner will come soon to “start ‘er up.” You still love trucks, construction vehicles, and all dirty things with wheels too.

You have a wonderful imagination – much more creative than either Mommy or Daddy. You make up funny stories, often about traveling to the beach on a motorcycle (always a green Kawasaki). You love to build elaborate things with blocks, often not knowing what you’re building until it’s finished. You stir dirt, rocks, and weeds in the backyard in a big pot, making “vegetable soup” for the family. You love taking trips to the nearby railroad tracks to throw rocks, stomp in the puddles, and pretend you’re building something with odd pieces of wood.

Daddy is your favorite. He always makes time to answer every question. You and he race your bikes up and down and around the driveway for hours at a time. He taught you about power tools – edgers, lawnmowers, trimmers, power washers. (Although, Mommy taught you about cordless drills and you are a star hole driller!) Daddy affectionately refers to you as “Bing,” only God knows why. But you are two peas in a pod, just alike in so many ways.  You quietly observe everything around you.  Some may think you look serious, or even sad.  But you are just soaking it all in, processing, learning, and storing it away.

You seem to have a soft spot for girls just slightly older than you. You flirt, pat their backs, and come up with all kinds of things to say. They typically like you back. You’ve cornered many a girl on the playground on the tire swing or in the play tunnels. You smile shyly, but are quick to tell them your name and ask for theirs. “I’m Kevin LeRoy from Saratoga. What’s your name?…..What?…..What are you saying?…..I can’t hear you!?!”

You have a plethora of cousins, all girls except for Alec. The attention gets you giddy with excitement, and usually stimulated to the melting point. Mommy and Daddy love getting together with family because you play by your independent self, and we get a break. It is good for everyone.

The whole family went to Pennsylvania early this summer and you had a fabulous time. You rode a horse, went on roller-coasters with cousin Roxie at Hershey Park, held a week-old kitten, played hours of Wii guitar, sat in a commercial airline cockpit, and rode Razor scooters with cousin Maddie. You experienced everything and slept well each night. You don’t realize how lucky you are to have four living grandparents and so many aunts, uncles, (and great aunts/uncles) and cousins to love you. The ones far away in PA miss you dearly, but get to hear about all your accomplishments and adventures through emails, videos, and pictures that Daddy sends.

In July, the whole family went to Club Med, in Ixtapa Mexico. It was a wonderful vacation, albeit not terribly relaxing. You played hard in the sand. You and Daddy made castles and dug big deep holes and swam in the warm ocean. You swam like a champ in a shallow pool – giving you an immense amount of water confidence (which you have since lost). You made friends (all girls, of course) and got plenty of attention (you were happy Mommy and Daddy stuck Baby Ryan in the daycare most of the time). You had a rough night at the beginning of the vacation – getting sick in the middle of night and not sleeping at all. But you bounced back quickly, not missing a beat.

The addition of Baby Ryan has turned life upside down for you in many ways. You were the center of our lives, and now you share that center, somewhat reluctantly. You oscillate between being the kind, gentle teacher and the not-so-subtle jealous tormentor. But we do hope that the two of you will become close buddies in all things dirty.

In everything you do, you are a good-natured trooper. You find things to entertain yourself and keep a good attitude. We have high expectations of you, which we know you will exceed (you’ve done so in every way already). You amaze us how adult you can be; and we hope don’t lose that childlike happiness.

Love,

Mommy & Daddy

These 3 pictures pretty much summarize Kevin’s 3rd birthday party. Two weeks ago, we invited a small group of friends over to celebrate Kevin’s birthday. The big surprise was a clown riding a unicycle up the street. The kids were amazed!!! The video clip below captures the highlights from the party and especially the reaction of the kids to the mystery clown guy riding up our street!  Kevin and his friends had an excellent time.

To get fueled up for the Sunday race, Heather and I went out to dinner on Friday night to celebrate my birthday. We went to a restaurant we have heard a lot about but have never been to; La Foret. We had a great time in a quiet restaurant while Grandma and Grandpa were nice enough to put the kids to bed. 

Race morning I made the 40 minute drive south to Uvas Reservoir.

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A lot of us were very familiar with the course since this is the same location as another race that takes place later in the year. This particular race is new this year. It’s put on by a new race management company made up of a number of local triathletes and is called  Threshold Racing

I don’t think I was really ready to race an Olympic Distance race this early in the season, but thought it would be “fun” to see where I am fitness wise. 

While I got ready for the race, the rest of the family was driving down together to be spectators.  My swim wave was only 10 minutes away when I spotted them on the bank of the reservoir. Below I am getting some last minute race advise from Kevin and Ryan before I head to the starting line!

There were only 5 start waves in the race and the “old men” were last; 45 and older. I saw a lot of familiar faces in the water as we were getting ready to start. There was a lot of joking going on just 15 seconds before the race. Of course there were also plenty of nervous looks on others faces and all our joking around was probably not helping them concentrate

The swim went well and I headed out for a little 40k bike ride. For the entire hour I was out on the bike, Kevin was sitting on a police motorcycle. He and his mom approached a policeman because Kevin is obsessed with motorcycles. It took a little warming up before he got the nerve to sit on it, but after that there was no getting him off of it. He talked about it for days after the race.

While Kevin sat on the motorcycle, Ryan was happy to just watch the race and enjoy an early morning prune snack.

I felt pretty good the entire way on the bike. I purposely started out a bit reserved since I knew I hadn’t been biking enough to really pound a 40k from start to finish.

The run was tough. I could tell it was just a bit early in the season to have a solid race start to finish. Nevertheless I had a good time and it was fun to see the whole family at the finish line!

After the race, “Team TRIbe” enjoy pizza and strawberries from the post race food tent. It turned out to be a perfect April day for a race, sunny and near 70 degrees.

So now at least I know I have a little work to do before the rest of the season arrives. I have 2 fun races coming up in May…both shorter distance than this one:

1) Angels Camp – My annual trip to Gold Country in CA with Rad and friends to do a low key, fun race.

2) Got the Nerve – This will be the 2nd annual trip to Pennsylvania on Memorial Day weekend to visit the family and do a little race while we are there.

Of course I’m still hosting a local triathlon results website bayareatri.com in my “spare” time. Below is a graph from the website showing where I finished relative to everyone else in the Reservoir Triathlon. I just noticed it also gives away my true age!!

Last night Conrad and Kyle hosted a party to celebrate Fred and Heather’s (Freather) birthdays. As always, Conrad outdid himself with vast amounts of MEAT and wonderful veges on the grill. 21 people crowded around to watch Conrad fly around the kitchen. There was plenty of triathlon talk! Keish presented Heather and Fred with birthday gifts – a bottle of CLA! Carol and Chris gave Heather a beautiful Orchid and gave Fred a pair of Ironman socks! A very fun evening enjoyed by all!