Keith's Amusing Musings

Owen at 17 Months

Keith — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 19:06:53 +0000

Owen is 17 months old today. His new favorite word is ‘apple.’ It is usually the first thing he says in the morning. Sometimes he really wants an apple, most times he just wants a round piece of fruit (apricot, nectarine, plum, etc.) He has also started saying ‘mine’ and having small tantrums. Terrible twos are starting a little early. Yay!

Here is the headshot.

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Owen at 16 Months

Keith — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 21:30:37 +0000

Owen turns 16 months old on Thursday. This month we discovered—very abruptly I might add—Owen has a severe food allergy. Fun times. Hopefully he grows out of it.

Here is the headshot.

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Owen at 15 Months

Keith — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 16:40:27 +0000

Owen will reach the 15 month mark on Tuesday. Four more of his bottom teeth came this last month bringing the total to 14 (6 top, 8 bottom). On June 7th he began transitioning from infant to toddler room at daycare. Now, instead of being one of the oldest kids in a room of 8, he is the youngest in a room of 10. It has been a rough transition for all of us since he is also going through a serious bout of separation anxiety. Luckily, a few of his friends from the infant room are transitioning to the same toddler room over the next couple weeks.

Here is the headshot.

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Personal record in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle half-marathon

Keith — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 21:34:36 +0000

Earlier today, I completed my fifth half-marathon, running the Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle 2010 Half-Marathon in 1:54:12. That time sets the personal record I have been striving for since my very first half-marathon, Bellingham Bay 2008.

The race felt great. I feel great. It is a good day. Here are my numbers:

TB and Owen cheered me (and the other 27,000+ runners) along on a cool, overcast Seattle day. I credit Hal Higdon’s training regiment—which I mentioned briefly back in March—for helping me prepare for this race. I stuck to his Novice 1 marathon training guide for 16 weeks, running four days every week. I never missed a day, peaking at 18 miles (Week 13) before tapering for today’s race. I did not feel tired or winded at any point and I never stopped running. My left hamstring tightened up at mile 10 but the muscle fatigue did not destroy my race like in Skagit Valley. Training beyond the half-marathon distance really helped build my endurance and increase my speed.

Sidebar
Besides running faster, I made one other significant change for today’s race. For the first time, I ran without carrying any fluids. No CamelBak (reference). No FuelBelt (reference). Instead, I drank the water and CytoSport Cytomax sports drink at each hydration station spaced ~1.4 miles apart on the course. Doing so forced me to hydrate at regular intervals and allowed me to shed ~4 pounds of weight.

Before the race, Owen enjoyed mimicking my Bershawn “Batman” Jackson getup.
During the race, apparently, only a handful of us donned our stunna shades.
After the race, Team Smith posed for a group photo.

Lastly, for comparison, here are the results of my first five half-marathons:

Race	Date	Finish
1. Bellingham Bay 2008	Sep 28, 2008	1:56:56
2. Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona 2009	Jan 18, 2009	2:09:39
3. Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle 2009	Jun 27, 2009	2:01:51
4. Skagit Valley 2009	Sep 13, 2009	2:15:59
5. Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle 2010	Jun 26, 2010	1:54:12

Next up: Bellingham Bay 2010 on Sep 26. I figured I would celebrate the two-year anniversary of my first race by running it again.Similar Posts

Owen at 14 Months

Keith — Sun, 30 May 2010 15:46:42 +0000

Owen is 14 months old as of yesterday. He celebrated by having his second haircut. He is now walking and has two more teeth at the top, bringing him to ten total (six top, four bottom).

Here is the headshot.

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Trip to Cancun

Keith — Sun, 23 May 2010 16:41:12 +0000

Team Smith returned from six nights in Cancun late Monday. We were there for my brother-in-law’s wedding and stayed at Moon Palace. It was our first vacation of 2010.

Owen and his two-year-old cousin, Abria, played on the beach for the first time and enjoyed swimming in the pool and chasing each other around.

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Owen at 13 Months

Keith — Sun, 02 May 2010 19:23:59 +0000

Owen turned 13 months old this past Wednesday. These are his first pictures in the “O” chair since his haircut four weeks back. As for new developments, Owen now has eight teeth (four top, four bottom) with four more on the way. He took his first steps last week and will be walking soon.

Here is the headshot.

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How many countries have I seen? (2010)

Keith — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 15:35:31 +0000

It has been three years since my original “How many countries have I seen?” post. I thought it would be fun to update the list to get a sense of how much of the world I have yet to see. This is also a good way to get TB thinking about places we might visit in 2010.

As of April 2010, the tally comes in at 29, nine more since March 2007. This puts me at a mere 15% of the 193 countries in the world or +5% in 3 years. At this rate, it will take me about 50 more years to cover the globe.

Below is the updated list including links to the relevant blog entries.

Argentina
Australia
Austria
Barbados
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
China
Czech Republic
Dominica
England
France
Germany
Hungary
Italy
Japan
Malaysia
Mexico (Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas)
Monaco
Mozambique
The Netherlands
New Zealand
Scotland
Singapore
South Africa (Kruger National Park, Cape Town, Plettenberg Bay)
South Korea
Spain
Sweden
USA

As before, these are all places I have actually visited so airport layovers do not count.

In the previous post I expressed a desire to visit South America and mainland Asia. I covered both with trips to Argentina & Brazil in October 2007 then China & South Korea in April 2008. Cape Town still reigns supreme as my favorite city but Rio de Janeiro is a close second. Kuala Lumpur maintains its rank on the bottom rung.

What’s next on the to-do list? Central America, India or the Middle East would be nice but we may have to wait until Owen is a little older before taking on those last two.

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Owen Year One: His first year in pictures

Keith — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 02:50:26 +0000

Owen turned a year old today. Here is a Deep Zoom photo montage capturing his life from the moment he entered the world through his birthday party on Saturday. I used his full body shot from the Owen at 52 weeks post for the source image.

Use your mouse wheel or click the images in the navigation pane to explore the mosaic of 1,403 unique photos.

Click the picture below to install Microsoft Silverlight.

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Owen at 52 Weeks

Keith — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 16:55:57 +0000

Owen is 52 weeks old today. Tomorrow he will be a one-year-old. This is the most bittersweet of all the weekly Owen updates since it marks the end. A year ago I set out to create weekly posts capturing Owen’s first year and I have done so consistently across two continents, three countries and a half-dozen time zones. Going forward, we will take pictures occasionally and write posts less frequently. Thanks for joining us on our early journey through parenthood and stay tuned for more amusing musings as we learn more about raising a child.

Stay tuned for the “Year in Review” post. It is going to be huge, literally and figuratively.

Here is the headshot.

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