Recently in thunderclap Category

the little guy is growing up so fast, it’s amazing the changes we see in him from day to day.  even the short [no, 12 days is NOT short and is WAY to long to be away from home] time i was in the uk, i’ve noticed significant development in tc’s speach and dexterity.  not to mention his size.  the boy just turned two and is already over 3ft.  wow.

anyway, his ability to put thoughts and sentences together and the new words that he constantly throws out has me baffled and often times in hysterics.  take for example the discourse that we enjoyed in the car yesterday while driving to disneyland [what, you don’t go to disneyland after work for dinner?  gotta love annual passes!]:

tc: “see brandon denny-land” [tc’s friend who we might see when we get to d-land]

zq: “you’re going to see brandon?  where is he?”

tc: “over der” [points to the side of the freeway]

zq: “is he hiding behind the wall?”

tc: “yup”

zq: “is he hiding under the seat?”

tc: “yup”

zq: “is he hiding in your sippy cup?”

tc: “yup” [quickly takes a drink]

zq: “oh no!  you drank brandon!  did he taste good?”

tc: “yup!”

smsmh started talking and tc was quiet for a couple of minutes and then started up again:

tc: “OH NO!”

zq: “what’s up, schimmia?”

tc: “drink brandon!”

long pause

tc: “DEEEE-LICIOUS!”

soundtrack for this post
	lick: hipsters: wax:	Taste The Floor The Jesus & Mary Chain Psychocandy

BAM!

we're in december.  how did we slip right from thanksgiving smack dab into christmas?  there's usually that week after thanksgiving to wrap our collective heads around the prospect of christmas being right around the corner...but this year?  no such luck.  we're in it.  up to our necks.

this year, more than others, i think the chaos is going to be intense.  fear of the marketplace and the resulting increase in the "buy! buy! buy!" marketing is going to drive us bonkers.

so, this year, do something different. 

i saw this clip over on robb's site:

it got me thinking...we DO spend a load on our kids.  that's typically who we spend money on each year.  we've pretty much given up on trying to buy stuff for all the adults in the family and now it's just "buy for all the kids".

realistically, how many new toys to the kids really need?  up until a certain age, they'd rather play with the packaging more than the toy itself.  after that, sitting down with mom and dad and making something together would go down as equally cool.  grab some cardboard boxes from a local store and make a house/fort/spaceship or try your hand at putting making a clipper ship from cardboard scraps.  seriously, i can't imagine anything cooler than getting a kid's creative wheels spinning by making something with them out of mundane objects.  and for those older kids?  well, they're old enough to understand making a 'toy' sacrifice for the betterment of someone less fortunate.

so this year?  consider doing something different.

me?  i'm going to see if my nephew would like to join me in making a cardboard robot for thunderclap.

soundtrack for this post
	lick: hipsters: wax:	One Special Gift Low Christmas

okay, okay...i know my blog is supposed to be about training and running and gear and stuff, but i shot this clip of thunderclap yesterday and i can't stop myself from sharing it.  i hope it makes your day as much as it makes mine.  oh, and stay tuned...it's rumored that the amazing hip is in town...

soundtrack for this post
	lick: hipsters: wax:	Spaceboy The Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream

oh, my poor blog.  you poor, poor neglected blog.  you've been beaten in the past several weeks, and i haven't even stopped by to even drop a gratuitous post on your fair front page.  how will you ever forgive me.

so, things have been busy lately.  breakingthetape.com [or, lovingly referred to as btt] has been taking up quite a bit of time these days.  we're working hard at a front page overhaul, a technology overhaul and standardizing scripts/reports and gadgets.  in the midst of this, the btt blogs blew up and i was forced to attempt a blog platform upgrade that introduced such technical complexity with modifying the templates that i lost a couple bloggers.  that, though, i completely understand.  hosting blogs on btt started out as a kinda cool way to give back to the community, but with several high profile blogs on the site, the server was taking huge hits due to all the comment spam that it had to deal with.  ugh.

so, big changes there and lots of coding going on in addition to running 20+ milers on trails in the wee hours of the morning, a 17mo old behemoth baby that is learning animal sounds and how to run and the full time job with a challenging workload...well, the all conspire to make the blog feel a little neglected.

but, just because nothing is being posted doesn't mean that groovy things aren't happening.  i'm currently testing product for mission, tech40 and uk gear which will result in some interesting product posts.  also, next year's race schedule is currently in development.  so far it's looking like a great blogger event in new hampshire next summer for some moose love, an early season half iron in my backyard and an inaugural half iron that ends in magic mountain.  can you say, "race day magic"?  i thought so!

so, stay tuned for fun training stuff and if you're lucky, i might slip in a video of tc bawking like a chicken.

soundtrack for this post
	lick: hipsters: wax:	Love You Madly Cake Comfort Eagle

...walking.

yup.  our little guy is walking.  it took him 15.5 months, but he's finally walking on his own.  sure, he made a couple steps here and there a while back, but he didn't make that final move out on his own until last friday.

i took last week off for a little vacation.  mostly, the plan was to stick around the house and do some local touristy things, but for the start of the vacation, we had a trip to lake arrowhead planned.  we met up with our friends, m&m, at their house and smsmh & m headed out to do the grocery shopping for the weekend.  m&m have a little 2 year old, affectionately called brobro by tc.  brobro was running all over their house and tc was doing his best to keep up by crawling.  i started setting him on his feet and holding the seam on his shoulder to give him some security.  he was tooling along and completely focused on brobro, so i let him go.  he'd walk about 5-10 steps and then plop down.  after 5 minutes, he was cruising all over the place and pushing off of the furniture on his own.

by the time smsmh got back from the store, he was all over the place on his own and surprised her by rounding the island in the kitchen on his own and walking up to her saying, "mama! mama!"  it was a shock to her and quite exciting.  that set the mood for the weekend and the two of them, brobro and tc, had a blast walking all over the house we stayed in at the lake.

the week of vacation got better when we headed to disneyland for the first time with tc.  again, the timing was perfect as he was able to cruise around a bit, rather than be stuck in the stroller on being carried.  we spent a good deal of time over in the bug's life area playing in the water features.  tc would constantly squeal and walk wildly through the fountains much to the joy of all the other parents watching their own kids.  he was quite entertaining.

later in the week, we headed down to the san diego zoo and again, the walking made the trip fantastic.  he found the orangutans and australian birds the most fascinating.  the children's zoo didn't really interest him all that much...he was more interested in trying to get handfuls of goat pee soaked dirt to put in his mouth. 

so, things are changing around the zipper quigley household.  tc is growing up and it's the most amazing thing to experience.

soundtrack for this post
	lick: hipsters: wax:	Sidewalking The Jesus & Mary Chain Barbed Wire Kisses