First Race

On Tuesday nights, a local outdoor center holds a trail race series called, appropriately enough, "Tuesday Night Trail Running Series". Northern Toddler and Northern Daddy turned out to crew NorthernMommy's race. Levi's job was to clap politely for all of the runners as they entered the finish line corral, and to cheer wildly when Mommy came up the hill towards the finish. He did his job well. Daddy's job was to be the Official Hauler of the Heavy Toddler™, and he did his job well also. (Job duties include chasing said toddler across a wet field, retrieving toddler from the middle of the course, arguing against visiting the donkeys again (don't ask!), and getting soaked by wet toddler shoes as he rides on your shoulders.)

Before the official "old people race", they held a "Cubs" race for the kids under age eight. Northern Toddler got his race bib and toed the line with the rest of the pack. The starter briefed the runners on the course layout (run down to that guy, turn right, and head out around the barn until you get back here - it's about two hundred yards) and off we went. Levi did not win his first race. He finished second-to-last. He beat the young girl who had her mom carry her around the whole course. In his defense, he was the youngest runner by a few years....and we slowed down a little bit to look at the donkeys in the barn. Northern Daddy is very proud that Levi ran the entire race - his very first race!

There's NorthernToddler mid-race....at this point, he's keeping pace with the little girl who's mom carried her the whole way (and they were nice enough to step aside a bit to stay out of the photo!). He had enough kick left at the end to finish ahead of her!

On an abruptly different note, we have a quick NorthernToddlerChickenUpdate: if you've read the earlier post where we told you about Levi saying "We Eat Them!" in response to being asked what we do with chickens, you might appreciate his latest antics.

We had one of the chicks out of the brooder and were letting her scoot around the kitchen (under close supervision - we don't want to play hide and seek with a very fast fuzzball), and she found one of Levi's shoes on the floor. She started to peck at the loose shoestrings and pull on them.

Levi sees this, grabs his shoe, and starts to chase the chick around the kitchen, shouting "EAT MY SHOE!!" "HERE! EAT MY SHOE!!"

Gotta love that kid!