Fleeting Defiance

For almost a year Esme has been growing more independent, and as her communication skills have expanded beyond crying she has been able to regulate herself better when she doesn't get what she wants, or doesn't want to do something we want her to do. Over the last several weeks there has been a marked increase in her interest in agreeing or disagreeing with everything. There was a quintessential moment on Sunday as we prepared to head to the grocery store. With everyone ready to go, I put Esme in the back seat, on the opposite side from the car seat, and Angie locked the front door. While Esme and I waited, we played for a minute. I hid under the window line and would pop up to surprise her, she began to do the same thing. Angie went around to the other side to buckle Esme in to the seat, but began playing along with the little game. We all played in the back seat for a few minutes then decided we should get moving so Angie asked Esme to move to the other side so she could buckle her in. Instead of the normal compliance, or equally normal (although less frequent) resistance, Esme looked at Angie, then back at me and decided, that "No, thanks, I'm not quite done playing yet." She looked at Angie, shook her head "no" to Angie's request to come to her and get in the seat, than looked back at me, expectantly waiting for me to continue to play. Although amused by Esme's decision to not listen to her mother, I knew we were at a crucial point since Esme had handled it so calmly. I stifled my chuckle and explained carefully to Esme that we needed to go and we were done playing for now, and she needed to let her mother buckle her up. Again, she evaluated the situation, shook her head "no" and ducked behind the window gleefully resuming play. Still smiling, and not acting remotely disapproving, I said "Nope honey, time to go!" enthusiastically, and shepherded her over to Angie's side who also in a fun voice said "We can play later, let's go to the store now!" The transition was seamless and Esme settled into her car seat babbling happily. I'm certain that we have had equally smooth transitions, but in this instance all the decisions were very clear, and the motivations equally so. While I am a proud dad for this, I know it won't always go so smoothly, perhaps that is why it stood out.

On a biking related note, I rode 45 miles on Sunday, the longest I have ridden since my accident. So far no pains different from the exertion. Maybe my healing is about wrapped up.

Cycling

Some of you may know that I have taken cycling pretty seriously over the last year or so. I have really enjoyed the exercise, being outside, and the simplicity of man and machine. For me it is an activity that truly pits you against yourself. The wind, the grade of the road and your skill are really the only thing that can effect your ride. This keeps it challenging and even my commuting was a race against my best time.

My ride was a 2001 Specialized Allez Comp, and while it was aluminum, it was fairly light and was a great starter bike. I logged 3700 miles on the bike in ten months, and enjoyed every bit of it.

Until January 5th. While riding home from work (and making record time) I was run into by a driver who claimed to not see me. If you have seen any pictures from my sisters blog, you know the result, but to summarize: The bike was broken into two separate pieces and I was kept in one piece, but was pretty beat up and needed stitches. Fortunately nothing was broken, and four weeks of physical therapy have cleared up much of my lingering pain.

The good news is, I replaced my bike and have been riding again. I am no where near my level of fitness from before the accident (80 mile rides for fun), but I am trying to get up to speed as quickly as I can. The goal is to be in condition to ride the Assault on Mount Mitchell in May. It will be a lot of work, and a lot of fun, but I foresee at least making it to the top.

Here is a picture of the old bike after the accident:



Here is a picture of the new bike:

Snow in Charleston

For the first time in ten years, we had snow in Charleston, that actually hung around for a day and a half. It started snowing around eight o'clock in Mt. Pleasant, and snowed until ten or eleven. It was an exciting morning to get up and see everything covered with a cold white blanket, and Esme was intrigued. She had seen snow before, but never here. Here are some pictures:







Here are some pictures from New Year's in Maryland. And snow.



Esme and a friend of the family got along famously.


Not quite a lampshade but the spirit was there.