A New Era

It's been a week that signalled the end of one era and the start of another, as Monday was Gavin's first day in kindergarten (aka big boy school). He was a little nervous on his first day, but he made a bunch of new friends and yesterday and today he swaggered in like he owned the place.

Rather than driving, Nancy and I have been dropping Dylan off at daycare and then walking Gavin the half mile or so to school. I think that may be my favorite part of the day - a rare chance for us to just enjoy being with each other. We usually go in with him and sit there while he gets his breakfast, but I don't think that will last very long - yesterday he informed us that we "can go now" :-)

When we dropped Dylan at daycare this morning, Gavin's old teacher came running over to give him a hug and ask him how his new school was. When she got up I realized that she was crying, and she told us that she missed Gavin the most because he was always chatting with her. She also told us that he was a wonderfully caring little boy, which was super good to hear.

The Gavster may have his faults (selective hearing being one of them), but I should never forget that he's a great kid with a big heart.

I think we're going to really like this school, and I'm so glad I waited in line for 24 hours in the cold and wind last February to get him in there. The teachers and principal already know us by name (is that good or bad?????), and I also found out that they're going to be doing some yoga as part of their PEP program, which is awesome. Gavin has done yoga with me at home, and he's really bendy (unlike me!!!!!).

Elsewhere on the home front we got Nancy's dad transferred to a hospital in Austin so I have my wife back and am now only a semi-single parent. He seems to be making good progress in therapy, but he is proving to be far from an easy patient.

It's so nice to have her home though.

And that also means that I can start doing my midweek early morning runs again. I went this morning, and was very happy to bang out a muggy 7 miles at a very welcome 7:50 pace. Last weekend I ran Jefferson loops on both Saturday and Sunday - only 8 miles but with lots of hills - and I felt really good. I pushed and even sprinted the last big hill. On Sunday I raced Frank up it and we pushed each other, laughing it out at the top (we called it a draw, but I think he may have pipped me).

I suspect these runs were born partly out of the frustrations and stress of the last few weeks, but I've also been hammering some circuit training drills after the boys go to bed at night which seems to pay dividends for me. On top of that, I just ordered this new set of workout dvds which I've heard are super hard but really good.

Now I just need to work on building back up the long runs, and the Frankenthon marathon is back on track.