Avocado Kid

Hello there! It's me again. Annika Ruth, reporting in on the latest and greatest happenings. Now I do understand the title of this blog is "Jenny From The Block" not "The Amazing Adventures of Annika". However it is tales of racing, training, and having fun. I certainly have a lot of those stories to share.

 If it was still my Mom's blog she'd probably bore you all to tears with stories of how much fun she had riding her single speed on the single track or how she took 6 seconds off her 200 yard time trial in the pool this week. Six seconds doesn't sound like much to me but apparently she thinks it is something worth celebrating. I just roll with it.

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If this was my Dad's blog you might learn a little bit about reducing fractures, replacing joints, and reading x-rays but mostly he'd want you to know how much fun he had riding his bike.

Most of all you would read about how much fun it is to get big air. Make sure to get the tongue wag in the photo. For the record my Mom consistently rides that spot getting no air. Because she is my Mom I have to say this. She must be a really smooth rider or a really boring one. I know just how much fun getting air and jumps are. I love it.

My friends gave me a Jumparoo and I am putting it to good use. I can bounce on one foot or two feet at a time and I can spin around. Unlike my Mom riding her bike I don't have to worry about mechanicals, getting dirty,getting lost, or encountering snakes. Maybe she should switch to Jumparooing. I think she'd really like it. I would let her try mine but I think her thighs would get stuck and it might upset her. It might be a real blow to her self image.

Do you think when I outgrow this I can have a bounce house or a trampoline? I think I'd like that.

I'm nearly 6 months now. Not quite. Alright! I am only 5 1/2 months but it is the time that babies can start having solid foods. I mean real (semi) solid foods. I don't count the rice cereal that is often given at 4 months because rice cereal is for babies. My parents and pediatrician said I shouldn't have anything until I showed interest. I really had to work to show them. First I started grabbing at their plates and foods but they really didn't get it. Annika don't touch this...Annika you can't have that. Hee Hee Hee they would laugh. Finally, I made a move for my Dad's coffee cup. Finally, they got the hint.

My first food: avocado or so my Mom thinks my Dad slips me tastes of things on the side but it is our secret.. What can I say? I am an avocado kid.I was hoping to have it guacamole style with corn or tortilla chips but I guess a girl has to start somewhere so mashed up with milk it is. Next up coffee? Nah, more likely a sweet potato.

Presidents Day at Pannikin

If you followed this blog BA, Before Annika, you know there was a lot of writing about my Mom and Dad riding road bikes and occassional stops to Pannikin for a sweet treat or two.

By the way my Mom is really thankful she took me for professional baby pictures. Note the hat obstructing me completely. Getting a picture of a baby is not the easiest thing to do.  

Times change. Now their rides together are infrequent and they mostly ride off road. They realized as much as they love the trails the missed riding the road together and going to Pannikin. It's classic.

 A while back I blogged about not needing a 2 wheels when you have 3 in referance to being left out of bike rides. It maybe too fat too run to Pannikin but guess what? We have 4 wheels and a motor. Who could ask for more?

We won't be in San Diego much longer. It's time to capitalize on classic San Diego. So after swim my Mom and I headed up the coast to meet my Dad mid -late ride for a treat. Yum!

Love!

With Valentines Day this week love was in the air. I learned that love is not just a thought, feeling, or emotion but an action and a refusal to give up. This action I saw first hand during my Mom's swim practice on Wednesday. Despite being a naturally athletic swimming has not been something my Mom is a natural at. In fairness, she naturally gravitated to practicing the sports that she seemed to be a natural at, like cycling. Enter into the womb and world Annika Ruth and cycling became a bit more of a challenge. Rather than mourning the loss of bike miles my Mom chose to embrace a whole lot of swimming. When my Mom was given the opportunity to bring me to swim practice this year she decided to make the most of it. Not just by attending but by really, really, really, trying to improve. She took a private lesson with Coach Sickie. She was hoping for an instant fix but it didn't happen.  It was painful. Change in general is hard. Changing a swimming stroke is really hard. Envision a golfer throwing his or her club. She said to my Dad and her swimmer friends post lesson. "I really don't get it. I'll continue to swim because I think it's good for the body like yoga but I just don't get it" Apparently you don't have to get it to keep trying.  So she kept swimming, refusing to give up. She  resisted the urge to use aids like her beloved pull buoy which masks the errors of her stroke and allows her to swim much faster with less effort. Slowly things started to click a little. A few aha moments equalling a few faster splits and she felt a glimmer of hope. The motivation grows. Swim faster, try harder, try harder, swim faster. When Wednesday's test set rolled around my Mom had the confidence to risk failure and try her hardest. She used to not try that hard on test set day because if you try hard and you stink than you have to face that you stink so if you know you didn't try that hard ... :) She announced "Today is the day I am going to attempt to go sub 1:30." She also announced that if she was able to go sub 1:30 the sky would likely turn black with  thunder and rain to follow. The strangest thing happened she broke 1:30 and swam 1:24. Shortly after the sky turned black and it started to storm. Rumor has it if she swims sub 1:20 Hell will freeze over.

February Fun

My parents must have become tired of the shadows they usually cast.

Off to San Fransisco we went.

Maybe it was because my Dad was presenting at a conference?

Or maybe it was so Mommy could add some variety to my runs?

I know why! It was to provide me with a variety of enriching experiences.

Talk about enrichment!

But life handed me lemons as I only got to look. Next time!

Please Daddy?

Just a taste on the tongue. I am 5 months old already.

The city wasn't all we got to visit. We saw family!

That's my cousin Scott. Cousins are so so cool. My cousin Scott can do all sorts of cool stuff . For example he can walk. He can talk. He can even chew food!I'm a gonna be just like him someday.

His parent are my Auntie Val and Uncle Seth.

 They are really cool too. Well as cool as adults can be. When you are a kid nothing compares to how cool your cousins are. That is an undistputable fact.

My Grandpa , "Pop Pops" I call him seems to be wrapped around my torso finger.

He must have heard me thinking with a British accent "but Daddy I wanted a pony"

 Once that was my Daddy's horse. Thunder the Wonder Horse

With newly braided reins she is all mine.

Happy Valentines Day

Dear World,

Please be my valentine.

Love,

Annika Ruth

Good Times Roll!

 Good times roll and so do I. I am a real busy body and I don't like to just sit around so that may be why I have been publishing fewer blogs.

That's my Mom and I at story hour. Guess what? She found the songs we sing at story hour on a CD called Song For Wiggle Worms. They are really great. They are all the classic children's songs with a pepped up beat. Mind you not a pepped up beat that is hokey like when Christmas carols and church hymns are tackily changed to rock roll.  She loaded them onto her I phone and I pod and now has no excuse not to sing and dance along with them during all of my waking hours. Many of the songs could easily be modified for triathlon or cycling. For example the song the "the wheels on the bus" could be changed to "the wheels on the bike." The best modification of that song would be changing the line "the babies on the bus go wah, wah, wah " I'll fly past the boys on my pink bike singing to myself "the boys that I drop go wah, wah, wah"       

 I may or may not have witnessed her fall onto the floor with exhaustion. Well she didn't quite fall onto the floor with exhaustion. She tripped over a cord to the laptop computer. I think she may have been so tired she couldn't see straight. It might have something to do with her belief that I nap better in a rolling stroller and she is what rolls the stroller. I take more than one nap a day you know. So my Mom has to take me on a run, and a walk, and then hop, hop, hop for me when the music says to.  Did I mention I no longer embrace a 6:30 p.m. bedtime? Nope, that's for babies.

 I certainly do my best to keep my mom in shape for when she gets to ride the friendly trails. Although, not all encountered on the trails are friends. See snake below!

Happy Sunday!