There's no stopping her...

Now that Mallory is showing no signs of slowing down and with her days in the play pen numbered, we picked up a gate on Saturday that will help keep her in the family room when needed. The gate has a nice feature on it that allows the door to stay open so we (and the pups) can get through. On Sunday, Michol was up in Lake George with some friends so it was just me and Mallory for a good part of the day. At one point I grabbed the camera and just followed her around the house. She pretty much covered every square inch of the first floor. After lunch, we stopped by the Merrimans for a visit and Mallory had a nice encounter with her favorite feline. 

Nice Kitty!

More fun in the familiy room!

We are Warriors!

Michol and I participated in the Warrior Dash up at Windham Mountain this past weekend. This was my second time participating and Michol's first. We raced on Sunday and apparently missed all the thunder/lightening that occured on the Saturday event. We had the first time slot of the day which helped us avoid the heavy crowds throughout the course. For those not familiar with the event, it is a 3.5 mile course up, over, and down the mountain with  14 grueling obstacles along the way. Over the course of 2 days, about 14,900 people participate. As you can see by the pictures below, there is absolutely no way you can stay clean! Michol and cousin Jeanette ran together and did really well, considering it was their first time participating. Both came in at about 1 hour and 18 minutes and finished with big smiles and a few scrapes. I just missed beating my time from last year, but given the course was more uphill (or up-mountain) and muddy, I was definitely happy with my time of 36:05 and 64th place over the two days.

Since Mallory was only a couple of months old last year, Michol was able to carry her in the Bjorn and pretty much slept the entire time I raced. This year we decided to leave her behind with the Merrimans. Unfortunately, she missed seeing us all muddy and wet, but had a great time hanging with the Grandparents.

Here's the link to the New York site: http://www.warriordash.com/register2012_new_york.php#

Here are more shots from the race:

Pre-race photo of the girls

Michol and Jeanette preparing for the mud pit

Michol and Jeanette just a little muddy

The girls!

Michol and Andrea

Me and the guys from work

First Steps...

Sorry for the lack of posts lately...It's hard to believe we are already in August. Where does the time go? Well, since our last update, Mallory has been getting closer and closer to walking on her own. Right now she takes about 3-4 steps without assistance and then drops for the crawl. This "transition period" from crawling to walking is proving to be a challenge for us since she really does not want to be held for very long but at the same time she is not able to walk wherever she wants when we are outside of the house. The good side of this is that she does like to walk while you hold her hand and she is able to cover a lot more distance. Only a matter of time before she is off and running on her own!

In addition to the walking, Mallory is getting more and more teeth. She has the top and bottom front set and the back corners are already coming through. She certainly likes to test the teeth out on her Mom :) Luckily this emergence of teeth has not affected her sleeping patterns. She is still sleeping through the night and lately has not wanted to get up in the morning. We're so lucky...

Finally, with all this hot weather we've been having, Mallory had a chance to get her first experience in the "big" pool at the Astriabs. It was not for very long, but Michol took her in (with the assistance of cousin Jeannette) and she seemed to like bits and pieces of it. I think she prefers to play in her kiddy pool and water table for now.