The Chicago Marathon

Today is the Chicago Marathon. Many of my running friends are out there, and one of Alex's teachers ran today. So, we made an outing of it and went to watch. (Alex and I also watched the start of the race on tv. He wanted to know who was the fastest so he could pretend to be that person.)

We prepared by making a sign for Alex's teacher. He picked bright pink poster board for high visibility. We got there with plenty of time and watched for a little over an hour. There were lots of people running with Iowa gear on, so Alex made a game of seeing how many shirts he could find, and he yelled "Go, Hawks!" to all of them. He also really liked the costumes, especially the runners dressed as super heroes and Buzz Lightyear. He gave lots of high fives from our spot on the side of the course, which earned him lots of smiles from the runners. Then, best of all, we saw his teacher. There was lots of cheering and hugs!

We were too involved in spectating to take many pictures.

Decorating the sign

Watching the runners

Alex Reads

I knew Alex could read more than he was letting on, and recently he decided to show us. He read Big Dog, Little Dog to Dave the other night. Dave said he thinks Alex even surprised himself with how many of the words he could read. He finally read it to me last night, and it was definitely one of my favorite moments as a parent. Tonight, we got him to read a bit for the camera. I was worried he'd ham it up and be goofy, but he just read for us. Click the link above and enjoy!