They'll give a license to anyone these days

(Commentary provided by Steve.)

The Dog Days of Summer

Even though it's not officially the dog days of summer yet, Dog Days have started here in Lawrence. Our town's version is a free to all, community exercise program that is now in its 25th year. It's a mixture of shapes, sizes, ages and activity levels. There are little kids (several in strollers), grandmothers and everything in between. High school athletes and middle-aged couch potatoes. You go at your own pace, and one of the main rules is that no one laughs (unless you're laughing WITH someone) and you must always be encouraging of others. I've gone a handful of times in the past, and always came away with my behind thoroughly kicked. My friend Kris goes regularly every summer (along with her 60+-year-old father, who can run laps around me), and goes so often each year that she earns her free t-shirt (you have to come to 25 sessions to get the shirt). Adele has been going with me to the 6:00 pm session, and she's great. She just hangs in the stroller, watching for the first 15 minutes, which is usually stretching/calisthenics, and then she usually falls asleep when I start with the laps around the track. The best part about having her there is that I get out of running the KU stadium steps! I don't know what I'll do when July comes and it's too hot to take her...what will my excuse be then?

In other news...

I'm home with Adele the next two days while daycare is closed for vacation. I've had a super busy two weeks at work, and I more than welcomed the time off. I will probably put in a little work from home (or bring A with me to the office for a few hours), but nothing too much. So far all we've done is taken a few cat naps (Adele) and watched last night's Top Chef finale (me). Yay Stephanie! I plan on making a visit to my old workplace in Topeka tomorrow to say hi to the folks over there.

We've got a busy weekend of birthdays and holidays to look forward to, too. Tomorrow is Papa's (my dad's) birthday, Saturday is Madeline's (my niece) and Sunday is Father's Day! Not sure what Steve's F.D. request will be yet, but I'm sure he'll chose something very Steve-like (probably involving at least one of the following: meatloaf or sloppy Joes, chocolate chip cookies or comic books). I told him we could do whatever he wanted, so we'll see what he comes up with!

As far as Adele, she's doing great (and is sleeping on my shoulder as I type). Pulling up on EVERYTHING and starting to cruise around tables/furniture. If you hold her hands and walk, she'll actually walk now, instead of before when her legs would just sort of stay put until you helped her swing them around. I keep forgetting that for her adjusted age (10.5 months), that's not too bad! It will be interesting to see if she's walking by her adjusted first birthday. Eating is going well, and she's graduated from thick purees to soft cubes (bananas, avocados, cooked veggies) and any "meltable" crackers or foods (graham, Ritz/club). She's also FINALLY getting the hang of using a cup. We ditched the no-spill sippys with valves, which usually require actual sucking, and went straight for the little plastic cups with lids that just have a spout with a slit. They work best with her thickened liquids and she can just tilt and drink. And, naturally, the cups were the cheapest available at 3 for $1.99, but too bad we'd already spent 6 times that on OTHER cups. Sigh... But hey, she likes them, she is getting the hang of tipping the cup and moving it away when her mouth is full and she's NOT choking. That's the important stuff! It gives me hope that the bottle-weaning that's supposed to happen in 2-ish months might actually occur!

That's about it from here. Hope everyone's summers are going well so far!

The Great Outdoors

We had our first family camping trip this weekend, and things went surprisingly well! It all started because I'd had a hectic week at work and I really needed a getaway. We didn't have the time, finances or dog-sitter to do anything that required a hotel stay and/or long drive, so we opted for a camping trip close to home. We managed to throw everything in the truck and get Steve out and on his way before 7:00 pm, and A and I made a quick run to the grocery at the same time for our supplies. Steve had base camp and tent set up by the time we got out there, so all we had to do was arrange the food and we were good to go.

I was apprehensive about taking a baby on a camping trip, especially one who wants to be crawling and exploring ALL THE TIME. I was worried about making bottles and washing dirty ones, I worried about ticks and too much sun, I wondered if she'd be entertained enough all weekend. I guess I needn't have worried because, really, everything was fine! We had a dishtub, and we had fires most of the time and could heat water for washing. We kept her in the shade as much as possible and we brought plenty of toys. I discovered that her stroller works just fine as a highchair (it even has a small tray perfect for holding Cheerios) and that a pack n play is absolutely necessary. She wasn't always happy to be confined, but at least we could do whatever stuff we needed to do (make food, clean up, tend fires) and know that she was safe and not getting TOTALLY dirty. We did try some time on a blanket, but every time I looked down, I saw a tick on the blanket, so that was a short-lived experiment.

We didn't do much--mostly eating and then napping and reading books until it was time to eat again--so I had plenty of time to take pictures. I think I got some really good ones! Here are my favorites, and you can see the entire album here (the rest of the photos aren't very exciting unless you like plenty of photos of plates of bacon and babies).

In the shot below, the look on Adele's face is pretty silly, but I like the shot because of the overall look/composition.


She's not unhappy, this is just one of her faces...