Winter is Here

Being the fitness guru that I (think I) am, on Monday I did Ashley's little aerobics class. I figured it'd be a treat for some of the ladies in the class to see a real Adonis exercising, but since he wasn't there, they were stuck with me :-) Honestly, the class was a good work out, and it was nice to do something different. Of course, the operative word is different, because, as many of you know, when the body does something different, something that it isn't quite used to, soreness is a typical result. During the class, the instructor had us grab a set of dumb-bells (I couldn't find the 50 pounders) and then do lunges an entire lap around the track. The track is 1/9 of a mile. I figure I cover about a yard with every lunge, so this equated to ~200 lunges. I hadn't done lunges in years, so come Tuesday morning, my legs were, to quote Paul Sherwin, "screaming at me." I couldn't hardly walk, bend over, go up/down stairs. I probably looked like a tall version of Bode trying to walk, stumbling around, legs not quite working as they should. Ashley, of course, found this hilarious and spent the day reminding me that it was the "little girly aerobics class" that did this to me, to which I responded, "How did Auburn do in football this year?"

Tuesday night, we had an ice/sleet storm followed by 10-12 inches of snow. Therefore, the base shut down, which meant we all stayed home. Here's a shot from our front porch. It kind of reminds me of Colorado...without the mountains.
Ashley had the foresight to bring her work computer home before the storm in case of such an event. She spent the day holed up in the office, while Bode and I spent the day playing. (Un)fortunately, the storm was so bad, the base was also closed on Wednesday. Two days stuck in the house entertaining a one-year old was challenging, but it was fun to hang out with the little dude. We noticed he has the strongest thighs of anyone in the world. He squats down and gets his butt iches off the ground while keeping his feet flat. He remains in this position for minutes at a time, playing, laughing, whatever. Maybe he'll be a gymnast...It's Saturday, just over 24 hours until kickoff of Super Bowl XLIII. It's freezing here--high of 15 or so, which means today is a good day to stay inside and get the taxes in order. Maybe I'll bet the entire refund on the Steelers! Go Pittsburgh!

Sick. And Tired

The title of this post accurately describes our well being, not only now, but perhaps for the past 14 months (yes, Bode has been alive 14 times as long as William Henry Harrison was in office--don't you just love those inauguration facts???). Going into the whole parent-thing, I knew sleepiness went with the territory. What I wasn't ready for is the amount of times I'd be sick. Oh sure, I figured Bode would get a bunch of colds and other things, but I thought, based on 35+ years of building up my immune system, that I'd be relative safe from most of the junk Bode brought home. I guess I wasn't counting on that whole "virus mutation" thing. In the days P.B. (pre-Bode for those new to the blog), I would catch a cold about once a year. I figured my immune system was in tip-top shape. Obviously I was mistaken because during the past 14 months, I've had a cold on six separate occasions. And not just a trifle case of the sniffles. A full-blown, pounding head, sinus cavity full of snot cold. In addition to the colds I also got a real bad case of the flu (although part of me blames the flu-shot for that one).

As you might have guessed, inferred, deduced, or whatever you wish to call it, Sherlock, Ashley and I both have colds. Or, as we say it, "codes." Or, as Bode says it, "Da-da." Yes, he says "Da-da" but not in any way referring to me--anything but me is "Da-da."

Despite keeping the Kleenex people in business, we had a relatively nice weekend. Big props to the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers (not to say I told you so, but I did). Bode, for some reason, wasn't all that into the game. In fact, he spent a lot of Sunday playing with his fake cell-phone.
This past weekend, we fed Bode some jello and decided, just for grins, to see if he could use a spoon. To our amazement, he did quite well. He couldn't really get the jello onto the spoon, but he knew what to do with it once it was in place. Of course, a new eating routine means more food on the floor, hence the omnipresent rotty during feeding. Note also Bode is using his left-hand...looks like we may have a south-paw.
Finally, many of you have asked for a picture of the train table we got Bode for Christmas. Here he is playing trains--obviously he loves it. One of the locomotives is battery powered, so we can turn it on and let it go. Bode will do laps, following the train around the table. Best of all, chasing the train is sort of like running laps around a track, so hopefully he's burning off some of that spare tire...
Ashley is thrilled now that dull, boring college football season is over. You probably didn't know she's a rabid women's basketball fan, and as luck would have it, the Lady Cougars, err, Tigers, are 18-0, ranked #6 in the nation (does the word bandwagon come to mind?) Anyways, I think they're on TV this week, so if you have nothing better to do, your taxes are done, and your laundry is all folded, you might want to check them out. Or you could watch more inauguration coverage--I'm sure that'll still be going on...

Pleasant day. Ahhh chooo.

So Cold It's Like the Hoth System*

OMG!! It is sooo cold here in the great city of Dayton. The high today was six. You know it's cold when you can give the temperature by using only your fingers (and this is even in Fahrenheit!) Anyways, you probably noticed my little acronym to start this post. For those of you that don't know, OMG is short for 'oh my God.' When texting (which, from what I understand, is quite popular with the young people, the kids, the little teeny-boppers), one uses an array of acronyms so you can say the same thing with fewer keystrokes. Since Bode is going to be a teenager some day, I thought it best to educate myself on the ins and outs of texting--I certainly don't want to have him speaking/texting in code behind my back--, so each week, I'm trying to learn one or two text-words. Some people learn Spanish, I choose to learn teen-speak...

I expect everyone to be in their favorite comfy chair at 6:30 PM EDT on Sunday, their televisions (hopefully hi-definition; if not, you are a blasphemer) tuned to CBS for the AFC Championship Game, featuring the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers versus the Ravens of Baltimore. It should be a great game--what's that I hear? Some nay-sayers think Baltimore will win? NFW! (Did I use that text-term right? :-)

Bode has been doing great. This week, he started in the "pre-toddler" room, which is for children ages 1-2. He made the transition quite easily, probably because he was reunited with his best buddy, Jase. Jase was in the 6-12 month room with Bode, but moved up rooms about a month before Bode left. Ms. Thea and Ms. Paulyn would tell stories about how Bode and Jase were so cute--Bode would walk over and shove Jase, and then Jase would smack Bode. Gotta love how kids play...Here's a shot, taken a few months ago, of the boys just hanging out. Twenty years from now, you better hope you don't run into these hoodlums in a dark alley...
We've been stuck indoors due to the bitter cold. Here are a couple shots of us trying to entertain Bode. First, it's not the best picture, but it's Bode sitting on my lap in front of the piano. Ashley said he was making the cutest faces while he was banging on the keys. No doubt he was playing a masterful composition...at least in his head he was. Next, we have Bode riding his little Sesame Street scooter that Uncle Pat and Aunt Dana got him for Christmas. He hasn't figured out how to use his feet to push himself along, but he will pick them up when you push him so they don't drag. Bode has logged many miles riding on his little machine, most of which were covered with Ashley pushing him.I'm not one to use this blog for political soap boxes, nor do I really try to push my beliefs on the dear readers. However, if you could, consider the following "hypothetical" situation. Suppose there's a family of three--husband, wife, child--that has two dogs. Said husband and wife were outside in the yard, doing what is not important. When they come back inside, one of them realized they have a large chunk of dog crap on their shoe (as Forrest Gump says, sh*t happens). Now I contend the proper thing to do would be to remove said shoe and place in the garage, let said do-do dry, harden, and then take the shoe out into the street and slam it onto the pavement in order to jar away the undesired matter. There are probably other ways to accomplish the objective, but I firmly believe the way to NOT handle the situation is 1) remove the shoe and use the kitchen sink faucet to rinse the shoe, splattering little pieces of dung onto the counter and then 2) use one of the dinner forks to dig into the tread of said shoe in order to scrape out the now wet, smelly, stinky dog manure.

Am I wrong in thinking this? Possibly, but my gut tells me I'm right. Please, remember it's just a hypothetical situation. Now, anyone want to come over for dinner? You can use a spoon if you want...

Pleasant evening, and Happy MLK Day.

* The Hoth System was the ice planet in Empire Strikes Back...but you probably knew that already.