Happenings

We've been fairly busy lately, but having a lot of fun. Catherine has been a personal trainer at a local gym now for a few months and has picked up quite a few clients. She is also slated to begin teaching yoga, and is one of those fortunate few who have found their calling. She absolutely loves what she does. She and I both ran 6 miles over the weekend. That's right, 6 miles - Catherine by the lake and me on a treadmill this time. We are well into our training and feeling good. 6 miles, piece of cake; 20 more...??? Yes, I've decided it is nuts. But we are still far from our fundraising goals - so I would offer an additional plea to anyone reading this blog: click the links here on our blog and contribute!

We put in a new floor, and aside from a few edges and trim to put it all together, its done. Our carpet was horrible and we are loving the new floor, and proud that we did it ourselves. Catherine's father is quite handy and got us started with the tough stuff and planning it out, and I must say it has come out quite nicely. Bair helped mainly by running around and driving his trucks over pieces of wood we really didn't want him to touch and was responsible for more than one nick in the floor. His other contribution was to make funny faces, which are all we seem to be able to capture on camera anymore. He is genetically predispositioned to hamming it up due to his being 1/2 Catherine's.
Speaking of genetics, there's only one word to describe the combination of Catherine and me: Magnificence! (as you can see right here...) Catherine seems to have been tailor made to raise boys. Its easy to say now, not having any girls, but she just seems to have a way with these guys. Here they put on a carefully balanced dance routine to the Thomas the Tank Engine theme song, which for some reason plays approximately 98% of the time in our house when we are awake.
Cal. Cal Pal. Cal Cheese. The Big Cheese. The Little Cheese. CP. C3PO. Cal.

Another totally natural smile from Bair...Noodlebrain. I wonder how long it'll be before we capture a real one again...I also marvel at how big he has become. When did this happen? That is a pretty good size rocking chair - when we got it he couldn't even climb in without help, and now his feet nearly touch the floor. Scary. Slow down boys, slow down! What's the rush in getting big, anyway? Still a favorite, the Big Brother book from Grandpa Fitz & Grandma Linda. Bair calls each character by name (Mommy, Daddy, Grandpa, Grandma, Bair and Cal are all featured in the book), and will sometime sit down and read it to Cal himself. It is eerie because he actually runs through the book almost word for word, and looks as if he is really reading it to Cal. But Bair actually tends to be very analytical and has simply memorized the words and their location on the page.
We finally had our first unplanned trip to the hospital this weekend, something I feared but knew was inevitable at least a few times over the course of the boys' childhood. Cal had the Croup - and woke up really struggling to breath. Not a pleasant thing to watch your one year old wheeze and struggle for air, but he's fine now. Although a little angry, as the remedy for Croup is steroids. I was tempted to take some of his prescription to try and get an edge in the kickball league I joined, but my gut tells me I'll be the next one randomly tested, and the though of going before congress makes me nervous, so thus far I've resisted.