Eat & Sleep

Dane got a new booster seat, so now he eats at the table like a big boy. And, yes, he is willing and able to eat that whole plate of food!

I feel fortunate that both my kids are really good nappers. Dane sometimes finds some rather uncomfortable-looking sleeping positions, though:Check out his big, fat feet! He and Ava wear almost the same size shoe.

And Ava is just downright silly. She wanted me to take her picture, too, because I was taking the above pictures of Dane. I obliged.

Mountain Climbing

Dane has become an expert climber in the last month or so. He's conquered Mt. Table, as you can see here, and has also scaled multiple staircase hills, along with Toilet Peak and Couch Mountain. He tells me the treacherous King Bed Range is up next.

First, I climb up one of the chair foothills, piece of cake.Then, stick out my tongue at Mom, for good luck.Okay, here I go . . .Almost there . . .I reached the summit! I am the King of the World!Now for my oh-so-graceful descent:I'm so proud of myself!Mountain climbing makes me so hungry, I could eat the table!

Picking Strawberries

We couldn't resist the early summer taste of fresh-picked strawberries! There's a berry patch and orchard near Marthasville, about 30 minutes from our house. We met our friend Margaret, her dad, Aunt Karen and baby Kyle there to pick strawberries one Saturday morning. We hope to go back later this summer to pick peaches. Yummy!Dane made a new friend! Have I mentioned he loves dogs?Kyle was kind enough to flash a smile for me. Isn't he adorable?

I Scream, You Scream

We all scream for ice cream!

Sometimes the kids get special treats on Friday afternoons at the babysitter's house. Since I pick up the kids at one o'clock, she sent the treats home with us on this particular Friday afternoon. M&M ice cream sandwiches!

Ava is a very neat eater:Dane? Not so much. He digs right in:

Addicts

Hi, my name is Dane and I'm a binkie- and blankie-holic. Hi, my name is Ava, and I'm a thumb-oholic:Think they need a 12-step program?

Cousin Kyle's Baptism

It's going to take me a while to get caught up on blog posts, so you'll have to bear with me. This one is from way back at the end of May. Charlie (my brother) and Karen's son Kyle was baptized May 25 at Newport Presbyterian Church between New Haven and Washington.

Charlie, Karen and Kyle: The Scheer family. Left to right: Allen, Wendy holding Dane, Grandma Bev holding Ava, Charlie holding Kyle, and Paw-Paw Wayne.
Baby Kyle sleeping soundly in Grandma's arms:
Ava and Dane played in the nursery area while the rest of us ate lunch. It was nice to eat in peace for a change!

Derailed

Only temporarily, I hope.

I mentioned in my last post that I was going to have to be off my feet for a while. Don't worry, nothing horrible happened to me -- I just hurt myself. I had been noticing a bit of discomfort around the ankle and top of my left foot for the last couple of weeks, but it was more annoying than painful. Well, this past Saturday, I ran in a 5K cross-country race at a local camp. The good news is that I placed first in my age group in 29:40, was the second female finisher, and finished about 2 minutes faster than last summer. However, the course was really rough (3.1 miles over very rutty cow pasture and wooded trails) and after the race, I could barely walk on my left foot. I spent most of the rest of the weekend with my foot on ice, then went to my podiatrist on Monday morning. I was really concerned that I had fractured a bone in my foot, but was elated to learn I only strained the muscle. The doctor taped my foot and told me to take ibuprofen to reduce the inflammation. While I am not yet back to running, I am almost walking without a limp now, and it's only been 5 days. Yay!

Because I still haven't given up on running a half marathon this fall, I'm trying to make up for the runs I've been missing by doing cross-training activities. So far this week, I've cycled on a stationary bike twice, and plan to hit the pool on Saturday for my first attempt at pool running. Basically, you put on a flotation belt, jump in the water, and start running in place (feet not touching bottom). I'm shooting for about 80 minutes -- about the same amount of time it would take me to run the 8 miles I had planned to run on Saturday. It may be harder than it sounds though, and I'll probably look ridiculous doing it. Oh, well. We'll see how it goes!