Claire is practicing her victory solute by tossing out the numero uno sign to the sky. It's never too early to teach the merits of showboating. She seems to have a need for speed.
Claire was putting on a stair climbing clinic this weekend for the neighborhood kids. Showing perfect form here when making her approach to the 2nd step. In the industry we call this the "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" approach. Executing her extension flawlessly. Around the neighborhood her nickname is "Stair Master" or "Claire The Stair" due to all of the flights of stairs climbed in a day. Another favorite past time is turning the light switch on and off. Playing with her birthday toy with Budinski watching over her. Watty and I gave James (pictured above) a little Shock & Awe session on the bike on Saturday morning. The youngster has a lot of top end power but was no match to the clever teamwork and strategery of a couple of old and washed up veterans. We pulled out the Shake-n-Bake move on Old Dowd Road and when we looked back all we saw was a mushroom cloud. VALENTINE'S DAY The week started off with Jen saying that she would be my valentine for yet another year. I lucked out again. CLAIRE'S FAVORITE DAY OF ALL TIME On Friday we tested out the mother's morning out program from 9am-1pm and she seemed to really have a good time there interacting with the other children. She seemed to have an extra spring in her step when Jen and Claire picked me up from work. We then headed to Mellow Mushroom to have pizza for dinner and Claire really liked making contact with the other kids near our table. I think she declared this Friday as the favorite day of her life up until this point. RUNNING Running Miles: 55 Cycling Miles: 82 Training Hours: 11.0 Quality Sessions: Tue: 5 X 3:30 @ 5:30, 5:15, 5:00, 5:00, 5:00 w/ 45s recovery on treadmill Fri: 10 X 30s Forest Lake Hills w/ 75s recovery Sat: Watty and I gave James a little Shock & Awe session on the bike (62 miles) Sun: 12 miles @ 6:39 pace at 146 bpm ave This week I got in 55 miles running which is my biggest week since September 2007. My legs are feeling fairly tight at the close of the week but that is to be expected. Just need to make sure they are recovered before my next quality session on Tuesday. If not, I'll push the quality session out until they feel recovered.
Hallmark moment....mother and daughter. Budinski is the most tolerant cat in the world. Claire doesn't seem to abuse her privilages though. Claire has found a deep love for dogs and is displaying her sad puppy look here. She's been sick all week and was running a fever for 4 days so she hasn't really been herself lately. Even though she was sick you couldn't stop her from trying to do her normal activities like assisted walking. She could only go for short bursts before getting weak. The animal pop up toy was her favorite for the week. She plays with it while standing up against the couch. The only one that she has figured out is the green push and pull lever that pops up the elephant. We pop up the rest for now and she pushes them back down. You can't stop her......you can only hope to contain her. CLAIRE Claire is going to be one year old in a couple of days. Hopefully she's feeling better for her birthday. Jen was at a weekend long clinic so Claire and I got to hang out all weekend together. Unfortunately she was sick so we didn't really leave the house much. We're starting to look into daycare options from 9am-1pm for Claire since she seems to really love spending time with other children. I think she gets bored spending all day with the two of us and I think it will help her social and motor development to see how other children interact and move around. I think she is getting pretty close to walking and just started crawling (traditional style) this week. She's quite the mover and shaker. The daycare option will also open up some time for Jen and I to get more done and feel less stressed out. Ultimately it will be good for everyone but the thought of not spending as much time with her is tough. I think it will make the time that we do spend together higher quality. PROPERTY TAX ASSESSMENTS The property tax assessments came this week and it wasn't pretty for our personal residence. We were hoping that we would slide under the radar since our street hasn't fully turned yet but our tax assessment increased by $150K. It was probably due to the additions of the deck, front porch, different siding and windows. That kind of hurts though. RUNNING Running Miles: 46 Training Hours: 5.33 Quality Sessions: Tue: 4 X 15s @ 5:00 pace on treadmill Thu: 8 X 30s @ 5:00 pace on treadmill Sun: 8 X 30s @ 5:00 pace on treadmill This was my 2nd week in the 40s and I plan to head up to the 50s next week to see how my legs handle that. I'm gearing up for the Charlotte Grand Prix series so I'm going to start doing a variety of short workouts next week to get my legs used to moving a little faster and get them prepared for some bigger work to come later.
Holly Ann - 8lbs 1oz & 19in @ 5:52PM Sleepy baby Happy parents Big brother Ben watching over her Ben showing early signs of a foot fetish. My sister Melissa had a baby girl today to add to their family of three. It sounds like the delivery was very quick and painful but everyone is healthy. It was good timing because if she would have had her a couple of days later Tony would have had to miss the delivery...........because the Packers are in the Super Bowl. We look forward to meeting our newest addition to the family!