8-8-08 Well, aint that a cool date!!

The big excitement for the week is that Alli finally cracked the code on her walker and is now running it around all over the place. She is so thrilled to be able to easily get from here to there without expecting mommy or daddy to help in any way. It is the beginning of a gradual independence that will inevitably lead to her being all grown up and not needing her Mommy any more. (Insert mommy looking sad here.) Hey, but she is so proud of herself so you gotta be happy for her.

In other Alli-Bean news, she is now up to 5 teeth. She has 2 up top and 3 on the bottom. Her top teeth look so big that her Daddy has taken to calling them “pie plates”. I sometimes worry about her ego should he continue such talk after she is old enough to understand him.

Wednesday evening, Zoe and I took Alli shopping and bought her a few new toys and a 5 set of Carters Onesies. Toy shopping is really fun at her age. We spent the longest time just wondering back and forth admiring the cool toys we could buy her. Alli has a ton of dresses, but now that she is crawling they are terribly unpractical. You see, when you crawl in a skirt, your knees get all hung up in the skirt and you stop yourself from going forward. So, all of a sudden we had a wardrobe shift and all the outfits with the nice flattering skirts are now OUT and the all functional, no flop, onesies are IN.

Zoe has been home for over a week now and seems to have gotten back to sleeping at night and being awake during the daytime. The first few days were pure torture as she tried to reset her internal clock. Jet lag is REALLY bad when you come back Japan. She was so sleepy during the day time and could not stay awake. I finally had her come to work with me where I could nag her to stay awake. She did a good job until about 3 in the afternoon when she finally fell asleep under my desk. Now we are busy gearing up for school to start. Zoe will be moving up to junior high this year and will attend Oakland. She is pretty excited about the fact that the school is literally across the street from her house making her commute time about five minutes.



Malcolm is still in Nashville and due to come home on Sunday. Then he will also start preparing for his first year at Hickman High school. He is in 10th grade now! I personally find this hard to believe since it seems like it was not that long ago that he was just a sweet little boy clutching a Crusty old Barney under his arm. They really do grow up fast! I also heard he is going to be playing varsity football!

The latest Judi news............Thursday morning I managed to run almost 6 miles. My feet really aren’t getting better, I am just figuring out tricks to make them last longer. If I stop and walk and curl my toes under for a while I can then run again and the pain goes back to manageable. Usually, at about 4 miles my right foot starts to hurt really badly. The pain is like a huge spike is going thru the ball of my foot. The doctor told me he thought it would not improve with time, but I chose to be hopeful and see if he was wrong. Well, he wasn’t. If I had known my feet would end up worse, not better, I would have never had the surgery. I may go see another doctor this winter and see if there is anything else they can do, because it is really sad to think my feet will be crap like this forever and I will never get to wear high heels, run a ½ marathon or bike a century ever again. Heck, most of my shoes, even the flat ones, are uncomfortable now. My feet hurt all the time; even when I have not been walking at all; even first thing in the morning.