Wonderful weather

I don't know if you've heard the news, but the weather up here in Wisconsin is nicer than the weather in San Diego, CA! Check it out for yourself.

Here are Claire and Will out enjoying the sunny, beautiful weekend weather!

-K

Blocks!

Claire has gotten very good at building block towers in the last couple weeks and really enjoys both the building phase and the demolition phase.

-K

What is a Duhawk, anyway?

I’m sure this is old news by now for many avid fans of this blog, but Kate, Will and Claire will be packing up their bags and moving to Dubuque, IA this summer. Why Dubuque? Well, Kate has her first real job there. She will be an assistant professor at Loras College, a school of about 1700 students. She will be teaching and doing research in the Division of Molecular and Life Sciences. Kate also grew up in Dubuque and her parents still live there. The cost of living is cheap, and, judging by the national recognition Dubuque has received in recent year the quality of life is pretty good. All in all it is a good move for the family, and it almost didn’t happen.

In mid-December Kate had a meeting with her graduate committee members and was given the go-ahead to graduate this summer. Up to that point the question had been “will I ever graduate?” During that meeting the question abruptly shifted to “what will I do afterwards?” A few days spent with the Google and Kate found the Loras position posting. Unfortunately, the deadline to apply was past. A quick call to Loras confirmed that, but Kate was told to send her materials in anyway as the review committee was meeting in two days to make their first cut. With some encouragement from those around her, Kate got her application in and shortly thereafter was invited for a phone interview. After a phone interview came the invitation to an on-campus interview and after that came the job offer.

So, Kate applied for one job and got one job doing what she wants to do, where she wants to do it. That’s not very common.

Anyway, we’re excited and Claire is already trying to figure out what Dubuque has to offer the little people. She’s also trying to choose whether to wear Luther blue or Loras purple. And she’s trying to figure out what a Duhawk is. What will Will do in Dubuque? Well, that’s a good question, and the answer is still to be determined. He's heard that stay-at-home dad may not be a bad gig, and Kate might appreciate having a hot meal on the table, clean clothes and a relatively clean house when she gets home from a long, hard day of educating Duhawks.

Hair

Claire's hair is getting pretty long. And yes, that's how much it normally sticks up on the top of her head.

-K

Bucky!

We went to the women's basketball game on Sunday afternoon and Claire and I got our picture taken with Bucky Badger. She wasn't sure what to make of him and was clinging very tightly to me. But overall, Claire enjoyed the game and Will and I definitely did as well. It was a close game, and UW barely lost by 3. By the end, Claire was smiling and clapping along with the crowd whenever the Badgers would score!

-K

Exercises

Will does his push-ups at the same time as Claire does her leg presses; I guess that gives them both an advantage.

Claire is well

Claire loves hats.
She has fun putting hats on herself, and now, lately, all her friends have to be wearing hats also.

At Claire's 15 month "well-child checkup" Dr Schumacher pronounced Claire "great." (But all you devoted readers already knew that, right?) The vitals were as follows:

Height: 31" (slightly under 75th percentile)
Weight: 22 lbs 9.5 oz (50th percentile - a big jump from the 25th percentile curve that she had been following. If you saw her eating tonight you'd understand the reason for the growth!)
Head circumference: 47.5 cm (90th percentile)

Note: For those of you bored enough to care, check out the "Summer Rains" link to the right. It's a new creative outlet for one of us.

Claire's new trick

Super (snowy) Tuesday

[Disclaimer: this post is not about Claire. It contains political content.]

Because it's Super Tuesday politics are on my mind. Others are far more eloquent, more talented, more creative and funnier than I so I'll just link to them here and here. There. I've said it. You have a good idea where I stand.

Now, on to the other thing on my mind... snow. Here in Madison we've gotten five feet of snow so far this winter and that doesn't count the 7-10" we're supposed to get tonight and tomorrow. I really like snow for about two months of the year. Now, however, I'm ready for winter to be over. This was driven home this morning when I dragged myself out of bed to go for a run on icy/snowy/slushy streets and sidewalks knowing that that would be preferable to running in too many inches of heavy wet snow tomorrow. Then today at lunch I was eating some yummy homemade black bean soup left over from the Super Bowl and I realized I was getting tired of soups and was instead craving the grilled food, cold pasta salad, and fresh veggies from the garden that are still too many months away.

What did that groundhog forecast the other day, anyway? I wasn't paying any attention. I was probably shoveling.

-wch

Back to Work Monday

Claire likes to walk around the house with this lunchbox around her neck. We think she is pretending to be going off to work like mom and dad with our messenger bags over our shoulders. As soon as she sees us pick up our bags she normally starts waving good-bye; she knows that the next step is running out the door to catch the bus... well, maybe that's just me.

-K

The inevitable

With two distance runners for parents it was pretty much inevitable that Claire would start "training" sooner rather than later. After a brief morning nap and a quick snack, Claire got bundled up for her first "workout" of her life around 11:30 am this morning. Claire started out with a quick 15 yd warmup walk down the driveway. After a quick transfer over to the sidewalk in front of our house (no walking in the street, Claire!) we started out down the sidewalk. Claire managed to walk/run under her own power all the way down the block in about 15 minutes. She broke the trip up into short segments (aka "repeats"), separated by time (aka "recovery time") spent watching cars, dogs, squirrels, birds, fake deer, and knocking snow off of a brick retaining wall. After making it to the end of the block she turned around to do it again (her "second set"). The second set turned out to be harder as she was getting tired (perhaps she went out too fast!), starting to stumble more often and after 10 minutes we'd barely made it halfway back. She decided to cut the second set short, climbed into Daddy's arms and pointed the way toward home. Once we were in the house Claire was extremely hungry and thirsty and ready for a big lunch followed, of course, by a good nap.

Claire's first training log entry:
2/3/08 Distance - 1.5 blocks; Time - 25 minutes; Comments - felt good, saw lots of cool stuff, footing wasn't so good with some snow and ice on the sidewalk, bulky snowsuit not ideal for going fast, couldn't have made it back without my "coach"

Saturday

Claire's fun game today was to 'lose' her hand and then after waiting for us to ask her multiple times "Oh no! Claire, where did your hand go?" She laughs and pushes it out of the sleeve again.

-K