Spring and Summer

It's been busy here. 

Hey guess what I learned?  Teaching in quarters is actually harder than teaching in semesters.The quarters feel so much shorter than semesters.  I am very much looking forward to not teaching for a couple of months.  Biking to and from work every day.  Hanging out with my boys in the evenings.  Picnics at the Lake. I have even made my list of things I want to do this summer.  It's pretty crazy. I think in the next couple of weeks we might be able to go strawberry picking.  STRAWBERRY PICKING!! 

The good news is that summer is ramping up a bit.  The weather has been nice-so we've been outside a lot more.  We got a new law guy and got the grass cut for the first time since last summer. We were totally those people.  Meh. 

Nico is getting pretty funny lately.  I know I have said it every age since he was born, but THIS age  is my favorite.  We're getting to the age where it isn't all about him all the time.  Case in point: we have started reading The Little House in the Big Woods.  Which is kind of a departure from most books he likes... there aren't many pictures, and its not about super heroes or fireman or police men.  So that is nice.

Also, we have started trying to broaden what he watches... he still likes Lego shows and such.  But he's starting to sit down for things like Ken Burns' The West.  He's also starting to get into playing a lot by himself.  Of course, he is also starting to get very dramatic.  His new thing is lay on the floor and claim to be too tired to ________________.  It's not annoying.  At all. 

Other than that, I have started to do olympic lifting at my gym.  Remember when I had three knee surgeries in college?  Remember when I also had an ankle surgery in 2010? The result was that I hadn't gone down into a full squat (hips below knees) in like 15 years.  And when I started CrossFit, I skipped any day that had snatches (taking the bar from the floor to overhead) or cleans (taking the bar to shoulders).  The full movement results in hips below knees (which was a no fly zone for me).  But then I found out I could modify the movements to the power position (which is standing mostly up) and love them both now.  One of our coaches has been doing a fundamentals class once a week which is pretty great. 

I'm terrible at them.  It's largely a function of the way I approach mastery of movements... which is to do something thousands of times not till I get it right, but until I never get it wrong. I think my movement is getting decent with cleans, but snatches are an absolute disaster.  In fact, last week, I racked myself in the chin with the bar.  And then about 10 minutes later I caught myself on the top of my own head.  My own head.  I don't even understand how that happened.   

But it's pretty fun.  Now that the weather is nice, Dave and I are looking forward to playing outdoor soccer again.  Just gotta find a team.