Paternity Leave

So here I am nearing my month off work for Paternity Leave and I've not posted anything the whole time. Hmmm, why is it that I can find 20 minutes to write something during the day while I'm working but not while I'm at home? The biggest thing we've realized this past month is that we forgot just how much work newborns really are. We had these grandiose plans for what I would do during my time off. Not many of those things have been completed unfortunately. It's pretty frustrating for both Steph and I. To be fair we had a lot of company with Rod, Bonnie, Amber, Ryan, Lainie, Mom & Dad. We've really only been sans company for a couple of weeks. Having them all visit was great and I wouldn't trade it. Getting into our own regular routine has taken a bit longer than I remember though.
The Shamrock 1/2 Marathon is coming up quickly. I can't believe how much progress I've made. When I started I could barely run 2 miles now I go out for short runs of 3-4 miles. A couple of weeks ago I did 12 miles and felt pretty good after then the next weekend I dropped down to 8 miles. Just this past weekend I did 13! That is the longest I've ever run - EVER. There is a downside though. My left knee started hurting just a bit off and on about mile 3. At about 11.5 it really started to hurt with each step just under and to the left of my kneecap. I powered through pretty good but did have to walk a bit then sucked it up for the last .7 mile. I came home to ice, shower and go to a party (nothing much keeps me from a party). I did dig up a knee brace that I've been wearing nearly constantly. I was able to keep the pain away for the first couple days by not bending my let which is a bit difficult in a house with lots of steps. Sunday I did stay off my feet pretty well and Steph took on extra duty of getting me things. She's a saint. I can now walk up steps without wincing. I will take it easy this week as far as running. I'll do some cross training and hopefully not lose much stamina. If it does not keep healing I'll get it checked out. I also need to check out what happens to the race if I can't run. I seem to recall that if you get injured you can apply your fundraising amount to another run so I still plan to raise the amount needed. If you have not had a chance to donate you still are able. Send me a check or go to http://pages.teamintraining.org/nca/shamrock09/breeve .

Addie is getting so big. You can tell she's a Reeve baby because she's now got her cheeks. She has a little cold that keeps her nose pretty stuffy. It also drains into her chest so she coughs quite a bit. She is doing well though and only cries when she's hungry or tired. Dylan and Chloe are doing well with her too. Chloe is still a helicopter. She wants to be involved as much as possible. We think they were both a little jelous for a while but that has been going away recently. Chloe's been going to her school part time for the past month so she stays home with us on Tues/Thurs. She loves it but Dylan is jelous of her. Dylan is doing OK at school. He has another slight bully incident but we believe it has been resolved. He was not getting some of his school work done and we think it was because of the bullying and jelousy at home. Now that those are going away his work is improving.
Steph and the girls are heading to KC/Beloit for a week leaving tomorrow. Dylan was pretty upset that he couldn't go with them when he found out. I tried to explain that with the girls gone we get to do some cool guy stuff. Like no bathing, watching Star Wars in our underwear and burp and fart without saying excuse me. Those plans were going well until someone reminded me that Carrie would still be here so we may have to curtail some of those things. We'll see. I may have to come up with something else equally as cool. I already have offers for sleepovers for Friday and Saturday nights so I'm not sure what we'll do.
I do have pictures of the family and I know I've had lots of requests for pictures of Addison. They are still on the camera and I'll get them on here in the next couple of days. I also go back to work soon so my postings won't be so far apart...