Larry was very excited about the LOST finale and in preparation, bought Walker his very own Dharma shirt.

As I’ve previously mentioned, Walker is now talking a lot more. About two weeks ago he started with “HELP ME” which was often said in a raspy, breathy voice as he was straining to do something (like push the exercise ball through the open baby gate or pick up something heavy). It is reminiscent of the delivery of the very same line in the old version of the THE FLY (for anyone with knowledge of B-level 1950 Sci Fi movies).

He’s started re-purposing some of his oldies but goodies… He still loves to say “I DID it!” when completing some task — whether it’s something major like jumping off the ottoman on to the floor without falling or something minor like sitting in the chair). But this phrase has been expanded to include other pronouns. It started when Walker was eating and was particularly grumpy. Walker is a bit possessive of his belongings and food falls squarely in the “MINE!” category so when Larry reached over and stole something off his plate, Walker got mad and started to cry. I asked him what was wrong. He stopped crying, pointed a finger accusingly at Larry and declared “He DID it!”

Since we’re on the topic of eating, Walker has found a new favorite food item. KETCHUP. Initially he liked it with hot dogs but he’s concluded it’s a condiment that goes with many, many yummy morsels. If I don’t include it on his plate, he walks over to the fridge, demands I open it and points to the bottle until he gets a dab on his plate. As we watch him eat we’re a bit stunned at the combinations he seems to enjoy. Our personal favs are the fruit/ketchup combinations such as watermelon-ketchup and strawberry-ketchup.

At least he’s eating.

I have to provide a bit of an update on the exercise front. I’ve faithfully continued my trips to the gym and I’m running 3 miles a few times a week. I went for a “complementary” personal training session which consisted of a very beefy man measuring my heart rate (apparently it’s very, very good), my flexibility (above average) and my body fat (also above average — oops). He then tried to sell me on personal training time. Ah, yes. Of course. I was particularly amused when he asked me how much time I’m able to commit to the gym. “35 minutes,” I reply. He’s a bit stunned. “Um, you can’t make it an hour?” “Well, remember that 2 year old we discussed (and you said running after him didn’t count as exercise)? Yeah, well, I’ve got 35 minutes to go to the gym and I consider that pretty good.” He clearly doesn’t have kids.

But I digress from my original point. I’m continuing to visit the gym and I’m feeling really good and my clothes fit better. (I’m sure they’d fit even better if I didn’t come home and have a glass of wine or two plus a handful of Hershey’s Miniatures each night…) But going to the gym is a lot of work. Yes, the exercise is hard. But there is other work to support this effort that requires more than expected energy and attention. There the extra laundry with all the sweaty clothes and the gym towels. And there’s the shopping. Yes, the shopping. I have to get some new shoes and exercise clothes and well, I have to get some more “unmentionables” because I’m too tired when I’m packing my bag to sort through my drawers to find underwear and socks that don’t have holes or played out elastic. So there you go. The gym impacts my life in ways I had never imagined…

On a parting note, I must say that I have watched the “Space Bag” commercials on television for quite a long time and I always thought they were a bit silly. But one morning, must have been around 6am or so, I saw the commercial while watching Barney and it occurred to me I had a few tubs of maternity and baby clothes a that were taking up a lot of room. So, during my sabbatical I decided to buy the Space Bags at Costco and give them a try. I’m a convert. These things have saved me significant storage space and I know the clothes will stay clean if I happen to dump a bunch of mud on them (you have to see the commercial to fully appreciate that last statement).

So perhaps next I’ll try the Sham WOW!