Summer sports and whining about my feet

The kids completed their first week of swimming lessons and it's the last week of tee-ball. Thanks to weekly pool time at camp and our weekend of swimming, Logan is finally dog-paddling a little bit. It's probably the most labor-intensive swimming I've ever seen, but at least he's doing it! Kaylin's a good enough swimmer to safely go off the diving boards by herself and swim underwater for rings, but when it comes to actual strokes and breathing, she's having a hard time. I think she takes after me in that when her teachers explain a complicated arm stroke that also involves kicking feet and turning your head to breathe, it just doesn't make sense. She needs to actually do it to learn it and they seem to practice each stroke only once before moving on to the next, even more confusing stroke. Too much talk about many confusing body movements and not enough practice! Kaylin even had an instructor all to herself at a make-up lesson on Saturday and her instructor still flitted about from stroke to stroke and concentrated on what Kaylin was already good at.

Tee-ball has been a blast and I will miss it next year when Logan moves on to coach pitch. The difference between Logan's coordination this year and last year is amazing! He went from barely being able to hit a ball off a tee or catch ANYTHING, to being able to hit and catch/stop balls. He's even played first base (the only position that requires skill) a couple of times and done fairly well. He's really into the game and enjoys it.

Tee-ball has very few rules. It is about teaching the kids the basics of hitting, catching and throwing. It's hilarious to watch a bunch of 5 and 6-yr-olds run from first base to the pitcher's mound or run from first to third. Each hit gets one base, except for the final hitter automatically gets a "home-run." The youngest kids can barely make it around the bases. I've seen kids run from home to third, the entire team mob the ball and some major celebrating when an out is accomplished (only at first base, nowhere else allowed...) The parents have been well-behaved this year. I've observed no fights with coaches about preserving Little Timmy's feelings by allowing him to stay on base when he's thrown out at first. Good parents.

Work's been same-old, same-old. The piglets are getting huge and starting to turn red. The crowds continue to come. We had over 45,000 visitors the first month of the new exhibit. That's fantastic for us! I finally saw a podiatrist and was not at all surprised to be diagnosed with plantar fasciaitis. (sp?) It's when the muscle between your heel and front of your foot (the arch muscle?) gets inflamed and tightens up every time you don't use it. Then when you stand, the tightened muscle gets microtears and hurts terribly. It takes forever to heal because you need to stand and walk. Anyway, the podiatrist made me some custom shoe inserts and until they come in, taped up my right foot. I also got some anti-inflammatory meds that actually work for the pain. Ibuprofen was doing nothing for me. I've been doing stretches and icing my feet. (Fun!) My six days off work last week helped a lot and my feet are significantly better. I wish they were ALL better, though :)