Olympic Fever

I've been totally glued to the tv with the Olympics on this past week. I just can't get enough. I watched the whole women's figure skating short program last night, as well as the Hedrick-Davis speedskating drama.

Bruce got a cold a few days ago. He woke up with dried boogers on his forehead and chin this morning. I can't wait for this to pass.

Scott is crazy busy. He is revising a paper for publication and it requires a bunch more surgeries on mice, tons of experiments, and lots of setup time. Not to mention the actual writing part. Oh yeah, and he has two classes and loads of homework. We need another vacation.

I ran perhaps the worst race I've ever run in my entire life last weekend. Yep, including middle school. I sprained my hamstring in the first hundred meters of a 5-mile race. I finished because I had to score for the team, but it was so not glorious. It was too bad because it was also the best race I've ever been in (in terms of how fast the field was and all). This was the qualifier for the world xc championships, so all the big names were there: Colleen DeReuck, Blake Russell, Zoila Gomez, Carrie Tollefson... pretty much everyone had been to the Olympics in some distance event. Still, the trip to NYC was fun. Scott and Bruce came and cheered my slow booty on in the freezing cold weather. Now I'm sitting on ice packs this week and hoping to get in some cross-training someday. This definitely puts my Boston Marathon dream in limbo.

The pic of the flower is from Scott's Valentine's Day bouquet to me.

Bruce gets his reaction to shots from me

Bruce had his nine-month checkup yesterday. He was 26 1/2 inches and in the seventh percentile for length. He weighed 15 lb 9 oz and is still off the bottom of the growth chart. And I forget exactly how big his head is, but it was in the 25th percentile! He has a huge head I guess. The doc said he looks great and he's doing everything he's supposed to. He's just small.

He got a RSV immunization shot, which he was not happy about. Then I had to take him to the lab for a blood test and things got worse. I held his elbow while the nurse pricked his finger and collected the blood. Bruce started kicking like crazy though and I didn't realize that there was a hanging basket by his feet that was full of the nurse's supplies - until it was too late. Good thing Bruce is cute or the nurse might have been mad about picking up 300 needles and a few piles of gauze off the floor.

Snow, snow, snow

Greetings from the East. We had a monster of a snow storm last weekend. It snowed 13 inches on Sunday. The snowdrifts went up to the windows of the cars in some places. Since then, though, it's been sunny and a lot has melted. Can't wait for summer.

This is Bruce chewing on his toothbrush. I bought him a red toothbrush that has a blinking light for a minute when the bottom is pushed. It's supposed to help kids brush for a full minute, but I got it so Bruce would be interested in dental hygiene. It worked. In fact, it works a little too well. Before we leave the house I always brush my teeth and I let him hold his toothbrush so he's not grabbing at mine. When I'm done, I put my toothbrush away and then his. Twice this week, he's thrown complete tantrums when I've tried to take it away (arched back, velocoraptor screaming, kicking, etc.). So he's carried that toothbrush to work with me and to pick up Scott. I can only get it out of his hands when he's asleep.

Valentine's Day was wonderful. Scott and I made dinner for each other (I made him steak parmesan and he made me baked eggplant) and then exchanged gifts. I got him a new wedding band because the original is a little beat-up looking and made of steel, which is what car parts are made of. When we got married, he insisted that he get a steel band because it's a nonreactive metal and he'd be working with all kinds of funny chemicals in grad school. Now we're in grad school and he's really not around funny chemicals and it's not like they'd blow his hand off anyway, right? I think he was just being cheap when we got married. So I got him a nicer tungsten band.

This weekend, we're going to New York City for the USATF Cross Country National Championships. I'm running in the 8k with my Greater Boston Track Club team. So stay tuned for more exciting news...

Activity Days

I can't believe how much he's grown! This is from when he was about two weeks old. He's fattened up since then. Yesterday I had a friend over to bake cakes and she brought her three-year-old. She walked around the house and Bruce just scooted after her. It kept them both busy for a long time.

Last night I had Activity Days. I have about a dozen 8-11-year-old girls that are wild but very fun. We talked about Jesus washing the apostles' feet, then massaged each other's feet. The girls had a great time doing that, but when we suggested they give their parents foot massages for Valentine's Day they said, "Ewwwww." After everyone took a trip to the bathroom to wash their hands, we frosted cakes and cookies. The girls loved it - but I'm not so sure the parents will be so happy with me. By the time everyone left, each girl had eaten about a half-dozen cookies and a few bites of cake. Everyone had food coloring mustaches and some girls had food coloring on their clothes. My fingers still have green food coloring on them this morning after a few scrubs, so I can only imagine a few girls had to go to school this morning with colorful smiles.

Where's my Radio

The picture of Bruce chilling on the floor is from this morning. He was just looking cute. The one of him on the radio is from a few days ago. He has all kinds of toys, but his favorite is the radio. He loves the red LED on front and loves the fact that he can change the music by pressing different buttons. His latest and greatest is to bang the top until the CD player opens, then spin the CD with his fingers. Unfortunately, he has tried to crawl right over the top of the radio a few times and has face-planted into the floor. So yesterday we put the radio on top of our really tall shelf (I can't even get to it). Maybe that's why he's fussy today. He misses his radio.

Movies and Cheerios

Scott and Bruce are taking a long Sunday afternoon nap right now. I woke up a bit early, so I thought I'd write a paragraph or two.

We've been in a movie-watching mood lately. On Friday night we watched Saint Ralph. I'd read a blurb about it in a running magazine and wanted to see it. It's about a young Catholic school boy - ten, eleven-ish - who believes that if he wins the Boston Marathon, it will save his dying mother. It was a little weird, but I got a kick out of the slow motion sprint to the finish scene. Saturday night we got the Dirty Dozen, an old classic action flick. I thought it was great until pretty much everybody died at the end.

Bruce made it all the way through church today without eating. He was awake most of the time too. Usually, he freaks out in Sunday School and I have to disappear into the mother's lounge to feed him and calm him down. Today though, Scott put him to sleep when he spazzed in Sunday School and he slept through some of the last hour of church. He did wake up at the end and fussed, so I kept handing him Cheerios to keep quiet. The Relief Society floor was covered in Cheerio dust and crumbs - not just from Bruce. So I guess he did eat. But it didn't require the mother's lounge.

Welcome to the Raymond Family Blog

Perhaps I can get this thing to work someday.
Scott, Bruce, and I are pleased to finally put out our family blog. Here, we will publish our latest pictures, news, and random thoughts. Perhaps Scott will even include some lab notes every once in awhile.

Scott has been busy in the lab, as usual. He will sign up for classes on Monday and they start Tuesday. I am busy writing camera reviews (pictures of Bruce from the Canon PowerShot S80), running 70 miles a week, and chasing Bruce. He has a load of toys, but prefers to play with the VCR, DVD player, television, radio, wireless router, and pretty much anything else that has wires or blinking lights. He is scooting around with a butterfly stroke. He throws his arms forward and drags his whole body forward. An Early Intervention specialist comes and looks at him once a week since he's a preemie and she said he probably won't crawl because he gets around just fine. Sometimes I try to hold his belly up so he can crawl like a normal kid, but he just worms his way out and "swims" away. On the bright side, he has really strong arms. Legs too. He still loves bouncing.