Fun with Pudding

I know I have a ton of high-chair shots on here, but he's just so cute! This is one from yesterday. He had eaten an entire plate of pasta complete with tomato sauce and cheese. Then he had some cantalope too. He just ate so much; where does it all go?

So after his big lunch, I let him play in chocolate pudding. He loved it, of course.

Here's the Raymond Update...

Scott is busy doing heart surgery on a pig right now. He will be in surgery pretty much all day today. I'll have to avoid cooking ham for tonight. Scott has been really busy with school; the last few weeks of classes are upon us. Exams are coming up and all sorts of final papers and homework assignments are due. Scott is excited because he got a huge corner office at his Alzheimer's research lab. He only gets it for two months (people moved out, but more will move in), but a corner office for a grad student is pretty good - even for two months. You'll have to ask him about it, but he did mention 10-ft windows.

I'm still recovering from the marathon. On Tuesday I met up with my track team for an easy run. I announced that I wasn't going to run longer than 6 miles and everyone pretty much said I was a wuss. I ran a 3-mile warmup with everyone, then went for an easy run with some other marathoners. At the beginning of the run, one of my teammates said, "Emily, guess what time it is?" I came up with a few answers: "8 o'clock, time for Bruce to go to bed?" He said, "Nope. It's time to play What are your 5 favorite Meals?" He explained it like this: If I was on a deserted island and could only have 5 meals, what would they be. Something like that. By the time I told him about all 5 meals complete with appetizers, sides, desserts, etc. (all including things I can't eat like steak, chocolate, and cheese), we had run 3 miles out. So at that point, I still had to run 3 miles to get back to my car. I was tricked into running more. Besides running, I wrote 16 pages about the Sony W100 this week (another digital camera) along with a bunch of camera industry news. I babysat three girls last night: two 3-yr-old twins and an 8-yr-old. The girls love Bruce. They followed him around and played on the floor with him for awhile. He got all wound up, so we baked cookies and then popped in The Incredibles for them to watch while I put Bruce to sleep.

Bruce is doing allright. He has a never-ending cold that makes his nose runny and sparks these little coughing fits. Other than that, though, he's doing great. The weather is getting really nice now, so we go out and water our garden every day (only the oregano has popped up so far. It's mostly herbs and a few beans and tomatoes). Today we'll probably go to the park and swing.

That's what's going on in our corner of the world.

Best of Bruce

Here are the latest and greatest pictures. The first one shows Bruce cackling a belly laugh in his high chair. Every once in awhile, he just really gets a kick out of something and really belts out a good laugh. And that's our happy boy pushing around the walker thingy that Lois gave us. Bruce loves his newfound mobility; he can climb on it himself and push it around by himself. He gets a little frustrated when he pushes it into a corner though. The last picture is another one from the marathon. One of my coworkers took this one around mile 22.

I Love Boston!

What a week! Saturday morning I put on an egg hunt for our ward's primary, which is absolutely enormous. We had about 70 kids show up. We played a few games in the gym, then released the kids in waves with the younger ones going first. That was fun. To keep the older kids busy, we played duck-duck-goose.

After the egg hunt, Bruce and I went to Chuck E Cheese for a birthday party. A kid from Bruce's playgroup turned a year old, so he had this completely over-the-top bash at the most over-stimulating place ever. I just can't say enough how much I dislike Chuck E Cheese. The music was horribly loud, so I could hardly talk to the other parents. The only thing to eat is pizza, which I can't have. There were giant dancing animals and bright lights, so Bruce couldn't even eat anything he was so spazzed out. It also didn't help that it was a Saturday afternoon and there were 4 other parties going on at adjacent tables. Bruce dug his fingers in his cake, so I went to the bathroom to wash him off. There was a trail of orange pizza puke leading into one of the stalls. Ick. We didn't stay much longer.

Saturday night we had a Greater Boston Track Club reception. We went for an hour or so, but didn't stay long. Bruce's bed time came quickly and he got quite fussy. No one seemed to mind but us though. He's the only kid on the team; no one else has kids so he gets a lot of attention.

Sunday we rested, went to church, and ate lots of pasta. I met up with some old BYU teammates (Amy Cooper and Nicole Anderson) Sunday night too.

Now for what you've all been waiting for... Marathon Monday!

Monday morning I got up around 7 and gathered all my things. I had a dream that I missed the start of the race, so I was totally paranoid about getting out the door on time. We picked up one of my teammates who lives a mile away and was also running the marathon, then Scott drove us to meet up with another teammate. We climbed in the team van at 9 am and started driving out to the starting line.

It was pretty much the longest drive ever. I didn't like the thought of running all the way back at the time. Eventually we ended up in Hopkinton, where half of the roads were closed. We parked at a state park and caught a shuttle to the starting line. By the time we got there, it was almost 11. The start was crazy. There were baggage busses at the top of a half-mile long hill (half mile from the start line, that is). So we stripped off our clothes and threw them in the busses, then froze on the way to the line.

The start this year was divided into two waves of runners; I was in the first wave. Each wave had 10 "corrals." It really was like herding cattle. I was herded into the 3rd corral with a thousand other runners (yep, not even exaggerating here). When the gun sounded, it took me two minutes to actually get to the starting line. I started my watch and off I went.

It was so packed that I couldn't even get a full stride in for about four miles. I just elbowed people and got swept along with the stampede. There was a massive sea of people ahead of me. I just saw the tops of heads and shirts flying off for the first mile (some people kept clothes on through the start, then discarded them on the course). After the first mile, lots of guys must have had to pee. Every 50 meters or so, there'd be some guy running off the course a few feet, then doing his business off the side of the road. I just kept my eyes on the road.

The first half of the race was great. I ran with a teammate for 10 miles, then she went ahead (she ended up having a really amazing race). I was feeling okay through about 20 miles, then the last 6.2 miles were quite hard. Everyone always talks about the huge hills at Boston, but they really weren't that bad. Even Heartbreak Hill wasn't all that its made out to be. The hills in the Akron Marathon were about three times longer and even steeper too, so that made the Boston hills look like nothing at all. Still, I was pretty pooped out at the end. I will attribute that to my not running any really long runs before this marathon. I ran 18 miles in February, but then pulled my hamstring and couldn't do much more training.

Anyway, I ended up coming in at 3 hours, 9 minutes, and 31 seconds. I ended up a bit hypothermic and had a few blisters, but did pretty well otherwise. Will I do it again? Absolutely. It was awesome. There were one million spectators on the course; it was seriously packed on both sides from start to finish. My ward showed up by mile 19 and my coworkers watched from mile 20. Scott and Bruce were at mile 16, then met me at the end. There were kids handing out oranges and bananas the whole time, and some kids that just held out their hands to be slapped on the way. It was very cool.

Gearing up for Boston

Watch out for #3993 in the Boston Marathon next week! I am soooo excited to run. I'm still debating about how fast to go and such, but am just thrilled to be registered and running it. This week I am just trying to stay uninjured. I took the groceries upstairs to our apartment in two loads instead of my trademark style of carrying Bruce on one hip and loading about 20 bags on each wrist so I don't have to go up the stairs twice. I will run easy pretty much all week so I will feel all fresh for next Monday. Woohoo - Marathon Monday!

Bruce is a big fan of bath time. He usually has a big smile, but he seems a bit zoned in this shot. This week I'm testing a digital camera that claims to be waterproof and shockproof. I've already tested the underwater part and it survived. I think I'll do some more testing and save the drop tests until the end. Supposedly, it can take falls from 5 ft above the ground. It sounds pretty Bruce-proof, but unfortunately it takes awful pictures. The one posted is the best I could get out of it. If I don't use the flash, everything is blurry and it takes like 5 seconds to get the shot! Ick!

Random Raymond Update

Happy Friday everyone. We're glad it's the weekend. Here's a quick update on us.

Scott has been really busy with a signal processing class. All week he's been working on some coding that makes a voice say, "The empty flask sat on the tin tray." I think we're both glad he's done with that project.

I'm registered for the marathon and waiting for my bib number to come in the mail. I am incredibly excited. Yesterday I put Bruce in the jogging stroller and we ran to Marathon Sports, a running store here. I had a gift certificate there, so I cashed it in for a running watch (I left my last one in Ohio and it was in sad shape anyway).

Bruce continues to make us laugh. Last week he wouldn't eat anything. This week, he will eat if we get creative. He downs enchiladas complete with chili powder and crushed red pepper. He seriously can't get enough of them. So he's eaten those almost all week. We get him to eat veggies and baby cereal by spreading it on buttered toast. Mmm, pureed green beans on toast. It sounds nasty, but he loves it. He had another checkup with the Developmental Care research team on Monday (they study the effects of developmental care on intrauterine growth restricted babies like Bruce). They did a few "tests" with Bruce. They had me play with him in a little room for six minutes, then had me sit in the corner and not respond to him for another six minutes to see what he'd do. Rather than play with the toys that were in there, he crawled over to me and tried to get my attention. He bit my shoulder and started playing with my lip; it was really hard not to laugh. Anyway, he is doing well.

Happy weekend.

There must be a lot of pressure in there

Bruce set a new record on the changing table. He blew out his diaper during breakfast and the volume was just incredible. It filled the diaper edge to edge, then went straight up the back and on his shoulders. That was the end of that onesie. No amount of stain remover was going to remedy that one.

I ran a 15k yesterday to sort-of test out my hamstring and see if it could hold up over a longer distance. It did; I didn't even feel it. The course was really hilly and I was definitely tired by the end, but I still won it in an okay time. I came home from the race and got online to register for the Boston Marathon and was bummed out when I found registration to be closed (no one can register after 20,000 entrants have registered). I emailed my coach, who has written several books about the Boston Marathon and knows everyone in the Boston running community. He talked to someone and got me in, so...

I'm running the Boston Marathon!

I am sooo excited. Marathon Monday is April 17, so stay tuned for more excitement.