The Fire Hydrant

Bruce likes to cruise down the sidewalk with his walker toy. Yesterday, he became really fascinated by the fire hydrant. So I let him play with it once. Then afterwards, I got to thinking about how many dogs pee on that thing and how gross it really is. So today when Bruce pushed his walker to it, I tried to steer him elsewhere. A tantrum ensued.

The other picture is of Bruce in a pile of Rice Krispies. I was washing dishes and he got into a cupboard and pulled out the box of Rice Krispies. He had dumped out a whole bunch of it by the time I dried my hands to take the box away. My neat freak instinct was to pick him up, unstick the cereal from his knees, and clean up the mess. But he was being so cute, so I grabbed the camera instead. He kept crawling through the Rice Krispies and they would crunch under his knees and toes. I finished the dishes and he stayed perfectly content doing this for awhile.

Poop Floats

We've reached another first. Bruce sawed a log in the tub, which is floating between the rubber duckie and the upside-down tugboat. Awesome.

The week was relatively uneventful otherwise. I was supposed to run an all-night relay, but the weather was so awful that the race director shortened it into a 5.3-mile race and called it a night. It was still good though. I came out of it with a cool T-shirt, a flashing light stick, a few bags of potato chips, and about 10 mosquito bites.

Bruce is walking around on the floor like an ape right now. He's been doing this thing where he keeps his knees off the ground and sticks his bum way up when he crawls. I'll have to get a picture of that to put up.

Summer Fun with Aunt Marissa

Marissa came to visit this past week. She came last summer and I guess she had a good enough time that she wanted to come again this summer. While she was here, we had to do some boring stuff (a doctor's appointment, a 2-hour baby playgroup, a meeting at work) but for the most part we stayed busy doing fun stuff. We went to the beach - twice. We went running (I think this was more fun for me than her). We did some serious shopping too. That was really great because I can't really go shopping with Bruce. He doesn't do too well in changing rooms. Marissa and I got hair cuts. I guess I don't really have a good picture of it. Hers just got a trim pretty much. Mine hadn't been cut in a year (since the last time Marissa and I got our hair cut) so it looks much less mangy. We ate Brazilian food for lunch one day too. Yum. All in all, it was great to have Marissa around. She is not only good company, but a big help too. I don't think she changed any diapers, but she did watch Bruce for a few hours one night so Scott and I could go to a school event.

Other highlights of the week include...
1. Bruce hit the 18-pound mark. Hooray for heavy whipping cream.
2. I won a 5k in 17:48 (my coach, Tom, is pictured after the race).
3. It warmed up to 90 degrees yesterday (Scott is pictured hydrating).
4. Marissa and I watched about 10 minutes of the Britney Spears interview (Marissa is pictured laughing her guts out).
5. Bruce has been pushing stuff around on the floor lately; it was a box of elbow macaroni today. It's really funny looking.

Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there. I made waffles this morning while Scott slept in, then let him open his presents. I gave him a bunch of nice pens (he is always in need of those) and the second installment of physics lectures on CD. I got him a few Feynman physics lectures (Richard Feynman is a legendary professor from Cal Tech) for Christmas, I think. There's a whole bunch of them though. So I got him another couple hours worth. He must like them. We learned about the structure of crystals on the way to church and now we're listening to something about electrons.

Chicago, Toast, and Poo

This has definitely been a bloggable week. Bruce and I went to Chicago for the weekend to visit Karyn, Alli, and Andy. We went to the zoo every single day and got to see a lion roar, 13 piglets feed from their poor mama, and a polar bear carry a bucket around. We saw lots of other stuff too, but those were the highlights. We ate some yummy food too. One day we went to an amazing breakfast restaurant called Toast. Near the end of our lovely dining experience, one of the waitresses started playing with Bruce. He smiled at her and was being all flirtatious, then all the sudden got a huge frown on his face and burst into tears. I went to pick him up, only to find poop running down his legs and dripping onto his high chair, the table, and pretty much everywhere else.

I grabbed some napkins and sopped up some poo, but then where do you put poopy napkins at a nice restaurant? I put them on the table; I didn't know what else to do. After the flow of brown lava had at least slowed down, I carried him by the armpits to Karyn's house. Luckily, it was just around the corner; I didn't even have my diaper bag with me because I figured we'd be just around the corner! I took him straight to the bathtub, where I stripped him down and hosed him off. It was so nasty.

That was Embarassed Mom Moment No. 1 for the weekend. No. 2 came up on the way back to Boston. Karyn drove us downtown so we could take a train directly to the airport. However, we ran into some traffic and were a little late getting out the door anyway. We got on the train and got to the airport, where I had about 36 minutes until my flight left. So I ran (yes, ran with stroller and suitcase and diaper bag in tow) to the ticket counter. Luckily, there was no line and I breezed through there (although I was so late that my suitcase didn't get a real bag tag; it got some patch-job tag and went straight to the plane). I ran to security, where there were super-long lines.

I asked the security guard if there was any way I could skip ahead in the line. He said something along the lines of, "I get that request every 10 minutes. There's nothing I can do for you." I told him my flight left in 20 minutes. He said there was nothing he could do for me and that the only thing I could do was ask everyone ahead of me if I could cut in front.

There were about 30 people in front of me; by the time I asked everyone my plane would be taking off! That flight was also the last one to Boston for the day, so if I missed it I'd have to stay another night (which I would love more vacation, but I had tons of work to catch up on at home!). Those thoughts ran through my sleep-deprived brain (I'd had 5 hours of sleep the night before because I stayed up late cleaning and Bruce got up early) and I just started crying.

I hate crying. And even worse, I hate crying in public. But I was so flustered and saw that there was no chance I was getting on that plane. As soon as I started crying though, the security guard melted. "Oh no, honey, don't cry. It's okay. Here, follow me." Sure enough, he led me to the front of the line and even held Bruce while I folded up the jogging stroller - the whole time telling me it was going to be okay and that I didn't need to cry. After I got through security, I threw Bruce in the stroller and grabbed my shoes and diaper bag and hauled buns. I ran in my socks what seemed like a half-mile to my gate. I was the last person in; the door closed behind me. So while that was totally embarassing, it worked!

Maybe whipping out the tears wasn't so bad after all...

(The picture is of Bruce with his tongue hanging out. He's been doing that for a few days now. Pictures of Chicago to come.)

Just Drink and Be Merry

Bruce has a drinking problem. He loves his sippy cup so much that he's decided he wants nothing else. Yesterday he had about two bites of an enchilada and another two bites of oatmeal. And about eight sippy cups full of whole milk, cream, and instant breakfast powder. If you have any tips on how to make a kid eat, let me know.

So far nothing has worked. I tried pudding out in the yard; he licked his fingers once or twice. I tried feeding him in his Exersaucer while he was playing. I tried feeding him on the floor, with and without utensils, giving him finger foods, etc. I've tried all of his favorites too. Nothing works! This certainly doesn't help the high-calorie diet he's supposed to be on.

Besides stressing out about Bruce's hunger strike, I've been ridiculously busy with work. I've definitely done enough over-time to take off a week. I look forward to getting on the plane tomorrow to go see Karyn, Alli, and Andy. I've already informed my coworkers that I will be totally unavailable.

Scott has had some rough days at the lab. Not every experiment works. I guess being a scientist isn't easy. I know so. My food experiments aren't working with Bruce.