The Bruces Unite

Bruce's namesake, Grandpa Bruce, is in town for a week. We've been busy playing and playing. Grandpa attended a conference for work and is now visiting grandkids on this side of the Mississippi.
Bruce loves having his Grandpa in town. They've played Candy Land every morning - at least a few times. It's been nice to have an extra set of hands around.
The Bruces both enjoy reading. Grandpa brought The Lord of the Rings to read, but has settled for Little Bruce's library books a few times. There is definitely some spoilage going on. Here Bruce is eating a pink donut with sprinkles, his absolute favorite item at Dunkin' Donuts.

Early Marathon Monday

We got up early this morning for a bit of family time. We went to the reenactment of the Battle of Lexington. Bruce was very cranky to start out. Then he burst into tears when the cannon went off. He was interested in the "fire bolts" coming out of the guns, but once the shots were fired (and it really only takes about 30 seconds for the British to defeat the colonists and move on) he was done. We'd parked at a friend's house down the street so we walked back and ate breakfast there.
Bruce ate a powdered donut and suddenly everything was right with the world again.

Marathon Monday 2009

Bruce and I watched the marathon from Mile 24 (Scott still had to go to class today), Coolidge Corner. We hung out with the fabulous Greater Boston Track Club crowd and cheered on our teammates. The photos above are of Junyoung Pak, who ran a 2:33 and obviously felt pretty good here.
We were across the street from a deejay that played loud dance music: YMCA, techno, etc. I could tell Bruce really wanted to dance - he was bouncing in his stroller - but there was such a huge crowd and we were right on the edge of the course, so I kept him strapped in to prevent any disaster.
Here's our awesome cheering section - or at least part of it. Facing the cam is Lovely Laura, who lives very close to the course and hosted a brunch this morning. She allowed Bruce to harass her cats and watch a movie while the rest of us watched live coverage on TV. Dan grabbed some extra mojo on his way to the finish.
Tara led our women's team with an awesome 2:57.

David ran a 2:27 to lead our men's team. Both the men's and women's teams finished fourth.
When I see people like this, I feel like I really can't complain about anything. This guy bounced his way to Boston - but it looked like a jarring, painful sort of bounce. Still, he finished in 3 hours and 2 minutes.
It seems like there's always one of my former BYU teammates running. This year the lucky one was Marie (Hodgson) Glahn. I didn't even know she was coming until yesterday when a mutual friend told me she was running it. I wasn't sure I'd recognize her on the course; there are a lot of people, after all. I didn't know what she was wearing or anything. But when I saw her running down the hill, I knew it was her. Each runner has a unique stride and even though I hadn't seen Marie's since 2001 (she was a senior when I was a frosh), I recognized it right away. Go Cougars! Marie finished in 3:05.
I made a sign, but didn't have time to grab it and hold it up while also taking pictures. So Marie, if you're reading this, I really did try to cheer for you. (Not that you would have heard me over the loud techno)By the time we had seen all our teammates and most of our friends, Bruce was done. He fell asleep on the bus-ride home.

USA Foiled Again

Drat! Last year Deena was everyone's great American hope and this year it was Kara. Alas, the Boston Marathon women's title went to Kenyan Salina Kosgei. It was close though. So close. Here's a clip of the finish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Yfoz-lzx-0

Oh yeah, and Ryan Hall didn't win either. He finished third too. An Ethiopian, Deriba Merga, won by a large margin. By the time he went by me at mile 24, I'm sure everyone knew he was going to win. But the women's race was too close to call at that point. Argh!

One More on the Dance Floor

We watch this cute little girl a couple times a week and she and Bruce have become good buddies. Bruce has a constant audience and she has fun mimicking him. Bruce and his sidekick regularly perform "Bear Necessities" from The Jungle Book soundtrack by scratching their backs on the wall. It's always more fun when there's a crowd.

Master Bruce

The Easter Man Was Here

We've been celebrating Easter all week. We had an egg hunt with some neighbors on Friday and then went to another one at church on Saturday. That night, Scott and I hid Bruce's Easter basket and more eggs around the house (okay, they were the same eggs he found earlier, but the fun part is finding them, right?). On Easter morning - 6 a.m. to be exact - Bruce burst through the door and climbed into our bed and asked "Did the Easter Man come?"

The Easter Man? Is this like some caped superhero that flies through windows and leaves eggs and present-filled baskets for good little boys and girls? Anyway, this Easter Man brought Bruce a little bug-house and bug-catcher, a Lego firetruck, and a pair of Batman pajamas.

Good morning

When Bruce wakes up, he always comes in our room and climbs in bed. He is a bright ray of sunshine in my cloudy morning state. This morning Bruce came in and said something like, "I am going to give you a smile" and then smiled this big, huge, forced smile. I tried to get him to recreate that face for a photo later, with limited success.
Bruce wanted to take a picture of me. Here it is. Me on the couch.

A sign that we should move...

We've been debating for months about whether to move. Scott's commute is lengthy and will only get longer and crazier when he starts med school this fall. After looking at the price of rent in the town where we really want to live, we're leaning toward sticking it out where we're at for another year. We get a really good deal on rent (for around here, anyway) and Bruce is already enrolled at preschool for next year.

But every once in awhile, I get the urge to move: when someone gets stabbed on our front stairs, when I hear a broomstick pounding from below, when shady dudes hang around the dumpster, when I witness two guys having a fistfight in broad daylight, when my car gets hit in the parking lot, when we have people over and they have to park far away, or when they park in the lot anyway and get nasty notes on their cars. I got that urge to move again this week - see sign above.

Okay, so I can see noise being a problem from Bruce's running. Hardwood floors don't hide noise well. But a crack in the ceiling?! From a 30-pound kid? It's not my fault this place is built out of cardboard. Perhaps it wouldn't crack if he hadn't bashed his ceiling with a broomstick...