Adventures from the Weekend

Fall is already here. The leaves are just barely starting to change color, but it is definitely cooler than it was a few weeks ago. Fall is apple-picking time in New England - and apple-picking here is more of a tourist trap than work. We drove to a farm, where we parked in a big open field with a zillion other cars (guided by parking attendants even). Then we waited in line to buy an overpriced bag to hold our apples and tickets to go on the hayride. We went on our hayride and picked plenty of apples. It was fun. But I miss the apple trees in my parents' back yard that are free!
Bruce loved being able to climb all the low branches on the apple trees. Eventually he was brave enough to climb a ladder and pick some apples at the tops of the trees. He would pick them and throw them to Scott to put in our bag. On Saturday afternoon, we headed to the park (see previous post about spoilage).
It's not what you think. Here's the story. I went to a women's meeting at church on Saturday night and Scott put Bruce to bed. Then he decided that he wanted to make chocolate lava cakes as a nice surprise for when I got home. He was so excited about them, so when he pulled them out when I got home and they looked like this (pictured above), he was disappointed. He put the remaining lava cakes in the oven and baked them for a few more minutes and - voila! - they came out much better (pictured below). Here is Scott's creation: chocolate lava cake with raspberry sauce and homemade vanilla ice cream that he made from coconut milk. Yes, I am very spoiled too.

The Only Child

As my belly gets bigger, Bruce's reign as The Only Child grows shorter. He's an "only child" once and this is it, so we are taking advantage of his final weeks by serving up double helpings of spoilage. I have no problem admitting that I've spoiled Bruce. He's been to just about every playground within 50 miles, has visited every museum in Boston a few dozen times, and eats Moosetracks on a regular basis. I love my kid and I love seeing him giddy with happiness. Today's spoilage included taking the train to Bruce's choice of museums, The Children's Museum (Bruce on the dance floor above and Bruce rolling golf balls down a track below). He loves this museum, and riding the train there is an extra treat for him. All the commuters chuckled as they went about reading their newspapers and sipping their lattes while Bruce glued himself to the window and shouted out how many train tracks he saw, what horn he heard, what type of engines were out there, etc.
I am absolutely ecstatic to have a girl join the family. But I wonder if I will take just as many pictures, go on just as many outings, and give her just as much attention as Mr. Bruce. That remains to be seen. But for now, I'm going to enjoy the last few indulgent weeks of my Only Child.

Batman Saves the Day

I'm toying with some cameras and was wondering what this particular clip looked like once posted online. Too bad there's no sound; you'll have to insert your own dramatic Batman soundtrack.

Bruce as a Girl

Faster than a Photoshop job: Bruce's face with my red hair. What do you think? Maybe she will have red eyes too.

Of course the other night I had a dream that this baby had brown hair. That would confirm my fear that redheads really will be extinct by 2100.

Back to School

It's that time of year again. Scott has been in school for a few weeks now and has been loving every second of it. He comes home every day with weird stories about people with two uteri (yes, that is the plural of uterus - I just looked it up) or otherwise (most of them aren't suitable for this blog!). So far medical school seems pretty fun. Scott still studies hard, of course, but he does it with a big smile across his face - something I never mastered in college.

Bruce just started school this week. He was disappointed that he didn't have the same teachers as last year, but was thrilled to find out that he was in his favorite classroom - the muscle room. There are four preschool classrooms (muscle, puzzle, art, and block) in the school and the kids have some time to wander between them, but the muscle room is Bruce's home room and he is happy about that. It comes with a giant playground-like structure and lots of space to run around. Perfect. Today he saw his girl crush from last year, Ava, and talked about her all the way home.

Bug Hunting

We have a friend who is a biologist/writer/photographer who knows everything about bugs. She regularly takes assignments from National Geographic and has been to all kinds of cool places to photograph bugs. She offered to take us on a bug hunt.
We found a four-eyed beetle.
And we found a fat caterpillar ready to make its chrysalis and change into a monarch butterfly. I had my camera (but not a great lens for such close-up photography), but she had left hers at home. She went back later and gave this caterpillar a little photo shoot. Thanks for the cool bug hunt!

A Little Peek

I had a doctor's appointment this week. My doc is watching me closely and it makes me a little nervous when I go to appointments. I always cross my fingers and just hope my blood pressure is still fine and I won't be sent to the hospital or ordered on bed-rest.

I had an ultrasound at this appointment to check the baby's growth. "Average" was a good word to hear this time around. She's about 2 lbs, 4 oz, and very feisty. She kept squirming around, which makes for blurry pictures. But here's one where she was semi-still and you can sort-of see her face. Looks like a miniature Bruce face to me. She has the "Uncle Chris lip," as I call it. One of my coworkers once told me that "the lip" looks like Homer Simpson. Anyway, I'm finding it hard to imagine Bruce looking like a girl. Maybe I'll try Photoshopping some long hair onto Bruce's head for the next post...

After the ultrasound, I saw my doctor and had my blood pressure checked (still good, yea!). I can still run my 20 minutes per day, which is nice. Overall I feel pretty good. I got a little taste of pregnancy discomfort last week. I broke out in hives and have been trying to avoid scratching all my skin off. I look like I have chicken pox (except for on my face, thank goodness). Last Sunday I realized that I only had one maternity dress or skirt long enough to cover my speckled legs, but it was wool and it was way too hot to be wearing wool.

As I would have to wear a knee-length skirt, I thought it would be best to shave my legs so at least they would just be speckled instead of speckled and hairy. One swipe with the razor and I took off about half my ankle - oh yeah, those speckles aren't just dots. They are bumps. I ended up going to church in a knee-length dress with hairy, speckled legs and a giant gauze pad and Band-aid on my ankle. Very cute.

Primary Sunday

About once a year, all the kids in church take over the pulpit and recite a few lines interspersed with songs and such. I was a little nervous with Bruce taking the microphone on a Sunday morning; it's too much power for a little attention-hungry guy like him. To confirm my fear, someone leaned over to me before church started and said, "Of all the kids at church, I love watching Bruce the most because you just never know what he's going to do." Indeed.

The Primary program's theme this year was all about families and Bruce's one line followed along with that theme: "My favorite thing to do with my family is go to the museum." Easy enough, right?

After a few songs and other kids' lines, it's Bruce's turn at the mic. At first he gets all sheepish and shy, resting his head on one hand and checking out the crowd while tight-lipped. His teacher whispers in his ear, "My favorite thing to do is..."

Bruce says, "go to the museum!" really loud. Then he steps back from the mic and looks like he's thinking about something. Then he steps forward again and says, "Ed-na Mode" in a perfectly robotic voice. Argh!

In case you're behind on your Disney movies, particularly "The Incredibles," Edna Mode is the supersuit designer that walks up to a high-security door in the movie and has to scan her retinas and handprint before a microphone pops out of a wall and she says her name - "Ed-na Mode" - into it as a sort of voice recognition test (if you haven't seen it, here's a clip with Bruce's re-enactment around 0:35 seconds). Apparently that was what was going through Bruce's mind in church on Sunday. And out his mouth.