Kid Power

Phoebe is back to herself again. After a few days of on-and-off fevers and a nasty rash, she is healthy again. At her worst, she was 104.6 degrees. I'm glad that's over. It's a good thing she didn't go to Montana though.
Phoebe can roll all over the place now, and is rocking back and forth on her knees thinking about crawling soon. She still doesn't have any teeth poking through her gums, but chews on everything and constantly has a waterfall of saliva down her chest. She is eating more than ever and, thankfully, sleeping more than ever now too.
Bruce has a few more weeks of preschool left before summer break. He will miss his friends from preschool, but he is ready to move on. This morning we told him it was time to get ready for school. He said, "Kindergarten?" I replied, "No, preschool. Kindergarten starts in the fall." He rolled his eyes and made an "awwwww" sound like he's so over preschool.
Bruce now believes he has "eye power." We've been reading chapter books to him for awhile and we read Matilda a month ago. In the book, Matilda moves things and breaks a TV by looking at them. Bruce told me he opened a door at preschool with his eyes. We've tried to explain the difference between fiction and non-fiction, but this gets lost on him (today's conversation was how Star Wars is fiction and that Jedis aren't really real, but something some guy named George Lucas made up). Anyway, the other day he told me he lost his eye power because he couldn't move something. Perhaps it'll make a comeback.

Call him Dr. Raymond

Scott officially graduated with his PhD. It wasn't as exciting as it probably should have been. He didn't walk across the stage and shake hands with anyone fancy; he figured he'd be walking the stage in two years anyway. The real celebration was last year after Scott defended his thesis. Anyway, it's official now: he is now only a medical student instead of a hybrid med/grad/post-doc. Yea!

Happy and Sad, Grouchy and Glad

Phoebe is a happy baby most of the time.

But she spiked a 102-degree fever on Thursday night.

Which was too bad because she was supposed to fly to Montana with Scott on Friday morning. We gave her medicine; it didn't work. We thought perhaps she'd sleep it off. Nope. She was still 101 degrees on Friday morning, so Scott got on his plane alone and I got a sick kid and a hyper kid for the weekend.

The Left Knee

While doing laundry the other day, I noticed that most of Bruce's pants have holes in the knee. Just one knee. The left knee.

I dug through his drawer and came up with this: 6 out of 8 pairs of pants have holes in the left knee.

Now I'm trying to figure out why...

Cake

Bruce helped make his birthday cake this year. We made a ginger-chocolate cake and we sprinkled chocolate chips on top.
Happy birthday to you...
Happy birthday to you......Happy birthday dear Bruce! Happy Birthday to you!

Return to Racing

I finished my first PP (Post-Phoebe) race, the Bedford 12K. My goals for the race were to 1) not go out too fast, 2) run somewhat even splits, 3) not feel like walking or shuffling, 4) not get injured, and 5) look good in pictures. That last one is really important.
I finished in 50:29, almost a full seven minutes behind my winning time in 2007. But I reached my goals for this race. Now I'm looking around for my next race. Maybe a 5K? Maybe I'll be faster?
I love my team, the Greater Boston Track Club. On the drive up to the race, everyone in the car shared what they ate the night before. Turns out no one ate the traditional pre-race pasta. One guy ate a hot dog and fries at a bar. I had grilled veggies at a clambake (Scott's last Harvard biophysics event - sad). There's one difference between college and club running: we're too old and busy to care about such things as when to eat noodles.

* Thanks for the pictures, Brad.

Some Light Reading

Behold the beautifully bound thesis. Isn't she pretty?

Superhero Birthday Party

Today was Bruce's birthday party. He invited a few friends to come celebrate at the park with us. The superhero costume was optional, but many chose to dress up (and apparently Spider-man is the most popular right now).
It was fun to see all the boys running around in their super-powered state.
We had a pinata, which I made out of some paper mache and an old paper lantern that was heading to the trash anyway. We made it into Joker's head and filled it with Bruce's favorite candy - Smarties, Tootsie Rolls, and Spider-man fruit snacks. Bruce said this was his favorite activity. Take that, Joker!
And that!Here is the crowd of kids diving for candy. Bruce chose to wear his Spider-man bathing suit with junky sweat pants over them. It is his birthday; he can wear what he wants.
Scott was on Phoebe duty for most of the time. Scott is the best.
We had a Pin-the-Bat-Symbol-on-the-Batman Game. I didn't bring a blind fold because Bruce doesn't like them. I just told the kids to close their eyes and I spun them around a few times. This little guy took the game very seriously.
Bruce helped me make the Batman for the game. Bruce insisted that Batman have a pink mask, red cape, and polka-dotted chest. He is also saying, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY."Time for cupcakes!
Yummy!Most of the kids licked the frosting off the top and trashed the cupcakes. That's why I used a boxed cake mix and canned frosting; why spend time on stuff like that? We got Bruce tennis rackets for his birthday. We live near a tennis court and he's been wanting to play for awhile. I was worried he wouldn't like them because when he saw the shape of the present, he said, "It looks like a Star Wars rocket ship! Just what I've always wanted!" So I thought he'd open it and be disappointed that it wasn't a rocket. But he must have forgotten about that expectation when he actually opened it. He was happy.He wasn't so gracious about all his gifts though: here is his face when our neighbor handed him this gift and told him it was a bat. "I already have a bat," Bruce said. Time to work on gift etiquette.

My Mother's Day

My Mother's Day was wonderful. I only got up once during the night and Scott let me sleep in until 7:30!!! Best present ever! Scott and Bruce picked out some flowers for me on Saturday and arranged them nicely on the table. Then Scott made a zillion crepes for brunch. We've started a new tradition of having people over for brunch on Sunday mornings since we moved to our new place; I skipped the breakfast in bed thing and opted for brunch with kids and friends instead. Fun!

At church, the kids made cards for their moms. Scott made one for me too. I didn't get a chance to read it though. While I was teaching our class, a huge centipede ran across the floor and I squealed (it was really fast and creepy). Scott tried to get it to walk on his Mother's Day card so he could humanely take it outside and shake it off. But the stupid centipede kept running on and off the card really fast, so Scott finally resorted to smashing it in my card. Ah, my knight in shining armor...
I finally sneaked up on Scott and got a picture. Aren't they cute?

By the way, Bruce took that first picture today. He's getting better at holding the camera steady.

A Shout Out to The Mama

Happy Mother's Day to all you ladies out there, especially the one and only Mom.

My mom is perhaps the world's busiest person, but she dropped everything and swooped in to Boston to save the day when Phoebe was born (see here). She did the same thing when Bruce was born: jumped on a plane and put the crib together, decorated his room, washed all the clothes, and so much more.

My mom doesn't just save the day when babies are born though.

My sophomore year of high school, she drove me to the graduation party of a friend of mine (I didn't have my license yet). He was a friend from another school, so we'd hung out in groups before but I'd never seen him with the majority of his friends. Anyway, my mom dropped me off and planned on waiting in the car down a long driveway because it was a long drive home; she didn't want to go home just to turn around and come back to pick me up, but didn't want to park right next to the house and embarrass me for having my mommy drop me off at a party. I walked into the party only then realizing that it was a big kegger booze-fest (which I was sooo not into). I handed my card to my friend, wished him luck, and left disappointed that we'd driven so far for a beer party and disappointed that my friend wasn't who I thought he was. My mom was surprised to see me hop in the car an hour earlier than planned, and looking so bummed. She drove me to A&W to cheer me up and we got beers together - root beers.

Thanks Mom. You always save the day.

Dance 101

Under The Influence

Scott had a lecture this week about sleep deprivation. He learned that staying awake for 18 hours impairs decision-making slightly and is equivalent to having one alcoholic drink. Staying awake for 24 hours is like having two drinks. And so on. In those terms, we are feeling pretty wasted. Perhaps we're not awake for 24 straight hours, but neither of us has slept for more than a three-hour stretch in a few months. Phoebe's fabulous growth spurt comes at a price: last night, she got up five times.
Bruce and Phoebe have been doing well together. Phoebe is laughing and reacting more to what Bruce does, so he likes to get her wound up by tickling her feet and playing pat-a-cake. I love this picture; she looks a bit shocked. "Save me!"
They are having a mellow moment here. Scott rolled his eyes when he saw this outfit. But what girl doesn't need to wear a ballerina skirt?
Bruce is gearing up for a super-hero birthday party next week. He likes to wear this Spider-man bathing suit around as a costume. Today he dressed it up with a construction paper New Year's hat from preschool and a pair of sunglasses.
He is flexing his big muscles in this shot. Oh yeah.

I realize that I don't have many pictures of Scott on the blog. He exists. Perhaps I'll sneak up behind him with the camera one of these nights. Anyway, this movie will have to do. Scott claims that being in the hospital as a med student is just like this:



Scott has exams for his classes next week, and then will have a few weeks to study for the board exam. He's been calling the board exam "the most important test of [his] life." I'm pretty sure I've heard that phrase before for other tests, but this one just might surpass them all in overall lifetime importance: it is a major factor in getting his top choice for a residency program. No pressure! Did I mention we're not getting any sleep?

Hello Track

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

I love you, Track.

P.S. To honor the new American men's 10K record (26:59.6), my running club ran hard on the track last night for 26 minutes and 59.6 seconds. I would have been a bit under two miles behind Chris Solinsky. This morning, I oozed out of bed and shuffled for 40 minutes, my legs a little sore and my abdomen a lot sore. I keep hanging on to the hope that running will feel good someday.