The Story of My Life ~ Stuffed in the Corner ALOT

It's past midnight. I'm the ONLY baby at IU's library.

And then . . .

Oh NO! Daddy wants to play cribbage tonight.

Ok, guys. I'm getting bored.

The chewing continues. . .

Woah, Did I just hear someone say MORE pictures?

Yes, I have a paunch. But ~ So do You. :P

~ Mikaela

Mature infant?

I often wonder at the maturest expression
from this tiny face that gazes back at me.

Well, ok. Sometimes she does look like a real baby. :-)

~ Mrs. Arcfide

From Little Miss Posh

Daddy took mama out on a date! They bundled me up warmly for the night out, and I behaved perfectly (read slept the entire time) as their Third wheel.

They talked, and laughed, and had a great time. Even if they didn't forget I was actually there, they sure acted like it! I'm SO glad my parents are the best of friends. :)

P/S: Can you believe I'm already over a month old?

~ Baby Mikaela

She's the smallest thing we put our whole lives into . . .

Small child-once you were a hope, a dream. Now you are reality.
Changing all that is to come. So small. A flick of star stuff.
A mind to touch the edges of the universe. A love to hold our hearts forever.
~Charlotte Gray

Mikaela's first Sunday at church

~ Mrs. Arcfide

How can anyone resist these faces?

"The Un-Amused"

"The Tough Girl"

"The Curious"

"The Thinker"

"The Bored"

She keels us with her cuteness!

~ Mrs. Arcfide

New Baby

Mikaela Zhi Min Hsu
welcomed with love by aaron and johanna
october 7, 2009 at 11:32 p.m
7 pounds 7 ounces ~ 20 inches

*stares at the calendar*

2.5 weeks to go. UNreal.

~ Mrs. Arcfide

To Post or Not to Post?

That is the question.

At this late hour, I should be doing a ton of other things . . . like making something yummy for dinner, or putting our pile of laundry away. Instead, I find myself here on blogger, clicking "New Post" and stretching my achy back after a long day of sitting and writing copious answers on my first Federal Taxation Exam.

My poor, sadly-neglected blog. How I've missed writing in thee! :P One has to wonder why I don't update more often, especially considering the fact that updating snippets at a time is so much more therapeutic than having a whole, daunting lot of stuff to say.

Ah, well. The prerogative is mine to swing from bouts of virtual taciturnity to garrulousness, right? And you - well, you it's your prerogative to read along or just to click that little gray x at the top of your screen. Because, well . . . I'm all for prerogatives today.

But IF you decide to stay with me, I might as well make your visit here worth while. By being narcissistic and talking about myself, of course. Well, us . . . to be more precise. These days, I don't do anything apart from my hubs and our little baby. I love it this way. We eat together, sleep together, shop together, travel together, study together . . . you get the picture. Whenever Aaron goes to class, even for an hour, the light goes out of our lives. Not to be sappy or anything (ha.), but if you've ever loved someone so much that you can miss that person the moment he leaves the room, you'll know how I feel. How we feel. Mikaela just affirmed that she feels the same. ;)

So. What have we been up to?

The biggest Thing this past summer was our weekend trip to Boston, of course. Because Aaron is so freakin' smart, he got an academic paper published and was invited to speak at the CS Scheme workshop. It was originally supposed to be held at MIT, but the venue later changed to Northeastern. What's important is that we still went to MA. ;)

So, while he relished his time talking geek, being geek, and cracking up at geeky jokes - I wisely spent my day walking the Freedom Trail with an LJ friend. You never know when you have the strangest opportunities for travel and visits!

Here's Julia and I:

And here's the Great Patriot we sat beside to rest:

In case you didn't notice, that was Paul Revere. One of my favorite heroes from the American Revolution. I believe Longfellow had everything to do with it.

We got to see where the Boston Massacre took place, as well as Faneuil Hall, the public park, Boston Commons, etc. My only regret was that Aaron wasn't able to tour Boston with us. Because I thought of him all day, of course. :) But he assured me he thoroughly enjoyed his day at the conference, so that counts for something, I guess. ;)

The Public Gardens

Site of the First Public School in America:

In other news, last weekend we also had a Baby Shower! Two of my best girlfriends in town generously hosted it at their home, and invited several ladies and their daughters from church.

We had a delightful time.

Here are some candid pictures of Aaron and I AFTER the party:

His "I-saw-you-taking-that" glare at the photographer.

My friend picked me a gorgeous rose from their garden

"Hey, return me my flower!"

Shall we dance?

Now for some of my favorite posed pictures:

Oh, you know what another of my prerogative is? It is to throw together a post without any theme or cohesion.

May all of you always be as happy as we!
~ Mrs. Arcfide

40 years from now . . .

. . . we'll still be holding hands and eating $1 corndogs
at the fair. :)

~ Mrs. Arcfide

Little baby bump

26 weeks, 3 days

Of all people, I feel the most blessed.

~ Mrs. Arcfide

It's a Girl!

And her name's Mikaela.

~ Mrs. Arcfide

Hello, World.

Hi peeps.

I noticed an increase in stat activity and followers even though this site has been sadly neglected.

So, in an effort to thank you - my loyal readers for your faithful following, this (hopefully) fun picture post is an attempt at giving you glimpses to (some of) what we've been up to lately:

March 15, 2009
Chantel is married! Isn't she gorgeous?
My dear friend and Maid of Honor
tied the knot with Scott, the love of her life.
Aaron and I were blessed to be able to travel to Washington for their Special Day.

Chantel was brave enough to let me be her hairstylist, and I was honored.
It was my first time fixing another person's hair . . .
let's just say we discovered a hidden talent. ;-)

I met some friends, old and new.
Ashleigh, April, and Natalie were so, very sweet.

April 4, 2009
One of Aaron's friends from school, Larisse, had a birthday!
She comes from a French-speaking country, and had a
Marie-Antoinette themed celebration.
Pretty cool, huh? :-D




April 11, 2009

Outdoor Shooting Range

Aaron and his brother were eager to go target-shooting
over the Easter weekend.
I got a couple rounds on my pink gun in as well!
What a blast.

Hope you guys are doing well! What have you been up to, lately?

~ Mrs. Arcfide

Peanut's Update: 12 weeks, 4 days . . .

Hey everyone!

Daddy and mummy caught their first glimpses of me today. For my first Side profile mug-shots, I amused them by posing with both my webbed hands high up beside my head, and stretching my foot out.

My head is still as big as my body, but I know I'll be more proportional 8 weeks later at my next ultrasound-shoot.

Until then!

XOXO,
Peanut



P/S: Mummy found out she was 1 day off, my official due date is now October 3rd.

Coming this fall . . .

And everyone's =) !!!

. . .

~ Mrs. Arcfide

Some new milestones . . .

over the holidays . . . in no particular order.

• Aaron's MacbookPro died a corrosive death when a flying cable knocked over his cup of water. That happened in the middle of the night, so who knows how long his laptop was immersed?
• He bought, for its replacement, an un-cool looking Lenovo machine.
• To top things off, I got converted to Mac. . . after a long, drawn-out 3 years resistance. What's worse? I'm secretly lovin' it. :)
• I received my EAD, which led me to apply for an SSN so I could get my Learners Permit.

I believe I'm fully absorbed into The System.

But hey, what's the fuss? It's 2009, and Obama's in the White House.

I Can Drive. I Can Do-it! I Can Change! YES, I CAN!!! Rawr.

~ Mrs. Arcfide

SNOW DAY!

Tiny balls of hail were gently falling around us as we went out for groceries the evening before last. Imagine our surprise as we left Krogers a mere 30 minutes later. The entire parking lot was covered in a blanket of white. Strangers beside us swore under their breaths.

The less prepared shoppers among us scraped their buried cars with gloves and plastic bags. We thankfully reached for our ice-picker to do the same.

White flakes pelted down all day, and all night. For forty days and forty nights, It Snowed. And snowed. and snowed. We got snow!

Aaron and I woke up yesterday, feeling like Christmas. But since it wasn't, we enjoyed the next best thing: Snow Day! And school, of course, was closed.

Here, Aaron opens the door in search of his morning paper. There was none. But he just had to stick his hand out to test how deep the snow was. ;-) Hey, after all . . . snow doesn't usually accumulate that much under this roof-covered walkway.

I told Aaron I wanted to see how deep the snow was out there. Then, I did The Stupid by sprinting out (as much as one can sprint and flounder) without any warm clothes. :-P

Oh, I'll say it was about boot-high.

There's Aaron.

. . . and there's his "Snow Angel". Which, I thought would have been more aptly called his "Caution Radiation Sign".

Last but not least, that's the more-sensibly-dressed yours truly,

~ Mrs. Arcfide