Mikaela in Florida

~ Mrs. Arcfide

From us, to you . . .

~ Mrs. Arcfide

I put up Christmas lights and decorations for the first time (in our home) this year, and the look of wonder and delight on Mikaela's face when she first woke up from her nap to see it more than repaid me for the little effort I'd expended that afternoon.

This blogger's words made me wish I'd set up a Christmas tree, just for the heck of it. :D

If only time, and (especially) space, allowed . . .

~ Mrs. Arcfide

Hmm . . .

I don't usually cry when I read my news feed, but this post and its accompanying song brought tears to my eyes, and comfort to my heart.

~ Mrs. Arcfide

Survey

Aaron asked me to post this and requests that all you mothers/homemakers fill it out! Thanks, ladies! :)

Questionnaire for Stay-at-home mothers

~ Mrs. Arcfide

Will Waddle for Food

~ Mrs. Arcfide

Mikaela at One Year!

Someone once told me that we realize, in children, the swift passing of time. Goodness knows, I have repeated that to myself often enough, and to several other friends as I marvel how quickly my little princess has grown.

Could it be, that exactly twelve months later, the sweet little newborn I held in my arm is now the same toddling, chunky, kissable baby I see?

And that in the three weeks since she took her first, tentative steps at 11 months, she's already looking more girly, independent, and less like a baby?

I don't want to blink.

~ Mrs. Arcfide

Summer, it's too soon to go . . .

Between Aaron's graduation, my summer classes, the Karen Kingsbury Book Party and Picnic, fun times with our neighbors (one of whom is from my parent's small hometown in Malaysia - what were the odds?!), hanging out, celebrating our 2nd anniversary, playing at Six Flags, going to The Muny, puttering in Montreal, catching the much-dreaded flu, and attending a friend's wedding in Wisconsin . . . you could say that the past few months days literally took on wings and disappeared.

The 50 degree weather during our time in Montreal and Wisconsin caught us unprepared, and caused me to lose some faith in summer. Amazingly, Mikaela appears *not* to have inherited any of my Southeast Asian cold-bloodedness in her.

Like her dad, she thrives in cool weather, but melts in the heat:

In front of the Notre Dame Basilica, sporting a sundress
on a wet and windy day (Montreal).

Melting like butter on a humid Missouri day.

Scariest thought about Summer being almost gone?
The knowledge that the days Mikaela remains as a baby are numbered.

I mean, c'mon.

Babies don't climb stairs, turn around, and celebrate by balancing precariously whist clapping their hands!

Toddlers do.

~ Mrs. Arcfide

Hacker-in-training

Remember the old Macbook Pro that got immersed and died a corrosive death? So much for meaning to disassemble it and sell it for parts on ebay. In all honesty, I packed it away before Baby came and promptly forgot about it.

Then, Baby came along. Baby grew into a curious being, and took an interest in laptops, keyboards, and wires. All things electronic and forbidden. I debated whether or not to get her her own (toy) laptop.

Just so she would leave ours alone.

Shoot. She doesn't need to be spoiled. She needs to learn that a "no" means no.

In cleaning out my old study table last week, I found it.

So much for lofty resolutions and consistent parenting.

She's just a baby.



~ Mrs. Arcfide

Video links

For those of you who's missed out on Facebook . . .

Watch Mikaela

• play with a door stopper
• look at textbooks
• learn to chat
• at school
• learn to walk
  

Also, be sure to check out my Youtube Channel added to the sidebar of this blog!

~ Mrs. Arcfide

Dear Friends,

First things first.

Two of my upper teeth are in! I gnaw at everything in sight, including my mummy's toes.


I am learning to walk. Mummy and Daddy walk me up and down every day, so that by the time bedtime comes around, I am too exhausted to complain. They smile whenever they see me leaning forward, to embrace my bed.

There's so much to see and do in the day. I spend most of my time in our apartment, playing with "toys". I don't like my own toys, that is . . . I prefer the toys my parents use all the time. The clickkity-clack of daddy's typing sends me crawling like a torpedo to his keyboard. Too bad the best toys are always forbidden, though. Daddy will sternly say "Mikaela, ~ no, no", and swat my hand away. Sometimes, that hurts my feelings and make me cry. I feel even more sorry for myself if I fall down right then and bump my head.

But that doesn't deter me! No, daddy's always said "What are a few bumps in life". I get up and try again. Daddy smiles at mummy over the top of my head and say that I'm a persistent little girl, whatever that means.


Anyway, I'd better go. All this typing is killing my brain cells.







Lots of love and slobber,
~ Mikaela

Thoughts about Adoption

Whenever Aaron and I talk about having more children someday, the option of adoption would invariably come up. And why not? Almost a dozen of our cousins in his family were adopted, and it is not as shocking a proposition as it might seem.

For someone with my background, it is a huge thing to change my mind about. After all, my parents don't "believe" that adoption is Biblical. I remember asking my dad about it, and being less than satisfied with his response. I am not about to go into that over here, but since I never sought another view on the matter, I adopted (haha) Aaron's opinion about adoption when I married him. Basically, Aaron told me that if adoption were not Biblical, Jesus wouldn't have had Joseph as his earthly father, would he? And since adoption, by definition, makes a child your very own . . . that pretty much refuted the reasons I bought into as a kid.

Compassion. Love. Generosity. Rescue. Trust.

These emotions, and so many more come to mind when I ponder the idea of bringing home an orphaned, or abandoned child. I experienced them all again tonight, as I saw a video and read about the rescue efforts of Drawn from Water, a ministry in Africa that rescues children who were deemed cursed and sentenced to death by their very own families and tribes.

Having a nine-month old baby myself, I cannot fathom how people could determine that a baby is cursed/dirty/unclean simply because his top teeth came in before his bottom teeth. The faces of kids who were abandoned by their families made the tragedy of such superstition more real, and me just want to reach out to help.

And some day, in our future, I believe we will be able to.

Because we want to.

~ Mrs. Arcfide

Two Years

Two years ago, I married My Man.

Lots of love, laughter, joy . . . and no regrets. :)
Happy Anniversary, m'dear!


~ Mrs. Arcfide

We have the coolest kid.

Yup, for an 8 month old, she's pretty adorable.

Pardon me . . . I do believe I can be biased. :-)

~ Mrs. Arcfide

Fun Comparison

She is most definitely a mixture of the two of us!
Mikaela has my lips and cheeks, and Aaron's eyes.

~ Mrs. Arcfide

Mikaela in March 2010, or My First iMovie Project

This is so much more fun than school. Seriously.

Instead of writing a paper, I spent the last hour or so experimenting with iMovie for my very first time. And now that I got myself started, I'm wondering why I've never played around with it before.

I know this little production is by no means perfect. I'm too tired to critique it with an eye for artistic detail . . . but I am just more than happy I now know how to make a slide-show/video of my darling set to music. It IS fun. :)

If I have more free time anytime soon, I hope to go back to my archives and make similar movies of my favorite Mikaela pictures and videos from each month of her life. Go, me!

~ Mrs. Arcfide

Celebrate 5 months

Our little monkey can now smile on command!

The words she finds so funny?
"Say, Peek-a-boo!"

Well, sometimes she confuses another Kodak moment
with the game. :)

~ Mrs. Arcfide

Just because she's irresistably CUTE . . .

And she's 4 months!

~ Mrs. Arcfide

Cloistered Homeschool Syndrome

This article is one of the most balanced views on the topic that I've read.

It says in so many words the ideas that have been formulating in my head about the way we hope to raise our children . . .

~ Mrs. Arcfide

A family picture

Hi folks. Long time no post.

It's hard to believe that we are already into a new semester, and another new year. Aaron and I are both studying full-time, and working part-time. Life has been incredibly busy . . . but whose isn't? : )

It is so easy to be caught up in the big picture . . . our goals, our plans for the days ahead. Always the days ahead. Every once in awhile, we have to remind ourselves to pause. To just relish these moments. Our here and now.

Our little baby doll is already over three months old. She's been growing incredibly fast, and getting quite chubby! In fact, I don't know of any nickname she has right now (Pumpkin, Chunky, Pudgy-cheeks, etc.) that doesn't give others visions of a baby, pleasantly plump. Hehe!

Today, on our way home from church, we stopped by a nearby park on the spur of the moment for some pictures. See for yourself!




~ Mrs. Arcfide