A Day to Remember . . .

Two Facebook updates today said it all:

Status #1) Done with the last exam of my very last class. No more syllabuses - surreal!! :)

and #2)  So, while I was at school taking my Finals this morning, Mikaela woke up, took off her diaper, and got dressed - all by herself! It was all good until she climbed on our bed, and peed on her sleeping Daddy. Yeeeaah. ;)

So today has been a good day, filled with cramming, testing, meetings, and other domestic sundries like washing sheets, and hosting - since a surprise visitor joined us for dinner.

I'm dog-tired, but grateful for new mercies every morning. Especially grateful to close another chapter of my life.

Hope y'all are doing well! 

~ 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

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

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

Coming this fall . . .

And everyone's =) !!!

. . .

~ 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

The Hsu Times

This afternoon, I chatted on IM with mrscaleb. She is going into labor any day now!! O_O

I also got to talk to two girlfriends back in Singapore for more than an hour over Skype. The video had slow playback, which made for weird visual-audio co-ordination. Other than that, I was just happy to be able catch up with, and hear my sissies' voices. Poor girls, if I were awake up to 5am like they were, I wouldn't have managed to still be as pleasant! Not sure how they do it, but sure seems as if the batteries they run on never die.

In other news, Aaron came home hankering for McDonalds'. For the first time since we got here, we ventured by foot beyond our parking lot to the restaurant with the golden arches across the street. Someday, with a girlfriend, I'll walk just a little further to its neighboring Starbucks... *daydreams*

My husband also brought home his first stack of test papers for grading today. Seeing those brown envelops on his desk brought back memories of my dad doing the very same.

The two differences?

My dad *never* once had to borrow a red pen from me. And. Aaron brings papers home in a backpack. My dad used a brief case. So my husband has to be the cooler geek. Or educator. *ahem* :-P

Gosh. Isn't he starting to look professorish? I can't seem to escape men from academia...








~ Mrs. Arcfide