We have a Doctor in the House!!

That's right folks. Caleb's title has officially changed from Mr. Caleb Hug to Dr. Caleb Hug. Today he successfully presented/defended his thesis. Unfortunately he still has a couple thesis related things to do, but no matter what, he will graduate in June!! Yay Caleb!!!

Spring is Here...I think

Yesterday and today have been gorgeous here in Boston. It's been in the 80's both days, and thus we have been going outside alot. One of Hannah's favorite activities is to blow bubbles. This is great because I can just sit there and watch. The only problem is she wants to blow bubbles ALL THE TIME!! I guess some day her infatuation with bubbles will end.

Anyhow, here are some pictures from this weekend.

On Saturday night it was so warm that Caleb decided we all needed ice cream cones. Here's Hannah enjoying hers.

This afternoon we went for a walk along the river. Here is Hannah by the pretty bush outside of our dorm.

On our walk we paused for a while at a bench while Hannah watched the birds and boats in the river. She also waved at the runners and bikers that passed by. However every time a runner would run by without a shirt on, Hannah would point and repeat, "uh-oh". She is so observant.

Here she is collecting rocks.

Here we are strolling along. Hannah with Ug and a handful of rocks.

My New Bag

Last week at Mom 2 Mom instead of having a talk, we did a craft. The craft was making a bag out of plastic bags. First we ironed plastic together to make a "sheet of (hard) fabric." Then we stabled the sides together, folded up the corners to give the bag shape. And lastly we turned it inside out and added handles. Here's what my bag looks like:

I mainly used newspaper bags, and then I reinforced them with boring white bags. We also duct taped the inside to make them alittle stronger.

Here's Hannah modeling it.

Hannah loves bags and loves to stuff all her possessions into bags and carry them around the house. She took to this bag right away.

I now use this bag pretty much everywhere I go. It is a good size to fit all my stuff, plus a couple extra diapers and snacks. It also has a wide opening so I find most everything in there.

A tail of woe

Hannah is becoming increasingly observant. The other day she was playing with the Lego cat and she was pointing at the tail. I said, "yes Hannah, that is the cat's tail." Next she pointed to her butt and said, "Uh-oh." I said, "Hannah doesn't have a tail." Next she came over and pointed to my butt and said, "Uh-oh." My response, "Mommy doesn't have a tail either."

Since then she has done this several times with both me and Caleb. Today we were reading a book and she pointed out the cow's tail and then did the same "uh-oh" thing. Apparently it is very disconcerting that we do not have tails.

Hannah's Stats

Today we went in for Hannah's 2 year appointment. The doctor said she looks great. Here are her stat's

Height: 35 inches (87%)
Weight: 26 lbs (45%)
Head Circumference: 51 cm (99%)

She still has a large head, but luckily she is also pretty tall, so she doesn't look awkward or unnatural. I'm also thankful that she is gaining some weight.

So yay for Hannah. She is growing like a normal baby. I guess that means that her parents must be doing something right! :-D

Compelled by Love

As mentioned, yesterday I went to listen to Heidi Baker talk at MIT. It was a really good talk. She is so confident in who she is and how much God loves her, that she is an excellent speaker. She tells the craziest stories and does the silliest things.

She had several really important key points to her talk:
1. We are all loved equally by God. Although God thinks it's important to help and serve the poor, he doesn't love them more than the rich. God wants to see all people come to know Him. She had a pretty interesting vision while she was hanging out in Harvard Square.

2. God wants to make smart people smarter. This was a pretty good point considering she was talking to an MIT crowd. She talked about how God wants to download strategies and theories into people's brains to help solve world problems (like poverty). God is infinitely smarter than we are and has solutions that we've never thought of, or never even thought to think of. I guess I just always think it's cool when anyone reminds us that God gave us the gifts and talents we have and that He wants to magnify them for his glory & purpose.

3. Those 2 are great points, but the thing that stuck with me the most was this thought: What would my (your) life look like if I was 100% confident in God's love for me? If I knew so deeply that God loves me inspite of all my short comings. Heidi has such a intimate connection with God that if she makes a mistake, it doesn't matter because she knows God is still 100% behind her. This point, I guess, is especially relevant to me as a mom because there are so many different ways & theories on how to raise your children...and there is so much room for error. You are bound to make mistakes. But if I (we) can be so confident and filled with God's love for us and others, everything else just melts away...knowing that his grace and love fills in all the cracks of our mistakes.

I was thinking about what Heidi does - living with and serving the poor and dying. She's done this since 1996...that's 13 years and counting. I think any normal person would get burnt out...you would have to living and working with such bleak conditions. The only way it is possible is with God's love and energy. I'm sure she goes to him daily (if not more often) for a filling of new life and energy. You think of how many social workers get burnt out from their job and they aren't even seeing half the stuff that Heidi sees all the time.

Anyhow, those are my random thoughts for the day.

Oh Happy Day

Happy Easter & Happy Birthday Hannah!! What a happy day it is today to celebrate 2 such great events!

Our day day started with Hannah discovering her Easter basket as soon as she got up this morning. She pointed and said, "da", as if to say, "what's that? That's not normally there." After I explained to her that it was hers, she went for an egg, opened it, ate what was inside and then said, "more!" Luckily shortly there after we went to church, thus limiting her supply of sugar for the morning. After church we came home ate more f the eggs, took our afternoon nap, and then went to have Easter Dinner with our friends Jen & Sebastian & Jen's family, who was visiting from Virginia. After dinner I went to hear Heidi Baker talk, while Caleb hung out with Hannah. Below are some pictures from our day.

Here's Hannah's Easter basket. Caleb put it together before he went to bed. Caleb also did all the shopping for the Easter basket. He doesn't trust me in the candy department. I think it is safe to say that Caleb is the candy expert in our house.

Here's Hannah sharing her candy with Dad.

Here she is transferring candy from one egg to another. This was a favorite activity.

Here she is sharing with Ug.

Ug eating his Robin Egg

Hannah opening her birthday present from us.

Yay, it's Lego's. She started playing with them right away!

Here's the cake I made for Hannah. It looked better in person. My big confirmation was when I asked Hannah what it was. It took her about 5 seconds, but she finally said, "doggie!!" That's good enough for me!

Here's the birthday girl blowing out her candles.

And eating cake

Jen owns a rat. Hannah pointed out the rat several times during the evening. Apparently after I left, Jen took the rat out of her cage and let Hannah play with her. I'm sure she had a blast!

Legos also ROCK!!

So this morning I was still feeling tired when Hannah got up, so I opted to lay on the couch for a while. After about 5-10 minutes of Hannah trying to lay down with me, or trying to get me up, she realized her cause was hopeless and started playing with some legos. Next thing I know an hour had gone by. Granted it wasn't the best sleep I've ever had - it wasn't super quiet and every once in a while Hannah would bring over some lego sculpture to show me, or she would give me a lego or two to hold - but I'm still so thankful for that extra hour. Praise the Lord, He is good!!

Well, I told Caleb about my successful sleep time, and he reminded me that in Hannah's mind, I probably wasn't sleeping, I was playing. After all, I did wake up with Legos all around me and with some in my hands. :-D

Playgrounds ROCK!!

So today I'm not feeling the greatest. I've been having trouble sleeping the past couple of nights, so I'm alittle low on energy. So today, after we returned from the grocery store I just felt like sitting. The only problem was that it was only 11:00, 3 hours from nap time....and today is beautiful out for the first time in a long time. So after a short 8 minute power nap (and some encouragement from my husband), I got up the energy to walk to the westgate playground. Not a far walk, but far enough that I took it slow. Luckily I was able to convince Hannah that if she rode in the stroller, we would get to the playground faster (I'm so glad she is at the age now where I can sometimes reason with her).

That was my smartest decision of the day (thus far). Hannah played in the sand box, pushed Ug around in the doll stroller, played in the littletikes car, etc, etc. I just sat in the sun and watched (and checked my email a bit). I was able to move my chair around to whatever part of the play ground she was at, and most of the time I was in the sun!! I was only planning to stay for an hour, but one turned into two. What a great way to spend our morning. Hannah running off energy, and me catching some Vitamin D.

Super Yummies

Last night we had Benesh's over to play games. But before we played games and after we put the kiddos to bed, we made super yummy dessert crepes. The crepes were actually normal, but we made super yummy chocolate sauce and sliced up berries for the toppings. It was excellent. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures, but I thought I would post the recipe since it was sooo yummy.

makes about 10 crepes
2 eggs
3/4 c flour
1/4 t salt
1 T sugar
3 t cocoa, unsweetened
1 c whole milk
2 T butter, melted
1.5 t Chambord raspberry liquor (we didn't use this)
1/4 c heavy cream
1/2 t almond extract (we didn't use this either b/c we didn't have it)
Blend in a blender until smooth. Refrigerate batter while making the chocolate sauce

Chocolate sauce (super, super yummy!)
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c evaporated milk
1/4 c butter
1/2 t vanilla (add later)
Melt first 4 ingredients together. Add vanilla, and remove from heat.

This chocolate sauce is really good because it's not super sweet...and thus goes really well with berries and other fruits that are pretty sweet.

I guess while I'm writing recipes - Hannah and I have been enjoying strawberry smoothies lately. I found this really easy recipe on the back of a lemonade carton.

1 cup strawberries
1 c vanilla yogurt
1 c lemonade (or limade)
1 banana
2-4 cubes of ice
Blend all ingredients together.

This recipe is nice because the smoothie isn't super thick, thus allowing us to use normal straws to drink it. And, as I said earlier, it is a really easy recipe.

Knitting

Last fall some GRT's in my building organized a knitting group. And I thought, sure what the heck? I know how to knit (thanks to the Kelso/Oyler block in 6th grade), but I can pretty much only make scarves. I figured this would be a great opportunity to learn from people who know more than I do. So I found a pattern for a children's sweater (there is no way I would have the endurance to make a big person sweater!)

So we've been knitting since the fall on every other Wed, and it's been fun. Not only am I learning how to read patterns and do fancy stuff (like cast off, and add stitches), it also allows me some time to have big people conversations. :-D

Anyhow, here is what I have so far. This is the front of the sweater.

This is the back of the sweater.

And this is the sleeve I've started.

Right now I"m kind of in crunch time because I need to finish all the knitting before we leave, so I can ask Jen how to sow it all together. Jen is pretty much the source of all knitting knowledge. She has made some pretty intense sweaters, vests, socks, hats. You name it, she's made it and it looks cool...like something you would actually wear, or pay big money for.

So what I have left to do is the rest of this sleeve, another sleeve, and then the neck part. Hopefully I'll be able to post a picture of Hannah wearing it before May 17! (or June 6)

New York, New York

This past weekend Caleb and I took a mini vacation to New York City. Our good friend Jen volunteered to watch Hannah for a 24 hour period, so we jumped at the chance. I managed to get us a hotel on 49th street, which is pretty close to Time Square. The room was small, but it was really nice to keep the extra walking to a minimum...especially with my current condition, if you know what I mean. Saturday night we went to see the musical Avenue Q. It was OK. It was an adult spoof on Sesame Street. I don't know if I would recommend it.

Anyhow, the next morning we went to the Intrepid. The Intrepid is an aircraft carrier that was commissioned during WWII, had several kamikaze hits, and also fought in the Korean War and the Vietnam war. It is now the site of a museum with tons of old ship stuff and old planes that were used in battle. As you can tell, this is right up Caleb's alley. Here are some pictures:

Here is a model of the intrepid:

Here I am in front of a plane used in WWII.

Here's the "score card" for the Intrepid. You can see all the planes and ships that it sunk while in battle.

Here I am in front of the bridge.

Here I am navigating ship.

Here's Caleb in front of the blackbird.

Here's a row of planes.

Here I am resting.

Here I am in front of a concord. It flew across the Atlantic in less than 3 hours!

All in all, it was a fun trip. It was great to get away, and it was great to come back.