Throwback Thursday: Pictures in the Garden

I know that I have been awful at blogging recently. I have several excuses, but I'll spare you and just crank out a blog as an apology. 

The week before we moved to North Carolina was a whirlwind of activity and emotion. Lots of emotion (mostly from me...). To kind of assuage my feelings, I planned out Boston activities for each day of that last week. I already wrote about our kayaking adventure a little while ago (ok...a really long time ago). Today, rather than writing, I thought I'd post a bunch of pictures. 

My in-laws had come up to help with the move (THANK YOU, Boswells!) and were awesome about watching Claire, helping to pack, taking pictures of us, and just providing moral support. The day before we moved was a Sunday, but since our church didn't meet until evening, we had all morning and early afternoon to do Boston things. We spent the first part of the morning at the Boston Public Garden taking some pictures. 

I wrote about the Garden last year...after we accidentally showed up at the world's second largest rally for legalizing marijuana. Oi. We had been to the Garden many times after that, but on this last visit, I really wanted some family pictures. They're not professional or anything; just some shots of our family in a place that we really love. Claire was marginally cooperative. 

Make Way for Ducklings (it's a children's book for anyone who may not know) made the Garden famous, and there is a monument to the ducklings near the pond. I tried FOREVER to get a decent picture of Claire with those ducks. You would not believe how difficult that was. Actually, those of you with toddlers can probably imagine. 

I got a kick out of the ducks the week of the marathon- they each wore a tiny runner's bib. Ha!

We even saw real ducklings!

Claire refused to smile for these, but the background with the swan pond was nice. 

I love this shot of George Washington and part of the Boston skyline.

Claire spotted a swan on the pond.

She was very excited.

Pleased with herself for her discovery.

"Look what I found!"

She would not smile.

It was a great walk in the Garden on our next-to-last day in Boston. The weather was overcast, which was kind of a bummer, but the temperature was perfect. We really enjoyed our last day of walking through the Garden, and I felt like such a local- I gave <correct> directions to two different sets of tourists. I must have looked like a local, too, seeing as how they spotted me and obviously thought, "That girl looks like a local...let's ask her!" Yay, me! Also? I consider it a win that no marijuana was involved in this visit.

Life update: Brad

I updated on Claire's life a couple of weeks ago, so I thought I would update on Brad this time. He is, after all, the entire reason that we moved to North Carolina in the first place.

I just want to reiterate that Brad is getting a Ph.D. at DUKE. Let's all take a moment and reflect on how big a deal this is. He is such a smarty-pants, and a prestigious university recognized that fact and asked him to grace their halls. I could not be prouder. 

For those of you who may be unsure, Brad is studying Early Christianity. He is particularly studying the theology of the Church fathers (think: Augustine, Irenaeus, Origen, Athanasius...plus many an obscure man that you have likely not heard of). Study of the Church fathers is called Patristics, by the way (side note: the North American Patristics Society is abbreviated as NAPS. I think there are way too many jokes that could be made about that acronym by those of us who aren't quite as enthusiastic about the study :). In his program, he also has a minor, which is New Testament. 

This semester, he is taking three classes: New Testament Theology, Virtue and Theology in Early Christian Thought, and Syriac (an ancient language that is kin to Arabic). He also participates in a Latin reading group once a week. Every weekday, Brad does school from 8:00-5:00 (classes, library time, plus 4 hours a week of assisting a professor with research), takes a break between 5:00-7:00 to eat dinner with Claire and me, help with Claire's bath time, and play for a little while pre-Claire bedtime. After she goes to bed, he usually puts in another hour or so of studying. It's really quite impressive how much time he puts in.

Something I've found myself explaining to folks is that Brad is not part of the Divinity School but rather the Graduate Program of Religion (GPR), which is a conglomeration of the Divinity School and the Department of Religious Studies, which is a little confusing. A kind of basic explanation of this is that the Divinity School is much more like a seminary--it has lots of students who are going to be pastors or in some kind of church ministry as well as more academic-track folk. The Religious Studies department does more of studying religion in general.  Brad applied to the Th.D. program within the Divinity School, as well as the Ph.D. program within the GPR (the Department of Religious Studies doesn't have it's own doctoral program). He was accepted to the Ph.D. program, which means his degree comes through the GPR. Although, his adviser in the Ph.D. program would also have been his adviser had he been accepted to the Th.D. (sidenote: I've learned through this Ph.D. process that you choose the program and school you apply to based on the scholar you wish to study with more than just a place that has your program.) The GPR is much broader in scope than the Divinity School. It encompasses Christian/Jewish/Islamic/Eastern religious/etc. studies. Now, before you fret that Brad is learning New Testament Theology from a professor of Buddhism, know that he is not. He takes classes from both the Department of Religious Studies and the Divinity School, so he will have several (many?) courses from the Divinity School, taught by the folks who are teaching the seminary-type students. Confused yet? It's a little tricky.

Another question that we address frequently regarding Brad's studies is "What does he want to do?" Answer: Teach. He would like to teach at the undergraduate level. And, I'm pretty sure that he will be awesome at it. While I'm not always super interested in everything that he studies, he has a way of talking about things that is entertaining and accessible. Good qualities in a professor of historical theology, I think.

He will be doing course work for the next year and a half, followed by dissertation writing and teaching a few courses. The goal is a five-year program, followed by job offers. :)

That's the basic gist of things. Make sense? Maybe, over time, I can make more sense of it. We'll see...

18 Month Update (a month late)

As Claire just turned 19 months this past week, I thought it was an appropriate time for an 18 month update.

Hanging with Daddy on Daddy's birthday!

After her first birthday, I stopped taking the weekly matroshka pictures. This is due, in part, to the fact that she would no longer sit remotely still enough for such photos. I will say, though, that her relationship with matroshka has greatly improved. After the competition for the photos was put to bed, they were able to strike up a cordial and even friendly relationship. 

Rocking the accessories.

Every time we go to the pediatrician's office, I'm always asked to fill out questions about her development and my concerns about her status. I am continually having to answer several of the questions with something equivalent to "she is perfectly capable, but she will do things only at her own pace." This has proven to be the case with a lot of physical development markers, like crawling (which she has never done), pulling up, and walking. 

Being a little bear can be so tough.

She has never crawled, despite our constant and varied attempts to encourage crawling. BUT, she is a WORLD CLASS scooter. People literally comment on it everywhere we go. Church. House hunting back in May (the realtor asked to video). The beach. The library. She is ridiculously fast and finds it to be more efficient for her transportation purposes. For this reason, she didn't begin walking consistently until THIS MONTH. September. At 18 months. Now, she had proven to us that she most definitely could walk, but she refused to do it on anyone else's timetable. How terrifying is this...imagine when she is a teenager! She still only walks part-time, but at least she won't get that "a little abnormal" label at the doctor next time. No mom wants to hear that.

Red Sox fan even if they're having a lousy season...

Something else she did on her own timetable? Acquired teeth. Girlfriend did not cut one. single. tooth. until she was fully 13 months old. This, despite having shown signs of teething since 5 months. At 18 (19) months, she has quite the mouthful, and no, I don't know the actual number because I stopped sticking my finger in her mouth a long time ago. Has sharp teeth, will use on anyone. Bless us all.

September 30...last day of the paci. We are now paci-free.

She is talking quite a lot these days. Quite a lot of recognizable words, even more words that I know the meaning of but others probably wouldn't, and millions of gibberish words that only she knows the meaning of. We are working on polite words (please, thank you, etc), animals and their sounds (we are working on quite the menagerie), body parts (she particularly likes "toe!", "elbow" and "beh-ee"...which means belly button), people in our family, various questions (her favorites are "where did he go?", "who is it?", and "are you ok?"), and a few key words, like "Hundley" (Curious George's dachshund friend...it's her favorite tv show) and "more" (mo-mo). Oh, and "I love you" (I wuv woo). We have been working on our letters, although she is wanting to do that entirely on her own timetable, too. 

So many hair accessories...so little time. Must make the most of the time.

We are VERY into songs around here. She sings along with her favorites: "You are my Sunshine," "Let it Go" (from Frozen), and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." We sing these allllll the time. Usually one right after the other. 

Acquiring skills like stacking.

She is currently into very physical activities, like body slamming into things (like Brad when he's laying on the floor) and climbing on anything that doesn't move (wait...just kidding...she'll climb on you if you move). It's really exhausting for me and dangerous for everyone. She tends to have bruises and small scrapes at any given time. (And so do we) Oi.

We are also in a separation anxiety phase that is quite tough. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with her age, and I think that some of it also has to do with the upheaval of the move compounded with her age. Whatever it is, it is creating some difficult situations for us as we try to adjust and get into a rhythm around here. Our biggest source of contention, unfortunately, is church nurseries. We are in the throes of church hunting, and Claire absolutely refuses to have anything to do with nursery. And by that, I mean that she screams continually to the point that she is shuddering, shaking, verging on vomiting, upsetting the other children, and the nursery workers are forced to get me. It makes life difficult for everyone. Sigh.

Who, me?

Despite the difficulty with separation anxiety, we are finding a new groove for life in Durham. We have been learning to color and build with blocks and feed ourselves (oi! So messy). We have discovered that Bearsy is most likely a lefty, just like Auntie Ray Ray, Aunt Jenny, cousin Nikki, and Auntie-Friends Kat and Karen. Lefty girl power! Life is exhausting but oh so full around here.

Lefty in the house.

She set up this princess lounge all by herself so that she could watch Curious George in optimal comfort.

Croquet with Daddy at Duke.

A natural.

Such a helper, she is.

We see this face a lot.

And thankfully, we see this one a lot, too.