Half Truths

Sister: For bedtime tonight, I told Baby the story of the first Thanksgiving.
Me: Yeah?
Sister: And then she wanted to hear the story of the second Thanksgiving.  So if she starts mentioning some weird stuff tomorrow about Thanksgiving, you'll know why.  I was making stuff up.

(Apparently the second Thanksgiving included building a house out of bricks so that the big bad wolf would not blow it down.)

<Sister hands Baby a pair of chopsticks>
Baby: Here, Mommy, have one.  I don't need two.

<at dinner>
Me: Itadakimasu!
Baby: Erin, you always say funny words.

Baby: Troth, Troth.
Me: Huh?
Baby: That's what you sound like with your funny words.
Me: Really?  Ok, troth, troth.

Baby: Gwiyomi isn't saying anything that makes sense.
Me: Gwiyomi is just talking Baby talk.  That's what you said when you were a baby too.
Baby: You remember me when I was a baby.  Does Gwiyomi remember me when I was a baby?
Me: Well, umm...she wasn't actually around then.
Baby: Huh?

Rapt Audience

Practicing my presentation in front of an impressive group of individuals.  My only complaint is that the Korean kids kept going to sleep or demanding software updates.  :) 

D-1.

Marathon Weekend

I can't even remember the last time I took a Saturday off.  My sister ran a marathon in Richmond while I took care of her baby.  We had a lot of fun, as you can tell from these pictures.  

So, it turns out Richmond is an extremely historic city, which I had never realized before.  I mean, I should have realized.  It is the capital of the Confederacy and has had settlers in it since 1611 but for some reason, I never really wanted to explore much of the city until this weekend.  

So, after watching Tangled clips and Frozen clips for an hour and a half, I finally coaxed my niece to leave the hotel to go walk down the street.  I was determined to at least see the White House of the Confederacy which was only five blocks away.  We got one block away before my niece decided she was not walking any more and I had to carry her back to meet up with another sister.  So much for checking out historical buildings.  

Me wearing Baby's sunglasses

Baby wearing her own sunglasses - they were too big for her face

Time for Christmas yet?

Gwiyomi and her momma - taken by Baby

Baby checking out Gwiyomi's book

More of Gwiyomi - taken by Baby

My camera has about forty shots of this - taken by Baby

Gwiyomi and her momma - so cute

Gwiyomi 

My sister and Baby - Baby apparently prefers to be behind the camera

I didn't realize she was taking this picture - taken by Baby

My camera also has about twenty shots of this; I love the feet shot though - taken by Baby

Lessons in Aunthood

I'm watching my niece while my sister is running her first marathon today.

She's three now and quite smart.  Yesterday, during the packet pick-up, I took Baby outside so that she could run around.  What I thought would be an exercise in wearing her out resulted in a full-on workout with Baby goading me on.  "Are you tired yet?  I'm not.  Keep going."  "Now we're going to do a new activity - touch your head, touch your toes, now jump as high as you can."  We did those until she was tired too.  At the end of it, I did enough jumping jacks, lunges, ladder sprints and those bending jumps things that I was sore the rest of the night.

Today, someone thought it was a brilliant idea to buy her a playdough kit to play with during the race.  The playdough is bright pink.  Baby manages immediately after opening it to stick playdough in the one plastic "tool" that came with that was not supposed to have playdough jammed into it.  So, I'm digging out the playdough and then I look up and see Baby smashing this bright pink playdough into the hotel carpet.  "Baby! Oh no!  It's going to make a mess."  She looks at me like I'm crazy and then scrapes the playdough off to reveal a bright pink spot.  I immediately move her over to the tiling in the entrance.

It's going to be a long five hours.

Distraction

I have a meeting with my professor in twenty minutes and I'll be honest: I'm terrified.  I am so afraid he's going to tell me that my chapters are unprofessional and need major overhauling when my dissertation is due to my committee in three days.

So, I'll give you a glimpse of the music that I've been listening to lately in between writing, and editing, and writing and editing and editing some more.

Sweet Serendipity by Lee DeWyze

My roommate and I realized this song described me perfectly.  Especially since I really am down to one pair of jeans.  ...


Return by Lee Seung Gi

I once had a dream that he and I were buds so yeah, there's that....

Growl by Exo

I can't tell you who is who but it's a good song and dance anyway...

Never Let This Go by One Ok Rock


 The lyrics don't quite make sense but the tune is so awesome that you want them to...

Update

My life right now.