BU graduation

Yesterday our good friend Karen graduated from Boston University (whooo hoooo Karen!). Karen is a good friend of ours from AR who (also) moved to Boston for college. She's going to be moving in with us soon to be Abby's nanny until I finish work. She now has a degree in biomedical engineering...don't ask me to explain that part to you, because just sitting through their commencement speeches and awards ceremony was enough to make me feel sheepishly uneducated. My senior project in college? I wrote a paper exploring the psychological ins and outs of Bronte characters. What do people in this department do? Build rockets to mars. Yeah. Not kidding.

Anyway. So we went to support Karen. Our morning started off nicely with some errands that needed to be done. Kyle and Abs and I bought groceries and I was pleased with our purchases. I ended up saving about 40ish% on my grocery bill, and we stayed $25 under budget for the week. And that was even with half of our groceries coming from whole foods...and, that's sayin' something.

Of course, we promptly spent out savings on going out to lunch together. Fail. But delicious fail. Abby had quesadillas. She thought we were saying "kiss-adillas" and she kissed her food every time we said it. funny.

We decided to skip the big ceremony at BU and Abby (and mommy!) took a nice long nap. Abs didn't wake up till 3 and we quickly set out to join the graduation festivities. I just want to say that the rest of the day went much smoother than either of us had anticipated.

We found parking, we didn't have to wait on a train, we found the graduation site quickly and easily, and got there early to boot. We found good seats and Abby was amicable.

Karen and her mom. Sweet, no?

Since we got there early, we let Abs wander as she liked. She spent 90% of her free time walking back and forth over this wire-cover thingy on the ground. She would step up, pause, raise her arms up and leeeeeean forward on her tiptoes and then fall/step down. Rinse & Repeat.

Abby is plotting her next move.

I was so relieved that Abby was well behaved through the graduation ceremony. We boxed her in on a row of seats and she happily played with her toys and books, and ate food while periodically clapping and cheering with the crowd. Several people commented on her behavior, and you moms know - that is always so nice to hear!

We had a funny moment I wanted to remember. While we were sitting, I was feeding Abby a banana while she played. She started smearing her banana hands all over my slacks. Sigh. So, I get out a wipe and while I'm cleaning banana off my pants, I notice out of the corner of my eye that Kyle's finger is bleeding (from his bad habit of picking at his fingers). So, while I clean with one hand, I get my wallet and pull out a bandaid and hold it out for Kyle. All while Abby is bouncing a stuffed cat on my knee saying "meow, meow, meow" Me? I didn't think anything of it, but Kyle - Kyle starts laughing. Between stiffled laughs, he says, "you are Such a MOM!"

He's right of course. Wiping banana off your pants while handing out bandaids is the Webster's definition of Mom. But. But, you know what the definition of dad is??

carrying baby-dolls in your dockers.

take that, DAD.

Ok, so back to graduation. Karen successfully completed college and was given her big fancy recepit for all her hard work.

yay, hats!

After some more picture taking, we decided to join Karen and her family for a celebratory dinner out. It was nearing 7pm, Abby's bedtime, and we were still at the ceremony, but we decided to tempt fate and go for it.

Abby and Karen's nephew, Isaac. Isaac thinks Abby is a little much with all the clapping and singing she was doing at that moment. He kept looking at her like he needed a cup of coffee before he could fully deal with her antics.

By 7:15, we are at the restaurant and Abby is happy. By 7:45, we are all eating and Abby is enjoying her food and playing with toys. By 8:00, dinner is wrapping up and Kyle and I are amazed that Abby hasn't started melting down. By 8:15, we part ways and go to wait for a train home. Kyle and I are praying that Abby can last the train ride before she starts to break down. Experience has taught us that the last leg of the train ride is often the hardest.

But, you know what? She was fine. She was fantastic. She was engaged and happy and interested in things. She didn't cry - at all - all day. The poor thing didn't get to bed until after 9pm. When I put her in her crib, I kid you not, she grabbed my hand, looked up at me and said, "thank you"

The whole way home, and after she was down and the chores had been done, Kyle and I kept saying "wow, she's a good baby" And we kept asking ourselves, "did we have anything to do with that?" Or is she just good? The answer is, we're not sure. But we were so, so so thankful that yesterday went so smoothly. It made it an enjoyable day for all. Thank you Abby, for that.

And congrats again to Karen, I can't wait to see what you become. Good job on all the hard work. We're all very very proud of you!