Quick Successions: New Mexico Edition

Hannah likes to help me in the kitchen.  She stands on a chair and we cook and bake together. I try to get the stuff all ready ahead of time so she can help me dump stuff in the Kitchen Aid mixer, pot, pan, or bowl.  When we cook something in the oven, I turn the light on inside and she plays in front of it until our food is done and then runs to tell me. She was so excited to make a cake for Father's Day, probably because she likes cake more than she realized the significance of the day. We made a square cake and I drew a tie on it and that's about all I can do artistically speaking with the cake. Hannah wanted cake all day long, and she finally got some this evening. It was hard to keep her from sampling it while we were trying to get a picture.

Today we took a little day trip to some sites owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In particular, we went to Historic Liberty Jail and the Independence visitors center.  The sisters working at both centers had just been transferred there so they were still learning about the site, but they were all incredibly kind. Brian and I actually ran into some of our former students from BYU. Liberty Jail is where the Prophet Joseph Smith and four other spent a long and cold winter in the 1830s on charges of treason.  He wrote several sections of the Book of Commandments while there, which became the Doctrine and Covenants.  Independence is the site where Community of Christ have a temple.  The LDS church has a stake and visitor's center, and other religion also lays claim to a piece of that same 600 acres.  At one point Independence was a center of LDS church gathering, along with Kirtland, Ohio.  Hannah is 19 months old and she wanted to r...

Brian, Hannah, and I all piled in the car on Friday morning and set off for Lafayette, Indiana.  My sister lives there with her husband Cody and two boys.  We filled the nine hours of driving time by singing folk songs, snacking on crunch 'n munch, napping (except Brian) and I did some reading for work. I had been to Ohio, Illinois, and Kentucky before but Brian had not.  Hannah was in my tummy when I went to Ohio and Kentucky.   On Saturday Brian and I went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to run a panel about using comedy in teacher education. The panel was well-attended and everything went find after we found the Lincoln Theatre where we were supposed to present. It took 45 minutes of driving up and down one-way streets and feeling frustrated.  When the conferencing was done, we drove back to Indiana and Brian took a nap while my sister, her husband and I watched the kiddies play in the back yard.  When we were all up, we ate dinner ...

Hannah gave me some flowers for Mother's Day.  I am sure her father helped her find them.  A lot of people post about how they want time off from the kids for mother's day and I understand that. It is true that being a mom cuts into my free time and my privacy but I don't need time off from Hannah. I am so glad she is my little girl. 

Today was Hannah's first day of nursery.  She did great.  No crying at all. I can't say the same for myself. She is the youngest and smallest in the class, but already made lots of friends and she LOVES being with the other kids. So proud of my girl. 

While Brian and I presented, Brian's parents hung out with her San Francisco.  She knows them very well because they stayed with us for almost a year when she was born and they Skype with her at least once a day. Still, when we arrived on the plane, it took Hannah a minute to realize who they were. After that minute, she and her grandmother were fast friends.   My mother-in-law loves Macy's department store, and honestly, so do I. There is usually a really upscale Macy's in the places we go for conferences and San Francisco was no exception. Hannah and grandmommy went there to kill time during one of the presentations.  Hannah wanted to run and play everywhere she went.  She also likes necklaces.  She broke a few of mine and so we got her some of her own that were much cheaper. She also likes to have her toenails painted, her feet rubbed with lotion, and her hair brushed. Who doesn't? On the far left is Dr. Hamilton who is Brian and my doct...

We are at AERA in San Francisco, the largest and ostensibly most prestigious educational conference in the world.  Brian's parents live south of SF and so we got to see some family while we are our here. We are also hitting the work of the academy hard.  Here are some pictures from Cannery Row. There were a lot of animals out.