Williamsburg, VA to celebrate the Defense…and a surprise baby shower! March 6, 2010

The weekend after I defended my thesis Scott and I drove to Williamsburg, VA to spend the weekend with Sarah, Drew, and Kaylin as well as Tad and Charlotte who drove in from Atlanta to celebrate.  
Scott had a good time bonding with Kaylin who is ~11 mo old and super cute!

On Sunday, Sarah and Charlotte surprised us with a baby shower! It was an intimate affair with Sarah, Drew, Tad, and Charlotte.  When we went to lunch at The Carrot Tree, I mentioned to Charlotte that the restaurant has a special meaning to Sarah and me because we went there for her baby shower a year ago.  Little did I know that we were going again this time for another shower :)  Charlotte gave a shirt with a tiger on it which was fun because we're moving to Bangladesh which is the land of the Bengal Tiger and our baby will be born in the year of the Tiger (of the white tiger in fact).  Scott was especially thrilled with at least one of the presents…

As the festivities wrapped up Drew asked Sarah and I who we thought would be the guest of honor at the next family baby shower:

None of us could pass up more adventures with Kaylin:

And the proud parents tried on some Easter gear that Charlotte gave to Kaylin in preparation for the holiday:

After breakfast the next day and an all too short visit, we fueled up with a great diner breakfast and headed back to Baltimore:

Thank you to Sarah and Drew for getting Scott the Settlers of Catan board game for his birthday. We’re hooked and can’t wait to introduce it to the Dhaka community.

Houston Baby Shower, February 13, 2010

Now that I’m done with school and feel like I have a handle the excitement of being Dr. Day Merrill, I’ve enjoyed spending time on some personal admin tasks I had put on hold.  One of these tasks was putting photos from fun events up on the blog. 

Travel with me back to February.  Right after the second blizzard hit Baltimore, Scott and I went to Houston for a weekend.  The big event for the weekend that we had been looking forward to for awhile was a cook-out (I just love that you can have a cook-out in Houston in February!) with Scott’s friends and family as well as with Christine Yamokoski, my girrrrrrrrl who just moved to Houston.  (I’m SO glad that I get to see Christine and her family whenever we go to Houston!)

(Becky and Ian show off their bellies)










Christine and Phyllis planned a shower for me during the bar-b-que.  It was so much fun to get cute baby items and to hear helpful tips from experienced moms.

Before this shower Scott and I had basically no baby items but after this fun party we felt like we had a solid supply to help us feel more ready.  I can’t wait to put the baby in comfy sleep sacks and to watch him pull toys and books out of his monogrammed backpack (Thank you, Christine!).  

I'm all DONE!!! On Tuesday March 2, 2010, I successfully defended my PhD thesis ('Iron intake through groundwater and iron status of women in rural Bangladesh") at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. What an exciting day that was made all the better by my dad and sister coming in town and Scott skipping work to join me. The day consisted of my 1 hour public seminar describing what I did for the past 5 years and what it all means in the world of public health for women of reproductive age followed by a closed oral exam with a committee of professors that could last as long as 2 hours but luckily ended up being just about 1 hour.

Here is a photo of me with my committee (from left to right: Drs. Eliseo Guallar, Keith West, Parul Christian, Tom Burke):

My presentation wasn't until 2pm and I spent all morning trying to keep my excitement for finishing under control. This excitement completely trumped my nerves; I couldn't even think about anything that might go wrong during the presentation or exam. "Who cares what happens during my oral exam. This is a day to celebrate the completion!" is all I could think all morning. Finally by 5pm I was in fact done and calm Becky Day re-surfaced.
After the defense my friends, family, and people from my office celebrated on campus with some h'ors d'oeuvres and champagne (and sparkling juice pour moi) before going out to a wonderful dinner with my family and I and my advisor, Keith West, and his wife, Marie, and Parul Christian who I have worked closely with during the degree.
My oh my, the day was filled with so many emotions. On the drive home from dinner around 9:30pm I almost fell asleep in the car. Phew – all done.