Whitecoat ceremony

Well Ben finished his first week of medical school! Yay! It was a busy one. Ben woke up early every day and made it to campus around 7ish. Luckily, Chase has liked getting up early too so he can spend time with dad before school:) Ben studied every night until 10, most nights he came home for dinner and then headed back to campus. Chase and I love getting to see him for what little time we get!
On Tuesday night Chase and I were having a less than stellar day and I had high hopes of having a delicious dinner ready for Ben when he got home. Chase got really fussy around dinner time, so I stuck him in his high chair (I'm SO GLAD we brought it, it's been a lifesaver) and fed him his rice cereal while I worked on cooking dinner, a new recipe I was trying for making a calzone. Here's a nice mental image for you of what our kitchen looked like, me-hot and sweaty from a seriously hot day + some awesome frizzy hair from the humidity, Chase- somewhere between fussy and devastated with rice cereal all over his face, dinner coming together somewhat smoothly, although almost every dish in our kitchen is dirty. Then as I went to transfer the calzone onto the cookie sheet to bake, it pretty much fell apart. I almost lost it, then chose not to. I figured it'd taste the same even if it didn't look pretty. Then I had to light the oven- oh the dreaded part of dinner. My previous (and only successful) attempt took me 9 matches to get it lit (not to mention that after it's lit I have to re-insert the sheet of metal that goes along the bottom of the oven, while not burning myself and it ALWAYS gets stuck). I'm pretty proud to say I got the oven lit in 3 matches! I looked up at Chase (who was fussing) and said in a really excited voice, "Mama lit the oven Chase! I did it!" and he stopped fussing and gave me a huge smile. Oh that boy just melts my heart.

Ben came home shortly after all this, gave me a big hug and kiss, played with the little guy, and we sat down to dinner. Ben went on and on about how delicious the calzone turned out (which, for the record, it didn't. We'll call it edible and leave it there). I'm grateful for these two sweet boys helping me get adjusted to island life and cooking and celebrating small victories with me!

So after a week of medical school and some serious studying and hard work on Ben's part, Friday afternoon was the whitecoat ceremony, where another doctor dons a whitecoat on the new medical school class. I was so proud of Ben and excited for him to start on this journey! He worked so hard to get here, which I'm now realizing is just the beginning of the hard work to come. I'm so glad I'm married to someone with such a great work ethic and dedication to whatever he sets his mind too! And on top of all that, will take out a few minutes a day to come home and have dinner with his wife and baby.

Me with the handsome Dr. Hugo

I was a little nervous to leave my sweet Chase to go to Ben's whitecoat ceremony, but I knew it would be a nightmare if I brought him. My sweet next door neighbor watched him for me, and apparently he was a little angel for her. Here's the evidence:

I can tell Chase has missed having his daddy around this last week, we've both been spoiled up to this point in Chase's life. Whenever Ben has been around Chase has been so snuggly and happy with him. Here is a picture of them playing together on Saturday morning before Ben left for 10 hours of studying on campus:
and Chase and Ben waiting for me to serve dinner last night.
I sure love my two boys!