Done. Done. Done. Done. Done. Done. Done. Done.
260 pages of dissertation with 140 references, 1 2-hr defense, 6 years, and 2 kids later, I have finally finished the darn thing (well, ignoring the few minor edits …). DONE. Say hello to the newest Dr. Funai. And anytime you want to know anything about regularized estimation of main field and RF field inhomogeneity and longitudinal relaxation rate in magnet resonance imaging, I am your girl.
DONE.
Seth copies Andrew religiously. It’s okay if copying involves repeating actions that does not have to involve sharing. Even then, imagine every phrase uttered being repeated, two bodies chasing each other continuously, and for every demand of a cup of water turns into two. They get old, but it’s okay. It’s even cute occasionally. Seth’s voice is slightly higher in pitch, but definitely not quieter. Andrew walked when he was about a year old, jumped when he was year and half, and climbed ladder when he was two and half, whereas Seth did all that before he turned one. Seth thrives on doing exactly as Andrew does, because all his life his mind perceived Andrew doing awesome tricks and chanting some magic phrases that parents praised him for. Seth wants equal or more attention. Contexts of his actions matter less, because he just has to do whatever Andrew is doing, and perhaps do it better.
Life is always a chaos when Seth follows Andrew, which is all day. There are shouts of excitements and screams of deep grief. These griefs are associated mostly with a singular item to this household. The “Super Why” mask. I’ve seen these cartoons that are broadcasted on PBS2 channels 8am CST. They are just okay, but just like most okay things that are for kids, they love them. They are allowed 2.5 hr TV/movie a week (which turns out to be slightly more with weather channels and mom working out), and recently watching super why has taken the majority over Sesame street, Words World, Bearstein bears and trucks. Actually kids still persistently like Mickey and Donald, which in my opinion are better form of entertainment because I am not particularly interested in forms of entertainment that are blatantly obvious in mixing play and learning this early during their development. Perhaps I secretly don’t want my kids to be nerdy like Amanda or I, because I think being smart is not all that cracked up to be. I may go to hell for that.
Andrew got his super why dress up kits for whatever the celebration was from whoever it was that got him them. The kit constitutes of a cape, a bag, a wand, and the treasured item = mask. Seth decided they are just too cool to be Andrews. It’s Seth’s for death to all situation. He is so stubborn, it reminds me of Kiyo when he was young, except Kiyo was silent and keeping to his own. Seth, on the other hand, does not keep his despair to himself, and can be heard from outside the apartment. So practically, the mask is his now. Seth thought that the cape wasn’t as critical to the awesomeness bestowed upon attiring himself as super why, and wears a furoshiki from Japan that aunt Ikuko gave us sometime ago, because they didn’t need it (they throw us “authentic expensive Japanese stuff” because obviously we would like them). Wand apparently isn’t that cool, which is great because it’s loud. Andrew is also struggling with ownership/sharing/negotiating, so it’s not easy for either of them. Today I finally looked it up on amazon, and the thing cost $24 which is apparently overpriced compared to in-store price at ToysRUs, so we may take a visit while we are at AA this week.
Other things Seth loves. Anything “soccer”. Amanda says I should be happy that I now have my child prodigy. Which I am. Except his soccer clothes are all dirty because that’s all he wants to wear unless we occasionally sway him away to other very exciting things like “crocodile truck” and “construction truck” shirts and pants. He kicks balls well, too so we play it often (mostly indoor). This has raised an interest in Andrew to be involved in ball-playing which is also a good news. Andrew loves hi pink pants we got from SDC which is also awesome.
This past two weeks, Seth’s another favorite phrase has been “egg hunt” because we did one last weekend in Richmond Heights last weekend, and yesterday at Andrew’s preschool, and at home this morning. He wanted to show it off to mom and g-pa/ma (on skype). He is not as interested in the candies but still had plenty of them today.
I am sure we did other things this month. Seth got a haircut, by me. Others, I will have to look at pictures.
Okay, this is really late. I just have not felt like writing a post, oh, yeah, and turning in my 260 page dissertation last night probably had a little bit to do with it.
Andrew … oh, what to say. His sleep might finally be improving. We have had this chart on the fridge up for like four months. For every night he sleeps in his bed the whole night he gets a sticker. 5 stickers = toy car … etc. etc. He has 4 total stickers, sigh, but I think two of them were from the last week or so. So maybe someday he will sleep through the night. But he just climbs into our bed and I don’t even notice, and since Seth sleeps through the night since all his teeth are in, it almost feels like we are finally sleeping again.
Otherwise, Andrew is the same – sweet, but a pill. He is throwing a lot of fits lately. Ah, well.
I don’t really have much else to say. I guess this isn’t a really a good post, but I have no brain cells and can’t think of anything to say.
Our landlord is a lawyer for the Cardinals, so we were lucky enough to get seats for opening day and we got to go (last year, we were in the Netherlands and had to pass). We had great seats, in the 26th row by first base (the tickets were worth $100 each!!! For four – crazy!). We took the train and met Katsu at his train station before taking the train the rest of the way to the stadium. It was packed. We got there about 1/2 an hour early, but still missed a lot of the festivities – especially, the Clydesdales, which Andrew was quite disappointed about. We had tons of snacks we packed and we bought some fries and nachos, too, to keep the boys fed and entertained. And we stayed the entire 11 innings! It was a disappointing game – the Cardinals had tons of hits, but only a few runs. We were one out from winning at the 9th inning, but then ended up tied and finally lost in the 11th. The guys behind us were entertaining and drinking up a storm, but they were nice and got the boys some cotton candy and peanuts and gave the kids high-fives with every run. Andrew even got a Cardinal’s hat (only $5 when you bough some concessions, not bad at all). The boys got a little bored at the end and Andrew called Grandpa and Grandma for a bit. And considering we were there for over three hours – but we wanted to see who would win. The train was super crowded on the way home and we had to wait about half an hour to get on it, but it was probably easier and surely cheaper than driving. Plus, it’s Seth’s favorite part. It was a fun day. (And yes, Andrew is wearing pink pants. His new favorite. The only pair available at Silver Dollar City after an accident … he would wear them all the time if he could).
