Boy Oh Boyers

We have had a very busy start to summer. As you know, we went to Memphis a couple of weeks ago. In the airport, I got a strawberry frappucino from Starbuck's and Rowan insisted on trying it. I thought he would not like it because normally he hates cold things like ice cream or milkshakes. But he took to it like a duck to water. Tom says that when Rowan and I were walking through the airport, people were giving me mean glances because they thought I was giving my child Starbuck's coffee to drink.

When we got back home I set to work like a maniac on my dissertation. As most of you know, I've been a Ph.D. student for several years (well, five) and the dissertation is a document that captures all the research I've been doing during that time. It's lengthy and probably very boring to almost anyone on the planet, but to me it's a thing of beauty, especially since about ten minutes ago I sent off the full draft to my advisors for their edits! I really couldn't have dreamt what a wonderful feeling it would be to zip up that file and email it off. Whew. There's still a lot of work in the revising and subsequently defending it, but it's all good. Really. It's all good.

In other news, I'm in Los Angeles for a conference for work right now. Meemaw (Tom's mom) was scheduled to come stay with Rowan, but an unexpected health issue came up that she had to get taken care of, so her visit has been postponed. Gram made the trip up at the last minute. According to the photographic evidence, a rocket sprinkler accompanied Gram on her drive, and it was quite a hit with the boys on Memorial Day while I was traveling to the West coast.

It's been a frenzied pace of fun; today, they apparently played with food coloring and water in the front yard so much that Rowan's hands are stained a color that Tom describes as "purplish." Tom was home sick today with a cold that Rowan had over the weekend and generously shared with both his parents (sneeze!) so he got to witness the havoc firsthand.

Well, it's my first time in California, and I'm off to enjoy sun, breeze, and intellectual stimulation! :-)

I spent seven days away from the boys in California at a research conference. I enjoyed all the intellectually stimulating conference sessions and presenting my own work to get feedback on it, an essential part of research life. I squeezed in a little time for diving on Catalina Island, just a short ferry ride off the California coast. I had hoped to swim with sea lions, but it turns out I didn't go to the right island for that. Nonetheless, it was spectacular diving. And hilariously, it was the coldest water I've ever been diving in, registering a nippy 57 degrees on my dive computer. Of course, that's what the wetsuit is for, so I was comfy. You can view the album of all my pictures.

Flying home from LAX I had a connection in Cincinnati. We were delayed leaving by about 45 minutes, and of course it's common for a 45 minute delay to turn into a 4 hour delay, so I was a little emotional already and second-guessing my choice to fly through Cincinnati to avoid the very hot taxiing conditions and long runway wait times that I knew I would have faced in Atlanta. By the time our flight took off, I was so relieved, and I was so eager to get home and hug Rowan, that I actually cried for a good part of the second flight! The flight attendant took pity on me and tried to help out with a little comedy routine, which I'll admit was certainly...uh...distracting. ;-) So was the 95 degree heat I came home to! Youch.

Every evening Rowan and I go sit outside and look for fireflies and bats. It's really a precious summer routine for us. We wait until dusk, go sit either in the front or back yard, and point out to each other anything of interest. Last night gave rise to a couple of hilarious quotes from Rowan that I just had to share.

The sun was setting, and up in the sky the clouds looked pink instead of white. It was quite striking. Rowan said, "How did they get that way? Daddy must have climbed up on the roof with crayons and colored those clouds pink!"

We heard a baby crying at one of our neighbor's houses. Rowan said, "I hear a baby crying. That means it does not like its mom and dad."

Our neighbor stepped outside onto his back porch and called to his dog whose name is Jake. Rowan said, "Woah! I just heard a weird cricket! Its chirp sounded like, 'JAKE.'"

The baby cried again, and Rowan said, "Maybe it is my baby. I had a baby sister, but she died." (I know this one seems a little somber, but it's actually kind of funny given that I'm pretty sure he has no idea what "died" actually means, and that I have been told my sister Julie also fabricated stories about a fictitious sibling when she was young. If this kind of creativity runs in the family, I can't wait to hear the whoppers Rowan will tell in a couple of years.)

I'm attending a conference in Pittsburgh, and I've really been enjoying Rowan's preschool webcam. Today between technical sessions I peeked at the webcam feed, and noticed that Rowan seemed to always be right next to the teacher. During circle time, art time, and lunch time, there he is, right next to her (he's in the bottom right of the picture here). Lack of assertiveness isn't really an issue for him. It's difficult to tell whether from the very low-resolution images whether he's snuck into the role of teacher's pet or what, but he certainly does seem to get a lot of loving attention. :-)

A couple of days after I got on the plane to go to Pittsburgh, Daddy and Uncle Tim drove Rowan south to meet Gram and Aunt Julie "halfway." I called to see how everyone was doing, and Tom said somberly, "Something is wrong with Rowan." Tom went on to describe a swollen, red, gunky eye that Rowan had woken up with. It sounded pretty icky, so I encouraged the guys to find a Saturday clinic at a city along the way and get it looked at. That idea did not appeal to Tom, who would rather...um...perform the most awful household chore I can think of than go to anything resembling a hospital! :-) Thankfully Rowan seemed comfortable enough that they decided to wait it out, but when Gram and Aunt Julie assessed the situation they decided a trip to a clinic was in order. Being a Saturday evening by that time, it was off to the friendly neighborhood ER where I understand that Rowan was a model patient. The diagnosis was contagious conjunctivitis.

Oh man, I just remembered that I forgot to call his preschool and tell them. He is very happy there, but preschoolers sure are a germy bunch.

Well, off to sleep! Got a presentation tomorrow. Here's a picture of the model patient.

I'm still in Pittsburgh, but had to share with you this photo Gram sent me, of Rowan having tons of fun (and obviously getting very dirty)! I can't wait to see you tomorrow, Rowan!