Sun Oct 10 2004 21:12 The Long Journey to Graduation: This week marked a very important milestone for Dave in his doctoral work; he made his debut as a fledgling public budgeting academic at the Association for Budget and Financial Managment conference in Chicago. He presented two papers he's been working on for about the last 6 months. One of the papers was a duet piece with Kurt Wood, who graduated with his doctorate from KU in May. The other was a collaboration with Justin Marlowe and Jocelyn Johnston, both professors at KU. Dave came home last night from his trip pleased with his experience, but feeling like the little fish in a big pond.

Jocelyn and Justin suggested that Dave think about pushing through and finishing his PhD in three years instead of four, which is already an optimistic, fairly aggressive goal. This would mean two more years of extremely rigorous work for Dave, and a decent extra load of my own. I'm not sure what I think about it all; I'll have to decide some other less-stressful week.

(3) Sun Oct 10 2004 21:40 Disclaimer: I didn't edit this at all. Read at your own risk: I should say that the kids and I had a week full of fun outings to kick off October. We went to the pumpkin patch with Atticus' preschool on Monday. They had pony rides, racing pigs, a very benign corn maze, and a pumpkin patch, of course! Atticus chose a small green and orange speckled pumpkin, and Samuel chose (with my suggestion) a small orange one. They both were very proud of their choices, and I took pictures that I hope to get on the web in the next week, when Dave can help me upload them.

Tuesday was my night out at the Merc for another cooking class with Chef Paige Vandegrift. Paige likes to organize her classes around foods that are in season, so we learned about all sorts of wonderful ways to use apples! Yum. Ah, but I'm forgetting the day out we spent at the Kasnas City Zoo with Natalie Houghout (a former Lunt from San Antonio) and her two children, Adam and Sara. This is the first zoo I've ever been to that seemed to be arranged more for the animals than for the humans. We spent all day visiting all the animals. We even had our own visit from a kangaroo who hopped out of his pasture to see what we were having for lunch (the kangaroos were enclosed with nothing more than a boundry of large boulders placed here and there). The boys absolutely loved every moment of the day. Wednesday was a school day, so we didn't do too much, and we left the house at 5:00 am on Thursday to take Dave to the airport, so we played at home with our neighbors most of the day.

On Friday morning, I put Atticus' bike and the jogging stroller in the Subaru, and we went to Prarie Park; thie place has lots of paved trails through a protected "wild space." Atticus biked, Samuel rode and I walked the half mile to the Prarie Park Nature Center that has all sorts of fun displays about animals, and even a few furry, slithery, feathery animal friends. We went for a swim Friday night.

Saturday morning was the farmer's market, so we treked off there as soon as breakfast was over. We bought a pasture raised chicken, a gallon of honey and a pound and a half of apples. And I locked my keys in the car. The locksmith charged 40 dollars to retreive my keys, which I was glad to pay. This was my most expensive outing.

Well, the week was full, and I must say I'm glad it is over. We'll see what fun I can cook up this week.

(3) Mon Oct 11 2004 12:06 It is hard to share a bathroom with a four-year-old boy: Atticus has learned some new things in preschool; he has learned how to follow the leader to the playground for recess, he's learned a few new Halloween songs, and he has learned about peeing standing up. I've finally trained him to at least lift the toilet seat, but he still misses his aim sometimes. Yuck!

(8) Fri Oct 15 2004 09:32: I'm kind-of frusterated because I haven't received any e-mail since Monday, which makes me think something is wrong with my account.

We are having second breakfast right now at my house. I can't believe my kids, they hardly ever eat dinner, and in the morning they are famished. Samuel has already eaten a bowl of cereal and two bananas and it isn't even 9:30 yet.

Last night, in celebration of a great fall day, I made cream of tomato-fennel soup with parmesan croutons and gremolata (garlic, parsley, fennel fronds and lemon zest chopped up finely and sprinkled on the soup), which gave the soup a really nice lift. I had bought an assortment of olives at the Merc olive bar when I went to buy the fennel, so I also made a greek-ish salad with lots of types of greens, feta, tomatoes, and thinly sliced green peppers. It was pretty yummy. The boys asked for grilled cheese sandwiches so nicely that I made those, too.

(2) Sat Oct 16 2004 08:10: Yesterday we played in our backyard for a couple of hours, and when we came in, I noticed that Samuel had an unnatural posture, the kind that comes from a poopey diaper left too long (I couldn't smell it outside because of the wind). I had to strip him down and rinse him off in the bathroom sink because his diaper rash was so bad. The whole time Samuel was screaming in pain (poor baby!), and Atticus was rushing around, finding favorite toys to give him, and trying and comfort him with cooing words. As soon as I had spread Desitin all over Samuel's rear-end and inner thighs, put a diaper on him, and wrapped him in a cozy quilt, Atticus informed me that his hand felt itchy. Who knew that we have poison ivy growing in our yard? I washed his hands with soap and water, put hydrocortizone on the blistery-red-bumpies, and I wrapped all the irritated parts of his hand in gauze and first aid tape.

Sun Oct 17 2004 17:04 Victory!!: Samuel went into nursery today without even a wimper! That is the first time (he has been going since May) that we have dropped him off without going in at all, and he didn't even cry.

Sun Oct 17 2004 20:14 Atticus Says: "There are beautiful flowers all over the earth. I will pick them for you, but not the neighbors', no."

(6) Mon Oct 18 2004 08:39 Pumpkin Pictures: Dave taught me a little bit of html last night, and I posted two photos on www.matkin.com/dave. Just adding the two took me an hour, so I'll be ambitious another day and add more when I have time.

Tue Oct 19 2004 20:02 Juggling With Friends: I have a friend with two daughters around the ages of Atticus and Samuel, so last week I called her and proposed a baby-sitting trade so that we can each get in some laps at the swimming pool. She said yes, so today we met at the Aquatics Center with our little chummies in their swimsuits. I swam laps for a half and hour first while Tiffani watched the kids in the pool, and then she had a turn while I watched the four. It was so nice to have a middle-of-the-day break, and the boys loved it, too. They enjoy any chance they get to swim. Tiffani and I hope to do this routine on all Tuesdays, Thursdays, and some Fridays.

(11) Tue Oct 19 2004 20:05 Charmer: Atticus said, as he sat down at the dinner table, "Wow, Mom, look at this neat soup you made." He sampled it and then continued, "Mmmmm, this is so delicious!" And it was lentil soup! How lucky am I?

Thu Oct 21 2004 13:13 Is the rule of thumb to feed a fever and starve a cold, or the other way around?: At any rate, I'm starving the cold, mostly because I have no desire or appetite for eating. I am sipping my chamomile tea and I've sent Atticus to play at the neighbor's so I can have a rest during Samuel's nap. I really don't like being sick, and my "lifestyle" doesn't lend much room for taking it easy, very easily.

(4) Thu Oct 21 2004 13:23: You know, I take that back, the thing I said about "my 'lifestyle’ not lending much room for taking it easy." Nobody likes to be sick, and I am no exception, nor is my life exempt from the hassle of feeling not well. In fact, I do have it pretty easy. I just said I sent Atticus away to play with Matthew, and with Samuel asleep, I've negotiated a good hour of down time. Here is too all the sickies out there, especially the chronic sickies that suffer much more than I. I'll keep my wimpishness to myself now.

(1) Fri Oct 22 2004 20:19 Making Mischief: I decided tonight to dust the boy's fan, and in doing so, I had to dust all the furniture, as the dust rained down all over the boy's room. I began knowing that I had pasta boiling on the stove. I moved a chair under the fan and wiped the dust away from the fan blades, until the moment I thought the pasta was done cooking. I put the wood polish oil up on top of the high bookshelf, and left for mere moments to drain the pasta, not thinking anything of the chair I'd left conveniently behind.

Children create an amazing amount of damage at lightning speed when they know their time is limited.

When I came back into the room, the boys were smiling their devilish smiles, and Samuel had, in hand, the spray bottle of wood oil. He aimed a spray at me as I came close. Imagine my fury. I even yelled, I was so mad. They had sprayed toys, the wall, all over the carpeting so that my toes were squeaking as I walked across the floor. They even sprayed each other.

Their feelings were hurt after I had finished scolding them, so hurt that they cried out mournfully in unison the most punishing words a mother could hear after such an interaction: "I WANT PAPA!!"

I said my sorries and gave many kisses, still fuming a little, but feeling badly that I had reacted so.

(2) Wed Oct 27 2004 20:13 I Only Have Eyes for Blue: I pulled a wagon full of boys--Atticus, Samuel, and Nicholai--to the pet store this morning (Nicholai comes twice a week for a few hours so his artist mommy can work on her projects). We arrived at feeding time, so we saw tortises munching their lettuce, a Burmese Python sleeping with a fat round-of-something in his belly, lizzards eating crickets, and Oscar fish messily gobbling goldfish.

We've had an empty Beta fish vase since this summer. Our first Beta, "Little Fish Big Fish," died under the care of friends while we were on vacation in August. Today was the day to chose a new one. Atticus inspected about every Beta in the tanks at Pet World. Most of them were red. He finally came to a blue one, though, so we brought him home. I asked Atticus what name he wanted for the fish, and he chose "Batman Fish," or "Blue Batman." I'm not sure which name will stick permanently. Maybe he will keep both names. Either way, I hope Batman Fish will stay around longer than Little Fish Big Fish.

(6) Sat Oct 30 2004 22:12: This week has been especially long and tiring. Atticus has been scheduled for heel cord transfer surgery on his left leg since April, but the reality of it all hadn't sunk in until we saw Dr. Olney at Children's Mercy Hospital for a second opinion on Thursday. Dr. Olney explained to us that we've pretty much exhausted all of our non-surgical options, like botox shots, serial casting, stretching, etc. Now we have the choice of following through with the heel cord transfer surgery, or scheduling a heel cord tendon lengthening surgery. The transfer seems pretty aggressive and invasive; here the surgeon detaches the Achilles tendon and attaches it to a new spot a little higher up on the heel. On the contrary, with the lengthening, the surgeon simply snips the tendon in several places, weakening it and allowing it to pull apart a bit, making the tendon longer. Both require a long recovery in a cast (4 weeks for the lengthening, 6 weeks for the transfer). The one benefit of the transfer is that it hypothetically is a one time only deal, while the lengthening surgery must be performed as needed through the growing years (typically 2-3 times). So, the short of it is that we are going through with the transfer this week, hoping for the best.

I have a dear friend, whose husband is struggling to recover from a bout with cancer while dealing simultaneously with the frustrations and complications of Multiple Sclerosis. She has passed on a quote by Plato the pretty much says it all: "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." Everyday for everyone is different and challenging in some way, sometimes especially so, even in simple ways. I guess a looming surgery isn't an ordinary challenge, but everyone has something difficult to face, and this is our "thing" this week. Good luck with whatever you are tackling.

(4) Sun Oct 31 2004 19:48: Tonight Dave asked Atticus what he would like to be when he grows up. He said, "I don't want to be anything, really. Except Batman. I want to be Batman."