14

It looks like I'm posting ~once per month.  I guess that's how it goes.  Well, we have officially finished the first year of grad school.  When I say "we," I do mean my lovely family and myself, not "the royal We."  Without them, I'm not sure I would've been able to do so well, and I'm certain I would've lacked motivation.  So thank you.
I started my research, I suppose, today.  I even have a tentative title for my dissertation: R-Matrix MQDT (multichannel quantum defect theory) Rovibrational Frame Transformation Approach to Molecular Photoionization.  Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but it'll get more comfortable.  It sounds as though starting this research may have effectively fast-tracked my degree, too, so that's good.  I do enjoy school and learning (and even classes), but I'm ready to do my learning out of school.  So here's to hoping this whole process is rather quick.

Lucy has a mouthful of teeth now.  It's like they all kind of poked through at once.  Incredible.  She's such a sassy little girl, too.  She just loves to toe the line, but it's clearly not with some sort of malicious intent.  Tristan knows his boundaries (though be they broad), and for the most part stays well inside them.  Lucy is ever trying to push her boundaries, which is certainly enough to keep us busy.  Maybe she gets that from her Papa, although I don't particularly think that's the case.  I'm quite sure she doesn't get that from her Momma, though, so maybe it's purely Lucy.  She's amazing.  For all the mischief she likes to flirt with, she's such a sweetheart.

Tristan is going through sort of a strange phase right now.  He wants to be super independent, but doesn't want to be by himself.  That sounded more contradictory when I read it back.  He wants to be able to do everything all by himself, but he wants someone around anyway.  At first, I thought he was just trying to show us how well he could do, but it doesn't always seem that way.  I think he's afraid of being alone.  If he wakes up during the night and doesn't just fall back asleep right away, I'll ask him what's wrong, and he'll usually say something like, "no Papa leave.  No Momma leave.  Momma and Papa stay with Dude." It's very sweet and endearing, and of course we want to love on our boy, but we need time together as well.  I think he's just filling in a lot of blanks about what it means to be him.  I'm not sure when we begin to define ourselves and take stock of our place in the world, but I think the seeds of that may be sprouting for him, and it's just so incredible to see.  He's definitely our lover.  He always wants to be a big helper, to be a big big brother, to "show you, Pop" or "check this out, Momma" (although for the past couple of days, he's been saying "Mommam"... no idea why).  He just wants to assert himself and really step up in whatever role he's currently playing.  It's beautiful.

Julie's marathon is saturday (can you believe it?).  She's been running like crazy, and now it's all coming to a point.  We drove part (not even all) of the course the other day, and I couldn't help but think these things to myself:
1. This is really long.
2. This is really hilly.
3. Why 26.52 miles?  Isn't 26.2 enough?
4. I could really go for some thai food...
I'm glad she wasn't discouraged by the course.  It's one thing to talk about distances and such, but to actually see all that distance is another thing altogether.  I've now started training for a half marathon in July, and even running four or five miles is daunting enough.  Well, four is okay.  But I ran seven the other day, and my knees are bruised from it!  Poor Momma!  I can't imagine what 26 would feel like (though, to be fair, I'm not entirely sure I'd want to imagine it).  She's a machine.

Right now, both of the kids are asleep and Julie is at her parents' place after rehearsal, so I'm downstairs by myself.  I don't have homework to be doing, I don't have some exam I should be studying for (except the qualifier, but not tonight)... I think all I have is some time to be.  God is good.