Wayne's FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! (...as a Doctoral Candidate)

Wayne had his first official day of school at University College Dublin, complete with the nervous-stomachache before walking out the door! Sooo cute! He didn't want me to take his picture on Monday but tomorrow, (Wednesday January 18th) is his first official class so I'll be sure to take one before he leaves.
Today: Wednesday January 18, 2011

Wayne - 30 Years old - 1st day of classes as a Ph.D. student at University College Dublin

Norah and Mommy walking Daddy to the bus stop

He has met with his professors both days this week and they have started to pile on the work - with a vengeance. He has already been asked to read a book and write a full critique, create and give a lecture for his class on Liberation Psychology, create the entire bibliography for the Ph.D. (expected to take 6-9 months!) and write an abstract for a paper (not yet written) to present at a conference at Oxford University in April! Not bad for two days in the Ph.D. program.
So, he's got a full workload (before his class has even started) but he doesn't seem overwhelmed - just excited. We're both very excited about the prospect of him speaking at Oxford too. That'll be a fun excursion and a pretty proud moment, for both of us. I'll make sure he wears a jacket with elbow patches.
Monday, my first official day-at-home-with-Norah-sans-Daddy was great. We were all a little nervous given that we've been together every single day, since October, but we fell right back into the swing of things. In the morning, prior to naptime, Norah and I took a walk into town to buy more pillows and towels for our guests coming in TWO WEEKS! (sidenote: my best, best friends are coming to visit for a week. Vickie is living/working in Turkey with her husband and 1 year old and Trysh, her sister, (+ 2 year old Luna) is visiting her right now. In just two weeks, the whole Polish-troupe will be here to stay with the Dykstras. Many posts to come....)
Ok, back to Mom-at-home. We went to get pillows and towels and even went to the drugstore (Boots). Oh how adventuresome we can be. Then Norah had her nap and by 2 pm, Daddy was home for the day. Not bad for a day's work. (Oh I did other things... I made the bed, I did 2 loads of laundry, I fed the child, twice.) =)

And today, Tuesday, I took Norah to our first Mom-Baby group. It was in an area called Glenageary so we took the DART train there (only 2 stops away but too far to walk). The group is called "Claphandies" and its a cool organization that has groups from infancy through the toddler years that are developmentally specific. We sang silly songs, there were puppets, we cut cookie shapes out of dough, there were bubbles AND colored scarves. You can only imagine how fun it was. Norah had a blast. (Unfortunately, for me, it was a small group. Four parent/baby dyads, 2 dads, 2 moms and none of them spoke very much so no "picking up friends" for me. Maybe next week though)
So, we took the train home, Norah passed out before we got to our station and then she slept for 3 HOURS! Atta girl. Apparently there was a lot for her to "digest" after that group.

I'll be sure to post Wayne's 1st Day of School picture tomorrow. Uncle Dan said I should get Wayne a Roy Rogers lunchbox and I'm seriously considering it.

Over and Out.

Here is Norah, reading one of her daily favorites - Our book from our friends in the PEPS group (Program for Early Parent Support, it's a long story) =)
They made us a beautiful book before we left Seattle and Norah looks at it every day. These are not staged, in the least. She's just doing some reading: