Post (Graduation!) Weekend

You guys.

It...happened.

Tyson GRADUATED!!!  Woo-hoo!!!

(Brooklyn: what the frick are you wearing, dad?)

Some of Tyson's cheering section.

Tyson is down there somewhere.  Wearing a black motorboard and black gown.  What do you mean you can't pick him out?

Brooklyn is either A) bored with the graduation proceedings, B) exhausted from a long day of graduation proceedings, or C) both A and B.

(Answer: C.  It's always C.)

Graduation meant having family in town so everybody could celebrate the miracle wonder many accomplishments of Tyson as he earned his PhD.

This meant plenty of playtime for these two.

Riding toys.  Not made in Uncle Tyler's size.

It also meant feasts of delicious food.

Caden partied a little too hard, resulting in the Great Head Bump of 2015.

Followed the next day by the Great Absolute Wicked Downpour of 2015.  While we were outside at the park.

But one of the best sights of the weekend?

Tyson attempting to explain his research (on the computational complexity of counting problems in the Holant framework) to one of his grandmas and my own grandma.

His grammie took all of his papers and his thesis (which he had brought along to display) home for a little bit of light reading (*sarcasm alert!*).

And now you can call him "Doctor".

At Least You Stand a Remote Chance of Reasoning With a Two-Year Old

1-year old: cries because they drank all their milk and their cup is empty
Me: take cup, telling them I will get more milk
1-year old: sobs hysterically because I took their cup away
Me: fill cup with milk, showing them the whole time that I am fixing their original problem.  Give cup back.
1-year old: throws cup on floor

Probably eating something off the ground that I repeatedly told him not to.

1-year old: points to container of food
Me: give them some of desired food
1-year old: stares at food now in front of them.  Points at container again.
Me: show them the container and the food on the tray.  Try to explain and convey that they are the same thing.
1-year old: Points at container.
Me: sigh and try to give them a piece of the food.
1-year old: spits out food.  Looks around.  Points at container of food.
Me: show them food and explain that it's the same food they just spit out and they don't like it anyway.  Put container away.
1-year old: cries, because they can't look at the food they don't like in the container anymore.

Me: holding 1-year old
1-year old: whines and makes all the signs that they want to be set down on the ground
Me: set 1-year old down
1-year old: cries and reaches to be picked back up
Me: picks up 1-year old
1-year old: cries and makes all the signs that they want to be set down on the ground
Me: head explodes

1-year old: tries to push a toy through an opening smaller than the toy; cries
Me: attempt to have them to push the toy elsewhere
1-year old: still tries to push a toy through an opening smaller than the toy; cries
Me: try to explain that they are defying the laws of physics
1-year old: cries

Me: open door to go outside.
1-year old: grins.  Walks outside.
Me: close door.  Sit down.
1-year old: points at door to go inside.
Me: open door.
1-year old: grins.  Walks inside.
Me: close door.  Sit down.
1-year old: points at door to go back outside.
Me: open door.
1-year old: grins.  Walks outside.
Me: close door.  Sit down.
1-year old: points at door to go inside.
*cycle repeats in an infinite loop to prevent me from ever enjoying sitting down*

1-year old: randomly falls down.  Cries
Me: Help them back up.
1-year old: cries because they are now standing.  Sits down to cry some more.

1-year old: points at something they can't have (i.e. a kitchen knife, choking-hazard level food, or alcoholic beverage).
Me: explain they can't have that object because it is dangerous and not for them.  Try to interest them with a kid-friendly item.
1-year old: continue to point repeatedly at original object.
Me: explain again that it is not for them to have.  Try again with another item.
1-year old: repeated pointing at dangerous object.
Me: give up and walk them away.
1-year old: sobs and desperately reaches towards what has become their Holy Grail.

Me: put toy away.
1-year old: decide that is the exact toy they want to play with right now.  Take toy back out.
Me: put another toy away.
1-year old: abandon toy they were contentedly playing with.  Decide what I just put away is the exact toy they want to play with right now.  Take toy back out.
Me: put another toy away.
1-year old: abandon toy they were contentedly playing with.  Decide what I just put away is the exact toy they want to play with right now.  Take toy back out.
Me: put away the first toy I tried to put away.  Again.
1-year old: abandon toy they were contentedly playing with.  Decide what I just put away is the exact toy they want to play with right now.  Take toy back out.
Me: gives up.
*repeat all day long*

Post (Mother's Day 2.0) Weekend

Day early breakfast in bed...

(Reading: The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides)

And a Saturday trip to the park...

(Let's call these slides "Beginner", "Intermediate", and "Advanced".  Guess which one Caden thought was the most fun to repeatedly hurl himself down?  Just guess!)

Followed by ice cream (not shown, because too delicious to stop for photos.)...

Followed by cuddles with Brooklyn...

(Caden fell asleep.  Must have been all that throwing-himself-down-the-slide stuff.)

Sunday morning brought church.

Then a pedicure...

Which turned into coffee...

Which turned into being gone from the house for almost four entire hours.  (I'd feel guilty, except I don't.  And Caden and Brooklyn slept for about three (!!!) of those hours.)

And some goofing off with these two before bed...

(Literally the best photo of me with them on Mother's Day.)

So in other words, it was a pretty perfect weekend.

Post Weekend

He came...

He defended...

HE PASSED!!!

Tyson defended his PhD thesis on Friday and is now officially a doctor.  Or at least will be once the official paperwork gets filed.  Whatever.  That he passed his defense is good enough for me.  (Tyson: DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE OFFICIAL PAPERWORK.  Love, Me)

(When his advisor came out into the hallway to tell him "congratulations", Tyson turned to me (talking to someone further down the hall) and said, "I just passed."  I threw my hands up in celebration, and his advisor laughed and said, "Well, there wasn't ever really a question..."  Good.  But YES.  Yes there was.  Until you actually sign off I DON'T TRUST IT TO ACTUALLY HAPPEN.)

So the rest of the weekend we got to (get this):

R-E-L-A-X.

WITH Daddy!

Something which these two are pretty good at:

Also: beer.  Beer was involved.

My cousin and his girlfriend were able to swing through town, so we went to brunch (breakfast burger FT(delicious)W) and to a nearby brewery.

I would just like to point out that Caden is wearing shorts from LAST summer.  Which fit him better than the ones I bought him for THIS summer.  As in they actually stay up over his (nonexistent) butt, instead of falling down the second he stands up.  He's a fourteen-month old trapped in a six-month's body.  Or at least with a six-month old's derriere.