Oct 9
Thomas has been enjoying soccer again this fall. His team is doing pretty well with the move to the larger field and goal. Thomas has not had the opportunity to play goalie yet but we did practice quite a bit on Wednesday so he should be ready when he does get a chance.
There was supposed to be practice yesterday, but there was a ton of rain all day, so they called it off. If we can get out for a bit more practice today we’ll do it. It never hurts to prepare for the games.
Pictures below!
Oct 8
Last weekend ScriptPro had its annual Farm Party, a get-together for employees and their families held at the president’s horse ranch. Although Robin was low on sleep and so stayed behind to rest, I took Thomas and Katherine, along with my mom, and we had a great time! There were big horses and ponies to ride, a little petting zoo enclosure with assorted farm animals, a climbing wall, inflatables, games stalls for the kids, and a massive volleyball tournament.
There was also barbecue, but we left before it was served. By that time, however, we already had the fever for it and so we got some Oklahoma Joe’s when we got home.
As usual, it was a great party and the kids had a fantastic time! Pictures below (click to enlarge):
Oct 7
![lazy-cat5[1]](http://www.wigdahl.net/quern/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/lazy-cat51.jpg "lazy-cat5[1]")
Sorry, nothing of much note to report. I’m rust-stripping the eaves at home; that’s about it. I’ll upload some more pictures for tomorrow.
Oct 6
Jonathan had his weight checkup appointment yesterday, and he passed with flying colors! He’s back to his birth weight + 1 oz. at 10 days, faster than the 14 that they allot for it. Of course, he had a gigantic poop immediately after the weighing, so some of that may not have been actual baby being weighed.
He’s been sleeping better the last few days; he feeds up in the late evening and then Robin is able to put him down for several hours of sleep at a time. It’s a far cry from actually sleeping through the night, but it’s at least manageable.
Oct 5
![istock_000001389194xsmall[1]](http://www.wigdahl.net/quern/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/istock_000001389194xsmall1.jpg "istock_000001389194xsmall[1]")
No jury duty this week, and we’ve got Jonathan stabilized as far as nighttime sleeping, so I’m back in the office to play catch-up for last week. Speaking of that, I should get to it and stop blogging…
Oct 2
![jury[1]](http://www.wigdahl.net/quern/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/jury1.jpg "jury[1]")
So what could make the process of adjusting the family to a new baby even easier? What’s the best gift for a dad that’s already taken time off work to be home, and needs to get back to the pile of stuff that’s accumulated in his absence?
That’s right folks, it’s jury duty!
In an amazing instance of Murphy’s Law, I got a summons for U.S. District Court effective starting this Friday and continuing on until December. At any point during that time, I’m subject to being called up to Kansas City, Kansas to participate in jury selection and possible empanelment.
This is my first time being involved in the jury process. From what I understand, I don’t think I’ll have much of a chance of actually being empaneled; the Harris Poll shows that with increasing education your chance of actually serving on a jury drops significantly. This would seem to square with the anecdotal evidence of my peers, which has been that as soon as one or the other attorney learns that they have a postgraduate engineering degree they have no interest in having him or her on the jury.
There could be many reasons for this, but I’m inclined to flatter myself by thinking that training in rational thought and scientific weighing of evidence is going to be disfavored by the party in the lawsuit that feels their case is weakest, and that they might be more likely to use a peremptory challenge to eliminate such people given a chance. In any case, it’s an interesting effect.
Oct 1
![nin-baby-there-is-no-you-demotivational-poster[1]](http://www.wigdahl.net/quern/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/nin-baby-there-is-no-you-demotivational-poster1.jpg "nin-baby-there-is-no-you-demotivational-poster[1]")
Although Thomas has been doting on baby Jonathan, Katherine is pretty aloof. She takes interest in the baby so far only to ensure that he has either no gloves on or both gloves on; if one has fallen off she brings it to us and demands that it be put on.
The major issue for her has been the disruption in her routines. Normally she would get much more focused Mommy time. Mommy is now preoccupied with feeding Jonathan, and is often carrying him. She had several substitute caregivers over the weekend, and now Daddy is taking her to school and picking her up. For a young lady with autism, she is remarkably flexible, but change stresses every child, particularly one that can’t understand your explanations of why something is happening. The net effect is that we’ve been getting more frustration- and stress-related behaviors such as shrieking, excessive emphasis on terminal plosives, and worst of all, sleep disruptions. She woke Tuesday night at 2:50 am and didn’t go back to sleep. At all.
I’ve been covering Katherine’s night wakings to let Robin focus on Jonathan’s, and it’s a good thing we decided to divide and conquer, since Tuesday night was disastrous. We worked really hard, as hard as our mutual fatigue would allow, on making Wednesday very standard, low-stress, and happy for her, and I think it worked. She slept great last night, and woke up happy and ready to go today!
The trick is to keep it up, and make sure that Katherine continues to feel loved and gets attention as she adapts to the new arrival. I think we failed to take this into account as fully as we should have, but hopefully now that we have a good grasp on the issue we can make progress on resolving it.
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