September 2008 Calvin Starts Kindergarten (and Sundry Other Topics)

Calvin turned 5 a month ago now! However did he get so big and tall, and LOUD? We had a little gathering for him at the house with some of his friends. My mom was well enough to come and helped to cut and serve generous portions of cake to everyone.

In August we also saw Bill Staines perform live at the Inlet Town Hall, up in the western Adirondacks. Dave's been singing me Bill Staines songs for as long as I have known him, and I've finally seen him perform live.





That same weekend, Dave's mom got my mother out in a Hornbeck boat -- and she paddled around in the beaver pond out back of the cabin at Crane. She's still game for a few things despite the darned tumor.

The garden is still yielding lots of beans, tomatoes and squash, but we know when school starts that it's not too long before we say goodbye to the fresh basil and the last of the ripe tomatoes.

Calvin started off his first day of kindergarten looking rather forlorn. His teacher is Mrs. Janisch, and she reminds me of Glinda the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz. By the time she asked us to leave Calvin was able to put a bright face on -- at least until I and all the other parents were asked to leave so that they could start their day.

By the middle of the second week he declared he wanted to go back to his pre-K friends, Tarek and Josh. In the fourth week he has one good friend, Eli, and is working on making another two that we can have over for play dates.

Isabel, on the other hand, settled right into life as a fourth grader. She is back at gymnastics and cello and has been selected to part of the school-wide chorus.

I'm back at it too now in the last week of my pediatrics clerkship. I feel far more comfortable than I did just a couple of months ago when I thought I'd faint from the stress of adjusting to life in the hospital. A few things surprise me about it. One is that most decisions are made by teams of people, not a single physician, at least in a teaching hospital like Upstate. The team discussions and problem solving are actually a lot of fun. When babies are sick, it's stressful no matter what, but I am reassured to know that many decisions are made after careful consideration.

Furthermore, most people turn out to be quite nice. Neurosurgery aside, it's been a fun 12 weeks, and even neurosurgery had its high points. The late nights with the residents taught me a lot about how much they care despite being burned out and overworked.

Dave helped me to celebrate my birthday by inviting people over for brunch two days in advance of the actual day and surprising the heck out of me. I was out jogging in my pajamas while they packed everyone into the attic. Then Calvin led me upstairs for a surprise and I sure was. I promptly escaped and did a little grooming before returning to the scene of the crime.

Dave and I climbed Baldhead Mountain, one of the few hundred mountains within view from the top of Crane, and therefore on his list of lumps to climb before he gets too much older. It was a gorgeous day with a good view from the top. I fell in love with lots of the rocks along the way, including this one that was shaped like an arrow. And we got to pick the first of the peaches and the last of the blueberries in Todd Kelsey's garden when we got back to the car. Todd is building a new studio, and the whole place gave us some fresh ideas about the kind of home base we'd like to aim for, sometime just past the foreseeable future.

We are still getting up to the Adirondacks some weekends for things like Aunt Gertrude's 98th birthday. Here's Isabel swinging on the front porch of their place on Edwards Hill. And Isabel, Dave and Megan up the apple tree. Everyone had a good time that day eating lots of very rich chocolate cake.