It finally happened!

The thesis is finished.

At 5.30am Brendan stumbled into bed having worked all day and night and following a month of very late nights, and months of working day and evening on the beast! He was a bit tired when he had to get up at 7.30 a.m. to take the file to Dad for printing.

You might think that this is a sure sign he has left it all until the last minute, but in fact, he has been very disciplined about the whole thing. The fact that he picked a HUGE study topic didn't help, which meant his final product is 50% longer than many. He has also been extremely thorough and done some groundbreaking work on new techniques which is very exciting - but extremely time-consuming as well, because you're forging a new path yourself.

We celebrated by taking the girls along for the ride to drop the file off, then into Drexyls for breakfast. Yummo. The pelting hail which started just before we left just added to the excitement of the morning for Ciara.

When we got home Brendan went to bed for a couple of hours while I did puzzles with the girls and Brendan and Ciara have just popped out on the bus to pick up the printed copy.

The enormity of the project really came home to me when I realised that Brendan has been working on this project for half of Ciara's life! And all of Isabella's life. Ciara doesn't remember a time when Daddy wasn't disappearing out to the garage office to work on his thesis.

Now, we can relax a little, tidy the house, do a bit of gardening and just chill out for a wee while before he starts the next wee project.

His PhD.

Adoring your big sister.

Isabella loves and adores Ciara. It is so plain to see.

In the mornings if we are up earlier with Isabella (Ciara has been sleeping in this week) she is a bit scratchy until Ciara gets up, and she would be off down to Ciara's room like a shot, waking her up, if we let her.

Since Ciara 'taught' Isabella how to wash her hands, Ciara can no longer go wash her hands by herself, she has to have her wee buddy up on the stool next to her washing her hands too. It's often quite a wet process, for me too, seeing as I have to stand behind and make sure Isabella doesn't fall on the tiles.

This morning Ciara and Brendan were joking that Ciara was going back to bed straight after breakfast. Ciara was wrapped up in her duvet, and brought over to Isabella and I so that we could 'say ni-night'. As soon as Isabella thought Ciara was going back to bed she started crying, and she wouldn't be consoled. It was only the reappearance of Ciara a few minutes later that stopped her crying, and even then, she couldn't quite bring herself to look at Ciara without little sobs escaping for a few minutes. It's very sweet.

I used to think 'subsequent' children must miss out a bit (on that one-on-one that the oldest child gets for so long), but I was wrong. In fact, they seem to be enriched by the two-on-one, or three-on-one, and in Isabella's case she seems to really miss Ciara when she is temporarily absent.