It's Yummy!

A couple of weeks ago, Randy and I took the kids to eat Chinese. And just like most Chinese restaurants, we received Fortune Cookies with our bill. This is one of Josiah's favorite parts of the meal. As soon as he got situated in his car seat, he asked for his cookie. A few minutes later, I asked if he enjoyed his cookie (I no longer heard crunching).

Josiah: "Mmmm, mmm"
Mommy: "Where's the paper?"
Josiah: "What paper?"
Mommy: "The paper that was inside of the cookie."
Josiah: "I ate it, it was yummy."

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Today, I cut up some strawberries to eat with our lunch. However, Josiah didn't want me to cut up his strawberry, he wanted to eat it whole. "Okay" and gave him the strawberry. After I observed him try to eat the piece of fruit (stem side first), I instructed him to eat only the red part, not the leaves. After a few minutes, I asked him if he was done with his strawberry, ready to tell him to throw the leaf part away. "Mmm, mmm" and stuffed the rest of the strawberry into his mouth.....stem and all.

Man, I can't get this kid to eat a decent meal without force, but he's more than willing to eat paper fortunes and strawberry stems. Hmmmm.

Little Panthers

I started the Great Baby Clothes Organization Extravaganza a couple of weeks ago in an effort to increase the amount of storage space in the guest closet (because I hope to not have a reason to use them for another 2 years). I had so much fun sorting through all of the clothes and remembering back to when Josiah and Laney were small enough to fit them. During the sorting process, I pulled out some of Josiah's old jammies and a few shirts that would fit Laney now...not caring one bit that they were a tad on the boy side (she's mistaken for a boy all of the time even when I have her dressed in purple--really, it's purple, people!).

When Josiah was about 13 months, my parents came to visit, bringing gifts purchased during their trip to their beloved Alma Mater, University of Northern Iowa, Land of the Panthers. Well, I found the UNI t-shirt during my sorting rampage and thought it would be fun (and CUTE) to keep the shirt out for Laney and compare the two siblings wearing the Purple and Gold, making Maga and Papa proud!

Josiah at 13 1/2 months

(sorry for the "flashy" pic--I know now just how TERRIBLE flash is--

but it was such a fight to get a decent--non-crying--picture of him that evening)

Laney at 10 1/2 months

Match Day

TODAY is "Match Day", a very important day for many medical students everywhere. Many of our cohorts will be getting the much anticipated email/letter this morning/afternoon to find out if they "matched" with a Residency Program. Note they only find out the if part, not the where part, which comes a few days later....UGH! March 17th, 2008 was a day filled with much anxiety for us.

The "catch" about Match Day is that the Program Directors are not allowed to say "Yes, we are ranking you in our Top XX". So you have to decide your rank based on how you felt the program fit with your future goals as a physician and how well you felt your rotation/interview went....and then pray that the Program Director felt the same way about you. So, after much praying and constructing a benefits/disadvantages chart, we decided to rank Valley Baptist #1, and prayed that they ranked us in their Top 5 (they only accept 5 Residents per year). And here we are! Praise God! (I don't think I could have gone through the process had we not "matched"--see below).

Of course, there is the very real possibility that you don't "match" with a Residency Program at all, which is why all of this is such a BIG DEAL. If a student doesn't "match", they end up participating in what we call "the scramble", where the medical student scrambles to find a program that didn't fill up all of their available slots (in the same specialty), ask for an interview, and if you're blessed, start your Traditional Rotating Internship there to keep from getting a year behind (this whole process can just make you sick to your stomach). Every medical student completes a Traditional Rotating Internship, and it doesn't have to be at the same place where you finish up Residency. In fact, many 1st Year Residents change location after the first year is over and finish up their training somewhere else...and certain specialities even require it.

Okay, I may have shared a bit TOO much information...but it's such a BIG DAY today for many medical students, just as it was for us one year ago. My friend, Bea, posted this article if you're interested in reading more about "Match Week"...it might help make things a bit more clear. ;-)

And another friend, Joy, posted about how there is SO much that goes into becoming a physician....MCAT, applications, med school, Board exams, Residency, Board exams, fellowship, Board exams......does it ever end???

Best wishes to our future fellow Physicians In Training....hope today is filled with exciting news!

His Other "Pad"

My friend Trisha offered a tour of her 1st Year Surgical Resident husband's home away from home (aka on-call room) last week, so I thought I would do the same....and it dawned on me that no one other my father has seen where Randy works. So without further adieu....


Here is Randy's cubicle, which he shares with a 3rd Year Resident. If there was an award for organization, sadly my husband would not win...and he knows it, too.

This is one of two "bed" rooms for the Residents to use when they're taking "Monday Call" during their Inservice month. Mondays are also known as "Unassigned Days"...if a patient presents to the ER and does not have a PCP, that patient gets assigned to our Family Practice group. Usually, our Residents field calls from home when they're on-call, but since Mondays are so busy with admits from the ER, the docs stay up at the clinic and sleep here whenever their pager is silent. No 5 star Hotel here, folks...just the basics...but there is a window hence the glare (sorry 'bout that).

This is the Practice's conference room. Morning Report (Randy reports each morning at 7:30AM--whenever he's available and not rounding on his hospital patients--to hear/learn about particular cases), Noon Lecture/lunch, and Resident Meetings are held in this room.

And this is the "teaching room". This is where the "Teaching" Attending oversees the Residents' cases. Randy, as a 1st Year, is required to present all of his cases but as he moves into his 2nd and 3rd Year, he will only approach the "Teaching" Attending when he has questions/problems/concerns.

There you have it....Randy's other "pad". Frankly, I'm quite impressed with the facilities....Randy has his own "office", can sleep AND shower up at the clinic during Monday Call, and everything other than Randy's desk is neat, clean, and organized.

A Few Laughs: Courtesy of Josiah

Donut anyone?

Josiah has really been making me laugh lately with some of the stuff he's been saying.....

Since Laney has started crawling, she's been invading Josiah's personal space with increased frequency, reaching for whatever toy he's playing with and sometimes this means that she crawls up his back and reaches over his shoulder. As you can imagine, this doesn't go over real well with him. He often tells Laney "no" and proceeds to hand her a different toy while moving away. I try so hard to make him understand that she's learning and just wants to be near him, doing whatever it is that he is doing. A couple of days ago, instead of saying, "she's learning" (which he seems to understand) I said, "she's just curious". Josiah responded by telling me, "she's not Curious George, mommy". No argument there.

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10-15 MPH winds are quite commonplace here, a good breeze right off the beach. However, some days are more windy than others, like yesterday (20 MPH).

Me: "Boy, it sure is windy."

Josiah: "Yeah, maybe we can tell God to stop it."

Me: "You think so?"

Josiah: "Yeah, maybe He can press a button."

Me: "Hmm, maybe He does have a button."

Hmm....we turn things off and on using buttons all the time.....interesting association.

Hittin' Double Digits

I can't believe that Laney's age will no longer be counted using single digits (well, until she reaches 2 years old). And as time continues to fly by, we are enjoying watching her learn more about her world and gain new skills.

Laney has been quite the mover and shaker this month, literally. The week after her 9 month birthday she learned to crawl, the "right" way, unlike her brother who started moving by pulling himself along the floor with his arms...much like a military crawl. So for the last 3 weeks, we have found Laney all over the house. But her most favorite place to crawl to is under the table where she will sit and move the chairs back and forth for at least 30 minutes. Laney has also discovered that she can see (and get into) a bit more by pulling up on the furniture and cruising around it. Her transfer from sofa to sofa to activity table to coffee table to chair is still pretty deliberate, but she's getting faster every day. She is also learning how to bend down and pick up items from the floor...ahh, the art of balance. And becuase she is now able to pull herself up using just about anything, it was time to lower her crib mattress. It's so cute to go into her room after she's awoken from her nap...and she's just standing there in her crib, waiting for me to come and rescue her, wearing a big smile and peering through the bars of "prison". The only problem we're faced with now that she can pull herself up is that she doesn't really know how to sit herself down in the crib to then, in turn, lay down and go to sleep. I have just let her cry a little bit, but she just gets more and more frustrated with feeling like she's "stuck". Josiah never did this, so this is a new dilemma....any suggestions?

Not only has she been perfecting her gross motor skills, she's practicing how to contribute to a conversation. Laney's new sounds this past month included, but not limited to, "ba ba", "ge ge", "ma ma" (although not connecting the words with mommy, the person), "sha sha", and "ra ra". She will also mimic Josiah if he's singing. It's so cute. And she squeals every time she pushes the button to close/open the garage door.

Laney continues to be a good eater and, depending on what we put in front of her, she will sometimes out-eat her older brother. She enjoys oatmeal and applesauce for breakfast, yogurt for snack after nap, eats what we eat for lunch and dinner. We've been slowly but surely reducing the amount of food coming from the bottle, which she can now hold herself. Not sure what she gained in the last month, but I dressed her in 18-24 month stuff yesterday and it fit perfectly. YIKES!

I definitely am loving this stage more now that she doesn't have rely on me to get her to where the "action" is (she would get mad if I walked out of the room briefly to just do laundry, now she just follows me and she loves it). It's also a lot of fun to watch her interact with Josiah. Just other day at the store, she turned around just enough in the seat part of the grocery cart so that she could reach Josiah who was standing in the basket part of the cart. She was doing everything she could to get on his nerves. It was quite funny to watch. Sadly, because "she's just a baby", she is getting away with a lot more than what we would let slide with Josiah...poor guy, he just doesn't understand the entire dynamic yet.

Happy 10 Month Birthday, Laney!

Weigh in Wednesday--Kiss Me, Week 1

It's not lookin' too good, folks. Not good at all. I'm not exactly sure what happened...everything was looking promising until Saturday (I had lost another 1/2 pound or so between my weigh in on Wednesday and Friday)...until we went out to eat Chinese on Saturday, lunch out with friends on Sunday, and no workout on Monday (because I had failed to do laundry). I really didn't think that I ate all that badly on Saturday and Sunday, but I guess the scale thought differently, like I had eaten an extra 14,000 calories. OMGoodness! There is NO way....so the only other plausible explanation is that I'm retaining fluid (I am having a hard time putting my rings on) because I'm not drinking enough (maybe too many Diet Coke with Cherry Happy Hours at Sonic?). ???

Whatever the reason...all I know is that even after I worked my was-shrinking-at-one-time tail off this past week (logging 21 miles), I didn't see the results I was hoping for. UGH! So this week, I've decided to take a "pass" on weighing in...and hope for a better outcome for next week. Hope you don't mind.

However, on a brighter note, I completed Week 3 of the push up challenge last night, cranking out 18 consecutive push ups and 60 push ups all together (5 sets).

So my goal for this next week is to drink 60-80 oz. water/day, log 5 miles at least 5 days with a 7 mile run on either Saturday or Sunday, and consume 5 servings of fruits and veggies for at least 5 days.

So, how 'bout you? Are your jeans shrinking?