Happy Doctor's Day!!

Since I'm no longer working in a hospital, Doctor's Day snuck up on me a little this year.  I only remembered it a couple days ago.  But what is even more amazing this year is having the day no longer be about the physicians I work for but the one I'm married to instead.  It got me thinking about the last four years in our journey to now.

Oh White Coat!  We really were such babies back then!  We've certainly done a lot in the years since, but I feel like we have grown up and grown together so, so much since that day.

Eventually, we made it to third year, and Devin started his rotations.  In between was a whole lot of book work, tests, and sitting.  Devin was really excited to be doing something instead of just learning about something.

One of the best parts of finally reaching his rotations was seeing him during the day almost every day.  For the most part, we were in the same hospital all the time and would cross paths.  And, we ate lunch together most days, too!  It was a lot of fun to see him in scrubs and being treated as a doctor.

Finally, we reached Match Day!  In our minds, this has always been bigger and more important than graduation, and now it's done!

He is so very, very close now to officially being a doctor!  Only six weeks, and it will be official!

I'm so proud of all that Devin has accomplished.  It's pretty darn amazing that this part of his journey is nearly complete.  I'm really excited for the rest of white life has to bring celebrating my very own Doctor!

Ooh!

In the middle of showing off some new skills for the camera, Calvin suddenly remembered he had somewhere to be!

We nearly die every time he gets that worried expression and says "ooh!"  Seriously, it's just too cute!

Match Day!

So, it's clearly taken me a little while to process all this (and we've been SO busy in the ensuing 9 days!), but Devin has been accepted to a residency program in Concord, North Carolina!  While this wasn't our top choice, it's a place we are actually very, very excited about.  The program is fantastic, it gives us multiple options for Devin's career path, and we are pretty in love with the town.

Back to the drama of it all, though...we spent the week leading up to Match dealing with Calvin's first ever real sickness.  It was pretty rough.  As in, we were up with a sick, feverish baby until 3 am discussing the future and then waking up with him again at 8 am.  We didn't even get to celebrate the "You've matched!" email.  Finally, on Thursday, he was better enough for us to have a celebratory lunch...and we got food poisoning.  We were honestly doubting whether we'd make it to the Match Day celebration.

Thankfully, we got some drugs and gatorade in our systems, put on our costumes (Calvin & Hobbes & parents!), and made it out the door.  We were sooo grateful to be called in the first hour.  Unfortunately, we only lasted a few minutes past our envelope being pulled, but I'm so glad we made it!  And, we got to celebrate more with Devin's family that weekend.

This weekend, we headed up to Concord to meet the residents, attendings, and many of the other new interns at an informal mixer.  We pretty much love everyone that Devin will be working with at this point!  Calvin made a couple new friends while there, too!  Now, we just have to get our house ready to sell (and then sell it!), find a new place to live, pack up, and move with a baby all in the next couple months!

Valentine's Perfection

The day was pretty much perfect.  Devin got up with Calvin and told me to sleep in.  We spent time together as a family.  Devin cooked for me and cleaned up the kitchen.  Devin gave me a great gift with the best card ever, and I did a pretty good job with gift giving, too.

The very very best part of it all, though, was the eating.  Devin had promised me swordfish, but Publix wasn't carrying any fresh that week.  So, we upped it to ahi tuna.  Devin prepared it rare with a bacon crumble and cherry ginger soy reduction on top.  He also made fresh broccoli, jalapeno cheese grits, and spicy diced sweet potatoes.  It was heavenly.

Valentine's day at home every year?  Yes please!!

When Devin was Away

We survived Devin's away rotation!  Some of the highlights (and low lights) include:

* Frequent walks with a friend.  Of course, one time we accidentally went seven miles.
* We took a trip to see my family!  We flew on a buddy pass, and I decided to never fly standby with a baby again.  But, the trip itself was a lot of fun.  I dodged a cold spell in Georgia for warm Arizona weather, too!
* Actually making fun food!  I started out the first night with tilapia and coconut jasmine rice.  Of course, this tapered towards the end and I started eating like a single person again.
* I had a pretty fun evening where my nurse friend helped my nursing student friend practice needle sticks on me.  Honestly, it was more fun than it sounds...I promise.
* I created a ben and jerry's ration.  I learned to enjoy my quite alone time in the evening with the help of a little ice cream.
* To make things even better, I bought a giant box of rice crispy treats at Costco.  Don't worry, I've limited myself to one (or occasionally two) a day.
* Calvin and I tried out the infants library story time.  Unfortunately, while it was designated as the 2 & under time (as opposed to 2 & up) there were only a few other kids there.  And, they all were at least a year older than Calvin.
* Sleep wasn't ideal.  There was a night where a neighbor's dog barked literally for a least four hours.  Calvin also had a little bit of the sniffles, so that affected his sleep.  And, he was jet lagged and teething after our trip to Arizona.  In short, it wasn't a great month for sleep.
* Calvin started crawling this month!  For a couple weeks, he would only go a foot at most.  But, while skyping with Devin one afternoon, he took off!  Then, he did it over and over and over again for us!
* Speaking of which, Skype was amazing.  We didn't anticipate it, but Calvin was actually able to interact with Devin.  And, Devin caught some important moments.  In addition to crawling, he got to see Calvin pulling up for only the second or third time.

In short, we wouldn't want to do this again but it could have been much, much worse!

Seven Months Old

I can't believe that we are here already!  I planned to do a six month blog post for Calvin, but time got away from me.  So, to celebrate him turning seven months today, I'll share a little about what is going on in his life.

Of course, I just have to show you that we did get a good six month picture.  It would have graced the top of the post a month ago...had I written it.

Little Man has graduated to a big boy carseat.  He will still be rear facing for a while, but our bucket seat days with him are done.  He had a couple inches and a few pounds left on his old seat, but he just didn't seem comfortable.  Now, he is much happier these days.

His six month doctor's visit went well.  This was the first time they had us put a gown on him instead of just leaving him in a diaper.  He's still topping the growth charts in height and weight and handled his shots like a pro.  We're so fortunate that he continues to be such a happy, healthy little boy.

Calvin started eating solids, too!  We made purees for a while (and still use them some), but he prefers anything he can feed himself.  As an alternative, he might accept something coming straight from our plates.  Fruits are preferred over veggies as a general rule, too.

Calvin is the proud owner of two little teeth!  Both of them broke through during December.  He's got a few more in the works right now, but they aren't bothering him nearly as much as those first couple.  I love watching and hearing him bite foods with those teeth.

Calvin's got a couple "words" he is using now.  He regularly says "dada," occasionally says "mama," and will sometimes say "hey" back to us.  (He was using "hey" a lot more before "dada" and "mama" came along.)  In addition to these, he is babbling constantly and trying many different sounds.

Also, Calvin is crawling!  He's not going very far very fast, but this just started a few days ago.  He's pretty excited about being able to get to things he wants.  He's also figured out how to push up onto his hands and feet and has almost figured out how to go from hands and knees to sitting.

I am constantly grateful that I have such a wonderful, happy, beautiful baby boy.  His little life seems to be moving so quickly, but I love him more and more each day.  So frequently I've wanted to freeze time with him, but I'm glad I never succeeded.

Interview Trail

Devin's been in the process of interviewing for residency positions recently! Actually, he is pretty much done with them at this point. Last month, Calvin and I accompanied him on his Chattanooga interview. As this is one of the programs we are most interested in, we added an extra day on the trip to really get a good feel for the area, do some site seeing, and get a mini vacation out of it all!

Calvin was a trooper on the car ride (it was timed to largely overlap with his morning nap), but his favorite part was definitely the short break we took in the grass.

Even with all the travel he's done alredy, this was his first experience staying in a hotel, and it was an especially unique experience.  We decided to stay on the Delta Queen, a historic riverboat docked in the middle of the city.  The staff was wonderful, the view was fantastic, and the location couldn't be beat.

Unfortunately, with so much going on, Calvin mostly only napped in this car seat or stroller the whole trip.  Thankfully, he is an amazingly resilient baby and was wonderful and happy even in his state of sleep deprivation.

Calvin woke up in time to see the penguins diving and swimming.

Calvin LOVED watching the jellyfish!

He was a little perplexed by the gopher hole in the middle of the giant crab tank.  No fears, though, Devin was holding him.

This is Stewy the green sea turtle.  Calvin watched him for a while.  He appeared to be waving his fin the whole time.

Calvin also squealed at the tank through the whole dive show.  The divers later found him and said they loved watching him.  They gave us a shark tooth for Calvin as well.

In the gift shop, Devin decided to let Calvin choose a stuffed toy.  He actually dove for this turtle and carried him to the register.  The cashier actually cut the tag off with Calvin still clinging to it.  I loved it.

After this, we had Devin's pre-interview dinner with the residents.  It was actually a very helpful meeting, and we all enjoyed it.  Devin interviewed the next morning, then.  Now, he is actually in Chattanooga for the month doing an away rotation...aka, an audition rotation.  While it's not very fun being separated  we'll actually get to see him a couple time.  Calvin gets really excited to Skype with his Daddy, too.  This program is still a top choice, too, so we are glad to have this opportunity.  We can submit our rank list in a couple weeks (although we can also wait until late February), and then we'll find out where we we'll be for the next three years in March!!