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!!

Let's do this!!!

This post is a little different from last year's.  I can actually say I managed to fulfill my wish for the 2012 quite well.  I maybe even did it too well!  Before, I accomplished two out of five goals.  For 2012, I really wanted to focus on living in the present.  Throughout my life, this has been a challenge.  Also, I new that 2013 would be an exciting year, but that there was no way I wanted to miss a moment of 2012 either. 

Thankfully, I enjoyed most of my pregnancy and felt little need to rush it along.  I was still able to do nearly everything I enjoyed, I felt wonderful, and there were very few challenges.  Of course, the very end was a little tricky, but I'm grateful I was only impatient for a couple weeks out of the entire nine months.

Once Calvin arrived, the clock always seemed to move too quickly.  We have joked that he was born at least a month old already because he's been doing almost everything ahead of schedule, and he's topped the growth charts since birth.  This really forced me to live in the moment.  If I blinked too long, he's outgrown a size of clothes, mastered a couple new developmental tasks, and was being mistaken for twice his age.

Unfortunately,  I was doing so well with living in the moment that I didn't get to enjoy the holiday season enough.  I dragged my feet a bit on celebrating, but we still ended up with some pretty special holidays.  Halloween was a lot of fun, Thanksgiving was more meaningful, and Christmas was more important for all the very best reasons.

This year, we have a lot of big changes coming.  Devin will graduate medical school and start residency--a goal he's been working towards since before we met.  He's also been in medical school for almost the entirety of our marriage.  This may also bring a move for us as well.  Before that, though, we will be separated for four weeks (starting Sunday) while he is on a away rotation.  We've never been apart longer than a week since we've been together.  We will have to adjust to him being gone long hours this fall as well.  My goal this year is to be able to smoothly make the transition and find meaningful ways to spend the time we are apart.  I have a tendency to become anxious about change--even good change.  But, I'd like to be better at working through it this year.  I really think I'm ready to do this!!

Ten for December

10.  We had multiple opportunities to Athens this month. I've very grateful that Calvin is such a good little traveller. I always love eating our when we are in town. And, it's nice to see family and get out of the city a bit.

9.  We've still been able to enjoy being outdoors most of this month!  The weather was actually a big reason for me initially looking into moving to Georgia, and it's rarely disappointed me.  This month, we've still been hitting up the dog park, going on walks, going to the Greenway, and comfortably running outdoors.

8.  Christmas Sunday was wonderful.  In addition to Calvin looking adorable in his Christmas suit, the program at Church was amazing.  Devin played the piano for it, so he wasn't able to sit with us.  But, we sat where we could see him the whole time.  The message shared was very touching and the perfect lead in to Christmas Eve and Christmas.

7.  As always, we had a lot of fun food this month.  We've been on a big nachos kick and have eaten them several times.  Devin's also been experimenting with creating the perfect gourmet grilled cheese.  The weather has been so nice this month we were able to grill ribs once.  And, Devin made us quite a few fun, unique milkshakes.

6.  A couple days after Christmas Devin's Grandmother stopped in for a visit.  This was actually her first opportunity to meet Calvin.  He immediately grabbed onto her hand and didn't let go for a few minutes.  It was pretty adorable.  We all enjoyed a few hours of chatting, reminiscing, and catching up with each other.

5.  Calvin is now 6 months old!  He's still such an amazing, happy child.  In the past month, he popped out two teeth, started army crawling (and is nearly crawling for real!), sits up without hands for long periods, he copies us in motions and sounds (he loves to say heeeeeyyy!!), and he has started solid foods!  It has been a very busy month for him.  He also had his six month checkup where we learned he was still topping the growth chart in weight and height.

4.  We've had a good bit of time with all of us home this month.  Devin is still in the middle of an "off" rotation.  He has had to interview and do ultrasound shifts, but it's still left plenty more time at home than his previous two impatient medicine rotations.  I will always be excited to have all of us around.

3.  This month, Devin and I actually went out just the two of us for the first time since Calvin was born.  Thankfully, all of us did just fine with it.  And, it was pretty nice to be able to calmly enjoy a meal instead of trying to keep Calvin happy while eating, have Devin open my car door instead of him having to buckle Calvin in, and have hands free just for holding!

2.  Devin has been interviewing for residency this month, and Calvin and I accompanied him on his interview in Chattanooga.  While Calvin is a great traveller, this was definitely a little trickier, but he handled it amazingly well!  We had a lot of fun exploring the city as a family.

1.  This Christmas was pretty amazing.  We celebrated Christmas Eve and had Christmas morning just our little family.  On Christmas Eve, we spent time making and delivering goody plates.  Then, Devin made our traditional (4 years now!) German Christmas Eve dinner.  We read Luke 2 before putting Calvin to bed.  On Christmas morning, we did stockings in bed, opened presents while the dogs chewed new bones, and ate cinnamon rolls.  Calvin preferred the boxes, paper, and bows to the actual presents.  Later, we joined family in Atlanta for Christmas dinner, more presents, and games.  Overall, the day was pretty much perfect!

Ode to the Moose

Two short years ago today,

Our little Moose came home to stay.
 

 

He flourished in his new found home

With backyard space to run and roam.

 

He loves to play with his big brother.

They soon learned to take care of each other.
 

 

Moose showed that he can keep up pace

And camped where you must leave no trace.
 

 

His first birthday was a lot of fun,

But he still wanted to be a little one.

 

He battled sniffles and itch attacks,

Yet he always rallied for a tasty snack.
 

 

His love for food caused many a snafu,

With his favorite partner at all times--Blue.
 

 

I'm so grateful that Moose came,

Since his arrival life has never been the same!