Monday, November 24, 2008

A Politically Incorrect Video

Owen's preschool had their first performance last week. I've attached a video if you're a grandparent, and therefore want to gobble up three minutes of little kids singing off key (I loved it). My favorite parts: Owen being the only one who refused to wear his headband, the way they all confirm the number of fingers they are supposed to be holding up by looking at each other, the moment when the boy to Owen's left tickles Owen in the face with his feather, and the very end when Owen thinks he's supposed to mimic the music teacher's motions.

The title of this blog, however, is not related to Owen's cuteness in the video. It's the fact that Owen's preschool is not on the same page with the PC crowd. Virginia schools now teach children about the First Americans--not the Native Americans (because they were not in fact native) or the Indians (because that's some confused European's label for the people he met). Funny that they even chose to sing two songs that repeatedly use the word Indian. This didn't particularly offend me, but I'd be curious to know if First Americans(?) would be bothered. And what do they think about Thanksgiving anyways? I love the whole yummy food, give thanks part of the holiday, and generally think the story we learned in elementary school must be a load of crap, but what about their take on it? Anybody have any insight to share?

Sunday, November 23, 2008

You need to get a jobby job

All three of you that read this blog already know this, but I've accepted a job here in Norfolk. I know, we've always said we weren't staying, but it just happened. During the job search, a fellowship position opened up here, and I got it. With all the years of explaining what residency means, I have now entered a whole new level of complexity. I feel this is best explained by compairing my position to those on the completely asinine TV medical dramas.

For our first 4 years in Norfolk, I was a medical student. These rarely show up on TV, but one did play a significant role on ER as one of Abby's suitors. I don't know his name, but he was on for a few shows, wound up asking her out, and caused a little inner-turmoil as she had to decide between him or Luca. At the end of my time as a med student, I had to decide what kind of doctor I wanted to be. I chose emergency medicine. At graduation, I officially became a doctor (this simply refers to a degree).

The next year, I was an intern(aka 1st year resident). This equals Meredith, Izzy, et al on the first year of Grey's Anatomy. That year is spent doing a lot of scut work, taking orders from more senior residents, and all the while trying to learn as much as fast as possible so as not to kill anybody (which is a distinct possibility).

For the next two years until residency is over, I'm a resident. This equals Meredith, Izzy, et al now. More responsibility and more leeway to kill patients (still very possible).

Here is where it gets really complicated. I am approaching the end of my residency. Up till now, I have been riding the coat tails of my attendings, working under what is dubbed a provisional license. This pretty much means my attendings are responsible for all my bad decisions. They can chew me out at their liberty, of course. However, at the end of this year (June), I will have my own license to practice medicine. I call my own shots. I'm responsible for my own mistakes. After residency, most residents go on to get a job in a community hospital, without residents, just patients. They are attending physicians.

I, on the other hand, have elected to become a fellow. I still have completed residency, I still am responsible for my own mistakes, but I've also decided to spend more time learning. The only fellow I can think of on TV was Elliot on scrubs. She took an endocrinology fellowship after residency, but then got fired and came back to Sacred Heart. My fellowship is in emergency ultrasound. I won't go into that too much. I've already written more in this blog than I ever have before. I hope that clears things up.

Note: I do not know who I am compared to the characters on House, MD. The best I can tell, those guys are internal medicine physicians, but they do a strange amount of surgery too. And I can't figure out where they are in their training. I assume the ones not named House are residents, but their job is way too cushy for that.

Poop!

Yay for poop in the potty!!! We've had a great few weeks of peeing in the potty, but until today I was spending a moment of each day swishing poop out of underwear into the potty. Fun, I know. But today the poop did not get deposited in the underwear, causing my son to come walking out of his room like a cowboy who's been on the range all day. We were getting desperate for this milestone, so he got two cars out of this one, Mater and Sally. Hopefully, this will again be the beginning of lots of good times on the potty.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Big spoon

Last night I led my 9th grade girls small group. We are discussing purity over the next few weeks, and the discussion last night included a brief mention of spooning. This led one of the girls to question my current ability to spoon (due to my ginormous belly), to which I indignantly replied, "I can still be the front spoon!" As I was sharing this story with Will afterwards, he declared, "You mean the little spoon. I'm the big spoon, you're the little spoon." I immediately assumed this was my husband being argumentative, and that he had just made up these phrases. He insisted that he had not. So we did what we always do...we looked it up on the internet.

www.urbandictionary.com
1. big spoon votes: 141 up, 8 down
in spooning, the big spoon is the person in the back
Men are usually the big spoon.

Oops.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Our baby girl

I'm sitting here at my computer, trying to be productive. Meanwhile, I'm being attacked from the inside by little arms and legs. It's wonderful. Which leads me to this post. Please pray for our little girl. We have learned in the past few weeks that she has a heart defect. In the simplest terms, two of the vessels that leave her heart are connected to each other, and her aortic arch is on the right (instead of the left) side of her body. The heart itself appears to be fine and working as it should. We do not know what this will mean for her in the future. It could be that she will need surgery after she is born. We have an appointment with a pediatric cardiologist in December to learn more.

We appreciate your prayers during this time, though I insist that this is not a time for worry. God has shown me over and over again that He is my comfortor, provider, and lover of my soul. I have always clung to Philippians 4:6-7 in times of struggle and therefore feel a peace that transcends understanding. Our pastor shared in church today that the most repeated command in the Bible is to not fear. God knows our tendencies and knows that they lead to nothing but further anxiety. So please pray for continued peace and trust in Him.

Monday, November 10, 2008

"I CAN do it!"

These were the words that Owen declared today after he successfully peed in the potty. For those of you who have been following this journey, you know that this is HUGE. Granted, he peed in his underwear (and subsequently on the floor) twice today too (before and after potty success), but who gives a crap. For months we have been going through the same steps (every month or so with breaks inbetween): Owen drinks a lot, holds his pee as long as possible, agrees to sit on the potty for a little while, then starts crying and declaring that his belly hurts. He then asks to have a diaper put on. Well today I decided we were going to try to get past this last stage. Hence, the potty in the middle of the living room. I'll spare you the details, but I will say that it was quite the mental battle. But the moment he made his proud declaration and smiled that amazing smile, it was all worth it.
Owen wanted me to take the next picture. This is the Lightning McQueen car that has been perched on our bathroom cabinet for months, neatly packaged, waiting for Owen to pee in the potty just once in order to be claimed. He didn't put the car down until we made him sit it beside his bed at naptime. That was a hard-earned prize. Please pray that this is the beginning of many more potty adventures.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Obligatory Halloween Photos

No, he is not dressed up as a farmer. For those of you who do not live in my toddler-infused world, this is Bob the Builder. He felt very insecure about his hat, so he insisted on holding it on in the pictures. The rest of the time, his daddy carried it or wore it. My favorite part of trick-or-treating this year was the neighbor (who doesn't have any kids yet) who held out the giant bucket of candy, somehow thinking that letting a 3 year old pick his own candy was a good idea. Pan right to find mommy running up the sidewalk to stop cute little boy from cleaning out naive neighbor.
This is Owen's best friend, Evie--as you can tell by the delighted smile on his face. We stopped by our church's Harvest Festival just so he could say hi. By the way, can I just say that part of me is a little dubious over the label "harvest festival?" It's on Halloween. We're not fooling anyone.
And last, but not least, Owen enjoying the fruits of his labor. Nevermind that these "fruits" were made by Mike & Ike (thought you might appreciate that Uncle Daniel) and probably don't contain an ounce of fruit.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Unexpected Giddiness

I have no desire to be controversial or polorizing right now, but sitting here with my laptop in front of my t.v., there's no way I can refrain from blogging. This is amazing. We are part of an unbelievable moment in U.S. history. I don't care what party you support, how can you not feel proud to be part of a country that has made huge advancements in overcoming racism? Maybe I'm just getting older, but this election has been so exciting to me. I actually felt a little giddy as I voted today. Not because I had any expectations about how the vote would turn out. I think my enthusiasm stems from the fact that so many people are invested in this election. Even the middle school girls that I lead have been excited about the candidates and wanting to talk about politics. Today has been a very cool experience.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Owen's Birthday

While on our two week sabatical, Owen had his third birthday. We had a wonderful time hanging out with family at my parents' house. Owen was a bit overwhelmed by the number of presents, but he certainly enjoyed playing with new toys and getting lots of hugs from the people who don't get to see him enough. And who can complain about cake and ice cream?

And at the end of the party, inspired by Will's newly-aquired golf clubs, the boys had to go outside and get in a little man-time.