Dinnertime videos

My sis and dad asked for more videos, so here they are. Sorry, Martha, if you can't watch them.
I took most of them tonight when I was feeding him dinner, but a few are from earlier this week.


Toddling around my room doing stuff, including dancing, brushing his hair, and walking backwards.



Playing with some of his favorite, baby-sized books (from my Aunt Nahid for his birthday). He loves to be read to these days.



Playing in the laundry basket with Gabriel.



In a rare appearance, you can actually see that I do things with Cyrus too (although they are rarely recorded). Cyrus has really started to love books and actually brings them to us for us to read them to him. I'm a much less exciting parent than Gabriel, but I am always willing to read, in Spanish or English! :)



Cyrus is definitely imitating us and communicating with us through gestures a lot these days. In this video, you can see him "washing" his high chair the way I do with a paper towel. Then, he requests a specific song on the computer and cries when I won't change it. I can't wait til he can actually talk, so he doesn't have to fuss so much.



Just moments later, he is very happy, since I found his song and put it on (notice him trying to snap along with the music for a second). Unfortunately, he then decides he wants my cell phone and I can't give it to him with the messy food everywhere and he gets upset again...sigh.



I love it...he spent MORE time wiping down his high chair tray. I sure hope he likes to clean when he gets older.



Here he is experimenting with lots of ways to eat his yogurt (spoon, fingers, and just his face).

Pics from last weekend.

Although I was working in the hospital last weekend, I did get a chance to spend some time at home. Here are some of the pictures from then that I never got to post.
-Shirin

Friday night, we walked downtown for AthFest. We only stayed a little while, but it was fun.

Getting a juice.

Hot, grilled corn.

Walking home with a less-than-cooperative bubsy.

Ahhh, much better.

Reading at home. This is something we do a lot of.

Cyrus, the janitor.

Eating a pear with Uncle Tio. He's able to do this because he had his top two teeth come in about a month ago. I just checked again and he's actually got two more next to the top two coming in as well. Boy, soon he'll really be chewing on stuff!

I already posted a video of him "swimming" in the duckie. Here are some pictures.

Mommy, help me!

Bren was his own personal waterer.

He's not sure about the water on his head.

Time to snuggle with Mommy.

What? Daddy with a camera. That never happens.

Playing with his bins very seriously.

Running towards me in happiness. What a nice greeting.

Boy, I sure did miss him during the week.

Pointing at something and coming for it.

Pick me up!

My own little dishwasher monkey.

Whew...made it.

Well, thank goodness, tomorrow I start a new rotation. I actually liked Orthopedics a lot, but it was very hard work and just too busy for me to possibly live any sort of normal life. This weekend, I was actually able to catch up on some sleep and have been taking up to 3-4 hours of naps a day! I finally feel less tired tonight.
For the next three weeks, I will be on Oncology. This is a rotation I've been looking forward to. It's the treatment of cancer (and testing for cancer), and I've been told that the clients I'll be dealing with are really dedicated and nice people. They are the type that have decided to bring their animals in every week for chemo injections for several months, even though it may not really cure their pets for life (just make their lives better or possibly a bit longer). The dogs and cats do quite well on chemo, most of the time, and often go home that same day. So, the patient care is less intense and there are a lot of client-relationships that are rewarding. I think I'll love it.
This weekend, having discharged my last Ortho patients on Friday, I got to stay home and spend quality time with my two boys. I also got to do much needed things, like laundry, shopping, and cleaning. My household was barely making it over these last 3 weeks, so I have some catching up to do.
We just got a new camera, since our trusty Sony if finally starting to not work as well. Here are some of the photos we took on it this weekend.
-Shirin

Cyrus brushing his hair.

Soaking up some baby-time.

Out to lunch for burritos at Moe's. Cyrus is now able to bite into and eat a whole kid's burrito (black beans, tofu, cheese, tomatoes, and onions)! I can't believe he used to just subsist on milk!

At Borders, playing in the kid's section. This other baby and Cyrus were almost the same age and kept switching activities between us and his mom. It was cute. Here Gabriel is wowing them with his Elmo impression. :)

I went to a party on the Fourth of July and took Cyrus with me (so Gabriel could work on his computer project for a while). This was the only photo I took, actually outside of the party...which looks like there were no people at this party...just me and Cyrus! There were actually people there; I just thought the sidewalk was cool looking.


Later that night, I met Beth and some of her friends out at Aqua Linda to eat some chips/salsa and watch the fireworks (this was after I went home and put Cyrus to bed). I just took a picture of her to show all you blog readers that she's still around and as good a friend as always. We just don't get to see each other as much, now that we never have any rotations together (we have one in March 2010, but that's it). Afterwards, I went over to her house and ate a piece of her aweome chocolate cake from her mom that was for her birthday on Thursday. It was delish.

Monkey see, monkey do.

I haven't posted all week, for obvious reasons. I have been in the hospital the whole time! My weekend has slowed down and as long as we don't get a bunch of emergencies, I might actually get to stay home for a while.

Anyway, I was able to help Gabriel feed Cyrus dinner tonight and we had a lot of fun learning how to use a spoon and imitate each other.

-Shirin

Imitation is the new big thing in our household.

Feeding himself with a fork for the first time.




Feeding himself with a spoon for the first time. I also think he said "no" and shook his head for the first time. I'm not sure about that, but it seemed like it.




Shoveling in the yogurt like a pro (almost).

Impromptu playdate with Solan

Videos with Uncle Tio

I've been too busy to blog, since most of my waking hours are at the hospital. Today I got to come home for a while and record my silly Cyrus' life. Since I'm gone so often right now, Brendan (aka Uncle Tio) has filled in my gap and spent more time with Cyrus. It's been such a wonderful thing to have an extra family member in town to help us with Cyrus and be around to play all his favorite games. :)
-Shirin

One of Cyrus' favorite things is to dance (especially to Indian music). He really likes Brendan's room because his computer is hooked up to speakers and he likes to crouch down to stare at them while they pour music out of them. I took this video after he asked Bren to play him music, but then he got distracted and didn't dance much. Oh well. You can imagine some real dancing...



This was from the other day. I'm not sure why I was home when Cyrus was still awake (it basically never happens during the week), but I found this video on my Flip so I included it.




My dad says that Cyrus will be a janitor when he grows up. He may be right.




I thought this was cute when I saw Cyrus and Uncle Tio playing outside together. It's fuzzy cuz of the zoom, but it's still a good video.

This was a bathtub that was given to me recently, but Cyrus is over the tiny bathtub thing (he needs the whole tub now), so we used it as a kiddie pool today. He really liked it.

Happy Father's Day

Since last Father's Day was only one month after Cyrus was born, I have no memory of whether we celebrated it or not in my household. I'm sure I might have mentioned something to Gabriel about it, but I really don't remember. I was in too much of a foggy, sleep-deprived state to have much of a memory then (I guess I could consult my blog to see what we were doing then).
This year, Gabriel's had 13 months to prove what a dedicated and caring father he is to Cyrus, and I felt he deserved some major recognition. Since I had to go into the hospital at 8 AM this morning to treat my patients, I got up early with Cyrus to spend some time with him while letting Gabriel sleep in. Then, I made us some breakfast and made Gabriel a card. I had bought him one of his favorite old games from college a while ago and never given it to him, so he got a present when he woke up as well. I hope he felt appreciated.
I also want to take a moment to thank my own father and Gabriel's father for all they continue to do for us, 28+ years after we were born, and what they do for Cyrus now. We are so lucky to have them in our lives.
-Shirin

Before Gabriel got his breakfast, he helpd Cyrus eat his own.

Happy Father's Day!

Junta is a game Gabriel really liked before.

Who knows what Cyrus is doing with his empty cereal dish...licking up the crumbs?

Must get every drop...

Showing Cyrus how to draw in Gabriel's Father's Day card. He got the hang of it for a few seconds. Wasn't too interested in it yet, though.

Pondering the purpose of pastels.

Few hours of free time

Since I'm on one of the toughest rotations of the year(Orthopedic surgery), I've had little-to-no "me" time since Monday morning. I go into the hospital around 6:15 AM to do treatments and write my orders for the day, round with the doctors, and put in requests for radiographs/medicines/bloodwork, etc. Then, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, we go into surgery. There's always at least a surgeon or surgery resident doing the surgery plus usually an intern and me assisting. The patient also is assigned its own anesthetist, who is another senior student, like me, that worked up all the drugs and anesthesia stuff for my surgery patient ahead of time. There is also a surgery nurse there to help us open instrument packs (since we are all scrubbed in and sterile and can't touch anything) and other doctors and nurses that come by to check on stuff. Once the surgeries, radiographs, and recovery are finished (done by the ICU nurses overnight post-op), I talk on the phone with clients, write up my patients' records, and discharge patients that are ready to go home. By the time I am done with everything, it could easily be 8-9 PM. Some nights, I'm assigned night treatments of all the surgery patients not in the ICU and have to come back in at 10 PM. Some nights I'm on-call and will be called in for an emergency surgery. Some nights I'm done once I leave and come home to a sleeping Cyrus and a lonesome hubby. I am usually not even hungry for dinner at this point, although I usually eat because I know I need to. Then, I make mybreakfast and lunch for the next day and go to bed. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we receive our patients for the next day and don't do surgeries. These days seem to be a little easier, most of the time, and this Thursday I actually made it home before 7 PM to eat dinner with my in-laws. It was amazing.

I'm not off on the weekends either, since I need to go in to take care of my patients. I go in on Saturday and Sundays at 8 AM and 6 PM and then sometimes I also have to go back in at 3 PM or 10 PM. I also could be on-call some of those days, which means I could get called back in in the middle of the night if they need me.

So....I am actually sort of enjoying a lot of this. It's definitely challenging me to take charge of my patients and learn how to be a doctor. When I ask if I should do something for a patient, the clinicians turn it back on me and ask me, "What do you think?" I am finally responsible for a life, so everything I do seems to matter. However, I'm exhausted. And, sometimes I get yelled at for not knowing something, which I just feel is unfair. How am supposed to read up on surgeries at home when I'm not there long enough to even get enough sleep for the night? Guess that's not the answer they want to hear.

Today, I wasn't on-call and actually got to spend some time cleaning my house and playing with Cyrus. We took a few videos of my sweetheart, who is becoming increasingly more fun and funny and capable every week.

-Shirin

Playing on the floor with Cyrus.



Peek-a-boo with the curtains.



Playing the piano.



The funnest daddy game ever!