Back home and on a new rotation

I will be posting some pictures and videos of our trip to FL over the Thanksgiving holidays soon. I am too tired and busy catching up on life right now to do it all, but we had an excellent time and got to see lots of G's family. Sadly, Cyrus and I both had a cold, but we still enjoyed ourselves and got to play and eat like champs. We are both on the mend and now Gabriel is suffering from a cold, but you know that's how it works with us. Hopefully, the rest of G's family fought off our virus (I really hope so!).

I started a new rotation today...Neurology. It's one I've looked forward to, because it's such a cool area of vet medicine where we get to play 'detective' and try to "localize the lesion" based on clinical findings and history. We do a lot of MRIs once we've localized a lesion to confirm that the lesion is there and even more to try to figure out what the lesion is being caused by. By localizing, I mean we have to decide of a dog's ataxia (inability to walk straight) is being caused by the brain or other parts of the central nervous system and what part of the brain we think it is. Anyway, it's really cool. Unfortunately, many of the dogs that make it to us need expensive surgery and a lot of post-op care, so it can be an intensive rotation as well. I'm sure I'll learn a lot.

I'm starting to feel better as far as first trimester fatigue and nausea are concerned. I'm hoping the worst is behind me. And, if I only have 2 kids, this will be the last time I ever have to go through it. Please everyone remind me of how horrible I felt this time if I ever talk about having another kid some day.

-Shirin

Example of a dog needed help walking (which is like my patient).

Some photos from the last few weeks

Life has been hectic but good over my last block. I really enjoyed Community Practice Clinic. I got a lot of autonomy and felt like an (almost) real doctor. It was also a good rotation, because it covered a lot of topics including exotics, which I needed to review for boards. I also got to do emergency shifts at night, and while they exhausted me, I did get to experience emergency medicine and it was a lot of fun.

Anyway, here are pics from around the house over the last few weeks that I never posted.

-Shirin

Cyrus getting the good news he's going to be a big brother.

"What, me? A big brother? I thought it would never happen!"

One of our three most recent foster kittens snuggling with Beth.

Bren has come over now and then and we enjoy seeing him so frequently. Cyrus needed babysitting yesterday and Bren came through for us and stayed with Cyrus all day. I wish all our family was in town. Life would be so good.

We are still trying to do TV nights every now and then. Bren has had to write a lot and Beth has been on Internal Medicine and I've had emergency shifts, so it's not often that the whole group can get together, but it's fun when it happens. We've been watching Survivor.

This was another of the foster kittens. All three got homes and this one went to a nice lady who got another kitten because I told her that Tatiana would not be happy without a kitty friend. It's so rare and nice when a person actually takes my advice.

More pictures to come from Thanksgiving in FL.

Happy Thanksgiving Break

It's a few days early, but I am already feeling excited about driving down to FL for a big family get-together for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, Cyrus has come down with a cold, but he will hopefully recover very soon and be in top form to see all his relatives. We have a 6 hour drive ahead of us, but once we're there, we'll have several days to relax, eat, and play lots of games.

I wish everyone safe travels and good food.

-Shirin

Trying to blog more

I know I've done much less blogging lately. I'm tired, I'm busy, I'm studying for boards, etc, etc. You guys know the drill.

Anyway, here are all the videos we've taken lately. Some go back to when we were home visiting my parents in Rock Hill with my sister.

-Shirin

Good news for our growing family

Howdy folks. You haven't heard from me lately, mainly because I'm in clinics, studying for boards, taking care of a toddler, and, mostly recently, pregnant with our next baby. I didn't blog about it at first for privacy's sake, but, at this point, everyone at school knows, so I might as well spill the beans. I'm still in the stage of risk for miscarriage, so if I have to turn back around and blog about losing the baby, then so be it. Everyone in the world will know anyway.
I started out feeling pretty good, but I must have just not gotten to the sick part yet, because I now feel pretty horrible most of the time. I will hopefully start to feel less tired and nauseous in just a few weeks when I go into the wonderful second trimester of pregnancy. I can't wait.
I'm still making it to clinics and doing what I need to do, but I'm dragging around like a zombie on most days and coming home utterly exhausted. I usually got to nap the last time (with Cyrus) because I was in class then and got out in the afternoons, but now that I work full-time, napping is not possible, unfortunately.
We will probably find out the gender some time in January, something I'm really looking forward to, and neither of us really care what it is, although a little brother for Cyrus would be cool and a little girl for me would be exciting. We'll just take a healthy baby and be happy. I'm sort of thinking that it's a girl because I feel so sick right now, but who knows if that's really a true sign or just a myth. Probably the latter.
Cyrus still has no idea that he is going to be a big brother, but we will work on that when he's older and the birth date is closer. The due date is June 20, almost 2 months after I graduate from school and my dad's birthday. We have been lucky in being able to plan these kids precisely.
I will keep you all updated as I go along. I've already had two ultrasounds that showed a healthy heartbeat, so hopefully all is well.
-Shirin

Cyrus' first kiss.

I told Denise it was fitting that Cailyn be his first kiss, since they were both planned together and born together.

At school on a Friday night

It's Friday night and guess where both Beth and I are? Yep, at school! I'm on emergency duty til late tonight and she is staying late on Internal Medicine to work on her SOAPs. We are both exhausted and feeling sorry for ourselves. We only have the rest of November, December, January, February, March, and April. That's it. She takes her board exam in 3 weeks and I take it a week or so later. We spend our time out of clinics worrying about studying for that too.
Do I sound like I'm sorry for myself? Well, I am. But, I am actually enjoying the current rotation that I'm on and do feel like I'm really learning a lot. But, I'm ready to have a real life again and to be a better wife and mother to my husband and child. Only 6 more months...
Tonight, I had planned to go to International Trivia Night, an event I've gone to the last 3 years of my life here. Sadly, I am stuck here for emergencies. Gabriel and Cyrus are representing for me, at least, so that makes me feel a little better.
OK, diatribe done.
-Shirin

No blogs for a while

Sorry I haven't blogged lately. I have just been too tired to cook, clean, blog, or any of that. I am on a rotation I like, called Community Practice, where we basically are just working in a regular vet clinic doing surgeries, vaccines, and minor emergencies. It's a lot of fun, and we're right next to the main UGA vet hospital in case we need anything major. Like Beth told me, it reminds me of why I wanted to become a vet. I even identified one of my patients today as likely having an endocrinopathy (we have to do further tests to confirm). I was the only one who caught it, and I was excited that I might just be a vet one day after all! :)

Anyway, I have pictures and videos, but they will just have to wait. Tomorrow night, I unfortunately have emergency duty, so I will have to stay at school til at least 11 PM, maybe later. It's gonna kill me, but such is life. At least I can come home and sleep in on Saturday morning.

-Shirin

Visit home and good friends

One of the highlights from my trip home was seeing two of Anahita and my closest friends from childhood, Kelly and Lisa. Kelly just had a baby boy 4 months ago, so it was the first time we all got to meet him. She's already looking great and seems very happy as a new mommy. Lisa isn't a mommy yet, but she's the aunt of a cute niece Cyrus's age, so she came over with Lisa to play. It was a lot of fun.

-Shirin

Kelly and Quinn. I think he looks just like her.

He has naturally wild blond hair that always makes him a bed head.

Tita and Kelly were the best of friends as children.

Lisa taking pictures of Cyrus and Kassidy (her niece).

First try with the girls and babies. Oops...Quinn wasn't looking.

Second try. Oops, Cyrus stopped looking. Oh well. It's cute anyway.

Doing puzzles after everyone left. Cyrus has finally had something click in his head and can do puzzles. I'm loving it.

Tita and I got home late Saturday night with Cyrus and were all tired on Sunday. Gabriel took Cyrus to Best Buy last night to let me rest and brought home a very asleep baby. I can't believe he's almost as long as the couch now!

Vacation week

My last rotation was only 2 weeks long, so I just scheduled one of my 3-one week vacations for this time. It worked well, because Tita was able to come home from CA for the whole week and my mom was able to take off from work. We are celebrating Thanksgiving now, since we neither of us kids will be home with them for the real holiday (Tita will be in CA and I'll be in FL with my other family).
On my way to pick Tita up from the airport in ATL, I stopped by and visited two of my oldest friends, Amy and Lanie, who only live about 15 min from the airport. Amy just got back from travels to Ghana, Vietnam, and Italy, and I hadn't seen either of them for several months. They hadn't seen Cyrus in a while either, so we had a great time playing and talking until Tita's flight arrived.
Here are pictures from the last few days.
-Shirin

Amy was giving me some of her hand-me-downs and Cyrus took advantage of the empty box.

Cyrus loves to open and close doors. He made himself at home outside on Amy's balcony.

In jail, looking over part of Atlanta.

Opening and closing doors is so fun!

Somehow, Amy had some bubbles lying around.

Cyrus was concentrating very hard on Lanie while she blew him bubbles.

Wheee! Bubbles!

These girls were like our sisters growing up next door to us our first 12 years of life. It was great to see them again.

Then, it was off to the airport to pick Tita up and bring her home. Yay...we're all together, finally!

Anytime Cyrus takes a nap, we try to sneak in a game of Catan. It's a family favorite of both the Modaresis and Beals. Notice Gabriel drinking a glass of Persian tea. He said it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be (he hates tea and coffee). It made us all happy, since my dad offers him a glass of tea every day he's in our house, no matter how many times Gabriel has told him "no thanks." It's kind of a joke at this point.

The weather has been chilly but nice. Cyrus' new obsession is to go outside to look for birds. There I found them in the front yard watching a doggie across the street.

Thanksgiving dinner in the making! (Dont' worry; the pickle jar is not part of the meal, just my snack).

As always, Gabriel is ready to eat some lovely meal prepared by the women of the household.

Yum! It was all good, except for the stuffing that was made with a new type of bread (wheat)...sorry, it was not the stuffing I remember and love! I'm going back to white bread next year for sure.

Cyrus has decided he doesn't like to eat most foods he used to, so here's Baba trying to feed him some fruit. Since he used to be such a good eater, I have had to suddenly try to come up with ways to get him to eat like a normal kid again. So far, giving him NO snacks throughout the day and only letting him eat 3 meals a day has worked very well. Just get him hungry!

He also loves spoons a lot. My parents taught him to make noises with two of them while he dances to Persian music. It's very cute.

Playing on his new fire truck. My dad buys him more toys than he ever did for us, I have to say.

On Tuesday, we needed to get out of the house, so we headed to Cherry Park for some playground fun.

He loves sliding. He's gotten to the point of being able to do it himself. Fun.

Playing in the leaves with sticks and leaves.

Sportin' his grandma's visor.

OK, all done with it now.

Last night, Tita, Cyrus, and I went over to Lisa's parent's house to visit with them. Her new niece was there to play with Cyrus. She's almost exactly Cyrus' age and very cute and talkative.

She looks so much like Lisa did whens she was little. It's uncanny.

Videos

We're all in Rock Hill right now, but I still have some videos from Athens to post. I'll post some pics of our time here in RH in a little while. We're having too much fun cooking Thanksgiving dinner for me to sit and post too much right now.
-Shirin


Playing with his favorite blankets.



Playing with his stuffed animals, one of which is my childhood teddy bear.



Playing with Erik and getting excited about his Daddy coming home.



Learning to be the greatest Beal wrestler yet.



Playing outside this morning in my parent's backyard.