My afternoons off with Cyrus

As I mentioned before, I am only taking one class during the month of February. Since I usually am out around 10 AM, I have all afternoon to spend with Cyrus (I usually go home and pump and do other errands before picking him up at 12, so that his caretaker can continue keeping him on a schedule every day). I can say that I do enjoy being out in the non-baby related world for some of my day, but I really enjoy having at least half of my day hours to spend playing with and feeding Cyrus. It's SO much more fun than when he was an immobile bump on a log that just nursed and slept. I miss that age for a few reasons, but mostly I really enjoy him being so mobile, so funny, and so enthusiastic about life.
He's also gotten great at eating solid foods and eats lots of "real" foods these days. He loves hummus, so I usually mix it into foods that aren't quite as tasty, like pureed broccoli and oatmeal. He doesn't mind that mixture, but he loves it when the hummus is added in. He really likes tofu in any shape or flavor and is a trooper with almost any of the fruits or veggies we give him from baby food jars. It's really quite amazing how much food a little kid like him can put away. I can feed him a jar of sweet potatoes, a jar of bananas, some pureed greens (kale or broccoli) with oatmeal and hummus, AND tofu pieces all in one meal. I also am amazed at the types of spices and flavors he can already eat. The hummus I give him has chunks of garlic in it that I think some adults couldn't handle, but he scarfs it down. I attribute it to him tasting it in my breastmilk all these months. I've been getting him ready to eat like me! :) I also have given him some of my crackers from my salad, covered in vinegar, as well as some crackers and beans from my mildly spicy veggie chili, and he loved it all. I hope he stays like that; I've heard they get more discriminating and pickier as they get older.
So, I'm really enjoying my extra time with him before I start a new life in March, where I'll barely see him at all some weeks. It makes me sad, but I have to remember that part of the reason I am becoming a vet is to make money for my family, and he will benefit from this later on. I just wish Gabriel was able to work part-time or be a stay-at-home-dad so that Cyrus had a parent with him all day. Oh well, we can't afford for Gabriel to quit. Also, the lady that Cyrus has stayed with since he was 3 months old is really nice and takes good care of him. I just think of her as his day-time mommy (sniff).
I've included a bunch of videos below. I'm sure not all of you readers will be interested in so many minutes of silly little baby activities, but I know at least my family and in-laws will probably want to see it, so I'm posting it. He's getting really good at walking along couches and standing unassisted for a few seconds. It's only a matter of time before he takes that first step...
-Shirin

He is not a fan of stuffed animals or soft things. Paper, however, can satisfy his attention for a very long time.





Benjen and Jojen tolerate Cyrus from afar, but I've noticed that Benjen has been allowing Cyrus to get fairly close to him before he darts away. Cyrus, to his credit, is usually quiet and curious when the cats are near and doesn't rush at them too much (of course, he might if they'd ever let him catch them). He clearly can tell the difference between them and toys.


He's in the stage of dropping everything on the floor and then looking down at it. We do a lot of retrieving.



Cyrus has also figured out that he can use objects to bang other objects to make big noises. Typically, it's the washer or back window that get the pounding.


I missed Cyrus and Gabriel rough-housing when I thought I was recording, but I still got to record some more playing.


Cyrus loves being naked. I think it's the maneuverability.


Cyrus knows what he wants and in this video, he wants me to feed him tofu.

Athens, a musical city

Today, Wikipedia is featuring Athens, GA on their front page. The article is about the prolific music scene in Athens, an unexpected feature of a fairly small, sleepy town otherwise. It is clearly fueled by the thousands of college students that flood in from UGA every year and has produced famous bands like REM, Indigo Girls, and the B-52s.
Gabriel and I really don't take advantage of the great music here in town. We didn't go out much before Cyrus was born because of money and being busy with other things, and now we have a baby to stay home with at night. Nevertheless, I think the music scene gives Athens a unique and enjoyable character that I love. Maybe once Cyrus is bigger, G and I will try to get out a little more.
-Shirin

Backlog of photos

I never got to post the rest of my anniversary trip photos b/c I came back to Athens with a full-blown exam schedule to attend to. Here they are, with a few more recent ones from this weekend.
-Shirin

Our last night in Bryson City, it snowed!

We got Cyrus all bundled up to go outside; he was very excited.

A toy in each hand helps keep waiting babies patient.

Outside we went, to be greeted by Blue and to explore the snowy wonderland.

Cyrus' first experience with snow. He wasn't sure about it all.

Cute little snow bunny.

This was the day before in the bakery we went to. Cyrus was taking his afternoon nap strapped to Gabriel's chest and we were marveling at all the delicious choices in this bakery.

This past weekend, the Welfare Club, of which I am president, co-hosted a "Shelter Medicine Seminar," in which we had over 60 participants attend lectures at UGA all about different aspects of Shelter Medicine. It is a burgeoning new field with lots of exciting possibilities and we were excited with the robust turn-out and knowledgeable speakers, all set-up by vet students.

Back home...boy, we sure don't look too happy. But, this isn't actually a sad face, just a face of concentration.

Yay!!! Grandma is here. And she's taking pictures of me!

My mom has a crouched little frog, perched on her knee.

Time to eat your kale (yes, I made him some pureed kale). I need him to like dark green vegetables from the very beginning, so I steamed it, ground it in the food processor, and mixed it with vegetable broth and baby oatmeal. He didn't mind it much, especially with bites of hummus in between.

Grandma, get it in my mouth!!!

At the end of a very big and messy meal: Cyrus has decided that solid foods are actually very yummy. In addition to his kale, oatmeal, and hummus, his face is also covered in vanilla soy yogurt. Yum!

Midweek update

Yesterday I officially took my last in-school final exam for any of my core classes (I still have 1 take-home test and one test for electives in February). However, it still feesl like the end of a very difficult era. My dad and I talked about just a few years ago when I was simply praying to get into vet school. I also remember looking at the curriculum and thinking there was an error in the number of difficult science classes they were having us take each semester. It seemed truly impossible. In grad school, I used to take 3 classes a semester. I've had semesters in vet school where I had finished 15+ classes in 18 weeks. I can't believe I made it through all of that. I'm now in my final electives semester of vet school, from now til the end of February. I'm taking Clinical Neurology and that's it. I need the break. Starting March 2nd, it all changes. No more sitting. No more tests. Just hands-on, real-life knowledge and application. Then, of course, I do have to take one more HUGE final cumulative exam, called The Boards, in December. But, I get the rest of the year to study for that.
-Shirin

Videos from this weekend

My parents came for a visit this weekend and to help us with Cyrus/the house/laundry/cooking. It was very nice to have them and the only downside was that my sister wasn't with us. We will never feel complete as long as she is across the country from us (sorry for the guilt trip). I feel bad for her missing out on our get-togethers too. So, here are a bunch of videos of (mostly) Cyrus hanging out this weekend and one from today where he discovered that he could make lots of noises by banging things on the washing machine, so she can pretend that she's here.

A cute video from Cyrus' day with Gabriel

For those of you who don't know, Gabriel stayed home all week from work to be with Cyrus while we worked on his sleeping abilities. Up until now (so for over 8 months), we've been waking up with him multiple times every night. When a baby is young and needing lots of calories, it's the appropriate thing to do, but we'd been told by several pediatricians that at this point Cyrus was eating or waking at night for comfort and habit purposes, more than hunger issues. So, we decided not to feed him overnight anymore and anticipated many problems that could occur all night long (like him crying inconsolably, which would rip out our hearts). So, Gabriel took off from work to spend the days with him to make sure he was stuffed full of food and got lots of one-on-one time and knew he was loved (we were worried about the psychological toll it could take on him).
I'm happy to report that Cyrus adjusted to not eating at night almost immediately. He also stopped waking up at night when we stopped responding (I know how bad it sounds, but we were urged to try it and it was not bad at all. I think at his age, he was very capable of just falling right back to sleep and waiting for the morning).
So, Gabriel got to enjoy a week with his son all day; consequently, the sleeping all night (over 11 hours straight) has corresponded with him napping much better during the days as well, usually about 3 hours total divided up into 2 naps. So, things are going better, we're actually sleeping through the night for the first time in SO long, and Cyrus is no worse off for it afterall.
And we lived happily ever after.

The new sniffy Joe

Sniffy Joe is my mom's nickname for my sister's dog Cha Cha. Well, Cha Cha, move over...there's a NEW Sniffy Joe in town. And this one is NOT just sniffing a leaf hear and there.
(Note: the significance of Cyrus' newest habit is meaningful. This exact behavior was exhibited by guess-who as a baby? Yes, me, his dear ma ma. How amazing to have genetically passed down such a strange action to my son!)
I'm excited to finally have gotten it on camera for my parents because they have wanted to relive this baby-sniffing ever since I told them he had started to do it.

Scenes from my night

Due to our shortened last semester, we are already in our finals weeks. We had two last week, two this week, and three next week plus a quiz. We finished Cardiology today and have Radiology on Friday. Meanwhile, we have a Neuro quiz and Practice management project to do this weekend as well. Next week we have a Respiratory exam on Monday and a Neurology exam on Tuesday and a take-home final for Practice Management due that Friday. Rarely have I been such an absentee wife and mom. I guess it had to get worse before it could get better.

Next week we start electives, during which I will be taking one (repeat: yes, one) class from 8-9 or 8-10 AM every day. Beth is doing the same thing. Yippee (this part was contributed by Beth)!

-Shirin

The Bet

About 3 months ago, Gabriel and I made a bet about when Cyrus would start to walk. Since Cyrus started to crawl at 6 months old, Gabriel felt confident that he would be walking by 9 months. (We defined that as Cyrus having to be able to take two steps unassisted). I, on the other hand, was dubious, since I think there needs to be a LOT of brain development before real, good walking can take place. To be fair, both Gabriel and I were early walkers (him at 7 months and me at 8 months), so Gabriel did have reason to believe that Cyrus can make it under this deadline. However, now that we are approaching the 8.5 month age range, Gabriel finally seems to be getting a little nervous.
So...the wait in the final weeks begins. Cyrus clearly has the desire to walk when he's standing up and sees something that he wants...but will he take two unassisted steps before February 9th? Only time will tell.
-Shirin

Baby cousin friend

Here are a couple of updated pictures of my cute nephew, Morgan. He's 7 weeks younger than Cyrus, so they are almost like twins! :)
He looks like he's gonna be a Steelers fan.
-Shirin

He wasn't quite sitting up over Christmas break, so he's clearly figured it out in the last few weeks. How quickly babies grow and learn!

What?

Cute: hangin' with Daddy. I love the carrot mustache (on Morgan, not Casey)! :)

Not just a blind, bald monkey baby

Hopefully, everyone can take a joke (re: the title).  It's not that little babies who don't do anything aren't incredibly cute, loveable, and snuggly.  BUT...Gabriel and I have been waiting for what seems like FOREVER for Cyrus to give us a sign that he's a real person and that he's going to grow up to be able to have conversations with us and do real things.  

Well, to be fair, he's already done many things that show he's beginning to understand his surroundings and can interact with the environment around him, and he's clearly shown us that he likes to be with us and follow the cats around, etc, but nothing like the following video has ever happened before...mimickry, definite mimickry.  How very exciting.

Some more videos for the Cyrus fans

Father and son having a screech fest:


First time in the snow with daddy:


First time in the snow with mommy:

Our lovely vacation

We're here in Bryson City, NC for our anniversary trip, and it has been all that was promised. I've already taken 2 naps today, read part of my book, hiked around the woods near our cabin, and taken a long walk with my sweethearts in a lovely mountain town. After a nice relaxed morning in the cabin, we drove about 15 miles to a little town called Selva. It was such a pleasant surprise to find a quaint, thriving downtown with a lot of small, independently-owned businesses like used bookstores, coffeeshops, and bakeries. We also found several restaurants with a multitude of awesome vegetarian dishes. We didn't except to find such a progressive place in a fairly rural region of NC, but my guess is that being a hour away from Asheville really helps out.
We enjoyed the town so much today we even discussed moving up here at some point. I'm thinking it's probably too small for us to really live there, but it got us thinking about how nice it would be to live in a small town were we could probably walk everywhere, buy fresh bread in their bakeries, know all the people in town, afford a nice house, and maybe thrive as one of the only vets in town (not sure about that yet). It would be like the olden days. Seriously, Selva didn't seem to have any fast food restaurants and, instead, had old fashioned small shops and restaurants right in the center of the valley with all the houses situated right around them up the mountainsides. Very quaint.
We also realized we were right next to a Cherokee reservation, and you know what that means: CASINOS!!! Sadly, we couldn't go in (much to Gabriel's chagrin), because we were with a minor. Yes, that's right...an 8 month old baby is not allowed in, even though he couldn't actually physically gamble. Well, the law's the law, and we weren't going to leave the baby outside in the car. Actually, speaking of Cyrus, we have to give him some props. He was a very good travel companion today. He took naps on Gabriel's chest while we did fun things like walk around and was a trouper in the car as we drove to different places. He even went to bed incredibly easily (laid down awake). Any of you who know him, know that's a big deal. Hopefully, it's a trend he will continue.
We don't have internet in our cabin, so I will post this whenever I get into town tomorrow.
-Shirin

Yay!!! We're in the mountains.

There's nothing like waking up to a man making you breakfast and taking care of your child. Ooh la la.

I just love fireplaces, real or gas.

Our cabin was called "Serenity Cabin." We couldn't help but shout "serenity now" whenever we talked about our cabin (you need to watch more Seinfeld if you don't get it).

Saturday morning, we took a stroll around our neighborhood with a snuggly, sleepy baby.

Down the street from our cabin. The black dot up the hill is a dog we named Blue, the neighborhood lab that adopted us and showed us around the place. She was really cute.

All Blue demanded in return was a little bit of love.

When I was sitting all our shoes by the front door before our walk, I noticed a pair that seemed out of place.

As I mentioned above, our cabin didn't have any internet. Gabriel was remarkably calm about it (I thought he might go through some withdrawls).

This picture is out of order. The first thing G did when we arrived Friday night into our cold cabin was figure out how to light our fireplace. It made things SO cozy and warm.

On the front porch of Serenity Cabin. We really enjoyed being in the middle of nature like this.

Ready to go on a walk!

Happy anniversary!!!!!

A weekend away.

Knowing myself and my slavitude to my hum drum life, I can't believe I would ever be good enough to myself to allow a weekend away from it all to relax, hike, and read books. Luckily, Gabriel is good enough to do it for me and take me away from my normal weekend of studying, laundry, cleaning, and cooking to go to a place like the picture above (this is just an example, I don't have a real picture), in a NC mountain cabin to celebrate our anniversary, which was really Jan 11. I do have to study a bit while there, but I've promised almost a whole day without studying, so that we can hike around outside and read inside, two of my most favorite activities. We've also consulted www.happycow.net and scouted out two closeby veggie-friendly restaurants, one called Lulu's and the other called Soul Infusion, which got a really good review.
So, tomorrow evening, our little family is going to strike out northward to celebrate our most wonderful 3 years together in one of my favorite places on earth, the North Carolina mountains.
Thank you, Gabriel, for not only conceiving of the idea but also for organizing it all for us. What a wonderful anniversary present.
-Shirin

Playtime with Cyrus

This one is him playing during the first half and doing something else during the last half (you'll hear me reference it in the video):



Moods can change so quickly when you're an 8 month old:

Cute pics

This weekend, while I was in surgery, Gabriel and Cyrus came by to visit. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to come out of the surgery suite to visit with them...luckily, a classmate of mine just e-mailed me their photos. How cute!
-Shirin

Some videos (including my first edited one)

Gabriel taught me how to do some preliminary editing and I'm very proud of my small attempt at editing. It was fun.

Playing with the family...


More playing...


Cyrus blabbering (my first edit debut)...

Spay Day

This weekend was Canine Club Spay and Neuter day. I know I've already got a lot on my plate as it is, but I desperately need surgical practice, so I signed up. I had to be there Fri night, all day Sat and Sat night, so Gabriel had to handle the majority of childcare. Luckily, he's a pro.
Beth and I were surgery partners (we wouldn't have it any other way) and had two very nice shelter pups to spay and neuter. See pics below (nothing gory or bloody).
-Shirin

Two pals hanging out together. What is Cyrus chewing on???

Gabriel's pants string!

Our female doggie named Kay. She was pre-meded at this point and quite droopy.



















Me and Beth getting ready to start the spay.



















We'd both forgotten exactly how to do stuff, so she made me go first (thanks, Beth!) Luckily, our trusty surgery professor was around to tell me what to do. We were discussing exactly where to make the incision here.


















OK, here I go!



















Here is our sophomore anesthetist getting our neuter dog, Jed, hooked up to the gas anesthesia. Beth was the main surgeon on this one (I got to remove one testicle).



















Carolyn (sophomore anesthetist) served as a personal body warmer while Beth took Jed's temperature after the neuter was done. Yay, our patients survived! Last night I went back to check on them and their incisions looked good and they were both doing great. Hope they get adopted!

Why I haven't posted anything for awhile

So...I've been in classes for 4 days now, and it has already drained all my energy to do anything else in my life. It's like a life vacuum. Hence, no pictures, videos, or anything else has been posted. Heck, I haven't even done my dishes in 2 days. If anyone has some free time and wants to come to Athens, feel free to come make me food and clean my house...or just babysit; I need all the help I can get.
Since my semester is so short, I actually have two exams next week and two more the week after...no rest for the weary. I am also spaying and neutering some dogs this weekend, since I desperately need surgical practice.
I'm not sure why I'm so tired. Gabriel, my most wonderful husband ever, has started to take most of the night shifts with Cyrus, except for the later one in the morning. Somehow, though, I feel like all the months of sleep deprivation have caught up with me and made me incomparably tired. I'm sure things will get better eventually...just feeling sorry for myself right now.
The good news is I like all of my classes alot. I don't like being in class all day, but they are all very interesting, including Vet Practice Management. More on those later,
-Shirin

The last semester of classes...maybe of my life (but probably not)

School starts tomorrow with what is to be my last semester of classes in vet school (I never thought I'd be saying that). It's actually only 2 months long too, since, on March 2, I start my clinical rotations, which will last 14 months straight with only 3 weeks of vacation the whole time. Welcome to the real world, Shirin. In some ways, I'm SO ready to be doing clinical things in the hospital with real patients. It's why I came to vet school in the first place. In other ways, I don't feel ready at all. It'll be the real deal now, life and death, everything on the line. Yikes, that's a lot of responsibility. Luckily, they don't unleash us in the hospital without lots of supervision, but I will still get grilled daily by all the specialists/interns/residents on all my rules-outs for certain case presentations and have to be able to interpret radiographs and such. I just won't think about how horrible I will be at it in the beginning. Everyone starts at the bottom.
One of the bright spots is that Gabriel and I will get to work together finally. We've always been just 1 floor away, with me in the classrooms and him in the hospital, but now we get to bump into each other all the time! :) Unlike some couples, who do better with some distance between them, we're the type that would like to be together almost all the time. And, we work well together, which makes it that much more fun. He'll actually get to page my name for phone calls and such. What a trip. The other good thing about that is that all the other front desk people (his co-workers) will actually be able to say my name right. That'll be a first!
-Shirin
So, for my mom: my classes this semester will be the following:




I'm dreading this one the most. I've heard it's boring and there's a HUGE project in the end. I hope I get something out of it, because I do think this is an important topic.











We had Respiratory Physiology freshman year, but it was a joke. Now, we revisit Respiratory diseases from a much more clinical viewpoint, I'm sure. I think it's very important, as my sister knows (her sweet kitty was just in the ER for a severe asthma attack).









Yes, that's right. I'm still in Radiology. It didn't finish, despite already spending a whole semester teaching us the head, orthopedics, and thorax (and the equine leg). So, what's left? The abdomen and pelvis, I am assuming. I know it's important and I did catch on more by the end, but it was hard for me to learn, for some reason.









I am looking most forward to this class. I really hope I like it and am good at it. I had the BEST experience with the neurology service here at UGA and watched them definitely diagnose my previous foster cat Dobby's head tilt just from the symptoms I told them about (never saw the cat). It was just brilliant!

I think Cardio will be interesting. I've heard some mixed reviews on this class, so I'll just wait and see how it turns out.

Introducing...

Cyrus, the dancing Persian baby! (Make sure your sound is turned on).

Learning to eat is a laborious process

We all take it for granted that we know how to eat, we find it easy to feed ourselves, and that we can chew up our food. It had never occurred to me how hard it is to actually learn all of those skills from scratch. The following videos are for your observation of this process.

This is how he's been getting fed, and he's good at it now (rice cereal mixed with vegetable broth):



Now, here we're trying to get him to put avocado chunks into his mouth. Avocado is a little hard to pick up, since it's kind of smushy, but it also ensures less choking/gagging (which happens a lot with chunkier foods). He's not nearly as good at it. You can also tell that he's used to me putting it in his mouth for him...I love the baby bird look:



I finally caved and let Gabriel buy something called "Puffs." It's essentially puffed rice with bananas, but it seems mighty processed for my taste. Nevertheless, it is a good educational tool for learning how to pick up tiny objects and put them in one's mouth. This is a few minutes longer than normal videos, but it's cool to watch him figure out how to go about this "feeding yourself" process:

Pap Pap and Morgan

This was a really funny video I took of Gene and Morgan on Christmas Day. Gene was just holding the baby while stirring his corn and realized that Morgan laughed every time he hit the pan...just watch the video. I caught the tail end of it.