1 down, 3 more to go

The countdown continues, with only 3 more rotations left. I start Cardiology tomorrow, which involves a lot of sitting down in a chair and looking at echocardiograms (heart ultrasounds) and listening to a lot of lecturing (constant talking from the moment I get there til the moment I leave). I hope I can stay awake and learn a lot, because I feel sort of deficient in my cardio knowledge at this time. I am really, really looking forward to the sitting part of the rotation. I didn't experience all the tiredness and foot/leg pain when I was pregnant with Cyrus that I have this time around, probably because I sat in class all the time. Being on my feet has made me really tired and I often feel like collapsing at the end of the day after clinics. The next two rotations will probably involve a lot more sitting, which makes me happy.

I'm planning on using any of my extra free-time (Cardio has good hours) to organize all the baby clothes I own to try to get ready with the newborn onsies again. I know they are somewhere in my house, but I haven't seen them in a while. I'm also trying to figure out the summer clothes for Cyrus before it's actually warm and I don't have anything ready. I think his 2Ts from last year will still fit, but I have to weed out all the 18 month stuff, since he's completely grown out of that. I'm kind of looking forward to figuring out what my boys will be wearing the summer. It's like playing with dolls or Barbies just a little bit. :)

-Shirin

Mickey Mouse!

Cyrus has a new-found love for Mickey Mouse. He's never seen him on TV, but it started at Pap pap and Grandma's house at Christmastime when Cyrus saw a big, blow-up Mickey in the front yard. Since then, his love for Mickey has just grown and grown.

Here are some pictures.

-Shirin

A mysterious package in the mail from Pap pap arrived. What could be in it?

Wha?

A smaller version of my friend, Mickey!!!

SMOOCH!

I've posted this one time before, but Cyrus really loves to put him to bed. Here he is buried under a ton of blankets, just like Cyrus likes to sleep.

Mickey getting his "night, night" kiss from Cyrus.

Cyrus saying "up" so he can turn off the lights and let Mickey go to sleep.

Night, night, Mickey.

A ton of Cyrus videos

The next two videos are from the night it started to snow.







The next few videos are from the next morning in the thick, yummy snow.






Playing upstairs in his old baby toy.



Jumping on my bed and playing in Tita's old bedroom.



If only we all had the energy to run up and down the stairs like this.



Playing with Grandma and her broom.



Playing ball with Grandma and Baba. He specifically kept requesting that the ball be thrown to his shirt, head, chin, mouth, etc. Hope he doesn't learn to deck the rest of us in the head with a ball one day.



Our little soccer player kicking the ball around.

Weekend in Rock Hill

I only had one weekend off this rotation, since we're on-call 66% of the time over the three weeks. Since I also needed to come home to discuss the possibility of working for my old boss in Rock Hill, we decided to make a weekend of it. Being with grandparents makes Cyrus so happy, and it's so nice to have a relaxed weekend with family.
My talk with my old boss was very good, and Gabriel and I are now left with the task of considering all our options. While I don't consider myself a pessimist at all, I have been stressed out by all of my impending choices. Conversely, Gabriel has been excited and has enjoyed discussing all the possibilities with me. Today I told him I felt it was a lose-lose situation while he said he felt it was a win-win. He's a very positive person, afterall. Among the things for us to consider include our children, babysitters, health insurance, Gabriel's career, salary, professional experience, housing, family proximity, and location preference. There are no easy answers. The only thing that is for sure is that I need to actually graduate from vet school before I can do anything, and I need to have Ky in Athens with my regular doctor. After that, we'll have to see, and we'll obviously let everyone else know what we'll be doing once we figure it out.
On a lighter note, here are some pictures of the weekend.
-Shirin

Playing Lego's with Grandma Ingrid.

I can't wait to help him build lego towers.

Sweeping the floor with a little helper.

Sweeping turned into a sword fight.

With all the cool toys around, what do you think Baba came up with?

Turning Cyrus into a pack mule to pull a laundry basket full of balls.

He pulled them all over the house.

The end. We're heading back home tonight when Cyrus gets sleepy.

Third installment of Cyrus' word diary

It has been awhile since I posted anything about Cyrus' language development, partly because it's just hard to describe his pronunciations in text and partly because his speech has just been slowly increasing/improving and was no longer as easy to catalog (he can probably say up to 200 words, although it's really hard for me to count and remember all the stuff he says...I might be overestimating).

However, a new change in Cyrus' language development has gotten me excited: he can now say some phrases and two-word sentences. While his girl friend, Cailyn, can speak in much longer phrases/sentences already, Cyrus is more on par with average language development, which means at this time he is starting to put two words together in a significant manner. Some examples are:

-Dog run = the dog is running

-Mommy lap = Mommy's lap

-Bite cereal = bite of cereal

-Got it= I got it

He has also started pronouncing words much better, although he still mixes up sounds and seems to use the wrong sounds for certain letters, especially S and C. He can say "cat" or "kitty" just fine, but instead of saying "Mickey Mouse" he says "Minnie Mouse." Don't ask me why he can't say the C sound in the middle of that word. And it's just a coincidence that Minnie Mouse actually is a real character, because we never have talked about her, and he's definitely talking about Mickey.

Anyway, we're excited about the new language development and his ever-increasing ability to communicate. At night before bed, he often tells us about his pillows and blankets and books, and we discuss the next morning with breakfast and new diapers. He clearly understands his life's schedule at this point. It makes things so easy. Lucky for us, it has occurred just in time for lump-on-a-log baby #2 to come along. It's OK....at least we'll know that Ky will eventually be able to speak and seem like a person in the future, just like his talkative big brother! :)

-Shirin

The end is in sight

I'm on Ophthalmology right now. It's the second to last block I'll have in the main vet teaching hospital. After this, I go to Cardiology (also in the hospital), and then I go down to the other clinic for my Behavior rotation. My last block, I am doing a Shelter Medicine externship in NE Georgia where I should get a lot of spay/neuter surgery experience. That ends a week before I graduate and then I will be completely done!
I have had several interviews so far and I have at least one more. There is another clinic that has called me back and they are really awesome, but, unfortunately, they are quite far away and would lead us to have to move...farther from both of our families. It probably won't work out. Luckily, I've liked all the places I've interviewed, so I think I could be happy anywhere. I'll let you know more when I know it.
Ophthalmology is an interesting rotation because we don't have a lot of in-patients or SOAPs to write, but we have a fast-paced out-patient service (more like a normal vet clinic) and see a lot of patients each day. We also do cataract surgeries and other eye procedures (I don't, the doctors do). Eyes are SO important and we have so many dogs that are blind or going blind and we are trying to prevent it or slow down the changes. It's a very important topic. We also do horse appointments in the afternoons, so we see the whole scope of animals. I'm reminded again of why I chose to work with small animals.
OK, back to watching the Olympics before hitting the sack.
-Shirin

I look at eyes all day these days.

22 weeks pregnant

Ky is making his presence known to me now, with very frequent kicks and twirls. I'm getting bigger but am luckily still feeling comfortable for the most part and am doing fine with the clinical rotation I'm in (Ophthalmology). I go back to the doctor for a check-up on March 3rd and from this point on, there will just be routine check-ups til the end. No more ultrasounds or anything major unless there are problems. I guess I do have to do my glucose test in the next visit or two, but hopefully I'm not diabetic this time, since I wasn't the last time. Here's a picture of my belly and what he should be looking like these days.
-Shirin

A relaxing weekend home

We woke up Saturday to a sunny, snowy day. Luckily, it started melting on the roads pretty soon, so we got to have friends over for games that night. Today, the snow was basically gone and we went to our favorite lake and playground to enjoy the sunny, relatively warm afternoon.

-Shirin

Yay! Lots of crunchy, wet snow to scuff around in.

Cyrus doesn't have mittens, so I put socks on his hands (and called them mittens...but he was too smart and still called them socks) to keep his poor little paws warm. Sadly, he decided to pick up and drop a bunch of snow over and over, so his hands and "mittens" were still completely soaked and freezing.

I decided 21 months old is old enough to learn how to make a snow angel. At first he tried to resist and get back up...

...but he eventually saw it my way.

We walked to the store for some drinks and snacks, all the while watching melting snow fall from the trees. Cyrus walked almost the first half of the way, but after that he wanted to be carried. Luckily, Gabriel is a certified pack mule and had no problem toting the little boy AND the bag of food.

We saw an interesting snow sculpture on our neighbor's mailbox on the way back. I'll leave it up to your interpretation as to what this art represents. :)

After nap time, Cyrus had an exciting visitor...Uncle (Tio) Brendan.

He fed Cyrus lunch and let him snuggle.

Beth, Denise, and Nowell joined us to try out Gabriel's new game, called Junta. It's a sort of political game that involves overthrowing the president (Gabriel) if he doesn't play fairly, etc. It was complicated but fun.

Lucky for Cyrus, Denise and Nowell brought his good friend Cailyn to play with him.

What a beautiful duet.

I'm not sure what was stressing these guys out so much...perhaps that Gabriel had 2-3 times more money than any of the rest of us.

At our feet, the two kiddies were drawing and "sharing" crayons. We figure they spend all day together during the week, so this is probably how they always interact (snatching each others' toys) and they make it work some how.

Today, Cyrus and I hopped in the car and drove to Memorial Park.

He spent much of his time climbing onto rocks and jumping off.

He also went down a bunch of slides too. He's a pro at climbing all those playground steps to slide down by himself. It's great.

Whee!

We also went on a walk around the lake, where we saw ducks and geese and, of course, sat on more rocks.

Looking for more ducks (they were all on the other side).

Sitting on one of the many Athens Bulldogs in the city.

Going down the big slide into the last pile of remaining snow.

Snow in GA!

It started to snow this afternoon. We have at least 3-5 inches outside right now. We're going to play outside all morning tomorrow. Yippee!

-Shirin

Our front yard.

Enjoying the snow before dinner.

Enjoying the warm indoors.

Superbowl and Cyrus' many faces

For the Superbowl, Brendan and Beth came over to watch and eat. I also played with the camera and told Cyrus to make lots of different faces. Here are the results.

-Shirin

Beth said she's in the same spot as always in all my pictures. Who knows why Cyrus was limp in this picture.

My eclectic Superbowl feast.

Smile!

Kiss!

Angry.

Sour.

I think this is a real reaction to the lemon.

Bros.

Last night we put Cyrus into his training pants (little white undies) he got for Christmas from Grandma Rita because he had some diaper rash. It was so cute (until he peed in them). :)

He's got his kissy face down.

Boy, was he a grump last night, though.

What a tortured soul he is.