M is developing a good sense of humor these days. When I went to pick up A in the baby room at daycare (you have to remove your shoes to go in there), J went to get M from the toddler room. They saw my shoes outside the baby room and M thought it would be funny to wear my shoes instead of his. So when I opened the door, there he was walking around in my shoes, saying "My shoes, my shoes." Actually it was more like "Mine shoes, mine shoes." I pretended like his shoes were mine and tried to put them on (as best I could). M thought this was pretty amusing and started walking out of the daycare, giggling all the way. Eventually he did switch back with me (thank goodness) and we headed home for dinner.

Tags: shoes, M

I just updated my post about being pregnant during medical school with a list of things I learned or wish I had already known about pregnancy. Now that I am over 6 months out, it doesn't seem so bad anymore. But when I think a little bit more about it, I can totally remember the awful nausea and fatigue in early pregnancy and cringe at the thought of going through that again. But after visiting my friend L's new baby (I posted about her shower gift a few weeks ago), it made me feel like maybe it wasn't as bad as I thought. Funny how adorable babies can cause mommy amnesia so easily.

Tags: pregnancy

This photo is overly bright with the intense flash focus, but I think it's kind of cute. It looks like A is trying to(unsuccessfully) hide behind his cow. Look at those adorable little toes. I think the cow kind of looks like A too.

Tags: A

We celebrated J's birthday at the end of February with some cupcakes. A fell asleep, but M enjoyed the treat, especially since it was his first time eating a cupcake. He declared "I like Daddy's birthday!" afterwards. A funny thing happened too. For his own birthday last year, he was afraid to blow out the candle. And he tried to blow out candles at my birthday too, but wasn't able to. So after we sang "Happy Birthday" to J, I said, "Okay M, now Daddy gets to..." And before I knew it, M had blown out the candle in a quick puff. He did it so quietly too, like some sort of stealth candle blower. It was pretty funny.

Tags: M, J, me

I could go on and on about named diseases, but here's one that I had never heard of before. It can be the presenting symptoms of sarcoidosis in some populations, especially Scandinavian women. The classic triad is polyarthritis, erythema nodosum, and bilateral hilar adenopathy. So the appropriate next step if you suspect this (according to my practice question) is to do a chest x-ray. Who knew?

A just turned 6 months old recently, and his nickname has changed from "Gummy Bear" to "Toothy Bear." If you look carefully at the photo below, you can see two upper teeth creeping in (he also has two sprouting up from below as well). He's enjoying rice cereal and banana in addition to his usual milk, and weighs a robust 18 or so pounds. He can roll over in both directions now (front to back and vice versa) and is really using his hands more. He's just about at the stage where he can transfer objects between hands too. It's amazing how he develops on a daily basis. I mean, I've been busy on my hand surgery rotation, and I feel like I miss new stuff when I haven't seen him in two days. In that sense, I can't wait to be done (even though I am having a great time and find it to be a fascinating field).

I've been a bit slow to post, especially about my medical school experiences, but I plan to catch up in the next few weeks. I've got lots to comment on regarding all my clerkships and where I think my career is headed.

Tags: A, J

Okay, so this is long overdue as well - I am pretty behind in just about everything I am working on these days. Luckily, I only have a few more days on this rotation and then I have a little study break (meaning, time to study).

We went to a community Valentine's Day party last month, where we frosted cookies, played games and enjoyed some balloon animals. M even got this wild balloon hat, which he had a good time with. A seems to think it is quite interesting as well.

Tags: holiday, M, A, me

This is what happens when you are enlisted to photograph someone's wedding - you hardly take any photographs of yourselves. I think this might one of the few family shots we have with everyone awake. K is J's little sister, and she helped out a lot with the kids while we were there.



I'm pretending to eat the cake and M is trying to stop me. You can sort of see more of his suit in this one.



We don't really have too many fancy functions to attend in the near future, so I am not sure when he'll wear it again. Perhaps the next time I post about it, A will be wearing it.

I'm still on a surgical rotation (hand service), so I've been a bit busy. Only one more week to go, then it's back to studying for Step 2. I'm off to the operating room for a paint-gun injury...

Tags: J, me, A, M

I love giving gifts. Sometimes it's hard to come up with something, especially if there isn't a lot of time, but I have a lot of fun choosing things that I think my friends and family would like (they often overlap with things that I would enjoy as well, so that makes it easier).

My friend L had her baby shower not too long ago, and I was very excited to give her the gift I had been planning for months. Since I found out she was pregnant, I have been purchasing extra of each of our favorite baby things when we buy them so that I could put together a gift bag for her. I also bought a few additional goodies that I thought she'd enjoy:

• pack of Quickables wipes
• box of latex gloves (for those really messy diapers)
• four small and two large disposable diaper changing pads (multipurpose pads)
• box of Fresh Sacks diaper disposal bags
• Classic Winnie the Pooh ceramic night light (forgot to take a picture; purchased at Target)
• pair of Baby Legs
• Aquaphor
• A+D ointment
• Tropical Lullaby CD (one of our favorites)
• monkey rattle
• teddy bear (from Old Navy)

I wrapped some items in Japanese paper, put them all in a cute tote I got at Lucy, tied a ribbon around it and voila! It was a gift I would have found fun and useful when I had my babies. I hope she enjoys it as much as I enjoyed putting it together.

Tags: friends

I had to fly to Chicago for a meeting over the last couple of days (more about this later) and on my return flight, a fellow passenger started feeling quite ill. A general announcement was made by the flight attendant requesting medical help ("Is there a doctor or nurse on board?" and I have to admit - I wasn't sure what I should do. I looked around to see if anyone had pressed the call button indicating that they could help and waited about 1 minute before another announcement was made overhead, requesting assistance. I probably shouldn't have hesitated, but at the same time, I'm not a doctor (yet) and it was a bit intimidating to think about where this could end up going if I did jump in to help. After another minute (and a mini self pep talk), I decided that at least offering to help would be the right thing to do (a medical student is better than no one, right?) I flagged down the flight attendant and asked if someone had come forward to help. She said a nurse was talking to the passenger, but they wanted to know if there was anyone else on board who might be able to help out as well. I told her I was a fourth-year medical student and that I would be happy to talk to and/or examine the ill passenger, but she gave me a somewhat confused and skeptical look, and said "It has to be someone with credentials," and hustled off to assist the sick patient, who was far in the rear of the aircraft. Um...alrighty then.

I felt a bit silly, as if I was supposed to know that was the case (is that really the case?). I mean, if it were me, I'd want all the help I could get. But I guess the situation was stable with the nurse helping out, since I didn't hear any more announcements. What if there wasn't a nurse on board? Would they have said I should help? Is it a liability issue? I mean, even if I wasn't in the medical field, and I saw a sick person, I'd at least offer my help in any way that I could.

In any case, I felt rejected, like my few years of medical training didn't mean anything because I didn't have my diploma. Weird. I could be graduating tomorrow and I guess according to their policy, I would not be able to assist. Oh well. At least I tried.

It was a weird flight. There was a middle-aged woman on the plane who was sitting next to me, and her husband kept coming by to ask her questions (he was sitting somewhere else on the plane, and she kept switching seats between the one next to me and the one next to him - she moved next to me when he wanted to stretch out over the whole row). In any case, after a couple of times of me having to get up out of my aisle seat to let her back into the row, she said, "That's what happens when you get a husband." Hmm. I smiled politely, not really wanting to get into how not only do I have a husband, but two little kids waiting for me back home. It was a double whammy in terms of receiving somewhat patronizing comments. Maybe I was just being overly sensitive, but it was definitely a strange experience.

Tags: me, travel

M and A don't really look so similar anymore, but I keep coming across photos that are strikingly alike (from when they were both younger). What do you think? Answer

And if you missed them, here are pop quizzes #1 and #2.

Tags: M, A