Look at me, 2 posts in a row!!  That counts as a blogging streak. 

So we got a puppy for Christmas.  He’s pretty damn cute, although potty training has been painful thus far.  He’s another French Bulldog, and happens to share a bio dad with Henny.  We debated his name: Louis XIII, Napolean, Pepe, Pierre, etc, but we settled on a German name instead (we are in Milwaukee, afterall).  Fritz.  It kinda fits with Hendrick.  And he kinda looks like a Fritz.

When Emilie and Cris were here, Cris (aka the Dog Whisperer) was giving us pointers on training.  He reminded us we should choose a simple phrase we get the puppy used to hearing when he is peeing outside.  Eventually, he begins to associate hearing that phrase with the urge to pee.  The phrase could be something like “hurry up,” or “go potty.”  But of course Travis couldn’t waste that kind of power on a benign command phrase.  Nope.  He decided ours would be “VIVA LA BLUE!”  Apparently that’s the French national soccer team’s chant.  I fought it, and then he threatened to make it “LET THEM EAT CAKE!”  That’s a nerdy European history reference, in case you didn’t recall Marie Antoinette’s famous line.  Since he’s home with the dog 70% more than I am, he knew he’d won this battle.  So, somehow, I find myself outside with the peeing dog, hunching forward and whisper-shouting “Viva La Blue!  Viva La Blue,” in attempt to avoid the neighbors hearing and realizing we’re even weirder than they already think!

Anyway, here are a few cute Christmas-time(ish) videos. This one is from a Christmas festival – kids are jumping on Santa’s big chair:

The next video is of Shane talking about Star Wars and Darth Vader, his favorite topic in the whole galaxy.  We watched the entire original trilogy this week and, shockingly, the kids LOVED every second.  I thought for sure they were too young, but Travis has been talking to them about this story for at least 3 years, so I guess they were mentally prepped.  They each got a little something different out of the story – Shane is ALL ABOUT Darth Vader and the “light savers”, Finley loves Princess Leia, and Jack is interested in the concept of good versus evil.

Griffie kissing the new puppy:

Proof of Finley’s Christmas morning joy:

I’ve been busy as hell, but I LOVE what I’m doing right now – the patients, the diseases, the studying, the procedures, the variety, and the super smart colleagues with which I’m surrounding.  I am happy with my professional life, but the problem of balance still exists.  I knew it would, just didn’t think it’d still be to this extent.  I’m working way too much.  I hate that it’s not at all under my control, and usually also not completely predictable to me.  Still a huge improvement over my intern year hours, but definitely not ideal.  At least I wake up happy, enjoy my day, and come home happy.  It’s better than coming home depressed and defeated, dreading the next day, crying on my way to and from work.  When I think about it, intern year feels like it was SO long ago.  I’m SO glad to have that behind us.

Residency is such a strange experience.  It’s hard to fully explain it to people who aren’t in medicine because it truly is a subculture.  As a universality in residency, we are constantly thrown into situations for which we feel inadequately prepared…to a degree that is almost unsafe.  It’s about constantly pushing the envelope: that boundary between uncomfortable and unsafe, without getting too close to just uncomfortable but also staying just left of unsafe.  It’s a tightrope.  What it creates is a constant state of anxiety…and the embarrassing experience of going to lunch with your attending and a few co-residents when you take off your white coat and your little pill box falls out, dumping its propranolol contents all over the cafeteria floor for patients and colleagues to see.  Good thing that didn’t happen to me:)  Thankfully, the stakes are not as high as they were my intern year, when I was in the trenches caring for people on their death beds, where any slip in the wrong direction after 30hrs of sleeplessness could have been a medical error with huge repercussions.  That was an unsustainable amount of stress for me and a burden I’m thankful is no longer mine.  In derm, 98% of the time my decisions as a physician are not life or death.  Put in more optimistic terms, while they cause significant distress and greatly impact quality of life, skin diseases rarely cause people to die (with some exceptions of course).  In pessimistic terms, I’m more likely to cause my patients’ demise than the disease itself, by using potentially harmful meds that attempt to improve quality of life.

On a lighter note, being a derm resident comes with some fun perks…one of which is cosmetics workshop.  Yes, I have fairly strong feelings about what the focus of cosmetic “medicine” has done to the public, as well as what cosmetic dermatology has done to the public’s image of my specialty.  And yes, I swore I’d never partake in Botox.  BUT, I did.  I did it for the sake of my fellow residents’ education of course:).   No, but seriously, it is the reality that this stuff is actually on my boards so I have to be proficient enough to pass, and I also acknowledge that sometimes “selling out to the man” (who pays well) can subsidize other things that I want to do in my future career (ie: work free STD clinics, volunteer my time at the VA and indigent clinics, etc). 

I digress…anyway, over the weekend we injected each other’s faces, and the faces of willing friends and family members, with Botox and filler.  I have to admit, we had fun.  My program held a round of derm interviews 2 days later; we must’ve looked like the island of misfit derm residents because our Botox was “in transition.”  I think half my face was paralyzed and I had a huge bruise on the other half.  Aside from looking like a battered wife for a few days because of injection site bruising, I think it went well.  I did learn, however, why I have such deep rhytides (wrinkles) in the first place…my dermatochalasis is so bad I have to contract my frontalis muscle just to elevate my eyes enough to have decent vision!  So with those muscles paralyzed, I now need blepharoplasty!  Of course, if my eyelids aren’t saggy anymore, my boobs will surely look out of place!  LOL!  And so it begins…(joking)

Before / After (I wish the picture quality were better – I took the afters just now at home in my kitchen with crappy lighting):

I SUCK at blogging.  I just can’t seem to get back into a blogging routine.  I can’t even believe how long it’s been since I last updated.

It’s kinda like getting a little out of touch with a close friend, then more time goes by and the space feels enormous, then MORE time elapses and the idea of the phone call to reestablish touch seems overwhelming.  You build it up as if you need to carve out an entire night, so you keep looking for the perfect opportunity, and in the meantime, even MORE time passes.  You get the point. 

So, I’m just going to write like normal and not feel like I have to go back and rehash everything I sucked at documenting the first time around.

My kids are challenging yet incredible, my life is full, my job is amazing but ridiculously demanding, and my husband is my rock.  Our Christmas was fantastic – we spent it with Travis’ family and our dear friends Chris & Emily (and their girls, Nova and Juneau).

Writing letters to Santa the night before Christmas:

Jack got the goldfish he begged Santa for:

Fin got a freakin puppy in place of the coal she really deserved (a puppy who is Henny’s 1/2 brother):

And Shane has slept with his “light saver” ever since he tore the package open (of all his gifts, the cheapest, simplest one is always the winner with him). 

And Griff was cute as cute could be, even in spite of being sick on Christmas Eve.  He was in a bit of a daze with all the commotion Christmas morning:

This is Henny’s little brother, Fritz:

I love this picture of Heather:

More recent:

Someone’s gonna have to teach this dog how to walk!

I’m about to pass out – GI bug been ripping up this place for ~2wks now and I’m TIRED from the lack of sleep.  Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and a happy New Year!  I’ll write more later…

Pronounced “Al-a-va-fa-ma.” 

n. 1) Utopia 2) A place where unicorns exist and lakes are made of chocolate 3) An alternate universe in which your parents answer “yes” to requests for twizzlers 100% of the time.

Not surprisingly, Finley has been living in fantasy land.  She has named it “Alavafama.”  According to Finley, both Halloween AND Christmas are celebrated every single day in Alavafama.  She has tons of cats and kittens there, even her most special one named Filipe, and she gets to eat candy pretty much constantly.  But the best part is her very agreeable mom who lives there.  We hear about Alavafama so often that the boys even talk about it with her.  I think she’s honestly made them jealous that she gets to go there all the time (in her crazy little noggin). 

Hope yours was as fun as ours!

The most amazing part about Griff eating his first lollipop is that he had claws for hands – we put that thing in his mouth and he somehow ate the WHOLE thing without it ever once falling out, and without using any hands.  I think he liked it!

These are a few weeks old.  Griffie just turned 11 months old – I can’t believe how fast his babyhood has gone.  Makes me sad.

Homeschooling is going really well, overall.  I can’t believe how good we have it, actually.  Our kids are thriving, their teacher is creative and proactive, and their classmates are such great little buddies for my kids.  It’s been a hugely positive thing from a self-esteem angle, especially for Shane with regards to academics and Jack with regards to social stuff. 

The 1st real trouble we’ve hit…drum roll please…would be with Finley.  Big surprise.  So she has a lying problem, who doesn’t.  But the real trouble is her constant need to push the limits and test everyone’s reactions all the time.  This morning started off badly when she walked into the kitchen and screamed at Travis: “Hurry up and make my breakfast, you RAT!”  To her defense, I think she heard that line from a move, although I cannot recall which one (I just can’t imagine even her little devil mind came up with that on its own).  Travis sat her down and gave her a SERIOUS talking to.  He then ordered she NEVER talk that way again, especially to grown-ups like himself or me, then also named the nanny and the teacher.

After school today, the teacher asked for a moment to meet with Travis.  She proceeded to tell him that Finley did something naughty and was put in timeout at school today.  Finley then said “I’m not going to timeout, you idiot!”  Our teacher was telling Travis this in shock, as if she expected Travis to be equally appalled and shocked (which he pretended to be, but secretly was not at all).  Finely was then given a school timeout and brought upstairs to Deb  (the nanny).  As soon as Deb said something to Finley about being disappointed to hear she’d talked like that, Finley responded with “shut up Miss Deb!” 

Holy fucking shit.  Where the hell did my kid get a mouth like that?!!  But seriously.  I blame Disney movies for words like that.  If it were the F bomb, I’d own it, but it’s way worse than that.  I’m making light of this, but truly, we have a very large 27lb problem on our hands.  It’s honestly like every now and then this adorable little sweetheart has this poltergeist moment when her head spins and she turns demonic.

I got home from work tonight and had heard all the drama, so I also sat her down for a good talking to.  I held her in my arms and rocked her as I told her how much I hope she doesn’t get suspended from school.  She is currently on probation and another offense will land her suspended for 1 day, and we’ll make sure that’s a fun field trip day.  I don’t like playing Principal, but someone’s gotta do it. 

And here she is in the picture below, making her big brother help her slip on her princess shoes. 

Shane makes the most hysterical “funny face.”  Here’s our little class clown:

It’s funny to watch the boys lately – their relationship has taken on such a typical brother-brother dynamic.  They are all about wrestling, sword fighting, and intentionally irritating the heck out of each other.  They are still very affectionate too though and will hug and kiss one another almost as often as they bop each other:) 

Shane and Finley are truly the best of friends.  They watch out for each other and are just so sweet together.  Don’t get me wrong, Jack is their 3rd musketeer, and Shane and Finley adore him, but Jack is just such an introspective kid and always processing things on a different level – there’s a depth to him that I don’t think Fin and Shane get.  He’s also not a follower and isn’t very good at playing someone else’s game (it always has to be them playing his game).  That works out most of the time, since Finley and Shane would follow the pied-piper off the edge of a cliff (which is something we need to work on, obviously).  Jack, on the other hand, would complain the Pied-piper wasn’t doing what he wanted him to, and Jack would just go his own way.

One of his many nicknames (Guy-Guy is what Jack calls him 80% of the time).  He also answers to My Little Synophrys (the medical term for unibrow:), Griffie-doh, Griffindor (Gryffindor from Harry Potter), Doh-Doh (adapted from Griffie-Doh), Griffers, etc. 

I can’t believe how fast his babyhood is going (and has gone!).  The past 10 months have been a blur; in many ways it feels like MUCH more time than that has passed, and in other ways, it feels like I’ve barely blinked.  Well, here’s Griff, doing his new thing:

Here he is waving.  Or signing milk.  I can’t remember now; it’s all context-dependent!

Doing his happy piggy snort:

We still have no clue who this kid looks like. So much for that olive-skinned baby we saw come out.  Remember that kid?

Turns out we made a baby who could almost pass for having oculocutaneous albinism!  Travis refuses to admit Griff has some cinnamon-colored highlights, but when the sun hits just right (or I adjust the Lightroom settings just so), there is a very subtly hint of it.  It’s funny because we used to jokingly ask each other when we were pregnant, “are you sure there’s no MC1R mutation in your gene pool?”  Turns out (apparently), we were both lying since red hair is a recessive trait!  Hahaha!  I do love this precious little face, it’s just the temper I could do without.  Turns out he’s a LOT like his big sister, just less affectionate!  But he sure has the sweetest little face and I LOVE those big blues.

Anyway, he’s a demanding but very fun baby.  He’s very playful and laughs along with the kids no matter how over his head the joke is!  He’s SO snuggly with his daddy, not so much with his mommy, but he does still like to nurse – I’ll take what I can get.  He eats EVERYTHING, and has since he was ~6 months old.  Of all meals though, his favorite is ribs!  He also likes spicy foods, even buffalo wings.  He’ll eat veggies like they’re going out of style too though, including kale and the other deep greens.  I can’t believe he’s only 10 months old sometimes.

A Halloween sneak peek.  I couldn’t convince Finley to conform to the under-the-sea theme; she made a good argument that magic unicorns don’t live in the ocean.  But the rest of the kids costumes are absolutely adorable together.

Here’s Fin, who wasn’t interested in wearing pants under her costume.  So she was a naked unicorn rider.

The cutest octopus:

The gentlest shark:

A crabby lobster: