Monday, December 31, 2007

Monday, December 31, 2007

Did I Pack My Brain?

We spent the last weekend of 2007 in The City, San Francisco.
It was heinous getting there... As Hubby alluded to in his blog, we were fighting about random stuff- packing, picking up the kids and me, and traffic...blah! As a mother of 2 kids and a wife of nearly 8 years, I will admit this right now: I know very little, if anything, about sacrificial love. I am secretly 3 years old inside. I want what I want when I want it!
The hotel we stayed at was really lame. Our adjoining rooms weren't available- and they asked if we can make do with 2 rooms on 2 different FLOORS. I was ready to just get back in the car and drive home. Eventually, we got our adjoining rooms- 2 hours later. Meanwhile, Hubby and Aidan went to pick up dinner, and it took forever. I thought Hubby was so mad at me that he decided to just get dinner with Aidan and let me starve... It was quite the low point.
Our Saturday was so much better. We went got to see our friends, S&A, who live in the city. It was rather silly, that even when we were in the city, we still made them come to us. Aidan loves his auntie A, much to the chargrin of uncle S.
On Sunday, I took both kids(!) with me while Hubby tried to load up the car. A&Z, and I climbed up hill through Chinatown, to get some dim sum to take home, and we even caught a bus to San Francisco Center, met up with Hubby, had lunch, walked around while Zoe napped in the Ergo. And finally got in the car to drive home.
We were all so happy to be home- even little kids prefer the comfort of home!
Our next trip will be in a few weeks, when we head down to Monterey! Hopefully, I will know a little bit more about sacrificial love and we will have one less tiff.


Thursday, December 27, 2007

Garbage/Trash/Basura/Muell/Ordures

We make a LOT of garbage. Every week, we fill TWO huge garbage cans full of crap (half of it is really crap...). We also generate an enormous amount of recycling.

Then, Christmas came, and it got WORSE.

We had all these gift boxes, Amazon shipping boxes, gift wrap, boxes from storage that I decided to throw away, boxes from toys that Hubby played with as a boy, boxes from Zoe's diapers, wipes, boxes from shoes, I think you get the idea. Our pile of boxes was ginormous. It was quite embarrassing actually, as it was evidence that we consume so much.

I dragged out of the garage on Tuesday evening, nearly giddy that the waste management people will take it away bright and early on Wednesday. Then, on Wednesday, no one came, something about this being Christmas week. I added more crap to this huge pile. Only to discover that OTHER PEOPLE had added their garbage to our pile. Seriously. Garbage removal is included in our home owner association fee- so everyone here can just leave their garbage out. Therefore, to add it to someone else's pile is just, so lame. I deflated these boxes and emptied their contents, to discover people's pay stubs- unfortunately (or fortunately for the person), I didn't recognize the name (Daniel Ramos- throw away your own garbage!) and the social security number was xxx-xx-2493.

This morning, while I tried to move the pile so that Hubby could drive out his car, I found MORE of other people's crap, including a TIFFANY robin blue BOX! If one can afford Tiffany stuff, one should be able to throw one's own garbage away!

To add insult to my 'injury', the recycling folks did not take the Tiffany box, because...it wasn't properly deflated. I threw it in my garbage can.

I thought it was too bad we didn't take a picture of our ginormous pile, but don't worry, another pile will be generated shortly, next time, I promise.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas!

We saw Hubby's extended family last night.

The kids were in their matchy-matchy outfits. Taking this photograph was taking A VERY LONG TIME, and I just wanted to eat the boys who insisted on fixing the Lego truck before the picture could be taken.



We had our Christmas frenzy this morning.

Everyone got sick.
Aidan kept asking for more Lego sets.
Zoe kept eating wrapping paper and plastic stuff.
I was getting overwhelmed by all the stuff that will join our household.
Hubby tried to connect his new monitor to our super old computer, only to realize that the computer is so old, that it can't interface with the wide screen monitor.
My sister passed out and is still asleep FIVE hours later. Aidan thought it was odd that auntie missed lunch.

Hubby and I decided that next Christmas, there will be NO presents, because Aidan is becoming obsessed with presents, and rudely saying, "I don't like it!" I suppose that while I am so blessed to have the life that I do have, I am often griping, "I don't like it!" Nonetheless, Hubby and I decided that we will not buy Aidan any more toys in 2008. Instead, we are going to give him cold, hard, cash. This way, he can save up his money to buy the ultimate Lego set, or buy whatever he wants to. As for Christmas 2008, we are going to take a trip instead.

Friday, December 21, 2007

  • More Random Thoughts

    Alright, it is official. Hubby is spending the night in Chicago, at the gate, just so he won't miss his flight.
    The plane had 'mechanical problems' then when they got a new plane, the pilot had worked for too long and so the flight was canceled. I tried to explain it to Aidan, and he said, "is Daddy lonely?"

    Then I tried to study, while I listened to my latest Christmas album, "Christmas Offerings" by Third Day.
    Talk about depressing myself. Here are the words to their song, "Merry Christmas".

    There's a little girl trembling on a cold December morn
    Crying for momma's arms
    At an orphanage just outside a little China town
    There the forgotten are

    But half a world away I hang the stockings by the fire
    And dream about the day when I can finally call you mine

    It's Christmas time again but you're not home
    Your family is here and yet you're somewhere else alone
    And so tonight I pray that God will come and hold you in his arms
    And tell you from my heart I wish you Merry Christmas

    As I hang the tinsel on the tree and watch the twinkling lights
    I'm warmed by the fire's glow
    Outside the children tumble in a wonderland of white,
    Make angels in the snow

    But half a world away you try your best to fight the tears
    And hope that heaven's angels come to carry you here

    It's Christmas time again but you're not home
    Your family is here and yet you're somewhere else alone
    And so tonight I pray that God will come and hold you in his arms
    And tell you from my heart I wish you Merry Christmas

    Christmas is a time to celebrate the holy child
    and we celebrate his perfect gift of love
    He came to earth to give his life
    and prepare a place for us
    so we could have a home with him above

    It's Christmas time again and now you're home
    Your family is here so you will never be alone
    So tonight before you go to sleep, I'll hold you in my arms
    And I'll tell you from my heart, and I'll tell you from my heart
    I wish you Merry Christmas


    Clearly, I am procrastinating. I learned the song was inspired by one of the band members, who is waiting to adopt from China. Our friends, http://www.bringingmeihome.blogspot.com are waiting to go pick up their little girl. I am here, waiting for my Hubby to come home, (okay, okay, so it is fairly certain, that my Hubby will be home for Christmas) but still. I am nearly sobbing.

    Whenever I talk to families adopting, (okay, okay, so I don't really talk to most of them, I just read their blogs) they talk about being called to adopt. I wonder, what exactly is that? What is 'to be called'? I don't think I have really felt 'being called' to do anything. Pretty much everything I have done in my life, well, I just did, because it was the 'right' next step. What if I am missing a calling or something?

    I look at my little Chinese children, although the older one denies that he is Chinese, and I know it is really sad for those moms and dads to give up their little babes. Is there another one out there who is meant to live with us? Clearly, I only have so much of 'me' to go around. Would this 'me' be of more value in God's kingdom if we adopt a little girl, or would I be more useful to work?

    Adding to the fuel, my father-in-law's Christmas letter reads, "M & W have a new born baby girl in March by the name of Zoe. Now they have one boy and one girl. What an ideal situation, so it really doesn't matter what the next one will be???"

    What? The man thinks we are having a third?

    In Hubby's blogs, http://www.xanga.com/phatphotographer he likes to say, 'my oldest son' and my 'youngest daughter' as if there are more children, or something.

    I have this friend, who has four kids. Three years ago, she told me she pictured me having lots of children.

    Who are these people? Saying these things to me? Don't they know that I am hormonal and might just get another baby, somewhere? Then I can 'sell' them like a team.

    Alright, I should sign off, and get some sleep, since I will be solo tomorrow morning.

  • Doing Less Work

    Our home owner association has an annual Christmas party, an opportunity for the adults to get liquored up and and the kids all get an age appropriate present. I really wanted to take Aidan, but had no desire to drag Zoe along, since it would be way beyond her bedtime. At the same time, I didn't want to get home late, then bath Aidan and get him to bed even later. So, I had this brilliant idea: bath the kids together. Why I didn't think of this before, I don't know. We might just do this every night.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Random Thoughts

Hubby is in Montreal, freezing, and wishing he had heeded my advice year after year: Buy yourself a heavy, dressy coat to wear. Year after year, he had resisted: "I don't need one, I hardly ever go anywhere cold." Well, in the years he had been gainfully employed, the man had spent an entire winter in Michigan, LIVED in NY for 2 years, been to St. Petersburg, Russia, and now in Canada. I think we have some shopping to do after Christmas for ourselves.

So while he is out, I am 'taking advantage of this time' and using it wisely, to study. (I haven't watched any DVDs at all, my parents would be so proud.) In my studies, it has become really clear what my parenting style is. (Well, some minutia about psychiatry and neurology had become clear too, but that would not be so interesting to discuss.) I parent by scaring my children.

You wash your hands, because the various kinds of germs out there. Particularly, the PARASITES. You do NOT want the 'Scotch Tape' test. (There is this worm, enterobias vermicularis, that lays eggs by the ANUS while the person sleeps - I won't say 'you', just too scary- and then crawls back into the intestines during the day. One way to collect the eggs is to place Scotch Tape over the anus first thing in the morning and examining the tape under the microscope.)

You don't lie because you don't want to go to jail. In jail, there is only one hour of recreational time in a 24 hour period. Breakfast is served at 4AM, and your last meal is at 4 PM. You will never have enough to eat.
It is always cold in jail.

This evening, right before I opened my Kaplan and Sadock book, I read about Britney Spears' sister, Jamie Lyn, who is now pregnant, at 16 years of age. It got me thinking. I imagine having this conversation with Aidan and Zoe, probably not in a too-far-off future. (Scare them while they are easily scared, I say.)

Aside from the fact that God says sex is for married couples... If you have sex, you will eventually get pregnant. Even people with tubal ligation or vasectomy can still get pregnant (1 out of 1000). If you get pregnant, you are better off keeping the baby. It will be really hard. We will help you, but it will still be hard. Let's talk about STDs. Do you know what happens to people with HIV? (I reviewed HIV/AIDS this evening.) You end up getting all sorts of fungal infections. Parasitic infections. Encephalitis. Meningitis. Abscesses. Your brain turns to mush. You get diarrhea, unpredictably, uncontrollably. I plan on talking about diarrhea A LOT, until they(or Hubby) beg me to stop.

I remember doing a neurology consult on this end stage AIDS patient when I was an intern- I will never forget how demented he was, and he was so cachectic, so sick...

Tomorrow's topic is Substance Related Disorders. My poor kids...

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

What to do instead of studying...

Instead of reviewing about neuroanatomy, I am obsessing over what my kids should wear for Christmas.

I am not a fashionista, I spend very little time thinking about my clothes, and even less time about my kids' clothes. As long as we are clean, and match, sort of, I don't really care. Until now. We saw some friends on Sunday with kids who were, well, beautiful. The kids themselves were/are cute, all the time, but with the outfits they were wearing, I felt obligated to change, if not forever, for just one day.

I am on the prowl. The dilemma is this, do I make my children matchy-matchy, or simply not clash and retain their individual appearances? So I suppose this because somewhat of a psychodynamic process for me. I don't want them to dress the SAME way, because they are not the SAME, and I don't want them to feel that Mommy feels they are the SAME. But a repeating pattern between the two of them would be so cute. Have you seen those Hanna Andersson Family Collection outfits?

Then, there is the issue of shoes. I don't want to buy them dress shoes, because they will only wear these fancy dress shoes once, maybe twice. But to not have dress shoes when one is wearing a dressy outfit, well, that just looks really nerdy, FOB, what have you.

Of course, it comes down to $. I just read this article in The Wall Street Journal yesterday about teaching a child fiscal responsibility. I suppose if I save the money from their 'holiday outfits' and let that compound for the next 20 years, it would mean so much more to them when they can buy their first car/home/retirement, whatever.

I ended up buying 3 outfits for Aidan, 2 pairs of shoes, and 2 dresses for Zoe. I need to wait for Hubby to come home and decide. I suspect I will be returning nearly all of this stuff.

Seriously, I am going to review neuroanatomy now.


Sunday, December 16, 2007

  • How to Nap

    When Aidan was an infant, I had a very difficult time napping. I constantly thought he was crying and needed me- so even though he slept soundly in his crib, I tossed and turned in my bed. My best naps were times when he slept on my chest. With Zoe, we took naps together in the beginning, but now, I nap like a master on my own, in my bed. (I am nap trained!) Here is my secret.

    I take my Kaplan and Saddock Psychiatry review book with me. I read a few pages, and inevitably, I am drooling into my pillow.

    Reviewing for boards is going really, really, well.

    There are 50+ chapters in that book, I am on chapter 11. The goal is do a quick review by February, to figure out what I really don't know and what I have already mastered.

    By the way, I am not actually reading the full two volumes of K&S, I am just reading the much abbreviated question book. Still, it will take me an eternity to get through...

  • Children for Sale!

    I have two fantastic children for sale.

    Child #1: Responds to the name Aidan. Really likes Legos, rather play with Legos than go outside for a walk, doesn't like fuzzy coats. Eats a lot, at times eating five BBQ pork buns in one meal. Potty trained. Cracks jokes- "You are ruining your life, ha, ha, ha." Independent minded. Kind of knows the alphabet. Knows the Lord's Prayer. Also knows words to "Hero" by Enrique Inglesias. Able to make Jello with assistance. Must be willing to talk about the same subject matter for hours and hours, in particular, about fire engines and tow trucks.

    Child #2: Sort of responds to the name Zoe. Waves enthusiastically if prompted. Not potty trained but predictably makes three BMs daily. Loves to play with tags, from toys to clothing. Eats well, likes to eat Cheerios. Needs three solid meals and four bottles daily. Takes two naps a day- will pass out if The Big Red Barn is recited. Sleep trained for night time sleep. Not independent, but has great potential.

    We are seeking shared ownership. Full time ownership will wear you out. They can also be for rent. If interested, drop me a note.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

So many compliments...

Last night, we went to a fantastic Christmas Party attended by people that I want to talk to every Sunday but can't, because the kiddos need to get going. I guess I will have to wait until the kids are in college to talk to everyone at church. (I have memories of pulling on my mom's leg to get her to go home on Sundays...must have been quite annoying for her.) It was fun to talk to everyone.

People were so generous with their comments about Hubby's work- he had taken some pictures of our Christmas service- and of course, I thought the photos were fantastic. My favorite was this one,



I know, a strange picture to be my favorite- perhaps it is because I have trouble keeping these beautiful plants alive. If you go to church with us, you should have gotten an e mail about getting a special link tho these fantastic photos. However, check out his website, http://www.phatbabyphotography.com for other works.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Hold Up the SIGNS!

Hubby's father's birthday was a month ago, and just recently, we were finally getting his gift all together. What gift is fitting for a photographer's father? Well, a digital photo frame, of course! We thought it would be so clever, to have the kids hold up signs wishing him a very happy birthday.

Silly enough, I asked the kids to do this right before lunch, and it was, shall we say, not really fun.



Zoe kept eating her sign, and Aidan just wanted to run away and join the circus...

Note to self: family photos need to be taken when everyone is fed and well rested. Because the result is so much better. See our Christmas family photo.


Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Staying Ahead of the Chaos

I am thoroughly enjoying my part-time worker status because of this: I get to run home and 'start' dinner before I go get the kids, we beat traffic, and dinner is pseudo-ready when we walk in the door.

This afternoon, I decided we would be eating a random collection of food for dinner. I had made this bean soup over the weekend, and that needed some sausages to give it some oommph yet I couldn't add the sausages early, because who wants water logged sausages? I also thought we should steam the buns/rice noodles and eat those before they get hairy. Of course, we also need our vegetables.


I then set the table.


All by 3:15 pm.

By the time we walked in at 5:08, I turned on the stove to steam/reheat, to cook the vegetables, to feed Zoe, while Aidan built more Lego vehicles.


Then Zoe went to sleep, and we ate dinner at 6:12.

Phew!

Okay, so I admit it, I run my household like we are a military unit. But it works for me.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Must Get Rid of STUFF!

With two kids, Hubby and I are the 'proud' owners of a lot of STUFF. I don't know what all this stuff is, but we have a lot of it. It is overwhelming, to think about how much stuff we have- and therefore, I am very eager to get rid of our stuff.

This afternoon, while Hubby wasn't looking, I shoved a bunch of newspapers, magazines, whatever paper stuff I could find into a shopping bag (which I also have tons of, despite my efforts of bringing my own bags to grocery stores...), to take outside for recycling. Hubby found the bag after dinner- he was aghast with what he found: an issue of The Economist that arrived on Thursday, yesterday's Wall Street Journal, to name a few.

Hubby: Are you kidding me? These are from this week! I haven't read them.
Me: Don't worry, you will get another Wall Street Journal tomorrow. It is old news.

Because I am so 'quick' about getting rid of periodicals, I have been known to throw away a lot of church bulletins with people's contact informations...oops. If you are reading this, and you were told that we would call you, but we didn't... it is because your phone number is now at some landfill, or on someone's toilet paper.

One can only recycle and throw away so much. Therefore, I enlist the help of Craigslist.com
Ahhh... I have used it to get rid of these things:
Years worth of Martha Stewart Living and Real Simple (or as Martha called it, Real Stupid).
Bookcases that Hubby thought he still needed- see, he is living fine without them.
Digital voice recorder- I used it all of twice to tape my therapy sessions to discuss with my supervisors: it was simply too demoralizing. We used to spend an hour talking about the first five minutes of my session.
Countless baby crap, I mean, stuff.
What I have posted on craigslist right now, a set of perinatal workout DVDs- kind of hard to give this to friends, you know, hinting that they either need to get in shape for delivering their babies, or that they need to lose weight... Better to pawn it off on random people.

Friday, December 07, 2007

To Pump or Not To Pump?

That is the dilemma.

What is pumping, you say? Well, it is the delightful routine that I have been keeping to be a food source for Zoe. It really isn't that big of a deal, it only takes 10 minutes each session, and while I pumped twice a day when I first went back to work, it had dwindled down to one. All the stuff that I need to wash at night is also making this a drag- the glass bottles, the caps... So, I feel ready to let that go. But am I? I can't remember, for the life of me, how long I kept it up for Aidan. I remember pumping in the office, in the car, and it seemed like it went on forever. I want to do it for the same period of time for Zoe- but since I can't remember how long that went for with Aidan, this is a difficult decision to make.

Aidan was weaned by the time he had his first birthday- he just wasn't interested anymore. I probably stopped pumping around Christmas time, and then we gave up the evening feeding, in January, and then the morning feeding went away in February.

What is my hesitation about stopping? Well, mainly, I have all this lactation tea that I haven't used up. And it really isn't all that tasty, and I can't 'save it for later' either. Do you need some lactation tea? Let me know.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

What they are up to...

Aidan's Lego manipulation abilities have grown tremendously in the last few weeks- he is also using his Lego vehicles to tell a story, instead of just ramming them against the wall. He also really likes using these little Lego people, which of course, makes Zoe want to eat them...


Zoe is teething, or just eating her own face?

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

This is so WEIRD!

I was reading the news on CNN, and had to read about how Dennis Quaid and his wife are suing drug makers. http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/12/04/people.dennisquaid.newborn.ap/index.html
I learned that their twins, are named Thomas Boone and ZOE GRACE.
Hey, that is my daughter's name! I wonder how many other Zoe Graces are out there... It is also weird, that our last name sort of sounds like the Quaid's name, I know, it is a bit of a stretch. But you know what I mean. I thought we had given her a unique combination.

As for the lawsuit against the drug company, I will refrain from giving my two cents out here in cyber space, if you really want to know, ask me privately.


Tuesday, December 04, 2007

  • Tolerating Chaos

    I think I may be getting better at tolerating chaos. When onthego noted that I was having a pretty bad week, I thought, "That is true! I am having a less than desirable week! How could I not have noticed it before? Is it that I am getting better at tolerating chaos?

    Actually, I doubt it. Let's just say, last Sunday at 9:58 AM, that was not my finest moment.

    As for the garage door, it ought to be fixed tonight.

    The ABPN registration packet went back to them yesterday via Priority Mail- I will be tracking that packet just to be sure.

    Hubby is now airborne to head out to Kentucky. I think, this is the reason that it didn't even occur to me that life was chaotic- because it is about to get more chaotic!

  • My Life is one HUGE Repeat

    Sometimes, I feel like I am repeating my life, over and over and over again.

    This afternoon, when I came home to cook dinner prior to picking A&Z up from school, the garage door won't close. After trying to 'fix' it, I called Hubby, who diagnosed the garage opener with an inflammatory gearitis. I started calling all the 'garage door repair Bay Area' people Google showed me, one after another, until I found someone who answered their phone, at 7 pm. Greg and his wife came later this evening, and confirmed Hubby's diagnosis, with a rather grim prognosis, unless we replace the gear...etc. AND, he told me, "you see how you painted the garage, and the paint got all over your rollers? It caused the rollers to bump along all this time, and so, it wore out your gear." Treatment plan? Well, we need to replace the rollers, with ball bearing rollers, and, the opener needs a gear transplant. (Yes, while I am studying for boards, I will be using lame medical terms...)

    Why do I feel like I have heard this before?

    When we bought this house, we sort of oversaw a revamp of the house, with these 'contractors', I say, 'contractors', because I don't think they are actually contractors. We had gutted the kitchen and bathrooms. The flooring was replaced, and the whole house was painted. EVERYTHING they touched in this house, we have had to re-do the work, one way or another. Let me start the list.

    The master bath's shower was replaced, and 4 months after we moved in, we found dry rot- the shower had been leaking!

    The pipes underneath the kitchen sink started to leak...

    The paint on the doors started to chip- they never stripped the old, oil based paint. They just layered latex paint on top of that...so the latex just peeled away...

    The laminate flooring wasn't done right, and so it all started to buckle (and I think I had written about this about 1 1/2 years ago...another huge saga.)

    The dishwasher also leaked...

    The 'base boards' they installed were NOT baseboards! They were trims!

    Ah, and tonight, I found out they painted the garage incorrectly.

    Seriously.

    Alas, since these disastrous 'contractors' ruined the house, we subsequently hired a real contractor, and slowly, fixed all those things.

    Tomorrow, Greg, the garage door surgeon, will be here to fix his portion of the house re-remodel.

    As for the story I promised about the A/C unit... The A/C unit wasn't done by those 'contractors' but by another set of 'HVAC wannabes.' They talked us into buying a unit that was TOO LOUD for code enforcement, and the location didn't meet setback requirements either! TWO YEARS later, we are in dispute with the city over this (how did they find us? Well, one of our retired neighbors- read: so much time to read up on city codes... got in touch with them. I started to write these HVAC wannabes. With no response from them, I contacted the state licensing folks, I wrote Better Business Bureau, I wanted to throw the A/C in the ocean, alas, I came to my senses, and hired another set of workers to finish the job properly. With the help of the state licensing office, I got in touch with the wannabe's bonds carrier, after two more months of letter writing, document gathering, we won our case. I can't wait to get my check, which is roughly the amount I am paying ABPN to take my psychiatry boards... Great.

Friday, November 30, 2007

  • AGAIN?!

    When I was at work today, I thought, "Self, let's check the board exam schedule, see if it is not too early to sign up for the 2008 exam." I logged on... and I ALREADY MISSED THE DEADLINE for the 2008 administration of the board exam by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. I could not believe my eyes- how did this happen to me TWICE?

    As you might recall, I had wanted to register in early March of 2007 for this year's exam, and I found that the registration ended by February for the exam in November. Surely, late November 2007 would be way early for the 2008 exam.

    Nope. They changed the rules! Starting whenever they started this, totally lame, that I didn't know about this, and come to think of it, what was I suppose to do? Log on everyday? Seriously. The exam is now scheduled for June, and therefore regular registration ends on October 1st, and 'late registration', with a special extra fee of $500, extends the time through November 1st. In a panic, my medical education life flashed before my eyes, I called up the office. As it turned out, lots of people complained, and so they extended the 'late registration' to December 7th. The nice lady, quoted me my fee, $2150! and sent out the application to me (you would think the application would be on-line) and if I get it on Monday and overnight it back to them, I can beat the deadline.

    So, I guess I am going to be studying between now and June. I am so out of practice- I haven't taken a big exam like this in FIVE years! Oh, I haven't even gotten to the 'best' part yet- after this $2150 adventure, I get to wait another year, fork over thousands more dollars, to take the oral exam. Then, every ten years, I have to get recertified. This system is either so deficient, or someone is becoming filthy rich. If I had thought about it, way back in 2001, I would have picked a specialty that required no recertification. But wait, according to the American Board of Medical Specialties, recertification isn't a hurdle, it is a commitment. Commitment to what? Haven't I been committed enough to endure medical training?

    As for which specialties have no recertification requirements, I don't even know what these are. I only know that I have mentors who were 'grandfathered in.' Obviously, some wise guy decided that the newbies all need to be recertified, and probably used his/her own year of certification as a cut off. Therefore, I have mentors that are grandfathered in as an adult psychiatrist, but they keep having to get their recert in child psychiatry. If only I were older, like, in my fifties. Heck, then I would have been able to buy a house on the cheap too! Totally missed the boat, on all fronts. What good is youth if I have to give away to studying? Or slaving away to pay for a house?

  • My Purse = My Car

    I keep thinking that I need to clear out my purse, and I think that was at least two months ago. This morning, enough is enough. This is what I found:

    2 checks that need to be deposited

    My wallet

    A pen

    A pay stub

    FIVE receipts from Costco...good grief

    A receipt from Marshall's for two pairs of jeans, one too long, one too short...what am I? Goldilocks?

    A receipt from IKEA- you gotta hang on to that receipt until everything is assembled- you never know if it is missing a part...

    A receipt from Nordstrom- I think I return far more than I keep from this shop.

    A pack of gum

    A tube of Aquaphor

    A Starbucks card, that I got as a gift LAST CHRISTMAS

    A bandaid

    My iPod

    My phone

    The bluetooth ear piece

    A tube of lipstick

    No carrots though...

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

The Beauty of Owning Old Cars

I got rear ended a few days ago as I was making a right after exiting the freeway. This particular intersection is tricky- oncoming traffic can come by quite quickly as they head down a slight slope, so plenty of people make it seem like they are about to go, but nope, they change their minds at the last minute. So I changed my mind of making the turn, and then, BAM! I got rear ended. My first thought was, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!"

You see, I had rear ended someone else at the EXACT same intersection, doing the same turn, about 15 months ago.

The only difference was, while my Volvo needed a new hood, new side panels, new lights...etc, the Saturn that rear ended me looked totally fine! Where is the justice in that? My sturdy Volvo needed all these new parts, but this little Saturn escaped without a scratch? Alas, I am well aware that it is about the angle upon impact.

My poor Volvo has been through a lot. I think Hubby had rear ended people once after I had a meltdown at Max's (we don't ever eat at Max's these days...) I had gotten rear ended twice, and I rear ended someone else. Always super fun. Aside from checking to make sure the bumpers are in top shape for safety reasons, we don't care about the aesthetics of the car... remember my post about what we found inside the car?

I can't imagine buying a new car- then I think I would have to worry about taking care of it, keeping it clean, scratch free, (I had scratched the trunk lid a great deal with Zoe's infant carrier...) But this old car? I am going to drive it into the ground!

Hubby's car, which is 11 years old, is always something we are trying to drive into the ground. We use it to transport the Christmas tree every year. The tree gets tied to his old bike rack, and we don't care about the dirt, the sap, whatever! Sometimes, when people start to pull out of their parking spaces into our car, I even think, bring it on! Total the car, help us get a new one, since I have no plans of paying for a new car myself!

I think we have the same mentality about our house: While Aidan is well aware that drawing on the wall will bring him great consequences, we don't care about the way he rams his vehicles into the wall, the way water splashes everywhere in the water closet (literally...) Oh well! Poop/pee in the carpet? No problem!!! The house is meant to be lived in! Let it show signs of children! Run it down to the ground!!!

The cars/house will need some serious detailing, if we ever want to sell them...


Wednesday, November 28, 2007

That is some serious jumping!


Monday, November 26, 2007

Toys, Toys, MORE TOYS!

Aidan has become the king of, "Can you put this on my Christmas list?" In general, we don't buy toys when he is with us- just don't want to reward that asking, asking, asking behavior that seems to be innate in children (who am I kidding, in adults too!) For a long time, we all lived peaceably with this policy. Now that he is older, his "Christmas List" is as long as, hmm, the Great Wall.
This is what this young man will be finding under the tree, for a picture of the tree, see Hubby's blog, http://www.xanga.com/phatphotographer: some Lego vehicles, a Bruder mixer truck (I found it for $6 at TJMaxx!), and some Thomas train tracks. I imagine, between now and Christmas, I will probably add on to this list...
Meanwhile, what is Zoe getting? So far, NOTHING. I know, it is SHAMEFUL. Zoe has been playing with toys that Aidan had. She has been VERY interested in Aidan's Legos, and that becomes a constant worry in my mind, that I am going to find her choking on a headlight or something. She doesn't care for her Quatros, or the Duplos- she wants the REAL thing! I think the round grooves feel really good on her teething gums. As she becomes more mobile, she can find these little pesky pieces so quickly! (So you might ask, why am I buying Aidan more Legos? I don't know... I just can't stop myself...)
In my search for some toys for Zoe, I am finding myself in a philosophical quandary: Do I want my children to play with 'gender stereotypical' toys? I think I gave Aidan a good chance when he was younger, in providing toys that are not gender specific, or rather, perhaps I just gave him girl toys? He was given a kitchen set, which he found amusing for about 2 months, when he was around 1.5 years old. Since then, this amazing kitchen set (it has a hand held mixer, with rotating whisks!) only gets used when Aidan's girl friends come over. Gradually, my attempts to keep his toys 'well rounded' just went no where.
As for 'girl toys,' I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED, Barbie dolls when I was little. They were just the most amazing things ever! I imagine Zoe will eventually ask for a Barbie doll, but I don't think I want to start that for her, I mean, the bodies are unrealistic, and there are no Asian Barbies! However, at least Barbie has a 'career,' I think, Barbie's possible careers include: nurse, teacher, stay-at-home mom, and she even holds a pilot's license! (I suppose that is 'better' than Disney princesses who wait around for men? Who knows.) Like I said, having a daughter, picking out toys, puts me in a philosophical quandary.
Do I buy her a doll? Her first purse? Shoes? I mean, what? Do I buy this sweet little girl?

Friday, November 23, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving!

What a fantastic day! We had a great Thanksgiving, and of course, lots to be thankful for.

Zoe started the day at 6 am... As soon as Aidan got up, I sent A&Z and Hubby out to the supermarket, to pick up a few items for our day. We had a delicious breakfast of spam hashbrowns (sounds dubious, I know.) And after loitering the house in our jammies all morning, we finally all got dressed. Aidan and I went to Whole Foods to pick up our Thanksgiving dinner! What a relief to not cook Thanksgiving- all the planning I did was go to the wonderful web, and clicked a few times... After our naps, we went to the park briefly, and our lovely cousins came over for our Intimate Roasted Turkey for Four.

I was a little shocked to find that, this turkey of ours, still required 'basic reheating' of 1.5 to 2 hours! Then, more shockingly, "In order to assure you the highest quality vegetable on your holiday table, we have left the green beans raw." WHAT?! I still need to cook my green beans! The good thing about this meal was that the bird, and most of the fixings, with the exception of the gravy, came in containers that were both microwave and oven safe! What a breeze to pop off the lid and throw my stuffing in the oven, whereas our Dreager's Meal all came in these plastic round containers, that required their own dishes.

The meal was delicious. I loved the gravy.

What I also loved about our meal, and further proof of our slow deterioration, was that I used paper plates, plastic cups, and utensils! HA! Forget the fancy china. Fear not, however, it all came in a matching set! With a paper table cloth!

We enjoyed the company of Whitman's cousins greatly, while Aidan and his second cousin, P, had a great time too. It was great, partly, in my deduction, was that our two families have fairly similar discipline attitudes- so I didn't need to feel bad that I was too strict or my child was too wild.

After having our 3 course dessert- jello, which Aidan made, pumpkin pie, which WFM made, and a cake, which Sheng Kee bakery made, I just rolled up everything in my disposable paper table cloth, and voila, I was done cleaning up!

As for what I am thankful for this year, I am thankful for Hubby, for Aidan and Zoe, and most of all, for Christ: He loves me when I am yelling, when I am impatient, when I am quick to anger, I think you all get the point...

I am also thankful for the $2593.65 check that will soon be mine, after battling the now-defunct-HVAC people who installed our air-conditioning unit for the last TWO and HALF years... But that is another story, for another day, I gotta go attend to my huge pot of turkey stock!

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

  • Inflation Eve

    When we lived in New York City, we had a ritual on Thanksgiving Eve- we would hop on the C train around 10 pm, and pop out on along Central Park West, to watch all the Macy's Parade Giant Balloons being inflated. We rubbed shoulders with thousands, children perched on Daddy's shoulders, kids being dragged along, and it was just so fun. (Probably because we didn't have kids...) Then, we would get home around midnight, ready to sleep, and ready to see the these balloons again on TV. Did you know, Blue, from Blue's Clues, was the first female balloon in the parade?

    This evening, no late night jaunt for me. I am just trying to recover, from something, I can't quite put my fingers on it, but I think, it has something to do with my kids...

  • Photos of Olde

    People often ask me, as the wife of the very Phat Photographer, http://www.xanga.com/phatphotographer, do we have lots of fancy photos of our kids, do we have a lot of photos? Well, in composing the post about Thanksgivings, I found that we now have 17892 digital photographs. These photos, are backed up, and backed up, and I think, backed up some more, some where. The photos of the last 4 years, are also tagged, so that I can do searches, say, "Aidan, fire trucks" and about 200 photos would pop up. I can also search by rating, if I want to filter out unflattering shots. All this, I count as a benefit. When it is done, that is. When Hubby is slaving over the files, "maintaining" the system, I get rather, in the mildest terms, rather frustrated. You see, keeping all this stuff backed up and what not, requires a lot of memory, and Hubby likes to put in memory cards or whatever, himself. He also likes to add fans to the CPU, you know, cooler CPU must be better.

    He does say, that when A&Z are in college, I will be pouring those photos and weeping. That part is right. I don't even need to wait for them to go to college, when they are asleep, I find myself looking into the past, and wondering where my little babies went.

    A sample...




Tuesday, November 20, 2007

  • Thanksgivings of Olde

    Hubby and I have been married since 2000. So, I have been in charge of Thanksgiving since 2000. It is now time, to take a journey back, and think of my culinary improvements! Prior to being married, I always cooked the turkey until it was bone dry- I mean, you have to be sure it is thoroughly cooked! Upon getting hitched, and acquiring all that fancy cookware and serving pieces, my Thanksgiving also needed some careful planning.
    This was from Thanksgiving 2000. Hubby's dad came to NY and spent it with us. I think I cooked enough for at least 8 people...

    In 2001, we went to April's apartment in Jersey City. We transported the side dishes via a very large picnic basket. It was suppose to be Thanksgiving for four, however, Kevin, ducked out because he was, well, too scared to meet the love of his life. So it was the just the 3 of us.



    A very large bird, for 2002. We had moved back to CA, and hosted Thanksgiving for 12. We even had enough sitting so that everyone sat around the table.


    Then, in 2003, I was pregnant, but the fetus did not interfere with my day of cooking- no one cried, no one whined. Hubby even had time to carve the tiny pumpkins to use as candle holders...


    In 2004, it became a potluck Thanksgiving. I only made the bird and stuffing...



    In 2005, we didn't even get a picture of the bird...




    Last year, I didn't even cook the bird... The meal came from Draeger's...



    Do we see a trend of Thanksgiving deterioration? Alas, I made peace with the fact that I will not be going around town, looking for a free range bird, roasting it to perfection, with lovely side dishes, and home made pie, not just one kind, but at least two kinds. It will be a few years before I do that again.

  • Cold #2

    Zoe just had her cold #2. Aidan and Hubby never even sneezed. I, the one who was raised in Taiwan, whose immune system had been honed by years in the hospital, fell ill last Thursday evening. By Friday AM, I had decided, I needed to spend the day sleeping, not working. However, by canceling an 8-hour day, full of patients, I knew I would be throwing myself into rescheduling, squeezing everyone in, frenzy. And indeed, that was what I did today.

    Seriously, I rather just go to work than taking an unplanned day off. It is just not worth the headache...

    Nonetheless, I slept last Friday AM, I slept last Friday PM, I slept on Saturday AM until 8 (what a treat!) then napped in the PM, I fell to a stupor on the couch after church. Hubby, was, and still is, my hero, for taking care of the little people.

    While I had been ill, I also had been reading a lot about adopting girls from China. I knew 2 families who are in the process of adopting, and from their blogs, I had been stalking other families. I asked Hubby this evening, 'should we adopt a little girl too?' (We do have the advantage that I speak Chinese, after all.) Hubby said, 'it is a lot of work to do for just one girl, we should do it only if we can adopt 3 or 4 at the same time.' Hmm. The man knows how to stop me in my track!

    It all reminded me of this little baby that I worked with as a medical student. She was brought in by her parents with a HUGE mass, tennis ball sized, in her right axilla and child protective services was involved- because, the assumption was that unless this infant was neglected, this mass could not had been so large. (By the way, the most common form of child abuse is neglect: it takes less effort to ignore a child, than to actually beat up a child...) As it turned out, her mom had postpartum psychosis. Dad was beside himself (? of whether he had a mistress came up...) and they had NO family in the US. The couple had actually left their two older daughters in China to come to US for work, to make money, to send back to China. Anyway, this little girl, had the WORST eczema ever! She also did a lot of 'recreational crying.' Still, she was cute. The mass in the axilla turned out to be an inflamed lymph node, and it eventually went away, after a biopsy to rule out malignancy...etc. Her mom was admitted to the psychiatric ward (and after pediatrics, I went on to my psych rotation, and I saw her mom there!) Back to the little girl- she was picked up by child services when she was fit to be discharged, and I had felt that we ought to try to adopt her. Never mind that Hubby and I had NO income, that we lived in a 400 square foot apartment, and that there was no way we could provide child care- I just felt that someone needed to love this little girl. I imagine she is now 7 years old, and hopefully, her mom has recovered, and she is with her parents, perhaps still living somewhere along Canal Street in Manhattan... (Also, the above experience made me want to be a psychiatrist!)

    As much as I think my heart is full as it is, 2 kids, 1 husband, and a career that I hope to nurture and develop, I simply don't have the energy/$/time for adopting someone from China, the tales of these little girls still tug at my heart. I look at Zoe, our little Chinese girl, and I want to cry, to think that there are so many more, who look like her (in the broadest terms), with her bright eyes, dark brown hair, left to grow in institutions all over China... (And, if I had more time and energy, I ought to join a community group first, before trying to adopt a little girl...)

    Then there was that clip on CNN about disabled children in Serbia...

    My hormones must be totally out of whack. Seriously.

Monday, November 12, 2007

  • Getting Ready for Christmas




    I am now getting into FULL swing for Christmas! With the special ornaments ordered, (see below), I think we are set with decorations. There is also a shipment coming from Gymboree so that the kids could be all cute. Of course, Hubby, being the Phat Photographer that he is, has been busy taking pictures of our kids too. To self-advertise as unbashfully as I can, book your Phat Photo Session at http://www.phatbabyphotography.com as soon as you can- this could be your child, or youselves! Imagine the delight of your extended family when you send them the BEST Christmas present, YOU!!

  • Dates with My Guys

    Last Saturday, we had Teacher Jaclyn come over to our place, so that Hubby and I could go out to dinner. We had decided, or rather, I, had decided that we need to work towards a long weekend away, sans offsprings. The first time Teacher Jaclyn came over, there was much sobbing at the door. This time around, Aidan spent the WHOLE day whining, 'I don't want Teacher Jaclyn, why does she have to come over, I want you to stay home.' We explained again, and again, that, 'Mommy and Daddy like to go out by ourselves sometimes, just like when you and Daddy go to the park, or when you and Mommy go to Costco...etc.' By the time Teacher Jaclyn came over, he didn't even talk to us, let alone wave to us at the door. He was just too busy playing with her. Ah, bliss!

    Hubby and I went to the mall first, bought this set of Christmas ornaments from Crate and Barrel- I NEVER, NEVER, buy Christmas ornaments full price- I am just too cheap. However, THESE 12 days of Christmas ornaments SOLD out last year even BEFORE Christmas. Even though it is early November, it was ALREADY SOLD OUT! The salesperson had to special order it for us... Anyway, we then went to Hotaru, which was so tasty- especially because we got to eat our food, without having to watch for Aidan's grabby hands!

    Hubby left for Toronto this morning...

    Then, I got the kids ready, and we drove to school, dropped Zoe off. Then, I went on a date with Aidan! We went to EIEIO (The Golden Arch...McDonald's!) for a quick breakfast. Aidan had never been inside a McD's- we always do drive through, so when he saw other customers ordering at the counter, while we sat and waited for our order, he was incredulous- 'there are tables there?!' The next stop was Trader Joe's, where he told me he wanted asparagus- there will be a lesson about aspartic acid later- (that is why your urine smells funny after you consume these tasty buds. And actually, not everyone can make aspartic acid, and not everyone can smell it...) Anyway, he picked up a balloon- perfect for his share today, the letter B. He had an old deflated balloon already in the car, but a fresh one is so much better! Finally, onto our TRUE destination: the new TJMAXX! He had been eyeing the construction for MONTHS and months, and he had one goal: to find that elusive Bruder Cement Mixer Truck! (Bruder trucks are NOT made in China- they are made in Germany!!!) Alas, he didn't see one. However, what he doesn't know is, that Mommy bought one already, and it is sitting in the garage, waiting for Christmas!

    Now, if only my little girl can stay awake long enough for a date...

    And I better catch more dates, before Aidan 'goes to medical school, lives on his own, and has FIVE kids.'

Friday, November 09, 2007

You play with it, you eat it

Yesterday was a very weird food day for Aidan. It got started with soy corn dogs for breakfast. I figured he would get really good protein, it would be quick to heat up, and easy to clean up! He happily gobbled one up, then asked for another. All in all, he ate 2 soy corn dogs and a yogurt for breakfast. He was covered, in all the major food groups: protein, dairy, fat, carbs. It was great.

I ate some pretty strange things for breakfast growing up. My parents actually encouraged us to eat cake for breakfast: again, cake provided eggs, flour, fat, so really, not that different from eating waffles! (My mom also let us eat as much junk food as we possibly wanted...)

While I was making dinner, Aidan found this mini bundt cake I had picked up from this lovely party I went to on Wednesday evening. He wanted it for dessert, and I thought it would be a very tasty dessert. Hubby was working late, so Aidan and I ate dinner, and moved on to dessert. He ate all the icing, while I enjoyed the cake. I was full after eating about 1/2 of the cake. Aidan then started to divide the remaining piece in 1/2. Then he quartered them, and he just kept going, while I tried to stop him. "Aidan! If you want to eat it, just eat it. If you play with it, you are responsible to eat it all. No one wants to eat what you were playing with...etc." He looked at me, and kept going! So I had to hold him to it. I MADE HIM EAT IT ALL. He started to look really sad, and had a really hard time finishing, but hey, if he just left it alone, he wouldn't have had to eat it! I think this new 'rule' is emerging in our house: if you ask for something, you EAT it. If we offer you one scoop, but you insist on 2 scoops, let it be ice-cream, rice, whatever, you WILL eat it all. It is just NOT nice to ask for stuff and then trash it.

This morning, I asked Aidan to tell Daddy what he thought of the cake, since Daddy didn't get to eat any of it. Aidan looked at us, and said, "I have to go. Bye."


Thursday, November 08, 2007

Halloween

We finally took our 'Halloween' pictures today. We didn't have time last Wednesday, and so we waited, and waited. Zoe is our cheer leader this year. Aidan's outfit is a 'lion dancer' cape- all boys need a cape, right? However, he wasn't so enthused about it, despite the fact that I slaved over it for an entire afternoon a few weeks ago. He didn't even want pictures taken, oh well.


Wednesday, November 07, 2007

My Giggly Bunnies



Monday, November 05, 2007

  • What they are up to...




    You might wonder, since Hubby is a professional photographer, do I get to take any pictures? Well, I do. I have my own camera, which we recently replaced, after Hubby dropped my old camera on its lens... We have been through SO many camera, it is shocking. Anyway, I don't know how to use his stuff, and a lot of times, my pictures are not all that great. However, I like using my work for my blog. Although, sometimes, I steal his work...

  • New and Improved

    Check out the New and Improved Phat Baby Photography Website. Also, feel free to drop a note and give us your input! http://www.phatbabyphotography.com

  • Gross!

    I drive a 1998 Volvo. This car is our 'first car,' the first car that we paid for ourselves. I drove an old Camry in high school, then my parents bought me a Corolla so that I could "go do volunteer work" (to get into med school) when I was a junior in college. I did do the volunteer work, but the car also came in handy when I "needed" to go other places! This purple car got shipped to NY for med school, then it got shipped back when Hubby and I got married, and moved into New York City. Since then, this faithful purple car, had been shipped to Chicago, for my brother, and back to CA, and I think my parents have this car still.

    Hubby got a Mazda from his parents for his senior year in college, and he drove it while he was working in LA, then he left it with his parents when he moved to New York. When we graduated and came back to CA, he picked up his faithful Mazda, and we needed another car. We got the Volvo from this family who was moving to Israel. The Volvo was SO CLEAN when we first got it. For the first two years we had it, it remained quite clean...then Aidan came. Then Aidan started to eat in the car. Then Zoe came, and last night, it was SO gross, that Hubby took everything out, we found the following:

    a barking dog

    a frog

    a star

    an old carrot

    loads and loads of crumbs

    piles of sand

    toy cars

    makeup

    receipts

    a necklace

    4 velcro hair rollers

    loose raisins

    a bag of prunes

    a rattle

    a Baby Bjorn

    a Ergo baby carrier

    a pack of diaper wipes

    Ritz crackers

    Kleenex

    Purell

    Today, the car is CLEAN! We will see how long that lasts...

    Meanwhile, I am quite determined to drive this car for the next five years- until both kids are able to eat neatly... if there is such a thing... I am NOT getting a new car, to just have more stuff spilled in it!!!


Tuesday, October 30, 2007

  • Earthquake!

    This evening, while we were just about to tuck Aidan into bed, we had an earthquake! It was Aidan's first. As the house swayed, Hubby grabbed Aidan, and we started to head downstairs, but by the time I got to Zoe's door, it seemed to have subsided. Truth be told, I really just didn't want to wake Zoe up, I mean, it would be HARD work to get her back down! We waited for a while, to be sure that the trembles were not just the prelude. We then resumed story time.

    Aidan was really concerned. His lips were even a little pale. Poor thing. To experience one's first earthquake as a little kid would be rather scary.

    When giddiemon and I were kids, we shared a room. Occasionally, I would wait for her to fall asleep, then shake her mattress, and yell, "EARTHQUAKE! EARTHQUAKE!" Somehow, she never really saw the humor in that...

    I kind of like earthquakes, I mean, it is scary, and of course, the loss of persons and property would be totally awful. However, it is cool that God made earthquakes! I suppose I am a born 'rubber necker'- I see a wreck, and I can't take my eyes off of it, I sense a quake, and I just want to experience it more. Maybe that is why I am a physician- I see people in pain, and I just want to know more about it, study it, probe it, figure it out. In some ways, it can be rather disgusting- that in med school/residency, we come across 'cool' cases, and can't stop thinking/talking about it, while the person is totally in pain.

    Which brings me to, my 'favorite' weird diagnosis.

    I 'love' pilonidal cysts. What is pilonidal cyst, you ask. Well, I would provide links, but as I am about to do just that, Hubby looked over and said, "Good God! What are you doing?" Therefore, consider yourselves saved from disgusting photos. If you must, google, 'pilonidal cyst.' In short, it is a cyst that forms below the coccyx (your tail bone) and then it gets filled with PUS. Imagine, this thing, by your bottom, that grows and grows, and you are just much too mortified to seek help, until, it is the size of a GRAPEFRUIT. It is a fairly 'common' condition, common enough that I saw 2 cases of it while on surgery for 2 months. Depending on the severity of the infection, it is often treated via antibiotics, and an incision and drainage. Let's just say, with all that PUS, it doesn't smell like flowers.

    So, why do I 'love' pilonidal cysts? Is it because it affects sweaty, hairy guys? I don't know... I do think I ought to stop writing before I embarrass myself further.

  • Identity

    In the process of getting my private practice started, I had to obtain an EIN- a tax ID. The IRS has this great website (can one say IRS and great in the same sentence?) for just that. In minutes, after a few questions, I got my EIN. However, this website also insulted me. After clicking my 'business' as a health care type business, it asked me how I ID myself, a physician, a psychiatrist, or a psychologist. Dude. Psychiatrists are physicians! If the federal government can't get it right...It is fairly common that people would get confused the distinction between a psychologist and a psychiatrist. I imagine much like an optometrist versus a ophthalmologist, or a radiology technician versus a radiologist. Even among physicians, the stereotype is that psychiatrists are not really doctors. True, I suppose, that I don't work with my hands, I don't physically remove a tumor, and I don't really examine patients' brain tissues. What I do, is to scientifically, categorically, investigate one's way of thinking, of relating to life, and evaluate if medications are suitable. Personally, I can't stand working with my hands, which is rather ironic, since my parents gave me hours and hours of piano lessons to develop my dexterity. I just rather talk to people. And talk, I must.

    A colleague of mine was rotating through ophthalmology as a med student, when a patient coded, and the staff had to call 911. The MD was on the phone with the emergency services, and the person on the other line had said, "you're an optometrist's office?" and the MD corrected the operator, "no, I am an ophthalmologist," even while someone arrested...

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Hair

I finally got a haircut today! I had gotten a haircut when Zoe was about 1 week old- while she was napping. After seven months of neglect, my hair was in a sad, sad, state. With the new growth coming in, I have all this short little spiky hair all over my head, and I am growing my own awning too. I decided, enough was enough. Today, I went to http://labelledayspas.com for some TLC for my poor mane. I had a gift certificate after all. (Never mind that I bought myself this gift certificate at Costco...) When I called to inquire about a haircut, the receptionist told me that the Master Stylist would be available, and that he was 'exceptional', 'amazing'...etc. My schedule simply didn't work out with the Master's schedule. Imagine that. After much deliberation with a second receptionist, I decided to go with a Senior Stylist, someone with 20+ years of experience. (Good thing, that when people are looking for doctors, they don't look for someone who has been in practice for 20+years of experience, but that is another blog entry, for another day.) Anyway, the lady on the phone promised that I would not be disappointed.

When I got to the spa/salon, I felt so disheveled! I was simply too ugly for their fancy salon! My stylist was very nice, although she got interrupted TWICE during my time with her. I asked for a style that needed to be wash and go. No such luxury of blow drying these days. My exact words were, "I get cranky when I can't blow dry, and I don't need that in my life right now." She did a great job, and told me, while my hair was still damp, "See, it will look fine even damp, and you can just go." Great, I thought. Then, she went on to say, "It will be better though, if you can give it some body on the crown, so get velcro rollers, and do it like this," (she showed me how) and "see, so easy."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I just told you I don't want to blow dry, what makes you think I want to use ROLLERS?! I don't even own rollers!

I walked out of the salon, feeling much more chic (and somewhat poorer...if my mom knew how much I just blew on this haircut...) and therefore 'belonged' to this fancy salon/spa. But I doubt I will go back... I am just not fancy like that.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Sneaking off...

Hubby said this morning, that I have been sneaking off to go to bed before him. And he is right!

I don't think I need to explain why I am sleep deprived, so let me just get to my sleep routine. After we get Aidan into bed at 8, I take care of random stuff around the house. Some nights, I pack their lunches, (other nights, I postpone to do that until the morning, even though I know it will be awful...) I fold laundry, I surf the internet, and what not. These miscellaneous activities usually are done within 20 minutes, and Hubby and I move on to the main attraction of our evening: Nip/Tuck. This show, while sexually explicit at times, is absolutely hilarious. Also, we like how the 'good' guy actually is just as broken as the 'promiscuous' guy. Anyway, after watching one episode of it on DVD, inevitably, we want to watch more. BUT WE MUST stop ourselves!!! By this time, Hubby would check his work e mail, and I get ready for bed in a hurry, and I run to my bed, read for 3 minutes, and lights off! No matter how Hubby tries to hurry and get in bed, I am usually fast asleep by the time he tries to get into bed as quietly as he possibly can. Why do I do this? Well, when Hubby gets in bed, then he likes to read for a while, then I would always want to talk to him about something or other, then he would crack jokes, and then I get a second wind, and then I am up until after 11...then I wake up exhausted.

Hubby would tell you that bed time routine has always been disputed in this house. I remember when we first got married, he was reading Harry Potter in bed one evening, and Hubby insisted that I growled at him, gave him a look of death, and threatened to sleep on the couch to get him to turn off the light. For my birthday this past summer, he got me the Buckey- a blind fold. I rather just turn the lights off then put something on my face... Maybe I should just remove all lamps from our bedroom!

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Hubby beat me to it.

There is this really funny photo of Zoe, that I had wanted to post here, but Hubby got to it before I did.

go to http://www.xanga.com/phatphotographer

The on-going joke here is that Zoe, sleeps anywhere and everywhere, and sometimes we forget where she is. Of course, we don't actually forget. When she was a newborn, she used to sleep on her little vibration chair, and I would put her to sleep in the bathroom, in our room, in the nursery, in the livingroom, in the laundry room, basically, somewhere FAR away from Aidan, so that it is relatively quiet for her. Now that she is crawling, and pulling up, she can just disappear in an blink of an eye. I suppose this photo takes the joke to an extreme.



Monday, October 22, 2007

Stay Positive

There is this article in this month's issue of Real Simple, where this life coach talk about saying positive things, to her dog, her kids, her husband, to get them to do what she needs them to do. So far, I have only been able to finish reading the first five paragraphs- so I don't know what else she is going to say. But, I am determined to use this method of discipline for a while, because I am tired of hearing my own stern voice. (Actually, I just learned this week that my in-laws think we are not as strict as we think we are...interesting.) Growing up, I wished I heard from positive stuff from my parents, my sibs, the neighbors, whoever. Maybe this is a middle child thing- but I really like to please everyone, and when I can't please someone, I tend to use my less mature defenses, and...

So you would think it would be easy for me to say lots of nice, positive things to my kids. Ah, not so. However, even in this morning's escape from our house routine, I think I only had one compliment, "What a nice big boy you are, Aidan, good job with your socks." Never mind that a second later, the socks came off his feet. I shall report back on the progress.

Friday, October 19, 2007

  • NO HELP AT ALL

    So, the FDA said this, that antihistamines, decongestants, antitussives, and expectorants are all NO NOs for children under 2 years of age.

    Dr. Rausch, director of pediatrics said this, on CNN: "A cold does not kill, so people should just relax," Rausch said. "Kids get sick and there's nothing that people can do about it, but they will get better."

    Let's think about this, a child will have about 8 colds in his/her first year of life. Each cold lasts about 7-14 days. For ease of calculation, let's say 10 days. 10 times 8 is EIGHTY days. Let's have Dr. Rausch live with my two sick kids for EIGHTY days, of crying, crankiness, and let's see how he relaxes!!!

    These people go on to say that chicken soup is the remedy. HELLO!!!! Have they ACTUALLY done studies on chicken soup as a remedy for children under 2? I would like to know, just how am I suppose to get chicken soup into a child, who is 5 months old and HAS NOT HAD table food yet. Good grief. Moreover, the idea that chicken soup is helpful, is that with the hot vapors from the soup, it kills the viruses causing the cold. When one feeds these itty-bitty kids soup, we give them COLD soup, which negates the benefit. And, they probably will get the soup in a cup, again, NO vapors.

    Motor vehicle accidents have killed far more children in the country. Are we going to say no riding in the car, ever again?

    Not helpful, AT ALL.

    Meanwhile, we survived the first cold of the year.


  • Free Food

    Since I have become an attending one whole year ago, I try to bring treats to my team members regularly. I don't know why, but it just seems like the 'right' thing to do as a 'real' doctor. I have done breakfast items like bagels, cream cheese, and lax. I have done desserts, like chocolate. It is always so fun to make the staff smile with a simple treat. I suppose I aspire to be like the attendings I worked with as a student. Now, those attendings knew how to treat their staff.

    The most memorable experience was with Dr. L. Dr. L is a well known rheumatologist, who is the author to an entire book on some obscure rheum disease, that I have no recollection of. What I remember from being his student are the following:

    1. We always sat down for rounds. Ah, what a relief. I absolutely do not see the point of standing at the door, talking about the patient, not to the patient, but just about them, one after another, for three hours.

    2. He always brought Krispie Kreme donuts when we were on-call on weekends. Yum.

    3. He took the ENTIRE team to Metropolitan Club. This club is SO fancy that it doesn't have it's own website: I guess if you need to Google this club, you don't belong. He and his wife were members, and they took the 2 interns, 2 med students, 1 sub-I, and 2 residents out. I think the interns and residents were asked to bring their sig others too. The club was so amazing, that when I had needed bandaids, from wearing my so-fancy shoes, that the lady staffed at the fancy bathroom had a whole supply of bandaids ready. It was an amazing meal.

    Now, I think I learned something about lupus, or gout, from Dr. L while I was on his service, but man, what I remember the most was that meal...kind of sad?!






  • It was an open house at the fire house- Aidan LOVED 'putting out' the fire.



    Seriously, we are not trying to raise nerds...despite how happy they look with a laptop... It might just be in their genes.



    This is a new game we are playing: run around the house and whack each other's bottoms using plastic containers. I think we all have a lot of angst that needs an outlet.
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