Owen's First Trip to the ER

We always thought Owen's first trip to the ER would be for something like stitches or a broken bone, but nope, he was just sick. That means that yes, we abused the system and used it like a clinic. (do we healthcare workers and future ER doctor dare admit that??)

For the past month Owen has had a stuffy nose that turned into a cough. I thought it would just eventually go away, but it decided to linger around. He saw his regular doctor last week for a check-up and the dr. wasn't concerned at all. Well, Friday evening Owen spiked a fever so we gave him Tylenol which helped him get a decent night's sleep, but he was still quite hot and breathing pretty fast.

Early Saturday morning he wasn't any better and Josh was worried he might have pneumonia or something. Being the weekend plus we are leaving for Arizona on Monday, we really wanted him to be seen so we decided to take him to the ER. If we lived someplace with urgent care offices around, we probably would have just gone there.

We were lucky because it was early enough on a cold, slushy morning that there was no wait time! We signed in at 7:20am and left to go home at 9:00am. Super fast for an ER! The dr's couldn't find any signs of infection from their physical exam, but they still decided to give Owen antibiotics which is all we wanted!

It's really no fun when your child is sick. I know he is just miserable and there's not a whole lot I can do for him except for keeping the medicine coming on time. The one nice thing is he gets super cuddly when he's not feeling well. I'll take any chance I can get to cuddle with him, even if it's during the middle of the night! We hope he feels better soon.

Residency Interviews

Josh survived residency interviews! He literally went coast to coast (California to Massachusetts) and several places in between. Luckily, he only had to fly to five of the eleven, but the cost and exhaustion quickly add up, especially since he flew to five places in just over 2 weeks! But he's such a trooper. I'm sure I complained about it more than he did.

For his last interview we all drove to Columbus and we stayed with some friends who used to live in Chicago. It was a fun family road trip and great to catch up with old friends. They also have a little boy who's about Owen's age and they had a blast playing together.




When Josh's interview was done he came home and said "I'm not going to put this suit on again for a few years!" If that's a case, I told him I had to take a picture so I can remember how nice he looks in a suit. :)

Now that interviews are over, Josh has to decide his preference of programs and rank his preferences from highest to lowest. He'll submit his rank list in February, and each residency program also submits a similar list with preferred applicants ranked in order of their preference. A computer combines the lists and, using an algorithm, the computer matches applicants to programs. This is supposed to ensure that applicants get their best possible match. Then we wait until March 18th "Match Day" to find out what program Josh matched into! It's really a crazy system and we'll be glad when it's all over!

Future Ultimate Fighter?

Owen doesn't like to watch cartoons or movies, but we discovered he gets a kick out of watching Ultimate Fighting!!

(don't get any ideas Owen)

Sixteen Months

I haven't posted a "monthly" update on Owen since he turned 1, and he's grown and developed a lot since then so I'm writing this for the sake of my own remembrance.

Owen has turned into quite a fun loving kid! Besides newborn, this is probably my most favorite stage so far. I probably always say that, but each new stage and development is so much fun! He is so interactive and somewhat independent and plays with other kids well, but he's still so sweet an innocent with limited verbal skills which means he can't really argue with me and no talking back!

(He saw me with the camera so I told him to smile and this is what he did)

Things he does now:

*He is always on the go go go! He's pretty much non-stop all day long, even when he's sick. Rarely does he sit in one place very long to play with a toy. The only time he does this is when I put him in his bed to play while I shower and get ready. He won't even hold still to watch tv or movies. Last week I had to wait 2 1/2 hours with Owen for an oil change and brake alignment, and he just ran and played nonstop the whole time (thankgoodness they had toys there!). A few people asked me "is he always like this?" Yes! But he plays really well and obeys and isn't troublesome.

*Along with being on the go, he runs! He loves to run, especially down the hallway outside our apartment. He's really fast and if I'm not careful he'll just take off and I have to run to catch up to him (church especially).

*He's a button man. It's such a thrill for him to push the buttons on the elevator, he always wants to play with the remote, and he always wants to push the buttons on the debit card machines at stores checkouts. We turned two old cellphones into play phones and we keep them charged so the buttons beep- they provide him with hours of entertainment.

*He is my big helper. He loves helping me with chores around the house, and I love that he is so willing! His favorites are washing dishes and taking out the garbage. When he sees me washing dishes, he gets upset if I don't pull a chair up for him to stand on and help. He loves to hold the scrub brush, he loves to splash the soap bubbles, and loves to put the clean dishes back into the sink. When we take out the trash I usually slip a small grocery bag of trash on him arm that he can carry down. Yesterday I didn't have a small bag to slip on his arm, but he still held his arm out and motioned for me to put a bag on! I had to find more trash so he could help me out. :)

*He used to say a few words, but now he doesn't really say any. A couple months ago I wanted him to be able to communicate better with me so I taught him a few basic words in sign language. Since then I guess he figured he can get what he wants by signing and pointing rather than talking. Which is usually true. :)

*He loves to play our piano keyboard. We have it sitting high enough to where he can reach the keys standing up, but that's not ever good enough for him. He wants to sit on a chair so he's high enough to reach the buttons and change the sounds. The sound effects setting is his favorite.

*His favorite toys are cars, bikes, and trucks. He loves anything with a steering wheel. Whenever we get into our car to go somewhere, he begs to sit in the front seat for a minute so he can play with the steering wheel (and usually all the buttons and switches as well).

*He's pretty good at eating with a fork and spoon, but he still prefers to use his fingers. He's also a noisy eater. He always says "num num num" with each bite. I'm sure it's because we used to always say "mmm yummy!" when we fed him.

*His favorite time of day is bathtime! We have to be careful not to say the word "bath" before it's actually time because he'll want to take one right then. When we do say "it's bathtime!" he gets so excited, starts making the sign for bath, and runs to the bathroom. He always requests a bubble bath (by pointing to the bubbles) and loves to watch the bubbles be poured in.

*He gets excited to brush his teeth. I use 2 toothbrushes. I always give him a toothbrush to hold himself and he loves to chew and suck that one. Then I use the other toothbrush to brush his teeth well. He doesn't get so excited about that part.

*He's learning his body parts. Things he'll point to when I say them: head, hair, eyes, ear, nose, teeth, belly or belly button, toes.

*He recently started trying to put his own clothes and shoes on. He's usually successful at putting his arm in a wrong hole, and the other day he came out of his room with one shoe on the wrong foot. He was so proud!

*He loves to put lotion and hand sanitizer on. He'll grab for it until I get it, then he holds his palm out until I give him some. He also loves chapstick. Whenever he sees me put mine on he runs over, opens his lips, and holds real still while I put some on for him.

*He gives the best hugs. He'll come up and just put his head on my chest and he says "ahhh." It's so sweet! For some reason he also loves to pull my shirt up and rest his head on my belly. Guess that's because it's soft and fluffy. When I say "give me a kiss" he blows a zurburt on my cheek. Gotta love it!

*His recent stats: he weighs 22 lbs (10th percentile) and is 31.5 inches long (50th percentile). He's a skinny kid, and I had to make him some belts because most of his pants are too big in the waist! He also has the cutest little chicken legs you've ever seen, and they are oh so fun to tickle!

Asleep in the high chair

This was the first time Owen fell all the way asleep in the high chair, complete with snoring, so I wanted to document it. It was only noon and he usually takes a nap at two, so he must have been really tired!

(I move in closer so you can hear his snoring but you still might not be able to hear it)

It's Cold.

It's really winter.

As much as I wanted to avoid a cold winter, there doesn't seem any way to avoid it. Yesterday was a bad day in Chicago, one of the colder days we'll have. When I checked the weather online in the morning, it was 1 degree, and with the windchill it was -22. That's pretty cold, if you ask me!! It would have been fine if I didn't have to leave my house and could have stayed in the cozy warmth of my apartment, but I had to take Josh to the airport. So we bundled up the best we could, ran (though very carefully as not to slip on the ever-present ice) through the piercing wind out to our car, we pried the frozen doors open, and eventually thawed the car enough to drive it. When we returned we hurried back to the building as fast as we could. But even being outside for just a minute you quickly feel the burn in temps that low!

Owen stays nice and warm bundled in his winter fleece, jacket, hat, gloves, BundleMe, and weather shield to block the wind. He's finally getting used to putting everything on.

When the weather isn't quite so mean, it can actually be pretty fun to get out and enjoy the winter festivities in Chicago! Last week we went to the annual Kristkindlmarkt, a German market held in Daley Plaza. It's full of German food, beer, and handicrafts.

Then we went to Macy's on State St. to see the animated window displays. Every holiday season they put up displays of a fairy tale or other story. This year it was about sending Christmas wish lists to Santa at the North Pole. We should have (but didn't) gone inside Macy's to see the popular Walnut Room Christmas tree! Each year a huge tree is decorated with gorgeous ornaments and it sits in the middle of a restaurant. Every other year we went to see it. (and fun fact: this Macy's is the 2nd largest department store in the world. It really is huge.)

One other thing I hope to do this winter is go ice skating on one of Chicago's outdoor ice rinks. It's not often I get to go ice skating outside! And nothing says winter and romance better than ice skating with the man you love. :)

It's Magic

Today Owen discovered how much fun it is to color on the walls with crayons.

I gave him a crayon to color with (on paper) and until today he had been really good at only coloring on the paper. He would also occassionally chew on the crayon, but it usually just ended up on the floor once he was bored with it. Today I trusted he would do the same. Mistake! I got distracted with something and only after it was already too late did I realize he wasn't simply running around the house, but running and picking out what walls were best to color on. He picked 5 areas before I caught up to him!

I laughed and of course had to take some pictures. Then we made Owen help us clean it up. At first I thought "how am I going to get all this off?" Then I remembered a couple weeks back I had bought some Mr. Clean Magic Erasers because I heard they work really well. Let me just say, they not only work really well, they are AMAZING!! If you don't have any, you MUST get some!! I don't know how they work, but they will clean up anything. It's magic. I just rubbed gently and the crayon came off easily! I was so thrilled that I proceded to go around the apartment to see what else I could clean. It even took the black scuff marks off my flat paint! Those are usually impossible to get off. Definitely magic.

Blendtec

I want this blender!!!

Don't you want this blender too? Then go to this blog to enter for a chance to win one!!

So much to be thankful for

On this Thanksgiving I have so many things to be thankful for.

1. My wonderful husband. He works so hard at school and still helps me so much at home. And he does it without complaining at all.

2. My sweet Owen. He brings so much joy and laughter to our home. It is so exciting to see him learn and grow into his own person.

3. Medical technology. Without it we wouldn't have Owen. Exactly two years ago today I had my third IVF egg retrieval and Owen was conceived in a petri dish. Just amazing!

4. My home. I have a comfortable apartment to live in with ample space filled with many nice things, and it serves our needs wonderfully.

5. My family. Even though I don't get to spend a lot of time with them, I love the times when we are together.

6. My friends, both old and new. I love my Chicago "family" and being able to do fun things together, and I love that our kids can play together. I love being able to meet new people each year and love keeping in touch with friends who live elsewhere around the country.

7. Modern conveniences. Like all my nice kitchen supplies and appliances, washing machines, dryers, cars, computers, digital cameras, air conditioning, huge stores and shopping centers, a maintained highway system. Much of the world is not as fortunate to live in such luxury.

8. Good health. I've never been the sickly kind, one who gets sick easily or frequently. I don't have physical limitations and I am able to stay active and fit.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

A Thanksgiving Message

Owen's Got Talent

He may be small and might not say much, but he's strong and can rip out a tune on the harmonica!

Questions

I have two questions for my readers.

1) For those of you with young children, where do you buy your diapers? And what brand? Now that I'm somewhat settled in one location I'd like to start buying in bulk if that will be cheaper. I like good quality diapers, but don't neccessarily need to have Huggies or Pampers. Is diapers.com a good way to get them?

2) I recently started using Blogger's updated editor option for creating posts. (If you're not familiar with it, just go to your 'Settings' tab, then in the 'Basic' link scroll down to the bottom. Under the heading 'Global Settings' it asks you to select your post editor, choose 'Updated editor.') I like the updated editor because it's easier to upload and arrange photos- the pictures start to upload immediately after you select one, you can upload more than five at a time, the picture will be inserted right where you want it in the text rather than always at the very top, and you can resize the picture after it's been uploaded (though I admit it was a little confusing to use at first). But for some reason I can't figure out how to upload videos. Can anyone help me out? Maybe I'm just behind the times.

Thanks!

Home Sweet Home

It feels so good to finally be home again! After spending a total of 13 months away from our home, I am happy to finally have my own things and my own bed and not have to worry about packing and unpacking to go somewhere (well, at least until we go to Arizona for Christmas), which is basically all we've done this year. It's been a fun year, but I'm ready for a break.

(this is where we live, picture obviously taken in the summer)

Last week we spent 6 days in the car with going to El Paso and back to Albuquerque, then to Temple, TX and on to Chicago. Owen got quite used to hotel rooms and fast food restaurants! Whenever we arrived to a new hotel he got super excited and knew all the things to check out (bathroom, drawers, AC/heater unit, TV remote, and he made sure to jump on the bed).

We ended up not visiting Memphis like we had planned because it took us longer to get there than we thought and we would've had to spend an extra night and day driving. By that time we were so done with being in the car and we just wanted to get home! Owen did REALLY well in the car and rarely fussed, way better than us! We didn't even have a DVD player to entertain him, just toys and books. He just resigned to the fact that he was stuck there, I guess.

Now that we're back in Chicago I look forward to giving him more stability and routine. Right now his sleep schedule is still a bit thrown off and he's fighting his afternoon nap at this very moment.

It felt really strange driving into Chicago this time. It felt different and almost new all over again, I don't know why. Perhaps spending a couple months in spread out, urban-sprawl cities then driving through the wide open spaces of the midwest made Chicago seem overly big and crowded. But I was quickly reminded that this is home and I like it here, even though it's been gray and cloudy and rainy.

This is the view from my living room window. Now that the leaves have fallen we can see a lot more of downtown! Before, we could only see the tip of the Sears Tower (oops, I mean Willis Tower), the Trump Tower, and maybe one other building.

Oh ya, I celebrated my 28th birthday as well. This year it felt more like an afterthought rather than a big day. I guess that's what happens when you get older. Plus, mother nature decided to give me the gift of a mean cold this year. It's no fun to wake up to aches and pains the morning of your birthday! So Josh's plans to take me out to dinner were put on hold til a future date, hopefully sooner than later. He did manage to give me a rose and nice card. And Owen surprised me with two good naps! Yay! Too bad he doesn't seem to want to do the same today...

Lots of Sunshine

The weather has been really nice in Albuquerque, so we've tried to spend a lot of time outside. Besides our normal park outings, we've gone to the zoo and hiking. The zoo here is nice and I was impressed with the wide variety of different animals. We were excited to see the new baby elephant Daizy born just two months ago!! I don't think I had ever seen a baby elephant before, and she was just too cute. Owen kept trying to climb down in there to play with them. We did find a nice pond full of ducks and Owen had a blast feeding the ducks bread. They were some of the bravest ducks I've seen, with some coming right up to us!

A few days ago we went with a few of Josh's classmates to some trails on the west side of the Sandia Mountains. There are a tone of desert trails, and we would have loved to have spent more time exploring them. We love desert hiking.

Even though Albuquerque is in a desert, it has a lot more trees than the Phoenix desert that I'm used to. I think it's mostly due to the fact that there's an actual river with water that runs right through it. Big Cottonwood trees line both sides of the Rio Grande. All the leaves have been golden yellow the whole time we've been here, and I just love it! There's something about the way the yellow trees look against the desert mountains that makes me happy.

Today we went to Petroglyph National Monument on the west side of the city. The petroglyphs were left behind by early American Indians.

There were lots of volcanic rocks, and Owen was in playtime heaven. He even put on his serious playtime face.

Owen is our little climber and he wanted to climb all the rocks all by himself.

Hmmm, wonder where he gets that from.....

Airplanes

Josh had a few rotations with Life Guard, an air medical service. UNM Medical Center is the only hospital in the whole state that has a trauma center, so a lot of patients get flown in. Owen and I went with him one morning so Owen could see the airplanes up close. He gets SO excited whenever he sees or even hears an airplane flying overhead (which seems to be all the time since we're pretty close to the airport) and he always waves "bye-bye" and watches them until he can't see them anymore.

At first he wasn't quite sure what to think being so close to them. I think he was a little confused as to why they weren't up in the sky. He did get to sit in the cockpit and play pilot.

His favorite part of the morning was when we walked outside of the hangar just in time to see a jumbo jet taking off. That was exciting!! If only he knew how very many flights he's already been on...

Sleepy Boy

This is the first time Owen has fallen asleep on his own when I didn't put him down for a nap. I put him in here to play while I showered, and I came out to see this. He must have been REALLY tired because he doesn't usually take morning naps any more! We had just been on a two day trip to El Paso for one of Josh's residency interviews, and with all the excitement of traveling and the hotel he must not have gotten enough sleep. We're leaving Albuquerque in the morning and we'll spend four days in the car making our way back to Chicago, with stops in Temple, TX for another interview and Memphis for some sight-seeing. I sure hope Owen sleeps a lot in the car!

Just Too Darn Cute!

I finally found Owen a white dress shirt so he could wear a tie to church.

(easy tutorial on how to make one here, thanks Darby!)

He is such a cute little man!!!

I love the way he shows off his big teeth when he smiles.

And the tie also serves as a drool catcher. He's cutting four molars right now.

Happy Halloween!

This year we had a fun Halloween! Owen dressed as a little bear, and yesterday we went to a church party/trunk-or-treat. Owen had so much fun! It was a carnival-themed party complete with carnival games, prizes, a bounce house, and a magic show.

He also loved the trunk-or-treat and the candy that came with it. He got his first taste of tootsie roll and lollipop. He was probably thinking, "man, I've been deprived for so long!" He was in heaven.

On Halloween day we carved our pumpkin. Owen was a little scared, because up to this point the pumpkin had been his little friend that he'd play with. He wouldn't even touch the pumpkin while we cleaned and carved it. Once we put it outside he warmed up to it a little more.



After Owen was asleep Josh and I ate candy and watched some scary movies on TV. I haven't watched a scary movie in so long, let's hope I don't have nightmares tonight!