birds and bees

We had a birds and bees talk with clare a few days ago. We decided a little while ago that once she was 8, the next time she asked "where do babies come from?" or "How do babies get into mom's tummy?" we would tell her the real answer. We used dave's anatomy books to give her the basic understanding of what things are and how they work.  It was not akward at all. It was funny a couple of times. Once when Dave said "butt" and once when he said "boobs".  (clearly not the appropriate medical terms for these body parts!)

Anyway.....the reason I am writing this down is when I was getting ready to talk to Clare I put all the kids to bed and told her to wait on my bed for me. The book Have a New Kid By Friday was sitting right in the middle of my bed. I had been reading it and stuck it there so I wouldn't forget to put it in my return to library pile. Anyway, Clare picked it up and thought it would explain how to make a baby and get one by friday! It was pretty cute.  So I guess the first thing we covered was how it takes 9 months for a baby to grow inside a mother, which she already knew but just needed to be reminded of!

She is a dear!

Match day is coming

This is a picture of Dave 7 years ago finding out he matched at UCSD for his 7 year neurosurgical residency.  It was such an exciting day! We were so happy to get to come home to San Diego for training! We went out to Cold Stone with cute little Calvin and Clare to celebrate that morning and a few days later went out with some friends to PF Changs.  Our Match was in Jan, a couple of months before the regular match for other specialties.

 

In just 18 more days we will have our fellowship match. Results will be posted at 6am on December 10th so the picture on that morning will look like Dave sitting on the couch with a laptop on his lap.

Rank lists are due in 10 days.  Dave completed his final interview one week ago and has been agonizing over his rank list and how to go about making the phone calls and emails that are  part of the final week of the match.  While technically there is a match to get placed, there is much behind the scenes that goes on in the final days as rank lists are put together in the form of emails between applicants and directors and phone calls from director to chairmen of applicants or even the applicants themselves.

We have an added factor/stressor in considering ranking these programs and that is availability of schools for Calvin. I have spent hours and hours on the phone looking for schools for him. The three worst cities for Calvin would be Toronto, Memphis and Houston.  One of those programs was hands down Dave's favorite program. 

Programs (in no particular order):
Boston
Toronto
CHOP (Philadelphia)
Hopkins (Baltimore)
St. Judes/LeBhoneur (Memphis)
Seattle
Houston
San Diego

Ok well, enough rambling. Happy Friday!

toothbrush troubles

Dave is not one to share a toothbrush. I think I might not have been opposed to the idea when we first got married (ie - pack one toothbrush and share when camping would have been fine with me) but after being married to Dave for 13 years the thought of sharing a toothbrush makes me throw up in my mouth. Y-U-C-K. Yuck.

Recently, unbeknownst to Dave who is never home, Clare decided to move her teeth brushing location to the master bathroom where Dave and I brush teeth. Jo and Lex brush their teeth upstairs too. We have two sinks in the bathroom and they girls use the opposite side Dave uses. They absolutely refuse to share a bathroom with Calvin and since I support his decision I am fine with them brushing teeth in my room.  After moving to our bathroom Clare decided to share a toothbrush drawer with Dave, once again unbeknownst to him. For a few days he was sort of puzzled that he now had two toothbrushes and would use either one!!!!!!  Then one night Dave happened to be home when kids were getting ready for bed and Clare came to him saying, "Daddy, my toothbrush is in your room and I share your toothpaste." Upon careful examination of the toothbrush Clare had in her hand Dave realized that it was one that he had used a few times in the last few weeks!!!  AAHHHH! Yuck!

I have to admit. I knew Clare was keeping her toothbrush in Dave's drawer and I also knew it would make him crazy and I thought it would be funny when he found out. I did not realize he hadn't figured it out and may have accidentally used her toothbrush a time or two!

Life is funny. Times like these make me wish I could have more kids.  Times like practicing the piano with Clare and riding in the car with them all makes me wish I had fewer.

Today at dinner I was talking to the kids about special challenges (of Calvin) and Clare says she has special challenges too. I asked her what and she said "piano practice"!  She has no idea how lucky she is that piano practice is her biggest challenge. Hopefully one day she'll figure it out!

interview trail - last ones!

Dave is finishing up his interviews this week with Texas Children's in Houston and Hopkins in Baltimore. It will be great to be done.  As soon as Dave is done he needs to get together his rank list and pass it around to his attending here who will make phone calls for him and try to make a big push to help him get into his favorite spot. Next week will be the week of phone calls before thanksgiving.  At this point Dave has no idea how he'll rank everything. Well, he knows what the bottom few will be but he has no idea how to rank his top 5. The good thing is he'd be happy going to any of the programs so that is good.

 Match Day is Dec 10th. I am dying.  I have spent hours researching each city for two things: #1 to see where we'd live and how much it would be and where there would be good neighborhoods and good schools for the girls. That is kinda fun actually. In each city Dave interviewed at I know what part of town we could live in. #2 I am trying to figure out where Calvin could go to school in each of these cities. This is waaaayyy more stressful and difficult. I spend hours on the phone with people trying to see what is available. In some cities there is much to choose from and in other cities there is next to nothing.  Boston has 111 special schools. Houston has 1 Memphis has 0.  the others have closer to 3-5 to look at.  Toronto, being in Canada has a completely different system and I can't figure it out at all (mostly b/c I can't call there)! My friend from Canada is going to let me borrow her phone with an international plan for a couple of hours tomorrow so I can try to get some questions answered.  Being a big city, I am sure it has something I am just not sure how it system works. I am pretty sure that in the other cities I would know the key words and phrases in the IEP to make sure Calvin gets good placement. Dave thinks I am a little silly in doing research in each city and should just wait 'til dec 10th to make plans but I think it helps to have a little knowledge about each spot. I am mostly leaving the rank list up to dave. We could live anywhere for one year. But if there is a tie and location gets the tie-breaking vote. I want to have knowledge to make an educated vote!  I am saving my big votes for the job hunt after fellowship. I want to come back to SD for a job and if I have to live somewhere undesirable for a year, so be it!


Texas Childrens

Hopkins - doesn't have a separate hospital for Children's but it is part of the medical complex. Doesn't look too much like the ghetto in this picture, does it?

okay, it looks like hopkins has a children's center attached to the main hospital which serves as the children's hospital.

-one funny note about Texas Children's interview. They arranged to have a limo pick him up at the airport and take him to his hotel and also to have a limo take him back to the airport after interviews. They say Texas really knows how to take care of their doctors! I guess it is true! Nobody else did anything like that. I guess the next closest would be Memphis where the doctors themselves gave dave a ride from the hotel to the hospital and then to the airport (although he still took a shuttle from the airport to hotel). He has taken lots of shuttles and taxis over the last couple months!

dog butts and maggots (yes it is as gross as it sounds)

*warning - this is gross so don't read on if you don't want to read something gross

Tressel stinks to high heaven right now. I am ready to throw him outside and never let him back in. Everyone else is a little more tolerant of him than I am. We think he has an anal gland problem. Dr. Gonda might try to help out on that front but there is no way I could. I would totally barf!  Anyway, this morning I went into Clare's room to wake her up and guess what I saw. She was asleep curled up in a little ball and Tressel was curled up right next to her with his butt right in her face. I ran to get the camera but I was too late... Tressel moved. It was so gross! Clare was pretty grumpy this morning (not unlike many mornings) and I told her about Tressel sleeping with his butt in her face and we all got a good laugh. The girls, Clare and Lexey, fight over who get sot have Tressel sleep in their bed. I do not know why.

A day or two ago Dave said, "hey there are fruit flies in my car. I cleaned it all out and can't find anything rotting in there ......"  gross!

Then today on the way to the airport Dave opened the glove box and took out all the papers and found underneath a gross mess with lots of little flies and maggots. oh my gosh. It was disgusting!!!


Let's backtrack a little to get the full story!  A couple of weeks ago, Dave took the girls out on a daddy - daughter date to get some frozen yogurt and when they went to the car Dave told them to throw everything left away. They didn't. The brought it in the car.  Then they went to a store and Dave told them to take the ice cream cups out there and be sure to throw them away. Apparently Clare put hers in the glove box instead of taking them out of the car. And then they were forgotten for a couple of weeks.

I am sure Dave will be more careful about letting kids bring things in the car. I also wanted Clare (and Lexey) to be careful about what they bring in the car so I made Clare clean up most of the mess. She did a pretty good job. She stuck some oreos up her nose to try to help cover up the yucky smell. Still I saw her gagging while she was cleaning!  I still remember the first time I saw maggots in my garage. Still gives me the chills.

Of course Lex and Jo wanted to try oreos in the nose!!!!  love these little girls

Clare was a pretty good sport about it all. Hope she learned her lesson.

Calvin had a great week at school last week and this week so far. He was student of the week last week. He also had a nice day at home today and even smiled for the camera!

Happy Halloween

 (Calvin did not want to be photographed).


Jo a monkey - her favorite animal and and easy peasy hand me down costume.

I let Lexey pick a costume at Costco this year. This is her first year to buy a costume. She was pretty thrilled. Other years she had to pick out of the costume box like we usually do.

 
Clare was a bride. She had the dress and then added the accessories - veil and flowers. She did a good job planning and taking care of all the details.

I took my cute little wee singers to sing for the grandmas and grandpas a the retirement community a couple of weeks ago. It is a joy to do that.