1st Winter in 'nati

Everyone wonders how we're handling our 1st winter in Ohio. This song keeps playing in my head "... and I ain't seen the sun shine since I don't know when..." Yes, there is snow on the ground most of the time and it is cold, but the hardest thing for me is the consistently grey sky. When the sun does peek out I make sure we get outside for a little vitamin D. Considering how much snow other parts of the country have seen, I can't complain too much.

We have the entire basement set up as a playroom. That helps give AGW some space. She rides her "bike", runs around, watches movies, cooks, and plays with her babies. HLW also has his share of toys to entertain him, but his favorite thing is to watch his sister hard at work.

Carey is still rotating through the Surgical Intensive Care Unit. He's doing lots of procedures, which means there are lots of sick people, of course. It's funny how doctors have totally different attitudes than us "regular" people. He gets upset when something bad happens to someone, but he's also able to say "but I got to do this really cool procedure...". I guess it's how they learn, but it's still unfortunate. Most people ask Carey the same things "So, how's it going?" or "Is it everything you thought it would be?" Let me see if I can answer those questions for you. First of all, it's going well. For the most part, he's working around 80 hours each week and studying a little bit at home when he can. Some rotations are better than others. Some upper level residents are better than others and some days are just better than others. I can say that at the end of every single day, he is so anxious to get home and see his family, but he still loves his job. To me, that says it all. We're half way through the first year and he has never even considered doing anything else. As far as what he thought it would be...You can't prepare for surgical residency. You can't read enough or tie enough knots. You could live at the hospital and still not know enough. So that is what he expected. I'm not sure he expected all of the grunt work he would be doing. He is thrown into all of the awkward and disgusting cases that the upper levels don't want to touch. He does lots of discharging and paperwork, and nervously babysits the extremely sick for his superiors. As long as he continues to come home excited to tell me about his day, everything is good.

Hayes Lane is still huge and a huge momma's boy. He's usually very happy and only fusses when he wants his momma... which is most of the time. He has the biggest smile that just makes you melt! You can see in his face that he would give anything to jump up and play with his sister.

Oh my Aisley Grace! That girl can have my head spinning with anger one second and have me rolling with laughter the next. Terrible twos are in full forces and so is the stubborn, bossy, diva-tude. She got her first real spanking by her daddy tonight for continuing to not listen. That is an on going battle. But she is also very loving and thoughtful, especially to her baby. When he fusses she finds a binkie to shove forcefully in his mouth and generously comforts him by covering his face with her lovey. She's mastered the art of conversation and impresses me daily with her ability to communicate, especially argue :)

As for me, there's not much new. I still pride myself in being a terrible house keeper and continue to push the limit of letting laundry pile up. I'm training to run my first half marathon in May and can't wait to get back to Texas next week so I can actually run outside!