"You may not enter!"

Sydney scared the crap out of me when she took this mask off the wall and blocked the door to the bathroom.

Connect this, dad!

Sydney loves games. She and her dad invented a new way of playing connect four that's much more, shall we say, aggressive. There is no waiting turns, you put your pieces in
as fast as you can until one of you has four in a row. You can block your opponent in any way as long as you don't leave your sitting or kneeling position.

Falling Dog

Grammy Carla

Sydney refers to my parents as Grammy and Grandpa Carla (there's no question in her mind of who's in charge in that house....) Anyways, my mom celebrated her birthday on Sunday and we celebrated with a beautiful birthday brunch at my parents' house on Saturday. Happy birthday Mom!

Syd's stinky chores

Lou watches as Syd cleans up his mess without complaint (yeah, right!)
Syd approaches the mine field with caution. She actually drew a map for this purpose this morning.
Syd LOVES taking care of her pet!

Tisdell dinner party

Jon's parents came out to see us on Saturday night. (I'm sure the girl scout cookies added incentive!). We had a relaxing evening of wine, homemade pizza and a show performed by Sydney and Lou entitled, "In lou's shoes," which, as the play bill advertised was "terruffic!"

50% off Valentine's day bash

Even though I HATE Valentine's day now, I remember really enjoying getting little gifts from my mom and doing the valentine thing at school. So without contributing too much to the consumerism around the holiday, we held a V-day party at home several days after the actual holiday.

Note the "vomit bowl" on the valentine's day spread for Sydney. Actually, the reese's peanut butter heart (that I fully expected her to throw--up) was the only thing she kept down on Friday!

This is Lou's gift 5 minutes after he received it.

Sicko Syd - part deux

Okay - I admit it - I thought Sydney had appendicitis, but it turned out to be just a stomach bug. It might be a case of knowing too much for my own good (but fever + vomiting + Right sided belly pain.....) . Anyways, more time off from School for Syd on Friday.

Poor kid - she's had a rough month!

Darcy the Nanny

We were strapped for a sitter this morning. We're always in trouble on Mondays because Tina isn't open and other "buyable" child care options don't open early enough. Anyways, all year we've been scrambling for help for the couple of hours between when we head to the hospitals and when Sydney needs to be at school. I think everyone Sydney is related to has babysat at some point on Monday mornings. Darcy "volunteered" to help this morning because he's on vacation this week. I say "volunteered" because when Carla suggests that you do something - you do it. He brought coffee so he beats all y'all in terms of quality care as far as I'm concerned!

Here's a photo of my beautiful sister and her IRA-trained professional nanny:
But honestly people - would you want this man watching your children? He's actually a big push over when it comes to Sydney!

Happy Birthday Brian

Things are settling down for us: Syd's feeling better and we're into a routine on the cardiology wards. For several days we even had two cars but we're back down to one (Jon needs brake pads). We had a relaxing weekend and saw Erin and Darcy and my parents. Sydney also had a b-day party on the Straub side of the family. I can't help but think about how our weekends will change next year......

These are pictures that Erin sent me: My best gal pal, Shara, threw her husband a surprise 30th (we couldn't make it because of the exam in Atlanta) but Erin, Darcy, Roberta and Juan all attended. The party was held at the swanky wino restaurant where Brian works and Brian thought he was going to work that day - he even set up the tables for his own party.

More pics

These are kind of recent (within the year):

Random Pictures

Syd continues to recover but nobody wants to see pictures of a sick kid....at least not more than one (see "sicko Sydney post). What people do want to see is pictures of puppies with wigs on.

New Car

I did it! I finally took the plunge of buying a new car and taking on a car payment. I bought a Tuscon which is comprable to a subaru forester but more affordable. We pick it up tomorrow night. Here is a stock photo:

Sydney on better days

Sydney getting ready for school last week before the pneumonia.

Sicko Sydney

If anything has changed in terms of my parenting around illnesses since I came to med school its that I am now less likely to bring Sydney to the doctors. I mean, If they let me go to medical school - how helpful can a doctor be, really? Just kidding! We've had great experiences with her doctors....mostly. I am less likely to bring her to the doctor now but that's probably because now I understand what really sick is.

Anyways after a week of coughing and three days of fever we decided that she needed a chest xray which the doctor agreed to and Sydney has pneumonia! Her doctor put her on antibiotics so hopefully she'll be better soon. We were kind of surprised because she didn't complain that much, really. She's been home from school all week, but hopefully she'll be able to return to school on monday.

Get well soon Syd!

"The Hog Blog"

The blog title was Sydney's idea (and she picked out the image).

We've had a busy week - Jon and I started our cardiology rotation this week. This is the first time that we've worked together in the hospital, should be interesting.

We're back down to one vehicle (jon's is back to the shop for a clutch problem and I can't seem to find one that I like to buy). Its awesome when the three of us squeeze into the front seat of the rusted out Ford ranger we're still borrowing from my dad. Awesome!

To complicate things further still Sydney has been ill and unable to go to school (more later).