Valentine's Day

It has been a month already since the last post! However, we haven't really done much to speak of.

School has been just plugging along. I had my first exam this week, and it went about how I expected. I wasn't as prepared as I usually like to be, and I didn't do as well as I usually do. We just keep pushing forward, I guess. I have one exam next week, and 3 the following week. Then I'm into spring break though! This semester is going by slowly and quickly at the same time. I'm not really loving the material we're covering, but it is important for me to know. Did I mention that I only have 5 months of classwork left?

Last weekend I had an all-weekend elective course on Sports PT. We have to take 3 elective credits throughout the program. It was a good course, but having school all weekend made the last two weeks feel like one never-ending week. I'm so ready for this weekend! Though, I'll have to spend most of it studying anyway.

Spencer enjoyed his OB/GYN rotation, though he still says he doesn't want to be an OB/GYN. Now he's doing general surgery in Saginaw. He has really early mornings. He has to do rounds on his patients and write up progress notes before a 7 am meeting with the physician, so he's been leaving the house at like 5:30 each morning. He's been tired, but he's handling it well. He's still learning the layout of the hospital and his specific responsibilities. He's working hard, and I am so grateful for him!

Melanie has been adjusting. Most mornings she kind of looks around for a bit then asks me where Daddy is. I tell her he's already at the hospital and she chatters about how he'll "drive, drive, drive all the way home".

On Monday morning I had my exam, then a 3 hour break before class. I picked Melanie up from daycare and we went on a lunch date! We went to Olive Garden and shared a lunch. She said she wanted lasagna until she saw it, so she just ate bread sticks and a couple of noodles. We chatted about daycare, and she told me all of the drama from the morning. Austin hit Gage, and Austin stole her baby doll, and Melanie yelled at him to "give her back!". I tried to talk to her about sharing next time, but she didn't seem to notice. I am so glad that she tells me about her little world. Yesterday she told me that she wants to go on another date with me. I think that's a pretty good idea!

Valentine's Day was on Tuesday, so it was an early start for all of us. Spencer was gone by 6 am, and Melanie and I left by 6:45 for class! Needless to say, we didn't do anything special that morning. That evening, we made some heart shaped pizzas, Spencer gave me chocolate, and we watched a show while we ate our dinner. Melanie LOVES when we watch a show with dinner. Spencer and I had a little date night in on Sunday because we knew we'd be busy during the week.

Melanie and I have settled into our commute back and forth. We listen to Disney CDs or Caspar Babypants on the way there, and general conference talks or a book on CD on the way home. Melanie has discovered that CDs have little booklets in the front of their cases, and she insists on looking at the book while we listen to the CD. We get CDs from the library. We currently have the Tangled soundtrack and Thomas the Train. Tangled is good. Thomas is incredibly annoying, but she asks for it every couple of days. I'm ready to return that one to the library. She's a good listener while my talks are playing. Every time the speaker says Thomas S. Monson, Jesus, or Nephi, she yells to me that they said they are talking about that person. She thinks every conference talk is by Thomas S. Monson. The other night we were singing Follow the Prophet at bedtime, and I told her that our prophet today is Thomas S. Monson. She said, "Thomas S. Monson talks a lot."

Melanie has been our little light during this stressful and busy time of our educations. She's my little partner and keeps me company during all of our driving.

Oh, I almost forgot! Spencer and Melanie took a trip to Grand Haven last weekend while I was in class. Josh and Katy were there, so Melanie got some cousin time. They had fun. I think they went to a park, did a hike, and Melanie played and fought with her cousins. I do have a few pictures to add about this past month, but I think all of them are on Spencer's phone.

Back to Blogging

Well, hello.

On the one hand, blogging has been pretty low on the list of my priorities through grad school. On the other hand, I feel all sorts of guilty when I think about all of the things I have missed blogging about. Especially with Melanie. She's so big now and I feel like I have missed recording a lot of fun things about her. So, here's to new semester/ new year resolutions to be better about blogging.

We haven't been great about keeping everyone up to date lately, though our Christmas break helped a lot! So, here's a quick recap.

Spencer is halfway through his 3rd year of medical school. He took Step 1 (first stage of national medical boards) last summer, then spent 6 months doing a clinical rotation with an internist, which was similar to family medicine, but without any pediatrics. He spent one week in a pediatric clinic and one week in an OB/GYN office. That 6 months was a program called CCC, which is unique to CMED in an effort to achieve their mission of promoting rural medicine. He felt like it was a good learning experience, but too long. He wishes his other rotations would be given more time, but it is what it is. Now he is beginning the clinical rotation portion of his schooling. For the next 18 months or so (until graduation), he will go though 4-week(ish) rotations in various specialties. His first rotation is OB/GYN, and he was told yesterday that he'll help to deliver at least a few babies in the next month. So that's fun. I guess. He's looking forward to really getting into the rotations and figuring out what kind of residency he really wants to apply for later this year!

I am over halfway through PT school! I have 2 more semesters of coursework (spring, summer), then 2 semesters of clinical rotations (fall, next spring). Last summer I spent 6 weeks doing a clinical in Grand Haven, and it was so great! I learned so much, and it gave me a huge confidence boost in my clinical knowledge and skills. I have learned so much, and it felt great to apply that in real life. I had several patients who were "mine", so I did all or nearly all of their assessments, interventions, and plan of care. Guys. I'm actually going to be a PT one of these days. How crazy is that?! For now, school is more of the same. I'll admit that I can feel myself burning out, and I'm struggling to figuring out how to keep my motivation up for 7 more months. From day to day, school is just a routine. Get up early, get myself and Melanie ready, drive to Mt. P, get Melanie to daycare, go to class, pick Melanie up from daycare, drive home, play and dinner and workout if I'm feeling ambitious, study/read/maybe watch a show, bed. But after weeks and months of that routine, it's exhausting to say goodbye to Melanie each weekday and to spend all my free time studying or reading. It's easy to start neglecting pre-reading and cutting corners in schoolwork. It will all be worth it in the end. I just have to get settled into my routine.

Melanie. Melanie has been learning and growing and pretending to potty train. She is silly and happy and spunky. She LOVES the new Midland house. Last Saturday I was on campus in the morning. I came home to her dressed like this (she chose her clothes, not Spencer). I asked her what she wanted to do that day, and she said, "I just want to laugh and play!"

Melanie has been learning to love new foods. This month she has decided she likes cucumbers, carrots, the crust of her PBJ, and black olives (which she previously refused to touch). She has been doing more imaginary play. Yesterday during dinner she hopped up and walked across the kitchen to scoop something up in her hands. It was an imaginary chicken. Then she found an imaginary Pooh bear and "lost" him while he was climbing a hunny tree. Melanie has been learning her letters a lot this month. We downloaded a couple of alphabet apps, and that seems to have sparked her interest. Even as we read books or do her alphabet puzzle, she's started pointing out letters she knows on her own. She loves to watch movies, but she turns into a crabby pants whenever it's over, so we don't do many shows or movies at home. She loves Disney music. We got her a Disney Princess CD for Christmas because she drives to and from Midland to Mt. Pleasant with me each day (about 40 in good weather). One day last week we listened to Something There from Beauty and the Beast at least 9 times. Today she requested Part of Your World from The Little Mermaid to start it off, but then listened to the entire CD in order.

Our biggest family development lately is that we moved! We are now renting a HOUSE in Midland! We love having more space. Melanie is more active and tends to run around more in the bigger space. The house is a rental, so it needed several repairs right off the bat. Lately we have discovered that the oven is like 125 degrees hotter than the dial says, so we'll probably submit a work request on that this week, too. We've been winterizing windows and even a door with plastic shrink wrap because we got a little bit of a shock from our first utility bill, but we still like being in a house. Midland is right in the middle of Saginaw and Mt. Pleasant, so it breaks the 70 minute drive into two easier commutes. We are excited to be discovering all of the things to do in Midland. I'm excited for warmer weather so we can check out the city parks!

That basically brings you up to speed on us! We had a great Christmas break of visiting Grand Haven, Ironwood, and moving all of our things to Midland!

Melanie Words

"Fweet." I have no idea where this word came from, but it means swing. As in a swing at a playground.

"Choo! choo!" I usually say "beep beep" to Melanie when she's in the way to ask her to move. Cars say beep-beep. Trains say choo-choo. Melanie now says "choo choo" to people or things in her way.

Real life Example: "Choo choo, people! Melanie Fweet! Choo choo, people!"

Grad School is Not Good For Blogs.

It's been months. And it's basically been an entire year since I've kept up with this thing. So, I'm sorry that I haven't blogged about Christmas or New Years or Easter. Or Benjamin and Carli's beautiful wedding! We have a lot of fun memories from those things, but the thought of catching up is overwhelming and it keeps me from blogging at all. I just want to capture what our regular daily life looks like right now.

Melanie. Oh, my sweet little Melanie. She's hilarious. She yips and yaps and loves music. Caspar Babypants is our favorite kid's artist, and she requests "Stompy the Bear", "Googly Eyes", and "The Frogs" multiple times a day. When "The Frogs" plays, she crawls around on the floor being a frog. :)

Melanie's favorite book this week is "Oh, The Places You'll Go!". I don't really love it, but she likes the pictures. She also LOVES "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom". Her favorite page is the back page that just has the alphabet, and she likes to practice her letters with it. Sometimes we do alphabet flashcards, and she is constantly impressing me with how fast she learns.

I can't even begin to say enough about her.

Spencer's semester is wrapping up. He's done with the true medical content, and just has a unit about clinical skills and odds and ends. This week he had a day where they learned how to put in an IV, draw blood, give subdural and intramuscular injections, do sutures, and other fun stuff like that. He's studying hard for Step 1, the first of three medical school national board exams. It's the big one that basically determines our future. Okay, that's a little dramatic, but it's a very important exam. He takes it on June 23rd.

Last week we heard about Spencer's clinical rotation assignments! He will be in Saginaw for both portions of next year. We were hoping for something a little closer for the first part, but Saginaw will be fine. There was the possibility of him being placed as far away as Sault Ste. Marie, so we're still happy that the school accommodated us as much as they have. I still have classes in Mt. Pleasant next year, so we will be moving to Midland in a few months. Midland leaves each of us with a 30 minute commute. I'm excited though.

Physical therapy school has been quite a journey so far. The last year has gone so fast, but so slowly at the same time. I have been learning and growing and enjoying most of it. Some weeks are very stressful, but I can usually set the stress aside long enough to appreciate why I am doing all of this. Melanie keeps my perspective in the right place. School is not my life, but it is going to give me the ability to do things I want to do for my family and for people in my community. This semester has been exhausting. I'm burning out. I have 4 weeks left, including finals.

This semester is my orthopedics block, so we are learning all about joints. Anatomy, how they work, what they do, disorders, and how to treat them. It's been really cool! I never knew there was so much to know! One class is mock clinic, so we role play being a therapist or a patient each week and have to present or treat a case. It stretches me. Some days I leave mock feeling like I can actually help people. Other days I leave mock feeling like a bit of a failure. Mock creates more stress and tears than any other class, but I'm learning.

After finals I get one week off and then I start my first clinical rotation! It will be my first interaction with real patients, so I'm scared and excited all at once. My assignment is 6 weeks in Grand Haven!! Melanie and I will go live at Spencer's parents' house, which is going to be so fun! Spencer will stay in Mt. Pleasant to study for Step 1, which is a little sad, but he'll get more studying done without us bugging him all the time. We'll come home on weekends.

I sometimes struggle with all of the things I don't do. I wish I worked out (ever), or made better dinners, or kept the house cleaner, or was better at keeping up with my school material. I feel spread pretty thin a lot of nights, but we're all happy. I spend a lot of time with Melanie. I am passing my classes, and I think I'm learning enough to be successful during my clinical this summer. Of course I'm always working on improving, but I'm trying not to worry about everything at once. :) Here are some pictures from the last week or so.

Melanie came home from daycare with her hair in a little ponytail the other day! Her first one ever! I tried a few days before, but she wouldn't let me touch it. She has a little friend at daycare who usually has pigtails in, so maybe there was some peer pressure. 

Silliness

Melanie has been really fun and extra silly the last few days. She is almost always smiling and happy, and when she is mad about something, it doesn't take her long to turn it around. These are some of her favorite things to do these days.

Melanie loves to dance! We put on pandora or youtube videos and she'll dance her little heart out. She twirls spins, stomps her feet, toddles around, and wiggles her hips back and forth. When she really gets into she'll even bounce up and down. I try to dance with her once a day, usually to get a few extra wiggles out just before we start the bedtime routine. Now when I ask her if she wants to dance she'll nod her little head and wait for some music.

She shares. She loves to share her snacks, especially Cheerios. She stuffs handfuls of them into my mouth or she takes a nibble and then gives me a nibble of the same Cheerio. She's so happy to be sharing, I can't say no. Today while I was doing yoga with my friend Teeva, she brought her milk cup over to me and kept sticking it in my face. Once I pretended to take a drink she'd reach around my shoulder and give me some pats on my back. Teeva got a few turns, too. Melanie's very favorite thing is when I share popcorn with her. She knows I get the first bite to get the kernel off and she waits patiently for her part.

Sometimes she takes her Cheerios out of her snack trap, puts them on the carpet, then gets down on her hands and knees and eats them right off the carpet.

Melanie's favorite word is "cookie". Anything with chocolate chips is a cookie. In fact, I'm pretty sure that she thinks chocolate chips are called cookies. I had cookie dough on a baking sheet ready to go in the oven the other day and she spotted them. "Cookie? Cookie. Cookie! COOKIE!!" She was not thrilled when I said we couldn't eat them yet.

When we read Green Eggs and Ham, Melanie pretends to take the ham from each page and brings her hand to her mouth with a little chomping sound. Sometimes she feeds it to me. When we read Fox in Socks and get to the "Let's have a talk about tweedle beetles" line she giggled with anticipation. When we get to the "Now wait a minute Mr. Sock Fox!" page she wags her little finger at the fox. She loves books.

She also loves candy canes. This was her first one of the season, and once she tasted it she wouldn't even share with Spencer.

There's nothing silly about Spencer's life right now, but I've had some fun labs! We had a wound care lab where we practiced wound debridement on oranges, and I was declared the winner for having the cleanest orange. Another day we had fake wounds applied with goop and jelly on top of them to practice cleaning them with sterile techniques. We had a bandaging lab, which you can see in the picture below. And today was the first of three massage techniques labs. Best day of lab so far. PT school has some pretty fun moments mixed in with all the studying and learning.

Fall Semester

I haven't blogged all semester, and we are almost to Thanksgiving!

School has been going well. The beginning of the semester had a nice, slow start, and then we had 1 to 3 exams each week for like 6 weeks in a row. I usually feel like I'm just scraping by, somehow managing to finally get a solid grasp on the material the night before the exams. Let me tell you, there have been moments of divine inspiration and intervention in regards to my studies, and I am so grateful for that. I'm enjoying the material, and I'm really enjoying learning. Physical therapy is absolutely the right career for me. It's the perfect balance of academic problem-solving and personal interaction.

Spencer has been doing pretty well with school this semester, too. He has been passing all of his exams. We both know that next semester will require a lot more study time from him, and maybe he should be doing a bit more this semester, but he is loving the time he gets to spend with Melanie. He has the mornings off a couple days a week, so unless he has an exam coming up, he and Melanie get to play. He is the best at doing quality time. She is always giggling and happy when he is around, and he knows just how to get her riled up.

Melanie is doing great. She loves daycare, which is awesome for everyone. She also loves coming home. Some morning or afternoons she gets to be home with Spencer or I. Spencer's mom comes up about once a week to spend the day with her, and she really loves that. As soon as Grandma walks in the door, Melanie's finding her shoes and ready to go to the park or to the Discovery Museum. I love seeing their relationship grow, and we appreciate Mom's sacrifice driving all this way just to spend a couple of hours with Melanie.

Melanie is a yapper now. She loves books, and will take them to us or sit and read them to herself. Sometimes she'll read it to us, too. Her favorite is Fox in Socks, and she'll look through every single book in her book cubby until she finds it. When it gets to the tweedle beetle battle pages, she makes little "blaadablabbblob" sounds by flicking her tongue in and out of her mouth.

She's usually all smiles, but is beginning to be more protective of her things. At church last week another kid was picking up her stethoscope and bear (her two favorite toys), and she ran across the room yelling "MEMANIE! MEMANIE!" As in, that's Melanie's toy! Spencer said she said "mine" the other day, too, but I haven't heard that one yet. Overall she's still pretty good at sharing, but she's picking up a few things at daycare. :)

Melanie loves meat, especially sausage, baths, the children's museum, other kids, being chased, Mr. Bear, her teeny tiny baby doll, books, eating, people, walks, shoes, showing people her shoes, my shoes, putting her shoes on by herself, and finding her clothes and trying to put them on, even if she is already wearing clothes. She's happy and silly, and I can't get enough of her.

School is long some days, and I feel this overwhelming need to see my baby as I leave campus. I can't get to the car fast enough, and her smile when I get to the daycare or get home is priceless. I rarely do any schoolwork between coming home and Melanie's bedtime, but it's better that way. She goes to bed around 8 which leaves me 2 or 3 hours to do it. Lately, I have spent a lot of time thinking back to a year ago and comparing. I do sometimes miss those sweet, lazy, snuggly days with my tiny baby. But I don't miss the hard things about being home. It was easy to feel isolated and it was hard to see my own growth. I loved all the mom aspects of it, but I had a hard time with the individual aspects of it. This year, I feel like I've found a pretty good balance most weeks. I think I'm happier now than I was a year ago. I think I'm still being a great mom. Melanie is happy and healthy, and daycare is so great for her very outgoing personality. I'm grateful for this chance to be in school, working toward a career that I will love. I'm also looking forward to being done with school so I can be home more.

One really great thing this semester has been a bible study that some of the PT students do. I go most weeks, and I usually bring Melanie with me. I am so grateful for their examples of faith. It's nice to connect with others in that way, and it gives me a chance to socialize a little bit outside of schoolwork. In fact, I had some of the girls who go to bible study over last night. We had some yummy food and watched the women's session of general conference from September. I missed it back then, and still hadn't watched it. It was really fun and, of course, the conference was great!

That's about all for now. :)

Melanie's 1st Birthday

Melanie is a ONE YEAR OLD!

That year went by so fast.

Spencer's Mom, Brigham, and Mikayla came to our apartment on Saturday afternoon and stayed the night to celebrate with us on Sunday. I made Melanie a tiny cake and some mini muffins and we threw her a tiny birthday party after dinner! We went to church in the morning, then came home and had some lunch and then made Melanie take a nap. I spent all of sunday school in the mother's room because she finally fell asleep in there, and I knew if I went into the bright hallway she would wake up. So I just sat there, staring at my sweet baby girl, thinking about the year.

Her birthday party was fun! We gave her a cake to smash, and she very carefully poked it once. We tried putting some in her mouth to get her excited about it and she just spit it out like we were trying to poison her or something. Then we gave her a tiny fork and she poked the cake. Then we gave her a slice of the cake and she poked it until it made enough of a mess that it looks like she smashed some cake! She loved having Happy Birthday sung to her though! All day long, that song would make her grin ear to ear. We opened her presents after cake, and she almost got it. She mostly wanted to put her things back into the bag they came out of. Haha

Mom got her some outfits and pajamas for her birthday, and we got her a big red ball. AnnaMarie got her a cute little dolly stroller that she adores and giraffe socks that I adore! Katie painted her a picture of light sabers, and Jane gave her a tiny pink elephant. Thanks to all of you and everyone who sent birthday wishes!

We are so blessed to have her. I thank God every day for trusting me to mother this sweet, smart, happy girl. I hope I am teaching her all the good things she will need to know.

Our one year old Melanie:

• She loves people, and loves to share her happiness with everyone around her. She always has a smile and/or a wave for people going by. It's amazing how someone so tiny can brighten up everything around her so much. 
• She is silly. She loves honking noses. She prefers honking her own nose. She loves playing with doors, especially if there is someone on the other side to knock to. She loves when Spencer sings songs and adds "MELANIE!" in her face.  Ex: "rock a bye MELANIE!! (uncontrollable laughter) in the tree tops. When the wind blows the MELANIE!! (uncontrollable laughter).... 
• She loves giving hugs and kisses. Usually.
• She loves baths! She holds her two rubber ducks, one in each hand, and chatters to herself while she splashes them so it looks like she's having them talk. 
• She is deciding to walk more and more each day!
• She loves broccoli, rice, sausage, lil' crunchies, goldfish crackers, and watermelon! She does like a wide variety of foods, but those are her current favorites. She does not like birthday cake. Or cookies. Unless you sneak little bits into her mouth without her knowing. 
• She likes for things to have a place. She is constantly taking things (toys, remotes, balls) and putting them in boxes, envelopes, cupboards, other toys, etc. She won't spill her balls all over the floor. She carefully takes them one at a time and stashes them. 
• She has been a TERRIBLE sleeper. Hopefully that changes very soon.
• She loves balls. She plays roll the ball, kicks balls, chases balls, fetches balls on command, collects balls into her baskets and pushes them around, kisses balls, tries to make Spencer eat her balls. 
• She is very interested in shoes, knows they go on her feet, and tries to put them on her feet, but feels uncertain about having them on her feet.
• She says: ball, momma (kind of), daddy (kind of), no (said no-no-no-no or nuuuuuuuuuuu to express any discontent, not really to say no)

Someday I'll add the pictures I took on my camera. These are all from my phone.