On Call Visits

Today I realized once again what a wonderful husband I have. After spending most of his waking hours for the past 2 years in this hospital, Matt still spends some of his few hours off visiting me at the hospital when I'm on call. He surprised me with a visit today (with cookies!) and spent an hour chatting with me since luckily it's been a slow day for once. Instead of sitting in our call room lounge he could have been lounging in a far more comfortable place at home. He has visited several other times this month and the past few months (I've been on call a lot) with Lucas in tow post daycare. It always makes my day! Getting to at least lay eyes on my family makes all the difference even though somedays I don't get to do much more than say hi and give my boys a kiss.

Greek Fest

Lucas and I tested a Matt theory the other weekend. After the Greek Fest last year Matt got out of a night of PICU call by spending the night and day on the bathroom floor. I got the ickiness about 24 hours later. Fun times at the Israel house. Well Matt was convinced that it was the gyros' fault and not the gastro-bug filled children we work with every day. David, Kathleen, and I were 'brave' and went back this year (without Matt). We're happy to report no following sickness, just yummy baklava ice cream!

Lucas loved the petting zoo and petted all the animals (surprising since he's scared of fake carousel animals). David was sweet and played stand-in dad, letting Kathleen and me stay outside of the fence -- we appreciated it.

Sleepyhead

Kiddo slept 17 hours last Saturday. Woke up at 8, then back for a nap from 1-5, and still dead tired by 7. I woke up from my post-call nap before he woke up from his and that after only sleeping 2 hours to his 12 during the night before. I'm just a little jealous.

Today his daycare nap was lacking in length which resulted in a somewhat fussy little boy who crashed and burned at 5pm this evening. I thought that surely I could keep him up at least until six but by 5 he was begging to go to bed which in Lucas world consists of an emotional meltdown. I put him in bed at 5:20. Grabbed his "lulu" or Schnulli (pacifier for the English speaking ones of you) and his monkey Morris, rolled over, and I haven't heard a peep since. I think we have exhausted my sweet boy with our schedules this month. But early bedtime will do him good. Waking him back up at a quarter to six in the morning to get him to daycare before another call starts. Matty's spending another night at the hospital tonight. He did the math for our crazy month the other day... we have 46 days between a day off together and 20 of those one or the other of us will be away on call. Looking forward to a less crazy schedule soon, that's for sure.

Yum!

Quick smoothie snack before bed

Football Time

We headed out to our first football game of the season yesterday. Score was horrible. Not talking about it. Otherwise we had fun. The rain during the day cooled it off to a perfect temperature and Lucas loved the hustle and bustle of it all. He put on his new Vandy shirt. Felt cool. Learned to cheer "Go Dores!" with a "wuh-wuh-wuh" and a fist pump. Proud dad. Proud grandpa. Mission accomplished. Here are some pics from the day:

Heading across the quad to the game with the former Mr. Commodore. Luca knows famous people!

Little feet = tired feet. Hitching a ride with Dad:

Crazy fans!

Aunt Beverly with sweet baby cousin Graham:

Taking a break and checking out the view from the 60th row:

Family Pic in Vandy Gear:

Goofing with Grandpa:

And because I could't resist. Here's a little flashback to last year's football season. How much my little one has grown in the last year. Still amazes me.

Visit with the Fam

After spending all summer in Germany my family's finally back in the States. They first came up to visit us and then Lucas and I went down for a quick Bham visit. Yay! Luca had a great time getting to hang out with his "ma," "papa" (I guess he hears me call him that), and "jay-jay" (we tried "jenny" but apparently jj is easier).

At Dragon Park:

With Jen on the "superfast" carousel. Lucas wouldn't ride the animals. Usually so fearless but apparently carousels are scary.

Shopping in the toy store:

Riding the "neigh" at the Y. Can't blame him, I don't really think it looks like a turtle either.

Quick trip to the Zoo:

Window shopping:

Sweet Words

Kiddo just said "love you" (or something sounding similar) back to me when I put him in bed. Makes my mommy heart melt. Exactly what I needed after a long day at work. I have the best little boy ever!