A Non-Kid Story!

I had been warned about my patient by the previous shift, who had butted heads with him and thrown up their hands. They offered me a sarcastic "Good luck!" as I prepared to collect his vital signs.

Tentatively, I knocked and walked in, introducing myself and telling my standard joke to break the ice. He was nothing but cooperative.

Later, he put his call light on to have me take his dinner tray out. I was stuck in another patient's room, so his nurse answered the light instead. When I finally made it out of the other room to see if she needed any help, she was walking out with his tray. I thanked her, then noticed his call light was still on. I walked in to turn it off myself, joking that the nurse was quick and had beat me to his room, and his reaction was strong and immediate. "I don't need anything from you! GET OUT! GO!!" as he pointed at the door with fury.

Near the end of my shift, I entered his room to empty his trash and change out the Intake/Output sheet on his door. He looked me up and down and asked if I'd been working on the menu yet for the lunch we'd be having together. I must have given him a puzzled look, because his next question was whether I was married. When I answered in the affirmative, he said he was barking up the wrong tree, and told me to call him if anything changed.

Who needs to go into psychiatric nursing? You can have plenty of exposure no matter where you work!

Being Two = Being Funny

Whenever we go out to the garage and she sees the new (to us) car there: "New car time!"

From the backseat while ordering at a drive-thru: "And a free toy? And a free toy PLEASE?"

When I told her this place was different and didn't have toys: "Oh no. Shoot!"

As we passed a high school: "When I big, I play football! Throw the ball, and catch it, and run run run fast!"

If she doesn't understand what I'm saying: "What your talking about, Mommy? What your mean?"

Randomly: "What?"

What that noise?

This morning at church there was a baptism. During the baptism, the priest asks the congregation to renew their own baptismal vows by responding, "I do" to several statements of belief. With Sweet Pea in my arms, I say, "I do" after the first statement. Sweet Pea looks at me and repeats, "I do." After the next statement, I again say, "I do." Emphatically, Sweet Pea shouts, "I DO! No, Mommy, ME!"

Later in the service, Sweet Pea hears a baby squawk a little. She turns to me and asks, "What that noise?" Not getting an immediate enough response, she yells, "WHAT that NOISE?" Well, honey, right now the noise is you!

She loved Christmas. We opened stockings on Christmas Eve. My favorite part was when she unwrapped one stocking stuffer and said, "Oh! Cute socks!" and carried them around for awhile. She also had her first Hershey kiss, of which she was a fan!

On Christmas day we spent some time as a family, opening gifts from each other and from grandparents who are out of town. Sweet Pea opened one from Mamaw and said, "Oh, I love it!"

That afternoon we had my parents and some of my siblings over. It was great to spend time with them, and Sweet Pea got to play with some of her cousins.

We took down the tree this week, but Sweet Pea is still talking about Christmas, and has asked to open more presents almost every day.

My new semester starts tomorrow. I've been working through break, but haven't had any shareable stories. Maybe the start of clinicals will change that!

Oh, I know!

Upon hearing that we were out of cereal one morning, Sweet Pea proclaimed, "Oh! I know! Stir stir stir!" and pointed to the pancake mix.

When looking unsuccessfully for something, she'll say, "Ummm, nope!" with each place she looks.

As we drive past houses with lights up, I hear an excited, "Oh! Oh! Ah ah more merry Christmas lights!" as she points to each and every display (no matter how small).

She randomly inserts specific parts of Little Einstein episodes into conversation. "Baby chimp ah down down down down, waterfall!" as she wiggles her fingers like the chimp does.

When she's picking up her toys, she sings, "Keen up, keen up, keen up, keen up, body keen up.." I can't stand that purple dinosaur, but her version of the song is pretty darn cute.

We've had a grand total of maybe two inches of snow so far this winter, but she's enjoyed it. We got out the snowpants from last winter (which fit perfectly this year, yay) and went outside to "dig in the snow". Throwing snowballs was her favorite, I think.

Traditions

We did more tree decorating tonight. We finished putting up the garland, then we got out some ornaments (mostly R's from his childhood, and a good handful that Sweet Pea has somehow accumulated.. I have misplaced the box of my old ornaments).

It was nothing fancy, but just sitting by the tree hanging those ornaments, seeing Sweet Pea's excitement at all the new things as she touched them (mostly) with one finger (new rule ala MckMama), hearing some of the stories behind my husband's ornaments.. It warmed my heart.

Maybe in future years, we'll make it more of a defined tradition, by playing Christmas music or drinking sparkling grape juice or something, but for this year, it was enough.

There is something special about breaking from your past (no matter how wonderful) and establishing your own new present. Tonight I felt FAMILY.

November gone already?

Busy busy month; time for more bullet points:

-Sweet Pea pointed to the tv during a random commercial (maybe even about the health care reform) and said "I want that!"

-1st time doing post-mortem care on a patient, almost had another opportunity to do so

-applying knowledge from psych (current clinical) to my job

-traveled for Thanksgiving, Sweet Pea thoroughly enjoyed herself there. She spent much of her time wrestling with her cousins (11 and 7 year old boys) and "playing" the Wii with them (she had her own steering wheel that was not hooked up to anything). She also loved the quality time with her grandparents, who she doesn't see as often as we'd all like.

-put up the "Merry Christmas tree" (Sweet Pea's label), added some garland. Will gather the ornaments and hang those up eventually. The tree is a little Charlie Brown-ish, but is sufficient for now.

..There's probably more I meant to write about, but I'll have to save that for another time.

Study Buddy

Attempting to motivate myself to study on a more regular basis, I now get out my notes to review them even while Sweet Pea is still awake.

The other day she "helped me study".. She climbed up on the couch next to me and I gave her her own piece of paper and a highlighter. I highlighted my notes and she highlighted hers. Worked fairly well! Kept her occupied for a while anyway, and she's generally a fan of "helping".

Sorry for the lack of regular updates. School and work is certainly keeping me busy!