Finally!

It's been a long month. I know it's strange to say that in the middle of a month, but my measures of time are not the same as the rest of the world. My weeks are 6 days long because call is every 3rd day and my months are Chad's blocks, which are 4 weeks long, regardless of how many weeks or days are in an actual month. This past month, Chad was working in the ICU. For the most part, he enjoyed his time there. He was challenged by the severity and complexity of the cases; he had less paperwork to fill out; and it wasn't as hard on him when a patient died because they were so very sick. He also didn't work as many hours as he does when he works on the floors, but his family did not benefit much from this extra time at home. Almost every free moment Chad had was spent studying for the USMLE Step 3. It's 2 day, all day exam that he took this last Thursday and Friday. It's done! Hooray!!!!! Today Chad starts his rotation in Cardiology. It's an elective, and electives are usually nicer schedules - no working on the weekends, no call, no working til 8 at night, and if the Cardiologist takes the day off, Chad gets the day off too. And since Chad is no longer studying with all his spare time, we'll actually get to spend some time with him! Yay!!!

As for me, I'm now approaching the end of the first trimester! I'm 12 weeks today, so only 1 week to go. I'm greatly looking forward to the end of morning sickness! Our diets have been truly terrible, since the smell of cooking things causes me to puke. We've eaten a lot of take-out, sandwiches, and "instant" meals (anything that can be made in the microwave in under 5 min). I have been getting slowly better, and this last week I made mac n' cheese, ramen, a pasta sides thing, and last night I even ventured to make cupcakes! I'm not all the way, but I'm improving. And while I won't be totally done with the nausea next week, I should be able to do some cooking in time for Thanksgiving! Now that's something to be thankful for!

Here are pictures of what Sakura has been up to lately. :)

Last Sunday as I was getting ready for church, it got unusually quiet. This should have been a tip-off, but since Sakura had been a screaming mimi all morning, I was grateful for the silence. Then Sakura came walking down the hall holding the baby powder. She demonstrated how much fun it was to throw it up in the air and see the arc of white powder fly and then when the bottle hit the ground, a great spume of powder would squirt out all over the floor! Funfunfun!!! It could definitely have been worse!

And here she discovers the wonders of "egg-ong" (eggnog) for the first time. It's definitely a new favorite!

Here is my poor kid, back asleep one morning after being woken up by a posessed toy. We thought she had woken up at 6am and started playing with the toy. 2-3 hours later, she wanted to go to sleep, so I let her. After only 20 minutes I heard the toy singing again and went to get her up. This was how I found her, and I realized the toy must have woken her up that morning because it was still sitting on the back of the toy chest when I found it, where Sakura can't reach. Poor kid!
Sorry this picture is so bad (no flash) but it was just so cute to see her jump into the warm laundry like Happy does! I don't think Happy liked having her spot taken. :) And look at that beautiful smile!