Charlotte's birthday, part 2

I know I already posted some pictures from our birthday celebration, but since we live in the age of digital cameras, there are always more pictures to show.  Here are some from her actual birthday (instead of the day before, as was the case for the raspberry picking pictures) and from her family party the day after her birthday.

 Her birthday breakfast request?  Buttered toast, grape nuts with honey, and a peach.  I love the tired eyes and bed head.  She was so happy to have her own special day and that we sang "Happy Birthday" as soon as she walked out of her room (and again at breakfast, and again a bunch of other times for the next several days!).

 It has been HOT here in Minnesota!!!  We took her to the neighborhood pool for the afternoon on her birthday and she LOVED it!

 On July 6th we had Grandpa Randy, Grandpa Mark and Grandma Cindy, Auntie Kate, cousin Liya, and Great-Grandpa John and Great-Grandma Sharon over for a party.  Here Charlotte is tearing open a gift from Grandpa Randy.  You'll see the BIG surprise a few pictures down from here.

 Besides the gift in the photo above, Grandpa also got her this huggable stuffed giraffe.

 Summer PJs from Uncle Charlie, Aunt Olivia, and cousin Audrey out in Pennsylvania!  Charlotte is still wearing 2T and 3T summer pajamas!!!  This is partly because they mostly still fit her (she's small for her age and grows slowly!) and because when I have tried to pass them down to her cousin Liya, Charlotte is too sad to see them go.  But now she is happily wearing new jammies!

 And this POOL!!!! is what was inside the box from Grandpa Randy!  Can you believe how big it is?!?!?!  Her old baby pool held about 3 or 4 inches of water, maybe 10 gallons or so?  This one holds 264 gallons (and takes FOREVER to fill up!).  Pool party anyone?

 Her new swimsuit (from Mama and Daddy) has a little skirt, like a ballerina tutu.  She loves it!

Every year I make Charlotte an animal shaped cake for her birthday.  This year she asked for a white bunny with pink ears, a pink nose, and pink eyes.  Her first birthday was a puppy, second was a bee, third birthday was a cat, and last year was a butterfly.  Wonder what it will be next year?

 She was just so happy!

 Daddy made a big cardboard sign to put in front of the house.  We all worked together to color it.

Cousin Liya was able to come to the party even though her parents are in China with her newly adopted big sister (I'll save that for another post--a new niece/cousin for us!!!).

It was a great birthday celebration.  We can't believe our baby is FIVE!

Happy 5th Birthday Charlotte!

Five years ago today, our lives changed forever when 8 lb 7 oz Charlotte Neema Florek joined our family.  In one sense, five years has flown by and it seems like she was just born; we can't believe she is FIVE already!!!  But in another sense, though we can remember what life was like before she was before, we can't imagine life now without her!

True to tradition, we went berry picking to celebrate her birthday as we have done every year since 2007 when we went strawberry picking near Duluth, MN the day before she was born.  We had to go yesterday on the 4th since the berry farm is only open every other day this season due to a smaller crop.  We picked 3 pounds of raspberries, in which we are already making a good dent!  Also, there was a lot of eating during the picking....

 

 Mama and Charlotte made a little birthday announcement on the sidewalk and front steps of our house.  Mama outlined the bunny and Charlotte colored it in.  The little girl standing to the right of the rabbit is Charlotte, and she told me that she is standing far away, behind the rabbit, and that is why she is smaller than the rabbit.  I think in the art world that's called "perspective."

  

Happy Birthday sweet Charlotte!!!

Ta Daaaaa!!!!!!

We did it!  We are officially done with residency as of Friday, June 29 at 7pm!  Strangely, I don't think it has really sunk in yet that we are no longer residents, but I'm sure it will become more real as the days go by.

Truthfully, we actually had our graduation ceremony two weeks ago on June 15.  Mayo has a couple of historic homes that used to belong to the founding Mayo brothers, and one of these homes is used for a lot of the graduation dinners.  Since each residency program has their own graduation ceremony or dinner, they obviously can't all happen on the last official day of residency, so they get spread out throughout the month of June.  Hence, the reason we actually "graduated" two weeks ago!

It's been a long journey to get where we are...four years of college at St. Olaf, two years of medical school in Duluth, a year of medical school in Buffalo, MN with the RPAP (Rural Physicians Associate Program), a year of medical school in Minneapolis, MN, and now three years of Family Medicine residency in Rochester.  Twelve years of post-high school education!  Wow!  This is the official end of our formal education, but of course we will never stop learning, since there's always things we don't know, and always new things coming down the pipeline.  But amazing to think the formal part is done...  In some ways it went by really quickly, and in other ways it seems like it took FOREVER to get here!  I guess staying in the hospital overnight every 3 or 4 nights for the better part of a year and a half will do that to your sense of passing time!

Below are some pictures from the last few weeks of residency and our graduation ceremony and dinner.

 Last night of OB call for Kristi!  Matt happened to have a patient of his own in labor that night, so we got to hang out together for a few hours!  We spent 6 months of our residency doing OB, on call every third night.  That's a lot of overnights in the hospital!

 

 

 One of the labor and delivery rooms at Methodist Hospital.  We'll be experiencing these rooms from the patient perspective in just a few short weeks!

 And this is where we sometimes actually slept while on OB, the good old Family Medicine OB call room.  It's windowless, so you can't tell what time of day it is and you tend to get a little depressed without any sunshine.

 Here's where the real work of doctoring happens, the computer in our call room.  Did you think we actually took care of patients?  Nope, mostly we just document things on a computer.

 The graduates on June 15, 2012.
From left to right Jason, Maggie, Bill, Kim, Britton, Kristi, and Matt.  Missing from photo, Jeff, who was away with military stuff.  :(

 Hooray!

 Matt's dad came down from Delano for the graduation ceremony.

 And so did Matt's Aunt Sue.  Uncle Craig was unfortunately previously committed to an event back home, and we look forward to celebrating with him next time we see him.

 Matt's Grandma Eleanor came for graduation also!  What a privilege to have her there.

Kristi's mom and dad and sister Kate were part of the festivities, too.

 Kristi's grandparents came from all the way down the street to celebrate!  We have been so lucky to live so close by for the past three years.  Charlotte loves to go visit them.

My last day in clinic on Friday, June 29.  Some of the nurses shredded a bunch of papers and then when I walked out of my last patient room they threw it in the air like confetti!!!  From left to right:  Cassie, Julie, me, and Amy.

:)

Inside one of our exam rooms at the clinic.

Again, inside an exam room.

And here is the final final picture of us at work, June 29 7:20 pm as Matt finished up his last duties as the senior on our inpatient hospital service.  Charlotte and I picked him up and then we went out to celebrate with Chipotle and Dairy Queen!!!

Next post:  what's next for our family?  Stay tuned!

Final Countdown

We have been counting down lots of things recently...the end of residency, Charlotte's birthday, daddy's new job, a new baby.  Now, it's the eve of the first big event--it's our LAST day of residency tomorrow!!!

Charlotte and mama made a paper chain to countdown the days to the end of residency.  We started at the beginning of June with LOTS of circles.  Each day after work we tore off one circle.  Charlotte has had fun seeing the chain get shorter and shorter (and I would be lying if I didn't admit it was fun for us too!).  Now, there's only one circle left hanging on the wall!!!  We'll post some more pictures tomorrow of our graduation ceremony (which was actually two weeks ago) and other momentous moments.  :)

We're also counting down the weeks until baby arrives!  I'm 33 weeks now, but these pictures were taken at 32 weeks. 

Our new pets

Who can build me a little barn and let my alpacas live on their land?

These are alpacas, which originate from South America.  They may look like baby llamas, but they're full grown alpacas.  Listen carefully and you can hear them humming.  It's how they talk to each other.  I asked the guy there to make sure that it wasn't a scared noise or an "I'm going to bite you" noise.  It's not.  It's just the sweetest noise you've ever heard!  They really like to be together with at least one other alpaca, so I guess I'll have to get two...

We were at the annual Rochesterfest Country Breakfast on the Farm yesterday and I fell in love with these guys.  Breakfast on the Farm is an event where a local farm is nominated to host people for a pancake breakfast and tours of their farm, horse wagon rides, and a petting zoo.  It promotes the local love of farming and dairy.  And also the love of alpacas.

 Cheers to our pancakes!

 Yum Yum!

Oh, they are so sweet!

We had a busy day yesterday because we also went to a birthday party for one of Charlotte's friends, George, who lives across the street and just turned 4.  He and Charlotte are almost exactly a year apart.  George's parents hired a local company with a little petting zoo and a pony to come to the party, so Charlotte was in heaven!  She must have ridden the pony 10 times!  Since there were only like eight kids at the party, she could keep getting in line to ride the pony over and over!  Charlotte wants me to type:  "Charlotte loved the pony!"

 This little goat was named Ivy. 

 Charlotte, on one of her many, many pony rides.  The pony is named Pippen.

 So happy!  The dog in the picture belongs to the pony lady, and his name is Smokie, just like our dog nephew!

What a happy girl!

 This little lamb was a little distraught because it was her first time away from her mama.  She kept bleating and bleating.  And I think she didn't have enough teeth to eat this carrot, though Charlotte kept trying.

 Naughty Ivy didn't want to eat the carrots the kids tried to feed her.  She only wanted to eat the carrots when she climbed up on the table and thought she wasn't supposed to have them.  We had to rescue our coats from Ivy as she was eyeing them hungrily.

 Family picture with the pony.

And then Pippen tried to whisper something in my ear....