fog

Let me preface this post by saying...I'm not going to make a habit of throwing myself a pity party on my blog. But I do want to document my thoughts from this week so that 7 years from now I can look back on this and see how far we've come.

I survived. My first full week by myself with Will at work...I survived it. After Monday, my first day, I thought, "These are going to be 7 of the hardest years of my life!" I feel like I'm in a fog. The best way I can describe it...you know the feeling you have after you've had your first baby? You bring him home and your whole world changes. You're exhausted, overwhelmed, not really sure what you're doing. Your days start to run together, you can never seem to get out of your pajamas and you feel like you're in a fog. That's exactly how I feel! And I'm trying to remind myself that this will be my new norm. I will get used to it and get a system down, just like I did when my world was changed by my first baby.

On Monday Will went to work at 5 am. The kids and I spent the day at home because it was grand central station at our house. The deck guy, the garage door guy, the water heater guy and the bug man were all scheduled to come by. Liam loved having all the handymen in and out of the house and watched closely everything they were doing. The garage door guy came in the morning and, in true Rochester fashion, was very chit chatty and friendly. He asked me what brought us to Rochester and I told him Mayo. Then he asked me if my husband was a doctor. I looked at him for a second and almost said no but then realized, yes my husband is a doctor! It was kind of a cool feeling to say that for the first time. And I felt proud because I knew the hard work that Will put in to earn the title. And I'm beginning to see the harder work that he has ahead of him. That evening I made a new mexican chicken recipe and dressed the kids in Mayo Clinic t-shirts to welcome daddy home from his first big day in the OR.

mayo babies

But Will didn't come home until 10 pm. A 17 hour day! The crazy thing is he walked in the door tired from being on his feet, but totally energized by what he had been doing all day. He said his day had gone by quickly and definitely didn't seem like 17 hours. I really am SO glad that he loves his job! And I love my job too, however I would not describe myself as 'energized' at the end of the day. Wake-up to bedtime by myself is a lot of work. Hayden is big time teething right now and has had a couple of rough patches, Monday night being one of them. She usually goes to bed at the same time as Liam, around 7, but didn't settle until 9:45 that night. But this morning I discovered her second tooth! Hopefully she'll have a few days of relief now that it's broken through. A few more pics:

when Liam wears his Mayo shirt he points at it and says "daddy works"

Hayden giving Liam a taste of his own medicine

Liam's new crocs for his extra wide foot. aren't they cool? size 8-9!

Hayden (5 mon.) if you look really close you can see her little first tooth nub

So Will got home Monday night, went straight to bed and was gone again in the morning before we woke up. Tuesday and Wednesday night he didn't make it home for dinner either, but was home around 6:30 to see the kids before bedtime. However, Wednesday night he said that he felt like he'd been rushing his patient notes at the end of the day in an effort to be home before bedtime, and he can't keep doing that. I understand that, and I want him to do his best work.

I took this picture on Wednesday, July 1st:

Why are my kids wearing long sleeves in July you ask? Because in Minnesota there are cold days in July!!! It makes me a little crazy. I feel like there's a monster named Winter that's chasing me. It's inevitable that it will catch up to me and in a few short months it will swallow me whole.

During the summertime in downtown Rochester they have "Thursdays on 1st". First Street is one of the main streets downtown and every Thursday they block it off and a bunch of vendors set up booths with food and things to buy. There is also usually a stage set up for a local band. So on Thursday I called one of the other resident's wives that's new to Rochester, and we went downtown together with the kids to check it out. It just so happened that both of our husbands got off work a little early because of the holiday weekend coming up. They met us for dinner and we sat and listened to the band that was playing that night. So fun!

hanging out on 1st St.

new friends, Grant and Kristin Mallory

There are 4 residents in Will's class: Will, Josiah, Grant and Wendy. Grant is the only other resident that's married and his wife, Kristin, and I are becoming friends. She's really sweet and I enjoy hanging out with her. They just moved from Washington D.C.

Friday Will thought he would have most of the day off because of the holiday weekend. I was SO excited to have some extra time with him. He went to the hospital in the morning and we were expecting him back in the afternoon. But I'm learning not to expect him back at a certain time, even if he gives me a time. He thought it'd be around 2. So around 2 the kids and I went to Kutzky park down close to the hospital to play until he got off. (While we were there we met a girl with a little boy named Liam and her husband's name was Will. How crazy!) After a couple hours of playing we gave up on Will meeting us and went home for supper. I'm not gonna lie...it's very frustrating...to look forward to having some family time and then he can't come! It's funny though, when Will called me to say that he didn't know when he'd be off he said, "I've got to stay. We've got a patient that's really sick." I thought, what? really sick? isn't everyone you see really sick? i'm thinking that anyone who has to see a neurosurgeon is pretty sick. Anyway, Will ended up coming home at 5:30. I went to my friend Shea's house to watch a movie and Will did bedtime with the kiddos - a nice little breather. Thank you husband! Here's a few pics from around the house:

Liam trying to be the baby

I was trying to get Hayden to show me her teeth

Liam willingly showed me his teeth

Hayden REALLY sitting up for the first time! Yeah Hayden!

We were all able to catch our breath over the weekend and Will was off Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday. Yeah!! For July 4th we went over to B.J. and Shea Deimel's house for bbq and smores. There was another resident's wife there with her 3 kids. The youngest was a little boy Liam's age named Diego. They had fun playing together. Liam of course showed Diego how to wrestle and took him down in the grass. He tried to show Diego's sister Ava how to wrestle too but she was NOT going for it - Liam's first time being rejected by a girl. It was also Liam's first experience with fire works. Oh, and he loved it. I don't know but I'm not totally sure that Liam and fire is a very good combo...

playing with new friends...notice Liam doesn't really "sit and play" like the other kids :)

first sparkler!

does this look safe?

Liam, Madison, Ava, and Diego

Today we went to the neuro surgery chairman's house for a pool party. Everyone actually swam too, not just the kids. It's kind of awkward shmoozing in your swimsuit with a bunch of brainy neuro people. But we had a good time and met some more people. I have a playdate with one of the resident's wives and her kids on Wednesday.

Mom will be here in 4 days!! Woo hoo!!! I'm thinking about potty training Liam while she's here. I was thinking it might be a good time to potty train while I have help. Mom could take care of Hayden and I could totally focus my attention on Liam. I am getting a little weary of double diaper duty. I'm not 100% sure that either of us is ready for potty training though. And these babies are pretty cute in their diapers!

Another week awaits me. Bring it on!