A Springtime Update

Things are proceeding apace here in Concord (a fairly rapid pace, actually).

Brynna becomes taller, chattier, and more sophisticated by the day. She is riding a bike (yes, two wheels, no training wheels), sliding confidently down tall firemen's poles, and is starting to recognize a few written words and even sort of sound out very short words. She is currently VERY curious about planets and outer space and keeps asking why helicopters can just go straight up into the air but airplanes need a runway (I leave these explanations to Alex). We've also been swimming a lot at the Y, and B has progressed to swimming with only one "bubble" on her back, as well as jumping into the water on her own, and (with parental assistance for sinking) diving under the water to retrieve weighted objects from the bottom of the pool. Pink and princesses are IN for that of spring, so apparently my attempts to avoid that part of little girl-dom entirely have not been successful.

Here are a few recent photos:

I haven't written much about work this year, because I spend enough time there (and thinking about being there) that I don't usually have much extra energy for it once home. The quick update: my in-hospital call is OVER, which is delightful! I still have phone calls to take from home, and babies to catch, but it's still quite a milestone. Over the next few months, I will finish up the family medicine part of my training, and move toward full time preventive medicine--a little bit of clinic still, but mostly public health classes and work on my long-term project, which will be on smoking cessation in pregnancy. I'm taking one class up at Dartmouth right now, which means I get to go to the Co-op twice a week and bring home Red Hen ciabatta! In July, I will massively cut back the number of patients I'm responsible for, from about 550 to 100 or 150, and this will come with a big cut back in the amount of paperwork that I have to handle. (Paperwork, as all doctors will tell you, is the bane of our existence. The face-to-face with patients part, I absolutely love.)

Alex and I have also signed up for our first Olympic distance triathlon: 1500 meter swim (just under a mile), 40 K (25 mile) bike, and 10 K (6.2 mile) run. It's in July in Fairlee (yes, we thought this would be a great way to celebrate our wedding anniversary). This is twice the distance of our previous sprint triathlons, so it has us inspired (scared) to train hard! There is lots of swimming, biking, and running going on these days. This is going to be our fourth triathlon season, and it seems like we're in this crazy sport for the long haul, so we've joined the ranks of hard-core triathletes and purchased aero bikes. Here's mine (a Trek):

And Alex's (a Cervelo):

We have NOT purchased funny teardrop-shaped aero helmets, so there is an element of silliness that we are holding in reserve. Nonetheless, the bikes are AWESOME. And I feel like I have to train even harder to be deserving of such a cool set of wheels! Today, I even did some intervals on the track. It's a little sad, because when I get on the track I remember that I used to be able to run pretty fast, and now I'm just galumphing along.

Jasper is doing well. He's shorn for spring, and enjoying romping along as B rides her bike, or warming up/cooling down with us on our training runs. We all went for a hike at Oak Hill this past weekend, which left both Brynna and Jasper happily exhausted, though we had to turn around about a quarter mile short of the fire tower due to the late hour and B's fatigue.

So, that's a little recap of what's been going on. Coming up: a trip to the Cape, a midwestern swing to visit friends in Chicago and Wisconsin, the start of tri season, and then residency graduation at the end of June!