Staggering Over The Finish Line

Graduation for our third year residents was last night, and the new interns have been in town for a couple of weeks of orientation. This long, exhausting year of internship is coming to an end.

I have what is affectionately referred to as "terminal call" tomorrow...I'll go in at 8 AM as an intern, and will leave Monday morning as a senior resident! Not sure what time I magically become a second year, but maybe there will be fairy dust and fireworks when it happens.

I've been working on our Maternal-Child Health Service the last 6 weeks, which covers both obstetrics and pediatrics. Things have been busy, particularly on the pediatrics side, so I have been learning a ton.

However, I am also definitely suffering from some intern-itis, and would really rather not go to work tomorrow! I keep reminding myself that it is the last time as an intern, that my schedule is going to get much better, and that I am also set to work with one of my favorite senior residents tomorrow. Best of all...next weekend is a three day weekend, one that I actually get entirely off, and we are going to spend the holiday with friends in Lake Placid.

But boy am I tired. Just really, truly exhausted, from a whole year of working 70 or 80 hours a week. Before I had Brynna, I just wanted to power through residency and get it done...but now, I think I'd be totally willing to split a residency spot with someone else and be home more often, even if it stretched out my training further.

The nice thing about family medicine, however, is that following this intern year of predominantly hospital-based training, things shift more and more into the outpatient clinic. There will be less overnight call, and more opportunities to see my own patients in the office. When I am in the hospital, my role will shift from worker-bee to more supervisor and teacher. All good things.

So, one more call. Then on to second year.

Grandma's Here!

And Brynna put her straight to work. "Wawer plant!"



They had a lovely evening playing in the yard together, and Alex used some of our own basil to make a delicious pasta primavera.

I pretty much just collapsed on the couch...I have this weekend off, and then one more week left of intern year!

King Pine 2010

Last year's experiences with triathlons were not just a fluke for Hilary and I. We have in fact doubled down this year by purchasing wetsuits and joining the local tri club. More on those in a few minutes. Last weekend was our first race of the season, and a reprise of our first triathlon ever: the King Pine Tri in Madison, NH. It's a great course and we benefited from being familiar with it. We're both really pleased with our results, too: be both managed to be faster than last year. I shaved off about three minutes, and Hilary a solid ten, out of about an hour and a half. Read on for more details:

First off: the swim. Last year Hilary couldn't get into a good rhythm because of the shock of the cold water. This year a combination more experience and confidence and warmer water (68 Fahrenheit vs 62) made the swim much better - she shaved some five minutes off her time. Our main complaint was that, for whatever reason, the race directors sent off waves of swimmers from oldest to youngest. Last year it was reversed: we were the first swimmers to head out. This year we had to stand around for twenty chilly minutes before our start.

For myself, how could I possible top my water exit from last year:

photo credit: Kimberly Keyes

Well, it was easy with my brand new Xterra Vortex 3 wetsuit:



Ok, ok, maybe it didn't quite look like that. It was overcast, but it wasn't the apocalypse. One thing that surely made my exit a little less cool was that, due to a mixup during registration, I was wearing the hot pink swim cap of the 30-39 female division. That's OK, I'm clear with my identity.

On the 12-mile bike segment, Hilary and I both knocked about two minutes off our times. I averaged a shade under 20 mph! However, I only had a rough guess about that at the pace, because I recently replaced the battery in my bike computer, and its calibration was way off. It said that I was managing only about 7 mph. Thankfully, after a few hundred miles in the saddle over the last year, Hilary and I have a decent sense of pace.

One positive that came from being released in the penultimate wave was that we had nearly the whole field of other racers ahead of us, which meant that we had ample opportunity to chase down and pass other competitors. That is not to say that we were total speed demons - we lack the rigor and athleticism to be true hunter-killers. Still, it does help urge you on to see someone and dust 'em!



The first mile of the run is always tough. After pushing hard on the bike for miles and miles your legs need a little coaxing to switch gears. But behold my secret weapon: the banana! I gradually mashed my way through it by mile two, though it took a concerted act of will.


Definitely the highlight of this year's race was the fact that we were a part of a team! Sure, the team has some material benefits - like the 60% off deal I got for my wetsuit, or the training schedules and swim clinics. But, really, the best part was having teammates. Teammates to help push you along, familiar faces out on the course, and people to root for in turn. Plus the team director has a VW van that they set up as party central.

And, of course, we had our devoted teammate Brynna to help us along with cries of "hooway mama!"


And a buddy to stretch out with after the race:


Next up: the Black Fly Tri in mid July for me...Hilary is on call the night before, so she's giving that one a pass. The big question: can we figure out how hard-core triathletes manage to put on their bike shoes while pedaling along...without falling over?

How Civilized...

Look! She can use a fork!



On the other hand, she also rubbed peanut butter in her hair.

Small steps, I suppose.

Hide And Seek!

Here's some video of Brynna playing hide and seek in the yard with us. She learned the basic concept from her little friend C down the street, the daughter of one of my co-residents. She understands the seeking part but is still a little shaky on the hiding concept: she will say "B hide!" and run away somewhere, then by the time I finish counting to ten and turn around, she is running full tilt across the yard toward me, giggling madly.

In this clip, however, we're doing "Dada hide":



You'll note Brynna doing some of her creative counting, and her absolutely adorable "where is he?" shrug. And Jasper, as always, trailing along behind. He's always giving away my hiding places.

One-Two-Three-Four-Five-Eight-Ten!

Brynna's language development has just exploded over the last few months, and it's really fascinating to watch her pick things up. She now mimics virtually everything we say, and is regularly coming up with her own three-word phrases. She says "more milk/granola/crayons/etc. please," "lay down, Mama," "hold on tight!" and so on.

She has discovered that some things go with certain people: "mama bike," "dada car," "B helmet," "B shoes."

And yes, she is now aware that her name is "B" or "Brynna." She also will very sweetly say her last name when asked what her last initial stands for.

She's been counting for awhile, and two or three months ago could count from one to eleven with nary a hitch. Then, suddenly, about six weeks ago, certain numbers disappeared, and we were left with "one-two-three-four-five-eight-ten!" With some prompting, she remembers about six, seven, and nine, but the odds are good that she will bust out with the shortened version.

A similar thing happened with the alphabet: she was singing a fairly good approximation of the ABC's a couple of months ago, and then "W-X-Y-and-Z" disappeared, with Brynna moving straight on to "now I know my ABC's," which was kind of ironic. W, X, Y and Z seem to be back in the game, now, though.

She can also supply large sections of many of her favorite books, especially the Boynton ones. I will try to get some video of this, because it is adorable.

Almost all of her sign language has disappeared...except for lots of commanding pointing! "Milk" was one of the last ones to go, but since a couple of months ago she's been asking for "mama milk" instead of making the sign. She does still sign "fish," which I think she finds difficult to say, and some other animals such as moose, horse, and elephant. Occasionally we see "drink" and "more" and "tired."

This evening she was eating supper and asked for "more nola [granola] please!" When I didn't respond quickly enough, she pointed across the table and said "oh-nie [orange] bowl!" which is the first time that I've heard her substitute a description like that—the granola was indeed in an orange bowl.

So, in sum, she's a riot. We'll try to post some video soon...I think I got a good shot of her playing hide and seek last week.

Trip to Dartmouth

On Sunday, Hilary helped out a hiker/resident friend by staging a car in Waitsfield, VT, then shuttling her down to meet her husband in Killington, VT, so that they could spend the next week hiking the northern half of the Long Trail. Brynna and I went along for the ride for only the first portion, then spend a good chunk of the day in Hanover. Clearly we are trying to indoctrinate our child by giving her such good memories of playing on the Green.

Dare to dream!

But that can't entertain a child for hours on end, so I rolled her across the river into neighboring Norwich, so that we could spend some time at the Montshire Children's Museum. Knowing that I might have such a walk ahead of us, I opted to bring the jogging stroller rather than some other pedestrian conveyance. All well and good, except that the Chariot has pneumatic wheels, just like a bicycle. And, just like a bicycle, such wheels are prone to damage.



Yup, a 3/4" nail went right through and had me walking flat before we got there. And yes, I just so happened to have a Gerber tool on me to pull the nail out. Ah well, I just pushed on ahead. And in fact, because Hilary got a bit delayed picking us up and Brynna blew through her usual naptime, I ended up wheeling the sleeping child back across to Hanover on that same flat tire.

It wasn't until Sunday night, when I sat down to repair the tube, that I found out that there were no less than six punctures clustered around the original entrance wound. Good grief!

Haze

There is a great deal of haze in the air this Memorial Day. No, I'm not talking about the haze between real and affected patriotism on this holiday (I did hang the flag off our porch, though). Nor am I talking about the very real haze of oh-so-many barbecues going on today. Nope, I'm talking about real, genuine, atmospheric haze. Look off into the distance, and you'll see if as a white veil between you and the horizon. It lends a strange odor to the air that reminds me of campfires and my mother's old iron (no connection, I promise). Observe:

This is just the view down the street. I haven't tweaked the image of adjusted the exposure settings - it really is that hazy out there right now. Turn out there are some wildfires going on in Quebec right now, and we're currently downwind. Beats the heck out of southern california, where this kind of thing happens a couple times a year, I gather. Makes me wonder about hopping on the bike to pick up Brynna later today.