Where does the time go?!?

It has been a completely crazy couple of weeks. Certifiably so. I have been moonlighting at 2 different hospitals on top of my day job and over the last 14 days, I have essentially worked 10 24-hour shifts. The other 4 days I put in my standard 9 hours. Why on earth would anybody do anything so crazy? Well, the pay is fairly decent for one. The other is that as chief, I am pretty much in charge of filling the schedule at one of the hospitals and sometimes that means that I have to take a shift that nobody else will do. Also, some of those 24 hour stretches involved being home but having to answer the pager and even when I was sleeping at the hospital, I was very lucky and managed to get stretches of sleep. Actually, I think I get more sleep when I am at the hospital than when the pager goes off all night at home. Weird how that works.

But I have sorely missed my boys...and the hubby has essentially been functioning as a single parent. The good news is that the little ones seem to take it in stride and I do not intend to keep up this pace in the long run.

Ben is quite the baby. Actually, he does not seem much like a baby anymore. He sits on the floor and will pass a toy between his two hands and he stares with such intensity that you can just sense him figuring out the world. He loves to make wheels spin, much like his older brother loved to do at that age and continues to do. He is in the banging phase and will pound away on objects to hear what sound they make. He is also very frustrated at his lack of mobility but really, really, really wants to walk. The little guy almost seems disdainful of the whole crawling thing and protests any time we put him on his tummy. He has also broken in several teeth, two on the bottom, one on the top and one more on the top making its way in. He has been getting better about eating solids and I have actually enjoyed making food with our little baby steamer/blender and freezing it for him to use later. A recent discovery is that he LOVES to drink out of a cup. He will aggressively bring it to his mouth and attacks it with his tongue as he tries to figure out how to drink. He also likes using his hands to play with the water in the cup between sips. Highly amusing to watch. We also moved him out of the travel pod carseat system about a month ago because he was just getting too heavy and too long. I would guess he's close to 22 pounds at this point, easily fitting into 12 month clothing and might even be close to growing out of some of them. Definitely our big baby compared to his big brother who was a peanut as a baby.

Nate continues to be a fabulous big brother. He wants nothing more than to entertain Ben, pick him up and make him laugh. He always runs up to give Ben a hug and kiss and is very sweet towards him. He has started kindergarten and they are helping to teach him phonetic reading and writing...things that he has already started at home so it is nice to see him progress. He has started sounding out words and will probably be able to read beginning books soon. He is very big into imaginative play and will often be found with a couple of cars in the kitchen acting out lines from the movie Cars (he is very accurate...it's almost scary!) or other shows he has seen. He has transitioned well at his new school and has several friends. He has really enjoyed all of the work that they are allowed to do at the montessori and is always wanting to help out at home. I definitely look at him and sometimes feel a little sad because he is not my baby anymore. He is definitely a little boy and I can begin to see what he will look like as a teenager and an adult. And while he has a stubborn/impish streak, he is very loving and still enjoys cuddling. Could a mother ask for more?!? We are still working on potty training but it seems to have gotten somewhat better during the day. He still does not seem close to being dry at night...time will tell if that will become an issue. But for now, I just enjoy his little boy energy that fills the house.

Time has been flying. It is already the season where people apply for residency and we will soon be doing interviews. Very strange to be on the other end. I am also having to start looking at what I want to do in the future and that has been a little stressful. The good news is that I have many options and they all are pretty decent. My field is in high demand and the future seems good. Someday it would be nice to not have to work so many hours :)