Reasons to Get Married Young...

#1) Having a Baby while young= this awesome little 3 year old.  Of course having them later could end up with similar results but never the same person.

 I really Hate that post going around telling you not to get married before 30, it's annoying so I came up with a few of the reasons getting married young does work.  Elliott and I married at 22 and exactly 21.

#2) You get used to not spending a lot of money early on.  When it doesn't exist it's much easier to not overspend.  As we have grown earlier we are still not extravagant spenders.

3)You get to watch your partner in life change.  Some for the good and some for the worse, but you are the person there every day watching this metamorphosis.  I get to watch him grown up as he gets to watch me.

4)You know every little quirk the other person has.  That fabric that makes me want to kill and burn the jacket he's wearing, yeah he knows never to get another one.  His hatred of chapstick, I'm fully aware of as I watch his lips bleed from the cold.  (This is apparently the more manly option).

5)You can travel after getting married....  marriage isn't a death sentence unlike what those other posts imply.  We have lists of places we plan to go after I finish school.

6)School....  you get to experience the life as college students, then both feel the extreme difference of grad schools.  You learn which of you has to study all the time to pass, and which merely cracks the book the day before the exam to ace it.  Going through the extreme stresses of school has brought us closer together.  The blood (paper cuts ya' know?), sweat (running to classes, carrying a gazillion books and binders), and tears (tests, exhaustion, total fatigue) create a powerful binding process between two people.  Late nights complaining about professors, and sharing our joy of learning, and forcing the other person to learn about the subject because whatever we are happening to study is so interesting has been a huge part of our marriage.

7)If you happen to take the same classes you get an awesome group project partner.

8)Grocery Shopping.. either one of you can easily run to the store and pick out the other person's essentials for exam weeks.  You also both know what food can be had for the cheapest to keep you going.

9)Driving- In our case I taught my husband to drive on the interstate and drive cruise control, he taught me not to use the brakes constantly while driving on little back country roads.

10) More time together.  Each of us has a finite amount of time on this planet, we want to spend as much of it as a family as possible.

11)A perfect time to get married is not when your life is perfect, when you have the great job, great house, savings, and have done everything you ever wanted.  This to me is asking for disaster.  Your life will only get less perfect after marriage and you will become resentful of your partner.  Marriage is about the joy of discovery and living life together.  Not living 2 separate lives that happen to revolve through the same front door. 

12) You have some idea of what you want in a marriage, but are not too set in your ways. You can be flexible and allow yourself to change when your idea of a perfect marriage isn't working out perfectly.

13)Kids= awesome, we love being young parents and being able to crawl all over the floor, wedge ourselves into tight spaces and play hide and seek.  We are still young enough to remember the joy of childhood.

14) You don't need to have all the cash in the world before marriage, you are supposed to be working together!  Saving up everything would be nice, but why do it separately if you already know who you want to marry?

15)Marrying a good partner is priceless when one person can finish school before the other and take over bill payment and household management for a few years. 

Now this is a very rambling list, I've been out of school for 3 weeks, and my hand is starting to ache from lack of typing for a while.  So I'm ending here. 

The 3 year old checkup, only 2 months late

Today I took Alice to get her 3 year old checkup.  I love our pediatrician's office.  I called them up because I got done with class early enough today that I had time to go pick Alice up and still get over there.  They very nicely found a way to squeeze us in today.  Here are some of the highlights of this afternoon....

After I pick Alice up "Mommy, is this the doctor?" As we leave the parking lot.  "I need my baby, Mommy!  We going to doctor so she can fix my booboo on my leg and then I'll feel all better and good.  After dropping her baby, Mommy I need my baby back, she falled down.  ("I can't stop Alice, rule in car is driver drives").  Okay, when we get to red light then you'll get it for me.  (While on the interstate).    Mommy, mommy!  (yes, ALice?)  You have to get the baby now!  It's girl's turn to drive.  She need drive.  Alice, Mommy is a girl.....   No, you are a boy, like Daddy. 

Mommy, I need my kitty cat shoe...  as she rips off kitty cat shoe and throws it in the floor.  Alice, rule is mommy drives...  Next we discuss school.  Alice thinks I have lots of friends at school.  

Now the real highlights of the visit:
My daughter is a giant.  >95 % in height and 90-95% in weight.  (She's proportional).
We go through the same questions as everytime with the medical assistant..  "Do you have well water, central air, etc."  Then she starts asking questions like can she hop on one foot, can she button her own clothes?  (This frustrates me a bit since Alice is completely capable of answering these questions and being ignored, so I start addressing them to her, and the assistant takes the hint and starts asking her the appropriate ones.  Some are past her understanding but the rest she enjoyed.)  Takes an extra minute or two, but end up with a very happy kid at the end, since Alice loves to talk to everyone.

Next I put Alice in her gown.. It's a paper thing which she falls in love with.  She insists on lying down on the exam table and me turning the lights off while we wait on the doctor, then I had to turn the lights on since she was worried the doctor wouldn't find us.

So, Dr. A completes part of the physical, all is going great until she gets out the........ reflex hammer of doom!  Alice takes on look at it, realizes it is coming near her leg and flips out.  She tells Dr. A "You can't use that, that'll hurt me.  Look, Alice, here's a little practice tap, that doesn't hurt.... Yes it does!!!  It hurts me, don't do it again.  At this point Alice has clenched up all her leg muscles and crossed her legs.  Dr. A enters into negotiations...  I'm only hitting my hand on your leg, not your leg.  Alice isn't having any of this and crumples into the fetal position with her hands over her leg to ensure no possibility of a sneak attack.  Tactics are changed and it's decided to come back to this at a later point.  The rest of the exam goes totally smoothly....

Then Alice, turning towards Dr. A  "When is the doctor coming back?  WHere'd she go?   Doctor:  I am the doctor.  No, she is doctor, where is she?  I realize Alice thinks the medical assistant is the doctor.  The doctor come back in a minute, while nodding her head.  Doctor: no, Alice I'm the doctor.  Alice finally at the end of the visit agrees that Dr. A is the doctor, but still gives her suspicious looks about it.  Dr. A and I both try to explain that doctors got to lots more school, and it's a different job.  

Side tangential note here:  It drives me nuts when people think I'm in medical school to become a nurse.  I feel that nurses are an essential part of the medical team, but I am not going to school for this long for everyone to assume I'm a nurse because I'm a woman.  Not sure why Alice wouldn't believe us that the doctor was the doctor, but I figure it's because she is 3, and very positive of her point of view being correct.  

Back to the reflex hammer.  Alice is sitting on my lap.  "No, you going hurt my leg, when you hit me last time it hurt, you can't use the hammer."  Doctor Okay, how about if I just use my hand? okay... immediately clenches up all leg muscles and shrieks about it hurting.  Further negotiations ensue.  She allows Mommy to try, but mommy is not coordinated with her left arm with a tongue depresser.....  Alice decided the tongue depressor, which is hot pink and apparently tastes delicious feels good on her leg.  

Dr. A is finally given permission to test Alice's reflexes with a tongue depress r.  That's when you know you have a great doctor, they are willing to negotiate insanity to make the patient more comfortable, and make them remember the doctor's office as a fun place to be rather than a miserable experience. 

After we get home Alice runs in the front door to tell daddy all about how the doctor hurt her leg with the hammer, but the pink made it feel good.

Mamaw's visit

I love when Elliott's mom comes for a visit.  She is such a relaxing presence to have around.  We can't figure it out but the house magically gets clean while she visits and everyone is happier and calmer.  Alice has started calling her Ava-Grandma so cute!  Aunt Wandy let Alice help her out while she worked on an entire puzzle today.  Wandy has the patience of a saint.  Elliott and I got this electric room heater that looks like a stove we were able to put it in the back bedroom for a few minutes and it was instantly warm.  Our little neighbor girl- J has been learning to sew and Ava helped her a lot tonight.  We also took off to the thrift store for a while and found tons of good finds and didn't spend all that much.  I'm starting on my christmas stockpile for next year.  Now I just have to make sure Alice doesn't find it and claim anything in it for her own.

Alice'isms

"I'm a little stinker"  (wearing a cute skunk shirt)
"spink me, spink me!" (wanting her back and bottom patted while she snuggles)
"I don't love my baby, I love my horsie." (said while pointing at her baby that mamaw made indicating loving it)
"You brought my Ella!"  Ella's home!!  (not our dog)

I have a miserable cough but I'm almost able to sleep through the night again, so is Alice.  The other night she must have heard me coughing she crawled into bed and had me lay my head on her chest (I was worried I was going to squish her) she told me " you feel better soon mommy, lay your head down, I fix it"  Then she proceeded to gently pet my head.  Each morning for the last few weeks she has asked if I'm still sick, if I am still coughing she nods, tucks me back in and tells me to rest some more.  I have the best baby girl on the entire planet!  She is almost totally potty trained too.  We still put her in a diaper for nighttime because she sometimes forgets or will pee on her way to the potty firt thing in the morning.

She will be 3 in 4 months I can hardly believe how quickly time flies!

-Kelly

Fun things in life

I got diagnosed with convergence insufficiency, I finally have a reason for why it is so hard on my to do long tests.  Alice is sitting in the bathtub singing Happy birthcake and telling all the ducks how silly they are.  Roxy, my neighbor's puppy is curled up in my lap, she is so sweet and tiny.  I'm going to start posting more random things so I can remember these awesome times in our lives.

Now the ducks are getting washed!

I miss her
this baby of mine....

Some days I feel as if the sands of time run fast, faster still, I cannot catch them I cannot hold them still. These days I'm not there to tuck her in, to quiet her tears, to calm her fears.
I'm not the one to pick her up, or catch her as she's falling.
I'm not the one who throws her high, or who picks out her outfits each morning.
I'm not the one fixing her juice, helping her swim in the tub.
I"m not the one reading her stories, or being chased down the hallway by the dinosaur.
I'm not the one cleaning her earrings, or picking out shoes.
I'm not the one to fix her hair, or make sure her shoes match her outfit.
I'm not the one getting to fall asleep cuddled up in her baby soft embrace.

I know in the long run Alice will not remember this point in her life, but sometimes it is so hard being a medical school mom.  I hope that she understands someday why we chose this path, and does not resent it.  At this point in life I can never see her being resentful of anything this sweet baby of mine.  For now Daddy is there, and she shrieks with joy at hearing my voice.  While I do miss her terribly one day, this will all be worth it!
(isn't she getting so big?)

Alice is 2!

My baby girl is 2 now!  I can hardly believe it!!  (The really good pictures were all taken by http://www.amyamosphotography.com/index2.php?v=v1 )

Spring Break!!!!!

It's finally here, I get to see my Laura and one of my best friends get married and tons of other fun things. Mixed in with that will hopefully be some board studying.

This is the end of another block week I was so excited about getting to see everyone that I kept startling myself out of falling asleep last night. So I read one of the professor's learning objectives a bunch. We had a lecturer on sleep psychology tell us not to reward our body when it doesn't fall asleep. I figured some virology would be punishment enough for it.

Elliott asked me last night when I would finally be done with blocks. I glanced up from my frenzied arrow drawing and said "one more" he burst into a look of utter glee. Poor thing, I don't think he really understands about Step 1 yet.

In Alice news.... she is currently trying to get me to let her not take a nap, I'm not that stupid though since it's almost 5:15 maybe I am. I feel like I've hardly seen her over the last month, she spent 2 weekends at my mom's, one weekend with Elliott's family, and had tons of sleepovers with Ms. Heather and Kay-Kay. When I walked in the door after my exams I could hear her sweet voice calling mommy, mommmy!!!!! She usually just calls me mama, she is growing up so fast! I can understand most of what she says now. She insisted on reading my Robbins book a bit ago. She lugged it over to our bed and put it on her lap. She opened it and kept saying read! Read!! Wowwww!! Then turning the pages some more. She then slapped me in the eye, (I of course pretend to burst into tears so she knows how much it hurts). Alice looks at me for a few seconds to see if I'm just joking. When she realizes I'm not the concern kicks in, she leans down to tenderly kiss my eye, and say "huwrt? Owie?" I give her a hug and make up with her. She is still concerned so she sits up next to me, and very gently strokes my hair.

Next I attempt to get her to sleep again This time I try to old swaddle tactic, I tried singing her a lullaby and she sang right along. Eventually I admit defeat and take her outside on her trike. She grabs her baby and we are off around the circle. We see some other little kids but for a change Alice is content to let me push her instead of running away to play. About 1/2 way home we run into the neighbor girl who loves Alice to pieces and was delighted to get to push the trike!

We make it home and I tell her she has to go take a nap now! She gives me her wicked giggle and runs to Dada, who just happens to be napping on the couch.- Lucky, I wish I could take naps!

Well she still hasn't fallen asleep, so she is probably going to figure out how to get out of her crib any second now! Sorry for the ridiculous runons and grammar, my brain is tired!