Spring Photo Shoot

It was a beautiful day and K was just too cute to resist...
Enjoy!!








This last one was actually how a bunch of them looked...she kept wanting to grab the camera!



She is just getting so big so fast, I can hardly believe it.
She is pulling up on everything, walking with help and we figure it won't be too long before she ventures out on her own.
And she just keeps smiling through it all :-)

Entering the Digital Age


I'll admit. I Love books. I love holding them, browsing through the book store, looking at covers, reading the back blurbs, deciding which ones to read.
And I love keeping those books, cramming bookshelf after bookshelf full of all my books, every book from college from my Shakespeare collection to my post-modern books that didn't quite make sense.
I still try to do some fun reading in between trying to keep up with my normal reading so I would usually have one or two books around the house about halfway read. The problem was I often didn't have space or remember to bring them with me to random places or to work to read while I had time.

Enter the Kindle:


I had my first mother's day recently (that was fun :-) And Mark surprised me with a Kindle.
I'll admit, at first I was skeptical. I had visions of Fahrenheit 451 where all the books disappear and no one remembers any of the stories. Then I started using it.
I immediately downloaded Tina Fey's "Bossypants." And haven't put it down since.
It is so nice to have all my books that I am reading at the same time in the same place!!!

Seriously, there is a part of me that will always love the paper books, the smell of fresh paper, buying a new book. But I have to admit, the convenience, the portability, and the flexibility of the Kindle are quite appealing.

So Thanks Mark and Kyla for bringing me into the Digital Age!!!

As my husband says,

"The cheese stands alone."



Thank you Mallorie for helping our child meet her milestones :-)
We will call you for all future big steps!!

Easter Party



props to cheryl for some mad reflexes.

Life of Late

So I have just come off of what has been deemed the most demanding rotation of my residency. The truth is, I try to avoid talking about work on this blog because I think it is important to keep in mind that my work is not my life. This being said, it has been a long 8 weeks with one week of a break in the middle.
This is not to say that I don't enjoy my job. I knew (to some degree) what I was getting into when I signed up for medicine. But I stuck with it because I felt like it was an important place for me to be. And because I have a huge pile of debt...but I try not to think about that part of it.
However, I think that working as a mom does change my perspective a bit. The good thing about K being young is that I don't think she will remember most of these years, the bad thing is I think I will.
There was an insightful article written by a working mom in our alumni magazine a few years ago found here .
I think it is hard balance and one that isn't easy to achieve. For me, it has been made easier by a very helpful husband but there are still times when I feel like I am doing both roles only suboptimally.
But I don't think I could give up my job right now.
I think that providing care to patients, especially the population that often ends up coming to my clinic is important. I think that I was able to get an education, had the luxury of learning and to some degree owe back this luxury. This is not to discredit the woman who chooses to give back her education to her family. This is a noble cause too, one not to be downplayed. But for me, right now, working as a physician is where I belong. Even after the longest rotation of my life.

I am a doctor. Albeit a relatively new one, still mostly fresh, only occasionally (or a lot depending on the day...) bitter, and trying to figure out the right balance.
Perhaps in my time I'll figure out how to be a graceful surgeon and a graceful mother. Either way, unless I win the lottery I'm on this path for at least a little while longer and K is stuck with a mom who gets to spend lots of time welcoming new people into the world who still tries to make it home for dinner and some bedtime snuggles.

The End of an Era....



Ok. So the following post is about breastfeeding and pumping. If that is not your style, consider yourself forewarned and go ahead and skip this one.
BUT you should make note of just three things:
1. Boobs are actually for milk. Despite what our culture says.
2. Don't ever call a lady breastfeeding or pumping, "Bessie." It never goes well.
3. I make no judgements about formula vs. breast milk. Look at Mark-he got mostly formula and he turned out alright.


Back to the task at hand. I'm going to summarize in brief, my experience with the whole "breastfeeding" thing.
And in the process admit my failures, make no judgements about what you have decided to do (although I still find it strange if a kid who is old enough to SAY Boob is still nursing, but whatever), and share how I got through this whole process. And yes, this is only my experience, and I have talked to enough people to know that this story plays out many different ways and DO NOT let my experience scare you off...the truth is most women do this and do just fine.

FIRST. Breastfeeding is NOT explicitly natural. It was much much harder than expected. And though I had read books about childraising, sleep training, knew a bit about the birth process, etc, I hadn't done enough homework about breastfeeding. This was my first mistake.

I knew that I wanted to at least try because there is reasonable enough data that breastfeeding is pretty good for the little ones. It has all sorts of immune stuff and the right content of fat/protein/carbs at the right time. So I really pretty much wanted to give it a go.

Me and K seemed to start off fine. For the first two days. Then we struggled. So we went in for remedial help. This helped. For a bit. But then, my five weeks of maternity leave vanished, I was still struggling and now trying to juggle feeding, pumping, and coping with an extreme amount of discomfort.

So in my attempt to figure out what my next step might be, I had a moment of weakness and visited the LaLeche League website. And lo and behold in their frequently asked questions, right after "How do I breastfeed children of different ages simultaneously?" was the question "are there ever people who just exclusively pump?"

I read that one.

And then I thought a lot about what I thought might work. My schedule is, at times, prohibitive from a normal day/night schedule. So when I added it all up, I would really only be able to actually feed K twice during the day, the rest of the time I wouldn't be around. So I decided to throw in the towel and just pump.

So me and my new best friend, pictured at the top went EVERYWHERE together. There were a few panic mornings when I had left one part or another at home and had to have Mark drive it to me...times when I had to pump standing in a bathroom, in airports, in locker rooms, offices, random rooms, pretty much anywhere I could. Most days it was lunch? or pump? and we all know what decision has to happen with that.
So I pumped. And pumped. and realized that I had failed at breastfeeding but I could come to terms with it and that Baby K didn't care what she had...it was really more me wanting to give her any leg up that I thought I could.

But now those days have come to an end...no more middle of the night pump sessions while K slept so I could keep up with her, no more hauling that "sleek stylish' bag around, no more obsessively checking to make sure I had all the parts, no more waking up before work to make sure K had enough for daycare...

I think it has been a mutually peaceful parting, and I certainly have learned a few things.
First, read and learn from others (aka me...) and those who are AWESOME and those who aren't so you can put together your own plan of attack.
Second,get help early. I should have taken a class before and then as soon as I started having trouble, not toughed it out but got some good solid advice.
Third, your kid is going to be fine either way. K doesn't care formula, breastmilk.
Fourth, introduce the bottle early-ish. It made a huge difference to have Mark able to help me and to have breaks even at the beginning.
Fifth, buy a pumpease bra if you go my route, Look it up on Amazon, you won't regret it.
Sixth, for me....


Breath a big sigh of relief that it is all done for now and I can't help but hope next time might be a little bit easier ;)

Playing Guitar with Dad



K just keeps going....she is into everything now and it is certainly a bit more interesting trying to keep track of her.
She has discovered the joy that comes from dumping out Phoenix's water bowl on the floor, pulling out all her toys, cruising around the floor and pulling herself to standing and cruising around the room...

I cannot get over how quick everything happened! Just last week she learned to crawl and now there is nothing stopping her :-)

To Do List:

Make Kyla laugh more...if that is even possible:



And..next on my reading list, since the baby books tell me that Kyla will soon be able to know right/wrong and respond is this book:


It comes highly recommended and I'm hoping that it will help us start to provide a good framework for our giggle monster...Will let you know the reviews soon!
I'm going to be on vacation (yay!) next week so will try to read it then...until then it is nose to the grindstone on this rotation....
Fortunately I have a husband who does stuff like go to the grocery store, have pulled pork for dinner and beer :-) Sweet.

Giggle.

Baby K Says hi




And thanks to all her fans for their continued support.

Phoenix and Kyla

Sisters forever. Below are a few selections of why Kyla and Phoenix have a beautiful future ahead of them.







Phoenix and Kyla. BFF.

Toes and Giggles.

So Baby K has been feeling quite under the weather for about the last two weeks...a combo of what was probably a touch of the RSV combined with a wicked ear infection meant that she wasn't the happiest camper. It also meant that poor Mark had to deal with some tough nights since I'm at work...

After two sets of antibiotics we think we have finally gotten it beat and she is feeling a bit better.

The following video is a bit of her giggling and please disregard my non-sensical rambling.
The truth is she is starting to babble so much and it is so fun to hear. Lots of blahs, bas, das, a few mas, and some gas. Lots of new sounds to practice. She is also become quite able to log-roll her way around. She is still trying for the crawling, but seems perfectly happy to roll around.

Anyways, here is the giggle monster herself....

What a life.

I stumbled across a blog a few months ago via an acquaintance on facebook and could not believe the story of this woman's life.
She is truly an example of grace and beauty despite the struggles that came her way.
If you have time, it is worth it to read the whole story and hear her thoughts.
Makes me what to be a better person.
The story for us is over, but for her, it is just beginning.
Check it out:
Sarah's Story

New Carpet! (and furnace...)

So when we first moved in, we discovered that those that sold us our house were known to be less than honest...it was basically par for the course that on our official move in walk through we suddenly realized the state of the carpeting demonstrated by three relatively large holes in the upstairs and the downstairs. NOW Mark and I are relatively aware people and typically notice these things, however! we were thwarted in our efforts as the aforementioned holes had been hidden. Under plants.
Yup. Plants.
For future house-shopping, we will be lifting all floor plants, so beware.
Anyways, we knew we needed new carpeting. Like before we moved in. But the costs of home ownership are hefty and we weren't quite ready for that commitment.
Fast forward two years and add a small child whose head basically lives in the floor. Now the knowledge that our carpet was old turned in to we NEED new carpet. Or K will be forever inhaling the dust spores of the generations that came before us.
My parents graciously offered to help us on our expenditure and I set off on the task of finding the perfect new carpeting.

During my hunt, I came to a profound realization as to what exactly I was looking for in carpeting.
I wanted carpeting that looked like dirt.
Not REAL dirt. But dirt nonetheless. Because it will get dirty and I don't want it to show up.
SO I want carpeting that is actually clean (for now) but will still look the SAME (even if dirty).
Seeing as we have regular "Phoenix has barfed the fertilizer she ate up in the corner of the closet" moments, this is very important to me.

I made the rounds to a carpet store and Home Depot, met a lovely lady named Kim at Carpet One who sold me some nice (clean) but dirty carpet and thus began our journey.

Now, don't forget, we live in our house currently. with lots and lots of stuff. And unfortunately for us, the carpet is UNDER all that stuff (who knew?)

To get the NEW carpet UNDER our old stuff we had to move it ALL elsewhere. In the house. This made for a few interesting days.
The upstairs was done first and was slightly less painful.
Then the first floor came up to bat and it was yeah. Kind of awful. Never want to do it again.
This is what our house looked like this morning:

Can you see the kitchen?
And this:


Now here comes the fun part...
We were actually gone this past weekend on a fun trip to my parents (post to come) and on our return noted that our house was very cool. I mean, very cool. We(and I mean Mark) went down to check out the furnace at approx. 10pm on Monday night. The furnace it seemed, had entered retirement without letting us know. So we had someone come out to check it out and they thought they fixed it. But long story short, it was really really done.
SO we got a new furnace.

Anyways, that was just a short and very expensive tangent.
Back to the carpet.
About halfway through I began to wonder if it was truly worth all this work.
Then the carpet guys left, phoenix entered the room, sniffed around and promptly sprawled out.
Then Kyla crawled around rubbed her face in the new carpet and barfed.
Yup. It was a beautiful decision.

Christmas!

It was Baby K's first Christmas and my whole family came out to keep us company :-)
She had fun? Maybe?
But we sure did...


Bday dinner for Mom...


Santa and her reluctant reindeer..


My favorite little girl.

Comings and Goings...

It has been a busy few months!!! And this post is really just me procrastinating on studying for a big exam tomorrow and/or going to bed...but it has been too long!
Much has happened...
1. My big bro got married!!! And they are having a baby!!! And the secret is out that the had a small wedding a few months ago and that's when they actually got pregnant!! And they are having a GIRL!!!!

Yeah. I'm excited about all of it. They have a pretty cool story and I'm going to be a blabbermouth and share it because I think it is a neat story...
So...Judd meets Jana. They totally like each other. I mean really really like each other. And realize pretty soon that this is the kind of like that sticks around...so they talk about marriage. And some stuff comes up with Jana's health, and me, being the nosy OB/Gyn asks all sorts of prying questions. But the short answer is, they saw a doc, got some good advice that the time that Jana might be able to have kids could be shorter than most, and hence got hitched in a teeny little ceremony with just family and a few friends. BUT they still wanted to have the big, blow-out super fun (And fancy!) wedding that Jana (and Judd I know...) had hoped for.
In the mean time, they got pregnant. Like, right away! So fun...so we got to have a huge celebration for a wedding AND an upcoming baby!!
Needless to say, because my new sis-in-law is stunning and a fashion/style expert the wedding was beautiful. Everything about it just great. So many fun folks to come out and support Judd and Jana in the whole marriage AND upcoming parent thing....

Rehersal dinner with the gmas...

Gma and Drooley Baby K

The guys played Bball to get ready for wedding.

Baby K meets Baby T meets Baby R!!

The sisters dancing...


And the sad sad truth of this whole story is that somehow, I didn't get ANY good pics with the bride and groom.
Seriously. I have no idea how it happened and will probably regret it for the rest of my life.
BUT there are some awesome photos from the wedding if you go to this link:
and type the password Judd.
Their wedding was so cool that it was also featured on a blog called "Style me Pretty" which is apparently pretty awesome.
So her is a final shot of the gorgeous bride:

Don't be mad cause you know they are going to have the cutest little girl ever, I might even say she could be ALMOST as cute as Kyla. Almost.

Ok! Next post coming up tomorrow...Christmas in Utah ...
AND THEN

WAIT FOR IT

I WILL BE ON VACATIONNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

Six months!!!
Lots more has happened and I promise to post some photos soon...but been a bit swamped.
Can't believe how fast it has all gone.

Getting Big



Well it has been a while since I posted!! We have had some fun visitors, hit a few more milestones and just generally been cute as a button. Not that I'm biased or anything.
I realized I need to take more photos and not just on my iphone, so I can capture how fast this little one seems to grow. Just today I already had to go through her dresser to clean out all the stuff that is TOO SMALL for her now! Crazy because a lot of that stuff was too big when we first brought her home.
Last weekend Ann came to do a pre-Thanksgiving celebration and hang out with the little one...here are a few cute pics:

Seeming to enjoy tummy time (sometimes a rarity)

Hanging out with mom...

And then I like this pic b/c I think Mark and K look so much alike...and they have the SAME expression


We have also added some REAL FOOD to K's menu...our pediatrician who is of the appropriate mindset that most kids do just fine...says see what she likes over the next few months before she has to really get some eating done. So we started with some rice cereal which wasn't quite a big hit, but was tolerable BUT then added some prunes which are quite the delicacy. So Baby K has been learning about eating from a spoon which is fun for us, a bit harder on her clothes :-)
I also had a big weekend where I went out skiing!! First time since last winter. There were successes and failures on all accounts.
Here are the successes:
1. Returned home with all my toes and fingers
2. successfully got on and off the ski lift without any major mishaps
3. Successfully skied down a black run (accidently) b/c Mark took me that way
Failures:
1. Fell while standing still and had to have Mark take a ski off for me to be able to get up
2. Fell while on a cat track, all alone, and relatively flat
3. Did some complaining about the cold
HOWEVER all in, it was a good day and I got to rock my new skis...

Here are a few more cute shots of Baby K before I sign off for a bit...


These last couple shots have to be imagined with a high pitched continuous squeal in the background since that is the noise she is making....







In just a few weeks we are headed to Boston for my bro's wedding and are so excited to have K meet many new friends :) so look forward to photos in a few weeks and this weekend Tommy and Renee visited and they got a few good shots so we will add those too...

In the mean time, enjoy the holiday season! We have snow just piling up :)

A Few Shots of Around Here

These are from back when I was small....




So far it has been a great weekend (and it is only halfway!) I got to host a fun baby shower for one of the girls in my small group and help get excited about welcoming her little boy in the next few months. Mark and I went out to dinner for sushi in Park City and little peanut cooperatively slept the whole time. Baby K is a pumpkin and will be having an extended photo shoot later today (which I of course will post), and I have the best choc. chip cookie recipe. And I'm going to go to yoga this am and the climbing gym later today. Sweet.
Yup.
The Best.
Here it is if anyone is interested:

2 sticks butter (8oz) softened (I always use salted butter when I bake, but the recipe calls for unsalted)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup sugar in the raw (turbinado sugar)
1 and 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3 and 1/2 cup flour, all purpose
1 and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
12 oz cholcolate cut into small chunks--they say 1/2 inch, but I typically like my cholcolate chunks smaller than that. They also say use the best quality you can--I usually by 3 giradelli chocolate bars that you find in the baking isle, usually 2x semi-sweet and 1x bitter sweet.
seasalt (I had to especially buy the kind with the big crystals especially for this recipe "coarse" sea salt)

Preheat to 350
Cream butter and sugars on medium-high speed until light 4-5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl a couple of times during the process. Continue mixing while adding the eggs one at a time. Make sure each egg is incorporated before adding the next. Add vanilla.
in separate bowl, combine flour, soda, and salt. mix with wisk. with machine on low, slowly add all flour but just a little bit. Then add chocolate and remaining small bit of flour all together. Stir with spatula just until all is combined.

Then scoop and place on cookie sheet. No need to really press dough down. Since I usually can't get the salt crystals to stick on the top if I just sprinkle them one, I will usually put a little salt in the palm of my non-dominent hand and push the top of my cookie ball into it.

Bake at 350 x about 12 minutes. Do not overbake.

And here is a preview of the little pumpkin:

Both Sides Now...

As of yesterday, we now have a bi-directional roller...front to back, back to front...
Big day in the Parrett house! We're going to have to start thinking about baby proofing and maybe expanding her play mat so she can roll around a bit more.

This weekend coming up should be fun :-) I'm off and don't have to be on call (woohoo!) and get to host a baby shower for one of the lovely ladies in our small group. She is having a little boy and we are doing a fun fall themed shower..be on the look out for more pictures of this. I went to target (with mark) and got some cute little boy stuff!

We also introduced Kyla to formula cause she is eating me out of house and home! The good news is she didn't even seem to blink an eye at the formula and now seems equally as happy with formula or breast milk. I had talked to various friends to find out what type people were happy with and settled on an organic one called "Earth's Best." Kyla, as I said, seems that she couldn't care less. All the worry about starting it to find out that she is totally satisfied with either!! That's just one more reason why she is my favorite baby. I think the build-up to starting formula was way more than the actual event. She just sat quietly and drank away like she always does; and now that she can drink it, it takes a bit of pressure off of me to feel like if I miss one time to pump at work she will not have enough to eat!

I started a new rotation (Gynecology oncology) and am loving it. There's lots of surgery, time for teaching, and interesting things about it. The hours have also been less brutal and there have been two mornings this week where I have actually gotten to see both Mark and Kyla-what a good treat!

Anyways, that's the brief update from me..oh, and it snowed!
Happy Friday!!