Ooh baby, baby it's a wild world...

We have had some lovely weather in the last week or so around these parts. Over the weekend I gave Walnut some chores to do...I hate to be a "honey-do" wife...but it was hanging a shelf, and he is taller making it way easier for him...and I took Little Cashew to the park to play. We gave her new play blanket a work out and she had a blast.

At one point a rather large doberman walked by (on a leash) and started barking at us...I kind of freaked out (even though I am a dog person) because it looked like he wanted to eat Little Cashew for lunch. She didn't mind at all! About 20 minutes later a wild turkey (Yes wild turkey...I'll give you a minute to pick your jaw up...it must live in the little bit of wooded area in the park...who knew we had wild turkeys?!?!) came within about 12ish feet of us...minding it's own business and she completely freaked out. She was crying big tears and practically trembling. It walked away, I picked her up and she calmed down pretty quickly.

She usually LOVES being outside...but apparently turkeys are a bit too much for her. I don't blame her actually...those things are kind of ugly!

So I guess this means Little Cashew is a city girl at heart?

I'm cheesey...so is Little Cashew apparently

I don't know why it is that when I envisioned motherhood, I only really saw an idealized glamorous version of it.
I think I may be the least glamorous mom ever...in history...
Aside from the fact that my ideal wardrobe is scrub pants (or sweat pants), a tank top and flip flops rather than pretty dresses and pearls and I'm kind of a terrible cook...I'm kind of rough around the edges of mommy.
So speaking of me being a not-so-great cook...we ordered Mexican food a few days ago...and where there is take out, there is left over food! So I was pleasantly munching on some cold queso and chips and wearing Little Cashew around the kitchen. And while I chomped and danced around (because it entertains her obviously and not because I am a dork who likes to dance in the kitchen...ok well I am, but that's besides the point) I dripped a plop of queso onto her head. Now I feel like my gut reaction should have been horror at getting my cute little baby cheesey...but instead I wanted the queso, so I grabbed another chip and scooped it off. Then wiped her head with a napkin.
She was none the wiser.

And on a side note my Little Cashew is 7 months old today! I don't understand where all of this time is going...it feels like just last week that Walnut and I were surprising the family with our news. We didn't want to tell anyone we were planning on trying for a baby...because, well frankly, who needs that extra pressure??!! Early on, when there was some baby mumblings going on by the grand parents, we just said we were going to wait until after I was done with residency. So everyone was pretty shocked when the big announcement came half way through third year.

To put things into perspective...

For all of the stressing out and complaining I do, I've really been quite lucky to have such a great life. It's unfortunate that it takes tragedy like this to remind me how good I have it. Rest in peace Connor, my thoughts are with the Donahue's and all of the other Frost Valley-ers mourning him.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/northjersey/obituary.aspx?n=connor-donohue&pid=140800077

My eyes are bigger than her stomach...

Well Veggie's for Little Cashew Take 2 went much better!
I have given up on peas...and after my traumatic experience the last time, she may never get them!
So this time we went with butternut squash (again I picked a veggie I am not all that familiar with...what is wrong with me?!?!?) I mean basically my knowledge of butter nut squash is that line from friends where they call it squatter nut bash...hehehe makes me giggle every single time..

But back to baby food. I went to the grocery store and bought butternut squash...peeled it and cut it...good lordy did that take a long time! Oh and I'll give credit where credit is due...I peeled and walnut did 98% of the cutting. And then batch by batch I started making food for Little Cashew.
And it turned out great and Little Cashew noms away on it!

There was only one issue this time around...if you can't tell already...I bought a FREAKING GINORMOUS squash...actually it was the largest one I could find in the store...literally! My thought process was "let me get a big one, so she can have several meals worth..." Yeah because an average sized squash clearly would only be a small snack for a 6 month old! So yeah the squash was bigger than Little Cashew was when she was born...or at least it seemed that way. And even if she REALLY likes squash, I am fairly certain that I will not need to buy any more squash for her until she is eating non-pureed solids.

Going to keep this short and sweet so I actually write and publish in one sitting rather than dragging it out for a week!

Adventures in babyfood making

My first attempt at making babyfood was yesterday...how did it go you ask? Epic FAIL!

Let me start at the beginning...Little Cashew is 6 months old now (::sobs:: How did she get so big??) and the pediatrician gave us the go ahead to give her some more foods. So shes been eating rice cereal and oatmeal, and we decided that last night would be baby's first veggies. Walnut and I did our homework and were reading up on wholesomebabyfood.com (thank goodness for that website) and decided peas would be Little Cashew's first veggie. Now in hindsight, this was our first mistake...because honestly I don't know a whole lot about peas...it's actually quite embarrassing for a vegetarian. So we took a family walk down to the grocery store and bought a few handfuls of peas thinking "Let's get enough, so she has a few meals worth" and when we got home I decided to get out the baby food maker and wash the peas. Now in my mind I pictured big round green peas that I would cook and mush together. So imagine my confusion when I began opening the pea pods to little minuscule nubins of peas. I guess peas are out of season in March...but I opened all of the pods and emptied out the teenie tiny pea bits into a bowl. It occurred to me at this point that maybe I was supposed to give her the pods also to eat...I still don't know...anyone? Beuller?

So now I have a bunch of empty pea pods and a bowl full of the saddest looking tiny peas anyone has every seen...but I was determined to make Little Cashew peas. Then I hit the next road block. The cooking basket on the babyfood maker was like a collander...it had holes of steaming, and all of the peas would have jsut fallen straight through! So I added some water to the peas and put them in the microwave instead.

Things were still going relatively okay at this point...I mashed the peas with the back of the spoon a little bit after the microwave to gauge their softness...I thought they were still a little under done, but I figured I would put them in the baby food maker, blend them up and cook them a little more if needed. So I spooned my sad looking peas into the blender portion, and hit blend...and then smack my palm against my head...The blades were spinning above the peas because there were so few in there!!!

About now is when I went a little crazy...

I scooped the peas out of the blender and began chopping them up with a knife! I had a decent paste going after like 10 min...but they were still a little under done...so I added some water and put them back into the microwave for a minute. I go to take them out of the microwave and they were BLACK!!!

I burned the peas in the microwave...who even knew that was possible!

Long story short...Little Cashew had oatmeal for dinner

Haven't we come farther than this?

So I know it shouldn't bother me, but it does.
In the last week I have been called, or mistaken for, a nurse several times.
Now don't get me wrong, it's not that there is anything wrong with being a nurse...they are basically they glue that holds the hospital together, and are AMAZING...especially the ones I've had the privilege of working with lately. And just yesterday 1 nurse (who happened to be a male nurse) called out the doc's on 3 different occasions when they were doing things that weren't necessarily the best for the patient. (I'm not going to go calling them medical errors...just kind of poor form.) But seriously, they usually know their patients better than the docs do and (especially in the ICU) can have better judgement than the residents.

So yes. Nurses are great...but I hate being mistaken for one. And here is why...

Just because I am a female in the hospital does not mean I am a nurse...I COULD be a nurse..I could also be a physician or a tech or part of the maintenance staff. First it was last week when a patients family member saw me doing paperwork and I smiled because I am friendly like that, and she asked me if I was a nurse. I politely told her no, I was a medical student. So she said "oh so you are in school to be a nurse?" and I said "No, I'm about 100 days away from finishing my MD and being a physician." And she really couldn't wrap her mind around it. And I can't even chalk it up to her being old and "thats what it was like in her day" because she was in her 30's! And now this week...I started in a new unit, the Cardiac ICU, and I got asked by 2 nurses if I was a new nurse working in their unit for the day.

It just irks me because I would like to think as a society we have moved on from such gender biases. Even in undergrad I got looks for saying I was an Engineer...yeah I get it, it's a male dominated field...but guess what I was great at it! And yeah, I loved calculus and chemistry, hence I went for the engineering degree. But I didn't think it was so bad in Medicine, 51% of my class is female for crying out loud! Little Cashew, I want you to grow up in a society where there aren't such ridiculous assumptions made as to what you do or can do based on your gender.

On a less annoyed note...the cherry blossoms will be out at the end of the month...I think we will take Little Cashew downtown to take a look...

Mama Peanut = Worst Blogger Ever

I have a whole new respect for Bloggers...and even more so for Mommy Bloggers! Apparently when I try and fit the 'Wife' 'Mommy' 'Med Student' and 'Blogger' hats all on my head at once, the blogger one immediately falls off. I suppose I could get in a few posts per week if I just gave up some sleep...but let's be serious people. Even though I actually was told not to come into the hospital for a few days during Snowtorious BIG, I was just too pooped to blog!

Speaking of sleep...we've all been sleeping badly the last few weeks...Little Cashew has gone from pretty reliably sleeping for an 8 hour block straight to giving us a 6hr block at the most and then maybe a 3 or 4hr block. And I know we are lucky that she is only getting up once at night...its just that it was a tease that she was doing so well for so long. And too many overnight calls at the hospital have killed my sleeping...it's like I have PTSD from my pager going off every time I try to lay down...

Speaking of being a terrible blogger...its taken me like 2 weeks to type this post...I'm just going to publish it now, or I may never get around too it...

Random interjection: I have the olympics on in the background as I type and Walnut is putting Little Cashew to sleep (and oy is she fighting it!) and the short track speed skating is on, and I cant help but think that if I particiapted in this sport I would constantly be disqualified for pushing people out of my way...hmmm maybe I am getting too competative?