Family Update

No pictures, but an update.

Josh is in the midst of his ER rotation, interview season, and the Clinical Skills board exam. He spent the past few days in Atlanta to take the exam. I'd say the highlight of his trip was flying out of the new Indianapolis Airport. It was a smooth transition from the old airport except for the empty ATM machines. He's pretty sure he passed the exam, and that's the most important piece here. He met up with another IU student and they were able to eat dinner together at the airport in Atlanta, so Josh wasn't completely alone. He has several interviews coming up next month at Cincinnati, Vanderbilt, Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and Florida, and St. Vincent in Indianapolis. It's prudent to interview at other places just in case something were to happen and to see what other programs have to offer. It's fun to look at other places and imagine our lives there. Minnesota would be a great opportunity for Josh, but very cold for the family. Of course, we would miss our wonderful, helpful families.

I am settled into my new role as an IT team leader for the sales and distribution team. I really like my team, and they make my job much easier. It's the end of the year, so we are ramping up into end of year performance reviews. Now begins the tedious job of remembering everything we did all year and putting it down on paper. I also have eleven vacation days to use before the end of the year. This means that I only have ten working days until 2009. So much to do, so little time!

Jacob is enjoying being four. His favorite time of day is after Tyler goes to bed. That means we can get out the toys and games with little pieces that Tyler would find and swallow. With Josh being gone in the evening, Jacob and I have enjoyed countless games of Hi Ho Cherrio and Candyland. He's also enjoyed making crafts with Josh. There's nothing like art with crepe paper, mountains of glue, clothespins, and felt angel wings. Jacob has graduated to only using his pacifier in his bedroom. The transition was rough at first, but didn't take long. He has informed us that when he's five, he'll give it up forever.

Tyler is so much fun right now. He loves to sing songs with hand motions. We sing the songs, and he does the motions. Most of the time, he is using sign language, and he's built quite a vocabulary. Because he doesn't talk much, it's very handy and eases all of our frustration. We're up to food, drink, book, banana, more, please, all done, and various signals for his favorite songs. Last night, I figured out that he can race. He backs up across the room, I say "ready, set, go" and he runs to me for a big hug...over and over and over.

We are all doing well, and we can't wait for Christmas vacation when nobody has plans to travel or work.