August is finally over

August was, overall, a rough month with Joel working 30 hour shifts every 4th night at the hospital and averaging 12 hour days otherwise. The weekend of the 18th my friend Melissa came down to visit from DC, which was a great time and a good break from the long month. Fortunately in September Joel has a much easier rotation and is learning about opportunities in the community for children, such as the Big Brother Big Sister Program, and other issues that involve children, such as how a day care works. He is using this light month to study for Step III which he will take September 25-26. Please pray that he does well. This will be his last exam before the boards, which he will take after completing residency.

I have been keeping busy, still meeting people, most of which are stay at home moms with husbands who are also residents, which is great to have friends with the same life that we do. I try to stay busy while Joel works so much. We are continuing to participate in the Christian fellowship of residents and their spouses that meets once a week, and have really enjoyed a Presbyterian church here that many of our friends attend. The pastor is very good and we've been told they have an exceptional women's group.

Caleb has been rolling over from his back to his tummy a lot lately and occasionally rolls from his tummy to his back, but that tends to be an accident I think. He scoots around a lot and is never in the same place that I put him down. He's doing much better with hand eye coordination and is able to manipulate objects now and get them to his mouth. Last Friday he had his 4 month check-up with shots. We take him to a pediatrician, Dr. Savage, that Joel works with, who we both really like. She is very knowledgeable and very good at her job. The nurse we had, however, is brand new, so Joel asked if he could administer the 3 shots. We were a little hesitant about a new nurse because the 2 month shots did not go well and he screamed and screamed. Both Joel and Caleb did very well with the shots. I was very impressed. Caleb is still at the 25th percentile for height and weight, though his head is in the 50th percentile J Apparently I had a large head as a baby also J. He weighed in at 13.1 pounds and 26 inches. He hasn’t quite doubled his birth weight, but he's getting there.

We hope everyone is having a good Labor Day! Much of Joel's family is in Kentucky this weekend to celebrate his cousin Meribeth's recent marriage. We're sorry we couldn't be there! Congratulations Meribeth!

I love my Bumbo!

I love grabbing my feet

Chillin in my La-Z-Boy

Taking a nap- we work hard

Smiley Boy

Jumping in my "Johnny Jumper"

Four months old already!