7 Quick Takes, Vol. 42

Joining Jen -- thanks as always for hosting us!

1. Today is Charles' last day of "work" for 2013. It was the last day of his neurology rotation, and the rest of the semester is "off" for residency interviews. He spent the morning in the hospital, and was free to go when they finished up there, which was before lunch. Crazy! How is the year almost over?

2. I reflect again and again (and so probably mention again and again) the surreality of passing time. On one hand, you just live day by day. Time passes. Things happen. It seems natural that kids grow, new ones come about, milestones that once seems impossibly far away come and go. Then you stop and think. Hold on! Wait! What?!?!!? How is Clare so big? How am I already 19 weeks pregnant? How is neurology over? How it is interview season? How did we get here? What happened?

19 weeks, deceptive shirt -- I am not this small in the bump department

3. Charles also happens to be fighting a cold, so he's snuggled up on the other side of the couch playing Risk on his phone. He enjoys trying out new strategies on the phone, because the games go so quickly with the computer aspect. This means I'll never, ever play against him at Risk again. It was already rare, because "World Domination" too often equals "hurt feelings," but this is the nail in the coffin. I have no hope at ever winning ever again.

Via

4. Poor Clare has been cutting molars for weeks now. She was only occasionally crabby (but very drooly) for the cutting of most of her other teeth, but molars, man. Molars have been awful. One has been fully emerged for a couple of weeks now, and I can feel parts of the other three when I manage to get a (clean) finger in her mouth to check her gums. Poor kiddo. Hopefully, it will be over soon.

5. I'm pleased to report, if only for myself and my sanity, that Clare seems to have passed her 'rip pages out of every book upon impact' phase, and has now firmly placed herself in the column of "my daughter" by flipping idly through the pages of any book she gets her hands on. She is also sitting still through longer books, which makes me happy. I'd much rather read Hop on Pop once than I love You Through and Through 50 times. She still likes her shorter board books, but at least I get some reprieve now and then. I'm pretty sure all parents can relate. Still counting down the days until we can reasonably read chapter books. That's 16 months, right?!?

6. I know it's already all over Facebook/the webz, but I really enjoyed this piece on the American Girls dolls. I've been saddened by the retirement of the original historical dolls and the rise of the "modern girls" dolls. Business and blah blah blah . . . but the historical dolls were my heart. I had Kirsten, who looked nothing like me, but whose stories I loved. I read the catalogue cover to cover, even though it rarely changed. I read all the books, checking them out from the library way after I was the age to read them. I love the history section at the back of the book. I'm a history B.A. with a reading problem, what can I say? I think the lack of historical perspective and passion for reading among (obviously not all) kids is saddening. I have lots of semi-articlate thoughts that could amount to several terrible, rambling blog posts, so I'll just leave it at that.

Via

7. Charles is off interviewing most of next week, so I anticipate lots of evenings of "turn on the tube and knock out a blog post." Get excited. In the mean time, prayers for safe travels and good health are always appreciated. :)

Have a lovely weekend!