The joy of having a doctor and nurse as parents...

I am sooo proud of this sweet picture because it was the first time Jay actually smiled for the camera!! If you blow up this one you will see sweet Jay waving at us!

At the children's garden with Truman and Hannah. We met them there to celebrate Truman's 1st birthday!!

I love these next two, Jay was acting like a goofball at the table....he is always in such a good mood when he is eating. :)

We had to put a rug in the hallway for Jake who has arthritis and slips across the slick wood floor...of course, Jay thought I put this down for him as a racetrack to crawl on, over and over and over.

Here are some pictures of our fun this week. Jay has another cold, this one worse than the last so he is very emotional and I am sooooo tired of cleaning up his nasty nose. While being a nurse is not so good at times (my mind goes straight to the worst case every time something happens to him), I am glad I have enough knowledge to know when to call the doctor and when to just let it run its course. That being said, I do about 10 neuro exams on him every time he falls and hits is head and have very little compassion when he screams at me for holding him down to suck out his nose. Fortunately he doesn't know that medicine is gross yet so he thinks I am giving him a treat every time I bring the Tylenol and Motrin out.

There are those times, though, that my "new mother" syndrome shows its ugly face and I go into total panic mode about a diaper rash or a bruise. I usually call Jane (our good friend from Mercer who is in her pediatric residency here) freaking out. She calmly tells me what to do and that there is nothing to worry about (after rolling her eyes, I'm sure) which is why I am so thankful I can take advantage of her instead of making a fool of myself to Jay's pediatrician who knows I am a nurse and Wes is a doctor and would probably think we were both undeserving of our titles after the 5th ridiculous phone call.

Not to mention Dr. Daddy who, when I ask his opinion, either says, "germs are good for him" or "well, sometimes that can mean a brain tumor"....NOT something a mother wants to hear about her precious child! Then, I have a nervous breakdown and he says, "I'm sure its not a tumor, Shannon....it's probably just a headache" and I think, "well why in the crap did you not say that the first time!!!!" And of course, his growing collection of sutures, lidocaine, needles, staples, and other surgeon tools that are in a box in the closest for, as Wes says, "when the kids fall and bust their heads open, I can just sew them up here instead of going to the ER." Again, NOT what I want to hear! Of course, that would save some money, right?

But it really is different when it's YOUR baby. I used to think my patients' parents were crazy for calling me with the dumbest questions. I would just roll my eyes and think, "are you kidding?" Well, I completely understand now.

I guess I have babbled on about this for long enough. Bottom line is, between me and Wes, our kids will have to go to their grandparents for compassion. Our jobs have made us realize that cuts are fine unless you can see the bone, bruises are signs of healing, a fever is necessary to fight off infection, antibiotics are way overused, and no matter how much it hurts or how much you don't want to, medicine and treatments are going to happen, so get over it.