May is a lucky girl; she had three birthday parties this year.

Our birthday party was the most wild of the three and had some of the kids from the nieghborhood. Jill had the party planned very well. It was a dog themed party. We began by opening the door and letting the wild children into the house. Then the wild children circulated within the living room and dining room to different 'dog care' stations, including the following: dog beauty salon, dog doctor, pup tent, and canine cafe. Then the kids had a craft activity in which they decorated their 'dog houses' (little cardboard boxes that Jill had gotten to contain little take-home-party-favor doggies). Almost immediately as the kids were starting to get rambunctious after the dog-house decorating, the pizza arrived. We ate and then, like clockwork, opened presents. Finally, we ate brownies and ice cream. It was terrific except that I had the worst laryngitis I've had since I was in college and also no one cried at the end (hardly a good kids party if no one cries at the end). I enjoyed the party, but some of the guests were creeped out by my scratchier-than-usual voice.

Then, on the actual day of May's birthday, she had two parties. The first party was at my sister's house where she received elaborate gifts of jewelry from my sister and camoflage army fatigues from my mom. When Sarah brought the cupcakes out of the back room with the candles lit, May screamed over and over again, "I can't believe it! I can't believe it!" May got a chocolate cupcake (her favorite) everyone else got carrot cake cupcakes (my favorite). Ben wasn't too happy with his carrot cake cupcake and kept pointing and screaming at his sister's cupcake. Ah well, each person's birthday comes but once a year.

That evening we went to my Aunt's apartment where we ate large amounts of excellent food from the extended thanksgiving feast (i.e. leftovers). I like to judge a thanksgiving holiday based upon the quality and quantity of leftovers and this year's holiday was very good. In fact, I ate a turkey sandwich for lunch today and may be fortunate enough to have one again tomorrow.

Finally, it came time for us to leave NY. As I was schlepping out bags down to the car, Benjamin came up to my knees and looked up at me. He asked, "Hep ooo?" Ben is very interested in helping grownups do things. He likes to sweep and take out the garbage. He is most interested in helping in real ways. He really wants to haul a bag of trash to the curb. His sweeping is not super helpful, though it is enthusiastic. He also really, really likes to help unload the dishwasher. He was quite disappointed that I wouldn't let him help me haul the bags to the car and went and cried and told on me to his mom.

I have a really bad cold. It struck Saturday after my exam. There's so much preparation that goes into an exam that I run myself ragged. I felt the cold coming on, and instead of resting a lot and fighting it off, I stayed up late studying for many nights in a row. Finally, my system succumbed to the virus. Yesterday I sounded even more like Krusty the Klown than usual and today my voice is totally gone.

Yesterday May went to a birthday party at Chucky Cheese. While Jill and May were at the party, Ben and I went to the airport to get my dad, who flew East for the holiday. When we picked up Jill and May at the Chucky Cheese, I asked may how she liked it. She said, "I LOVED it!" I asked her, "What did you love about Chucky Cheese?" and she replied, "It was really meaningful." Undaunted, I forged ahead. "What was meaningful about it, May?"

"The lights and everything."

Jill described it best when she said the robot rat was low tech in the seventies. Chucky Cheese, for those who have not experienced it or went there too long ago for the underwhelming experience to be present in active memory, is a robot rat that shakes its head a little while some music plays. Then a costumed rat-man comes out and dances with some of the staff. Also, there were rides and games that May was too small and poorly coordinated to play. She rode a few rides meant for kids that are much younger and tried to climb into the skeeball game. She traded her tickets (that Jill won for her at the Chucky Cheese games) for a tootsie roll.

My dad is here visiting and the kids are loving it. Ben got really wild with him last night after we got back from picking up Jill and May. He screeched and leaped down on top of him from the back of the couch. He smacked grandpa and cackled. Then he hit him across the face and knocked his glasses off and across the room. I quickly got grandpa's glasses and put them on top of the TV where no one would step on them.

Today, May had a birthday party, but I will write about that in a separate blog entry.

Last night, at 9:30, I went for a run. I ran down by the river. I wore two t-shirts and some sweat pants. It was a little chilly and my hands were cold. I listened to a lecture on 'opportunistic fungal infections' - pretty bad stuff. I had a great run. I ran faster than I ever have before, and on the way back I was running without thinking about it at all and feeling great. It was like I was floating above the ground or having an out-of-body experience.

I have an exam on Friday and am very tired.

Tonight I came up with a new name for my daughter, The Great Negotiator. She's watching a Winnie The Pooh singing video while I type.

El Destructo has been climbing a lot lately. He pushes a chair over to the kitchen counter and is threatening to climb on top of it.

In regards to feelings of guilt regarding the woman with seizure below....

My friend Ibert told me that on the north side of Philly, if someone has a seizure, that person is usually robbed. So, I don't feel as guilty for not helping. I didn't help, but I didn't take her wallet either.

I felt guilty for being a bad medical student today. As I was walking to an appointment about using the new train ticket system for my commuter train, I passed a woman and her boyfriend/husband on the corner. She was sitting on the ground and shaking all over. Her eyes were closed and foamy saliva was coming out of her mouth. Her bf/husband was on his phone calling 911. He asked me and a few other pedestrians what streets were intersecting here. A young woman told him, and then offered to cross the street and get help from the Jefferson emergency department. I assume that he took her up on the offer because when I finished my train ticket orientation, I returned to the same spot and the seizing woman and her husband were gone.

So, I feel guilty about this. A good medstudent and a compassionate person would have helped this patient across the street into the ED. I did think twice about the whole situation, but figured that the woman who crossed the street would get the couple all the help that they would need. When I turned around and thought twice about the whole situation, she had fallen on her back. I *did* after all have my relatively inconsequential class on how to get a new kind of train ticket. How many strangers need to interfere in this couple's health care? Anyway, I feel guilty, again...

I went to see my career advisor today and talked with him about doing a pathology honors project. He seemed excited about it and told me that it would go in my Dean's letter, as long as I remember to remind him that I had done a pathology honors project.

Right before I went in to see my advisor from the dean's office, J called me and told me that B leapt/fell off his chair and landed on his face. She told me that he was really groggy and lethargic. Right away, we were both worried about the possibility of a concussion. Jill and I played phone tag until I went in to meet my advisor.

Despite the fact that I knew Jill was racing to the ER with both of our screaming brats in hand, I was able, with a straight face, to tell my adivsor that everything was going well at home. I guess compared to our troubles last fall, a few trips to the ER are no big deal.

Again, I feel guilty....

Ben has been really interested in books lately. I've been putting him to bed more often and I always make him read three board books before he goes to bed. I think mostly he is just interested in carrying the books around to get attention, so that we say, 'look! Ben has a book!' When we try to read the books he's carrying around he usually tries to run away or throw the book. He only lets us read the book when he's in his jammies and is too tired to run away.

Ben was doing some climbing on a bookshelf a few days ago. He fell and got a cut on his eye. It looks like he was in a fight with Apollo Creed.

I had a rough morning with May today. She dragged our comforter into her bedroom (no problem yet) and hit her brother (or did something else to make him cry) when Ben wanted to play with the comforter too. The situation deteriorated quickly. May came downstairs with me to try to get something to eat but spent the whole time crying and yelling at me instead of eating. Finally, I am ashamed to say it, I put her outside with no shoes or coat on. She cried in the backyard for forty-five to sixty seconds while I regretted doing this and knew that I was being a ridiculously bad parent.

After letting her back in, I told her that she had to eat her cranberry bread. She didn't want to eat it, but I told her she was going to eat it or go back into the backyard. She ate the cranberry bread, which Jill and I made last night and is absolutely delicious by the by. Finally, May ate some of my breakfast and after she settled down and ate was much more easy to deal with.

I will regret my ridiculously bad behavior for the rest of my life. Jill, if you read this, I'm sorry and I'm trying to be a better dad.

On a better note...

Last weekend we went to a great Thai/Malay restaurant with my friends from School, Alithea and Curtis. Both of them are super cool and are the kind of people I always want to be when I grow up. They're worldly, educated, well traveled, interested in art, etc., etc. They're about ten years younger than my wife and I, so we didn't talk about our kids at all while we were out with them. Taking a break from thinking, talking, and worrying about the kids was refreshing and allowed us to briefly consider ourselves as a couple and as individuals. After dinner we went to the gourmet gelatto dessert house, Capogiro, that Jill and I went to last year for our anniversary. The gelatto there is expensive, but unforgettable.

Going out to eat with Alithea and Curtis was the best couples activity we've done in months. It made us feel younger, smarter, and hip (but not in an uber-hipster way).

I had a nice day today. I attended lecture and felt like I knew what was going on, which happens to me occaisionally, and I had a few nice conversations. I had a nice conversation with Perry, the new guy who lives down the street. His wife works in Princeton and he takes care of his daughters (3 and 1 y.o.) all weekend while his wife drives their car to princeton. He's a nice guy, has traveled widely, and seems to have similar values. We talked about running and exercise and local bike paths.

Also, on the train was a strange east-coast-type lady. She was at least middle age, very thin, and wore a black above-the-knee skirt and a black suit-coat. She had black Keaunu-Reeves-in-the-Matrix style wrap around sunglasses. She had some sort of heavy metal/disco music blasting out of her Ipod. The Ipod was so loud that it almost disturbed my conversation with Perry. I kept thinking, "Why is this middle aged woman dressed so strangely and rocking out to her strange music at 8:30 in the morning? Why is she wearing sunglasses on the subway?"

Later in the day, I had a cup of coffee with my friend Kelley. He used to be a fireman before coming to medical school, and for some reason, he has some rental property in Honduras. Last year, Kelley asked for my advice on some thorny relationship issues, which I gave to the best of my ability. Again, we talked about his relationship issues. My advice for this year, "Troll the internet for women."

Tonight I went to a convenience store chain that is local to the Philly area, WaWa, and got Jill and myself 'Italian Hoagies' for dinner. These are submarine sandwiches with Italian style lunch meats. I added LTO, oregano, vinegar, and oil to our subs. WaWa has a computer ordering system, so you never need to talk to the person making the sandwich. You only need to punch in your order and run your card through the machine.

Both kids came with me to Wawa and were very well behaved. Jill made them chicken nuggets, fresh from the freezer, for dinner.