"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end..."

The week of vacation is sadly over... We had a fun week just being at home with the three of us, unpacking the last few boxes from moving, starting to put away Jacob's summer clothes and getting out the fall and winter ones, taking our family picture/Jacob's 6 month pictures and being a bridesmaid in my childhood best friend's wedding. Oh and one of the best parts, finding Jacob's first Halloween costume, he's going to be a puppy dog (it was either that or produce- pumpkin vs apple)! We also tried to make sure that all the grandparents got to see Jacob, so that meant lots of traveling.

The Jacob update: he is now a pro at crawling, transitioning to sitting, loves to sit on his haunches and bounce, is pulling up on everything in sight and now has TWO teeth! And much to mommy's horror, really likes crawling up the two stairs we have in the family room. You can tell he really wants to walk his brain is just working on coordinating all those muscles. He's also been expanding his vocabulary. His favorite phrase used to be "la la la" then on the Texas/OU game day he started saying "OOOOOO" (but pronounced like a long O) which is hilarious because now he does it when he sees us come home from work :) While we were in Abilene, he dabbled with "da da da" and "ba ba ba" he's quite the little talker, wonder where he got it from ;) I'm still waiting patiently for "ma ma"!

It was a busy week but I wish I had another one. Being off really makes me super lazy about starting back to work, I probably shouldn't be allowed to take time off. My next official vacation will be for Jacob's first birthday in March, so hopefully I can make it until then.

It's always so hard to go back to work after having so much time with Jacob but I really do appreciate our time together. I started NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) yesterday and boy was it a shock! Not only the hours (I was there at 5:15am, which still wasn't early enough and left at 5:15pm) but the patients are daunting, some of babies are only two or three pounds, some of them have severe problems.... it's just completely different from the rest of pediatric rotations I've been on. I'm still afraid of breaking them by moving them around but luckily the nurses are helpful and assure me that I won't :) This rotation also involves being on call every fourth or third night so needless to say, I probably won't be updating the old blog much for the next four weeks, but what's new?!

I hate starting a completely new rotation because it feels like the first day of internship all over again where I know nothing, there are all new terms and abbreviations I haven't heard before, and I'm so nervous that I'm sure I sound like a complete idiot while presenting! Luckily I had a very kind fellow and attending yesterday but yesterday was their last day, so tomorrow will be another first day... geez.

And of course, no vacation essay would be complete without photographs, so here they are!

Jacob and Daddy playing outside in Tyler.

Pretty sure Jacob is going to be the cutest puppy ever, this was only the dress rehearsal!

The amateur version of the family cowboy picture!

My two cowboys

And below: Jacob and Thomas, with Uncle John, in the matching Halloween sleepers Gram got them before they were born!