Ode to Louie

My poor husband usually gets left out of the blog.  It's not intentional, but the truth is, in case you didn't already know this... my camera goes straight to Kinsley.  I remember reading other people's blogs before Kinsley was born and thinking to myself "I'm going to make sure and do more than just take pictures of my child. I want to have a well-balanced blog." Turns out, when you become a mom, you become slightly obsessed with your child and think everything she does is the cutest thing ever and MUST be documented.  That being said, Louie usually gets the short end of the stick.  Sorry Hubby.

So... this is what is going on with my husband. :) Louie just started his FOURTH YEAR! Yipee! We have 24 months to go (we started with 60). Woo woo!! I am really very proud of all his hard work. It definitely hasn't been easy and I'm not going to pretend that this process has been all hunky dory but in my biased opinion, Louie is going to be an amazing doctor and surgeon. (Yes, I know he's technically already a doctor, but you know what I mean.) He really and truly cares about his patients and they always come first.  He's a little OCD about his duties and responsibilities as the resident on whatever rotation he's on, but he's received nothing but stellar evaluations, so I guess that has paid off. 

Recently, at the end of the year ortho banquet, Louie received an award.  It's sort-of a tongue-and-cheek award, but to me (and Louie too, I think) it was a big deal.  It's called the "Dan Funk Me Award."  It's basically an award given to the resident who has had the most difficult or crappy rotations over the past year.  Yay us!  Dr. Funk is a former Mayo ortho resident and he supplies a plaque and a monetary gift for the award.  There are 3 stipulations for the money: 1)It must be used for something fun. 2) It must be spent with someone you care about. 3) It cannot be spent in Rochester.  All three are pluses for me. :) I know the award is kind-of silly but I really appreciate it because it served as a nice recognition for all of his hard work over the past year and the sacrifices we've made as a family. Hopefully he will NOT get this award next year. :)

Louie and I at the ortho banquet. He was actually on call that day but one of the other residents covered the pager so he could come over to the banquet so he could "roast" one of the graduating residents. Thanks Nick!

Louie receiving his award.

Louie's award - and yes, that is a horse's backside. :)

Daddy Duties: In all his free time, Louie had to baby proof the house since our little one became very mobile.  Baby proofing was a bit of an adventure.  Our banisters do not meet code and there are about 5 inches between each of the railings. This meant we needed to find something to put across the railings.  We decided on plexi glass rather than a netting. We also needed to install gates for the stairs.  The one on our second floor was not a problem BUT the one that needed to be installed at the bottom of our stairs in the basement was a tad bit more challenging. Turns out the walls in basements are made of concrete. Hmmm... not the easiest to drill into. We currently have 4 nice holes in our wall downstairs but still no gate. Oops.  Louie's quote of the day: "I have never used more of my ortho training on any home project." (Followed by a few expletives.)

Oh well, the important stuff is done.  Kinsley has the largest playpen imaginable.  I just close all the upstairs doors, have moved the coffee table to the side of the room, and she crawls all over the place.  Thanks Daddy. =)

So beautiful, but at least it's safe. :)

The dogs are a little confused by the baby gate.  Trout tries to stay as close to you as possible as you are going up the stairs so he doesn't get locked out. 

Father's Day: On Father's Day we had breakfast together (Louie cooked it - he said he wanted to), and went to a Rochester Honkers Baseball game.  I didn't take any pictures but should have saved Kinsley's Baseball video for this post. I'll re-post it for fun. All in all, it was a good day. 

I'll try and include Louie in a few more of our blog posts.  Love you Louie. :)