Ushering in Autumn

Well, we never mean to go as long as we do in between posts, but as you can imagine, life at the Blankenship household has been anything but standard in terms of schedules and free time, especially in the first few months of my residency. Well, here is an update on our family since our last post, as well as some pics.  I just finished working on the general surgery service, which means I had to wake up by 3:15 AM just to get to the hospital in time for the day, and of course days that I am on call are even worse since I routinely work 30+ hour shifts on those days, no matter what service I am on, with very few exceptions.  That makes for one tired Mommy and wife who just wants to love on her family and pretend she doesn't have a career.  My schedule will be somewhat better this month, and you better believe that if you see me outside of the hospital, I will be clinging to my baby with my husband close by.

We were able to go out onto the lake with my family a couple of times in August/Sept., so Karis was introduced to the boating/lake experience for the first time.  Although, Jared and I actually went out boating on the day I told him I was pregnant, so if you count that,  it was technically not her first experience-  we start them early in my family :)  It ended up being a bit chilly on our second trip to the lake, so we pretty much kept Karis wrapped up in a beach towel most of the time.  She did however love the way it felt for the breeze to blow through her "hair."  Jared and Kevin (our bro-in-law) got some tubing in, despite the cool water that day.







On October 2, Jared and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. Jared's sister, Jenna, watched Karis while Jared and I went out on a much needed date. We enjoyed dinner at Hennen's in downtown Chattanooga, and then strolled over to a outdoor bluegrass concert next to the river. We can't believe it's been 5 years unless we picture all of the things we've done and places we've been since we were married. From Clarksville to Philly to Chattanooga. And then there's that little spunky bundle of joy...

[caption id="attachment_260" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="5th Anniv. overlooking downtown Chatty"][/caption]

Karis will be 9 months old next week.  She started eating baby food a couple of months ago, and has established a few favorites.  For the past few weeks, her top few picks are bananas (understandable), green beans (which have very little flavor but taste like raw green beans), squash (as of this week), and one of her steady favs, sweet potatoes.  

Karis brings us a lot of joy and laughter every day. She has earned the nickname "turbo roller" since she immediately starts turbo rolling as soon as you lay her down anywhere, including her changing table. She will flash her 2-toothed smile at anyone who will pay attention to her, and loves to hear the range of her own voice. Here are some pics of everyday life with our baby over the last couple of months:

[caption id="attachment_268" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Giving her butterfly a piggyback ride. Still not sure how this happened..."][/caption]




[caption id="attachment_273" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Bath time at BB and Bop's house"][/caption]





[caption id="attachment_277" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Karis fell asleep sitting up in my lap"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_279" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Went for a jog with Mommy- this is where her blanket ended up"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_280" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Time with Daddy"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_281" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="K without a diaper post bath- Mommy living on the edge!"][/caption]

Hit the ground running

It is very fitting that Holly's sport of choice in high school was cross country because her life has paralleled that sport in many way.  Let me explain.  One reason why Holly like cross country is that course is more than just going in a circle around a track and that each course she ran on was different.  A cross country runner has to be ready to deal with inclines, declines, smooth ground, rocky ground, sink holes, trees and many people trying to fit on a path whose waist line grows or shrinks at the drop of the hat.  Needless to say, it's unpredictable and challenging to participate in and master.  As we close out Holly's first month as a resident I feel that Holly has finished her first cross country course (med school) and is now beginning her second course (residency).  Of course she started off with one of the most difficult rotations, in patient pediatrics, and it has been a trying a long month for the both of us.  Holly has been working 12-16 hour days and has had a few days of call (30 hours straight).  She usually leaves the house around 5:30 AM and gets home around 7 PM.  As you can imagine she is pretty exhausted when she gets home and treasures the few hours that she has with Karis and I.  Luckily we can see the light at the end of the tunnel with this rotation.  She actually has a day off this week (not too many of those so far) and we will be leaving spend the weekend with her family since she will be free on Saturday and Sunday.  Let's hope that our time with family, especially the few hours on the lake that we will have, will be refreshing and relaxing for the both of us.

As for Karis, she is developing well.  She loves to get on all fours and look around.  It won't be long until she starts to crawl.  She is talking more than ever and uses the full scope of her range while doing so.  She has also begun to notice her hands and will stare at them while open and closing her fingers.  Lastly, we are starting the process of introducing solid foods.  The first week that I started rice cereal with her, she would look at me like I was playing a prank on her.  Her facial expression was priceless.  She also would choke on the cereal and get really mad at the whole situation.  So we gave her a week off and I am proud to announce that she ate about 8 spoonfuls of cereal for me tonight.  She is growing up like crazy.  I'll try to post some pics from the lake next week.

The month of June

So we have been a bit tardy in doing a blog post.  We do offer our most sincere apologies to the few loyal readers that we have.  In our attempt to make up for it we'll do 2 posts to cover the month of June and so far in July.  Hopefully I won't forget anything!  If I do I'm sure Holly will offer the corrections.

The end of May was mostly a big emotional roller coaster.  We celebrated the end of medical school and the long awaited graduation for Holly.  It signified the end of a fun but very stressful four year period in our lives together.  Holly's family came in for the weekend to be a part of the many festivities.

The other part of our roller coaster of emotions was wrapped up in having to say goodbye to the many friends that we had made during our time in the Philly area.  Over the course of a weekend we had a graduation formal for Holly's school, a graduation party for Holly with some of our closet friends and my last evening with the best youth group in the world.  We shared many laughs, shed a few tears and got to pray one last time with dear friends.  We will (and are) miss many of the people that we shared life with the past four years.

The next week we officially moved into our new place in Chattanooga.  I must say, we have really taken a huge leap up from our drab apartment in King of Prussia.  Holly and I have said many times to each other that we almost feel like we're in a dream and that at some point we are going to wake up and find ourselves back in Kingswood.  We spent the next few weeks unpacking boxes and trying to get settled into our new place.  Though we are still not finished it is coming slowly but surely.  God has surely blessed us with a great place to live and we are enjoying it very much.

The month of June also contained a few trips to Murfreesboro for various events with Holly's family.  Our nephew Andrew turned 2 and so we attended his construction themed party.  The following weekend Holly's cousin Ashley had a birthday party for her son that turned 1.  This party was a pool theme as well as Mickey Mouse.  The next weekend was father's day which we celebrated with Holly's parents and her sister and brother in law.  The last weekend we had another graduation party with Holly's extended family and some of our friends that are in the middle TN area.  All in all we had a great time relaxing and trying not to think about the big change that would occur when Holly officially started residency in July.  Below are a few pics from our various parties.

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I will do a follow up post on Karis, who is now 6 months old, next so stay tuned.