The in-between time

We are almost finished with residency... but not yet. We feel like we should be done, but we still have 5 weeks to go. Senioritis has set in (the condition of inflammatory irritation near the completion of an academic program), but we will have to wait a few more weeks before we can celebrate the end. It seems like this time is dragging on, once we realized we were about to be 'done', it felt like time to be done. (Actually, we were ready to be done in January.) In any case, right now we are playing the waiting game, biding our time and patience with the program... don't get me wrong, I love my patients (most of them... especially some of the adorable kids that I have today), but it's the system... the huge, cumbersome, bureaucratic system, that really gets annoying.

Paul is taking a nap now, later we're going to watch a movie and just 'chill'. Today we both had a busy day of clinic, (Saturday clinic is known to be especially brutal). I have taken to running up and down the halls, walking is much too inefficient. Heck, I'd bike if I could. At one point in time today, while in the process of wrangling into obedience two children, I had one picked up under my arm while I fetched necessary glasses/activities so he couldn't get away and spin on the chairs or press buttons or distract other patients in the room (there were 2 others). The other girl who was under my failing jurisdiction was a sweet 9 year old girl who will say whatever you want to hear and then proceed to touch everything in sight. Having the two at the same time is a little nuts. Oh, and the little one I was holding under my arm, he is a tiny 6 year old, giggling the whole time... he thought it was a game of 'catch me'. Amazingly, he is smart but misbehaves... sometimes the smart kids are the most frustrating, they know how to outsmart you. But this little guy... he's so adorably cute that you instantly forgive him of everything. He's wearing +7.00 glasses (which magnify his eyes to be even bigger) and he has an intermittent eye turn that, I'm sorry, is just cute. We've trained it out of him for the most part, but sometimes it still happens, and little cross eyed kids with big-glasses-eyes are just so painfully precious.

Let me tell you about the other patients that I'd like to take back to Colorado with me:

• DC is a 6 year old (it's the cutest age, really) who has the biggest brown eyes I've ever seen, and he has curly black hair with a subtle, tasteful mohawk. He's so quiet and shy, it just gives him this little spike of attitude. Anyway, the poor kid, we're working on R and L and he is so lost... usually kids switch L for R, but sometimes he says UP instead of R. Really... but he's smart, he's just confused right now... we'll straighten him out.
• JM is a 6 year old (my favorite age) and she is just an absolute doll. She has one eye that sees perfectly, and the other is a -9.00 (incredibly nearsighted) so she hasn't been using it, which is why she's in vision therapy. So she is another one who is tiny for her age, which makes her all the cuter, and from the start she has always been shy but blurted out precocious things randomly. "Do you like being a doctor? Does it make you happy" "She has completely taken to me, and says she wants to be a doctor. She drew a picture of me in a dress going to a party. She hugs me randomly during the VT session and at the end of the session, and last time said, " I think you're really pretty". She's just about the cutest kid I've ever seen, and ridiculously smart. Can I take her with me to Colorado? Please? Oh, did I mention that she's missing her front tooth? Adorable!
  

My other kids are great too, but older, and you know they just get a little more like adults and a little less cutesy than the young ones. With my VT kids I really feel like they are mine, just a little bit, and I'm responsible for them and I really get to know them and get attached to them. I know it has made me a better future parent, at least for school age kids... teenagers and babies might still be 'interesting'. But between the ages of 4 and 13, I'm sure it's going to be a blast. They are so much fun... and what's great is that they are improving so much with vision therapy, some of them have told me their reading levels before and after therapy, and they are jumping levels like crazy, doing really well. It's pretty much the greatest job in the world. Now, if I could just get paid for doing it....

Almost time to wake Paul up from his nap. I know I've said it before, but I can't wait to get to Colorado... we dream about it and talk about it every day. I'm so excited for the crazy change that it's going to be, scary and great at the same time. I'm even looking forward to the drive back... and the time off I'll inevitably have once we get there. Biking, hiking, running, rock climbing... not to mention family time!!! Oh, how good it will be....