Match Day was successful

I already sent a mass email to everybody about where I matched, and I am generally careful about posting very specific information about my family and me on our blog series. However, for the sake of completeness, I will talk a little bit about Match Day (March 16.)

The night before the match, I was reading over those silly student doctor forums online where everyone who posts has a rank list that reads something like this: 1) Massachusetts General, 2) Washington University, 3) Johns Hopkins. My rank list did not look like that. Somebody had illegally posted the list of programs that had unfilled positions. Technically, this list should only have been available to NRMP participants that did not match successfully. But anyway, the list was there, and I saw it, and it said that for U. Pitt Internal Medicine Primary Care, which was my #2 choice, it had matched 0 out of 4 positions. Which meant two things:

1.) I matched to my #1 choice, or
2.) I did not match to my #1, and U Pitt hated me so much after the interview that they would rather scramble than have me be part of their program.

I didn't think #2 was the case. I didn't remember royally screwing up that day. So I was pretty excited about the whole night and couldn't sleep until 2 am. The next day we had a nice Match Day ceremony at my school, where everybody gets an envelope with the paper in it that said where they matched, and we all open it at the same time. And sure enough, I found out that things worked out really nicely.

So we don't have to move, we don't have to switch daycares, we don't have to change very much of anything. This is a bigger deal than we let ourselves believe before opening that envelope. We were mentally preparing to pack up our house and move. This past weekend, it really hit that everything worked out, and to celebrate we bought a huge Costco fruit tart (which my mom ate at least half of) and a box of cream puffs.

Pre-match Day

Today is the day that we find out if we matched. No long explanation here; if you are reading my blog then you should already know what is going on.

So yes, I did match. On Thursday I find out where.

Ruby can get past blockades

Dad was cooking and he didn't want Ruby to come in the kitchen, so he put a laundry basket in the doorway. When he turned around, he found this:

Ruby can pull herself up to standing on the couch. She is not cruising yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if she does that sometime soon. We have two gates, one at the top of the stairs and one at the bottom. For everything else, we put things in the way, knowing full well that she will eventually figure out a way past them or over them. It slows her down and gives us a chance to spot her and reset her over at the other end of the room.

She really terrorizes her brother, and I know I've mentioned this before, but I have to talk about it again because it is so hilarious. He is playing with a ball, and Ruby comes up from behind him and reaches for the ball. He cries, "No Ruby don't get the ball!" and he runs to the other side of the living room. Ruby sees him run off and thinks it's a fun game, so she smiles and starts crawling towards him. She is still about ten feet away, and Theo is already hollering, "No Ruby! Don't come to get this!" And he's running all around the room yelling for Ruby to stop and she's crawling slowly towards him with a big goofy grin.

Kids enjoy each other's company

So one day we (Mom, Ruby, and Theo) went to the mall and to Trader Joe's with our friend Sheena and her daughter Thevy. Sheena and I were both a little bit nervous about the excursion because neither of us have had too many experiences where we go out without somebody having a stressful moment. Like when I go to the store and Theo starts fussing while I'm waiting in line, and I can't very well leave the shopping cart with Ruby in it just to go chase him down. Anyway, it was for me a very nice outing, and I think it had a lot to do with there being more children. Ruby and Thevy played together so nicely. They kept each other company in the backseat. The second picture is blurry, but it shows how pleasant they all were back there. Then, on the way home, all the kids fell asleep--a peaceful way to end a peaceful evening.