one down, one to go

Dexter is now finished with his interview and clinical exam in NJ and is relaxing in MA at my parents' house {lucky guy}.  From the sounds of things, they went well.  Of course, he thinks the clinical was tough, but that's what it was supposed to be. The first day was the interview/tour/information day of the two days. His interviewer was a woman from Marblehead, MA, about 30 minutes from my hometown! That was a nice connection for him to make.  We should know, I think, by the end of the month the results of his time there.

Chances are good that, even if accepted at UMDNJ, we will still go to Buffalo in November for the interview there {and so we can be home for Thanksgiving}.  Might as well keep the options open, I guess. The problem with Buffalo is that it is $175,000 for the first year.  We'll be accepting donations of kidneys, partial livers, cash, etc, if we do end up deciding to go there! Geesh, we can't quite figure out why it is so expensive.

I should explain that Dexter is applying to the Internationally Trained Dentist program at all of these schools. This means that he enters dental school in the third year, not the first, so it is an accelerated program.  Going to dental school in the US is a requirement if he wants to be licensed to practice in the US at any point, and it will make getting into an orthodontic program (preferably a paid residency) sometime down the line easier {we think}. 

Things on the home front are generally good. I was hoping to get Kyalo back into a bit of a routine while Dexter was gone but that is not working.  I have not successfully figured out a way to get him to sleep without either nursing or letting him fall asleep in my arms.  We used to be able to do that, but then went to the US and somehow lost it all.  I don't like letting him scream because he doesn't just scream, he screeches and hollers and flails around.  The Ferber method (from what I hear) says to go in and pat the baby on the back to calm him down. This does NOT work for Kyalo.  He is crying now as I write this, as I'm trying to see what happens in five or ten minutes.  But he does not calm down or relax, he has spit the pacifier out, and when I go in he won't be any happier to see me.  Perhaps I've just put myself in a bad situation, and I need to be stronger than I seem to be about it.  But it is just SO HARD to listen to him cry. . . If someone would like to come and Ferberize him, or do something else to get him to sleep, you are most welcome. You do that, I'll take a nap.

Otherwise, things are good.  I don't like being alone, but we had to do it.  I look forward to having Dexter home on Saturday.  We'll have lots of decisions to work through in the coming days!!  More adventures ahead of us, I think.