Building Roots, Growing Shoots: Comings and Goings of 2011

We have welcomed 2011 into our lives. It has been a difficult start to the year, but things seem to be smoothing out. During the first week of the new year, Mike and I were consumed with taking care of Samuel's first bout with the stomach flu (which lasted 5 days, with me being sick 2 of them). During that same week, Mike had a car accident in a snowstorm and the car was totalled (but we are grateful that he was not injured!). We've also identified a possible allergic reaction that Samuel has been experiencing and may have to pursue it further if it happens more often or the symptoms get worse.

But, things have been turning up since that first week. On Samuel's actual birthday, we had a mini celebration with our friends at church (and enjoyed more birthday cake!) and the following weekend, Samuel and Daddy had a guys' weekend while I relaxed at a quilting retreat :) We have started Samuel's first swimming class and he likes about 50% of the activities at it. We also have successfully weaned Samuel to cow's milk 100% of the time. We took Samuel to the doctor for his one year check up yesterday and the doctor thinks Samuel is a very healthy little boy. Samuel thinks the doctor does a lot of funny checks on him and giggles when the doctor looks in his ears :)

Here are a few snapshots of our past few weeks.