Easter Morning

Samuel knew exactly what to do with his Easter basket on Easter morning.  He tipped it over to see what was in it!

Then we got all dressed up and went to church.  Samuel was so busy that we didn't a really good picture of him dressed in his cute little polo, but I did get a couple of snaps of him playing later in the day.

After church, we enjoyed a nice lunch with my parents.  That afternoon, Dad and Mike started taking a chunk of the kitchen apart...but don't worry, it was only a "two Lowes trips" kind of project, and it looks great now!  It was a happy Easter!

Easter Egg Hunt

Two weeks ago was Easter and on Easter Saturday, we had special visitors come for an Easter Egg Hunt.  Cousins James and Kyla (and Uncle Dan and Aunt Andrea) came for a visit.  We actually had two Easter Egg Hunts, for obvious reasons...one for James, who is almost 11 and one for the little ones.  It was a bit cold outside, but we set up outside anyway.  James did a great job finding eggs in super secret locations, while the little ones had a bit more trouble gathering all the eggs scattered in plain sight.  I think the bigger issue was that they didn't "get it."  But, they picked up eggs when they were interested and eventually collected them all.  Kyla did most of the gathering, but she was nice enough to put them all in Samuel's basket.  Samuel was busy thinking about the meaning of all this bizarre behavior.

When all the toddlers' eggs had been found, we celebrated with a couple of runs down the slide...and we asked James to help Kyla to help tip him off on one of the last eggs in his hunt ;)

It was a very fun morning and so nice to see Dan's family!  Pretty soon, they will be a family of 5, so it was fun to have one last visit with their family of 4!

Where are you, Spring?

We went searching for Spring recently.  Samuel looked behind all the plants and all over the yard, but couldn't find it.

Come on, Spring!  We are anxious for you to come visit us!

Sick Little Pup

Samuel landed himself in the hospital a couple weeks ago with pneumonia and RSV.  We were lucky we caught it when we did, but he was a "very sick little boy."  At the hospital, he was poked and prodded more than any little boy should be.  He had gotten so dehydrated that they could not get a successful IV in any of the typical places, like hands, wrists, or feet.  They poked him 7 times before they finally got an IV started in his head.  In three hours, he had pulled the IV out.  Fortunately, the doctors approved oral medications, so they didn't have to poke him again!  He was hooked up to oxygen the whole stay and had a lovely red glowing light on his toe that monitored his blood oxygen levels.  He hated being hooked up and pulled everything out many, many times.  But, he was a little trooper and after three days, he was finally getting enough oxygen through his body on his own and got to go home!

Monday: Note the oxygen, IV in head, and glowing toe

Tuesday: Breathing treatment in progress

 Wednesday: Feeling better, but blood oxygen levels too low to go home.

Thursday: No longer using the oxygen tube (still attached, just in case)

Thursday: Finally going home!

Thursday: Finally at home, playing in his new toy, a reward for being such a trooper in the hospital.

This and That

I've fallen a bit behind in updates.  The past few weeks have been relatively uneventful.  We finally settled on a new car and bought ourselves a nice, shiny Subaru Outback, which we like very much!  Aside from that excitement, we've just been rolling along the past few weeks. 

Samuel continues to grow.  He hit a huge growth spurt last weekend.  Sunday morning, he could just barely reach the doorknobs.  When he woke up from his 3.5 hour nap Sunday afternoon, he was palming the doorknobs.  We are pretty sure he put on an inch in just a few hours.  He's also been busy cutting molars and has two nice, new molars poking through, with two close behind. 

Here are some recent snapshots.

 It's never too early to start learning about chemistry.

Recent favorite activity: Removing all books from bookshelf (because he's tall enough to reach them now!)

Solution to diaper rash from *you know where*?

Loosely fitted cotton trifolds and a LOT of Desitin Maximum

Playtime with Daddy - he's hilarious!

Samuel's growth spurt meant forward-facing car seat!

Little Man feeling like a big stud!

Our first jungle gym visit

So much fun...

 We ended up with one tired boy!

One, Two, THREE!!!

I love listening to Samuel babble.  His intonation is just like Mike's and mine.  But, I love love love his most recent "phrase."  "Unh, Doh, DEE!" in exactly the same tone you'd say "One, Two, THREE!"  He's also made the adaption to "Unh, Doh, DEE DEE!" as though saying "One, Two, THREE, FOUR!"  Makes me wonder which of his primary care givers counts to three a lot???  I'm thinking the daycare provider, but that's just a guess :)

Snow Day!

We got slammed with snow this past week.  A week ago Saturday, we got 6 inches and another 10-12 last Wednesday.  We had so much snow Wednesday, in fact, that Mommy got to stay home and play with Samuel all day!  Daddy and Samuel ventured out into the snow Saturday to play.  Mommy and Samuel ventured out into the snow Wednesday for a brief photo shoot, simply to document the height of the snow.  It was so deep, there was no way Samuel would be able to play in it!