Christmas Pictures of Sam

Merry Christmas! Pictures this year were VASTLY different than Christmas pictures last year. The concept of sitting still is quite foreign to Sam. He wanted to be everywhere. A lot of the pictures are of him playing or sitting on the stairs because that is where he wanted to be. He wanted nothing to do with sitting on the couch. Opa found himself in some of the pictures too, although I don't think he planned to be. Sam liked playing in his lap and showing him his toys. I think the Monica, the photographer, did a great job of catching his personality in the pictures. The phrase "He's all boy" was meant for Samuel. He loves to play, run, laugh, and destroy! His nickname around our house is "Baby destructo" because if it can be broken and is in reach, it probably will be broken. He loves to throw everything. If we could only get him to throw straight on a consistant basis we could sign him up for baseball now! Although, the minute he heard any music he would get distracted and start to dance!

Sam's Surgery

Children are amazingly resilient! Other than being quite upset about not being able to eat breakfast before we left the house and HATING the hospital pajamas, Sam was wonderful for his surgery this morning. He wasn't happy about waking up after having his tubes put in, but once we were able to change him back into his own pj's he was better.
Once we got home you would never have known that he had anything done this morning. He ate 3 bowls of Rice Krispies, his new favorite, and preceeded to run around the house after the dogs and check out the Christmas tree. (We are still working on seeing with our eyes and not our hands!)
He's not so thrilled with the drops that we have to put in his ears 3 times a day because they tickle and he has to sit still for 3 - 5 minutes for each ear. In Samuel time that is an eternity! We have not ventured in to the world of ear plugs yet, but tomorrow is bath night, so we will see how much fun that is.

Friday was my last day working full time at Unadilla Valley Central Schools. The teacher I was filling in for is coming back from maternity leave on Monday. I have put my name on their sub list as well as a few other schools. I also have an interview at Cobleskill-Richmondville - a district about 45 minutes away - on Tuesday so we will see how that goes. I have heard of a few other possibilities that are a little closer to home but nothing concrete yet, so we'll see if anything pans out.

Please Pray for Sam

Sam has been having a difficult fall, health wise. Since September, he has had 4 ear infections and just recently was diagnosed with Croup. Last week, along with his pediatrician and an ear, nose, throat specialist, we decided that putting tubes in his ears would be the best thing for him.
Sam goes on Monday, December 10th for a pre-op appointment and is scheduled to have surgery to insert tubes in his ears on December 19th. I'm sure that he will be very glad to not have to take all the medicine that he has been on lately. He has done more spitting out of medicine, especially cough medicine, than he has taken. And that lovely red dye looks oh so pretty on his white t-shirts!
Even though he has been sick, his personality hasn't suffered. He is still a lively and busy 20 month old. He runs everywhere and dances anytime a hint of music can be heard. His ability to hear the beat in the music amazes me. He's not any prodigy, but he can keep time more often than not with the music.
He has started talking more too. His newest words are "eyes", "Nose" and "mine". We think the mine has come from the "big kids" at daycare. Sam likes to take toys from people regardless of whether they are playing with it or not - we're working on sharing...slowly.

Our Little Mimic

Sam has become quite the little mimic lately. He loves to copy what everyone does. Tonight at church was a prime example. He saw me bow at the altar, so he decided that he needed to bow too, although he had his head almost to the floor! He also had to kneel right next to Daddy when he was praying. We said the Lord's prayer and he was good and held hands the whole time, although he raised his hands at the end and said "yay!". I think that one is my fault though. We have taught him the grace "Rub a dub dub, thanks for the grub, yay God!" So he thinks that every prayer needs to end with "Yay!"
He loves to be the center of attention too. He was acting goofey and making some of our parishoners laugh. His response was to throw his head back and laugh. I know that this is normal behavior for a 20 month old, but it is so comical when he does it because he is soooo dramatic.

Sleeping Warrior

So...tonight we had our first real meal-time "battle." In all reality it probably ended up in a draw. But, as you can see our little "warrior" tuckered himself out a bit - literally cried himself to sleep in his highchair. It's times like these that make it impossible to stay frustrated at him for too long. That being said, our quiet little boy seems to be revving up for the so called "terrible twos" a bit early. On the other hand, the good times still far outweigh the not-so-good times. We truly are blessed. He keeps us laughing and on our toes almost nonstop.

All Hallow's Eve

This is Sam's first Halloween. Well...technically it's his second Halloween, but it's the first that he is really cognizant of. The pictures you see were taken throughout the evening. The first is of Sam at his first ever house trick-or-treating. She is the very nice lady who lives with her husband right across the street. The second is of Sam on daddy's knee getting his hair done.

You probably can't see it, but I gave him a little bit of a spiked hair-do. He looked really cute and everyone loved him. And, obviously, he was a football player. Thank you to his Grandma Hinrichs for buying his "Roethlisberger" jersey, even though we know it pained her to do it. God willing Sam will grow up to be a good "Stiller" fan instead of them crazy "horses." But enough about daddy's attempts at pestering his mother-in-law :) ...Sam was reallllly cute, and it was a fun time.

Lake Placid Summer 2007

We went to Lake Placid over the sumer with my parents and took a tour of the Olympic facilities. Sam loved the bobsleds and this one was made just for kids. He thought it was great fun to play in and kept saying that the metal was "hot".

A picture of our future musician. He constantly amazes me hoe musically inclined he is. He loves to sing to himself and to dance, all the time!

Jumping Bean

What a milestone! Sam is starting to figure out how to jump up and down and he is sooooo cute. He loves to try to jump off of things and it doesn't matter to him that the thing he is jumping off is only about 1 inch off the group!
He is also picking up on what we tell the dogs to do. The other day when he was with Aunt Stacy, she heard him yelling and when she looked, she saw him telling Emily that she was a "bad dog" because she was barking in the window. He waves his hands at them and shouts what sounds like " bd doddy"

This is a picture from NFL Draft Day 2007. Sam's favorite thing to do when he sees any sporting event on TV lately is to raise his hands above his head and yell "Touchdown" Of course it's not exactly crystal clear, but he's so cute! He doesn't care what sport it is, he loves it (now) when people clap.

Welcome to our blog! We decided that this would be the best way to share photos and family updates with everyone.
It has been an interesting fall so far and we are less than a month in. Sam and Scott have been sick for going on 3 weeks now. Scott has had a sinus infection that is just now, after 2 antibiotics, going away. Sam has had his first ear infection and it was a double one! He is now on his third round of antibiotics. But thank God that we have the means to be able to have medicine and that they are both getting better.
As for me, I am about 1/2 way through my long term substitute position at Unadilla Valley Central Schools as a Library Media Specialist. I have loved nearly every day. Open House and Book Fair were a little crazy! Check out the school I am at: Unadilla Valley