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.