Sunday Sweets

Ask Sam "where's your tongue" and this is what you get =)

Its the great pumpkin!

Mark and I took Sam to Winding Brook Farms today so he could get a pumpkin right from the patch! It was a beautiful day!

Sam and his first pumpkin!

Sam's new smile

Ask Sam to smile these days and this is what you get:

It makes me think of that quote "smiling with your eyes" =)

More! More!

Stephanie from Goddard just called – of course I think, great he has a fever! Nope! =)
She wanted to share a cute story!
This morning after breakfast they were all playing and this little girl Lila came over and gave Sam a hug. He hugged her back and then she walked away. Well he “signs” for more – so she walks back over and hugs him again – apparently every time she left he would sign for more and Lila says “Sammy sure likes hugs” - she said this went on for like 5 mins!!! LOL!!!


He is a good hugger! And he does like the ladies…… hahaha

Calves to the Lambs….. My baby is growing!

After a 2 week transition Sam is officially in the Loveable Lambs room! The Lamb room is the pre-toddler room for 12-18 months – they do more activities in this room and are put on a schedule – Sam has been doing great and is actually napping way better in this room than in the infant room. Last week was hit or miss at drop off – one day he cried and one day he waved bye to me.

This morning he was already crying as soon as I sat him at the table for breakfast – after holding him on my lap for a few minutes he sat back down by himself and ate some of his breakfast

He was good until I got up to leave =(

Miss Linda picked him up and before I was out the door he had stopped crying – whew!

When your in a bind and NEED a toy!!!!

So, you're at your friends house - she doesn't have kids, so there are no toys around. Your child is antsy and you need to find something for him to play with.... what can you give him? Go to bathroom and grab these....

yes thats right... a box of tampons!

lol

keeps 'em busy for hours!

So, the story here is that Sam was being super clingy - I have a ton of his toys just outside the bathroom in the office area where he usually plays while I am in the bathroom but today he wanted to be with me - the exersaucer, which use to sit in the bathroom has been packed away, so there was nothing.... sam spotted the box of tampons and I thought - oh yes! These will work perfectly! and they did! Even funnier is that he carried 2 of them downstairs with him - when I put on his coat he transferred them hand to hand - got him in the car seat, still in his hand, got to daycare and I had to PRY them out of his hand..... even I wouldnt let him walk into daycare carrying tampons - LOL! So, laugh if you may, but when you find yourself in a bind...... you can thank me later ;-)

Happy Birthday to Me!

Just HAD to share the birthday card from my darling son..... lmao!!!!!

Ohhh.... just my size!

Sam discovered Pipers bed the other day and he decided he liked it quite a bit! LOL

Got it!

Its so hard to capture a good pic of Sam these days - our camera is on the fritz and takes forever to take the pic so I always lose the great ones.... Sam was sitting in the jumper with his new toy guitar and he looked at me and I snapped this - love it when I get that great shot =)

Sam's First Hair Cut!

Sammy got his first hair cut!! We went to Sharkey's Cuts for Kids - very cool place! Sam got to ait in a race car and watch TV while they cut his hair =)

Oohh.... a race car!

What are you doing with that thing??

Oh look! Bert and Ernie are on TV!

Hair is wet.... time to cut!

You're in my way.... I"m trying to watch TV! geesh!

one, two, three, four.... four hands to cut my hair...

all done!

Wow - how handsome!

This is what I think of my new hair cut... ssppllttttt

Big Sisters

Growing up my sister and I weren’t very close – there is a 5 year age difference and we were just different people. I was always that bratty little sister that got her in trouble – lol. I was always envious of my best friend and her sister – they have always had such a great friendship between them… one that I wanted to have with my sister as well. Life just doesn’t always work out the way we expect it to though.

Fast forward to today. Who would have thought we would be pregnant at the same time and have kids 5 weeks apart??? This was her 4th child and my 1st. We started talking a lot during my pregnancy because I had a zillion questions – I was exposed to chicken pox, fifths disease, had bad triple screen results, was scared of the diabetes test, etc, and she was there to offer advice. Once Sam arrived she was by my side again, helping me with breastfeeding – giving advice and offering things that worked for her in the past. My sister even called me a few times asking for advice. I love getting together with her now and watching our kids play – hoping they will be great friends as they grow up =)

I hate the phone and will avoid it if at all possible – lol – but I never hesitate to text or call about smaller issues. I was emailing her the other day about how Sam is sick and went from sleeping thru the night to getting up 3-4 times and how exhausted I am. She told me that it sounds like an ear infection – so, I took my big sisters advice and Mark took Sam to the drs today… guess what? He has an ear infection! Ugh =( I don’t think I would have taken him to the doctor on my own – I assumed it was just a fever he had to work thru on his own – so, thanks Michelle!

So, it took years to get a little closer to my sister but it was worth the wait! I know that I can call her anytime and she will be there with advice for me =)

Now, if only I can convince her to have another baby the same time as me….. hahahah

St Christopher’s Hospital for Children

If you have never been to a Children’s Hospital before they are pretty cool! Nice big fish tanks and colorful walls with lots of fun murals and paintings – very nice! I took Sam yesterday to see a Pediatric Allergist to find out if he is allergic to milk. They did the scratch test first and Sam didn’t even flinch – even the nurse was surprised! They did 4 marks – top one was an antihistamine and was suppose to get big and red – the next was a control, salt water. Then we did dairy and soy. We waited 15 minutes to see what happened. Well, nothing happened – which is good! So, he tested negative for both dairy and soy. The next step was to do a blood test to check his exact levels – this didn’t go so well. Sam has nice chubby arms and trying to find a vein wasn’t easy – she finally found one and Sam was on my lap and oh boy! He was screaming! Luckily she only needed 3ml – if she had needed more she would have had to stick him again in another vein since this one wasn’t giving her much. When that was done I took Sam to the gift shop to let him get a treat for being such a good sport! Sam picked out a nice shiny Mylar balloon and held on tight – he loves balloons! He even held it while he ate dinner – LOL
So, the results were this: He is not allergic to dairy - if he ingests dairy it will not be a life threatening situation but she wants us to keep him dairy free until he turns 2 (since he had a visible reaction to dairy previously). At that time they will retest and if he is still negative then we will food challenge him in the hospital (give him yogurt and wait for a reaction, give him cheese and wait for a reaction, etc). And if that all goes smooth then we can start dairy at 2. It will be a long year but totally worth it if it prevents him from avoiding dairy for the rest of his life =)

Touchdowns and First Steps!

Today we headed over to a neighbor’s house to watch Penn State play Illinois. Sam was all decked out in his PSU gear and was happy to be munching on Philly soft pretzels =) Big brother Zac stopped by for a bit and was playing with Sam and he held him up in front of me and I put out my arms and he took TWO steps!!!! OMG! Yay Sammy! Then he proceeded to crawl, his preferred method for getting around these days. During the game Mark taught Sam to raise his arms above his head (visualize “So Big”) when he says “Touchdown”! So, now when you say Touchdown (in the car, in the bath, in the playroom) the arms go up – hahah very cute!

Welcome to Walgreens!

Zac got his first job! woo-hoo! Way to go! He started 2 weeks ago and gets his fisrt ever paycheck today - how exciting! I remember my first job - shampoo girl at the Hair Gallery - I walked to work (as does Zac) and made like $4 an hour - hahahahahah.

The best part is that I get a Walgreens discount since I am related to Zac (his words not mine- lol).

Yes! I love Walgreens!!!!