Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Sweet Sixteen

March Madness is at it's Peak.
Today, the boys and I ran down to Butler to pick up few new shirts. I went to the first cute shirts I saw, and I had Sweet 16 shirts in my hands, but then was like, Wait, NO, I want....

Final Four shirts!!!

And so we did.



Unfortunately, their youth shirt selection was CRUMMY. But I picked up two T-shirts, but the sizes are 2T and 3T. So Sam's will Swim on him. Not that either boy will care. We took a walk around for a bit. It was a gorgeous Spring Day, and you can't help but be outside. Apparently mosts of the kids on campus thought so too!



Go BU!!!



They decorated campus with lovely blue ribbons around the trees.



Decorating the Trees--Cool. Decorating the giant emergency "tampons", I don't know about that....



As we were driving to Butler, I told Chris we were going to see THE BULLDOG.
I meant this one.



He asked me if after we the game was done if he could go down and play ball on the floor. Of course, he meant to toss a ball around on the basketball court at Hinkle Fieldhouse. I told him that we were going to see The Bulldog and buy some shirts. Some Bulldogs shirts. He said, Bulldogs wear blue shirts, and blue shoes. I was like yes, Yes they do. Ahhh, he thought we meant the Bulldog mascot that dresses for Games!

I was proven entirely correct also, when we got to the Butler Bulldog statue out front of Atherton Hall.



My Boys and the Bulldog.



Mommy and her Bulldogs.



Some a bit more bulldog-esque than others. Chris on the other hand, didn't mind crawling around, and getting familiar with the campus. Though these pansies weren't quite Blue and White, they were about as close to Blue as we can get this time of yeaar. And Chris was happy, he's always liked happy flowers just like Mama.



And he was tempted to climb this tree, but still a little high for him....maybe next year.



Chris enjoys Campus.



Sam had eyes for all the gals on sorority row out front of Schwitzer Hall, where Mommy used to live.



Hard to read, but the sign on 46th Street now reads "Butler Way". So Cool.



Where the Action Is..."Historic Hinkle Fieldhouse"!



On the way home....Even the folks at the Colts Complex can't deny Butler's Awesomeness, the giant Football guy was out today. Check out the new sign on his shirt.



***NEWS UPDATE***
At time of posting, April 1st, Eric and I found out a friend of us was able to get us some tickets to Saturday night's Final Four Game! WOOHOO!!!

We're going to a Butler Home Game NOT at HINKLE.

Good Day for a Walk

90/365

What a GORGEOUS Day!!!

It's one of those days to just Love Spring. Made all the more better when friends come over to play. The Boys' friends, Brett and Parker came over to play.



And although the younger crowd (meaning all the kids but Chris) were shy, Everyone had a great time on our walk. There was Shyness, most likely because we don't get to play often enough except when we're on Spring Break! Sam got a little rise out of Parker, but instead of being friendly as we first thought, he was pulling her hair. He loved her beautiful soft red hair. I'm just proud of her, she didn't haul off and deck him; she could have. Totally understandable.



We took full advantage of the lovely day to go for walk...up to Sweet Home Chicago.
Chris and Parker HAD to sit next to each other, not that they were playing together, just being sweet.



Sam was still a bit too young for his first Chicago Style Hot Dog, but that didn't stop him from eating the crap out of the yummy extra poppy seed hot dog bun we got for him.



It was a Great Day for a Walk. For Friends. For a Good Lunch. We're really having a great time on our Spring Break this week!

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Live Free or Dye

89/365

Big Doin's Today.

Chris was invited to a birthday party for a school friend this afternoon. The boys were INSANE! There was a gammit of boys ages 2 and up, and they took over a gymnasium, with lots of toys to play with. Chris is in the Green, assaulting a boy who was wearing one of those tunnels you normally crawl through. Amazing how wild a boy can be when armed with a golf club.



Or a Red Car. I guess being the smallest boy around has it's perks. I didn't yell at Chris to get off the top of the car, I probably should have. Terrible Mommy I know. But they weren't able to get going very fast with 2 kids on the car.



I had to worry more about Sam, because this little maniac wanted to chase bouncy balls all over the gym, and chase them, and bounce them himself. He was a maniac, and with him, he didn't care that 8 year olds were bouncing giant balls in his vacinity. He had no fear.



I didn't mind letting Sam get a little crazy today, because this was really a Good Day for Chris.

Chris got to start of the day by dying eggs with friends. I had the setup ready for an hour before people arrived, and it was the longest hour of his life. He couldn't wait to Dye Eggs for Easter!!!



Poor Sam on the other hand was not up for egg dying, he spent a significant chunk of time in his high chair...observing. Not very cheerfully, I might add.



Chris has grown into Quite the Big Boy this year, he was even able to pull the eggs out of the Dip himself. Sniff. He only cracked a couple.


I let Sam hold one. Oh, the Joy. And then he slammed it down on his high chair tray. Maybe next year little boy.



It got pretty crazy once our friends arrived to dye eggs. We had a couple different things going, we had 2 "sets" of egg dip. One came with sport wraps and stickers, and the other with sparkly glitter paint. The girls went for the glitter. Mommys loved the sport wraps!



But I also borrowed a method from my friend Carla, who borrowed it from Martha Steward, Silk Dyed Eggs. As Chris would say, Step 1. Pick a tie!



We picked a silk tie, cut a swatch, wrapped the egg, rewrapped in white cotton, and boiled it in vinegar water for 20 minutes. Unwrap, and poof you have a nifty patterned egg.



I have so much fun doing eggs, but this year Chris really joined me. He reported to Daddy as soon as we got home, how he made eggs with Friends. And how he had a great time. I'm not exactly the hostess with the mostest, but I had a pretty good time making my boy happy about Easter Eggs.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Can't Keep a Sweetboy Down

88/365

I could go into great detail about how crummy today started out. But to sum up, first Eric and I learned we wouldn't be going to the Butler game, and that made me sad. Then I took Sam to the doctor for his 1 year, and help hold him down while he had to get 2 shots, and then the doctor wanted bloodwork too. After naps we got blood taken. That made me sadder. To sum up, he's Tiny, and they don't like it. I'll elaborate another time.



My poor baby, the pincushion.

What boggles the mind is, that I intended to take a picture of him with all his bandaids, looking all pitiful, Only Sam doesn't DO pitiful and sad. He wouldn't hold still. He wanted to play. I tried grabbing a foot to get a picture of the leg bandaids...he giggled, and tried to roll over. He was trying to play with me, with the camera, and roll over off the changing table. I don't remember Chris doing that. It could be worse, whatever it is that is causing Sam to not gain weight, well, at least he's not Failing To Thrive. I don't think they're going to be saddling this talkative wiggly little minx with that label.
This boy...we can't keep him down.

I was bummed at first we wouldn't be at the Game...but Perspective Man, as my sister would say, and as Eric said, "Well, we'll either go to the game, or we won't." His cool head, made me cool. (That's #147 why I love him so, he's cool when I'm a basket case.) And in fact, that calmness carried over...for a while. Long enough for us to be distracted by friends, and this evening I took the boys on a walk around the block in the crisp spring air. Refreshing. I'll be just fine if I get to spend the evenings with my family, or our friends. In fact, I'm Pretty Spanking Happy to not be trying to catch the Game from some Hospital.

Reminds me, speaking of Miracle Babies, it might be time for another shameless plug. Perpective Man.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

The Beginning

86/365

You know how I have been Gifted with the ability to be a good supply of a nursing Mom. And although it's been mighty inconvenient that neither one of my boys would take from a bottle, I didn't worry too much, because I could provide before and after play and there's plenty of water in baby food. Lately I've been wondering if Sam is small, and not sleeping at night because he's not getting enough from me. And he's been eating a lot of bread lately, Goodness knows the boy can pack it away sometimes, so I wondered if he was getting enough. I've been thinking of starting him on whole milk, but wanted to do birthday cake first.

However, Today, we hit a milestone.

Sam drank water from a Straw Cup!



It's the same kind of cup Chris uses for his Cocoa, so we'll see if that works over the next couple days. Sam Melted Down in a big way when we tried to take it away. For both of my boys, a Big Treat is a meal of Bread and Water!

Tomorrow, Juice for Sam! Next stop Whole Milk!

Though I still want to keep nursing for a while, I'd love to just limit it to night times. But I think in honor of this, I'm going to go out and throw away my nursing bras, I've been sampling the regulars lately, but I think I can start to cut down on my daytime nursing, if he's going to be drinking from straw cups!

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Where the Party's At

86/365



I have had the Newsboys song stuck in my head today. It just feels like we've been Celebrating all week long, and certainly we did significant Celebration of Sam's birthday yesterday. I don't usually cotton to having multiple parties in 1 day, not since it became clear once we had kids that doesn't work. We didn't have a choice, Butler got into the Elite 8 and we had scheduled Sam's Birthday Party. So Bam, 2 parties.
Although, really, we could've had it on his birthday, I thought it would be more convenient to have it on the weekend, but a significant chunk of people ended up unable to come, some with Good Reasons, some without. The only con I see now is a surplus of cake...and that may not necesarily be a con... Those that were able to make it, well, we had a good time. I was surprised the Preschoolers ended up playing in Chris's room, leaving the grownups to watch Sam be sweet. And to talk to Each Other. (Gasp!)

So, Today was Sam's First Birthday Party.

And I know, all you want to see cake pictures, so here you go...
There are more, but Tomorrow, I'll do more on Sam's Site.

To start, Sam loves Balloons, so we did cupcakes of varying colors to look like balloons. So Sam's First Birthday Cupcake was a 'blue balloon' cupcake with a #1 on it. Daddy helped blow out the candle.



After he played in the icing a bit, he got busy, then ate the entire blue cupcake. He made a Fine Mess, we were very proud.
But then he started to Squawk. And he signed More.



You don't think this Carb Loving Baby wanted another cupcake? Oh yes he did. And he ate the icing off that one too. This was his final shot, where all you can see are teeth and nostrils on this giant clown face.




Awesome.

So the boy did as a boy should do, he covered himself in icing, and was very angry we took him out of the tub. He was more interested in playing with toys he already had than unwrapping new ones. But once they were open, he wanted to play and play.

And once again Sam proved to be our Lucky Charm today, because Butler won their game again tonight! WOOHOO!

Twas a Good Day!

Friday, March 26, 2010

1 Year Later

85/365

I'm really suprised at how fondly I look back upon having needles stuck in my back, and my abdomen slashed open. God really Blessed the C-section that brought my Sam into the world. And it really has been a very Happy First Birthday for Sam!
Now I get to spend the evening reflecting about how fun our day has been, how blissfully normal, and how his personality shines through.

First, we started off the day, with our family tradition of opening one present, the present from the Birthday Pig.



Sam wasn't too interested in paper or present, he spotted a bathtub flute on the floor after opening his singing bear and couldn't be steered away. He's a bit stubborn. Once big brother was sent off to school, he reverted to traditional Sam behavior...playing while Mommy is in the shower. Today a plunger joined me, and Sam's hair got soaked as he pulled the curtain away, and while I was getting ready, he DOVE into the dog's water bowl, leading to a change of clothes, which made him much madder than just being wet. He doesn't like when we take his toys, like toilet plungers, remote controls, or dog food dishes, away. And he can get pretty vocal about it. He doesn't mind being cold and wet though. He is really going to enjoy this summer. actually was giggling while we were outside today, even though it was only 40 degrees, he was happy for sunshine. He's my sunshine.



I don't think he appreciates all this birthday hullabaloo. We'll find out tomorrow when his family and friends come over for his official Party. Today though, he was not a fan of the hat we got him. He yelled about it...initially.



But he warmed up to it. He seemed/seems most content doing the things HE wants to do...like helping Mommy with the dishes. His new toys are nice and all, but give him a dishwasher full of silverware any day. Or any other thing that forces Mommy to say NO to him.



We went out to lunch at McDonald's with friends to give Sam some chicken nuggets. He ate so very well. Daddy joined us at McD's. Daddy took a half day today to play with us all and celebrate Sam's Day with us, and it was so much fun to have us all together. Sam was most content to have Daddy feed him steady stream of chicken nuggets, french fries, apples, and watching all the kids around him play. He's a keen observer.



After doing presents at home, we started thinking about what he would like to do for dinner, we thought if Sam had his way he'd visit Minnie Mouse. As she's not nearby, we thought, OH we'll go to Red Robin, and get the bird to see him. We went, Sam was enjoying himself, but turned out the Bird doesn't work on Friday nights. Pook for Mommy and Daddy. Sam didn't care.



Sam got some cake, balloons, and people singing to him. When the crew sang for other people, he loved it, but when the tables were turned and they were singing to him, he hated it. Is he shy. Um... No.



Maybe he doesn't want to be the center of attention, just the attention of a small group of friends....which, as it happens, we were blessed to pass the day with today. Just as Sam liked. It was touch and go for a bit when Mommy accidently let go of his balloons. But give him cake and icing, and let him go at it, and he's content. Initially Daddy gave him a plastic fork to help with bites, but Sam was most content doing it himself. Can you say STRONG WILLED?



Of course, his preference for weaponry and silverware, is not limited to baby forks, no he discovered Mommy's butter knife, and would bang it on anything that made a good noise. As a matter of fact, his Kindermusik teacher sub last night, said he seemed to have a "natural gift" with percussion. Yup. That's My Boy!



I'm so very proud of him. This First Year has been so crazy amazing. Wonderful and Wondrous. He really is such a wonderful blessing to our family. He may be strong willed, and opionated, but he's so wonderful. It may be hard sometimes, but Nothing worth having is Easy.

1 Year Ago Today

One Year Ago today...

I got No Sleep.



Turned out I was in Labor.

One Year Ago today...


I met someone absolutely amazing...



Someone who ties with firstborn Christopher for Most Amazing Person I Know


One Year Ago today...


Daddy won the battle...Samuel Elijah or Elijah Samuel.



One Year Ago Today...

We met the perfect missing puzzle piece to our family.



Happy First Birthday Sam!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Thursday Thirteen

84/365

Am I crazy? Yes. Knowing we had mere moments before torrential rains hit, I took the boys downtown to meet some friends at the Zoo...and their kids!
Though we didn't go into the Zoo, we specifically hit the White River Gardens, because the Butterflies are open again. I got a number of cool pictures of flowers, butterflies, and of course, our beautiful children.

1. We got there just in time to spend about 2 seconds outdoors with the flowers outside, just enough to let Chris run around. But as drawn as I was to the daffodils....



2. It's the Pansies that hold a special place in my heart, they were the flower for my sorority, Tri Delta.



3. The Butterfly exhibit was FULL of Orchids though, just Gorgeous!



4. First we had lunch just outside of the butterfly exhibit where the kids could play around a bit. And so they did.



5. The Mommies and babies hung out too. This is Sam meeting his new friend Nathanael. I think 10 months makes a big difference to Sam at this point though, as bummed as he was his new friend couldn't play, he drowned his sorrows in eating Jimmy John's Bread (Yum-O!) and broccoli cheese baby food (ew.).

>


6. Surprisingly, Sam LOVED the Butterfly exhibit. He was spotted reaching out trying to catch the butterflies. I just saw him watching....



7. The older kids just wanted to run around having fun. We managed to stop them from throwing things in the pond for a picture, but they were happiest running around, pretending to be Scared by the jumping butterflies...though I think it was the butterflies that were scared of these wild kids.



8. The kids all seemed very interested in the butterflies in their case, where they are constantly coming out of their chrysalises, and the workers let them out. We didn't see any get freed, but the kids had fun counting the ones that were up and out, and waiting to dry off a bit before taking off.



9. Mommy had fun taking pictures of cool butterflies.



10. I wish I knew what the names of these were. They were so neat.



11. Check out this fella, who was pink and creamy, but had almost clear panels in his wings. He was camoflaged so well, I hadn't noticed him at all the first time I'd been in the area, he was pointed out to me.



12. Now this guy is the Blue Morpho Butterfly. I learned that from Diego.



13. And this is Why they are called the Blue Morpho butterfly. This guy was just sitting there, wings wide open, and I got him justt minutes after arrival.


I have spent MANY times visiting there, eyeballing this type of butterfly and never managing to get a good picture. But this one, now I'm happy with that. This is my new favorite!

And P.S. while butterflies and flowers are great, it was the Bulldogs that seized this day! Go Butler!