Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Jesus is Awive!!

Now that I've figured out this You Tube thing, I'm going crazy with it! Here's what Sam had to say about Jesus today. Sometimes he just says this stuff to me out of the blue, like he just wants to confirm, and check base with me about what he knows. It's always a good thing!




Monday, November 27, 2006

Pirate School


Sam attends a class at the Coralville Rec Center called "Treasure Hunt" in which they dress up like pirates, read stories, sing songs, do a craft, and have a treasure hunt. He calls it "Pirate School." It's a lot of fun. They dress up in raggedy clothes but the best part is the "earring" that they loop over their ears with a piece of yarn. On the first day Sam insisted on having one for each ear - which only makes sense! After looking at the video that I took of him, he was unable to identify himself. For all of you who are unsure, Sam is the one with the scarf on his head! He said about himself, "I was going everywhere and everywhere!"



Happy Thanksgiving!


Hope everyone had a great weekend! My sister Emily came home for the first time since she moved to Austin, Texas. She has really missed being around her nephews and niece! In the few short months that she has been gone, the kids have grown alot. She actually looked like she had "grown" too! She's all tan, and sporting a bit of a different hair style. While she was here, we ate alot, talked alot, played games, acted silly, and of course took alot of pictures. It was good to see her, and kinda wierd saying goodbye. Before you know it, she'll be back for Christmas!

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Brotherly Love



Will and Sam were fighting over the remote today, and I think that there was some biting going on. They came to me and Will said, "Sometimes I wish that Sam wasn't my brother." I said, "Don't say that!" Sam heard us talking and said, "Don't give up Will, just keep going!" Somehow I don't think that he realized that he had just been insulted! They have such a love/hate relationship right now. The moment I separated them, Sam was sad and said "Will went away from me!" He wanted me to "find his friend." Everytime I'd walk past him he'd say, "Did you find my friend?" Finally I told him where Will was - it was no big secret. He was sitting right there on the couch. It's like they can't live with each other, but they can't live without each other either.

Time Flies!



Damon just brightened my day, and made me a little misty-eyed. He was cleaning up his computer at work and came across these two pictures, so he e-mailed them to me. Man how time flies! Sam looks like a little red tomato and Will looks like a baby too!! He is the proud brother - he even has his "big brother" t-shirt on. Sam is three days old in these pictures!! I can't even hardly remember him being this little, which makes me sad. I showed Sam the pictures, but he didn't recognize either boy. When I told him who they were he said, "I'm a big boy. See?"

Thursday, November 16, 2006

My Cousins?


I was just scrolling through older blog entries with Sam because he wanted to look at the pictures and we came across the picture of the "scary santa" and he said, "Hey wait, stop!" (He's a little obsessed with Santa, Christmas, and nutcrackers - of course - right now as you may have already guessed. And we don't even do Santa in our house!) Which reminds me, Goodwill is a dangerous place to be right now. There are nutcrackers EVERYWHERE!! (But who am I kidding - loud debate about "peanuts" vs. "penises" in the middle of a public place is not enough to keep me away from my most beloved shopping establishment!!) (See earlier post.)
So where was I? (geesh!), Oh yeah. He looked at the picture of Santa for awhile and said "I never seen that one before. What is that santa doing?" I said " I don't know." and he said "Maybe that's my cousins." Not sure if he thinks it's Jack and Noah, or Jared and Dillon, or some other long lost relatives! Just wanted to share that bit of cuteness with you. And ok, I'm getting obsessed with this blog thing.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Dancing with the Stars

Ok, I can't believe that I'm blogging about this, and it has nothing to do with the kids, but it was one of the highlights of my day! Emmit Smith won! If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you've been living under a rock. Can I just say how hard it was to choose my favorite star from the final two?! I was really rooting for them both. I must admit that I was slightly disappointed that Mario Lopez didn't win, but not surprised. Mario was definitely the better dancer physically, but Emmit had the personality and the popularity on his side. For some odd reason, whenever Emmit was out there dancing he'd get these looks on his face that totally reminded me of my dad. It was this goofy kind of smile where you could just tell that he was just enjoying himself and cracking himself up and letting it all hang out there! I guess he reminded me of a big old teddy bear, who you wouldn't expect to have any grace or skill, and then he surprised you. My dad was a big old teddy bear too. Other people thought he looked intimidating until you got to know him!

So who were you all rooting for, and don't pretend you didn't watch!

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Checklist



Today is a conference day so there is no school. Will is very excited about this so he made a list of everything he wants to do today - complete with boxes to check when the item has been completed. (I'm afraid he's going to take after his father on the list making. Although Damon has yet to make the boxes, after he sees this, he may be tempted to!) Here's what the list says, for all of you who don't read "first-grade-ese:"

-Have breakfast with Dad
-Play with Sam (which he crossed out, because he thought Sam didn't want to play with him, then realized that he did, and then checked the box off.)
-Play outside
-Read a book with Sam
-Play checkers
-Have lunch
-Watch some TV
-Do two puzzles
-Have dinner
-Play Lego Star Wars 2 with Dad (of course)

When I asked Will to feed the dog, he consulted his list and informed me that sorry, that was not on his list of things to do. So I guess I've got a busy day ahead of me, with lots of things on the agenda!

Monday, November 13, 2006

DarthYo


As I was writing my last post, Will came downstairs and asked me to put on my website that he created a new character in his Lego Star Wars 2 video game. The character's name is "DarthYo" - which is spelled "Drsyo" with Will's spelling. It is a combination of Darth Vader and Yoda. It has Darth Vader's head, but some of Yoda's body, and some of Darth Vader's body. Evidently this is very funny and worthy of public knowledge! Evidently Damon created "Darth Damon." I am not going to comment any further on the fact that his character is wearing Princess Leia's bikini top.

Artistic Talent



I wanted to share some of Will's artwork with you. The first is a self-portrait from last year. Isn't it great?! He obviously sees himself as one cool dude! Which of course, he is! I love that you can see where he drew his nose bigger, then erased it and made it smaller! I also love the lips, the glasses, and the hair. I just love the whole thing. This is my all time favorite piece of artwork. The second picture is Will's "Science Book." The details that he puts into things is amazing to me. They put together these books to record some of the things they learned about plants and trees. He made this very elaborate tree as the cover of his book. You probably can't tell, but Will says that each bird has a nest. The bird with a number 1 on it's chest belongs to the nest with one egg ( which is cracked.) The #2 bird has two eggs, etc, etc. In the lower left hand corner there is an ant carrying an apple slice on it's back. The ant is riding on top of a caterpillar. I'm not sure where he gets his artistic talent from!

Epic Proportions


Ok, so I admit it. I was in a craft-induced coma. Not too hard to do these days, when I have a show coming up this weekend. I had left Sam tucked in on the couch upstairs with a Mickey Mouse video, snuggled up with a blanket and pillow. I heard a noise while I was at my craft table downstairs and started up the stairs, but was stopped at the laundry room door because water was pouring (not just dripping) from the ceiling. My first thought was that the washing machine had exploded. Then I realized that the water must be coming from upstairs. I ran up and discovered that Sam had flooded the kitchen - and I do mean flooded. He'd pushed a chair over to the sink and had used the sprayer on every available surface. Every cupboard, the tops of the microwave, fridge, stove, the chair cushions, the floor and every piece of paper in the kitchen were soaked. Water reached to both doorways, so the carpet was soaked at both entries. He said later that he wanted to clean the kitchen. Well it was certainly a lot cleaner after we were done with all the clean-up 2 hours later! I called Damon in a panic, and he graciously came home from work early to help me. We got out the shop vac and the carpet cleaner to soak up quite a bit of standing water. Sam must have turned the faucet over to the side, so that the water was pouring out directly onto the counter because I don't see how a sprayer could have produced that much water! Water went behind the stove and fridge, and down underneath the peeling linoleum, and in another place through the air return, and down into the laundry room below (which has a drain.) We have fans going, so hopefully we can get it all dried up. Damon asked me if I took any pictures of the mess for my blog and I admitted that I had wanted to, but I didn't want Sam to think that I thought what he'd done was funny. So you all will have to use your imaginations.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Tonsil Update


Just like my sister Emily, I will take a picture of anything and everything! This picture sums up our awful Saturday morning. Sam woke up throwing up and kept it up for the next 3 hours, every 15-30 minutes. The poor kid didn't have any Tylenol in his system, so it was obvious that it really hurt to throw up. He just held his hands over his ears, and cried and puked, and he was so hot and in so much pain, that I was crying too. It was awful. We called the doctor, and we were almost to the point of bringing him into the ER when he fell asleep. When he woke up an hour and a half later, he was ready to drink and he kept his Tylenol down! He got better throughout the afternoon, even wanting to go outside and play (because the neighbor kid came to the door for Will.) Of course he didn't get to go. He even had alphabet soup for dinner! He kept telling Damon he was missing certain letters because earlier we'd watched a classic Sesame Street skit where Grover is the waiter and a muppet guy goes through the whole alphabet, expecting each letter to be in his soup, and Grover gets more and more frustrated. I realized that everything else we'd been trying to give him was sweet, so I think he appreciated something salty. He even had more soup for a bedtime snack - which he picked over ice cream, pudding, popsicles etc! He wanted soup for breakfast Sunday morning, but I convinced him to have a pancake and banana and save the soup for lunch. So I'll be stocking up on all shapes and forms of noodle soup over the next weeks! He was up several times during the first few nights, and it was a challenge to get him to take his Tylenol, because he decided he was just tired of the whole business. The only thing that really worked was when I used Will to my advantage. I made Will pretend to want to eat Sam's medicine, and then Sam suddenly wanted to take it! Will of course thought this was great fun, and I'm not above using this form of manipulation! So Saturday afternoon and Sunday he hasn't seemed to need any pain medicine, (so we're not even going there) and he's eating and drinking and playing, and resting! Hopefully we'll start having some more restful nights soon.

Friday, November 10, 2006

Tonsils



Sam did great with his surgery today! We were at the hospital at 6 am, for his surgery at 7:45. We had news by 8:15 that he was done and everything had gone well. This picture was taken before hand. He was not looking quite so chipper afterwards. His doctor said that his adenoids were almost completely blocking his nasal passage. His tonsils and ear tubes went well too. He drank his liquids like a champ: ice water, popsicle slushies, jello, apple juice. He even chose more jello, even though he had the options of upgrading to chocolate pudding or chocolate ice cream. You all are asking yourselves, "Are you sure he's your son?" He was intrigued by the nurses and doctors, not scared at all. They just carried him off, and that was that. I thought to myself, "Wait, weren't we supposed to have a poignant good-bye moment?!" Then I quickly came to my senses and realized that their way was much easier and dryer! He didn't get sick afterwards, and was only mildly curious about the IV, but pretty much left it alone. He was more interested in watching TV, playing with the volume on his bed remote, and visiting the play room down the hall from his room on the Peds floor. He kept up well with his drinking at home, and even started bouncing around a bit while he played, but man oh man, as soon as the three hours of Tylenol wore off you could instantly tell - he was in quite a bit of pain. We're supposed to wake him up around the clock to give him Tylenol the first 48 hours, so I'm anticipating some sleepness nights. But then again, we've already become somewhat accustomed to that with his sleeping problems. But it's different when you're baby is hurting. Aunt Laura and cousin Lily brought Sam a big Elmo balloon this afternoon and Aunt Emily sent a book with reusable construction stickers that came in the mail today, so he's feeling pretty special. I think he's enjoyed all the attention. He did not, however, appreciate that we sat and ate pizza in front of him tonight, while all he could have was jello, yogurt, and juice. (No solids today.) I don't anticipate a loss of appetite being a problem for him! Will on the other hand is not so sure about Sam getting presents in the mail, (since that is a HUGE deal) but he's old enough to understand. Will's been quite concerned about his younger brother, and has (so far) been patient and gentle with him. Hope we can all get some rest tonight!

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

"I Have a Leaf Eye!!"


Every fall, the boys look forward to playing in the big piles of leaves that accumulate behind our house. All the neighborhood kids turn out and have a blast! The piles will actually get bigger than this. The kids love to run and jump in, shouting, "cannonball!!" They also make a leaf "house," and clear out leaf "rooms." They have leaf fights, and bury themselves. Sam almost lost his shoe in the pile. Will kept taking a leaf and putting it in between his eye and his glasses and saying, "Look, I have a leaf eye!" and everyone thought it was really funny. That's my son, he's a regular comedian.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Scary Santa!


Sam says he had a dream last night that a "scary Santa was sitting on my car. And I not want to look up." Then he said "That Santa not bring any toys to my house!" (with a mean look on his face.) Then he said "Jesus was on the light and he take my bad dream away." I can testify first hand that something had scared him, because I was up and down with him for two hours between 3 am and 5 am! I'm afraid that trip to the Hobby Lobby Christmas section has had lasting effects.

Monday, November 06, 2006

Sweetness!


Just wanted to share the sweetness.

Warning: Not For the Faint of Heart!


Today Sam and I went to Hobby Lobby. We were looking through the Christmas decorations and he is intrigued with the nutcrackers. So he says (VERY LOUDLY and REPEATEDLY), "Mom, you put a penis in there and it crunches it up!" So I kept saying, "You mean a nut - you put a peanut in there, right?" and he kept saying "Yeah! You put a penis in there and it crunches it up!" So I ended up just having to distract him, and hope nobody was listening to us!

Friday, November 03, 2006

Happy Birthday, Will!


Today our first born is 7 years old! It's hard to believe! He's way excited! We are leaving after school for an art show in Ankeny and are spending the night in a hotel, with a pool, and Will gets to open one present there, then we'll have a family party when we get back on Sunday. He got to pick what kind of happy birthday song he wanted his music teacher to sing to him, and he picked the "rock n'roll" version. She sang to him with her guitar. His classmate, who had a birthday the day before picked "country" so he sang me a very twangy version of the song, because he thought it was so funny. He was too embarrassed to sing me the rock n' roll version! His class made an "I can ..." reader, the other day. It said things like, "I can jump. I can run. I can climb." At the end was a blank page for the kids to right their own "I can" statement. He chose "I can blow." (!!!!) Notice there are very specifically 7 candles on his cake?! He's been ready and waiting for this day, since he had to go through the torture of watching his brother have his birthday 2 weeks ago! Love ya, Will!

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Halloween Fun!



Here are some pictures of the boys on Halloween. Neither one could see very well with their masks on, and kept running into things and falling down. But we made it through trick-or-treating, with no major injuries!

The Dark Side of Three


So my normally sweet, good natured, happy-go-lucky three year old has traveled over to the dark side of three! It all has to do with LACK OF SLEEP! For months now it's like we're living with a newborn, and not the kind of newborn that Sam actually was (sleeping through the night at 6 weeks old), but the kind of newborn that's up and crying for mamma every 2-3 hours! So Sam is having his tonsils, adenoids, and tubes put in his ears on November 10th. He's always been a snorer and now is waking himself up because his tonsils are blocking his airway, causing him to have sleep apnea. He's also always been a mouth breather, and is now experiencing constant congestion, which is why the adenoids are coming out. He's getting tubes as well because he's got some temporary hearing loss due to all the fluid just sitting there. So between all these symptoms and not ever getting into deep sleep, he's one mean crankmeister. And guess who else isn't getting much sleep?! If mamma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy! Even though we're a bit scared about sending our baby into surgery, we're trusting God with the life of our child. God has put peace in us that this is the right decision for Sam's well-being. I tried to take a picture of Sam's tonsils, so you all could see how big they really are, but once I'd get in that close, his breath would fog up the lens, and the flash was up to high to light up his mouth, so it just didn't work out! So you'll have to settle for a silly one instead!