Height

Sammy is getting very tall. His 2T stuff is all too short for him now. Shirts and pants both.

Today as we were getting out of the truck, for some reason he decided to comment, "My be tall like Daddy. Katie's short like penguins." (He has been using "my" for "I" and "me" as well as for "my" the past week or so. But I have no idea where the short like penguins thing came from!)

Fears

Overheard today: "Which animal Sammy scared? Sammy scared of giraffes at the zoo."

(He loves to look at them. But he is afraid to feed them the crackers you can buy for that purpose. This does not, however, stop him from asking every time to buy some crackers so he can feed them. He just always chickens out at the last minute.)

A few photos

Sammy is really into building with Legos these days. This is a "bridge" that he and I built. He had lots of fun re-building it, and running his little toy truck under it like a tunnel.


Katie still contends that applesauce is actually a finger food. Do you see the new tooth? (One of 4 that came in all at once!)

Subtraction and Counting

Last night I was giving Sammy his medicine. It's a liquid that we give him in a syringe. I asked him if he wanted to take the dose in 3 squirts or 4. He chose 4. I gave him #1, then #2, then I had to refill the syringe. While I was doing that he said, "Two squirts left!" Then I gave him #3, after which he said "Last one!!!"

Amazing!

(How sad is it that the non-math-major parent was the one who noticed it!?)

Katie knows the concept of two. If you ask her for 2 kisses (and she's in the mood to give them) she knows exactly how many that is.

Light a candle tonight at 7 pm

For my 3+ babies that I never got to meet. Or yours, if you have any.

Serging not Surging

Sorry for the missspell.

Here's a close-up of what the serger does:

Katie Remembers!

Katie and I were reading My First Colors Board Book together today. On the orange page, she pointed at the pumpkin. I said "pumpkin," and as I was about to ask her if she remembered seeing pumpkins at the grocery store yesterday, she pointed to the door and said "doo!" I wasn't sure what she meant, so I asked her anyway, and her eyes lit up with the "Mama understood me!!!" glow. Next she pointed at the lion, said "nah-ninnn", then pointed at the door again and said "doooooooo!" Which translates to "We saw a lion at the zoo!"

Wow!

Rave: My new cabinets

They have actually been up for almost a month. Kerry's husband and son hung them for me, while Jeff was out of town. My mom wanted to see a picture, so here it is.


In a few months I hope to order some desk-sized cabinets and a desktop for the bottom, instead of this makeshift thing. (Which is still way better than the folding table and no storage that was there 2 months ago!)

Water play

I walked into the kitchen the other day to find this. Yes, that is a dirty pot soaking in the sink that the dolphin is diving into!

Surging projects

You are probably wondering what someone who can barely thread a needle is doing working on surging projects...


Well, I'll tell ya. My wonderful mother-in-law permanently loaned me her surger, after I borrowed it at her house to make myself some more wipies. It has been at my house ever since. I think that was last Thanksgiving. I FINALLY pulled it out, got it put back together, re-threaded, tensions set, etc and made the projects that have been sitting around for so very very long.

First off, there were the cotton/hemp terry wipies that I made for Stephanie's baby for a gift. (I am only about 5 months late here!) For good measure I am also throwing in a doubler and a couple of diaper inserts. I hope she doesn't laugh too hard at my inability to surge in a straight line!


The other project was (TMI alert!) the cloth pads I've been meaning to make since I got my period back after Katie was born. (Wow! That was like a year ago!) It's too bad I can't surge as well as the lady I got the pattern from. But as my darling pointed out, nobody is going to be looking at them! I made some out of the hemp/cotton, and a couple out of an old t-shirt, and a couple more out of an old pair of comfy (but too holey to wear anymore) sweatpants.


Here is a silly photo because I was so excited to get out of the house tonight - I went to JoAnn's and got among other things colored thread for the surger. And was proud of myself for being able to change them all out! (Did I mention I have next to no sewing skills, here!?!?)

Geaux Tigers!!!

What a game, eh? It was as close and exciting as everyone promised it would be. Or at least that's how it sounded. I listened to most of it from the other room, where I was working on some surging projects.

I got a little teary-eyed in the beginning, seeing the 92,000+ people in the stadium, wishing I was there. Then thinking that the 50,000+ people tailgating it in the parking lot were probably having a lot more fun. And a better view for that matter! But then I thought, at least I will not be stuck in a 3-4 hour traffic jam on the way home, where you are lucky if you move a mile in that time.

You know, there was a time in high school when I thought about going to Florida. But then I would have been sorely disappointed tonight. And probably married to someone else for that matter. So I'm glad it all turned out the way it did.

Rant: Herpes

I have been sick for the last 7 days, with whatever bug seems to be making its rounds everywhere I have friends - the one where a river of thick mucous runs down the back of your throat and keeps you coughing all night long.

The kids seemed to started getting it, too, but Wed. evening Sammy also got a pretty high fever. And then some time yesterday afternoon I noticed nasty blisters along both sides of his tongue. They looked just like the ones I had when (we were pretty sure) we had Hand Foot and Mouth disease back in July.

I took him to see our favorite pediatrician this morning, and apparently what he has is Herpetic stomatitis. The poor baby can't eat, can barely swallow, can't nurse (won't even try!), can't talk without it hurting. And he's drooling all over the place. On top of that I've had to force the medicine for it down his throat, with him kicking and screaming and pushing and slapping at me.

I feel rotten for him. And a little for me, for not being able to do anything for him. But mostly for him.

Peacocks

I was told this about peacocks this morning: "Heehocks ave eh-ders. Ee taw heehocks at da doo. Heehocks eat Dammy's jeh-wy danwich!"

(Max kindly had his mama make Sammy a jelly sandwich, since he knew he couldn't eat PB&J, last Wednesday when we went to the zoo. And one of the free-roaming peacocks did nearly steal the sandwich out of his hand! I had to kick at it to make it go away.)

Eyes

Katie had her eye doctor follow-up yesterday. Her vision is no longer drastically different between eyes; both were exactly the same: -1.5. That's good news, because at her first appointment they were -.75 and -2.0, and the doctor was very worried about her developing a lazy eye. Anyway, she can't see close up really well (same as her brother, but worse), which is very bad if you're a toddler and pretty much every thing you do is right in front of you, so soon she will no longer be the only family member without glasses. She loves putting Sammy and Mama's glasses on, but I suspect once wearing them is no longer an option, it will not be so appealing.

The other good thing to come from this is that, since Sammy also wanted to look in the little machine and see the tree, we know that his prescription is no longer the right one, and he needs to get another exam. And luckily the replacement pair of "circle glasses" I bought him are still in their 60-day window for a no-cost prescription change. (I think I forgot to mention that after I bought them, I also found the original pair that had been missing for like 7 months! Figures!)

Just in case anyone was wondering...

We did not win the Fuzzi Bunz contest we entered earlier this month. Looking at the winners, I don't think we ever had a chance, since my kids are both over 1, and we did not have a beach theme.

Babies in a Box!

Taken at my Mommies' group Tuesday evening:



Once a camera was out, the box was no longer as appealing. Katie had to help take photos.

School is fun!

Our "Learning Wall." Concept and content totally stolen from Letter Of The Week, we just use a wall with laminated things instead of a poster.


Katie is getting better at puzzles.

My boy is smart!

Okay, a little mommy bragging. Please humor me. ;)

I had Sammy's speech evaluated the other day, because he's had trouble with beginning sounds on a lot of his words and I often have to make him repeat himself (sometimes a lot) to be able to understand him. The result was not bad - work with him on a few of the sounds he's not getting (he can say all the sounds except "g", just doesn't always get them right at the beginning of words) and call them back after he's 3 if he hasn't gotten any more understandable.

The warm fuzzy for me was, they (school nurse, school psychologist, & speech pathologist) were all astonished at how smart he is. I had told him early that morning that we had some friends coming over and they were going to listen to him talk, and we could show them the learning wall. So as soon as they came in he went over to it and waited for them. One of them started asking him questions about it - what is that (eyes), where are your eyes (he points to them), what is that shape (diamond)... I asked him if he could spell diamond for them and he said "Oh, o-TAY!" and pointed to all the letters and spelled it as fast as 6th grade spelling be student would have. The one that was standing next to me looked at me with big eyes and said "How old is he???" During most of the observation, he used complete sentences when he was talking. At the end, they asked me if I had any concerns about any other areas of his development. I said no, that it was really just that we both get very frustrated when I can't understand him. That I thought otherwise he might be a little advanced for his age, but maybe I was just prejudiced because I was his mom. They all laughed and shook their heads, and assured me that it was not just me.

The only other almost-3-year-old I have spent any amount of time with was Rachel, (another baby genius!) who was pretty comparable in advancement, so I really wasn't sure...

Yesterday morning I was spelling dog for Katie and he told me "c-o-w spells cow." Without having anything to look at!!!

Now, I figured with two G/T, LSMSA-grad parents, our kids might be a little bright, but I am completely amazed at how smart this boy is, and how much he wants to learn letters, words, etc!

P.S., Be assured - his alphabet-singing, "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear" book reciting sister is not far behind! (MawMaw will appreciate that one, as A- she's the one who gave us the book, and B - I probably made her read that book to me a hundred million times when I was a toddler!)

P.P.S. I hope my bad grammar and lack of appropriate punctuation doesn't make Marie's head spin! (It's my blog and I can be as lazy and hurried as I want! ;)

Katie Sticker Art

She just had a blast making this:



I'm glad I had the opportunity to see Myste letting E play with stickers when he was this age, or I never would have thought to do it!

update

Update from my prayer requests:

Thanks for your prayers!

My mother is still in the hospital. Her doctor told her she had a swollen gland. They have been giving her IV antibiotics since Monday. The swelling has gone down. There was some talk about a biopsy but then it didn't happen. No explanation was given as to what caused the infection. I think she's expecting to be discharged today.

Sammy did OK with the dental work. He didn't even flinch when they gave him the numbing shot, but he screamed every time they put the vacuum tube in his mouth. He got his 3 year molars sealed, some of the rough enamel polished off the top of his front two top teeth, and a cap on the molar that broke 1/2 off in June.