Penny for your thoughts?

Man, I haven't updated this thing in quite a while. There's been so much going on. I don't know where to start. How about the most memorable... is it that I've gotten a new job as a 6th grade Science/History teacher? nooo.... that's not it.....is it that Sam is crawling around every where like a mad man and eating food like nobody's business? not exactly, that's just not it...... is it that Sam and I have grown a fabulous garden this summer? noooo.... .that's not it, either..... is it that we went to Josh's family reunion while Josh was in Guyana-- and Sam swam in the Elk river? nooo.... that's just not it either.... what could it be? OH! I know-- Sam swallowed a penny and had to have it removed... yep, that's the most memorable... how could I forget that???
Last Monday night, I was on the couch and Sam was crawling around (yeah, he's crawling everywhere now, too) and he got really still with his fists in his mouth. I thought that he was unusually still, so I went to investigate and sure enough, there was something in his mouth. But when I tried to get it out, I gagged him, he swallowed, then threw up. Well, I thought, kids swallow stuff all the time. I'll just make sure he's breathing and eating ok, I'll check his poo, it'll be ok. No need to bother the Dr. with this one.
Josh decided to call the Doc Tuesday morning. He advised us to bring him on in just to do some X-rays and make sure he in fact DID swallow something. After all, I wasn't 100% sure he had. They took the X-rays and it looked like Sam was wearing a medallion right on his neck! The coin hadn't gone down and was stuck at the top of his esophogus. Because of its' location, they were afraid he'd cough it up, choke on it, get it lodged some other way, or worse. I got a phone call from Josh around 12:30 telling me they were going to have to put Sam to sleep to get the coin out. I left school and headed straight to the ER. Sam was a champ. He hadn't eaten since 9:30 and continued his fast until after the procedure. He was so cute in his little hospital gown, too! I'll try to get pics of the X-ray up for ya'll to laugh about!

RICK AND BUBBA!!!

As many of you may know, I am a HUGE Rick and Bubba Fan. Rick and Bubba are radio personalities native to Birmingham, AL. I had heard of them while I was in college in KY, but had never listened to them. Upon moving to AL, my new friends all concurred that I needed to listen to Rick and Bubba because we shared a similar sense of humor. So, over the past 3 years, when I've been up early in the morning, I've joyously listened to Rick and Bubba.
While I was pregnant, I would turn it up LOUD so Sam could hear them, too, and get used to their voices so that when he came out, Rick and Bubba would be common voices that would calm him. (It kinda worked.) Sam and I start our day with Rick and Bubba in the mornings and we wouldn't have it any other way.
A few days ago, we got to end our day with Rick and Bubba in person! They came to Huntsville on their book tour and Sam begged me to take him to see them. I called my good friend Misty and together, the three of us stood in a hot line just for a few seconds with Rick and Bubba. Sam was so excited about seeing The Two Sexiest Fat Men Alive, his first celebrities! Sam looks like a fat man in these pictures!


Sam looks so cute checking out the Rick and Bubba Show Interns.
Here we are once we finally got up to see Rick and Bubba face to face.

Check out Rick and Bubba's website: rickandbubba.com
There you will see a tribute to Bronner Burgess, Rick's son who died earlier in the year. When Rick got his hands on Sam, he kept whispering in his ear, "You're so precious, precious, precious boy." It was a sweet moment.
My common sense left me at some point and I tried to coax Rick and Bubba into signing Sam with their Sharpies. They kept their common sense and just signed the book instead.
Here we all are posing for our picture.
Bubba and Sam acting silly. Haha!
This is a pretty good picture of both, though:
Here is Sam with Speedy and Don Juan. They are the producers of the Show. Sam danced while we were waiting in line and Speedy and Don Juan really got a kick out of watching him. I'll have to say that for a white baby, Sam has some pretty decent moves... haha.

Memorial Day Weekend Trip

We went to KY last weekend and were kept VERY busy visiting our friends and family. I took some pictures of Sam enjoying his car ride to KY. He had a pretty good time, staying awake until we got past Nashville. He kept me entertained.

Friday night, Sam and I met Mom in Draffenville and headed out to meet our new friend, Weston Michael. He is my friend, Jessalyn's, new son. He is two months old. Having Sam next to Weston opened my eyes to just how big my boy is getting. Sam was cracking everyone up with his silliness. He laughs, splutters, rolls over, sits up, falls over, giggles and starts it all over again. Weston just looked around and watched all of us with his bright, curious eyes. Every once in a while, he'd smile at me, but then he fell asleep. You can also tell from the picture just how much bigger physically Sam is. I kept thinking of Sam as my baby, but he's not really a baby-baby anymore. Time is going by too quickly for me!
Sunday, Sam and I went to church at Calvert and visited with several old family friends. This is my cousin, Garett, holding Sam. They had such a good time laughing and cutting up together... you can see the sneakiness on their faces!



Sunday was also my Dad's birthday. Sam said, "Happy Birthday, Papa John, even though I don't really know what a birthday is yet!". We had a good visit. Daddy got down on the floor and played for a long time with Sam. They were so cute together!


We also went and visited my Grandmother. Sam was excited to see his Great-Gram again. He was almost too heavy for her to hold, but she held him and really enjoyed playing with him. You can also see how Sam's hair has grown out all fuzzy. Grandmother kept playing with his soft, goose-down-y, fluffy hair.
We had such a good time in Kentucky. I'll post some goofy pictures of us later on. Also, we visited Josh's family on Saturday and Monday. Somehow I ended up without any pictures of our visit together on Saturday, but I have some interesting ones from our visit on Monday. Sam had a big accomplishment on Monday that I'll post about later. I'll also do my best to get some pics of Aunt Bethany, Uncle Ben, and the rest of the gang on here-- I need pics, though!! :)

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Josh celebrated another year closer to 30 on Sunday. To mark his big day, Sam informed us it was time to try some solid food. We have been watching him for several weeks now-- actually, Sam has been watching US for several weeks now-- at the dinner table. Whenever there is food around, he gazes at us intently and curiously watches our every move. At his 4 month check up last week, we discussed solids with the pediatrician. Because of Sam's curiosity, we decided to let him try some rice cereal. It was a lot of fun! Sam knew what to do with the spoon and he would open up wide for every bite. However, he was unsatisfied with how slow Mommy was in getting the next bite to his mouth. He would scream and squeal in anticipation of that next spoonfull! Josh said, "Great, now you've created a monster..." I think that Sam is still a little confused by the spoon; it's a big change from nursing to spoon feeding. He tries to nurse the spoon sometimes which is funny.














My Aunt P and Mom were also here this weekend. They made Josh a real, homemade, honest to goodness, banana pudding pie with meringue on top. It's not Josh's favorite, but he said it was still really good.

Josh and I went for a walk Sunday afternoon around Big Spring Park. It was a gorgeous day to spend together. Mom and Aunt P took Sam to Bennett's Nursery so Josh and I had some time together without the baby.















Happy Birthday, Daddy!

We had a busy weekend. The annual yard sale in Hampton Cove was Saturday and we decided to get out early (yes, can you believe that Beth was up at 6:30 getting ready for the event???) and see what bargains we could find.
Sam was looking for baby toys, namely a Bumbo Seat so that he can practice sitting up more. Unfortunately, we couldn't find one of those, but we did find some mini ice trays that will be perfect for freezing homemade baby food. Josh also bought Sam a cute little linen outfit. I'll get a picture of it on here soon-- Daddy was really excited to find this outfit!
I thought Sam was being really good while we were yard saling; he slept almost the entire time. But then when we got home, he continued to sleep-- for 3 more hours. He's an awesome sleeper, but this was a little unusual. I woke him up and put him down to play despite his protests to just be held. I decided something was amiss, and took his temperature. It was a whopping 102.9. We immediately called the pediatrician and scheduled an appt. for this morning. His fever finally peaked around 103.5. We kept Tylenol in him and he loved the extra attention of Mommy holding him all the time. I felt bad that he was feeling so bad, but at the same time, I loved how snuggly he became. He held on to me and just watched me and loved me. We took naps together and stayed awake late at night together. Before I had a baby, I really dreaded the long sleepless nights. I dreaded the sacrifices I would have to make. However, this weekend I learned that going shopping at Target wasn't a priority afterall, going to church on Sunday morning was greatly missed, sleep isn't as important as it once was and I owe it all to my 14 pound 11 ounce miracle. He's my priority now and I'll gladly, gratefully, do ANYTHING for him. I never thought I could love like this.
We went to the doctor this morning and went ahead with his 4 month shots despite the low fever. He whimpered a little bit, let out a wail, then snuggled up next to Mommy and went to sleep. I'd say he took it like a man. He's growing right on schedule, 50th percentile for height and weight, 75th for head circumference. Doc said, "His brain is outgrowing the rest of his body!". Well, he's smart, that's for sure. He comes from good stock. I'm going to take advantage of his rapidly growing brain and teach him a few new tricks. I'll post on this later.
He's here at home today, sleeping and snoring away. He loves his readers and wishes his mom would find more time to post. :)

Here is Sam trying out a Bumbo seat and wishing he had one of his own.

Sam loves his cousin, London. Every time they get together, Sam falls all over her.
Here is Jen, London, Mommy and Sam. Jen and London came for an Alabama visit a couple of weekends ago.

Sickness, Easter, and Rolling Over

A lot has happened in my young boy's life over the past couple of weeks. On Sunday night, March 16th, I noticed a little goopy stuff coming out of Sam's eye. I had my suspicions but was unsure and decided to take the wait and see approach with whatever it was. On Monday morning, Sam woke up screaming at 6:30 AM with his right eye completely glued shut with this nasty yellow gunk. It was horrifying and I knew that my suspicions of possible pink eye were probably true. I took him to the doctor and sure enough, he had pink eye, a cold AND an ear infection! Aside from the screaming at 6:30 AM, he was in great spirits and never even let on that he didn't feel well. Poor guy. I immediately called Granna to watch him while Josh and I were at work. Unfortunately, she couldn't make it until Wednesday afternoon. Meanwhile, Josh's grandparents, Papa and Grandma Judy, watched Sam with delight. I think they enjoyed the one on one time with him and I know Sam did, too. Sam recovered quickly from his ailments with all of the attention-- especially from Granna! I think she was actually looking for an excuse to come down for Easter.

For Easter, we spent the afternoon at Brenda's. Brenda, Misty, Mom and I enjoyed eating and talking about babies, strawberry jam/jelly, and church. Sam must have either been bored or overstimulated by all the excitement because he slept most of the afternoon. When we got home, the Easter Bunny had visited and left a HUGE basket full of goodies: hand sanitizer, diaper rash cream, new clothes, an oversized bunny, a small chick, jelly beans and my personal favorite, eggs full of rolled pennies. Only Granna, I mean, the Easter Bunny, could have put together a basket like his. Next to it was a small, very small, sad looking little basket with side walk chalk in it-- to be used later. Sam, your mom isn't very good at putting together appropriate baskets for you-- yet! Thank goodness for Granna's visit, though! Thanks, Easter Bunny!

After Granna left on Monday, Josh and I finally had a little time to sit and stare at Sam all by ourselves. We put him on his belly and talked about how he looked like he was trying to roll over. About that time, he kicked himself over onto his back with a look of shock, surprise, awe and a little touch of "I know what I'm doing, I think". We rolled him back over and sure enough, he did it again. It must have been hard work because by the third time, he was tired and just wanted to put his head down and rest. He's been working very hard at rolling over from his belly the past couple of nights, too.

Along with his rolling over, he's laughing at flirting with us all the time. The ladies at school comment on how much he laughs and smiles with them. He's a talker and a real people person. I'm glad we've got him! ;)
Oh, I'll share this picture with you, too. One afternoon I put him in his bed to play and he was just talking and having a big ol' time. It got unusually quiet for a couple of minutes so I went to check on him. He must have worn himself out playing.
I'm trying to do better at posting. There's just a lot going on!! Can you believe, though, that I've posted twice in 2 days??? Must be a record... Anyway, keep encouraging me by leaving comments. I love to hear from everyone! Love you all!!!

Can You Guess the Name of this Post???

Hmmm, I wonder what the name of this post should be...





Some of Sam's future babysitters: Sarah N., Libby N., Erin W., and Amber W.! Sam loves his older girlfriends! :)