Kids are resilient

Samuel gave us a run for our money last week.

We are currently having our basement finished and during some of their work they ended up cutting off the gas to some of our things and got them back working last Friday. They left our fireplace on to make sure there were no problems, well Ben and I should have known better. After it was shut off Sam was playing in the area and went up and put his hand on the glass and screamed like neither of us have ever heard. We grabbed him and instantly knew the glass was still hot. Samuel proceeded to cry for what seemed like forever, and for sure the longest, hardest either of us have ever heard. We did everything we could think of to help him, but nothing eased his pain. After about an hour we took the pack off of his hand and saw he had blisters all over his hand. We then made our 1st trip to the Lee's Summit, emergency room. What amazed Ben and I was that the minute we left the house he acted like nothing had happened and never cried about this again, which is where I got the title to this blogs, kids are so resilient. The emergency room was a very unpleasant place for both Ben and I. We couldn't believe how many people came in and asked us to explain what happened and make sure that we were not neglecting our child and our ER physician started the conversation with I don't think he will need a skin graph. WOW, not something you say to new parents, or parents at all for that matter.

Other than that the oddness that surrounded our visit, the nurses treated Samuel with such care, and he seemed to love to be pampered by so many different women. We left with a happy little boy, now with a wrapped hand. Since then he has rarely been bothered by the injury and has enjoyed chewing on his wrap when he is bored in the care. All but 2 of the blisters disappeared on their own and the others are recovering well.

If you are reading this, please do not report us to CPS, if you knew how incredibly awful and scared Ben and I were and have been it is punishment enough. Needless to say, we are watching Sam like a hawk and he has been getting spoiled (I now see how easily kids get spoiled and how they learn to take advantage of it.)

We are so thankful Samuel is a tough little guy, and doing so well and we pray that these events are few and far between in Samuel's life and get easier to handle with time.

Here are 2 pictures of Samuel with his wrap and as you can see he didn't let it interfere with his activities.

Out with 2010...Excited for 2011

2010 was Ben and I's best year yet. With the addition of Samuel, Ben's new job, me with a job and so much more we feel really blessed, so we can't wait to see what 2011 brings us.

This was the 1st year since Ben and I have been together where we haven't traveled over Christmas which was awesome. But we got a little stir crazy and decided to head North for New Years, to see friends, family and let Samuel finally meet his buddy Luke.

Samuel and I stayed at my friend Tara's house which he loved, because her house is definitely not child proofed. At one point I looked over as I was making his breakfast and he was in a silverware drawer holding onto two knives (please don't call CPS, I swear it was an accident.) Her house is filled with very nice things and by the end of the trip they were all on the top shelf. Tara was so sweet to let us stay and he loved to explore the new house, and slept even better than he does at home!

On Saturday, Samuel got to meet one of my best friends son, Luke. They live in Colorado so the boys had not had the chance to meet, so Katie and I were really excited to get them together. Luke is 5 months old and such a sweetie, he loves to bounce around and make grrrrrrrrrrrrr sounds, it is really cute. Samuel seemed very interested in Luke and would go up and look at him, and as you can see by the pictures by the end of the playdate he tried to give Luke a hug and hold his hand, super cute.

Samuel and Luke were having good conversation here.

Sam with his Aunt Karen and Aunt Tara

And at the end of the play date, Luke and Samuel got exciting news, that in 6 months they will either have a new buddy or a girlfriend to fight over. Our friends Karen and Brett are expecting, which is such great news. What a great way to ring in the new year!

For New Years, we went to a friends house and Jiji and Papster babysat Samuel. This was the 1st time ever that both Ben and I had been gone from Samuel together overnight. It was nice for us to get to celebrate with friends, and we knew he wasn't even thinking about us but loving getting spoiled by Ben's parents.

The Big Ten Husker/Iowa rivalry started here! 3 on the left vs. the 2 on the right. This will make future Thanksgivings a lot of fun.

This trip was also our test for Samuel to see if he was allergic to cats. I am deathly allergic to cats and can spend very little time in homes with cats, so I have been very apprehensive to put him with cats in the off chance he is allergic. When we got to Omaha we took him straight to Ben's parents and exposed him to their cat and from what we could see we are in the clear for cat allergies. Samuel seemed very intrigued by his Jiji and Papster's cat, but no sneezing, or rubbing of the eyes. Samuel wanted to pet and grab the kitty but the cat just hissed and batted Samuel away. Hopefully Poppy will warm up to Samuel with time.

Samuel had a great holiday and New Years, but we think he is getting pretty bored with all of these adults and excited to get back to daycare with his buddies and of course his girlfriend Abby.

Happy New Year to everyone!!

Merry Christmas....A Little Belated

My intention and promise to multiple family members was to get this post out only a few days after Christmas, but as you can see between cleaning up from an amazing Christmas and hanging out with a mobile toddler it hasn't gotten done. Christmas this year was great, it was all about Samuel, just the way it should be. I had been really worried that Samuel would get jipped on either his birthday or Christmas but it was the exact opposite. My mother, and Ben's parents were able to be with us for Christmas and made the holiday even more special. They love Samuel so much, Ben and I just love watching them play with him all day, we are truly blessed to have such an amazing family (not to mention it lets us go out on dates and not have to pay anyone!!) We weren't sure how Sam would do with a Christmas tree so we made it pretty basic this year and for about 80% of the time it was up he never touched it, but when he figured out he could take the things off and use them as swords, toys, or things to hit his dogs with he loved it!! These are a few pics of the sneaky little man.

That face has "I think I'm pretty sneaky" written all over it

Someone is pretty proud of themselves!

One of the residents in our sub-division offered to dress up as Santa Claus for all of the kids and allow families to come to the club house and take pictures. Ben and I had said we weren't going to take him this year since he didn't really get it and he has a fear of men (most men.) But we decided to try it figuring their would be no line and right outside our front door. WOW, was it a bad decision. The minute we handed Samuel to him, he began screaming and throwing his arms around, but as Ben says its a memory we will never forget. We hope next year goes a little bit better.

This is actually a good moment in the few he let Santa hold him.

Looks a little better with mom, but what you can't see is his other arm wrapped around my arm like he is holding on for dear life!

We tried to do a family picture but everyone he is looking at Santa, like what are you trying to do to me and my family!

Everyone told us that the wrapping, tissue and peanuts would be the big focus this year and it definitely was, but I wish someone would have told us to invest in V-tech and Fisher Price as Samuel now has almost every toy they make for his age. Its crazy how many different toys and stimulation activities they have for a 1 year old. We decided to put a bunch of them away and take them out mid-year, so he can have "new" stuff once he has exhausted himself with these toys. Dancing Mickey was the biggest hit of the holiday, eventually. When we opened the box he was really scared and started crying, but after he sang a few songs and everyone was dancing he joined right in. It is so fun to watch him do knee bends and shake his body just like Mickey.

As you flip through these on the camera you can almost remake his dance, it is so funny.

This is a recent picture, now that he has practice he also tries to talk like Mickey.

Climbing and sitting on the presents was one of his favorite things to do, it was really cute.

Sam with tissue paper, he loves the sound it makes when it crinkles.

The other big gift for Samuel 2 days before Christmas was the birth of what we imagine will be his BFF as he grows up. Wes Williams was born on December 23rd. He is so adorable, and already has similarities to Sam he is a big boy weighing in at 9lbs 15oz. Ben and I also got a pretty amazing Christmas gift, we were asked to be Wes's Godparents, and we are thrilled beyond belief (but are they sure they know what they got Wes into?) Congrats Mallory and Dwight ya did good!!

We hope everyone else had a wonderful holiday with family, and hope that 2011 is even better than 2010.

1 Year Old

Samuel Joseph turned ONE!

Sam turned one last Tuesday and it was a perfect day. I couldn't believe how great everything turned out. Phone calls for Samuel started at 7am, and all of our family (minus Grandpa Denny) were here to celebrate with Samuel as well as some good friends of ours. It was such an amazing feeling seeing all the people that love Samuel so much gathered together to celebrate him. The last year has been the best for Ben and I, we couldn't have imagined such an amazing little guy. This guy is always so happy, smiley and giggly. Samuel woke up on his birthday to a fully birthday decorated house, and it was too cute to see him pull down one of the signs and carry it around with him all morning. Here is the 1st thing I saw on birthday morning and then eating his Cherrio's while I made his birthday breakfast!

Everyone got to town around 2pm which was great since Samuel decided to take a 2.5 hour morning nap (I think he knew he needed to rest up for his big day) Samuel was so excited to have everyone around he was showing off his latest tricks (talking---yes it is happening, dog is our favorite.) But when it came to blowing out his candles and eating his cake he wasn't so sure what to do and why everyone was starring at him. He tried the cake but after much coaxing by Ben and I. He didn't seem interested in the cake, and more funny he didn't seem to want to get messy which is not like his usual eating behavior. Once dad gave him a taste he loved it, but if he had to choose I bet he would still prefer his bubblegum Amoxicillin.

After dinner we opened presents and Sam seemed semi-interested, and started to yawn and get tired, but once some of his toys popped out he got a second wind. Samuel is usually a very predictable kid when it comes to bedtime, but not on his birthday he could have stayed up all night playing with all of his new toys. He was so excited, he would move from one to the next every few seconds and loved them all. This kid was spoiled, definitely the 1st grandchild for everyone. This celebration also put to rest my worries of Samuel getting jipped because his birthday is so close to Christmas.

It was an amazing day that capped off an amazing year, and I asked all of our friends and family to write a little note to Samuel that he could look at when he was older (cheesy yes, but important to me) and they were better than I could have imagined. Samuel is very lucky to have such great people in his life, even thought truth be told I think we are all the lucky ones to be a part of this cute little toddlers world!

Samuel with Jiji and Papster

Samuel's favorite part of the gifts were the tissue!

Samuel is clapping for the Walmart man, thanks Aunt Katie for teaching him well!

Samuel clapping at himself for figuring out what to do with his cake

Samuel with his Grandma

Samuel with his Nana and Papa

Starting Early

Each day Samuel is learning new and fun things in his great big world, but truth be told every day is a new learning day for Mom and Dad too. Ben and I have talked about how we would parent Sam, teach him things and discipline him, but really we are just going at it blind with the help of family, friends and MANY, MANY books. So Ben and I have been really excited to see Sam initiating good hygiene all on his own. Sam now at night seems to walk towards the bathroom in the evening knowing it is time to take his bath. He even seems to have an entire routine down when he gets in the bath it is great to watch. He now takes his toys and lifts them up and over the bar until they fall through and he does it over and over. He laughs every time he accomplishes it and Ben and I smile even bigger. We may also be seeing a little basketball star in the making.

Samuel has also taken to brushing his teeth. About a month ago we decided to buy Sam his own toothbrush (again mom and dad are learning we probably should have done this 5 months ago) since he enjoyed using ours all the time. But now in the morning and at night we give him his toothbrush and he puts it in his mouth and moves it around. Probably not really brushing but its a great start.

The last fun thing Sam can't live without these days is throwing the ball up and down the stairs and then sitting on a stair and bouncing up and down while the ball goes bouncing away from him, it is so fun to see our little man growing into his own, developing a personality and have such an enjoyment for the simple things.

Today marks 7 days until Sam's 1st birthday and we can't believe how blessed our life has become with him in it. I knew becoming a parent would bring with it millions of new experiences, but I never imagined how great it could be. All of my friends that told me to wait to see how it would change me, and that I will not be able to put it in words how I would feel and the love you can have for one person were so right.

Sam picked out his 1st Christmas tree this year, and thankfully he hasn't touched it since.

So Thankful

Where has time gone. I have meant to update this blog so many times, but haven't had enough time to sit down a put all of our great adventures down on paper (or blog.) We had an amazing Thanksgiving holiday and were able to enjoy it with all of our family. This year more than ever we are thankful for our family and feel so blessed to have Samuel as the newest addition to our family. We started our adventure in Iowa with my father and Soon and enjoyed our first ice storm of the year and Samuel's 1st Thanksgiving.

Samuel was Papa's helper for Thanksgiving. He is a great taste tester!

Samuel met Papa and Nana's puppies and he loved how small they were. He even tried to pick them up.

We then made our way to Sioux Falls to have our 2nd Thanksgiving with my Mother and Denny's family. By this point in the day Samuel our mobile man was a little tired of being strapped in all day and force fed pounds of food every 3 hours. It was fun to see him try so many new foods on one day, and in typical Sam style he loved it all!

We were able to have some good family time, another play date, and Samuel and I met a good friends new baby girl Alex, she is adorable. Samuel rode around with his buddy Rylan while I just held Alex she is so precious. Sam then got to meet Brynn another potential wife for Sam and he seemed very smitten. It was a great day of meeting new friends.

Samuel and Rylan riding his truck

Samuel with Brynn and Isaac and then the kids with Sarah, Maggie and I.

Then on Saturday we went to Omaha for our final Thanksgiving with Ben's family. Samuel got his first interaction with a cat and seemed very intrigued until it batted him away, I think we will stick with dogs for now. Samuel got to spend time with his Aunt Jessie and he had tons of fun.

It was a great holiday weekend, and Sam was a trooper on our 15 hour journey.

Sam is doing really great, he is walking around and we think he may grow up to be a track star because his favorite thing to do is laps around the house. Every house we go to or even when we are at home he makes laps around the furniture, over and over its really cute. No words yet, but he loves his babbling, and I am working really hard, but every time I try Sam just laughs at me. Samuel's 1st birthday is in 2 weeks and we can't believe he is going to turn one, where has all of the time gone. While I am so excited to see him grow up, I would love the little man to stay just the way he is right now. We hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving, and feel blessed for having every person in our lives.

Sam was a big help cleaning all of our clothes after our long trip!!