Father's Day, Early and Late

David went to Jordan/Israel for about 10 days this month, I've been suffering from school-brain and so for some reason I thought Father's Day fell on the 13th, while he was gone. Sam and I even packed our cards in his suitcase. Oops. But I'm happy we ended up having Daddy home for the occasion.

I meant to post these pictures on Father's Day, for Father's Day, but naturally it's only just now getting done.

It's hard to think that it's already the second Father's Day we've celebrated, Sam has grown SO much. Here are the boys dozing together 2 years ago:
And here they are now:
David, you really are an amazing Dad. You always have energy to "Co-Co Duck" with Sam, even when I know you're tired. You clean the kitchen, take out the trash, walk Caspian, play trains, build with Lego's, change diapers and SO much more without my even asking (or often saying please or thank you :S). You go to work for us, play with us, take care of us, serve us, support us, are patient with us (err, me...) and love us so unconditionally. I can't imagine a better father for Sam (or a better husband!) WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

A little behind...

I can't believe it's been nearly two months since I posted anything. The Reader's Digest version of the last 2 months goes something like this:

Between May and June David will have spent ~4 weeks overseas.

The spring semester of school ended, I made the Dean's List again but my grades weren't totally what I wanted although I do feel I got the grade I earned. I'm getting school burn-out. Bad. The summer semester is already started so things are pretty much the same there.

And now the update on the one people check the blog for :)

Sam had another growth spurt and is now 35.5". He wears a 9 for shoes and has nearly outgrown his 4-5T socks. We're half-heartedly working on potty training but that will get serious when he and I get back from a visit to my in-laws this week. His language is very much improving and so is our comprehension of what he is saying. Lots of multiple word phrases are starting to come as well as unprompted "Please"s and "Thank You"s. Yay! He loves being outdoors and at the pool but doesn't understand why he doesn't get to go in the deep end alone. I converted his crib to a toddler bed tonight and then realized after I finished and was looking at the instructions that they say the bed isn't for kids over 35". Great. Yet another thing outgrown.

He still loves his trains, planes and cars most. Sam also LOVES puzzles and can do 24 piece puzzles with ease, they're actually getting too simple for him. I got a lenticular Cars puzzle the other day thinking the shifting image might make for more of a challenge...nope. He can recognize pretty much every capital letter and say it aloud properly. K, Q, X & W are the holdouts. He knows how to count 1 & 2 but won't count higher if there are more than two things he's counting he says "One Two One Two..."

It's late so that'll do for now, right? I'll try and get pictures/video up soon!

Easter Weekend

Finally I made some time to get our pictures from Easter weekend up, along with a short video. We went to Liberty Hill to see David's family and it was a great weekend. The key feature of the weekend...the leaves...obviously. :)

Daddy and Sam swinging...

Cool, leaves!



Nonnie obligingly kept raking leaves into piles for Sam to leap into.

All dressed up on Easter morning
So what does a frog wear to church? A frog of course! [And apparently a cowlick...]
This may be my favorite picture from the whole weekend. He's getting his 2-yr. molars so we have A LOT of pictures of Sam with his hand in his mouth.

Twee, Ow & Sam - we were so glad that Aunt Sisi, Uncle Tod, Tori & Alee were able to join us for Easter Sunday at the very last minute! Sam ADORES his cousins and loves playing with them.

Easter egg hunt!


And more leaf throwing...the weather all weekend was gorgeous and we spent as much time outside as we possibly could. We even ate our Easter lunch outside on the porch. It was just too nice out not to enjoy it.


What I wish I had caught on video was David sneaking up behind Tori, pulling her legs out from under her making her faceplant in the leaf pile. She was SO surprised and we were all rolling with laughter...

Boys are gross!

This morning as I was eating my breakfast Sam asked for a bite. Nice mommy that I am, I shared my cereal and it looked like he was leaning over for a kiss. He's very affectionate and so it isn't out of the ordinary for him to lean over and give me a kiss...it's also not uncommon for me to have my mouth open when I'm about to take a bite of food.

I was expecting it to land on my cheek but Sam instead proceeded to give me a very boyish kiss: he stuck his mouth on mine then quickly (and deliberately) transferred his chewed up bite of cereal to my mouth. EEEEWWWWWW!!!!!

The reason I know it was premeditated was that he fell over laughing afterward. Little scamp.

Under the Sun

I've spent the greater part of the weekend trying to form a backbone for a relatively short paper (8-10 pgs) that really should only take about a day to write. For some reason I'm one of "those people" who want to do more with their schoolwork than just the bare minimum. It's for one of my political theory courses so all I need to do is write about one of the theorists we've covered in the course (Hayek, Marx, Locke...), or one of the concepts (conservatism, liberalism, freedom...). It could be as simple as a book report, but I realized after I checked 17 books out of the library (not all at once!) and culled about 20 articles from JSTOR that what I was actually trying to do was be original. I want to have a hypothesis or just plain thesis that is my own and not just "a mediocre copy of another man's genius." It really does feel like there's nothing new under the sun and that I'm just banging my head against the wall. What on earth would someone like me be able to posit that 100s of other people hadn't said 100s of times before. Especially for an assignment so minor. Why am I still trying?

You'd think that being married with a Sam would make me want to just do the bare minimum that will get me out of school as fast as possible, but that's not what I'm finding at all.

A Wee Rant...

I'm beginning to think David's office is trying to find an equation for how much interference there can be before I get B's instead of A's. I'M KIDDING!!! I love his coworkers, he loves his job, (Even I love his job! I worked there a few weeks when I was pregnant with Sam...) but he'll have been out of town for every exam I've taken in my hardest class. Oy! It's really just a series of unfortunate events, and he's getting to go some awesome places...so maybe the real bur in my saddle is jealousy ;)

February he was in Saudi Arabia at KAUST, in March he went to CO for 2 days and came home very late the night I had an exam, and during finals week he's headed to Istanbul for his new project. That's right, my darling, precious turkey will be in Turkey when I'm taking my last exam. Don't worry though, he'll be home the day after!

I registered for summer classes today. 2 online over the entire summer and one during the day Mondays and Wednesdays from 10-12 in the 2nd summer session starting July 6th. David received a grant to go to Jordan/Israel for a few weeks in June, so I'm glad I was able to plan around it. Again with the jealousy. Hmm, that's not one of the fruits of the spirit :S

In other news, Easter was fantastic. My Sisi-in-law and her family decided to come down from Lubbock at the last minute and Sam got some good play time in with "Ow" and "Twee". [And I got good pictures/video!] I'll try and put the new pictures up soon.

Stats

Sam had his 2-year well-check this morning. Here are his stats:

Weight: 28 lbs (50%)
Height: 35" (75%)
Head circumference: 18.5"
BMI: 16-0
Shoe size: 8.5

That's right. He's huge.

Dr. C gave him rave reviews, noting that his teeth were very well spaced and that from the looks of it he'll be one of the lucky ones who should have enough room in his mouth for his big boy teeth. Bad for the orthodontist, good for Mommy and Daddy! [I had no idea they checked the space between teeth...good thing we brushed before we went!] His vocabulary is still below where it should be but even to Dr. C it was notably improved. His range might be small but he's very confident in what he does say, Dr. C had no trouble getting him to answer simple questions.

If any of you don't have kids, let me just say that once you do, having the Dr. check them every now and then is SO reassuring...especially with the increasing rates of Autism, Aspergers, etc. It's always a blessing to hear you have a laid-back, healthy, happy, social little guy - all things parents of disabled children may never, ever have.