Cincinnati Again

 Our friends, the Despains, invited us to go to Cincinnati last weekend with them to EnterTRAINment Junction.  Since there was a Reds game Friday night, we decided to make a weekend out of it and find a hotel room on hotwire.com.  We headed out as soon as Ben was done with his test and the kiddos were up from their naps.

Here's E and his friend William.  E refers to him as "my best friend William".

I exist! (Thanks Aunt Nat for the cute princess hoodie!)

This was before Emerson toppled under the railing and fell down the stadium stairs...(don't worry, he was ok)

 Our fam at the game.  The first one we went to was SUPER hot and humid, and Sammi was only 3 weeks old.  WHAT WERE WE THINKING!?  I guess I just really needed to get out?  Well anyway, the weather was perfect this time.

Staying in a hotel is so much fun!  Even if Dad is supposed to be watching the baby and she falls off the bed when the hotel worker knocks on the door to bring the crib and Mom is in the bathroom...

The best part about hotel-staying is swimumum in the pool.  Especially if you have a Thomas swimsuit.

Or just a hot bod to show off in your tankini. (I love to squish those thighs!)

Here was the whole reason for the trip!  EnterTRAINment Junction.  It was awesome again, and the little boys loved it.  I would recommend it even if you or your kids aren't crazy about trains.  It's pretty amazing.  After we were all trained-out, we had lunch and browsed through the Thomas train store.

(Notice E trying to watch the wheels)

The kids had some good naps in the car all the way home after such a fun trip.  Thanks for inviting us!

9 Months

 Weight: 17 lbs. 6 oz. (22%)

Height: 27.5" (45%)

Head Circumference: 17.25" (43%)

Miss Sammi decided to turn 9 months on us!  She is at such a fun/hard age.  I feel like her personality is starting to show through even more, and she is such a funny little thing.  The hard part is that she's super wiggly and enjoys listening to her own voice when it's completely quiet (like in Relief Society).  She is such a sweetie pie, even when her brother likes to experiment by bopping her on the head with things.  Usually I just get mad at him out of principle, since Sammi isn't usually bothered by it.

Sammi, at 9 months you:

-Have had lots of ear infections

-Are content to play with your toys on the floor

-Take 2 21/2-3 hour naps per day, usually at 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.

-You take 4 6-oz. bottles of formula per day along with your rice cereal and fruits and vegetables.

-You just started having chunks of green beans, banana, bread, and had your first taste of yogurt and ice cream (big yum!)

-You still spit up periodically and Mom can't wait until you're done so we can get the carpets cleaned

-You think it's hilarious to try to tackle your brother, and we think it's hilarious when you succeed and he's so surprised that he can't cry or complain, especially when you are laughing maniacally.

-You like playing with tags on your toys.  When we hand you your Minnie doll to go to sleep with, somehow you always find the fabric tag on her bottom and play with it with your chubby fingers.

-The bathroom fascinates you, usually because your brother hangs out in there all the time (or so it seems).

-You hate having your nose or face wiped

-You always cry when we put you in your highchair until you realize there are puffs and/or cheerios to pick up and eat.

-You still roll your ankles when you are pleased with something.

-Your new favorite game is peekaboo and you can do it around the corner or by holding up a blanket or burp cloth to your face.

-You can clap your chubby little hands and wave.

-You have four teeth- 2 on top, 2 on the bottom.

-You hate having your diaper changed.

-You love the bath because you're really good at splashing with both legs and arms at the same time and it's something you get to do with your big brother.

-You like to tease your brother by trying to get his trains and pull apart his train tracks and you don't put up much of a fight when he takes those things away from you.  That's how I know that you know you're guilty.

-You are the cutest girl in the whole world.

The kiddos got their pictures taken together when I took E for his 3-year-old pictures.  I think they're pretty cute.

Tubes

Our sweet little Sammi had tubes put in her ears this morning.  All went smoothly, and she'll hopefully be back to her normal happy self by the end of the day.  We thought she was most likely the cutest patient they've ever had...especially in that tiny hospital gown!

 It wasn't very fun to try to keep her happy when she was starving.  They don't let them have anything to eat for 3-4 hours before surgery for a baby her age.  Her surgery was scheduled for 8:30 a.m. and we had to be there at 6:30 a.m.  They said she could have juice no later than 5:30, so I decided to wake her up just before then to give her a little something so she wasn't hysterical the whole time we were waiting.

She was very solemn the whole time we were waiting and wouldn't crack a smile until just before they were going to take her in to surgery.  I'm pretty sure she knew something was going down, and she wouldn't like it.  On the up side, she did get to smell bubble gum scent as they put her to sleep.  I thought it was a little funny when they asked me whether she wanted strawberry, grape, fruit punch, bubble gum, or root beer since she has no idea what any of those things are.  But I thought bubble gum sounded happy. 

 I like that she looks like a little caged animal with her chew toy.

I'll admit, I got a little teary handing her over to the nurse.  I wanted to tell them to be sure to do a good job or something, but I figured they knew I wanted that. :)

 
After the surgeon, Dr. Wiet, reported on how everything went, we were told to go to the recovery room to meet Sammi.  Down the hall, we heard a screaming hysterical baby and my heart went out to the mother of that child, and then I realized when we turned the corner that it was MY baby screaming like that with the nurse holding her.  It broke my heart to see her so disoriented and uncomfortable.  She was happiest in Daddy's arms and settled down when she got some of that yummy apple juice again (which was only the second time she'd ever had it...the first time being at 5:25 that morning.)  She cried a lot, which they said was normal, and that I should expect her to be irritable because kids usually have little twinges of ear pain after they get tubes.  I hope she'll feel better overall though, because they drained some fluid when they placed the tubes, and now we're supposed to follow up with antibiotic drops to put in her ears.

Poor little sweetie

I'm just looking forward to taking it easy today and getting in some good snuggles.

He's Human!

Or humanistic...

I tend to get annoyed when people go on and on about how sensitive, perfect, thoughtful, helpful, AMAZING (in caps of course) their husbands are and how they're the BEST and no one else's husband can EVER measure up.  I guess it annoys me when people toot their own horns.  I really try not to be annoying and brag about our little family even though this is our family blog, (sorry if I have) but I just had to shine the spotlight on Ben for a sec.  Maybe I don't let Ben know often enough how much I love him and that I am very proud of his hard work, so this is my attempt to find a happy medium.  But if you feel yourself getting annoyed and are cursing me for being a hypocrite, then you can just stop reading.

So, we are three years into medical school and I know it will get harder from here and we'll see each other less in residency, but we have been through some challenging yet memorable times together.  It really stunk when he only got one day off for Sammi to be born because he had to be back at the hospital for his OB/Gyn rotation.  The irony 'bout killed me.  It also stunk when he immediately thereafter had to do his pediatric infectious disease rotation with our 4 week old baby at home.  The nights or weekends on call aren't my fave, especially when I have to do church by myself, and often our evenings are cut short because he has to go to bed early in order to rise early.  It probably kills him to see me zonked, probably with my mouth open, as he has to get up and go to school really early to study, followed by attempts to humiliate him and the other students (depending on the attending physician), with some patient care sprinkled in, and then come home to tired kids and wife and then curling up with a good book like Case Files: Family Medicine.  And that's not some kind of mystery novel...:)

I'm really not complaining because it hasn't been too bad.  I'm getting good practice at flying solo.  But the point is, even though he is busy, he still tries hard to strike a good balance, and last night was recognized by receiving the Gold Humanism Award along with some other students in his class.  This award is given to rising fourth-year medical students who have demonstrated exemplary attitudes and behaviors characteristic of the most humanistic physicians:  excellence, integrity, compassion, altruism, respect, empathy, and service.  He was nominated by other students in his class and there was a very nice and sincere write-up about Ben in the program.

So congrats, hon.  You're going to be a great doctor...someday.  We'll still be here when you emerge from the depths of training in a few years. :)

Easter Festivities

Our Easter was fun this year, although a very different kind of Easter with all the rain and Daddy on call at the hospital all day Saturday until Sunday morning.  But we had a great time coloring eggs!  It reminded me of all the times we used to do it as kids with our cousins. :)

 E thoroughly enjoyed dropping in the little color tablets.  (That is the best part)

 Sammi enjoyed beaming at everyone

 He was super cute trying to figure out how the dumb egg-dipper thing was supposed to work.  He kept trying to slip it over the top of the egg.

 This resulted in him just kind of tossing the eggs in.

 Sammi has tears in her eyes in this picture and E looks concerned because just seconds before I set the kids on the top step with an Easter basket for a picture and backed down a couple steps and just as I raised the camera, Sammi decided to dive forward and fall down 2 steps before I caught her midair.  (Bad mother of the year...) She was pretty sad, but then abruptly stopped crying when she saw Emerson.  He was quite distraught at having her dive out of his arms.  It was one of those things looking back that was a really bad idea. Set your nine-month-old on the top step with the three-year-old in charge of holding her...nice...But she recovered nicely.

 Sampling her egg

E finding the places that the clever Easter Bunny put the eggs.  Did you know the Easter Bunny's name is Scooper?  Neither did we until E announced it to us.  He started referring to him as "Scoop" for short.  I guess they're tight like that.

And apparently my kids have trouble looking at the camera at the same time...but here they are with their Easter spoils.  E was pretty excited about his basket, but he REALLY liked Sammi's because Scooper brought her Tangled.  He "oves her ong hair" and her "magic hair" and thinks Max the horse is hilarious.

HAPPY EASTER!

Togetherness

With all the rain this spring, we've had lots of togetherness.  Well, the rain, and sickness too.  Luckily these two are getting to be pretty good friends.

E just randomly asked to hold "Beebee" one Sunday afternoon.  It lasted about 35 seconds instead of the usual 30, but it was sweet.

E caught some yucky stomach bug, so he had a rough night.  He was so tired that he fell asleep during his Thomas show.  And yes, he likes that pink blanket.

 I am so lucky to have big laundry helpers.  They even let me give them a ride like a choo-choo train car afterward!  (Please excuse Sammi's screaming hair.  I really do try to tame it, but every time I get her up in the morning or from each of her two naps, it looks like this.  Kind of endearing, but kind of ragamuffiny too.  But I guess her beaming smile more than makes up for it.)

Easter Lesson

Tonight we had an FHE lesson about Easter from the Nursery manual.  We were trying to get the point across that Jesus was resurrected...obviously.  There was a cute little picture to color and cut out with the Nursery lesson of the tomb with the stone you could roll away and a picture of Jesus you could put inside and then take out to show that Jesus wasn't there because he was resurrected.  After coloring the tomb pink, E really liked rolling the stone in front of the opening of the tomb, rolling it open to see Jesus inside, and then taking Jesus out and checking the tomb again and seeing that he wasn't there.  We thought it was sinking in pretty well because he was saying things like this:

"Jesus is in der!  Now he's gone.  He's a-ive!"

At this point, Ben and I would prompt him by saying,

"He is alive, and he's not in the tomb because...why?" 

Silence

"Where is he?"

"Ook!  Der he is over der!" (Pointing to where we hid him.)

"No, Jesus is alive, so that means he was...?"

"Ost." (Lost)

"No...He was..."

"Missing!"

"No...He was...re-"

"Re-Dead!"  (Really dead)

"No, resurrected!"

"Resurrected!  Et's do it again one more time!  Oh no!  Jesus is stuck in the tomb!  We need to rescue him!"

5 minutes later in the midst of the closing song...

"RESURRECTED!"

Favorite Moments of the Week

1.  I took E to the bathroom at church and while he was doing his business we heard the door open and a little boy talking to his mommy.  There were a couple of seconds of silence and then Emerson yelled excitedly, "TUCKER!"  A few more seconds of silence... "EMERSON!"  Then they both made a few more comments to each other about going to the bathroom on the big potty.  But my favorite part was when I could hear Tucker's mom saying in the next stall, "Tucker, don't pee on your tie!"  Going to the bathroom at this age is a risky feat, a risky feat indeed.  We have had many a rug moistened, not to mention dribbles in the pants that you just praised for being dry.

2.  Emerson said, "Mommy, Rosie is magnificent."  (In case you missed it, Rosie is Emerson's newest and most prized engine.  She is pink.)

3.  I asked Emerson what animals he wanted to see at the zoo, and without missing a beat he replied, "The engine.  And the choo choo train tracks."  So we did.  I don't think he's even aware that they keep animals at the zoo.

4.  I told Emerson that he couldn't go in his room because Baby Sister was asleep.  I explained that she had a rough day yesterday and that she needed lots of sleep.  Emerson replied, "No Mommy.  She needs lots of wake."  Then he kept yelling up the stairs as I was getting ready that "Baby is AWAKE!"  But alas, she was not.  He did make me second guess myself a few times though even though I was right across from her bedroom AND we have the baby monitor because he was so insistent.

5.  This girl in her new outfit: (I couldn't decide which picture was the best one.)

6. Sammi can officially hook her little toes on her highchair tray.  Emerson did it for as long as he possibly could and Ben and I kind of missed it when he couldn't do it anymore.  Ben was the one who excitedly/proudly pointed it out to me one night at dinner.  He loves his little Sammikins.

7. This crooked, wrinkled-nose signature Sammi grin.

Three-Year-Old E

Height: 37 inches (40%)
Weight: 29 lbs (22%)

My dearest little E, 

You are so big!  I can't believe you are "free".  Your birthday was so much fun this year because you were really aware it was a special day and that we were celebrating you.  I can't believe that three whole years ago you were just a tiny baby who couldn't do anything for yourself.  Now you are so big and are such a big helper.  You can put your own shoes on, go potty in the big boy toilet, take your dishes to the sink, and make Sammi happy.  It's hard to picture what life was like before you were in our family.  You make me laugh every single day!  You have a very active imagination and are always thinking up new scenarios with your train friends.  I hope you never grow out of them.  I will happily sneak your trains into your mission luggage, if needs be.

You are such a good little talker and use words like "disgrace" and "frustrated", most of which you learned from your Thomas movies.  You love to read books at naptime and bedtime with either Mommy or Daddy and you love to sit on our laps.  It's not so much fun when "bebe sister" is grabbing at the pages when you are both sitting on Mommy's lap.

Your favorite things to eat are fruit snacks, string cheese, mac 'n' cheese, heart sammich (heart shaped sandwich), raisins, mini marshmallows, milk, goldfish crackers, little tomatoes that are NOT cut up, mini-wheats of any variety, and Special K "strawberry cereal".  Your favorite meal is definitely breakfast, with dinner ranking dead last.  You are finally starting to eat meat.

You still spend your days playing trains and building tracks all by yourself.  You eat, drink, and sleep trains.  You often talk Mommy into letting you take one train up to your room for naptime or bedtime.  You must always have Pooh Bear during your slumber as well, whom you rub on your cheek as you drift off, while also sucking your thumb.

You love to go places, but love to go on adventurous outings with Daddy.  You always come to Mommy for comfort and safety, but Dad is definitely where you go for fun.

You are a well-mannered little boy most of the time, but you sometimes have a hard time sharing, especially when it comes to your most prized possession--trains.  I can understand why you get frustrated when the other kids don't play with them right.  It makes me smile inside even when I'm trying to talk you into sharing so you don't have to go to time-out.

Your best little friends are William Despain and Tucker Watkins.  You love going to playgroup and talk about your little friends there as well.

I'm so excited to see you get bigger, but it really does make me sad when I realize how big you already are.  You are all signed up for preschool in the fall, and while I know you will love it, I can't help but be a little sad that you are starting school and won't be with me all the time from now on.

I feel so blessed to be your mother, E.  You are such a good boy and make our family complete.  My heart melts every time you come up to me and say "I love you Mommy."  That makes every hard moment worth it.

Keep being a good boy.

Love,

Mom and Dad

FREE!

Or...three!  E kept telling everyone that he was going to be "free". 

Free at last!  Free at last!

Ahem.

Anywho...now that I'm done cracking myself up, on to the birthday post!
 

 

 The big stack-o-presents from Mom & Dad, the grandparents, and cousins

 Opening his "Eap frog" (Leap Frog Tag Junior)

 I know he doesn't look excited...but I promise he was.  (Why does my camera always catch such weird expressions!?)

 

 Opening the #1 present of the day -- Rosie the pink engine.  Yes, she ranked above the bike.

 But he was still pretty excited.

 My mom pointed out that he'll probably have a hard time riding his bike because he'll be watching the wheels turn instead of watching where he's supposed to be steering.  This we found to be true.

After General Conference, we had a few of E's closest friends and their parents over for some cake and ice cream.  We were sad that grandparents, aunts & uncles and cousins couldn't be with us though!

  I think the candles went out from the spit, not from the massive gusts of air coming from his lungs.

 Taylee, William, Emerson, and Tucker

All in all, this guy had a great birthday!  He hasn't let Rosie out of his sight.  In fact, periodically throughout the day, I caught him gazing lovingly at her. 

And he requested that I take a few photos of her and her best friend Thomas.

 This one makes me laugh because I caught him mid-cough.  My dumb camera.