Samuel the terrible sleeper

Lately Samuel has turned into a horrid sleeper. He is a light sleeper as it is, but things have only been worse. Tonight he screamed and screamed. He worked himself up into a frenzy. Joe went in to comfort and carry him. He was relentless. I tried my hand. I gave him a sippy cup with water and held him. He seemed to calm down. Then he started to scream even more. Unfortunately for us, that meant my mom had to come to the door. She wouldn't leave till she took him upstairs.

Anyways. I don't know what is wrong. I don't know if he is hurting, which some of the cries sound like he is. I don't know if he is being a stinker, which sometimes I think he is. He has his 15 month check-up in a few weeks, but I don't know if I can take much more of this every night. This morning he woke up at 5 crying. He was still sleepy and wasn't really hungry. Part of me wonders if it has to do with the renal pelvic dilation before he was born, but I am not sure. I need to talk to the doctor this week if things don't improve. :P

Just another day with my boys

Can I say I love my boys? Well, I love them so much. They make my heart so happy. Joseph has some funny sayings that I don't quite know why he chooses to say them. For instance, when I am sitting him on the toilet, he usually says, "It has to be a comfortable age." He then waits till he is comfortable before he lets me let him go. The water also needs to be "the right age" when he is taking a bath. I think that he is referring to the depth, but I can't really be sure.



Joseph and Samuel have a lot of fun interacting with each other. Often, when I carry Samuel around, he will whip his little head around looking for his big brother and then laugh uncontrollably when he sees him. Joseph loves to stomp around, make funny faces, and make his little brother laugh. On this particular day, I had just changed Samuel and was washing my hands. I walked into the bedroom and found that Samuel had pushed his diaper box against the bed and was using it to climb on and off. He finally learned that if he goes down backwards, he can get off without hurting himself.



Samuel loves pasta. When he feeds himself, he usually misses a lot. It is funny to watch him stuff his face and miss. He does like to try the open palm method, which allows a lot of his food to fall out of his hand before it reaches his mouth. I sweep after every meal because he is a messy eater. Tonight I left him too close to the table and he threw his plate on the floor, scattering corn and pasta everywhere.



Working on his fine motor skills. He loves peas because he can grab them easily, squeeze them and eat them...plus they are just tasty. I love those cute chubby hands. He has also learned to slide puzzle pieces on his chunky knob puzzle into the right place.



This is the house that mom built in the toy room for Joseph. He has gone "shopping" and the house is full of books, toys, movies and other random things that he feels are necessary for his home. I guess it is ready for when he marries Nahli, who today asked him if it was okay for them to get married. She is just following up to be sure he doesn't get cold feet. :) Of course, now Joseph begs for me to build this house everyday so he can play in it. Each time I build it, I need to tear it down at nap time and at bed time.

Happy birthday to Joe!!!

Happy 29th to my handsome husband! He didn't want a cake, but we wanted to sing to him. I figured this was a good alternative. :)



For dinner, we went to Goodwood BBQ. Joseph was very excited all day because he knew it was daddy's birthday. Before he left for work, we sang to him and brought him one of his presents (Raspberry Ice). While at the restaurant (warning: gross bathroom talk about to occur), Joseph had an accident while in the bathroom and he got me as well (number 1 if you must know). Luckily, I had his school backpack in the car and they have us keep a change of pants and underwear in there in case something happens while he is in class. I felt bad for the lady in the next stall, because she was tooting a lot, and Joseph looked at me and said loudly, "Mommy, what is that noise?" I was so embarrassed for the lady. Afterwards, Joseph struck up a conversation with her and luckily did not bring up anything about the noise.

Prior to dinner, we went to look at a couple of houses. It looks like we are staying in Utah for the short term.

Haircuts

Samuel before his haircut.



Samuel after his haircut. His hair is so thin and light, it almost looks like he is bald. It is especially blond looking when it is short, except in the front and in the very back.



Daddy giving Joseph a haircut. He has done so much better since he realized the clippers don't cut your skin and only cut hair.



Joseph on his first day to a new school. Notice how long his hair is in this picture. On a side note, the teacher thinks he is pretty advanced for his age. I just want him to do well.

Easter morning

The Easter bunny dropped off a couple of baskets for the boys. Joseph took this picture of them. His basket is dominating the picture. There were dinosaurs transformers in his basket. They are cheap and will only last a few times of play, but Joseph loved them. I think next year the Easter bunny will get something different. :)



Joseph with the chocolate bunny that the Easter bunny left him. He only gnawed at the ears a few times before saying, "I don't want to eat to much candy because it will make my tummy sick." I was impressed with his self control.



Our boys with their Easter baskets. I couldn't get them to look at the camera at the same time and I couldn't get Samuel to sit down for the picture. They are cute. They entertain each other a lot.



Our car looked nice and clean after the snow melted. It was all gone by the afternoon. A few days before, it was very windy and rainy. That left our car splotchy and dirty. This snow helped clean it. Of course, yesterday it was windy and rainy and got our car dirty again.



When I looked out the window on Easter morning, this is what I saw. Very beautiful, but very cold. General conference weekends are generally wet and rainy and a little cold here, but this surprised me.

Sweet! 16 that is...

Joe got invited by his company to go to Syracuse vs. Butler and Xavier vs. Kansas State sweet 16 games in SLC. Wells Fargo, the bank that does business with Joe's company, had 2 tickets along with a VIP package for SirsiDynix. Joe got invited and he had a blast. They were about 20 rows up and the games were exciting. The double overtime assured that Joe didn't get home till well after 11 p.m. All in all, it was fun and exciting, and a definite perk for Joe.

Sick

The past few days seem so long. Yesterday was a fairly normal day to begin with and around 10 a.m., Samuel started to get fussy. He seemed tired and I just thought it was because he wanted a nap. We were at Joseph's school and I was in the director's office. She and her financial person were out because they had been sick. Well, Samuel soon followed suit. He puked all over me multiple times. I was grossed out, but didn't vomit as well. I had to strip him down and try and clean him, then find a way to clean the room. I took Joseph out of class and we went home.

All day, for the next 12 hours, he vomited repeatedly. At its worse, he vomited every 10 to 15 minutes. Not a fun day. I put him to sleep on some blankets in the living room and "slept" on the couch. He puked one last time at around 11 p.m. and then he fell asleep till 2:30 in the morning. He was really thirsty. I gave him a little bit and then tried to get some rest. Unfortunately for me, I didn't sleep too well because I was feeling kind of sick. Yeah...I vomited at about 6 in the morning. I had a fever most of today. I kept Joseph home from school because he ate some yogurt and said his tummy hurt. Sad really because today was going to be his first soccer game. Last night he slept in his cleats, shin guards, and shorts, with the ball next to his bed.

At about 1 this afternoon, Joseph started to vomit as well. Apparently there is a nasty bug going around and lots of people are sick. Edward was sick, Esteban is not feeling well. I just hope Joe doesn't get sick also. Samuel was much better today. I felt bad because I felt so sick I couldn't really hold him. Samuel was happy to eat real food and I know Joseph is ready to eat also. I know I am. Tonight Joseph also started to describe his vomit to daddy. He had a lot of orange gatorade to drink, plus the yogurt (I will leave the rest to your imagination).

A few things Joseph said:
"Virus...stop making me sick."
"I feel a little bit sick and a LOT better."
"There is only 1 virus left in my tummy."
"I will be the best soccer player. I have the best shoes."

Tonight I took Joseph to meet his soccer coach. They were having team pictures. Joseph was able to be in it. It was freezing outside. My ears were hurting and Joseph was ready to put his coat back on during their team pictures. We stayed to watch for a few minutes. He is sooooo excited to play.