What warms a mothers heart

Dear Sami and Jack,
One of the things I love to watch is the two of you playing together, laughing at one another, and loving each other.  It warms my heart to see you two interacting.  You are both still so small (3 and 1), yet it is obvious that you love each other very much.  Sami, you get excited when your little brother wakes up in the morning and from his nap.  You say, "baby boy's awake" and you run upstairs and go into his room and climb into his crib to be with him. Jack, you just have to be wherever your sister is. She generates a lot of excitement for you and you just don't want to miss out on anything. When you were about 13 months old you learned how to give kisses and when asked you would give your big sister several kisses in a row.
Tonight at bedtime, instead of rushing the two of you into your separate rooms, I allowed Jack to join Sami in her bed for a few minutes.  You wanted to be as close to Sami as you could and the two of you sat and sucked on your milk bottles together and enjoyed the display of stars and the moon on Sami's ceiling. What a delight to see the two of you enjoying one another's company.  I pray that the two of you develop a bond of love for each other that lasts your lifetimes.

In hindsight, I really should have gathered my emotions and taken 30 seconds to grab the camera for this memorable Sami episode  It had been a busy morning and I had just put both kids down for a nap, added the finishing touches to my roast beef sandwich and had plans to do a little relaxing during this rare time of peace and quite.  What's that I hear? Sounds like Sami hollaring upstairs...it sounds like she means business.  Probably just another dirty diaper (this had been the routine for the past five days in a row just after settling in for naptime).  I enter her room prepared for the knock-me-down, make-my-eyes-water, wave of stench.  But oh no, not this time. Something very different...there she was standing in her bed covered in diaper rash ointment from head to toe, looking like a little wild banshee.  She had emptied the entire container of thick white cream and had smeared it everywhere...on the sheets, pillow, blanket, window blinds...get the picture? And she just looked at me with wonder, like she had no idea why I had such a look of horror on my face. 

I think I'll laugh about this in a few days. Right now I just want to remain a tad bit bitter that my big plans of alone time were derailed and instead, I have a pile of additional laundry to deal with.  And not only that, but while I was dealing with the chaos upstairs, my husband ate my roast beef sandwich :(.

Samantha Leads the Way

I love this picture because it is a perfect example of how Samantha, when she wants to take you somewhere, is all business.  She grabs you by the finger and leans her body forward in order to get the maximum leverage so that there is no question as to where you are supposed to go.

Today Sami inturrupted grandpa from his yard work and immediately hijacked him.  Taking him by the finger she led him down the street. I stayed behind to continue with some yard work where my dad had left off.  I kept looking down the street, expecting to see them returing home any minute.  To my surprise, they were gone for quite a while (about 45 minutes) so I figured the two social bugs either stopped to talk to some neighbors or they went a park down the street. Well, it turned out that they went to the park. Dad was curious where she would take him and allowed her to lead the entire way (about a quarter mile). She knew exactly where she was going and when to cross the street for the left turn to get to the park. I thought that was pretty amazing for a 19 monther.  I guess she really pays attention when she is in the stroller on our long walks. 

Baby Jack Update

On Tuesday, June 29th I had another ultrasound after my regular OB appointment.  Little Jack is doing very well and growing quickly.  He is already 3 1/2 pounds which puts him about a week ahead of schedule for weight. This did not surprise me since the ultrasounds from the very beginning (this was the 4th one) have been indicating that we are about a week ahead of the official due date which is September 13th.  So I am really hoping and praying that our little man will be born early, maybe even on Labor Day - who knows!  Otherwise, by the official due date, I would be giving birth to an 8 1/2 pounder!!  I know....I'm a total wuss. :)

Sami and the DVD

So today, little Sam comes across one of her Veggie Tales DVD cases. She opens it up and pulls out the DVD.  She then marches across the room, up the stairs to the TV room and stops just short of the DVD player.  After a brief examination of the DVD, she puts it up to her mouth, exhales a couple of times and then wipes it off on her pants.  What a little smartie pants, LOL!  The scarry thing is that it probably won't be long until she figures out how to use the remote controls!!