November fun!

Fall is such a fun time here.  There are so many events.  But we have been taking it a bit easy lately.  Not sure if I am fighting a cold or if it is just allergies.  The humidifier has helped, but I still have a bit of a cough and so I have been home more.  Nick even taught for me Tuesday since I had almost no voice.  What a great husband!  But we still have a lot of fun and I am feeling much better now.

Sam has been having a great time dressing up.  She loves being a princess.  And it is hard to convince her to ever wear pants.

We also had our good friends over that we swapped care with last year.  They now have a new baby and Sam was really good with her.  She enjoyed holding her in the chair and being sure she had something to chew on.  She even played some peek a boo.

 She also had a blast with Samuel.

They did a lot of drawing, including in a book.

We got great news that Sam's teacher does not have cancer.  She had her thyroid out, so it will be a bit of a recovery, but we are so thankful that she does not have to deal with cancer.  Sam has had a couple of harder days at school, crying a bit and saying she wanted me.  I am not sure if the new people in the room as subs or just the change is causing it or if they were just some tired and cranky days.  Hopefully she will recover and go back to being excited for school.

And a couple of cute Sam stories.  We often watch the news in the morning.  I just turn it off if it gets too disturbing.  Sam now has learned to identify the president.  She called him "Bama" for a little while, but she now knows he is President Obama.   He was with the VP one day and when she asked who he was I said he was the President's friend.  So now she asks where his friend is if Obama is alone.  I also had to explain who the president was.  She knows a little about how we live in America and now knows that Obama runs the country.  She said the other day that she wants to run the county, but not be president.  So I am thinking chief of staff, maybe speaker of the house :)

The other story is also news related.  There was a kind of sad story about a dog that got dragged behind a car and was now being adopted.  She asked what happened to the god and I told her a mean man had hurt him.  She said that someone needed to find the mean man and put him in time out.  I could not agree more!  She is a wise little girl.

More Halloween Fun!

 Just because we went trick or treating on last Thursday doe snot mean our Halloween fun was done.

We found this Ariel costume on sale at Kohl's and Sam was so excited.  It is way too big, but she loves wearing it around the house.

We also went to an event the art museum hosts that is taught by a mother's club friend.  It is called Jr. Spook and involves non-messy arts and crafts.  So kids wear costumes and do Halloween related activities.

Here is Sam getting help decorating a mini white pumpkin.  She loves it and even took it to school today to show it off.

Here she is playing with homemade playdoh.

And playing with the massive amounts of Mr. Potato Heads.  There was even a corn one.

We also went by a house near us that decorates with a ton of pumpkins.  It is even on wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenova,_West_Virginia#The_Pumpkin_House ).  I think it was like 3,336 this year.  Sam really enjoyed seeing them, but she did not like the choreographed show.  This picture was taken with Nick's phone, so it is not as good.  But you can get the idea.

And here is the pumpkin I want next year.  So cute!

We are doing well.  I am fighting off a cold and sound like an anti-smoking ad, which makes it hard to teach.  I also need to start recording lectures for next semester, but am having to wait until I sound better.  I go in on Wednesday for my next OB check, but I did learn from one of the emails that I get that the baby is the size of a papaya, which is amusing.  Nick is super busy trying to edit papers for publication, get his lectures ready for his online course for next semester, and all his other stuff for classes and research.

Sam is doing great.  She has been behaving much better and is back to being majority delight, minority challenge.  She is always doing cute things.  She spins around until she gets "bizzy".  She loves scribbling and will often tell you it is your name or such.  She was giving an art work to Nick and he asked what one scribble was.  She said, "That's a circle."  He said, "Yes, of course.  What about this one."  She said, "That's just a scribble."  She had such a duh tone that it was quite amusing.  You just never know what will come out of her mouth.

We also got some bad news about Sam's teacher.  One is pregnant and although she is due on the 24th she will most likely deliver early and the doctor said she may have to stop working as early as Friday.  Her other teacher is sick and will have to have surgery on Wednesday and be out for 10 days.  We are worried about both of these wonderful women who have been so amazing with Sam and her classmates.  We are also worried about all the kids having to deal with all the turmoil.  The next few weeks may be a bit unsettling.  We are hoping for good health and a safe delivery!

Trick or Treat!

So around these parts, we trick or treat on the Thursday before Halloween.  So here are the pictures from Thursday night.  The other different thing is that people sit out on their porches to pass out candy, so no doorbell ringing.  It meant we had to leave Nick behind to sit in the cold while Sam and I walked around our neighborhood.  We got quite a haul.  I had to carry some in my pockets to fit more.

Here she is right before we went out.  You can see our pumpkin that Sam helped design, Nick carved, and I scooped out the guts of.  A true family effort.

Here we both are.  She was so excited.

Friday was Sam's class party.  We were allowed to go even though it was not a normal day.  She had no nap on Thursday because the classroom toilet was being repaired and the lights and noise kept her up.  And then no nap on Friday because the party was at 1:00 and I figured with all the junk and sugar, it was best to go hang out at a friends rather than try and force a nap.

Her is Sam and a few friends.  Her teacher is very pregnant, due in November, and went as a bun in the oven.    Sam was part of the parade, but she would not let go of my hand to get any pictures of that.

We still have an event at the art museum tomorrow, but it is so strange to have most of Halloween done before October 31st.

Also, Happy Birthday to Papa tomorrow!

Halloween is almost here!

Another crazy day!  Sam was not enthused about going to school.  She did not even want a kissing hand, but she came back at the last second and gave me one.  She has mostly been fine with drop off, even asking me to leave if I stay talking to other parents or the teachers.  She did well at school though, except she had her first big melt down.  And it was over pumpkin guts.  They let the kids help clean out the pumpkin and she cried when her hands got yucky.  They said it took a while to calm her down, even after washing her hands.  When we got home, we had no power.  We almost made it to the park to waste some time, but when I talked to Nick he told me they had expanded the tornado watch.  So we went back home and hung out until time to pick him up.  He got done early and we grabbed a quick dinner before going to a mother's club event.  It was a trunk or treat event at a local school and we had a table to pass out candy and give out flyers to recruit more members.  It had to be moved into their small gym because of the storm.  Sam enjoyed hanging out in her Fancy Nancy dress and running around, but when it was time to go to tables they called up the kids and it was so packed that no one could move.  They stood there for 10 minutes, I am not even exaggerating, it was ridiculous.  They finally lured some kids to go play games, but Sam was over the standing in line and being pushed.  We let her have some of the candy from our table.  We headed home for bedtime, but we did not end up getting power back until 9:15 or so.  

Here is Sam trying to not have her picture taken.  The dress is way too big, so it was just over her clothes.

 Here she is eating some chocolate.

This morning I took Sam to have her picture taken at Picture Me.  I joined their club when I did her birthday pictures.  And I had a coupon from doing a survey from before.  So I thought it would be fun to do a back to school in a cute dress and a Halloween picture in her actual costume.  I do not even know why I bother.  Every time I go, they frustrate me.  They do not let you combine anything.  And then they get annoyed when you do not want their $400 package.  They also only take like 2 pictures per pose, so they often miss the great smile or looking at the camera.  I really miss being near a Portrait Innovations.  There is just almost nothing around here.  But we did get a few cute shots and they ended up being an okay deal, just frustrating because the photographer was acting like I could combine. I will not be rejoining the Picture Me club.  I did get a lead on a local photographer for birthday pictures.

We go out for trick or treating tomorrow night.  It is a tradition to avoid having kids out when college students are partying.  And Sam has a class party on Friday and an event at the Art Museum on Sunday.  I will post pictures of her in her actual costume after those.

Ups and downs...aka the terrible twos

Wow, this is my 205th post.  Sam has been a bit challenging recently.  She is usually loving and wonderful, but she is very sensitive to lack of sleep and preschool had 2 days last week in which they had extra outside time and cut naps short.  Being tired led to rough afternoons and bedtimes, usually carrying over to the next day and thus spiraling the sleep problem.  She gets upset far too easily and has quite a temper when she is tired.  Our systems of rewards, timeouts and taking away toys was no match for the Sam that was at our house last week.  She is doing much better now, so we hope for a better week.  The joke around the house last week was something along the line of, "And you wanted another one of these" :)

 My mom's friend from Krystal, Janie, sent Sam this witch mask and she has enjoyed being scary.  Although she is super excited about being a princess for Halloween.  I tried to sell something more original or an animal, but she was insistent.  And she really liked the costume from Old Navy and they had it on sale, so that is her costume.  Although I think she was really excited because it came with a wand, even though she has I think 4 wands already.

I think this is from when we were watching football.  Saturdays are full of football in our house.  Sam was funny on Saturday.  She got down and said, "Pause it."  I assumed she just wanted to sing us a song since she has been very big into making up songs lately and she wants a very attentive audience.  Instead she had to go to the bathroom and said, "I don't want to miss any football."  She is very cute echoing whatever we say, like great catch or Go Irish, get the touchdown.  Or even Dud, you should have caught that.

Helping Daddy make tortilla pizzas.

Here she is with a doll that was mine.  It is no longer as big as she is.

Here she is in May 2009 with the same doll.

Here is another older photo that I just downloaded.  Our friend Ray took it when we were at their place in July.

Here she is giving a concert.  She loves playing her guitar and singing.

And here is the video of the same concert series. 

I am doing well.  Hard to believe I am already 23 weeks along. This pregnancy feels like it is flying by.  I know the next few months will be super fast as we move between Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Sam's birthday and the last few weeks of preparation.  I am enjoying the second trimester without sickness and without being too huge, but this semester is pretty rough.  The baby is very active, which is reassuring.  I am not the best sleeper with being a little uncomfortable and having to go to the bathroom anytime I wake up, but I know it will only get worse, so I am enjoying any amount I can get.  Of course, it does not help that Sam has an atomic inner clock and is up before 7 almost everyday.  

More Fall Fun!

We continue to stay busy.  Sam and I went with the moms club to a nearby park.  It is called Harveytown and is a farm theme.  It is my favorite park in the Huntington area.  Here is Sam on the play structure.

And with a friend on one of the statues.  She loved this sheep.

 We also went to a health fair that included inflatables.  Nick and I are also keeping busy with grading.  We just gave out tests and a few assignments.  Last night was a big night, too.  Sam's school had an event at the local McDonald's called McTeacher night.  Teachers helped serve in exchange for 20% of the nights profits.  We enjoyed the event a lot.  Ronald McDonald was there giving out stickers, frisbees and personalized, autographed photos.  There was also an amazing face painter, the best I have ever seen.  He did very elaborate paintings.  Sam just wanted something with pink in it, so she ended up with a butterfly.  It was sad that it had to be washed off.

Here she is sporting her face art on the way home.  

Last night was also a big first for Sam.  Nick and I had tickets to see Daniel Tosh, from Comedy Central's Tosh.0 show.  It was somewhat late, so we got references for babysitters and have been having them come so Sam could get used to the idea.  She loves having them come over to play with her.  And it means fun meal and a movie.  Last night was the first time a babysitter put her to bed.  It has always been Mama, Daddy or Nana, with an occasional Papa thrown in there.  She did very well and we are lucky to have found such great babysitters thanks to a good friend who was willing to share.  

Another funny story.  Sam's logic is so impressive.  Yesterday I lost a logic battle with her.  I was wearing the red shirt from the picture above.  Sam loves to help me get dressed and she always wants me to wear a necklace.  She said I should wear a purple heart necklace.  I said it was too long and did not really match, meaning purple and red.  She looked at me and said, "But it's a heart and your shirt has hearts on it."  Which it did.  Game point to Sam.  I wore the necklace.  I think we may be in for some trouble with logic like hers at 2 and a half.  

Preschool update

I forgot to include this in the last update.  Sam has been doing great taking naps in preschool, except for yesterday when she was put next to a girl that does not really nap and they kept chatting.  It has made life a lot easier to have her nap out of the way and not have to rush after class.

I also wanted to share an interview they recently did to learn about each kid.  A lot is pretty standard, Sam said that she had 2 dogs and no siblings currently.  She said her favorite activity is dancing.  Her favorite color is purple, which she sometimes exchanges with pink, depends on the day.  Her favorite toy was reported as lion, so I am not really sure what that was is since she has a few stuffed lions and none seem to be a favorite.  And the shocker was that she reported that her favorite food is carrots, even though she will hardly eat them now.  They must have had them for lunch that day and it was her favorite of the lunch.  I would put her favorite at fruit snacks.  She also really likes french fries.  In terms of healthy food, she really likes fruit and a current huge hit is edamame.