Stages in Life

Some things I've recently realized....follow me on this:

Have you ever realized that we all go through weird stages in life? Think about it. When we're newborn...we need our parents. Our parents and our parents only. Jump ahead a few months...we need our Mommas. This is the stage that Sam is currently at. He wants his Mommy and Mommy only. I don't care what time it is, day or night. I don't care if it's cold or warm...he wants his Mommy. He reaches for me, he cries for me, he crawls to me. This is such a beautiful stage. Since we live far away for the time being, really, everyone else is a stranger. He doesn't fully understand the concept of family since we live so far away. He knows Mommy and Daddy.

Jump ahead a couple years (relating to MY siblings) and you go through a stage of sibling rivalry. Being seen with your brother is just terrifying and lets face it, embarassing. If my brothers weren't embarassing enough, they always seemed to find a way to humiliate me.

Next, we're in Middle School and High School. This is the "I don't want to be seen with parents" stage. And, suddenly, you realize that your siblings really aren't too embarassing after all. It's sorta like freedom.

Fast forward to college...after college graduation...moving away....stage. You realize that your family is who formed you. They are your solid groud. They will always be there for you. I have been incredibly  blessed with such an amazing family and I seriously thank my lucky stars everyday. Sure, we have our ups and downs...but really, they are all awesome in so many different ways. We're all incredibly different and unique and that's what I miss.

I miss my parents. I miss my siblings. I miss my grandparents. I miss my aunts and my uncles. I miss my cousins. I miss HOME. Sure, we talk on the phone quite frequently. We talk, and we talk A LOT. It's in different ways. Whether it's on the phone, by email, texting or Facebook. I talk to my family every. single. day. I love my family, and I love them very much. I love that they will go out of their way for me.

Brandon came to visit me. And I found myself remembering the "old" times where I would dread seeing him. I didn't want anything to do with him. He wasn't anything like me. But, yesterday, I found myself incredibly excited to see him. Not only for me...but, for my baby. Sam loves his Uncle Brandon...and his face just lights up when he sees him. Why?? I have no idea. But, I like it. It's amazing how much you evolve in a few years.

Before college,  you would have never heard me say: "Man, I wish I could see my family today"...but, sometimes it gets taken for granted when they're there all the time.

On that note, here's a few photos of our day today!

Time for a New Update!

Where to even start?!?!

I don't even know where I left off at....

Hmmm.... :)

Well, we went to Iowa! We had a short, yet long 16 days in the Midwest. It was long, it was fun, it was busy, but I was glad to come home. I love coming home for the fact that Sam gets to spend time with family. We miss family time more than you could ever believe! When you have such a close tight knit family, it really stinks leaving that and only being able to go to a few outings a year. We have so much family, and it's really hard to see everyone in two weeks. Two weeks really isn't that much time.

We'll be home again in September, but it's not going to be a "let's get together" type of visit. Sean is in a wedding, and the time home is really short. Planning get togethers won't happen, I'm sure.

So, we're home and we're already emailing, calling, Skyping and texting daily. Surprised??! You shouldn't be. Back to the same ol' routine of Sean at work, me home. Me at work, Sean home.

Sam has grown,
Sam is learning new things,
Sam is such a joy to be around!

June 12, 2011

We took a trip back to Iowa! Sam and I decided to take a last minute trip home to go to a couple of occasions. It was nice to just get away for a weekend or so. Although it was pretty busy, it was more "laid back" than trips prior. We went to visit all of our family at the cemetary to decorate grave stones...Call me weird, but it was peaceful and nice to have Sam "meet everyone"...Yeah, I'm weird. My family has always been a very close knit family and I have lots of fond memories with all of my grandparents out there...You don't realize how much you miss everyone until you go out there to visit. Also,  Mom had a cookout...so, people came to us...we didn't have to drive all over the place. Same with Grandma and Grandpa. Also, we got to celebrate Claira's first birthday!!!!!  I was so excited to be able to come back for that.

Not to mention, that gorgeous baby girl I got to meet!! How perfect of timing was that?? She wasn't even a week old before I got to see her. I probably could have cried. Welcome to this world, Miley Ann!!! Auntie Manda can't wait to see you again in a couple of weeks!!!



Shout out to Dad, Cathy and Mom for making that possible....very much appreciated.

We are SOOOOO excited to come back for the 4th of July. It's going to be super nice to come back with SEAN for once!!! We both love the 4th of July and are crazy excited to let everyone experience that with Sam. Since we'll be back for at least a week, we'll be able to see more people and spend more time with everyone. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE family time!

Hey..Hey...Hey!!!

What a crazy couple of weeks!! Sean has been busy at work, things have been nuts. He rarely gets a day off, and when he does, he's always crazy tired. But don't let that fool you, we've made the most of it. We had our second date night since Samson was born. We decided to forfeit a free limo ride and kept it laid back...we went to a dinner and a movie. It was weird not having Sam with us.

Big shout out to Robin for being AWESOME!! I love having her so close, we really trust her when it comes to watching Sam. Even if he did scream...scream...and scream some more for her. Not only does Sam love his Aunt Robin...he also loves Nate. Sam will just smile and smile and smile when he sees Nate. That's what I hate most about being away from home, I wish everyone could be smiled at by my little man! He is growing and changing daily.

He had his 4 month check up not too long ago, I don't think I ever updated on that. Well, we (I) had a few concerns about him being on his belly and raising his shoulders and head up..along with his feet up while he was on his belly. He just wouldn't do it for us. So, without saying anything to the Dr, the first thing he did was put him on his belly. So, what does our little turd bucket do??? Without hesitation he raises his head...shoulders...and feet right in the air and arched his back like a champ. I just laughed and shook my head. So, later that week...I take a trip to the restroom...come back to find Sam on his belly...back arched perfectly. He sees me and immediately puts his head on the floor and screams...See??!!! He IS a turd bucket!!!

So, the problem we had had was that he was rolling over like crazy, but would get stuck on his belly. He just couldn't figure out how to roll back over to his back. Well, game over. He's figured it out. He's all over the place now!! We can't dare take our eyes off of him...I can't imagine what it's going to be like when he learns how to crawl!!! Man, oh man...he's growing up too fast!!

So, Sam and I decided to go shopping today. Sam likes to go shopping and his mommy likes taking him. It wears him out! We got him a Jumperoo and....HE LOVES IT!! He bounces and bounces. Goes in circles and circles. And, it plays lots of annoying music. I guess I better get used to it :) And better yet, I got an awesome deal!! I was going to order the exact one online this week, but decided to go look at a store called Once Upon a Child...it's a store of secondhand kid/baby stuff. I've been there a few times and always seem to buy a lot. Well, this jumperoo was originally $90 and I got it for $40!! Now, that's what I call a DEAL! Not only was it cheap, it was put together and there was already batteries in it! :) Hot dog!

Oh, I forgot. Sean remembered me on Mother's Day. I had reminded him and reminded him for a few weeks ahead of time...but, kinda went hush hush closer to the time. He knew what I wanted (in general), it was just seeing if he actually remembered. And he did!! I got another Willow Tree figurine. Shout out to Cathy for getting me into those! Oh, and he didn't just give it to me in the box that it came in. He bought a gift bag and all! I love that guy :) Not to mention, I came home from work the other day and he cleaned...the whole house! Impressive, Sean. Makes me wonder what he's up to and trying to suck up about.. Just joking.. :)

Have a good week!!

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted!

Once again, life has been pretty crazy! We took a trip back to Iowa, it was nice. But, it was nice to get home, too. It was nice to have Sammy see family again for them to see how much he has grown. It was also nice for him to meet everyone else. I know Sammy has grown, but I really didn't realize how much until this past week when a friend had a baby that weighed the same as Sammy. It's sad I don't truely "remember" how small he was. I've been browsing all of our pictures that the Doctor took while in the Operating Room.

It made me look back at the past three months and makes me so thankful for everything. He was so small, yet he's grown SO MUCH! People may think he's still small, but he's a monster compared to what he was! That's what stinks about being so far away...no one really knew how small he really was. But, then again...it also probably makes those who saw him happy to see how much he's really grown.

I got all caught up on his baby book. Bout time, huh?! :) All I need to do is choose pictures to put in there. There's specific spots for his birth pictures, going home pictures, hospital visitors pictures, first at home visitors, first trip out, first holiday, etc etc etc. I'll have to go make copies of the pictures, just to make sure I have a copy in the picture album.

Speaking of pictures, I think I'm going to go get his pictures taken again. This time, I think we're just going to do a few shots. We went kinda crazy on the amount of pictures we purchased last time. I only plan to do a single package which includes something like 1 8x10, 4 5x7s, and wallets. We probably won't be getting lots to hand out to everyone....eh, sorry. I really just want them for "record" and for something to look back on. I am very thankful to have so many pictures of when I was a baby, I want Samson to have the same. God knows I've taken tons of my own, but I want to get more professional ones taken.

Man, I wish I would have scanned Sean and I's baby pictures while we were back home. I could have put a "poll" up on here! :) We came to the conclusion that he looks like BOTH of us....for now ;).

Until next time, my friends!   =)

It's been a while!

It's been a while since I updated this thing. Turns out, we've been busy bee's...surprised?! :)

I started back to work last week--it was kind of bittersweet. It's really nice to get out of the house, being able to socialize again. Work is my social network!! Good thing my boss doesn't know about my blog! ;)

Sammy has been doing good. Poor little guy had to have surgery last week. He's such a little trooper.

About that.... Last Saturday, Sammy had a couple episodes where he would projectile vommit across the room. Sean was gone, and it scared the crap out of me. I thought for sure it was something in my milk that was causing him to have a reaction of some sorts, so we started to give him some formula. This worked for a couple of days until Tuesday night and Wednesday. Starting Tuesday night, he was puking everything up again. I was sooo confused. He didn't act sick, he didn't have a fever, he was just puking everything up.

So, I call the clinic on base and the nurse went to talk to the doctor. They give me a call back and say it was something it was Pyloric Stenosis. Told us to go to the ER right away. So, I go pick Sammy up from the sitter. He went to a friends house for a few hours because I had a Dr appt and a few other errands to run. That, and she volunteered :) Anyways, he still hadn't kept anything down. I'm hysterical and crying. Sean decided to meet me over at her house. We go to the ER and OHH MAN! Did Sammy cry or what!

And with that, I cried too. They couldn't find a vein big enough to put his IV's in...and so he cried and cried and cried. And, so did I. :( He was sooo hungry and he was dehydrated from puking everything up. It seemed like we were there forever. They brought the ultrasound techs in to look at his stomach...I knew something was wrong when they said "go get the doctor"...ugh....here we go. The doctor came in and told us he was "positive" for Pyloric Stenosis. They left and another doctor came in and told us we'd have to go to Denver Childrens Hospital for surgery...

Via an ambulance. Sammy got his first ambulance ride. He was sooo good and slept the whole trip down to Denver. So, we get to Denver, have  another ultrasound to verify it again. Verified. He was wide awake pretty much throughout this whole thing. He kept giving those pretty nurses googly eyes. We're going to have our hands full, that's for sure!!

He went in for surgery around 12:30am on Friday the 11th. The next 6 hours sucked terribly. He couldn't eat until 4:30 that morning so he screamed pretty much all night/morning. After he was able to eat, it was only 2oz and it was only a teaser for him. He was not happy when he couldn't eat more food than that. I was up all night while Sean was sleeping like an angel at the hotel....grrr! I was so exhausted....we got discharged around 5 that night because Sammy was keeping all of his feedings down. Whew.

I fell asleep on the way home...woke up to eat some chinese food that we had delivered and was in bed by 7:30 that night and slept until 10 that next morning. Sean was up allllllll night with Sammy. He woke up about every 2 hours I guess. Poor little guy, but I slept through the whole night. So glad Sean stayed up with him that night, I wouldn't have been able to because I was so emotionally and physically exhausted. Kudos to all those moms who have to stay in the hospital for weeks and months...You're stronger than I am.

Little man is doing a lot better and back to eating (just about) as much as he was eating before. He's strong like his mommy....his daddy would still be crying in the hospital bed from being in pain!! ;)

Busy!

Our lives have been very busy lately! Busy, but fun. Hectic, but exciting. Sleepless, but full of love. Samson is already a whole month old and I can't believe how fast time has gone. Not long before I head back to work, and I'm not really looking forward to it. It'll be ok though, I'll probably cry!

I've acquired a new fatuation of buying baby books. I've also acquired a tendency to cry while reading sappy childrens books. Sammy just sits in my lap, wrapped up in a baby blanket and looks at the pages while I'm reading. I've bought a bunch of books that I enjoyed reading while I was a little kid. I remember reading as a big bonding experience with my Grandma when I was little. I've even called her asking for book titles. It's amazing what such a simple thing can do to a kid :) Enough of the sappy-ness.

I really want to come home to have Sammy meet everyone! But, unfortunately- it's going to be a while. Maybe the 4th of July? Who really knows. We have a lot of things going on in the next month for sure. And, I'm not particularly going to want to leave work after being gone for 6 weeks. We'll have to plan for sure. It's a guaranteed that we'll be home at the end of September for a wedding that Sean is in. Thinking about it, it's going to be really hard to come home--we'll have so much to bring with us. Sammy uses the swing and bouncer on a regular basis. We have a stroller to fit in the trunk, a carseat in the back seat...man! Good thing Dad and Cathy have a Pack n' Play that we will be able to use while we stay there. I'm sure it wouldn't fit in our vehicle! Sammy's grandma and grandpa Johnson's house is going to be transformed from being "baby free" for 20 years to being baby central! Man, I'm homesick!

But, guess what?! Time will fly and before too long, we'll be home. Things always get better :)