Sounds Like...

Another Sam Conversation tonight at Target:

S: Mom, I'm sooooooooooooo thirsty. I need some water.
M: Sorry bud, you'll have to wait until we get in the car.
S: But I need water REALLY BAD. I'm running out of energy and when I run out of energy it sounds like "Ppffffffffffffff".

D'Oh Baby!

Sam made me this many-layered, fat-free, zero calorie Playdoh birthday cake--candles and all. What women doesn't love that? By the way, my birthday's March 3rd. If you want to get me a present, you can pray your heart out for Chad and me--we are meeting a birth mother next week and hope the Spirit can communicate to her whether or not we are to be her baby's parents (hopefully, it the whether option).

Sew Cute

For Sam's preschool co-op, I had the kids "quilt" by pulling yarn through holes punched in paper. I was surprised to see Noelle had quilted half her paper without help--a skill that some of the 3 and 4 year olds could barely master.

The Wet Bob

My kids wanted to bob for apples the other night. Where do they come up with these? I didn't want to waste entire apples, so I opted for grapes. Where do I come up with these? Side note, grapes don't float. My kids didn't care.

As I'm sure you've already deduced, in order to get the grapes, you had to dunk your head in quite far.

The Mane Attraction

Oh that hair! In the morning, I detangle, brush, pull it back and gel it down. After nap, it's one masterpiece after another.

A Hundred Gas

A conversation with Sam who was showing me his self-created Lego car:

"Mom, this is a flying AND talking car."
"A car that flies and talks. That's incredible."
"Yeah, and it takes a hundred gas."
"Wow. A hundred gallons of gasoline. That could get very expensive. How do you pay for it?"
"Don't worry Mom, I already filled it."
"Nice, how did you do it?"
"My manager helped me."
"Your manager? Where did hear about them?"
"Mom, don't even worry about it."

The Belated Bash

We were pretty successful keeping the actual date of Sam's birthday a secret from him (we didn't want to make the poor kid feel bad). No thanks to many doctors and nurses saying, "Aw, the little guy is sick on his birthday!" Shhh, quiet!!! You'll ruin everything! Sheesh, for all that education, you think they'd be a little smarter than that.
This Herbie cake is fully loaded (that's funny because Sam's favorite movie is called "Herbie Fully Loaded"). I made this in 15 minutes. And, for all you Herbie aficionados out there . . . Yes, I know he doesn't have red, white and blue stripes on his sides (they're on the front), but I'm not an artist and I couldn't cut the cake to get the right perspective. You could say, I used artistic "license".
No birthday is complete without the consumption of unidentified meat product mixed with a healthy dose of nitrates.

Blowing out all four candles.

I call this "The Grand Gift" because it came from Grandma and Papa "Walkee" AND because it pretty much rocks. We bought Sam some games to go with it and it has been grand having something nice and quiet for him to do that is both fun and educational. Attention all moms with rambunctious children! This is a miracle available for purchase. Buy one.

Monster Jam Nitro Circus. This little truck cost $3, it was the belle of this birthday ball. Seriously, $3. I bought it to go with the tickets for the Monster Jam Monster Truck Rally we're taking Sam to in March. Maybe I should have just bought him 5 Hotwheel Monster Trucks instead.

Before and After

Here are pictures of Sam the Saturday before he got sick and the Saturday after. He was violently ill from Monday-Friday and lost a little more than 6lbs in the process. You can see it in his face. Every time I changed his clothes, I had to keep myself from weeping--his poor little body. He was borderline a hospitalization and Chad and I were beside ourselves trying to force down liquids and eventually foods. He was just so scared he would throw it up again. Obviously, he'd doing fantastic now and has gained back a good 3 or 4lbs.

Crappy Birthday

Today is Sam's 4th birthday. We had a great celebration planned for him. Unfortunately, yesterday found him vomiting every 20 minutes and me catching vomit and doing laundry every 20 minutes. Today, no vomit, but a fever and no appetite. Probably not the best day to consume hot dogs and cake. He slept on the couch all day (I was prepared, however, with towels over everything) and we did not mention that today was his birthday. Thursday (adoption day) is the day we plan to party. And party we will.

Slip Sledding Away

When you were having a boring weekend at home cleaning house and reading the encyclopedia, we were shredding down the mountain in our killer hurricane snow tube.

OK, next year I promise to have her wear something a little more girlie. But can you fault me? it was $7 at Carters and, in my defense, it DOES have butterflies on the jacket.

The one casualty was Sam's poor cheek. He didn't even know he hurt it.