We Seem to Have Entered a Time Warp

It just simply cannot have been a whole year since Sam was born. Can I please stop the clock?

Sam has been the easiest, sweetest, funnest baby possible. I hesitate to even say how great he is because everything I say on my blog seems to become untrue as soon as I've said it. {For example, Vivian has started watching TV. Yay!} Sam has a smile for everyone, and he is free with the laughs. He's very ticklish, which is fun for his sisters. Sam is just so easy-going. I love the way he is all casual when I hold him--he just kind of drapes his arm around my shoulder and chills with me. Not clingy, not struggling to get down, just hanging out. I'm afraid that will not last long once he starts to walk. I love the way he kicks his legs when we pick him up, like he's so excited to get to you he's trying to swim there. He's excited about life.

Sam's first official word is "ball." He loves to play with balls of any size. He also enjoys pushing a little car around. I think he also tries to say "boo" when we play peekaboo. He crawls super fast and he's trying to jump like his sisters. Jumping on beds is a big fave around here, and Sam does not want to be left out. I think he might jump before he walks. For now, he has little calluses on his toes and knees from crawling. Sam will go anywhere--cement, dirt, water--doesn't bother him.

I can't imagine our family without Sam, and I'm so so glad he's here.

Two already

This is from the day we first met Vivian at the hospital in Kentucky.

And here is the day we brought her "home". Check out that frowny mouth.

And at about 10 months. Love those huge cheeks!

I have to confess I was a little worried about Vivian, and sometimes wondered what I had gotten into. She was kind of a grumpy baby. Hardly smiled, took a very long time to laugh, and then did it rarely. Then when we found out she was going to be a middle child, we were afraid she would get lost in the shuffle between the new baby and the demonic 3-yr old.

In the last few months, Vivian has really come into her own. She has a great sense of humor. She is extremely sweet and compassionate. She is really quite obedient. She is an adrenaline junky. She comes with a dash of vinegar. She's a complex little girl. I predict she will be either an engineer or an opera singer--man has she got lungs. She has NOT gotten lost in the shuffle. She is an excellent mimic, which makes her a fast learner. She likes to blow her nose, and sometimes misses the Kleenex. She loves to clean things. She contorts into strange shapes to make herself impossible to pick up when she doesn't want to do what you want. She says "yogurt" like an old German man with phlegm. "Gogurhk." The first thing she says when when I go get her in the morning is, "Shhhh... Sammy." She will not watch any TV, has absolutely NO interest in it. Except for "manna manna" from the Muppet Show, which she thinks is hilarious. She is a tease. She still frequently has a very serious look on her face, even when she is having fun. But her sweet laugh is right there waiting. She is an absolute delight, and I am so glad she is part of our family!

The Utah Pilgrimage

We just got back from the annual trip to Utah. It was a very fun trip. We were gone 3 weeks, and saw all of both of our families. I was going to do a long post with lots of thrilling details, but it is easier to post pictures on Flickr. So check that out for oodles of pictures. But for now, here is why I love Utah:

And this:

There are so many kinds of beauty. Very different from anything in the Midwest. Every time we go back to Utah, I appreciate it more.

Vivian speaks

Vivian is such a fun girl. Everyone should get to hang out with her for a while. She has become quite the talker, and I think her vocabulary says a lot about the way she sees life. Today she said what I think might be her longest sentence yet: Yay Daddy home! Viv LOVES Rob. Other faves:

• clean up
• dirty (dowdy)
• sticky (tickee)
• poopy
• mine
• candy (dandy)
• milk (mowk)
• cheese (when she wants cheese, which is pretty much 24/7, and when she sees a camera)
• hold me
• outside (die--pretty funny when she's sitting there yelling DIE DIE DIE)
• please
• thank you
• sorry (hawee)
• OW
• happy (SO cute)
  
  And her classics:
• Deedee is still Sam, even though she can say Sam. Viv also LOVES Sam.
• Dahdah is still her blanket, and if we forget to bring it in the car, we will regret it
• and, of course, NO!

Hubba Hubba

Bye, bye clunka.

Hello, hunka.

Okay, so the Subaru wasn't completely a clunker. It's been a good car. But a Honda Odyssey with 14 miles on it??? How could we pass that up?

Welcome Back, Rob!

I'm actually a couple of days early with this post, but I'm so excited, I just couldn't wait. Rob officially begins his research year NEXT WEDNESDAY!!! Research=normal life. To illustrate: we went to an end-of-year dinner a few weeks ago and sat at a table with the residents who are just finishing their research year. One couple was tan/burned. I asked if they had been on vacation and they all started LAUGHING at me. They said, "No, this is called HAVING A LIFE-- you'll get used to it. We've been doing yardwork." What??? There are people who see daylight when they're not on vacation????

Another anecdote: A few weeks ago, on a Wednesday, Rob was saying that it had been a pretty good week so far. I agreed. He started adding up his hours, and figured he had worked about 40 hours so far. We were like, Wow, that's great. Then we said to ourselves, 40 hours by Wednesday is great? What strange standards.

I just have to say that Rob is amazing. He has dealt with so much in these first few years of residency. It is especially amazing how he maintains his standards being surrounded so constantly by, well, other stuff. He has worked SOOOO hard, met the goals he has set for himself and overcome large obstacles. There have been some rough times, I will not lie. Times I was sure he was going to switch careers and all of this was going to have been for nothing. There have been nights I have found him out in the garage, asleep in the car. There have been sentences I have not finished because he fell asleep in the middle of them.....

I am so proud of my dear Rob, and so excited to have him around for dinner again soon :) oh, wait, does that mean we can't have frozen ravioli once a week?

I Heart Peonies

And on a side note, Rob and I have started "body for life" because we're going to Lake Powell later this summer. No "before" pictures will be posted. You're welcome.