oh yeah...

i almost forgot to mention that we will be making at least one more hospital trip at some point to take care of this little condition:

yes, sam is going to be an older brother. we are excited and/or frightened (depending on the time of day and behavior of the soon-to-be older brother), and are hoping the little bean will arrive just in time to mess up our scheduled trip to oglebay (arrgh!).

by way of an announcement, we gave sam a special t-shirt for his birthday (which he has since worn to daycare and resulted in a rather humorous email from our daycare provider).

sam went to the first ultrasound with me and was convinced that he also had a baby in his belly (he also mentioned one in his head). he has since decided that this is a little brother (we don't actually know yet) and is named missy (sorry aunt missy, but probably not).

about the bandaid on sam's head

those of you who don't see my posts on facebook or come in contact with us regularly may have wondered why it was that sam was sporting a spongebob bandage on valentine's day. well, in the interest of full exposure (not THAT kind of exposure!), i thought i'd post the story here.

last saturday night (the day after sam's third birthday), i was giving sam a bath and when it was time to get out, he slipped and bonked his head on the side of the tub. now, i don't know if sam's just got special skills or what, but somehow he was able to get a bad cut just below his eyebrow in probably the smoothest part of the bathroom possible. and because i've had previous experience with headwounds (i guess there's an upside to everything), i could tell just by looking at it that we'd be headed for the emergency room. so just like last time, i got him calmed down, cleaned up, dressed in pjs, and off the three of us went to see what the damage was exactly.

unfortunately, this time they were not able to glue sam's head back together, and (after what seemed like ages) they were able to put stitches into the kiddo and we came home.

needless to say, i was not pleased. particularly when you know that the previous saturday night/sunday morning we'd made a trip to the same emergency room and had sam diagnosed with croup. we are now hoping that we can make it through the weekend without any incidents that require medical attention. please wish us luck, as it appears we will most likely need it.

happy valentine's day!

what are you doing to celebrate this lovey-dovey day? one of the things on my schedule was to bake up a batch of the traditional "to my valentine oatmeal cookies" today. my taste tester said they came out quite well. in fact, i think he would've "tasted" at least half a dozen if i'd given him the opportunity.

i've posted the recipe for this wonderful treat here, but i also updated the recipe card with a more appropriate photo (not stars!)—you can find it here.

making—baby shower bingo

my sister-in-law got put in charge of planning the games for an upcoming baby shower she's helping to throw, and since she knows i kinda do this sort of thing for fun, she asked me to design some personalized bingo cards for the mom and dad-to-be. she told me the information on where they're registered and sent me this photo via cell phone as reference:

after three or so hours at the computer, i was able to come up with this:

i'm pretty happy with the results, and i hope that she will be too. not too bad for a sunday afternoon's worth of goofing off, huh?

Sam is three!

sam started off his day with a trip to the doctor for his 36 month check-up. the doctor diagnosed him as "wonderful" (not sure that was worth the $30 co-pay, we already knew it). the stats look pretty good 37 inches tall (taller than average) 29 pounds 8 oz. (too heavy for mommy to carry very far).

after lunch, sam and i went to the grocery to pick up a couple of things. interestingly, sam also picked up an imaginary friend that he referred to as "the boy" (or sometimes "my boy"). the boy came home with us in the car (buckled in the front seat, of course), and sam held his hand and walked him to the house. he showed the boy how to use the potty, and wash hands, and then played all kinds of games with the boy for a couple of hours while i baked and frosted and chopped and made messes and cleaned up. i think i enjoyed sam's new friend just as much as he did.

we finished off the day with a little party. sam had hotdogs, chips, cake, ice cream, and a cousin to run around and be loud with, which in sammyland is pretty much what the best day ever looks like.

happy birthday, sam! you make every day an adventure, and i'm looking forward to lots more to come.

a few more photos from sam's birthday bash:

making—people drawings

yesterday was the first time i've ever seen sam draw people. last week he was drawing monsters (which was definitely a change after so many months/years of his "truck period"), but yesterday he was definitely making people. he draws them like most kids (one big floating head with arms and legs), but there were hands and feet and all that scribbling in the middle was the "shirt". for some reason mommy's shirt also went all over her face, but that's okay, sam was using his artistic license.

i guess this is what i should be expecting from a boy who's about to turn three, but every time he does something new like this, it's super exciting to me. i can't believe how many skills he's racked up in a measly three years.

first official no diaper day

yesterday was sam's first day in big boy underpants. we had mostly accidents and one success (that was witnessed anyway). i am hoping we will do better today (particularly because we will be going out to lunch with family).

sam was much more successful at smashing towers. he smashed every single one.