School Picture, Fall 2011

First Day of Kindergarten

Our baby boy is almost 5 years old! Since his birthday falls beyond the cutoff for public kindergarten, he's starting this year in the "big kids'" class at the private pre-school/pre-K campus that he has attended for the past 3 years.  We're expecting a low-drama transition, since he already knows the teacher and all 10 kids in the class, plus the familiar surroundings. The school day is packed from 9a-3p with segments on language arts, math, science, social studies, music, art, and PE.  After hearing so many stories of moms and kids with bittersweet tears on this monumental occasion, we weren't sure what would happen this morning, but it really seemed like any other week day with our busy family heading off to work & school.  Only happy faces all around!

Drawing in marker at 4 yrs 10 mos

According to Samson, this piece tells the story of Ben 10 (aka Samson) using his super strength to kick a ball so fast and so far that his foe (with the frowny face) cannot catch it. I love how the swirls show the motion of the ball and the mid-air position of the villain. Do we have a future artist or graphic designer in the family?

King of the Hill

Why We Heart March of Dimes

As you all know, we are the proud family of a preemie who was born 2 months early and spent his first 6 weeks in intensive care. We had no warning, no known risk factors or health problems. After 32 weeks of uneventful, blissful pregnancy, I felt a little "off," unable to get comfortable and sick at my stomach. Just to be safe, our midwife sent us to the hospital for some tests. Suddenly, we were hearing that my life was in certain danger with HELLP Syndrome, a failing liver and kidneys with the possibility of massive internal bleeding at any moment. Without any preparation, we were rushed into an emergency C-section and the bewildering odyssey that is parenting a hospitalized child with an uncertain future.

 

Thankfully, our family’s story has a very happy ending. After a harrowing few days, I returned to perfect health, and our son is thriving today at age 4 ½.

Though we are now fine, living through that experience and meeting so many other families with tiny infants struggling to survive has had a profound impact on our lives.

Our March for Babies Family Team hopes to raise $1100 this year to fund more March of Dimes Nobel Prize-winning research offering hope for preventions and solutions for babies born too soon or with birth defects. Won’t you help us reach our goal to help all moms have full-term pregnancies and healthy babies?
 
Please visit our team page at marchforbabies.org/SamsonsLeftyMama for more information, or give me a call if you have any questions and would like to donate.

Any support that you can provide will be greatly appreciated and put to very good use.

Sledding in Austin, TX

It happened again.

We had enough snow on the ground in Austin to not only make a quite respectable snow man,

... and snow angels,

...but also to try out sledding for the first time on the side of the hill that covers our underground home. Here's Samson's 3rd run.

After that, the neighbor kids came over to join the fun and we whooped it up until the sun came out about 11 am. Cocoa on the back porch rounded out a quite lovely morning.