Gap-toothed Smile

Guess who got a visit from the tooth fairy last night. twitter.com/leftymama/stat…

— leftymama (@leftymama) December 22, 2012

Second Day of New School

Loving school uniforms! Sure does make it easy to get dressed each morning. Thanks, Magellan International School! yfrog.com/odswzcjj

— leftymama (@leftymama) August 21, 2012

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!

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.

First Real Cowboy Hat

Purchased in Luckenbach, Texas while visiting with Aunts Kelly and Patty, plus Cousin Seth, and Uncle Robert.

Already Two and a Half?

Gosh, we had our heads down for what seemed like a minute and we're already into the middle of Samson's second year. Where did the time go?

Here are some recent big boy pics from one of those candid photo deals at school. If anyone wants to order them, go to iclicksmiles.com before 03/24/2009, and enter school "prodigy" and student "59179".


Life seems on fast forward since Mama went back to work outside the home in November. The weekday routine is something like this:

• wake up at 6a (or 5ish if Samson decides to be an early bird)
• set Samson up with a cereal bar & milk in front of Noggin so that Mama can take a shower; Daddy reads news on his phone and waits for his turn
  
• everyone gets ready for school & work, which generally includes chasing Samson around the house for every stage of the diaper-PJs-clothes-socks-shoes-hair transformation
• we all exit the house together, Mama to the car & office by 7:30, Daddy & Samson in the truck to school & work by 8
  
• Mama picks up Samson after 4:30
• supper & playtime from around 5:30-7:30
• Samson's bath at 7:30, in bed by 8:15
• Mama & Daddy unwind until nodding off by 10

Weekends are much the same, except Samson doesn't go to school, the grown-ups usually aren't at the office, and there is nap-time from noonish to 3ish. Friday evenings still usually mean dinner & playdate with the Turners. If we're lucky, PawPaw (& sometimes Grandma) may drive over from Houston for a visit on Saturday. Just about every other weekend, we also have cousin Emilie (& sometimes Tyler) come to hangout with Samson while Mama & Daddy have a date night. Throw in the random kid birthday party or trip out of town to visit relatives, and that's pretty much our life for the past 6 months.


In February, Samson started going to a new school that is much closer to where we live & work. Mama was nervous about how he'd handle the transition, but it was virtually seamless. He loves his new school, teachers, and friends, and most days, he is actually unhappy to leave when boring ol' Mama or Daddy come to take him home. Mama & Daddy love the new place, too, especially because Samson loves it, but also because:

• it's cut our daily drive-time down by 90 minutes, several toll roads, and otherwise needless excursions to Cedar Park
  
• we don't have to make lunch since they serve great meals, even offering a daily vegetarian option (due to lots of Hindus & Buddhists at school)
  
• the kid to teacher ratio is much lower than our other school
  
• most of the teachers & staff have worked there for more than 5 years and love working with these kids
  

Today, we're going to a toddler friend's 3rd b-day birthday at one of those bounce-house places, so Mama and Daddy will be sure to get a good workout chasing Samson around, preventing certain peril to life & limb. Samson has become quite the fearless jumper, something he tests many times each day on all the furniture he can manage to climb.

Birthday Gifts Keep On Giving

We had a laid-back 2nd birthday celebration for Samson at home back in early October, basically a toddler free-for-all in our big backyard with a bouncy house and lots of borrowed or Craigslist-found ride-on toys. Unlike the first year, we forgot to specify "no gifts, please," and our friends and family couldn't resist showering Samson with a gigantic mound of presents, most related to his favored theme of transportation.

Upon the advice of our more experienced parenting friends, we decided to stash the many gifts in the closet and parcel them out over time so as not to overwhelm Samson with too many new things and better allow him to enjoy each one on its own. This has worked out fabulously; 7 weeks later, we are still making our way to the bottom of the pile.

This morning's surprise is courtesy of the Turners. We just love the toys made by this British company, as they require no batteries, are totally friction-powered, have no annoying electronic sound effects, have a wide age-appropriate range of 1.5-5 years, and have minimal packaging to hack through & dispose of. The picture is from Mama's phone, so it's a little fuzzy. Still, you can see how much Samson is stretching out & morphing into a big boy:


Samson was due sometime between November 21st and 26th, so he's now officially 2 years old. His health and development are all on track, so we're actually no longer adjusting his age as is commonly done with preemies. This is one time that it feels pretty nice to graduate to "average."

A little off the top

When you realize that your baby is veering dangerously into Cozmo Kramer territory...
It's probably time to admit that a haircut is in order. Now you might be tempted to go for the do-it-yourself trim and save a few bucks, but that hasn't worked so well in our family.

Exhibit A:

Bang Trim by PapPaw, Post 6 Pack of Schlitz, 1976

So this morning, Samson and Mama took a trip to KAOS, aka Kids Are Our Specialty, to see Miss Yvonne.

At first we tried sitting on one of the cool motorcycle chairs, but Samson decided he'd rather sit safely in Mama's lap and sip a juice box as the scissors clipped away. In less than 7 minutes, the new do was complete.

Afterwards, Samson was like, "Hey, nobody told me they had CAR chairs. I coulda sat in this CAR all day, man!" Sorry, SammyPie, but Mama figured Daddy wouldn't be too thrilled with you having your strength shorn away while perched atop Barbie's pink Jeep....

Before we left, Miss Yvonne gave us a lovely "1st Haircut" certificate, an envelope full of golden curls, and a first lollipop for the boy. Yummy cherry Dum-Dum!

Calm down, safety nuts. The choking hazard was removed &
seatbelts were buckled securely before the car was put into motion.

This is how I say "truck" and "kitty"

So, at this point, "truck" is a nasally "crnk" and "kitty" is "kee." Hey, we know what he's saying!

Samson's other vocabulary is really starting to pick-up now, and he understands even more words that he hasn't yet attempted to say. Along with his new verbal skills, he has also begun using his sign language much more. For example, he loves to say "mo" for "more" and at the same time (or whenever someone else says the word) do the hand motion for "more." Another communication game he loves is to point at Mama and say, "Mama!" and then point at himself and wait for Mama to say, "Samson!"

Here are some of his other favorite words of the past couple of weeks:

• Mmm! = yum
• Ahhh! = refreshing (after taking a swig of beverage)
  
• num-num = yum-yum
• brrr = cold
• haah = hot
• opp = up
• puh-zaa = pizza
• teess = teeth
  
• caa = car
• ba = ball
• haa = hat
• gah = goat (maybe this is a cross between "goat" and "baa")
• shish = fish (for fish and any cheese-flavored cracker regardless of shape)
  
• Hi! (to be said whenever passing anyone in public or upon seeing Mama after being out of sight for any length of time)
  

He sleeps!

Though I hesitate to write about it for fear of a jinx, I simply must share with our readers the small triumph of Samson's sleeping through the night for FIVE STRAIGHT NIGHTS!!!!  

This is the best streak we've ever had (yes, all the way at 21 months -- that's right, people, Mama has not had a decent night's sleep for almost two years; no wonder she's a bit cranky).  Who knows why now is the time that Samson is sleeping better. We only hope that it continues....

Oh, and apologies for our pitiful record of blogging for the past couple of months. Life has become so busy with Samson going to school 3 days a week now (at least when he isn't sick) and Mama catching up on lots of household projects.  We've been taking pictures, but they just haven't made it on to the web recently. We'll do better this coming week, promise!

In other news, Samson had a full blown attack of the hives yesterday. Poor little guy was covered in welts and itching like crazy. Doc says it's a common occurrence at his age and we may never know exactly what (possibly even a virus) caused the allergic reaction. All we can do is give Benedryl every 6 hours for the weekend and then monitor to see if the hives return, administering more antihistamines as needed and keeping an eye out for anaphylaxis (which leads directly to the ER). Yikes! 

One might think that the Benedryl would help with our whole sleep situation, but not exactly. The stuff dries you out so much that you wake up with a terrible thirst. Last night, Samson made it until 4:30a and we couldn't bear to make him suffer by waiting it out to try to encourage him to go back to sleep. So, we may be getting up early for the next few days, but at least we'll be getting 6 or 7 hours of uninterrupted rest. Halleluiah!

Lefty with a Spoon

Our readers may have begun to wonder why it is that 75% of our posts seem to involve food. It boils down to having a captive subject. When Samson is snug in the high chair, he has a hard time getting away from the camera. Thus, it seems that most of our photography sessions occur at mealtime. That, and during his twice daily trip to the crab sandbox in the front yard.

Here's our first video with the new camera, taken last weekend on Samson's 19th month b-day. He uses the spoon throughout this clip, but in the past week, he has preferred to alternate between the spoon in his left hand and the fingers on his right hand, so mealtimes are now often as messy as they were back when we first started solids! We're not sure which hand is dominant yet. Maybe he'll use them both, like Mama.

Busy Boy

It's been another action-packed week in Samson's world.

We started out with another bout of cold-> croup-> ear infection, two drop-in visits to our new favorite doctor's office, and two courses of medicine to somehow sneak into Samson's mouth twice a day. (Along with wildly resisting every attempt to change his diaper, Samson now has determined that anything delivered via oral syringe, no matter how fruity and delicious, must be poison to be refused at all costs. Half the stuff winds up on his face, neck, shirt, hair, or the floor. Argh.) Thankfully, he was feeling good enough last night to sleep from bedtime till morning (7:30p-6a) and even go to school today.

Meanwhile, Daddy was off to California most of the week doing cool nerdy stuff, advancing his career and bringing home the bacon. We celebrated his return on Thursday by taking an evening trip to our new favorite area park, which features a world of water fowl, a huge pond, and a gorgeous tree-lined trail. Samson likes the ducks, but most of his attention goes to figuring out how to escape from his parents long enough to get himself into the pond. We must get working on those swimming lessons post haste.


Speaking of physical feats, Samson has become quite the climber and acrobat lately. There is no piece of household furniture he has not scaled and dismounted, often head-first (though with no concussions as of yet). The window seat in the den, the sofas and chairs, the master bed, and several other surfaces that were not intended for use as a pedestal or diving board. To Mama's horror, he even found a way to climb up into the flimsy IKEA swivel desk chair and stand, smiling with pride as she came around the corner into the kitchen. Yikes!

Other fun stuff:

• kicking the red bouncy ball around the yard, preparing for his peewee soccer days
• playing the hula hoop game where someone rolls the hula hoop on the ground and Samson laughs maniacally when it circles to a stop; he then pushes the "roller" toward the hoop to signal he is ready for another round
• showing a desire to organize things by independently finding a container and putting all of his letter & animal magnets inside; finding all of his wooden shape sorter table blocks & putting them into an empty wagon under the table; putting away all his bath toys when he's ready to exit the tub
  
• understanding lots of words, babbling constantly, and saying a few words consistently: "ca" = cat or car; "da" = Daddy; "ma" = Mama; "ja" = Jennifer (our wonderful sitter); when asked to bring Mama a diaper from the green basket, he goes straight there and returns with the requested item
• insisting on feeding himself with his spoon
  
• new mastery of the straw and juicebox, quite a relief for Mama since Samson had so far refused to drink anything but rice milk & yogurt drinks from his Born Free sippy cup

Also, after 5 failed attempts, we finally found a comfortable pair of ridiculously expensive Jumping Jacks shoes to fit Samson's chubby Flintstone feet (see the first picture above) in size Toddler 5.5 Double Wide. Thank you, Zappos! Contributions to the Samson Shoe Fund are much appreciated ;o)

Eighteen Months

Today marks Samson's year and a half, and boy, has he become especially cute. It seems that all sorts of circuits in his brain have connected at once, the result being many new and often comical behaviors. Unfortunately, we have not yet been able to catch many of these on camera, but here's a brief description of a few:

1. The moonwalk. Samson finds it hilarious to walk several steps away and then slowly shuffle backwards into Mama's arms for a "surprise" hug. He will do this about 50 times before he gets bored.

2. Downnnn...up! Daddy has for months played a game in which he stands holding Samson and suddenly bends his knees. As he alternatingly sinks down and then pops back up, he says, "Downnnnn...up! Up-down. Downnnn...up! Up-down." Last week, Samson gleefully showed us that he has his own version of this game, where he holds onto a piece of furniture and squats down, then quickly pops up to a stand and then back down again. He grins like a maniac while Mama and Daddy chant, "Downnnnn...up! Up-down."

3. Wheels. Samson is obsessed with all things wheeled. He can be entertained for quite some time just comparing the rate of spin among the 4 wheels of an upside down Tonka truck. Whenever we go outside, he must hurry to investigate the tires on any vehicle, wagon, or wheelbarrow. Rides in the Radio Flyer or a shopping cart inevitably lead to Samson leaning over the edge of his seat to observe the wheels as they turn round. And of course, the "Wheels on the Bus" is a daily ditty.

4. Look what I can do with this pink thing! A recent discovery for Samson is the myriad of movements and sounds one can accomplish with one's tongue. He loves to smack, click, flatten, twist, stick out, and otherwise contort his tongue.

5. Dancing machine. This past week, Samson has begun humming to himself and doing a little booty-shaking, head-bobbing jig. Mama and Daddy then get very excited and join in for a family dance off, creating a shocking display that should never be revealed in public. The things we do for our child!

6. Fangs. All four canine teeth are erupting this month, so Samson has four little sharp spikes in the corners of his smile. He's chewing a lot on his fingers and crunchy foods to help those little boogers break through.

7. Security blocks. Samson spends much of the day and evening with one or both fists tightly grasping a wooden block that he carries around where ever he goes. His favorite is a yellow cylinder, but he'll carry a red one or a randomly colored cube if it's all that's accessible.

8. Peekaboo, anytime, anywhere. For Samson, any time is the right time for a round of peekaboo: around the corner or beneath the chair from Mama's computer desk; under the newspaper on Sunday morning; behind the wash cloth at bath time; over the kitchen island; in the car's rear view mirror; etc. He never tires of this game.

9. Inside joke. Samson is enjoying more time at independent play in the house and we often overhear him giggling about something that has amused him. Who knows what he is thinking, but that little laugh just melts Mama every time.

10. Fried taters. Never refused, in any format. Skinny, fat, crinkled, battered, tots, sweet potato, hot or cold: it's all good with Samson.

The Croup

The recently experienced parents in our readership probably knew that the next post to follow the "Samson has started school" post would of course be the "We're all sick as dogs" post. And here it is.

Samson came home from school on Wednesday feeling pretty grumpy. Thursday he was obviously miserable and the runny nose had begun. About 2 hours after his bedtime that night, Mama heard a strange dog barking outside, only it sounded like it was almost in the house. Then she realized that the sound was coming from the baby monitor and Samson's room. Uh oh.

Luckily, several friends had recently been through "the croup" (That's what my country-folk parents called it, so that's what I'm calling it, too. Don't hold it against my boy, okay? --Mama), so we knew to bundle up Samson and take him into the cool night air to stop the attack.

As our doctor predicted, we had 3 rough (and sleepless) nights of barking coughs and high fevers, but Samson began to rally on Sunday. Now he's down to goopy eyes and nose, plus painful swollen tonsils and sore throat, but he's sleeping better and back in his crib again. If he continues on this textbook course, he should be ready to come out of quarantine in a couple of days.

Also of no surprise to our fellow parents, Daddy and Mama quickly picked up the bug, too, so between the three of us, we've pretty much covered the house with mountains of wadded up tissue. Based on our high rate of consumption, we advise our readers to buy some stock in Puffs, Mucinex, Advil, and Thera-flu.

On a bright note, all the misery of this illness pushed Samson to finally utter his first understandable spoken word, which he now repeats endlessly whenever he wants to be cuddled, "Mamamamamamamamama-mama-mama.... Mama-mama-mama-ma.... Mama. Mama. Mama."

Off to School

Samson had his second day of preschool this morning. Here's a photo the campus director sent home to assure Mama that the AM parting tears were dry:

After searching high and low to find a daycare that Mama could feel good about, we settled on a wonderful place called the Goddard School. On the con side, it's 12 miles away on the opposite side of town from where we'd like to be driving in the morning. But the plusses are too many to list here, chief among them a caring, professional staff of educated and experienced teachers in every class from infant to kindergarten.

Samson started on Friday in the Starfish class for 12 to 18 month old toddlers, but the staff recommended that he move up to the Angelfish class for 18 to 24 month-olds, as "he's too advanced to be in the early toddler class." Needless to say, Mama and Daddy are giddy over that quote. Our little man is growing up so fast!

The Angelfish class has 2 other boys and 4 little girls, for a total of 7 toddlers under the care of Ms. Desiree and her assistant, Ms. Angela (in the picture above). Samson attends for a half-day on M-W-F at this point, but will probably move into full-time by the end of the summer when Mama goes back to her career outside of parenting.

We're Walking, We're Walking

For months now, Samson has been doing what the child development people call "cruising," meaning that he could pull himself up and walk upright while holding onto furniture and other objects for stability. For weeks recently, he would also take a couple of unassisted steps to get across a gap with no handy supports, say from the edge of the sofa to the adjacent chair. And for the past few days, he finally began making use of the fleet of ride-on/push toys around the house to go mobile for a few yards, although as soon as the toy met an obstacle, Samson was back down on all fours for scurrying to his final destination.

We had accepted that he might be on the back end of the curve for walking, given that he's a boy (they usually develop later), and a preemie (which often results in delayed milestones through age 2, sometimes forever).

Samson, however, decided that today was a fine day to go ahead and get around like the big boys.


Seeing the other walking toddlers at his buddy Rowan's party yesterday may have given him a push. More likely, he realized that there is a whole new world of breakable stuff at the 2-3 foot level and it's easier to survey and plot a plan of attack when standing on two feet.

Oh, yes, and Samson is itching to start making his own blog posts. Here's the first installment:

#E@ fq `AXw w

Dental Report at 15 Mos: The Molar Has Erupted

Toddler Crack

Every time Samson sees one of these wrappers, he goes berzerk. We can't leave them on the table during his meal (for dessert), or he will scream bloody murder and refuse to eat his "real" food. His first actual tantrum (and several subsequent ones) were caused by this item.

Up, down, up, down....

We knew this would happen sooner or later....

Since Samson discovered his crawl a few weeks ago, he has become increasingly difficult to contain and now pretty much has the run of the front part of the house. We invested in a thick area rug for the den to give his knees a break from the hard, cold stone, tile, and concrete floors, and we set up a couple of safe and stimulating play areas in two different corners. Of course, Samson usually prefers to go directly to the places which are not in the least prepared for his presence.

And so, today as Mama stood at the microwave stirring up some soup for lunch, she heard a sudden rise in the pacing of Samson's stride coming from the den to the dining room (which is open to the kitchen). She figured he was hurrying around the corner to make sure he could see her, or perhaps he was engaged in his favorite pastime of herding the cats. Just then came the tell-tale sound of tiny fingernails scraping the bottom of a ceramic dish and the scatter of kibble on across the tiles. Around the corner of the bar, there the boy sat, contentedly chomping a mouthful of Iams Indoor Weight and Hairball Care. Let's just say, he was not eager to give up his salty treasures, and it took several passes before all were removed, a few already crushed and soggy. Blecch!