In Sam's Fifth Month

  

  

  

  

He started rolling. It was nothing consistent, but he did roll from his stomach to back a few times and from his back to stomach once.
The weather in February was rather Springlike, so Sam visited Seneca Lake at Lodi Point for the first time. He was mesmerized by the waves and calmed by the breeze. His siblings were eager to show him neat rocks and blue crayfish claws they found on the beach. 

During this month, he outgrew lots of clothes as well as size one diapers.
He discovered his toes and finds them quite fascinating. He later discovered his flexibility and is often found stretching his toes to his mouth, chewing on his socks.  

He learned to drink from a bottle so that he could spend time with his grandparents and aunts while his parents stole a few hours away. 

Sam loves to watch his two dogs and grab their fur. Luckily, the interest is mutual and the dogs are patient with the grabbing. 

Another pastime that Sammy enjoys is sitting on my lap and pounding gently on the piano keys. 

He continues to be a joyful, curious, cuddly little dude and all of us continue to adore him. 

Sam: the fourth month

Sam spent his fourth month developing good sleep habits. Though he doesn't consistently sleep through the night, he has slept six hours a few times and typically sleeps between four and five hours at night. He is also decent napper and can easily put himself to sleep when we lay him in his crib. 

He was aided in acquiring sleeping skills by his newfound ability to self soothe.  He figured out how to suck on his fingers.  Like his brother Gerret before him, he favors his index and middle fingers on his right hand. It's pretty cute and a good indicator that he's feeling tired. 

Sam continues to be a joyful little creature. He is quick to smile and eager to interact with the people who love him. He's fascinated by our dogs, enjoys using his improved dexterity to grab toys and bring them to his mouth, and he seems to like pounding on the piano when he sits on my lap. 

At his four month well-visit, he weighed 14 pounds and had grown two whole inches since the last time he was measured. He's a big, happy, healthy baby. We love him so much. 

PTB is Amazing for Lots of Reasons, but Here's One:

 He goes along with my crazy ideas. He willingly does what he can to make them happen. He doesn't even laugh at them... even when I'm laughing, because let's face it, some of my ideas are pure ridiculousness. And that is a primary reason for why we're married (since it was initially my crazy idea).

My most recent idea that he materialized was open shelved cabinets for my kitchen and a cupboard above the stove. You see, our kitchen had nothing permanent but a sink by the door and an old, unreliable stove when we moved in six years ago.  We have slowly added cabinets and moved the sink to an island in the middle of the room so that a bench and coat hooks could take its place by the door. We replaced the fridge, the oven, and the old, ragged flooring. Slowly, but surely it is shaping up to be a useful and lovely kitchen. 

The last project before throwing up trim was the south wall. Home of the oven and a stretch of lower cabinets, the wall above them awkwardly boasted one lone cupboard hung in the corner and then nothing the rest of the way.  You can kind of see what I mean by looking at the background of these two pictures:

My dream was to have a cupboard above the oven and then open shelves on either side of it. 

Originally Patrick planned to build a gate like I had wanted at the top of our stairs for Christmas, but after deliberating about the specifics, we determined that it didn't make sense to install a gate there, so he offered to make me something else. And the first thing I thought of was that kitchen wall. 

We don't have a garage or barn and January was cold and snowy, so most of our work was done inside. He cut and I sanded outside, then I brought the pieces to the bathroom where I ran the ventilation fan so the wood could be stained and polyurethaned. He put the boxes together on the bathroom or kitchen floor while Nolan or I acted as a brace and then the two of us worked together to hang them. 

I just made that sound so simple and easy. The truth is, what seemed like a straightforward task turned out to be pretty frustrating and puzzling. What was measured twice maybe should have been measured four or five times. Cuts that seemed straight looked a lot less so when trying to fit them together snuggly square. The polyurethane started to do a weird thing to the stain later in the project so the trim turned out a little funky. There were times when we had to frantically wipes off adhesive and pull out nails because we pieced together the wrong pieces.

This is me (frantically) trying to sand an edge down enough to allow the next piece a snug fit

To my husband's credit, he stuck it out and now our kitchen is a lot more complete. The shelves are lovely. 

I'm so grateful that he doesn't roll his eyes when I say I have an idea. He doesn't grumble in anticipation of all the frustration and headaches in our near future. He trusts me and as it turns out, my ideas usually corporealize into things both functional and beautiful.

I Remember

Leaving for college on the other side of the country was scary and exciting and a great adventure, but it was heartbreaking in one way. I felt like I was leaving behind my two sisters who I had just barely met. Olivia was three years old and Elise was still learning to talk at just 18 months old. I didn't know what would happen four years down the road when I finished my degree (It ended up being five).  There was no guarantee that I would be back to the same town or state or even that I would return to the East Coast. Maybe I would have a job and stay in the West or maybe I would further my education at another school -God knows where.  Maybe I would marry someone who I'd follow to Texas or California (but I was pretty set on marrying my boyfriend from down the road, so that wasn't a big concern).  I looked at these sisters, one still in diapers, the other just barely out, and worried I would miss their whole lives. I wondered if they would remember me and all of the fun we had had in just a few short years.

It was a tearful goodbye. The van was packed to the gills and I was anticipating the arrival of two of my driving mates. I remember those moments in my parents' bedroom clearly though it happened almost fifteen years ago. I was sitting on the bed still wearing my church clothes that Sunday afternoon, the sun streaming through the west facing windows, my mom and two sisters giving hugs and frantic advice (just Mom in that case), my dad possibly videotaping (I'll have to look into that ). Then Livi told me she had something for me. It was a pink plastic piggy bank, a blue and white gingham kerchief tied around its neck. "So you can save up to come back home".  She had put a few pennies in to give me a head start.