Thanksgiving Holiday

What a good looking family I have!!! From left to right, Uncle Brian, Adam, Kendall, Bill, me, Aunt Nancy, Uncle Mike, Sam and Uncle Patrick.

We had a great time with my family over the Thanksgiving holiday. It was the first time in my whole life that I was able to see my extended family during that time! Even more special, it was the first time in my whole life that I've seen my grandmother's house decorated for Christmas. I can't believe I've lived 31 years without seeing her tree!

I buried Sam in some leaves that my cousins raked up. He seemed to love it.

Here is Mary Ella with a cranberry jello that Kendall and I made. Kendall made it beautiful, I just made it solid.

We had about 27 people at Mary Ella's house for dinner on Thanksgiving. It was so special. Sam loved getting to know my cousins. Here's a pic of him and Jackson, my aunt Jennifer's son.

This is my Uncle Patrick. I loved the roaring fire in the background, plus the delicious sausage casserole in my belly.

Here is my Aunt Nancy with Sam. He is in love with her. Especially when she plays with the duck puppet. Right now, everything that he puts on his hands is called "duck" and says "kak kak." We got to see my good friend from high school (yes, in New York) and her family. They are workers in Lebanon and it was fantastic to see them and hear how God is moving in their lives.

Here is Sam with their daughter Esther.

And here we all are at Umstead Park on a hike this morning. Rachael is on the right - looks the same today as she did in high school.

Here is Sam with his girlfriend Laney. I have some awesome photos from today, but I don't want to hog all of them from Hollie. I'll post them later, once she's had time to blog. As you can see, Sam doesn't want anyone his age to wear shoes. He always takes his own off shortly after we put them on him.

Here are the cutest grandparents in the whole world. My coke-sporting Granddaddy and Memaw. We were so blessed to spend time with them.

And, last, but not least, here is Sam with our great friend Matt. We couldn't get a great photo, but this one is good because it shows you Sam's new sign. It means, "I want down."

Out and about

We are on-the-road this week. This is the very first Thanksgiving that I've ever been able to spend with my grandparents in my whole life. Bill was gracious enough to put me and Sam in a car yesterday and drive 11 and a half hours to Goodlettsville, Tennessee.

It wasn't a bad trip, but it'll be much better when we can turn Sam around to face forward. He's so little still.

We'll be here until next Monday and then we head back with all the other folks on the road.

In the meantime, my friends in Kunming are moving, packing and selling all of our stuff. Our friends are like family to us and will be sorely missed. Good thing we have Skype so we can call them all the time. OOOOOOOOOOOO, how our hearts ache to be back there with them and to be encouraged by them and other friends in Yunnan.

Can't wait to hear where we're going next...

I wanted to give a shout out to Erica and Steve - congratulations on your new baby! I'm so excited for you guys! Can't wait to meet him.

All I Want to Talk about is Sam

I don't have any pictures to post today, so you'll have to read my rambling instead. For some reason Bill's computer has decided it doesn't want to communicate with mine anymore. I guess my laptop said something his desktop didn't agree with. Such is life.

This last week has brought a lot of anxiety back into our little family's lives. Sam had his MMR shot on Monday and we were a little worried about it giving him a high fever (don't forget, he needs to be hospitalized if it's over 102). We Tylenol-ed him, just like the doctor said, for 48 hours afterwards. But Sam got a cold in the nursery last Sunday (of course, the first time I put him back in nursery in over two months!) and it brought with it a slight fever after the initial 48 hours. Poor little guy got poked with the thermometer more times than he wanted (he wanted zero times, in case there was a question about that!).

Every time Sam made a strange grunting noise, took a funny breath, or basically did anything, we were at his beck-and-call. We were quite nervous and this question was said (really yelled) a lot, "IS EVERYTHING OKAY? DID HE DO THAT THE DAY HE HAD THE SEIZURES?"

This coming Monday will begin a new round of Tylenol-ing (do you like my new word?), as fever can occur 7-10 days after the initial shot. So far so good though.

The GOOD news is that Sam is now running everywhere. Wait, is that good news or bad? I guess it depends on if he is coordinated at the time of running. He's only uncoordinated when he is really tired, which is when he just wakes up and just before he goes to bed. Sam's ped told me last week that since his feet don't turn outwards like most toddlers (which is fine), he is going to go head-first into most objects as he falls. Turns out our doctor is very insightful. Wow, can this kid fall!

In other news, also regarding Sam, we are trying a new nighttime routine that we hope will give all of us more sleep. So far he has been waking up twice a night (at the very least) every night for the last two months.

Side note: Can you believe it's been two months since his surgery? Times flies.

Yesterday, Bill and I finally decided to sit down and talk about a game plan while Sam wasn't screaming in the middle of the night. I know it sounds like a no-brainer that we would talk about it during the day time, but for some reason (probably too tired) we just couldn't remember to talk about it. Anyway, the game plan is this: if Sam wakes up before 2am, Bill will try to put him back to sleep. If he wakes up after 2am, I will nurse him once. If he wakes up again, Bill is in charge of putting him back to sleep. It seems like a lot of work for Bill, but if I get anywhere near Sam at nighttime, he assumes he's going to eat and gets extremely worked-up if he doesn't. It's almost impossible to put him back to bed without nursing him after that.

So, last night Sam woke up at around 1:30am and it took Bill 20 minutes to get him back to sleep. But, the good news is that Sam didn't wake up again until 6:45 and he was ready to be up at that point. I also gave him a whole 40 minutes more of sleep by putting him down early. I'm thinking that we should probably move his bedtime to 7 or 7:30pm (from 8pm) and see if that helps. I had more sleep last night than I've seen in months. Eventually we hope to have a self-soother on our hands, who will put himself to sleep without needing Bill.

I hope tonight goes as well!

To all you new mothers out there: a game plan is essential to your nighttime rest. I don't know why we forgot, but it is extremely important.

We will see Sam's wonderful cardiologist, Dr. Scott Buck, next Friday. We always look forward to our visits since Dr. Buck is such a brilliant and personable man.

Oh, and before I forget, we are taking Sam and Bill's first train ride soon. We're speaking at a place in Lancaster, SC and have decided it would be more economical, and better all-around for Sam, if we take the train to Charlotte instead of driving. Can you believe Bill has never been on a train?

What does the future hold for us? That's the question of the year. I'll let you know when I do, but in the meantime, keep thinking about us and our doctors as we all make decisions together.

Religious Views at NCSU

Courtesy of my brother, Adam. Phew. This is sobering.

Fall at the cabin

We had a fantastic opportunity to go to Bill's grandfather's cabin over the weekend in Georgia. We took a long weekend and spent a night at a friend's house on our way up there. It was a miserable drive for Sam, who prefers to spend his time toddling now instead of riding. We spent a night with our friend who used to live near us in LJ and who is now working with Samaritan's Purse. We are so sad that Matt doesn't live closer to us right now, but we definitely cherished every moment with him. He is, and always will be, Uncle Matt to Sam.

We got so many great photos while we were over in Georgia! Here are a few.

At the cabin - notice the wood-burning stove, if you can see it. It got the place up to about 100 degrees. Phew!
Here's a Bill's-eye view of the cabin.

We got to hike to a waterfall while we were there. Unfortunately, it was obvious the drought had affected the falls - as the water was just trickling down the rocks. Sam still loves that I wear him. Sometimes he'll find the Baby Bjorn in the house and drag it over to me so I will wear him around the house. It's so comfy and so nice to have him very close.

Here's another one with Sam and his daddy.

And another. Notice Sam's mouth is puckered a bit - he was saying, "oooooo" at the time.

Here I am loving on my son. He's so easy to love.

That log was perfect for him to sit on.

And, finally, Sam and his Nana.