You'll have to excuse the absence of Ben photos in this newsletter - he had a minor incident involving his nose hitting the carpet at church at rather too fast a rate and ended up with rug burned nose. Although it has been fun to call him Rudolph, he hasn't been feeling particularly photogenic lately (or, rather, Mommy would rather not have pictures to commemorate the accident).
Our other recent trauma is that Sam had some mouth problems last week and basically didn't eat or talk for three days. It was miserable for all involved (when a toddler ain't happy, ain't nobody happy), and the worst part is that we're really not sure what happened. He may have bitten his tongue or maybe he just got some kind of mouth ulcer or something, but the end result was hours of crying and trying to pry his mouth open and apply the Oragel. It was a terrible few days, but it certainly helped us to appreciate normal Sam - when he started singing again on Friday morning, we were jubilant! It's been good to have our happy, healthy, and very talkative boy back.
Sam's newest catch phrases are the movie quotes we've been encouraging him to say. There's nothing funnier than a three-year-old chanting "bring out your dead!" He comes up with them at the oddest times. The other day I asked Sam to take the dog's bone out of the shower (don't ask) and he responded, "no, Mommy, I pursespet you to die!" a la James Bond's "Do you expect me talk, Goldfinger?" and Goldfinger's "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die." It may have been a mistake to encourage that one.
Sam's other new new trick is his elephant noise. He's been pretty into Babar lately (leading to come confusion between kings and queens because Babar is the king and Celeste is the queen, but I think we've finally broken Sam of the habit of saying that he's a queen) and when we ask Sam what elephants say, he raises his trunk into the air (ok, so it looks more like pursing his lips, but the idea is there) and gives a mighty elephant wooooo. It's very entertaining.
We have recently discovered the land of wonders that is the library. Actually, the first photo of Sam is him walking to the library with his Birkenstocks, fire hat, and Lego plane - what more could a boy want?!? We've had loads of fun picking out new Babar and Clifford and Thomas books, carting them home, and devouring story after story. It's been really great.
Other than the nose thing, Ben is doing really well. He is definitely in too-cute-to-be-true stage. He's crawling all over (and up) everything, and he's been having a lot of fun in the sandbox with Sam (incidentally, we think that Sam has renamed it to the Sam box) playing with and sampling the delicious sand. Oh well, at least it's new sand - we just replaced it last week. He is also experimenting with the full gamut of baby noises, from raspberries to coos to singing. What a fun kid.
Other than that, our only other big activity has been dying Easter eggs. Sam was pretty excited about it because it involved eggs (he loves eggs - not eating them, just beating them), but his enthusiasm only lasted about ten minutes... I forgot that the actual dying process really isn't that riveting. He did like putting the colored pellets in the water, though.
Oh, and you're probably wondering about that very cool car in the other photo. We were helping a friend move and they said that their son was too big for it, so we were welcome to it, so now Sam's riding (or, rather, shuffling his feet) in style!
Hope that you're enjoying a fabulous start to spring!
Love,
Steve, Jamie, Sam, and Ben