Sep 06
So much to say about our littlest man of the house. A few weeks ago, he began standing up on his own - balancing remarkably well, mind you - and now, has added an additional degree of difficulty by demonstrating his new ability to clap!
He is so proud whenever he does this - I’m determined to catch this on video sometime soon.
We now have a great routine with him at bedtime, where he loves to read his animal kisses and noisy farm books. He turns the pages, pats the tactile animals, and even pushes down hard enough to make the mouse squeak - a trick his parents didn’t even realize was part of the book until Sam was about a year old.
He and Sam are best of friends, and we constantly find them making each other laugh, to the others’ delight. Tonight in fact, Noah gave Sam the cutest kiss on the cheek when Sam was trying to entertain him at the end of dinner. Those two are going to be thick as thieves as they grow older - and Amy and I are going to have to fend pretty hard for ourselves. Amy does keep reminding Sam that whenever he takes away a toy or bop him, Sam’s only teaching Noah to give it right back someday. Sam doesn’t quite appreciate this concept - yet.
Tags: baby, noah, ourkids, sam
Aug 23
Sam has developed a fascinating new concept. Last week, when he would ask us to tell him a story, and for whatever reason - say, we were in the shower, or perhaps, juggling lit torches - we would defer the storytelling until later because we didn’t have a story to tell him right then, he began saying that he was “putting a story in our head from mine.” Yesterday, he was in the car with Amy and our friend Leslie. He asked Leslie to tell him a story, but since she was pooped, she declined. So Sam said he was going to take the story he put in her head from his and put it in mommys head. Quite the concept of where stories come from, eh?
Tags: sam, story
Jul 18
This quote from Sam, as told to Amy during lunch today when she told Sam that we had two parties to attend this weekend:
I am going to take all the people at the party and put them in my head. And then they will be in my brain…And I won’t like that. And then I’m going to spit them out. They will slide down my tongue and I will spit them out.
Tags: brain, sam, story
Jul 02
Yes, we’ve made it to Colorado. I stopped the car along the very narrow portion of Colorado 82 to grab this image - where the highway drops to a single lane at points, with no signs or other warnings - where we saw this very dense stand of Aspens. The pass was an amazing drive - including the oh-so-frightening lack of guardrails on some of the 10k+ foot switchbacks, although I could have done without the altitude sickness both Sam and I experienced. Talk about wooozy! Photo gallery is here.
Tags: aspen, colorado, noah, sam
Jun 25
I was so sad to learn today that Masai, the 18-year-old lioness at the zoo passed away yesterday from illness and old age. She had battled upper respiratory problems and anemia the last few months. I took the photo of her above prior to Sam’s birth, and that image, along with several others, hang in his room today. We always enjoyed seeing her on the occasion that she’d show herself to visitors, and know that she will be missed. The AJC reports that she is not going to be replaced, as there are three other adults, plus three cubs born recently to a younger lioness. That’s plenty of lion for anybody. We are looking forward to seeing those cubs out and about soon.
Tags: death, illness, lion, Photography, sam
Apr 28
In what’s become a tradition, we headed off to 
Rochester for Passover this year. The weather was in the 70s - no 6 inch snowfalls as happened a few years back on one of these visits - and Sam could not have had a bigger blast hanging out with his older cousins. Six-month-old Noah was able to meet five-month-old Carter, and Denver aunt & uncle Bobby & Gary joined in the fun too. The Sagans made it in from Boston (thanks to a late Passover falling after tax day), so the party was bigger and better than ever! The photo above shows grandma Sherrie and grandpa Marty with all their grandkids - a rare moment having them all in one place. Here is a slideshow of the week.
Tags: , noah, sam
Apr 28
How better to celebrate a third birthday than by having three buddies share their big day with one giant party? Well, that’s exactly what Sam, Shosana and Sam did a few weeks back. In addition to some 40 3-year-olds and under, the party featured plenty of arts & crafts, a puppet show and 3 awesome cakes.
Next time, we’ll ask the puppeteer to skip the confetti cannon at the end - it took longer for us to clean up the rubberized floor than any other part of the party!
The photo gallery is here.
Tags: birthday, party, puppeteer, sam
Dec 22
After an enjoyable but somewhat chilly trip to Zoo Atlanta today, we had every intention of a quiet afternoon. Sam was going to take a nap, I was planning to nap myself, etc. Well that all changed when in the rush to get in out of the chilly weather, Sam slipped and his forehead hit our granite steps. As all head-related cuts do, it bled - profusely. A good five minutes of pressure and the bleeding stopped, we called off the ambulance, but knew we’d need to head into the emergency room for stitches. Sam was a trooper - the stickers emblazoned on his chest were a big help in that department - as were all the doctors and nurses at Hughes Spaulding Childrens Hospital. First they used a topical local anesthetic, and before stitching the wound, Sam was given a pediatric dose of Versed which induces some amnesia in patients over the time spent under the drug’s influence. It also makes kids fairly loopy. Sam was quite amusing - singing in nonsense rhymes, barely able to hold his head up, but very, very happy watching Cinderella and Bambi on the conveniently-provided TV and VCR in his room. He’s doing well now after getting one internal stitch and two outside the wound, and the doctor did not expect to see any scarring with appropriate care, especially if we are vigilant using sunscreen for the next six months or so. He’s sleeping comfortably now. This was a tough experience on everybody, but thank God it was no worse. He’s a resilient little guy - we just have to convince him to keep a Band-Aid on his forehead for the next week. That’s going to be the challenge.
Boo Boo, originally uploaded by jetrotz.
Tags: emergency room, hospital, laceration, sam, stitches
Dec 22
Sam hams it up for the camera, singing an adaptation, en espanol, of the kids classic ‘Frere Jacques.’ Yes, they have Spanish class once a week at his preschool. I’m no expert, but I think his accent is pretty darn good!
Tags: espanol, frere jaques, preschool, sam
