New Discoveries

Sam is sick

And it makes me so sad.  I hate watching him try to catch his breath after a huge coughing spell, to see him with a runny little nose and watery eyes.  He's been so fussy, and I don't blame him.  Yesterday morning he was gasping for breath, and I've never been more terrified.  Lamine and I both raced to the door, put on our shoes and were ready to go to the emergency room when he finally took a breath.  We did take him to the pediatrician as soon as they opened, and she said that there was a really bad cold going around that was hitting the little guys pretty hard.  I stayed home with him yesterday and will for part of the day today as well--when lucky Aunt Melissa will get to take care of him. 

My poor baby! 



 

PS, I know this is out of focus, but I still love it :) 

Hard to leave him

It was so hard to leave this morning....

pics of the baby

Funniest video EVER!!!!

You

Three Months

“Just when you think you now Love, something little comes a long to remind you just how Big it really is.”
Leigh Standley
　
My dear, sweet boy,

You will be three months old in a few hours, and as I write this, you are lying beside me, big brown eyes fixed on me typing and your rolly polly arms and leg moving like crazy. You’ve become so much more active these past couple weeks. You hardly ever hold still-even when you’re sleeping. You are also smiling a lot more and you laughed for the first time on Sunday-a beautiful, hysterical little laugh. Your Papa was snapping his fingers, and you thought it was so funny. You have yet to laugh again, but we are so excited to hear this new, sweet little sound in our daily lives.

We put you on our scale tonight and you weighed in at 17 ½ lbs. I’m not sure how accurate it is, but I think it must be pretty close. You are just growing out of your 3-6 month clothes and are officially in 6-9 month clothes. You have the sweetest, roundest little tummy I wonder how you’ll ever discover your feet. It doesn’t seem possible that you’ll be able to bend far enough over your tummy to find your feet, but I know you’ll reach this milestone soon enough as well.

I wanted to write you a little letter telling you how much joy you have brought into our lives these past three months. Your Papa and I love each other so much, and when we got pregnant with you I wondered how my heart could possibly expand to love someone else so completely. But it did, my darling. It expanded so much more than I ever thought possible and you have filled our lives with a new kind of love. You’ve only been in our lives for three months, but I know that being your mom is going to be my life’s greatest adventure.

Baby Boy, you are so loved.

Love,

Your Mama

My Mom's So Funny....Not

The men in my life

These are my guys. My boys. My men. I love them both so much.

Oh-and check out the scratch under Sam's eye.  I keep cutting and filing his nails, and every morning I wake up to see another scratch on my poor baby's face.  He just keeps digging his hands into his face and I don't know what to do about it. 

belated again! twelve weeks!

This whole working thing is really putting  a hitch on my blogging.

Twelve weeks. Whoa. I cannot believe how much my life has changed in twelve short weeks.  I can't believe it's only been twelve weeks. I can't believe it's already been twelve weeks.  I can't believe how this chunky little boy has so utterly transformed my life. I can't believe how fast he's grown. I can't believe how much I love him and how much I adore being his mom. 

I had a photo shoot with Sam this morning while Lamine was watching soccer. On Saturdays Lamine watches soccer until about 1:00.  It's about 1:30 now, and we're going to go enjoy the day, but I wanted to share this picture first.

So you think you're a photographer

No, I don't really, but we got a new DSLR camera, and I'm having a lot of fun learning how to shoot in manual. 

 In other news, we spent Wednesday night and yesterday in Spokane, WA.  Sam slept like champ in the hotel room, and he handled the 1 1/2 hour drive pretty well.  We were pretty nervous about the trip because he went through a period where he HATED his car seat.  He's doing better now, but we did have to stop 13 miles into our trip and again 4 miles from the hotel to calm him down.  But he handled the hour stretch in between those times really well.  Lamine kept flipping through cell phone pictures for him to watch, and he got a really big kick out of it.  The kid just loves television and computers and anything with bright flashing lights. 

So proud

I am so incredibly proud of Lamine.  Sometimes I forget that he's only been here a year and a half.  I forget that he hasn't yet grown accustomed to all of our customs. I forget that he's not from here.  I forget that he doesn't speak English fluently.  I forget how absolutely exhausting it must be to live in a culture that is so completely different from your own-to almost never hear your native tongue-to live in a place where the pace of life is so very different from your own.  I let myself forget all of this, and I take for granted how well he's adjusted in such a brief period of time.  When I write everything out like this, I am so amazed by him.  He has had such a rough life, and he hasn't let himself become bitter.  Instead, he's been an example in patience and kindness to me.  So, that's it for now.  I am just feeling very appreciative of him today.

 

Also-he's been sending me text message pictures all morning of our cutie-patootie little boy :-)

Rockin' Friday Night

11 weeks! yesterday...

bath time!

First full day with the sitter

Progress Report

Sitter: "He did pretty well."

Sitter's five year old daughter: "He was really loud. He cried a lot."



(I want to add that the woman watching Samory is super sweet--the problem is Sam not wanting the bottle)

Oh, Sam

Samory spent all day yesterday like this:

....and he spent all last night like this:

My boy, my boy, what are we gong to do with you?

Obsessed with the Computer

So, Lamine LOVES the computer. Or, more accurately, he loves the Internet-YouTube, soccer, and Senegalese news being his favorites. I think Samory may be following in his footsteps....

If you've got a minute

Please vote for us here! We were doing so well, but we've been knocked back to the fourth page. Which isn't really a big deal, but it's been fun getting to know new people. Thank you! I'll post cute baby pictures later, promise :)



Oh-and I promise to create some legitimate posts soon. I'm just getting back into the swing of work.