A Samuel Update

11:57pm on New Year's Eve

Christmas Morning - Dancing with his Yo Gabba Gabba guitar on Christmas morning. Thanks Miss Amy, Justin, Delaney and Sartins!

Christmas Morning

WOW! Life is busy with a 14 month old!

Samuel is all over the place. He plays hard and right now he is sleeping hard, thankfully. His latest "toy box" is my kitchen cabinets with the pots and pans. He walks over, flips open the door, and climbs in. This morning, he took out the largest skillet I have and dragged it across the tile floor to the living room. He was very proud of his find. Most of the kitchen cabinets are his, he thinks. In fact, there are only 2 cabinets in our entire house that he can't open and I'm pretty sure he's been in all of them.

He also has developed a special interest in bath time. When the tub is filling up with water, he can't get in there fast enough. And if he is taken away from the tub to get his clothes off, he gets super mad. The other night he knew the bathwater was waiting for him and when he was taken to his bedroom to strip down, he just about had a temper tantrum. OK, he did have a temper tantrum. It's hard not to laugh because his feelings are so hurt and he just can't understand he's going back. Now, if I could just work on him not peeing in the bathwater...

Earlier this week we had our quarterly visit at the CF clinic. It's the first one since he's been walking and he was ALL OVER the place. Samuel is just short enough to get under the desk without ducking too much. And there are cabinets there. He was really having a fun time flirting with himself in the mirror. Funny how we never noticed how much those rooms echo when a kid yells. But down to the good stuff.

Kids with CF don't get as many ear infections as those without, according to Samuel's doctor. Nobody knows why and we can't explain it, but I'll take it.

Samuel's weight has fallen short again. Possible explanations:

1. He's more active than ever before (MUCH more active...)

2. He had pneumonia in October

3. He had a bilateral ear infection last month

All of these things take extra calories and when a boy is so busy he doesn't want to take time to eat, this poses a problem. He must have known we were concerned about his weight because Thursday and Friday he ate like a champ all day. He ate everything I packed in his lunch on Friday which included 3 chicken nuggets, about 1/4 cup mixed veggies with butter, 2 cereal bars, 1 butter cookie, animal crackers, and 1 string cheese. All of this just while at Miss Amy's house. We are determined to plump him up. :)

Like every visit to PCH, this one was sobering. It's a sort of kick in the pants when I see mothers pushing their children around in strollers and feeding tubes are coming out from under the blankets. This is probably their first time out of the hospital room all day. And I'm standing there, holding my baby, waiting for Kevin to bring the car around so we can go back home. Yes, we get to go back home today, we don't have to stay. We were planning on eating lunch in the hospital cafeteria but weren't able to get in. It's RSV season and they don't want the hospital kids to catch RSV from the "outsiders" like us. So they have temporarily closed the cafeteria off to guests and visitors to allow the children to come down from their rooms to eat lunch. It would have been easy to be frustrated at the inconvenience of having to go somewhere else to eat, but then I thought, "What if going to the hospital cafeteria were my only option?" Thank you, Lord, for the health of my family and your constant watch over us all.