Flowers...

Gus went to the farm today and came home with an arm full of daffodils, one of my favorite spring-time flowers, perfect in an old mason jar on the counterLast week for our anniversary Gus brought home orchids. Orchids are great, they will bloom for months in the right light and with just a little watering. Here is a trick to dressing up grocery-store orchids - do you know the gross plastic hair clips that hold them up?

I like to take them off and tie them with twine or raffia

Voila - much better, enjoy for months (unless you don't water like me). I also usually replace the sticks with curly willow or bamboo but I didn't have any on hand this week

And one more thing about orchids - when I pick them, I look for one that is partially blooming and partially budding, it will last much longer. Also - this one is pretty but I would have picked one that is shorter and better proportioned, the really tall ones can look leggy. That's just my opinion!

It's a . . .

It has been a full week. We saw Dr. Rosemond on Wednesday for a comprehensive 18-week ulrasound. The baby looks perfect in every way and has the most adorable profile. Maybe he will be as cute as Thomson! And now we know for sure that it is a BOY! I have always loved having a sister, so a brother for Thomson will be so fun!


We also found out that I might have placenta previa, we have to go back at 28-weeks to confirm. Hopefully everything will check out fine, but we covet your prayers over this for the next ten weeks. It would mean an early delivery, bedrest, cancelled summer beach trips, and possibly other complications.


Thursday was Thomson's 16-month birthday. He celebrated by taking about 4 steps. He is so proud of himself. He is as adorable as ever and still talks a lot. Dada, Mama, Uh-oh, happy, apple (sounds like a-ppy), outside (ou-ss), Bates, Gus, shoe, bath, juice, gamma (sounds like maama), and lots of other words here and there. Those are his favorites but he repeats everything I say. Yesterday he said achoo (sneeze) all day long.


Friday was our five-year anniversary. Maybe it deserves its own post, it is a sweet time for us. We celebrated with a great dinner at the National. It has been an adventurous 5 years - from Birmingham to Charlottesville to Athens, our first dog, Thomson and now a new one on the way. There are so many things I love about Gus - he is patient and kind, hardworking and passionate about everything he loves, including me and Thomson. These qualities make him a great teacher, in Charlottesville they called him the dog whisperer, and now he is so fun to watch with Thomson. I need a video of Thomson's face when he sees Gus pull up the driveway at the end of a long day with just Mom. They are going to have a lot of fun times together. And in so many ways Gus is a wonderful doctor. He truly cares for his patients and worries about them even on nights and weekends. He chose ophthalmology because he says it is the best gift you can give to someone - their eyesight. This combined with valedictorian of PC and top of his med school class, and so of course I think he is the best in town. I love you Gus! (but he doesn't read this)

Back soon with pictures I promise and maybe a scanned 3-d ultrasound if I can get the scanner to work.

update

We are finding out what we are having this Wednesday so check back for an update.

And on Thursday Thomson stood up and took one step. Yesterday he took two steps and just a minute ago he stood up and took three steps. Maybe Gus can get him walking this weekend!

Where have you been?

These days I have been hearing a lot of "where have you been?" and "I emailed you a few weeks ago and never heard back from you". But instead of giving excuses or writing about why I have ignored this blog for so long, I think I will show you in pictures.

I have been doing a lot of this: spending time "ousside" with Thomson, his favorite place to be. The weather has been perfect! He loves his wagon, riding around the yard, pushing it around the yard, loading toys into it, dumping toys out of it...and outside I find a little break because the yard is baby-proofed unlike our house.

I have had a LOT of work - residential and commercial - Spring is the time for landscape design! This work eats up my early mornings, Thomson's naptime, and nights. Since college I have been fascinated with stormwater; how it can be manipulated, alternative ways to handle it than piping it offsite. Luckily most of my Charlottesville projects include some type of bioretention. Here was yesterday's project - a preliminary concept for a bioswale to catch roof water from an urban hospital.

One day I will post more on garden design and plants. For now I am busy cleaning ketchup out of Thomson's hair.And cleaning more ketchup out of Thomson's hair. Zoom in on this one - he actually styled his own hair with ketchup. Yes, this is a nightly occurrence.

Fun times at the Sams house! Baby #2 is kicking around the clock, very strong kicks that say "I am going to be bigger than my brother, 9#9oz at least!" If Thomson would just start walking to give my poor back a break . . .

New Baby Sams

Well I am 15-weeks pregnant and still have not written a word about it. I guess I have hesitated a little bit. Partly because I don't know what to write and partly because I have so many thoughts. We have intentionally kept the sweet ultrasound on the counter as a daily reminder to both of us that there really is a tiny thing growing with hands and feet and a beating heart. Some days this just reminds me to drink more water, other days it stops me to really think about what we are getting into.

I have some fears and some days I feel overwhelmed. I have been dreading the inevitable rude comments that seem to gravitate to me when I am pregnant. I have been watching friends with two young babies to see how our life will look. I have been trying to wrap my head around what went wrong with Thomson's delivery and finally put it behind me. We are blessed with fertility and are mindful of our many friends who are struggling with it right now. I have been enjoying quiet days with just me and T and have been planning our fun summer together. But mostly I am excited about where this journey will take us. Far, far from our quiet newlywed days in Virginia, I know. But to a place, I think, with daily rewards and blessing.

"From the fullness of His grace we have received one blessing after another." John 1:16

don't tell daddy

Thomson and I worked on an art project yesterday. It started out as finger painting but Thomson decided he wanted to do face painting. The paint tasted really weird and don't tell daddy but some might have gotten into his eyes. I realized it was probably a bad idea! We went straight for the bathtub which is always fun! Tomorrow we will stick to crayons.

Thomson is 15 months and crawling all over the house, into everything, pulling up on everything, and walking if he holds my hand. He is talking talking talking, saying lots of words and yesterday he put two words together: "Bates outside".

Talking, to me, has been the most fun of all of the milestones. All of a sudden about a month ago we realized that he was learning everything we said. I would say "Let's turn on the lights" and he would look up at the light and then look over to the switch. Or "It's time to take a bath" and he would start crawling towards the bathroom saying "bath bath bath bath". Or "Bates wants to go outside" and he crawls to the back door, stands up and reaches for the knob.

I expect he will be walking soon so we will be back with a video!

Swinging

These pictures sum up our weekend. Thomson L-O-V-E-S to swing, he must have thought he was on a roller coaster. He was squealing and laughing the whole time. And then dada took him down the big kid slide!

"This is the day that the Lord has made;

Let us REJOICE and be GLAD in it"

Psalm 118:24

One thing Thomson knows how to do: rejoice and be glad for every day!