24 Month Update

All About Sam


Sam: 2 year appointment

9/10/09

Height 35 inches (65%)
Weight 24 lbs (7%)

He uses lots of words…Here are some of his faves:
Truck, Play, Mama/Dada, Charlie, Poppi, Jeannie, Baby
Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, Purple
One, Two, Three, Four, Five
Oh, Man
Dora, Go Go, Jack
Amy, Ben, Bill
Dog, All the animal noises
No, No, No, Yes Ma'am, No Ma'am
Eat

Loves trains and trucks
Swings golf clubs and baseball bats
Can kick and throw a ball
Jumps—so cute
Knows his ears, eyes, hair, nose, tongue, teeth, head, shoulders, arms, fingers, hands, feet, toes, knees, butt and pee-pee, belly and bebo (belly button)

Hates brushing his teeth and getting his diaper changed.
Loves his nigh-nigh
Hates sitting in his high chair to eat—he is too busy.
He can use a fork and doesn’t like to eat with his hands.
He uses a napkin well—thanks Greg.
Loves his milkies in the morning along with his “stories” including but not limited to Dora the Explorer, Jack’s Big Music Show, Red (the movie Cars) and Go, Go (Go, Diego, Go).


OK—I am getting a little guidance in writing this from a list that my doctor game me that states things that a 24-36 month old child should/could be doing and I shit you not this is what is says for injury prevention:

Check for hazards at baby’s level---like what? Everything is a hazard, even the baby!

Keep matches, plastic bags, hot liquids and cigarettes away from baby. Wow—they forgot alcohol and all my crystal meth making materials.

Keep child out of direct sunlight—what is he a Mogwai (see Gremlins)

Keep medications (ok, reasonable), cleaning supplies (why, do you think he will spontaneously clean—ok poison, I get it), soap, cosmetics (are we going to have a tranny on our hands?) and here is the kicker….poisonous plants. WHO has poisonous plants? I don’t live in a nursery. OK—Poinsettias but it isn’t Christmas 24-7 around here contrary to Sam's belief.

So the next category is Discipline and Parent Interaction. This is the kicker….
You should expect some curiosity about genitalia. Good luck with that! It doesn’t say that but it should.

Quicky

This post starts with my very strange obsession with baby feet. I could look at them, touch them and tickle them all day! Charlie's feet are a little strange looking I must admit but cute none the same!
This is what my life would be like with four boys. Ben (left), Sam (middle), baby Sam (right) and Charlie (not pictured but in my arms). Amy was out doing a charity event so I got the boys off the bus. Holy crap it is craziness when they get home. They both have folders with 9 million pieces of paper that all have to be looked at not to mention that they also got their school pictures back this day. Sam had his all over the floor before I could even shut the front door. Baby Sam was stepping all over them and Charlie was hiccups away from projectile vomiting on them. So after we were settled, organized and homework done the boys decided to play with the trains. Actually, Ben and Baby Sam played with trains and Sam Eilert decided to crawl on the floor like an army man and hide underneath my coffee table! So fun!


Here are my girls! Eli and Amy were so very sweet to plan a baby shower for me....well Charlie decided that he needed to come the day before the shower. Needless to say we did not attend but the food didn't go to waste. Amy feed the 9 people at my house plus a great poker night snack. Anywho, these pictures were taken at my After Baby Shower.


What a cute family....oh did you say someone was missing....well look below and you will know why. Samuel Boyer Kastendike has decided that he hates us. Not all the time but VERY strongly on occasion and this was one of those occasions. He wanted to play cars and trains and we wanted to be a picture perfect family...oh the horror, the horror.

The Clowns I Gave Birth Too

I wanna ROCK, ROCK, ROCK--he is persistent.
He says it over and over and over until we give in :)

I'm not listening to you....

What?! I didn't throw those in the middle of my tantrum! WTF mom?!

Below you will see what I look at no less then 15 times a day from Samuel. I swear you can almost hear the whining coming from his mouth.

This is my husband's idea of safe baby seating.

I'm thinking that joining this crazy family was some sort of mix up at the hospital...I am way too sophisticated for them.

You want me to do what with that thing? Won't it suffocate me?

Let me think about it for a second--yes, I will have the filet.

Dammit Woman--dress me and quit taking pictures--the nudes are only reserved for playgirl.

I'm squishing your head!

Oh Shit, what did I get myself into with this family?

Continued....

Oh yes...I just gave birth to an adorable little creature named Charlie :) He has been a very good baby and Sam is very much enjoying being a big brother. He showers baby Charlie with lots of hugs and kisses. The pic above is our last as a family of three.


Greg was home for the whole week after we came home from the hospital. Yes, WE! It was kinda surreal coming home with Charlie in tow. But we are so thankful. Greg was a huge help with Sam throughout the whole week. I don't know how I got so lucky. At Charlie's first appointment on Monday the 17th the doc noticed that he was a little yellow and had us go have lab work run. Now this all sounds very simple BUT I am a Kastendike and a Margolis so nothing is ever just simple. The pediatricians office referred us to REX labs. Well, I didn't think that REX was a covered hospital so I came home to pick up Greg and Sam and to double check to make sure that it was not going to cost us an arm and a leg to get his foot pricked. So 45 min and several customer service people later, I find out that it SHOULD be covered. So I call the pediatrician have them write an order to WakeMed because I know they are covered. I get another call from Humana (our insurance) saying that it SHOULD be fine. So I chance it...why, you ask would I chance it when I should know better? Because at this point I am sweating, I have a crying baby who has jaundice and an almost two year old that is also crying and now needs a nap and REX is literally across the street. So we go. Foot prick takes 30 sec and we leave.



Charlie has jaundice and his number jumped significantly. So we are told to keep him in indirect light and feed him as much as possible. Since I had no idea what I was doing with breastfeeding and he was latching incorrectly, I hated this idea. So each time he latched I was balling b/c no one should ever have to feel that pain! And we visited Rex for four days straight getting his little foot pricked. Jaundice was gone by day 7 and all was well with the world.

So on one of these magic days I decide to meet Greg and Sam at the pool. They had been having lots of father/son time, which has been AWESOME for me! When I arrive at the pool Sam is swimming in the baby pool by himself--Greg is watching him from the sidelines :) He is tall enough now that even when he lays out in the water his head still sticks out and he has learned that if he goes under to push himself up! I only had a small heart attack! But then I look over at my husband's leg and realize that he is bleeding and has not one but two gashes in his leg. Well apparently he tried to get a ball for Sam and missed the ledge--so my 23 month old is jumping around in the pool by himself and Greg is getting medical attention from his girlfriend, Susan. He also pulled a muscle---typical Kastendike! So after that fantastic move, Sam shit his diaper but we didn't catch it until we were leaving...SOOOOOO, we were the family with a kid that shit in the pool. They had to close the baby pool, drain it, clean it and then shock it. See previous blog about why I want my own pool. Not that I want to swim around in my kids poo all day but it is much less embarrassing. Insert waaah, waaah sound effect.

This is not that day but I had to show you why I didn't take Sam to the pool on my own when I was ginormously preggers....

Mom came down to stay the week of the 24th. That Monday I had both boys by myself until Mom came to rescue me! I was a little nervous...but I have to say everyone cooperated and we had a very nice morning. Sarah and her boyfriend, Gary, also came to visit for a few days that week. It was so much help having a couple of extra hands around to help tame that wild beast named Samuel. So to get out of the house, Mom and I took Sam and Charlie to the Marbles Museum. This place is FABULOUS for Sam. It has so many things to touch and play with. It has a great big section filled with jumbo blocks, one with make believe trucks, buses, mail rooms and grocery store. He played with the trains for a majority of the time. Mom really tuckered him out. The video below is of him playing teller...mom was so proud!

Both boogers fell asleep on the way! They were so cute I couldn't resist!

Where Did I Leave Off?

Mother F--I've started this post like 4 times and I've gotten interrupted--now "your a mom of two" you say-Yes I know, interruptions happen but this isn't the problem. Each time I sit down to create a post I type a little and walk away. FINE! I get it! I won't have another minute of peace and quiet for the rest of my life! BUT, what I would like is for technology to work the way it is supposed to. This blog has a supposed "AUTOSAVE" feature that helps NOT to lose your post along the way. Well, here comes the 4 times...I have started, typed and walked away with a supposed SAVED blog only to come back to add some witty repartee and find that my screen is blank. So for all of those readers out there who think I am just a crappy, lazy blogger please know that I am NOT a lazy blogger just a pissed off at technology blogger! I've decided not to continue my saga but just to update you on the recent and I will get back to the first 4 weeks later!

Here are my boys and the first official Sunday of football season. We made a great family effort of supporting our teams! Amy swears that I have a penis because I LOVE sports. All my men were VERY cute in their jerseys and tees! Next Sunday we'll get a family pic!

Here is Samuel just as he has learned to say Cheese. I grab the camera to get pics of Charlie and find myself snapping pics of Sam. They are both too cute for words. He is fricken adorable. This is one of a million that I took. Sam can say cheese but he doesn't get the concept that he is supposed to look at the camera and say it. So I have a ton of pics of the side of his head.

This is our new couch. It is the bomb. Wow--I just dated myself--hello product of the 90's. This couch is awesome. The piece on the end is called a cuddler. SOOOO much better then the chaise. I love it and it is a good thing because I have been sleeping on it for the last week with Charlie. He apparently loves it too. Greg got me off the couch this morning and put me to bed. The first thought in my mind was how weird it was to sleep laying down?!

Greg, Sam and George at Meghan and Ray's wedding (Sept 5th). George walked Meghan down the aisle. It was absolutely gorgeous. If I ever get more time I will post pics of the wedding and the sunset...it was beautiful!

Poppi and Sam

Hello Hooters--I mean Mommy!

Umm--totally inappropriate and off the topic of Meghan's wedding but these things are huge and ridiculous. When my mom was here I went shopping for a nursing bra--38 G is not even a normal size.

This is the mini cake and cupcakes that Amy and I created for Meghan and Ray's wedding cake. They were a smashing hit!

Sam is totally addicted to trucks. Greg made the HUGE mistake of showing him a truck video on YouTube one morning and now he says trucks, no kidding, like a hundred times to get you to show him the truck video. This kid is relentless. I have no idea why God made children so persistent?! Does anyone have an answer for that? Or is it just a man thing? Are they just programmed to keep asking for what they want? Oh and the songs that accompany these fantastic 3 min movies are so GD annoying and they stick in your head...I wake up in the middle of the night singing them!
Daddy and Sam at Quiet Waters Park--Sunday, September 6, 2009. Sam is officially 2 years old. We invited family and friends to come celebrate with us. All of the Margolis', Grammi/Gigi, V, Vince, Dad, Colleen and Jessica--even their dogs came! Mom, Jeannie and Bob came from Soloman's and George and Suzzanne made the trip from Chestertown. We missed the Boyer clan. Some of them were supposed to come but were no shows :( Andrea and Dan's whole family had strep so we missed seeing them, new babe and Maddy.

Sam LOVED opening gifts--he really didn't understand what it was for but he certainly loved to rip that paper off! He got lots of noisy, loud, messy and great gifts from everyone :) Wow--I can't wait till he goes to your houses! He's coming with finger paint and play doh!

My dad wondered if the truck was a good present?! Um, did I mention that he repeatedly screams the word TRUCK. If you ever go anywhere with him in the car it's "Ohhhhhhhhh, TRRRRUUUUUCKKKKKK!"

Charlie wonders what he did to deserve us as family!


HA!!! We've got ya'll fooled! We've hidden our horns behind these very cute faces!