Video of Samantha and Jeremy dancing

For some reason the sound did not come over. It is a small glimpse into what was going on.

Date night

Last Saturday, Jon and Erica had a wedding reception in the suburbs to celebrate their wedding that they had the week before in Mexico. Michelle and I were thinking of getting a babysitter and heading out to the party but we thought it might be fun for Samantha to go to the reception. Both of her cousins, Jackson and Jeremy, were going to be there along with a lot of other family. Michelle said she would stay back with Meredith and I could take Samantha to the wedding reception.

Here is a photo of my date and I before we headed out for the night. The reception stared at 6 pm. I was hoping Samantha would make it until 8 pm. You see, Samantha was not having a very good day. She didn't sleep well the night before and she was REFUSING to take a nap. After two hours of fighting it, many tears and meltdowns she finally went to sleep at 3 pm. Well, she woke up at 4:30. We left at 5:15 for the reception...



She also did not sleep in the car on the way out there. Consider me shocked! When we got there, my mom took her and walked her around the place. After a little mingling, we had to take a seat for introductions. Samantha really liked all the clapping as the wedding party was introduced.

At this point though, Samantha would not leave my side. When we sat down, she wanted to sit on my lap. They had hor d'oerurves but Samantha did not want to eating. This is when I started to get nervous. I thought the night was going to end quickly and I was going to have to take a cranky Samantha home.

Then the music started. Samantha didn't want to eat. She didn't want to sit down. She wanted to DANCE! And dance we did. Any time I sat down on the sidelines, she would grab my wrist and say "Let's go dance." We did however take a long enough break from the dance floor to make these pictures for Michelle in the photo booth that was there.

In the end, we had a great time. I got her to put her jacket on and leave around 9:15 or that is what I thought. She was pretty upset when we got to the car. She kept saying she wanted to go back to the party and not go home. I thought FOR SURE she would fall asleep in the car. Nope. We were talking, laughing, having a good time on the car ride home. 45 minute ride home - she was still awake.

When we got home, she was telling Michelle all about the party. She did not fall asleep until 11 pm!

A random thought on the night is the following. I did not have a drop of alcohol but danced and partied more than I would have if Michelle had gone and I did some drinking. Too funny!

I have a short video of her dancing but I am having trouble loading it into youtube. I will post it once I figure that out.

Carebears

So Michelle was out of town AGAIN this week. She went to Indianapolis for a 1.5 day trip.

To keep things fun, I told Samantha that tonight was MOVIE NIGHT! She was pretty excited and I hoped that would keep her from missing her mom too much.

Now movie night is nothing new. I have done it in the past. What I want to talk about are the movies. I tried to talk her into watching Finding Nemo...nope. Then I was hoping I could talk her into Toy Story 3...nope. She even said no to Strawberry Shortcake. She right now is on a Carebear kick. My goodness if I say movie, she say carebear.

Now, there are a bunch of 60 - 80 min movies for them so from the standpoint of seeing a different one each time is good. However, I had a carebear as a kid and I do not remember a few things about them. 1. There is a green one named oopsy that doesnt have any picture on his belly. 2. Those pics on their belly are superpowers and they also make them fly?!? 3. I do not remember them having a bad guy that disliked them.

Anyway, movie night has quickly turned me into a Carebear expert. Hopefully, I can get her into some better animated movies quickly. Movie night is turning a little brutal!

2 Year checkup

Michelle was conveniently away for work on the day of Samantha's two year checkup. I armed myself with animal crackers, goldfish and a water bottler. I even consider having some M&Ms in my pocket if things were going to get bad.

I picked Samantha up during snack time at daycare. They packed up some turkey and apple slices for the road for me.

We get to the doctor and check in. They give me a 20 question questionnaire to fill out about Samantha's development. Samantha also hands me a piece of chalk. The doctor's office has a big chalk board, not to mention a ton of toys in the lobby. We do some drawing on the board for maybe three minutes and we are being called in the back. I think 'CRAP! I haven't filled this questionnaire out yet'.

Samantha also was not happy we left the playroom. Luckily from the window, the EL runs every few minutes. She kept waving to trains. During this time, I start answering the questions. I also strip Samantha down to her diaper.

The Nurse comes in and we try to get Samantha to stand on the scale. EPIC FAIL. The nurse scared her and she wanted me to hold her. After a min, she stands on it long enough to get her weight, 26.2 lbs. She is now crying and in my arms. During this time the nurse measures her head circumference. I did not get that number. We then lay her down and measure her from head to foot. She was SCREAMING. She is 35 inches tall. I pick her up and the nurse leaves.

With her in my arms, I finish filling out the questionnaire. We sit down, watch trains, and calm down. The doc comes in next.

This doc has a few kids and is really good with Samantha. He pulls out laminated pictures of his kids that he has in a ring. He works slowly and talks to her the whole time. Samantha holds these pictures while he examines her. She loves them. Genius of the doc to have them.

Bottom line, everything is good. She is progressing very well. We do not have to buy whole milk anymore! WOOHOO! He then tells me we need to do a blood test (finger prick) for lead (because of Chicago water) and two shots.

Nurse comes back in. Samantha does not even flinch with the finger prick or seeing her blood go into a very skinny tube. Now, when the nurse puts the band-aid on I swear she just misses where the finger is cut but it seems to be soaking it up. The shots come next, both in the same leg, and cause Samantha to flip out. Fine. I was expecting this. Nurse leaves.

As the nurse leaves. her finger starts gushing more blood outside of the band-aid. Along with the pain in her leg, the sight of her blood coming out is causing a GIANT meltdown. Where are those M&Ms when I need them! ARGH! While holding her, I grab a paper towel. Blood is getting all over her hands, my shirt, etc. I am trying to calm her down. She wants the band-aid off. I finally get her shirt on and the blood is slowing down. I get her pants, socks and shoes on and tell her we can go play in the lobby.

The paper towel was covered in blood. I blame the nurse but when I examined the band-aid later it was soaked too.

We get to the lobby and she is playing with legos. I wait for the blood work to come back. Everything is good. Her lead count is so low it does not even register in the machine. I tell Samantha that it's time to go but she does not want to leave! I end up having to pick her up and carry her out.

When we get to the car, I take off her band-aid, wipe her hand off and give her the box of animal crackers and the bottle of water. She was excited for the animal crackers. On the ride home, she kept telling me the animals.

In conclusion, her progression and numbers are good and animal crackers make everything better.

We have progress!!!!!

So, earlier in the year, I wrote a blog about the power of the granddaughter.

Let me fast forward to yesterday. Michelle tells me that her father just got an iphone. I found this a little funny because 1 - Vic is not very fond of cell phones in general and 2. He has struggled in the past trying to use them.

Well, yesterday in the middle of the day, I get a call on my cell phone from Vic's phone. I figured he accidentally called me but I still pick up. All I hear is a very loud rumbling noise. I say hello a few times and hang up.

Well, about 10 minutes later I received a video that I can't open on my blackberry. I need quicktime. Did Vic really send me a video from his new phone?

Here is the video.



We have a motor working! Consider me impressed. We are going down there in two months. Looks like the boat might be fully operational by then. The power of the granddaughter!

The Life of Stickers!

Here is another story into the life of a father with a toddler...

Samantha, like every other toddler, likes stickers. She loves to put them everywhere. It is quite enjoyable to see her mind wander with these stickers. Sometimes they go on paper. Sometimes they belong on my knees, shoulders, elbows. Sometimes they go on paper for a minute and then belong somewhere else, maybe the table. Anyway, from my side, I do enjoy watching her imagination working with these stickers.

For Valentine's day, Samantha's sticker collection grew immensely and because of this, Samantha and her stickers have led to a couple funny stories involving yours truly.

Story 1- I am pretty sure this story happened when Michelle was out of town. I was getting Samantha ready for school and she was playing Dora stickers. As I was putting her into the car seat, she put two Dora stickers on the collar of my winter jacket. We get to school and she points to them as I get her out of the seat. As she is taking her jacket off by her classroom, one sticker falls off. She stops, picks it up and makes sure it is on my jacket. As soon as I drop her off in the classroom, I take it off.

Problem is I forgot about the second one and it was higher up the jacket so I could not see it. Let me now fast forward to being in the elevator with a co-worker (who happens to be pregnant for the first time). She looks at me and laughs, "You have a Dora sticker on your jacket." Without missing a beat I say, "Tell Chris (her husband) this is what he has to look forward to."

We had a good laugh about it. In the end, it could have been a lot worse.

Story 2 - Last night I was on my way to the gym. I grabbed a random sweatshirt to wear instead of a jacket. I get to the gym and head over to a warm up area. There are a few people in there and as I am walking over, I get a few strange looks. Now, the gym I belong to is not your average commercial gym. There is both an octagon and boxing ring in this gym.

Well, I take my sweatshirt off and all over the top of it are Snoopy Valentine's day stickers. See below.



Now I know why everyone was giving me this strange look!

Lesson of the day: Do a once over in a mirror before leaving the house!

Three days as a single parent...

A couple weeks ago Michelle went to Atlanta for work. That made me a single parent for three full days. Lets just say that anytime Michelle is gone for a couple days, it makes me appreciate the single parents of the world.

Nothing terrible happened like the prior time Michelle was gone but Samantha definitely was missing her mother. Usually, if Samantha cries in the middle of the night, Michelle goes into her room and I am the one that usually gets up with her in the morning. The first night Samantha was crying a little, so I went in and rocked her. I tried to put her back down but she cried out, so I took her into the bed with me. The rest of the night was fine. The second night did not go as well.

She woke up around 2 in the morning and did not want to go back to sleep. I tried EVERYTHING! We rocked in her room. She did not want to be in her bed, our bed or the couch. She would sit with me on the couch. I finally got her to do that. Around 4:30 in the morning, we finally both fell asleep on the couch until 6 am.

To say work was a struggle would be an understatement. I was just glad to see Michelle walk back in the door before night three started for many reasons.

Of course, Samantha slept right through the night. Figures...

Wrapped Around

Let me set the scene. It was a couple weeks ago during the 2nd round of the NFL playoffs. It was a Saturday night and on top of the Green Bay-Atlanta game, the Bulls were playing the Heat.

Fedea was a bachelor for the night and decided to spend some of the night at our house watching the games. Well, with our new TV we can not split the screen (insert joke here Ploth). I decided to pull out the tv from our bedroom so we could watch both games at once.

After the games, I was not diligent on putting the bedroom tv back. On Sunday, I still had both TVs functioning. Well, the Bears-Seahawks game was on in the middle of the day (also when Samantha was up and at it). Can you guess which TV Samantha had priority of and which I did?



I am not sure which finger she has me wrapped around but it is one of them!

A lesson learned from parenthood

I am in general, a healthy individual. I get a physical every year. I workout on a regular basis. I usually watch what I eat. I drink too much from time to time...but in general, my physical is usually really good.

Why am I talking about this? Well, if we were looking at...hmm..lets say a 5 year history of my health prior to March 19, 2009, I bet I was sick MAYBE twice a year. I bet it was an average of about 1.5 times a year.

Well, since Samantha has come into our life, I have been sick about once a month! She is a walking carrier of disease. It is quite impressive. I have been to work one day this week. Monday I was off because Samantha was sick. I started getting sick Tuesday night and was really sick on Wednesday and am still fighting it today.

I do not remember reading that I should expect to be sick once a month...I guess it is just another lesson learned. I think there will be a lot more to come!

Monday - New weekend???

So, due to being ridiculously busy at work, I had to bail on a FUN weekend in Cincinnati. I was really bummed out but in the end duty calls. I worked basically a full day Saturday and almost a full day Sunday.

Well, as the weekend continued, Samantha got more sick. By middle of the day on Sunday, she was running a fever around 103. After talking to the doc and stabilizing her temp, we made an apt for the doctor on Monday mid-morning. Well, Michelle has a meeting in the morning, so I had to take her.

I ended up putting a few more hours of work in Sunday night (after bowling) and took Monday off. Monday morning Samantha woke up a much better and happier baby. We went the doctor and he thinks she had hand, foot and mouth disease. The doc also thought we had seen the worst of it. Great news!

Well, on the way home Sam fell asleep. Lets say it was 10:45. We got home. I put her in her crib. It was time for me to do some work...Well, at noon, she started crying. I could tell she was still tired. So I laid with her on the couch. I though maybe an hour and she will be good.

Well, she proceeded to sleep for three hours! I laid there locked on the couch with a sleeping baby on my chest. I did not move, go to the bathroom or eat lunch. When she finally woke up, she and I were BOTH hungry.

Anyway, I ended up playing with her until it was time to get Michelle. In the end, Monday turned out to be my weekend. I can not complain except...

Why is my throat sore and my nose stuffy????

Uh-oh.

Oh and this morning Samantha woke up happy and no temp for the last 30 hours. She still has a bad cough but for the most part is A-OK.

I can not make fun of her.

She undoubtedly got these eating habits from me. I can be seen eating like this on a weekly basis.

Click here to view this video

Under Siege

So, after we brought Samantha home, over the next few days, I quickly showed her my favorite spots to lay in the house. Over the course of the last 6 weeks, she has gotten more and more comfortable in my favorite spots. I can see the writing on the wall and it looks like I may have to find new spots. Too bad one of the is my side of the bed. I mean look below.

This looks like an impersonation of me more than anything else right now to the shirt half up.

Sometimes, in the morning, Samantha likes to join us for a few extra minutes of sleep. I find that she goes to my side and then start elbowing me off. Uh oh...

Well, there is always the floor...

Consider me excited to see a bald and toothless Tara tonight in the biggest loser!

Back to work

Well, I am back to work for the most part. I will probably take a day here and there for doctor appointments and what not. Since I won't be around as much, Michelle will be in charge of pics and videos. I will post probably one or two more and maybe some from weekends. I do have a few random thoughts from the first week.

1. Receiving blankets. I had no idea what these were for and why we needed so many. Within three days of being home, we had used all of them. Basically a newborn loves to be wrapped up and that is what these little blankets are for.

2. I really can not get over the fact that Sam sneezes in threes or fours. Who else does this besides me and her? What a crazy trait to get passed on!

3. I talked to Samantha last night and we agreed that she would start dating after she gets her draft card. I think that is fair.

4. Last night was by far our best night with her. She was a little sleeper for us. I can see this being a roller coaster for awhile.

Happy Friday!

Samantha with new friends.

Here are some of the friends that stopped by and visited Samantha.

Two of the Holmes sisters.

Bryan and Mary (technically family and friends here...)

Lee and Lauren (you're up!).

April and Mike.

and Ploth's fiance, Stacia.

Back home!

So we got released from the hospital on Monday morning, well monday afternoon around 11 am. Let me back up though. Sunday was good. Saturday night was as good as Friday night. Sunday during the day, my parents, my brother and sister-in-law and the nephews all came in to visit with Samantha. It was a good time by all and Samantha as usual slept most of the day. After my parents left, the Knowles stopped by for a visit and brought cupcakes.

Again, Thursday through Sunday, we had many visitors and it was great to see everyone. We appreciate so much seeing everyone and it really helped the days go by. So, one last time...THANK YOU!

Samantha has a bit of a habit of sleeping soundly between meals during the day. However after 7 pm, after eating she is pretty awake especially around midnight. It reminds of Neyer's days in college where he would sleep until 4 pm and then be awake until 6 am.

We decided to keep her the entire night Sunday in the room. It was not too bad. We had two feedings at 1:30 am and 5:30 am. All in all it was a good dry run.

I was itching to come home. I made the mistake of coming home Sunday afternoon and it made me miss my bed!

Well, monday morning was good and Samantha had passed all her tests so they let us come home. It has been quiet here all day and not much to report. I will post some pictures and a video in the next post.

Pics and Videos from Day one and two

We had professional pics done. Here are a couple. You can look at them online but I don't have the info in front of me. I will post it in a different blog. Sorry.

I just wanted to test out this "oven" Michelle has been using for 9 months. Lets just say she works better than some furnaces out there. This first one was from Friday afternoon and the 2nd was from Saturday morning.

Samantha doing two of her favorite things...well two of all of our favorite things to do.

Another family pic. I think Michelle was in heaven putting on normal clothes.

So, Samantha sneezes in threes and fours. Who knew that was hereditary? I tried to catch it but only got two of them.

Michelle shows Sam facebook.

Sam gets interviewed by dad.

Updates from parenthood..Sam is still alive.

So, we are almost through day 2 (day zero was her birthday). It was a bit of a roller coaster at first but we have found a little grove with the help of 1,500 nurses, 400 doctors, and a whole bunch of visitors!

In all seriousness, Thursday was obviously very emotional day for everyone and an even more physical wearing day for Michelle. We got settled into our room (1188, if you are visiting), around 4. The first night was pretty rough. I do not think either of us slept more than an hour without being interrupted by nurses coming in checking Michelle, the IV, etc. Plus, getting the baby to eat at first was a little time consuming. I think the first stretch of sleep we got was from 4 am to 7 am. I kept thinking "What did we do?". Combined from the lack of sleep on Wednesday, come Friday morning, we were on fumes. In my head I was thinking "Yikes, we are just starting!"

Well, all the commotion was a lot for Sam as well. Friday day was wonderful. We spent it lying around getting naps. Sam would wake to eat and be changed and that is it. Michelle's mom and Aunt Mary were with us most of the day helping out. By 5 pm on Friday, I felt better than I had in three days.

Our nurse for Friday night shift is named Tiffany and she calls Sam "puddin'". She is easily our favorite. Today, I was anticipating her again thinking she worked the weekend and I was right. Lets just say I am happy. Anyway, Michelle fed Sam at 9 pm on Friday. Both of them went to sleep and I stayed up and watched the OT games (with no sound). THEY WERE AWESOME!

At midnight, we had another feeding with Sam and then at 12:30 I strolled her over to the nursery. I told them if she fusses, give her a bottle. Both Michelle and I crashed and at 5:30 Tiffany strolled her back into the room and said they fed her around 4 am and she has a clean diaper on. Michelle and I instantly went back to sleep (Sam was already sleeping) and the pediatrician woke us up at 7 am to check on Sam. She has lost about 5-6 oz of weight which is normal and everything looked good. After he left, the three of us went back to sleep until 8-8:30 am. It was a much different night than Thursday. No machines in the room making noises and some good sleep!

Saturday day has been similar to Friday day when it comes to Sam's routine. A lot of sleeping in between meals. I am fine with that. Lets hope that Sat night is similar to Friday's!

Sam has been great. She sleeps a lot and hardly cries. We have a hard time getting through a feeding since she falls asleep about 5 min in. I don't blame her. I would do the same if I could. She does not like it when you take her shirt off. I am hoping that is a habit she will keep well...forever.

Anyway, we have had a lot of guests so far and that has been great so keep coming. It makes the time here go by so much faster and thank you to all that have showed up so far!

Operation EVAC was a success!

Samantha Bell Reuter enter this world (not without a fight...i don't blame her) at 1:29 pm. She weighed in at 6 lbs 8 oz and was 19 inches long. Both her and Michelle are doing fine. Here are a few pics from yesterday or today and a couple videos. Really, these hours and days are blending together right now. I can not wait for the next few months.....

Editor's note: Bell was chosen because it is Michelle's mother's maiden name.

The new fam...

SBR chilling...

Who says blackberrys and babies don't mix?





Now here are a couple videos.

Welcome to the party pal and boooo Butler.

A little R&R.