Halloween

Here are the official Halloween photos. A big storm came through right before it was time to go trick or treating, so the ground was completely wet. I had to add the slippers to Johnny's costume (which have rubber soles) so he wouldn't be walking on the wet sidewalks in sock feet. Sammy tolerated his bunny suit for a lot longer than I expected and got lots of ooo's and awww's from the neighbors.

The bad news is Johnny threw up right when we were preparing to leave and go trick or treating. It would appear that he finally caught the flu that Sammy and I have been battling all week. My friend Rachel said that having a sick baby drastically changes your life ... after this last weekend I discovered that caring for a sick baby while you yourself are sick can be almost more than one can bear. Sammy and I have been battling a rather nasty flu that gave him croup and kept me up all night vomiting and you don't even want to know what all else. Having Sammy screaming and crying over the monitor in the middle of the night while I was clutching the toilet throwing up is not an experience I care to repeat.

The good news is that Johnny didn't want to eat any of his candy. Awww ... poor kid. I'm sure when his tummy feels better he'll want to eat a bunch of it. Not the ideal Halloween, but we made the best of it.

Fast as Dash

Johnny dressed up as Dash

Sitting in the pumpkin patch at school

Johnny's classmates and teacher Mrs. Rabb

I just realized last night that I was supposed to send Johnny to school in a Halloween costume today. Luckily, I was able to whip up a costume using stuff around the house last night that not only Johnny was really excited about wearing, but that looked pretty cute too. Johnny loves the character Dash from the Incredibles movie and always runs around as fast as he can saying he is "fast as Dash!" I took two photos of his classmates too just for fun.

Cold Snap

Brrrr! The temperature plummeted last night. Sammy kept toasty warm in his sweet pea hat and SS Klevenski comforter. ;)

Sammy Time

Flirting with Mama

I finally captured some smiles on camera

Uh oh ... Sammy discovered his thumb

I took Sammy to the doctor last week for his 4 month checkup. His percentiles were exactly the same as they were at his 2 month checkup ... length and head = 50% and weight = 90% at 17 1/2 lbs. Sammy likes to eat! I have noticed that when I put him down to sleep, I often hear him sucking on his hands to comfort himself before he falls asleep. Yesterday for the first time, I saw him sucking his thumb. I'm not sure if I should be happy about this or not. On one hand it is good for a baby to have effective self-comforting skills, but on the other hand it seems like it could become a habit that is challenging to break later on. Johnny never sucked his thumb or had an attachment to any comforting object ... his comfort thing has always been my hair. When Johnny gets scared or upset, he starts pawing at my hair and hangs onto it for dear life. He loves hair in general and loves to stroke mine (which I love) and always tries to stroke other kid's hair (which some tolerate more than others). Johnny always wants to "hug Sammy, kiss Sammy and rub his hair." (more like rub his bald head ... ha ha!) :)

Brothers

It is interesting to see the ways in which Sammy and Johnny look alike, and the ways in which they look different.

Chillin' at Home

We actually had cool weather this week

Johnny in his elf hat

That caterpillar is bigger than Sammy!

Sammy trying to nurse on a star

Johnny loves dressing up

Sammy getting some Boppy tummy time

Johnny and Sammy enjoyed their first movie in the theater this week. We saw the latest Wallace and Gromit claymation film called "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit." Sammy slept through part of it but got a little fussy by the end. Johnny seemed to enjoy it quite a bit, but had to use the bathroom three times during the movie, so I wasn't able to watch it without interruption. That is to be expected though, I thought it was a successful and fun family outing. Keith didn't like the movie and did his best to sleep though the whole thing. Sigh.

Astroworld

Starting with a slow ride

Johnny and Keith on far left, toward top.
Johnny loved this fast ride and laughed that the
wind was blowing his hair and he was going FAST!

Keith and Johnny riding the Serpent

... a childhood favorite of Keith's

Sammy after he finally awoke from his extended siesta

Happy Mama and her boys

Sammy seeing the sights in style

Moment of terror on the Bamboo Chute

Riding the airplanes in Looney Tune Town at dusk

Johnny still enjoyed the kiddie rides even after the fast roller coasters

Johnny and his driving partner were characters
... tearing up the track with a vengeance

Astroworld is closing its gates forever at the end of this month sometime. Apparently, it has been losing money for so long, they decided to tear the whole park down. To reminisce Keith's childhood fun at this particular amusement park, and to give Johnny his first rollercoaster experience, we decided to spend a good part of the day at Astroworld yesterday. The weather was unusually beautiful, so it was comfortable for everyone, including Sammy. At the end of the day when we were driving home (about 9pm) I asked Johnny what his favorite part was ... and he said driving the purple car. Keith's favorite part was the Bamboo Chute water ride ... we got a hilarious photo taken by the park cameras of the log-boat just cresting the hill before the big plunge downhill ... Johnny looks terrified and Keith looks thrilled. At the bottom, Johnny laughed and said "I want to ride it again!" My favorite part was the one ride I got to go on which was called the Runaway Rickshaw. Johnny and I had a blast on this fast g-force (but smooth) ride. Johnny said he thought Sammy's favorite part was sleeping in the car. LOL. He's probably right. Sammy took an unprecedented 3 1/2 hour nap in the stroller that day which started out at the sprinkler park where we went to a friend of Johnny's 3rd birthday party before going to Astroworld. I had great fun spending the day together as a family, despite the occassional snag or thrown tantrum. :)!

Trip to San Diego

Johnny loving the beach

Sammy taking a siesta

Tide Beach Park

Whee!

Keeping Sammy from getting sunburned

Cute cousins Sammy and Brian

HP Company Picnic

Grandma and Sammy

William Sheridan Brock and Samuel Sheridan Klevenski

Johnny jumping like crazy

Fati, Johnny, Sammy and Abuelo

Johnny took this photo of Abuelo
(Mandy's father who lives in Mexico)

Johnny on the red canoe in Abuelo's back yard
(boy this takes me back to my childhood!)

To escape the excitement of Hurricane Rita, the best choice was for me to take Johnny and Sammy to California to stay with family. Rather than terrify Johnny with one heck of a scary storm and subject Sammy to potentially having no air conditioning, I decided to just get out of dodge. The biggest snag of the trip was that we realized that getting to the airport 4 hours early was not sufficient time to get through all of the baggage check and security lines. Baggage check was taking about 3 hrs. and security 2 hrs. The only way I had a chance of making the flight was to leave all the luggage in the car and only take with us what we could bring on the plane. So, we could only bring about two outfits each, the diaper bag and one toy. I ended up buying a lot of stuff in San Diego and my sister, Amy, graciously gave me two suitcases to get all of our newly acquired items home. We had fun in San Diego visiting family, but we all ended up getting very ill and had to travel home wretchedly sick and miserable. It was undoubtedly the worst flight of my life as either Johnny or Sammy or both at the same time started screaming before we took off and didn't stop until after we got off the plane. It was horrible. The good news is we made it home safely to an unscathed house and eventually regained our health. A special thanks to all of my family members for putting us up on super short notice ... dealing with the inconvenience of having us there ... and doing whatever they could to make our stay easy and enjoyable.