My Piano Man...I Mean Men

Karl has taken piano for the past three years now. This week he has been putting in extra practice time because he had a piano guild performance. Mike and I are not real sure what a guild is exactly but we were proud of Karl for working so hard preparing for it - he was ready. He looked sharp too - ever since Karl was little he enjoyed dressing well; Karl likes neck ties and nice shoes and when he is wearing all of those things he walks a little taller...it is awesome to watch.

What else is awesome to watch is my other piano man pounding on the piano. When I say pound, I do mean pound. Sam LOVES the piano. When Karl or Abby are practicing, he will crawl up to the piano, stand up, and stretch with all his might to reach the keys. Both kids get a kick out of this and often pick him up, sit him on the bench, and let him pound away. He plays, laughs, plays some more, laughs again, and just goes and goes. When you take him down off the bench he lets out a blood-curling-don't-even-think-about-taking-me-away-from-my-favorite-thing scream that just makes you take notice and is so intense it kind of makes you laugh at its extremety.

Regardless of the noise the piano causes - music, laughter, or screams - I am thrilled we have one and love to watch the kids use it any and every way they can. Mike wants to leave it here when we move (whenever that is) and well, that's just not going to happen...unless he wants to buy us a new one ;)


Results are in - Karl got a perfect score on his guild!! Wow! Way to go Karl!

Twins!?!!

Is it just me or do my kids look alike?

If there wasn't pink on the one picture it would be very hard to tell them apart...

I wish I had one of Abigail to throw in here too - the only thing that makes her different from these two is she is missing the red glow. Karl doesn't match as well but he is close too.

Sam eats out of something other than a bottle or jar...

MMMMmmmmm...this stuff is good.  

And Dexter has found a new best friend.

He's mobile!

Well, it isn't the prettiest or the fastest but it gets him from place to place.  Baby Sam is crawling!  Not really sure I can call it crawling yet, but it is darn close.  He does this army crawl, on his tip-toes, butt in the air, plop forward move that is entertaining to watch because you are never quite sure how exactly the little guy is going to end up.  It is clear he likes that he can move from place to place.  When he sees something he wants he is focused and moves rather quickly to get there.  

I have seen this many times before and know that within days baby Sam will be navigating the house in a perfect crawl.  Mike though, being in the military and deployed numerous times, has a different perspective.  He was watching Sam and was quite amused, got that wonderful sparkle that I just love in his eye as he chuckled at Sam trying to master this new technique.  Mike took his eyes off Sam for a moment and looked at me and said, "I have never watched one of my children learn to crawl before."  It was a special, sweet and sad moment.  He was amazed, sad, happy, proud, and just captivated by his fourth child developing before his eyes.  I stopped watching Sam and became more entranced watching Mike - I will never forget the look on his face, his ever changing expression matching Sam's progressions and setbacks.  Makes you fall in love all over again.

A hat

Not too long ago I bought a hat for Sam. We were going to be heading to a football game and it was going to get chilly so I figured I should get one just in case. Well, Aine loved the hat. She has the unique trait of claiming everything as hers no matter who it really belongs to or what it is. When she saw the hat she tried it on and since it fit - it was hers. I continually told her it was Sam's, but she wasn't having that.



Finally, she wanted to see the hat on Sam - as if to check for her own eyes if it truly was his. Well, Sam didn't help us much in his reaction - that was proof enough for Aine that the hat was, in fact, hers.









Just had to throw these in as well. I just love watching Mike with the kids and they all love being around him. Sam was hanging out with Dad online...I just love these pictures.

He rolls over!

Sam, at the tender age of one month old, rolls over! I cannot believe it (and neither can my family until they see it). Anyhow, Mike and I had him on his belly watching him hold his head up so high, he really is quite strong, when he rolled over. We looked at each other in disbelief and figured this was a fluke. We put him back on his belly and he did it again. Over the next couple days we kept doing it and the little guy kept rolling over! At first we were counting, the older kids were helping keep track, and now he has done it too many times to keep track so it has become official - he can roll over at one month!

Twice he has gone from his back to his belly - but - until he can do that on a regular basis we will consider those two episodes as freaky events and not an actual capability yet.

I got the video camera out today to record this crazy milestone and figured I better document it because no one does believe us and because if Sam is like our other children he will be getting pretty chunky (fat, huge, gigantic) very soon and most likely will not have the strength to roll his body over at that point.

Yep - our kids are simply amazing if I do say so myself...