We Share Everything...

...especially germs. And lots of them.

This week was a total whirlwind. Samd seemed to get a *new* cold last weekend. He was stuffy Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday, I thought I was finally rid of a nasty 3-week cold, only to spike a fever for some reason. No worries. Three Advil and I was fine. EXCEPT, just two hours later, Rob has an even higher fever and ends up in bed... even with my family over for dinner.

We all wake up on Monday seemingly feeling better. Rob and Sam go off to school. I head to the airport for a meeting in Phoenix. I land, check messages and hear that Rob's fever is back and he's going home. He said he'd pick up Sam, let him nap at home, then have him checked by the ped for good measure.

Well, since the cell phone towers were down on the west coast, I was unable to check in on my boys. I arrive in my hotel room to a ringing phone. My sister said, "Don't be scared, but Sam is in the hospital!!" Ok. Like I wasn't going to panic.

Turns out he had a febrile seizure while at the doctor's office. His breathing was still bad 90 min. later, so off to the ER. They spent a few hours there and went home when they couldn't find an infection.

Meanwhile, I took my first redeye... Once home, I insist we go back to the ped. Rob had a doc appt. first, and we find out he has strep. Mystery apparently solved. Even though most young kids don't get strep, Sam did. Along with an ear infection and croup to boot. I took care of my boys for another day, only to get strep myself.

A few days on antibiotics (if I had the energy I'd write up Rob's rant over getting Penicillin to my Z-pack), we all seemed better. WRONG. I now have the mother of all colds. Rob and Sam are just fine, yelling at the football games on TV while I struggle for just one good breath.

Wet kisses are too good to turn down. Bites from Sam's spoon and drinks from his cup... not so much. Enough with the sharing!

Where to start?

If I mean for this to be a virtual memory book of our days, I probably need to actually post nearly daily. At least one would think. Perhaps what I'm discovering about myself and my lack of ability to be a good "memory mommy" is that I'm so busy doing things in the moment that I don't slow down to remember all the cute, funny and cool things that Sam does. So I'll just jump in. At some point, I'll go back and try to recall the stuff from before this date that I don't want to forget, either. (Deb told us to start writing things down and taking video. We should have listened more closely! There's a lot that Sam's already stopped doing...)

I saw my friend Tara yesterday. She has a daughter just a few months older than Sam. She told me that once they start talking, they have a virtual language explosion between the ages of 18 and 24 months. Yeah, I can see that.

Sam, just this week, came out with a whole bunch of words that we had no idea he knew. I'm sure he picks them up at school, but it shows what I get for having an ego and thinking that he learns all he knows from Mommy and Daddy! Not true. His words of the week: pocket, Vera (as in Miss Vera, a fave teacher at daycare), pancake and digger.

He also picked up my cell phone, put it to his ear and said, "Hello, Nonni. You comin'?" I was overcome by the cuteness.

A not-so-cute, though surely laughable-in-the-future moment: I was wearing layers this morning. I take off the top layer and inadvertently flash my unassuming son. He just smiles and says, "Mommy! Boobie!" Where did he learn THAT one???!!!

My first post

It's a new year. Most people are making resolutions right about now. Mine is small and grandiose at the same time. I want to be the best mommy ever.

2005 closed a long chapter in our lives. After losing several pregnancies, one of which nearly ended my own life, we finally brought our son home on June 14. Samuel Andrew HyunTae arrived at the Philadelphia airport at 8:39 p.m. to the cheers of many friends and family. He was just over 12 months old and the cutest baby we'd ever laid eyes on. After more than 16 hours on a plane in the arms of a virtual stranger, Sam was handed over to us to begin life with his forever family.

That day is well documented. Our family and friends took lots of pictures and video. We had professional photographers in tow. We even crafted (well, Rob did anyway) our own DVD of Sam's "Gotcha Day."

My iPhoto library has 1620 images in it. I'd say at least 1500 of them are Sam-related. I got Photoshop Elements for Christmas in the vain hope that I'll actually do something with all those pictures.

Now, mind you, I come from a family of crafty/artsy people who have pages upon pages of adorable scrapbook entries chronicling the lives of their children. You think I'd be inspired to do the same. I am. I just never seem to get it done (not unlike the cross-stitching or knitting habits I've tried to pick up over the years.)

That brings me to this, my first post in my first blog. We'll see where it goes, but I'm resolving to capture the amazing moments in our new life with Sam this way. 2006 is about being honest with myself. That means I'll probably never turn into the kind of mommy who makes beautiful scrapbook pages. I still think I have the world's cutest kid, but I needed a more Karen-friendly place to catalog his escapades... And who knows? Maybe I'll master Photoshop yet.