Buddy the Gerbil

We have a temporary houseguest this weekend - Buddy the Gerbil! He's Sam's class pet and the kids can take turns taking him home every weekend. Sam is LOVING every moment of having Buddy here. He hangs out in his cage on our dining room table, safely out of reach of Chloe, who would gobble him up if she had the opportunity (she did once enter the house with a bird head in her mouth, beak poking out of her lips - gross). Anyway, Sam loves to just sit in a chair and watch Buddy and talk incessantly about him. "Buddy's hiding! Buddy's sweeping! (sleeping) Buddy's in the tunnel! Buddy's wunning in his wheel! Buddy's makin' a mess!" (Buddy likes to kick his bedding out of the cage.) Last night, Sam sat and looked at Buddy for about 45 minutes before getting down from the chair.

The Amazing Buddy

Endless Fun

Giving Buddy a hug goodnight before bedtime. Buddy even got a kiss. Well, Buddy's cage did anyway.

Pure Happiness

Buddy makes Sam this happy!

Catch-up Time!

Hello again! It's been a while since I posted anything here, so I tried to post pictures that covered anything remotely exciting that's happened to us in the last couple months. Which, to be honest, isn't much. We enjoyed the last months of winter, but HELLO spring!!! One thing we learned last month: do NOT go to the Newport Aquarium on President's Weekend when it's free kids weekend. Total mistake. Way too many people and their little ragamuffin kids! But we still managed to have a good time and Sam loved seeing the fish. Mostly anyway...he got a little bit scared of the little sharks when he thought they were going to swim through the glass:

We celebrated Sam's 2nd birthday 3 different times! Once, when his GGM and Great Aunt Beth were up to visit:

Then again the next day with Aunt Rachel and his cousin Jackson. Here they are showing off their Spiderman tattoos.

Hot Mamas!

Love the look.

We celebrated again at Neenee's house. Sam gave Neenee a big hug after opening his presents!

The birthday parties were fun, but Ben got an early birthday gift when he won the monthly drawing at Sam's daycare. We got a new HDTV! Ben was on cloud 9 that entire weekend.

And I finally got around to taking a belly picture! This was at about 21 weeks with baby no-name:

Another development, besides my giant stomach, is Sam's new passion: RUNNING. He particularly loves to run around our house wearing his bumblebee rainboots. This time, he put on his ski hat as an added touch. Ready, set, GO!!!