The heart murmur is gone!  Sam's pediatrician said with his rapid growth this last month, she thought it might be.  She heard no signs of it...horray!  He's also in the 90th percentile for his weight now!  He was 13 pounds 4.6 ounces!

He had to get FOUR shots...he wasn't happy at all about that.  He is sleeping quietly and contently though.  He'll go back in two months...and then he can start on solids!  Let's hope he starts sleeping more regularly through the night, too...since mommy really gets going back to work after Labor Day!

I dropped Will off at our Parish School for their preschool program.  It wasn't as emotional as the first.  I think mainly because this is only a 3-hour/day program and the preschool sits in a separate room by itself...not in the inards of a regular school.  At the open house on Sunday, I was the only mom with a camera and felt like the odd one out...this morning all the moms had cameras...except me...can you believe I forgot it?!  I did snap this photo on my camera phone of him playing with this cowboy scene when we left.

He knew exactly where we were going when we pulled up in the parking lot...he said, "We're going in the red door."  Funny, his other preschool has a yellow door.  He said, "I want to play with the tow truck, the fire truck with a ladder and the tiny, tiny, tow truck."  And that's exactly what he did when we walked through the red door.

The cutest part of the drop off was when I was looking for the name tag Miss Nancy had tried to put on him, and when coming back, I see his legs fly up in the air from the table he was sitting at, and he fell on the floor.  He got up, looked a little stunned but didn't cry...I asked if he was okay and he replied in a little voice, "I think so."  The rest of the teachers wondered the same thing, and I told them he was fine.  He continued playing with his steers and horses.  We exchanged kisses, and then we left.

Okay, so I've dropped Will off several times at KinderCare, even when he had changed classrooms and never really got emotional.  I also don't remember getting very emotional the first day I dropped him off there.

Today, however, was a different story.  He started preschool at Northwest today.  I had my mom come with me to help out with all the supplies that had to be carried in, as well as Sam.  Will had already been to the open house last Thursday for the school to meet his teacher and see his classroom, so when he went in the main door, he just walked right into his classroom like it was no big deal and put his backpack down and proceeded over to the rocking horse.

There, a little boy came over to him and said, "Hi, my name is Daniel."  I about lost it!  It took everything to choke back the tears of my little boy growing up and meeting new friends!

Will didn't respond to the little boy too much, but was sad when he realized I was leaving and he wasn't just visiting.  It's picture day today, so he looked so grown up and so handsome on his first day.   The first day of Kindergarten is going to be really rough!!  I think I'll need a whole box of Kleenex!

Will is always getting up on the bed while we're changing Sam's diaper so he can get a better look.  Here, I was able to capture a picture of them looking at one another so lovingly.

After putting Will to bed, Sam gave me some cute smiles.  All I had to do was talk to him and he just beamed his toothless grin.  It was just precious!  Now he's smiling all the time.

Sam Passed!

I was so nervous.  Nick and I knew he could hear just fine...he responds to us and startles at loud noises, but you never know.  This was my first trip to Children's Hospital.  I have to say, it's definitely for children, and even made me feel more at ease going there.  If Will was there he'd love it, because you walk off the elevator from the parking garage to a huge train going around the ceiling.  The colors are so bright and vibrant and fun.

I felt so bad when the audiologist hooked the electrodes up to Sam.  He looked like ET.  I snapped this picture when the nurse stepped out waiting for him to fall asleep. 

He couldn't be moving for the test at all.  He was laying against me, and I thought my heart was going to come out of my chest or die from not breathing...afraid to move him!  It was torture...but he made it through and his hearing is fine.  She still believes he has some fluid in his left ear, but we'll follow up with the peditrician on that.

I was so glad this test was over and he passed!

Okay, so now Will is getting more of his own "will."  He made his own bowl of cereal this morning.  Got the cereal down, a bowl and poured it himself.  He filled the bowl to the rim, and I didn't think he would eat the whole thing.  He put a minor dent in it and asked to be excused from the table.  Here's where the negotiating started.  Usually I'll tell him to eat two more bites and he does and then asks to be excused...end of story.

This morning, I told him to eat 5 more bites because he poured such a big bowl and was wasting most of it.  He looked back at me and said, "No mommy, I don't want to eat 5 bites, I want to eat 2 bites."  I told him, "No, eat 4 more bites."  He then said, "No, 3 bites."  I was stunned.  I had to give in...I was out of numbers and he won!  I said, "Okay, 3 more bites." and he did.  Look out Kevin Spacey, here comes Will!

Miraculously we were going to take our family picture this afternoon and while sitting in the chair with me...I started talking to him, and he just beamed this big toothless grin.  My heart melted.  I had my camera phone right next to me and grabbed it to snag this picture of his "second smile" to email myself and send to Daddy at work.

Later today for the portraits, he showed his toothless grin again.  It was perfect developmental timing for his pictures!  We were not so lucky with Will who is always smiling.  He has gotten a little fragile and had a meltdown before the pictures.  We got some pretty serious shots.