Sam’s Story: Week 151

The week actually didn’t start off to well for Sammy. Shortly after one of her regular trips to that germ breeding lab they call preschool, she came down with a fever. What was kind of odd, though, was that the fever was the only symptom she had –no sore throat, no aches, no runny nose. She was just really, really hot and really, really pissed off at the world and everyone in it. Then things got a little worse when she took a face first trip to the hardwood floor and busted her upper lip open. So she basically oscillated between sleepy and infuriated, sometimes several times a minute. We responded with lots of Tylenol, a trip to the pediatrician, and desperate prayers that she get better before Ger went into labor.

Well, you know how THAT turned out. Actually, though, Sam was on the tail end of her illness when Ger went into labor, but not entirely over it. At any rate, we passed the buck to Grandma and Grandpa on our way out the door to the hospital. We were kind of worried about how Sam would react to this at first, but it turns out she was as care free about her extended stay with the grandparents as she has been about, well, almost everything. Again, this kid is weirdly easy going sometimes.

By the time Sam came to the hospital to meet Mandy on Sunday afternoon she was feeling better, though. I’m not sure what we were expecting of this first encounter, but we figured the worst that would happen was hysterical shrieking and some kind of life-long scarring for everyone in the room. For Sam. In fact, Sam seemed really curious abound Mandy, what with all the pressing her face up against the clear plastic of her baby sister’s bassinet and just staring at her. After that, Sam would just kind of look over at her every few minutes and say “That’s my baby sister.” Which, as far as we were concerned, set everything sufficiently straight and we let out our breath.

The real test will be when we bring Mandy home, though. Despite how we’ve been prepping Sam for months, I’m not sure she really understands the depths of the changes we have wrought. I don’t think I understand them, and I’ve had a lot more schooling than Sam. My main reason for suspecting that all may not be well under the surface is how when the time came for Sam to leave the hospital and go back with her grandparents, she walked over to Geralyn and said “Mommy is going to come home soon, baby sister is going to stay here.”

Well, no. Things are gonna change a bit, kiddo. Just roll with it.

And speaking of changes, this is it, folks. After 151 weeks and literally thousands of pictures, this is the last Sam’s Story entry. That’s not to say that I’m not going to write about her anymore, but with the birth of her little sister Amanda it’s time for her to share the lime light and probably to edge out of it a little. My plan is to continue doing a children/parenting update every Monday just like with Sam’s Story, so that everyone who enjoys the daddyblogging can continue to do so, but it’s not going to all be about Sam.

I considered calling it quits entirely, but I want to keep maintaining a record of my kids’ lives. When I scroll through the Sam’s Story archives nowadays, I’m SO glad I started doing this and kept it up. What I have here is a written and photographic narrative about Sam’s first three years of life and my first three years of parenthood. It’s fun to look at the pictures to see how much has changed, and there are a lot of events and stories that I would have forgotten forever if I hadn’t written them down here. Some say that blogging is about communication and sharing, and that’s true. But it’s also about making something which outlasts the moment that created it.

When I started this, I did it solely for the sake of Geralyn’s family and my family, all of whom lived far, far away. I wrote about Geralyn’s pregnancy and our preparation for parenthood, then I posted some pictures of the newborn. After that I decided to keep writing about what was happening so that our family could keep up between phone calls. The habit just kind of stuck. I figured that maybe some of our friends might stop in to check it out, too, but that was about the limits of my expectations.

Now, while I can’t understand my traffic logs that well, there seem to be quite a few people coming here at least once a week to read my stories and look at my snapshots. It’s not enough to compete with the big-time mommybloggers out there (nor do I wish to), but it’s certainly a lot more than I ever expected. So thanks for that, especially those of you who have introduced yourself and shared kind words. Glad you’ve enjoyed it, and I hope to see you back next Monday for the next phase.

Now, where’s my book deal? Anyone?