Round 2 and 3

Everyone said that when Samara went to day care, she'd bring home viruses...etc. Around the end of February and beginning of March, Samara caught the bronchiolitis bug that was making the rounds at school. For the first few days, she had a fever, sore throat, caugh, and running nose and was not allowed to go to "school". However, the fever eventually broke and the green river of snot dried up. As a result, she felt well enough to go to the Denver Museum of Art (see pictures). Samara had a great time; she always enjoys getting out of the house!

Shana and I get our exercise every semester through intramural co-rec flag football. It's a blast, but if we're both playing, someone has to watch Samara. That duty is bestowed on our friend Maureen (her husband Jeff plays on the team). Samara generally likes going to the games; the atmosphere of early evening games in the outdoors is invigorating. Unfortunately, the games last past her bedtime, and she becomes very cranky! I know I'd get cranky if I was up playing football past my bedtime. But, she weathers the wear and tear of a football season very well. Speaking of weather, one of games was played in the rain, but, Samara slept through it! These pictures were shot after one of our games. Samara has developed a new smile this last month; we call it her "scrunchy face"!

It's a shame this blog entry tells the tale of two episodes of illness for Samara. On March 11th (Sunday) I flew to Houston for a conference. Early Monday morning (2AM ish) Shana called and told me that Samara had been throwing up for about an hour! The next morning, after staying up all night taking care of a vomitous little girl, Shana took her to the doctors office. Samara was dehydrated; the prescription, fluids. Shana went home and tried to keep Samara hydrated with no luck. After conversing with the doctor, Samara was admitted to the hospital (while vomiting) and was set up on an IV. At the hospital, Samara weighed in at a pound less than what we had been weighing her at home. Samara was lethargic for a good portion of this time; Shana would lay Samara down on the bed and she wouldn't move (or even think about moving). During the first 3 hours at the hospital, Samara was given 1 liter of saline (and eventually another liter throughout her overnight stay). Samara eventually began to keep fluids down and was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday (and I was able to make it back the same day). While at the hospital, she eventaully began her bout of diarrhea, which did not subsist until Sunday morning (5 days later)! By Saturday (St. Patrick's Day), Samara began feeling herself, i.e. crawling around and vocalizing! So, we went to an acquaintance's house and had green waffles!

So, in a nutshell, Samara has been in daycare for 3 1/2 months and has been sick 3 times! Argh!

Samara had her 9-month checkup on March 22nd (a week after she started feeling better). Her vitals:

Weight - 18lbs 6oz (30th percentile)
Height - 28 1/4 inches (55th percentile)
Head - 17 1/8 inches (25th percentile)

For comparison, when she was born her percentiles were 90%, 90%, and 50% , respectively.

The Denver March Pow Wow was on the 23rd-25th and we were able to catch some of the action on the 24th! We weren't around for the dancing competitions, but we saw the parade of dancers that are escorted by the color guard, which essentially kicks off the event. Samara was exhausted after several hours and need cat nap!

Being a white male, culture is always good (although my mother is a "full-blooded" German from Hess). I don't usually express my opinion in this blog because it is essentially Samara's blog and in essence, what opinions does she have at her age? Butt paste or powder, right?

However, one thing I'd like to enumerate is the fact that Native American's take great pride in serving in the Armed Forces of the USA; a country that has taken so much from them and given so little in return. The honor of being a "warrior" (exact words from the commentary at the event) for the country in which we all live is an enormous dignity for Native Americans. The commentator spent the better part of an hour introducing the color guard groups at the Pow Wow; including three groups from Oklahoma. Enough of my rant, Samara will take the butt paste.


We decided to travel home for spring break and visit friends and family. Samara enjoyed her visit thoroughly; we suspect the reason she enjoyed it is because she has learned how to crawl since our last visit. In addition staying with our immediate families, we traveled to Carnegie, Oklahoma to visit several of Shana's Kiowa/Comanche Aunt's and her half sister. They were really thrilled to see Samara and gave her a stuffed horse; "every Comanche has to have a horse" was the comment! Being so close to Oklahoma City, we were able to briefly visit the city before we absconded the next morning.

The following photos are a hodge-podge of photos from our visit:





Samara with me, Aidan, and Eden...

Samara after eating a blood orange...or a "purple" as I convenced Eden and Aidan.

Shana holding Grayson, Brian and Kelli's new addition (and a potential new friend of Samara's).














Samara with cousin John, who appears to be picking his nose!

Samara with cousin Ben...

Uncle Mike holding Samara with Taz in the midst...

Shana with our nephew John...who appears to be chewing on a snot sucker...does he have a fascination with nose stuff..

My mother decided that she wanted some photographs of her three grandchildren and we ended up heading to the Wal-Mart photographer for a grueling photoshoot! Once there, the photographer wanted to start with the youngest child first because in her experiences, younger children were harder to deal with. Well, most of you know how calm Samara is, but coupled with my niece Tori, aka Taz (The Tazmanian Devil), we vetoed the photographers wishes. And, surprise surprise, we were correct. The Taz was all over the place! Oh...and my mother decided it was a good idea to give her a treat if she acted well...candy! Well, that worked for about 2 minutes (the time it takes for sugar to hit Tazs' blood stream)! It was a fun experience! We really to love Taz!


Samara has done a great job riding in her car seat on these vast journeys; mainly because we drive through the night when she's sleeping. But, nontheless, we never have to stop because of a crying baby and only halt our expeditions due to waste management proceedures! These pictures were taken on Highway 412 in the panhandle of Oklahoma during one of our brief stops; no cars around equals great driving, in my opinion!


We've uploaded a couple of movies to our myspace account; so, check them out! Just click on the "videos" link below Samara's picture. The video with the snow was shot in December when we had the 33-inch snowfall. The exercise video was taken in early April! Take care!

--Chris