Doing Too Much?

I took the day off last Friday and took Sam to Kidz Muze with the Mom's group. I acutally dropped him off at day care that morning because they had "Splash Day." He was pooped when I picked him up and slept the whole way there. I also got his first week of artwork from his new class. Here's a sample:



As you can see, this was made with Bingo Dauber Paint. He also had Feather Plate, Dribble Glue, and Scratch-N-Sniff projects. I can't wait to see what he did this week!



Kidz Muze was really neat. They had lots of play areas for kids of all ages. Sam especially loved this huge Connect 4 game. He wasn't tall enough to put the pieces in at the top, but he loved stacking them on the holders.



They even had an area with slides and tunnels and other stuff for little kids. Sam loved the slide, but he still hasn't figured out how to do it on his own. He wants to go down head first mostly. Once he was going down on his butt with me helping him and he planted his feet on the slide and started "flying" off. It scared me, and I grabbed him, but he probably wouldn't have gotten hurt any way. He's getting a lot of practice so he should have it soon enough.



We went to the Dallas World Aquarium on Saturday. We've been wanting to go for a few weeks, but we haven't felt well enough. We probably should have waited another week because Sam and I still weren't quite back to normal.



Here's Sam with Melly waiting for a table at the restaurant. We had probably only been there 30 minutes when it was time for him to eat.



We had a lot of fun at the restaurant. We were surprised that the food was great. We had a view of flamingos from where we were sitting. I ordered some french fries for Sam, but he was more interested in the ketchup.



After lunch came the big fits and it was time to leave for a nap. Sam stopped crying to enjoy this Mayan guy. He blew on a conch shell for Sam and tickled him with his feathers.



We stopped to pet this horse on the way out. Sam really liked that. He's in more of a hands-on mode right now and wants to be moving all the time. He's just not interested in being strolled or carried through exhibits that you can't touch. Trying to get out of the parking lot, we were reminded not to park the truck in tight parking spots downtown. It took us forever to get out of there an inch at a time. We were very thankful to have the DVD player in the truck and some chocolate milk for Sam!



The next morning we practiced making the sound the horse made.



We ran out to pick up a few things at Target and got this sprinkler on end-of-summer clearance. Sam liked it better when we turned it down really low.



Sam and Daddy are continuing to practice blowing bubbles in the water. Sam is getting pretty good, but still gets a mouthful every now and then. It's hard to believe, but he should be ready for real swimming lessons next summer.



We also picked up a shelf/organizer for Sam's toys in the living room. It helps him find the toy he wants without pulling everything out on the floor. Plus he has fun pulling the buckets down, pulling the toys out, putting them back in, and putting the buckets back up. Now I'm not saying it happens in that order or even one bucket at a time! I'm just saying he's having fun and I'm happy.

I had to choose between taking Sam to the doctor and taking myself to the doctor on Monday. Needless to say, Sam went on Monday, and I went on Tuesday. We're both loaded up with meds for this cough and are both starting to feel better. Sam had a little drainage in his ears, so I ended up taking him to the ENT on Wednesday, but she said everything had already cleared up and there was no infection. Hopefully, we'll all get some rest of the long weekend and ditch this virus for good!

Aunt Melly in Texas

It's official! Aunt Melly graduated and is in Dallas looking for a job. Sam is very excited. Every time he does something he looks over at Melanie to see what kind of reaction he's getting. Sam has his new favorite cookie in his mouth in this picture. When he gets home from day care every day he wants milk, a yogurt smoothie, and cookies. We try our best to get him to eat some real dinner. He eats enough, but even if he eats a lot, he still wants his yummies.



Melanie babysat for us Saturday night. It was the first night that we'd been out since Sara's wedding in April. I was so excited. We thought about it all day, but couldn't figure out what we wanted to do. We don't really know what to do with ourselves. Melanie reminded us that she can babysit again next weekend, so we didn't have to try to do everything. We went out for Pad Thai and came home.



The weather was nice this weekend so we played in the water. Sam had a blast playing with the hose, and even tried to drink from it.



We also got in the swimming pool. Sam surprised me by putting his face in the water and blowing bubbles. Chris said that he's been practicing in the tub. Sam was very proud of himself.




Sam turned 15 months old this week and moved up to the next class at day care. It's going to be interesting. He gets to do craft projects, sleep on a mat, feed himself, and go outside to play. They even have splash day on Fridays.



Sam is learning how to eat with a spoon. I'm really glad that we have Cleo around because a lot of it ends up on the floor. My favorite thing is this "for me?" look he gets when I put the bowl and spoon in front of him. Come to think of it, maybe it's a "oh the messes I will make" face instead. He has to feed himself in his new class so we need to reinforce that. I thought they were going to give him a spoon, but I guess that's a little more advanced. Apparently they tried to get him to eat mashed potatoes with his hands. He shook them off all over the floor. They said he did better when they gave him a spoon. Yea!



We've been sick again - major sore throat and cough - so bad you can't sleep. I had it first and it lasted for two weeks. I'm just now getting over it, but Chris is just getting to the worst part. I took Sam to the doctor on Friday, so we got some cough medicine which helps him sleep. He's also graduated from Infant's to Children's motrin. Chris went to the doctor today and got some presription cough medicine which is great because he didn't sleep last night. We are hoping that Melanie doesn't catch this one.

My Little Monkey-Monk

I thought it would be fun to try a craft project with Sam, so Sam and I went to buy paint and paper, a pack of T-shirts, and a newspaper.



We spread out some newspaper on the kitchen floor and tried to make some handprints. I've tried to get some handprints before, but it's never really worked out. I put some paint on his hand and tried to get a handprint or two, but Sam was more interested in squishing and smearing the paint. I tried to put a piece of paper in front of him and let him just go for it, but after the initial curiosity, he just wanted us to wash his hand.



Wow, that's some blue paint. Maybe he could start the blue baby group.



We went over to Brad and Jennifer's for dinner last weekend. Sam and Jackson played in the sprinkler. After dinner Brad took them for a ride in the office chair. Sam had a blast! We also got to meet Sofia. She is so cute and sweet. I forgot how tiny newborns are, especially their toes.



We went to Ikea this weekend. They had a little area setup in this display for kids. Sam had so much fun playing with the desk drawer, pots and pans, stuffed animals, shelves, etc. I think he could have staid in that one spot for an hour. Ikea was super crowded. There must have been thousands of people there. It was too crowded to let Sam walk very much on his own. He's getting pretty fast, so you can't take your eyes off him for a second. There are soooo many cool things in Ikea. We were able to find a few quiet spots that he could explore, but then we got what we came for and got out of there.



Sam liked the pots and pans so much we had to get some. I thought that would be a better thing for him to play with in the kitchen instead of pulling stuff out of the cabinets that I'd have to wash. He'd still rather be held so he can see what we're doing way up there on that counter.



Daddy showing Sam how to click the pen.



We just had to take a picture of Sam in his new shoes that Grandma Mary Lou got for him. I can't believe that I still have so much fun dressing Sam every morning.

Laughing Out Loud

Sam has had a lot of energy this week. He's been running around the house mostly chasing Cleo. Poor Cleo.



I took the day of work on Friday, and Sam and I went swimming with the moms group. Sam was shy at first and mostly did a lot of people watching, but when he saw how much fun everyone was having he had to join in.



That's Same in the whale in the center of the picture. He staid in there for a few minutes so I could visit. It wasn't long before he wanted out so he could run around the pool though.



There were these streams of water shooting out around the pool. Sam played with them for a long time. Sometimes he'd stand on one and the water would disappear. It took him a little while to figure that one out.



We took this photo when most of the moms and babies were there. Two more sets of moms and babies showed up a little while later so there were about fourteen babies there in all. Sam played until he couldn't play any more. We finally left when he was standing in the pool and I could see his eyes closing.



Our house looks like it was hit by a toy and book tornado. One day when Sam was taking a nap Chris actually tried to pick them up. Sam was not happy about that and made sure that every last toy was taken out of the box and put on the floor. Everyone knows the toy box is more fun than the actual toys any way.



Here's a video of Sam laughing, chasing Cleo, and "petting" her.



As I said last week, Sam is turning into a climber. This morning after breakfast he climbed under our table and started climbing up one of the chairs. I can just see him climbing on top of the table next! We could tell he wanted to get out of the house. It was a little warm today so we head to one of the malls. He was able to climb to his heart's content, though he wasn't quite sure about this whole "sliding" idea.

One last note ... Sam got his bottom left molar sometime in the last week or so. He was having a hard day Thursday with teething, so we checked him out, and that tooth had broken through. By the way he's been drooling and biting things today, I'm thinking the last molar will be here soon. YEA!