Thanksgiving and ICE!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My dad came to see us for a few days. We had lots of fun cooking and even had an Indian-inspired early Thanksgiving dinner. We went downtown one day and had lunch with Melanie. We got to see where she works and met her coworkers.



Here's Daddy carving the turkey breast for our early Thanksgiving dinner. Daddy saw these recipes in his Food and Wine magazine: Thanksgiving in Your 20s, 40s, 60s. We made Indian-Spiced Turkey Breast, Fragrant Cauliflower in Tomato Sauce, and Toasted-Coconut Basmati Rice from the Thanksgiving in Your 20s section. We had leftover yogurt, so we also made the Cilantro-Yogurt Sauce which was part of the butternut squash recipe. It really tied everything together, so I was surprised that it was sort of buried in the other recipe. I made a pumpkin pie too, but the recipe just came from the back of the can of Libby's pumpkin puree.

Sam did something funny while Daddy was visiting. One night he woke up crying and had a hard time going back to sleep, so he cried for a while. I think he woke up twice that night. Then he woke up crying the next morning. When I opened to the door to his room, he immediately stopped crying, and just said "uh-oh." He said it loud enough for the whole house to hear, so everyone started laughing.

Believe it or not, we didn't take a single picture on Thanksgiving day this year. Chris and I took the week off and really enjoyed spending time with my dad and Sam. We also got to try out some new recipes and make some of our old favorites. We went over to the Johnsons' house for lunch on Thanksgiving, and to Roya's parents' house for dinner. Chris made a brined turkey breast and I made catfish pate and sweet potato casserole. We enjoyed the turkey breast so much that we decided we must have that more often. We had so much fun visiting with everyone. We were very surprised that Sam staid up until 10pm having a great time.



We wanted to get out of the house that Friday after Thanksgiving and do something special. It was VERY cold that week so we looked for something we could do inside. I've always wanted to see the riverwalk, so we went to ICE! at Gaylord Texan.



We had to wait in line for about 20 minutes to buy the tickets and then another 40 minutes to get in to the exhibit. Sam did surprisingly well waiting in line. We entertained him by singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" and "The Wheels on the Bus." They also had a train that he could climb on. And, of course, there were lots of Christmas decorations to look at.



The exhibit was nice. They had one room that was decorated like a toy store. I was surprised at how much colored ice they used.



They had a huge nativity scene. I was surprised that they made everything with little blocks of ice instead of one large block of ice. I think all the sculptures I'd seen before had been one solid block of ice.



This angel was very pretty. She had an impressive wingspan.



I think this "cave" was made by spraying real branches. It was pretty how it reflected all the bluish light.



Sam had fallen asleep by this point, so Chris started taking pictures of me.



They had an ice slide at the end, but we didn't want to wake Sam up.



It was supposedly 9 degrees in the exhibit so they handed out parkas for everyone to wear. They didn't have any small enough for Sam so we wrapped him in the smallest one they had and put him in his stroller. He hates wearing a hat and gloves, but he cooperated once we got inside.



One last shot of Chris before the batteries in the flash gave out.



We headed over to the hotel and riverwalk afterwards. They had a large glass ceiling with Christmas lights everywhere.



They had lots of Christmas decorations. You could take your picture with Santa or Mrs. Claus, and they even had live reindeer. Sam was still asleep so we headed over to the Riverwalk Cafe and had some dinner. Sam woke up and ate with us. You gotta wonder what he thinks when he goes to sleep in an ice exhibit and wakes up at a riverwalk with Christmas lights everywhere.



We walked around some more after dinner. Sam loved the train displays so we spent a lot of time there.



We had a little scare a few weeks ago. Sam woke up coughing with a little fever that Sunday morning. We didn't think much of it because we thought it was related to his teething. Later that day it seemed like the coughing and fever were getting worse, so I called the nurse line at his pediatrician's office. They said that he needed to be seen which meant we were going to have to go to the emergency room since it was 5:30pm on a Sunday. When we got there his pulseox was 93 and his fever was 102. Sam was mostly upset about having the hospital bracelet around his ankle. He fell asleep in Chris's lap while we were waiting. After we'd been there for 3 hours they told us that it would be another 2 to 3 hours before we'd be seen and another 2 to 4 hours after that before we'd be discharged. We asked them if they could recheck him and his pulseox was 96 and his temperature was 100.6, so we decided to wait and take him to the pediatrician in the morning.

Only Chris had to get up at 4am the next morning to fly to Virginia for a business trip, so I took Sam to the doctor in the morning. He tested positive for RSV. I had to give him breathing treatments four times a day and rotate Tylenol and Motrin every three hours. Of course he woke up that Monday morning with drainage from his ears so we went to the ENT too, and he had to get drops in his ears twice a day. And to top it off, he had really bad diaper rash, so we even had to get prescription diaper cream. He was pretty cranky for a few days, but he only had fever for two days.



Here is the toy that Chris brought back for Sam from his business trip.



Chris got it at the Air and Space Museum. Guess you could call that a "team building" outing during his business trip.



So, what's new with Sam? As you can see from the photo above, if it is a drawer and he has access to it, it has to be open. We haven't baby-proofed any of the drawers yet.

He's climbing on the couch all by himself now. Great! We have to keep an eye on him because once he's on the couch he starts trying to climb over the back. Since our couch isn't against a wall and is surrounded by wood floors, that makes me very nervous. Sam thinks it's so funny that his Mommy and Daddy come get him when he's standing on the couch. It's his favorite game!

His top canine teeth finally came in. I think he's already started teething his bottom ones too. I just wish he could get a break for a few weeks.

It's finally getting cold around here. I'm amazed that Sam still fits in some of his clothes from this spring. I thought he'd be in 18-24 mos size by now, but he still fits into 12-18 mos. He'll probably outgrow them in a month or two though.

Sam is learning new words every day. It is hard to understand what he's trying to say though. Last night he was saying hot dog, cracker, and cheese, but I don't think we would have know that was what he was saying unless he was pointing to them. The words and phrases that he uses more often are easier to recognize. For example, he's getting better at saying Daddy, Cleo, bye-bye and all done.

First Hair Cut

One week before Sam turns one and a half and we finally got his hair cut. I loved his curls, and I thought I might cry when she cut them off. But, it was just time. He was getting food in his hair, and Chris was having trouble washing it and rinsing the soap out. It was just so funny watching this little boy run around the house the rest of the day.





We went to Zoo Cuts. Sam started out ok in the little race car, but it went downhill when the lady put the cape on him. Sometimes he cried like it was actually hurting. I tried to give him cookies and sing, but neither worked. Even though he cried, he staid fairly still. The whole thing only took about seven minutes, and she did a pretty good job, so all-in-all I was pretty happy. Click here if you want to see the whole thing: part1, part2.



Chris got his hair cut at Zoo Cuts too. It was probably the first time he had his hair cut at a salon in eight years. I've been cutting it for him since we bought a pair of clippers.



Sam had fun playing and waiting for Daddy to finish.



Fletcher was in town last weekend. We had a great dinner and fun just hanging out. Then the next day we all went to The Big Easy for brunch, and Melanie and Fletcher went to Nasher Sculpture Center and an Of Montreal concert.



Sam loves to bang on the keyboard when he is playing his computer game. He usually plays at least once a day.



Sam is learning how to undress himself. We turned it into a game when he's getting ready for his bath. But this day when we got home from day care, Sam started taking off his shirt after I took off his jacket.



Who you lookin' at?



Sam has really started chatting lately. He sounds like he's speaking sentences. I just have no idea what he's saying. Sometimes you can get the general idea what he's talking about base on what he's doing, but sometimes I'm clueless. He's picking up a few more words like feet, toes, and night-night. He gives kisses (which I love of course). He's also picking up more sign language, like hat, book, and elephant. It sounds like he's saying "I did it" in this video. He also loves for us to sing "Head, Shoulder, Knees, and Toes" though he only does the motions for Head and Toes.



Here's a video of Cleo barking and Sam's reaction. Now if you know Cleo, you know that she really doesn't bark (except maybe at hot air balloons). She usually has more of a whine or a howl when she makes any noise. Here she is full-fledged barking because she wanted Sam's banana.

Halloween

Wow, what a Halloween! Seems like most holidays are turning into seasons these days. We definitely had a full week of Halloween this year. Sam was even learning about witches, ghosts, pumpkins, etc. in his day care class.



Sam started his Halloween week with a classroom party at day care. They had all sorts of treats, and he brought home several goodie bags.



Friday night was the Halloween carnival at day care. We had dinner with the Johnsons. Sam and Jackson got to play for a while too. They played so well together. They were sharing toys and chasing each other around the house laughing. It's nice that they are now at an age where they are playing with each other instead of just around each other.

Sam went as a monkey, but he wouldn't wear the hat part. He didn't get a nap that day because I took him to the ENT after lunch. (He didn't have an ear infection, just drainage.) So, when we got to the carnival at 7:30 he was already tired. I think he was a little overwhelmed by all the people too. We staid for a while and tried to get him to play a few games, but he really wanted to be held the whole time. It was a little too warm for that with that monkey costume.



He got a few treats at the carnival. He got a big kick out of sharing his sucker with me.



We went to a pumpkin patch down the road from our house on Saturday to get some pumpkins to carve. Sam saw a puppy in a car and he wanted to play with him, so we had to bribe him with goldfish crackers to get him to look at the pumpkins.



Once he forgot about the dog, he had fun exploring. They had pumpkins of all sizes. Sam tried to walk on the tiny ones.



Here he is rearranging their display.



When we got home, Sam spent a lot of time dumping his treats out and putting them back in the pumpkin. One of his goodies was a can of orange playdough. He would pick out little pieces and give them to us. He also had some sheets of stickers. I tried to play with him and put stickers on a sheet of paper, but he doesn't like it when the stickers stick to him.



Here's a picture of Chris carving the pumpkins. Sam wasn't interested in helping pull the pumpkin guts out, but he did watch for a while. He was mesmerized when they were done and glowing.



Here are the finished products.



Here's a shot of Sam in his monkey costume on Halloween. He was more interested in carrying his costume around than he was in actually wearing it. He stopped crying as soon as we opened the door and he saw all the kids coming up to the house. We hit about six houses. Sam didn't quite understand the concept. He tried to go into the first few houses when they opened their doors. He carried his bucket for a while, but mostly Melanie and I took turns holding it. Chris staid at home and handed out candy.



When we got home from trick-or-treating, Sam couldn't wait to dump out his treats. He even added a few extra pieces of candy from the bowl we were using to hand out candy. We were surprised at how many kids visited our house this year. They all came in big groups too. Seems like the parents were really organized. Even some of the parents were in costumes too.

Sam is learning so much. He really understands a lot of what we are saying now. He's trying to say new words too. The latest ones are Momma, hi, bye, hey, mine, light, fish, bat, and moo.

• My favorite new word is Momma. He's finally saying Momma!
  
• I found out he could say fish by pointing at one in a book and asking him what it was. I was quite surprised that he answered, though it sounded like jeesh.
  
• He started waving bye-bye again this week. I heard him say bye once or twice too.
  
• Hi was his favorite new word this weekend. He said hi to everyone he saw.
  
• He must have been in a possessive mood yesterday afternoon because everything was "mine." We didn't hear it today, but he's probably entering that phase.
  
• There are some bats on his sheets of stickers. He points to them when he's saying it so that's how I know what he's talking about. It doesn't sound much different from cat, so it's hard to tell what he's saying.
  

Some of his words he uses unprompted, but others we have to point to something and ask him what it is, or we try to get him to repeat words after us.

Sam's tantrums are a little stronger now. He's starting to try to scratch us when he gets mad at us. I haven't quite figured out what to do about that. I mostly walk away unless I'm changing his diaper when he's doing it ... now that's annoying.



Here is a video of Sam playing at the playground by our house.