Mr. Big Stuff

Sam is changing so much every day now. He's getting so independent. He definitely knows what he does and does not want to do. I think his favorite word is NO.

Sam sat in a booster seat at a restaurant for the first time this weekend. We'd never really thought about trying it before. He's pretty much been using a booster seat at home since we've stopped using the tray. He's been climbing down out of his seat at home for a while, and we've stopped clipping him in, so it wasn't much of a stretch for him. He got a big grin on his face though. He did really well and didn't try to climb down while we were eating.



One of Sam's other favorite words is YEA! Any time he does anything the he's proud of, we all say yea and clap. Now he just likes saying it and says it a lot. Melanie thinks that this is most hilarious and encourages it at every opportunity. This particular day he was practicing jumping. Then he got his monkey pillow to jump. He loves his monkey pillow. When he doesn't think we are watching, he'll "feed" his stuffed animals or show them how to do things like color. It's like now that he knows how to do it he wants to teach someone else. It's just the cutest thing ever.

We were sitting together the other day practicing his words. He goes back and forth between signing and talking. He signed cracker, then train, then he signed something that I knew I should recognize, but I didn't. I was talking to myself out loud and said, "and what is that one?" Sam answered, "ball," clear as day. It just catches me off guard when he answers me back now.

One day this week I was dressing Sam for school. He doesn't like getting dressed because he knows that he's about to leave for day care, so I always try to make it fun. On this particular day I was putting him in a long sleeve button down shirt. He loves buttons on our shirts or his shirts. He can even say "button." I was telling him to look at all the buttons on his shirt and that Mommy didn't have any buttons today. He reached over, pulled up my shirt, and pointed to my belly button. I died out laughing, but had to agree that I did indeed have a button. Then when I was trying to button his sleeves, he started fussing. I asked him if he wanted his sleeves rolled, and he said "roll," which he's never said before. It was funny to me though because that's the way Chris wears his long sleeve button up shirts too.



We've all had sore throats over the last week or so. Chris even ended up with Strep throat. He is sick of taking his antibiotics. We're all feeling better, but Sam and I are still coughing a little at night.

Chris and I took vacation Friday through Tuesday (today). We needed some recovery time, but we also had a lot of stuff to do around the house. We are planning on trying to sell our house and buy a new one in April/May. While we were off we rented a storage shed and cleaned out the garage. We made a dent in it, but we have sooo much more to do. At least we were able to give Melanie a little more space in her room. The garage door opener died in the middle of everything, so we're getting Home Depot to install a new one this week. It's going to be hard spending money on the house getting it fixed up because we know it's not for us to enjoy at this point. We love our house. We've been here for nine years. There are several things that are exactly the way we want them. It's going to be hard to leave, but we are just out of space.




Melanie got a new car this weekend. It's a 2007 Hyundai Sonata. It's only got 22K miles and it looks brand new. She had to test drive cars in the rain. The salesman said that the rain brings out the serious buyers. Chris and Melanie both said that they had a good experience with CarMax. Chris said we will probably look there first when we need a new (used) car. Melanie drove her car to work for the first time today and said it drove like a dream.

My Little Valentine

What a difference a year makes! The picture on the left is of Sam last year on Valentine's Day. He's wearing the same shirt, but it actually fits him this year. It just seems like he's grown so much in the last month.



Sam drug this little xylophone around all last weekend. He found all sorts of places that were perfect for jamming out. He would bang on it with the sticks and simultaneously do his sort of head-nodding dance. He loves his toys that make or play music. He loves to clap and dance.



We moved Sam's little table and chairs into the living room tonight. I set it up so he could color, but when I went to the kitchen, he got his monkey and put the color in the monkey's hand, and started "showing" the monkey how to color. I swear it was one of the cutest things I've ever seen.



Melanie was in a car wreck this week. She wasn't hurt, but her car was totaled. It really doesn't look that bad, but it would cost more to fix it that it is worth. Someone cut-off the guy in front of her, and when he slammed on the brakes she ran into the back of his truck. His bumper only had two dots of paint on it.



Chris took this picture of Melanie and me reviewing her finances and discussing her options. She only gets to keep the rental car through Monday, so she'll be getting a new car soon.



Yes, I cut most of my hair off. I wasn't planning on going quite so short, but I love it.

It's been too long ...

You think this might be good advertising for V8? A 20 month old who drinks V8 every day! It's really the only vegetable that he eats for me (besides ketchup and black beans). He's still mostly drinking from a sippy cup at home, but he only uses a regular cup now at day care. We let him drink small amounts from a regular cup at home, but he still likes to be able to walk around the house with his drink sometimes and that requires a sippy cup in my opinion.

He's also tall enough to reach the water dispenser on the refrigerator now. So, we he gets a cup of water, he NEEDS to refill it himself. Needless to say we've had a few messes. Sam usually helps us clean them up though. Sometimes he gets water down his sleeve -- he really doesn't like that!



Here he is eating his favorite dinner: chili with beans (don't forget the V8!). And, yes, that's a spoon he's using there! He's getting pretty good at using it (and forks) too.



Pops came to visit for MLK weekend. Cleo was glad to have her best friend back! We had fun watching the NFL Conference Playoffs.

We went to La Madeline for lunch on that Sunday. We pretty much go there every weekend. Sam loves their creamy potato soup (with bacon and cheese). He likes to dip his bread in it. He even dipped his banana in it! When we went last weekend, I got an extra bowl for Sam, and he fed himself soup with a spoon. I was surprised that he could do that. Oh, funny thing, Sam's favorite part of the bread is the crust. I've been cutting the crust off of his bread since he started eating it. Then one day he wanted my piece of toast, so I just handed it to him. He went around the whole slice and just ate the crust. So now I leave the crust on his too. Who knew? ... much easier.



It was finally time for us to get Sam's hair cut again. It's been so cold that I've just been putting it off. Here he is playing with the train set at the salon.



Last time Sam started crying as soon as they put the cape on, so we tried to do the hair cut without one ... that really didn't help any. He was in a cute little race car, they were playing a Baby Einstein video, and I was singing to him, but nothing could distract him.



Melanie and Pops came for moral support, but Sam was focused on his trauma. He recovered pretty quickly and soon became the center of attention for a group of girls that were there getting made up with makeup and color and glitter in their hair. Sam got a big kick out of all the attention.

Later that day we went to our neighborhood park. Chris was goofing off with Sam and I got some really cute pictures. Sam loves to go to the neighborhood park. The funny thing is that he really just wants to walk down there, play for 5 or 10 minutes, and then come back home. I think it's just too cold lately.

Sam has a new name for Chris. I think he's been saying it for about a month now. He started calling him "dee-dah" instead of "da-dee". It's so cute, but we are trying not to reinforce it, but I catch myself referring to him as "dee-dah" every now and then.



Sam loves puzzles now. He wants to play with them all the time. Last weekend, he'd put together the two puzzles that he owns about six times in a row. He kept signing, "more, more," so later that day we ran out and picked up two more to play with. His reaction was funny the first time he tried to play with the new ones. He'd basically memorized where everything went in the old puzzles, so he had to actually concentrate to finish the new ones. The second picture is one of many test shots that Chris takes of us around the house. Here he was playing with color profiles and his new Lightsphere.



These are just some random pictures from hanging around the house on the weekend. I was cleaning out a closet and ran across this rug that I wanted to give to Good Will. Before I could load it up in the truck, both Sam and Cleo had to test it out. The second picture is Sam eating Peanut Butter Captain Crunch with Melly.



I kept wondering how the buzzer kept getting turn on on the washer and dryer ...



Sam loves to hide. Here he found that he could squeeze between the wall and the buffet. He's eating a Greek cookie called a koulouria. He asks for one everyday as soon as he gets home (and he likes to dip them in Mommy and Daddy's coffee).

Sam loves this little chair that he got for Christmas. It spins around and has a canopy that you can pull down over yourself. It sort of looks like an egg. He likes to play peek-a-boo with the canopy.



Roles reversed ... Daddy sitting in the chair.



He got this little pull-along alligator toy one weekend (you can barely see him peeking out from behind the chair). I had wanted to get him one for Christmas, but never saw one while I was out shopping. He loves it -- he wants to take it for a walk every where. We had to take it to day care one day. And another day we had to walk him down to the park -- that's it -- just down the street to the park and back home again.

Sam likes to sit at his little table and color. We've mostly been giving him blank sheets of paper, but he's been getting a little bored with that. So, I started searching the web for "coloring pages" to print. There's tons of them out there. I can pick one of his favorite subjects like dogs or trains, or even pick a subject that they are talking about at day care that week. It really gets his attention for a few minutes if I need to try to get something done around the house.




Sam hates it when I cook because he can't see what's going on. Sometimes Chris holds him so he can see. He's finally gotten tall enough to see over the counter with his stool, so he got to help me squeeze lemons that night. I still don't want him to get near the stove though. He points at it and says "hot", but he still tries to reach out and touch it!



Here are a few pictures from Haggard park. We went downtown for lunch that day and ate at the Philmore Pub (because the tea room across the street was too busy) and Sam got to watch the DART trains go by. It was a really cool park and very age appropriate for Sam. He was having a blast until he slipped on this climbing wall and busted his lip. I think we'll try to go to that park again soon.



Here's a picture of Melanie going to a 70's themed party last weekend. It was a birthday party based on the movie Dazed and Confused.

Well, Sam has really changed in the last few weeks. He's become a lot more independent and a lot more aware of what's going on. He's constantly surprising us with what he's doing. Here are a few things ...

• We were driving home from day care one day, sitting at a stop light. Sam had finished his cup of milk and was complaining about being in the car seat. I turned around in my seat to explain to him that we have to stop when the light is red and that we can go when the light is green. While I was talking, Sam starting pointing at the light and said "go". I turned around, and sure enough, the light was green! He studied every other light on the way home and let me know when to "stop" and when to "go". It got more complicated a few days later when I was trying to take a left turn. He got really mad because the light was green and I wouldn't go. I've been trying to explain the green arrow to him, but I'm not sure how far we are getting there.
  
• Sam knows how to put a DVD in the DVD player. If we hand him a DVD box, he can do the whole thing: pull it out of the box, open the media cabinet door, eject the DVD, pull out the old one, put it the new one, close the DVD drawer, close the media cabinet door, and put up the old DVD. We've been working on it in phases, but now that he has the whole thing down, we are not allowed to touch his DVDs. Chris was amazed to see him go through the whole thing the other night.
• Sam loves to tell Cleo to do her tricks. She knows down (off the couch), sit, up, lay down, and shake. He yells and points at her to do her tricks, but she doesn't understand what he's saying. We repeat it and she does it and he gets the biggest kick out of her doing what he told her to do. He also tells her to move when she's in his way, but that usually comes with a big shove too.
  
• Cleo isn't the only one getting bossed around either. Sam is coming up with stuff for us to do all the time. He came up to me the other day, bit a ball, handed it to me, and then motioned for me to do the same. I told him that I wasn't going to bite the ball, but he kept pointing at it and was getting really frustrated. So, fine, I bit the ball. He got a huge smile on his face and ran off squealing. This scene is repeated several times daily with what ever activity he thinks up for us to do.
• And finally, he started coming up to us and telling us when he has a "doo-doo" diaper. He only does it about one out of three times, but, hey, that's a start. The best thing is that when he tells us about it, he usually doesn't mind us changing it.

One last note ... we had to take Sam to the ear doctor yesterday. He wasn't cranky or acting like he was in any pain, but he has a cold and one of his ears was draining, but the other ear wasn't draining. That usually means a plugged up tube. It turned out that the tube itself wasn't plugged, but there was ear wax in front of it. Same difference really though. He had to be held down to clean it out, which he just hates. It should be better for him this weekend though because no fluid should build up in his ear. We even got to go to the park later that day since we were all at home early and it was a beautiful day. We staid there a long time and Sam did not want to leave!