Clownfish

Sam's Nemo Book: Dory is a Blue Tang fish.

Sam: Nemo is an orange fish.

Mommy: Nemo is an orange Clownfish.

Sam: But he doesn't have a red nose!

Bye Bye Diapers

We said bye-bye to diapers a week ago! Yay!!! A four week break or so before we get to start all over again!

Sam has been potty trained for about a year now, but he's still been sleeping in pull-ups at night. We noticed about a month or two ago that he was mostly waking up with dry diapers, so three weeks ago we told him if he could make it two weeks without wetting the diaper at night he could start sleeping in underwear. He was really excited and asked every day if it was time to sleep in underwear yet.

Sam is very proud of himself, and of course we are proud of him too. He reminds us every morning that he doesn't have to pick out underwear because he's already wearing them.

We're lucky to have a bathroom connected to his bedroom. He's been getting up in the morning and using his stool to turn on the light and go the the bathroom by himself. That actually prompted the other new bathroom news ... Sam is also learning to wipe himself. That's kind of a scary proposition, but he's been doing fairly well.

We've gotten four straight days of rain. Not the thunderstorm/tornado type storms we usually get in the summer, but a nice constant rain, like the kind I remember playing in when I was growing up. We got these rainboots and umbrella for Sam for his birthday, but this is the first chance he had to play in the rain. He didn't quite get the concept and tried to get on the swing with his umbrella. Next time we'll have to find some nice big puddles he can splash in.

Here's a shot of Sam licking the beaters after helping me make an apricot nectar cake for Melanie's birthday.

Catching Up

It has turned out to be a very busy month at work, and that always translates into no pictures and no posts. We've taken a few pictures along the way, so here's what we've been up to ...

This is me two weeks ago at 30 weeks and feeling large. I don't think I've gotten any bigger and the measurements and scales agreed when we went for the 32 week appointment. The baby is moving a lot and kicking me in places that aren't very comfortable. I'm guessing that's because he's still breach, but we won't know until 36 weeks.

We took Sam to Teddy Bear Camp a few weeks ago. It was a class for 2 & 3 year olds at the hospital where we will deliver. Sam brought Doggy Bear and the instructor talked about what it would be like with a new baby in the house (how babies eat, cry, sleep, look, etc.). Then we took a tour of the labor and delivery ward. They showed us a couple of places we could take Sam to run around and play when he gets tired of being stuck in the room. They also took us past the nursery and showed all the kids what a newborn baby looks like. All the kids wanted to hold the baby.



After the tour we went back to the room for a snack and arts and crafts. Sam made a door hanger for the baby's room. They also taught him how to tell which toys are big enough and safe for the baby to play with.



Here's a picture of Lulu reading a book to Sam. This was from the week that Sam had his surgery. We had the follow up appointment with the ENT and Sam's hearing is better. The really good news is his ears aren't hurting him any more.

Sam has been taking swimming lessons all summer. He was pretty scared of the water when the summer started, but he's fearless now. I feel better when he swims with the noodle though. He likes to swim back and forth between Chris and me with no floaties and under water. It makes me very nervous because he can't exactly raise his head out of the water to take a breath. He's even jumping off the side of the pool for us to catch him.



I couldn't get any good videos of Sam swimming because it takes two of us for him to swim between, but here's a quick video of him playing in the water.



Sam LOVES puzzles. He takes the same puzzles apart and puts them back together over and over. I can't even remember the last time he played with his trains.



Sam has been throwing some horrible fits lately. It seems like most of his fits are about TV so we've been trying to limit how much he watches. Who knows what this particular fit was about, but he wore himself out doing it. We were telling Mimi about his fits the other day, and when she looked at him he just shrugged and said, "I don't know why I did that!"



Sam still likes to help us cook. He asks for pancakes most mornings, but we only make them on the weekends.



Chris and Sam were making banana bread here.



We've been going to McDonald's after practice on Saturdays. Sam is still in soccer, but Hagen is playing baseball now. They don't seem to mind so much that they are in different class as long as they get to play at McDonald's. Notice the matching buzz cuts.



The last couple of weeks have been Lego cars and that has been a big hit.



Of course the daddys have to put on all the stickers before the boys can play with the cars, but the boys love to "help".



We've discovered Paciugo Gelato and it is wonderful! Sam picked Black Raspberry for his flavor. I'm sure the store owners were regretting the white leather seats by the time we left!

Parent Participation

We had parent participation day at SoccerTots a couple of weeks ago. The kids LOVED having the parents playing with them. They actually liked it so much that they all wanted the parents in there again with them this week (which was the last week of the summer session).



We really liked this class and especially liked Coach Kendra. Sam asks us every day if it's time to go play soccer.



Here is a video of some of the drills/games they did. I swear they actually do use soccer balls, but for some reason I only videoed the stuff without them.

Nanner and Dorsey Visit Dallas

Pops brought Nanner and Dorsey out to visit us a few weeks ago. They had not been out to visit us the yet, and we've been here almost thirteen years. We were thrilled that they got to come! We didn't get any pictures with Mimi, but she spent most of the weekend with us too. Sam loved having a house full of family. We even got to go downtown on Monday and see Mimi's work and apartment.

Of course we all went to watch Sam's soccer practice on Saturday.

Here's a video of one of the little drills they ran that day.



A visit would not be complete without going to Big Easy. This is, without a doubt, my favorite place to eat.



Dorsey relaxing in the lounge chair.



Nanner



Dorsey



Ride a horsey, ride a horsey, ride him to town. Ride a horsey, ride a horsey, don't fall down!



Nanner reading to Sam.



All packed up and ready to go - one last group photo.