4th of July Parade

Our neighborhood had a 4th of July parade for kids. The idea was to decorate a bike, stroller, wagon, or pet in a 4th of July theme and then parade around the neighborhood.



We had sweet potato pancakes for breakfast. Yummy! Then, Sam helped us decorate his tricycle. He wasn't interested in riding it, so we pushed it to the clubhouse.



I was surprised at how many people in our neighborhood decorated their yards for 4th of July. I can't wait to see it at Halloween and Christmas.



It's hard to get a two year old ready to do anything on a schedule, so we were late to the parade. It turns out that most of the kids were little and couldn't really parade very long.



They gave out prizes. This dog won for best decorated pet.



Best wagon.



Judges.



Best bike.



After the party was over, Sam sat back for a drink of milk, and "rode" his bike back home.



He liked waiving the flag around.



We grilled sausages and had corn-on-the-cob, cantaloupe, and baked beans for lunch. Sam had really wanted to try corn-on-the-cob the last time that we had it but we didn't have any of those little corn holders -- Sam really doesn't like to get food on his hands, and I think the corn was a little hot, so he got frustrated. This time, I made sure to get the little corn holders, and he LOVED it. He ate the whole thing and asked for more.



Later that day we had a little rain blow through, so we set up the bounce house in the gameroom. Sam had a blast. It's been in there ever since and he wants to bounce all the time.



We took a walk in the evening and met several neighbors leaving to go see fireworks. Some of them told us that we should be able to see them from our neighborhood. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that we could see the Craig Ranch fireworks display from the end of our street. Several of our neighbors were gathered in the street and were playing patriotic music on the radio. Sam loved all the excitement. He cried when it was over and asked for more. He was just totally worn out with so much excitement from morning to after dark.



We got a note from one of our neighbors warning that they'd found black widow spiders in their garage by the garage door. We checked, and sure enough, we had them too. Chris sprayed them and keeps checking for more.

Funny Things Sam said ...

• We were out back washing Chris's truck with Sam when our new neighbors came over to meet us. We ended up staying outside longer than I thought we would so I ran in to get some sunscreen for Sam. He saw me coming with it, took off running, and said "No! I don't like that! I don't like that!"
• I had an early conference call one morning, so I decided to keep Sam at home and take him to day care after the call. I was in the office, and it had been quiet for a little while in the living room where Sam was. Then I heard a very proud Sam say, "I did it!" I wondered what he was so proud of so I put the phone on mute and went in the other room. There was Sam covered head to toe in magic markers. I should have taken a picture, but my first reaction was to clean it off. He only colored on his skin, not his clothes, though he has gotten them on his clothes before ... they are very washable.
  
• We had not read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? for a while ... probably since he started talking and getting into Thomas the Train. So, I was surprised when Sam knew all the colors and animals when I was reading it to him one day. I wanted Chris to hear Sam say all the words, so we read it as a bed time story that night. Chris was turning the pages and asking Sam, "What's that?" Sam answered him for a few pages, then turned around, pointed to Chris, and said "Talk!" Sam wanted to be read to. He didn't want to read to us!
  

Pops and the Party

We had Sam's birthday party three weeks ago. His actual birthday was the weekend that we moved into the new house. It seems like it's been his birthday every day for a month now. He's started singing Happy Birthday to himself, though he actually says "Happy Day."




The birthday party theme was Thomas the Train, of course.



Sam is a pro at opening presents now. He saw the stack and started opening before we were to ready.



All the kids were having so much fun playing in the playroom, so we took the presents upstairs to open them.





We got a bounce house with a slide for Sam for his birthday party. Sam and Hagen had a blast jumping around together after the party. It's a smaller one that's really only supposed to have three kids in it at a time. We just figured that we'd get enough uses out of it that we should buy one instead of renting one. Sam loves it. We've gotten it out several times already. It honestly takes 5 minutes to put it up and take it down. I was impressed. I thought it would be a lot harder to get it in the storage bag.



Here's a video of Sam and Mimi trying out the bounce house for the first time the night before his party.



We were extremely happy to have a refrigerator for the party. It's sorta been an ongoing saga. We ordered a stainless counter depth refrigerator from Lowes the first week of May. Kitchenaide was in the process of changing out their model line for the 2009 Energy Star requirements. We knew that we wouldn't have the refrigerator when we moved in, but we were supposed to have it within a week. Week after week went by and we still didn't have a fridge. The salesman at Lowes was extremely helpful and arranged for us to have a small loaner fridge when the one we ordered wasn't there in time for Sam's birthday. I'm completely in favor of shopping online, but you wouldn't get that kind of service from an online retailer. We have the fridge we ordered now, and we're extremely happy that we don't have to run to the grocery store every other day.





Pops came for Sam's birthday party and it just so happened to be Father's Day too. Sam helped Mimi wrap Pop's present. You can see the evidence in the many pieces of tape all over. Of course Sam had to help open it too.




Sam got Chris an Amazon Kindle for Father's Day. Chris has wanted one of these since they first came out last summer. He's been sitting in his chair reading it since he got it.




Sam spent the rest of the weekend playing trains. Cass and Cindy brought us a lot of trains and track that their son had outgrown. We had a great time building some elaborate tracks for Sam to play on. He was trilled to have so many trains to push around them.



The US Open (golf) was on TV that weekend. Sam was enthralled with the trains so we were actually able to sit back and watch it. Of course we all took turns playing trains during the commercials.



Here's a video of Mimi finding a creative way to blow bubbles for Sam.



So many bubbles!



Pops, Mimi, and Sam throwing the Nerf football.



Sam and Pops posing for a shot the morning Pops left.





Sam loves playing in the water. We probably end up in the backyard with the house running every other day. He's scared of this sprinkler. It's one of those wacky sprinklers that sprays all over the place in a random pattern. I turn it on really low so there is just a little spray coming out of the top, and then Sam plays with the wacky tubes.

I took these pictures before we went out for a walk to the park. On the way back Sam was running and tripped and fell. Twice. On the second time, he skinned his knees pretty badly. They were actually bleeding. He was really crying hard. I sat him on my lap and explained that his knees would get skinned like that when he falls when he's running. I told him it would probably happen a bunch more times because little boys like to run. He jumped off and took off running saying, "I like to run!"



I had my 33rd birthday two weeks ago. It was a really simple day. I did a little shopping, we had a nice family dinner, and creme brulee for dessert.



Sam was really interested to see someone else have a birthday. At first he didn't believe that it was my birthday. We would say, "it's Mommy's birthday," and he would say, "no, Sam's birthday."



Sam wanted to blow out the candle too. He's gotten lots of experience blowing out candles with all the birthday parties.

He was really excited that we lit the candle again and let him do it.



This last week has been hard on Cleo. She got a hematoma on her ear last weekend and had to have surgery to drain it on Monday. You can see the shaved patch on her leg from the IV. She came home with her head wrapped up and an Elizabethan collar around her neck. We took the collar off right away, and then she managed to get the wrapping pretty loose so we went on and took it off. Bad move. Her ear filled back up with blood and she had to go back for another surgery on Tuesday. They wrapped her up a little bit better this time so we managed to keep it wrapped for about 24 hours before she got it off. It was dripping blood, so Chris and I tried to rewrap it, but we couldn't get it to stay on. Since it was after 5pm, Chris took her to the emergency vet. Her ear had stopped bleeding, so they gave her a shot to try to sedate her and told us to keep the collar on her. That lasted another 6 hours or so. She couldn't fall asleep with it on and kept pacing around the house in the dark running into things. Her ear is looking ok now. It's shaved and stitches all over it like mattress stitching. That ear isn't pointed any more. It's sorta flopped over. We aren't sure if it's going to stay like that. She goes back to the vet on Monday to have the stitches removed. We're not really sure how she got the hematoma in the first place. The vet said she could have gotten it simply from shaking her head.

I tried to warn Sam about Cleo's boo-boo on the first day. I told him he needed to be nice to Cleo because she had a bad boo-boo. He said, "No. Sam boo-boo." I said, "Where is Sam's boo-boo." He said, "here," and pointed to his knees that he skinned a week earlier. I said, "No, Cleo's boo-boo is worse." He said, "No, Sam boo-boo worse." He was really jealous of her all week. It was really strange. I was trying to get Cleo to lay down one night, so I was sitting next to her on the floor and petting her. Sam was saying, "Mommy, Mommy," and started climbing on my back.

Just a general update on Sam ... He's talking like crazy now - a lot of complete sentences. I'm surprised how many new words he's learned. He's a real parrot - repeats everything we say. He's still bossy too. He can tell us exactly what to do now, though many times he reverts to whining and pointing, which is very frustrating. He's trying new foods and eating more. He even had tilapia, salmon, and smoked salmon last week. He's actually eating the same dinner as us more often than not which is wonderful. We've found a new trick to get him to eat too. When he gets down from the table too early, we get him to get a bit "to go" every time he runs through the kitchen. Another trick that seems to work is if we ask him if we can have a bite of his food. He says "no" and comes running back for another bite. He wants to do everything himself. He can undress himself pretty well, so we're practicing that and getting dressed too.

Lulu and the Zoo

Happy Birthday Lulu!

Lulu came to visit the week after we moved in to the new house. Sam loved having all the attention. He started calling her Momma Lulu after a few days. I think he got confused because I was calling her Momma.  He spent a lot of time at home with us getting to do pretty much whatever he wanted, so he got a little bossy.  He started pointing his finger at me and saying, "No, no, Mommy, no!  No, no, Mommy, no!"  It had a cute little rhythm to it that just made you laugh.

Lulu came bringing birthday presents.



Sam is a real pro at opening presents now. He got lots of great clothes and more trains.



And how do you know when you've watched a few too many Thomas the Train videos? This is Melanie and me singing the theme song along with Sam's new musical caboose.



Sam loves his trains. He was still getting frustrated at this point trying to keep the trains on the track. We built pretty simple tracks at first, but he's a pro now.  He's really proud of himself when he accomplishes something now.  He even says, "I did it!" when he's really proud.

It was a weekend of birthdays. We went to Hagen's birthday party on Saturday and Sofie's birthday party on Sunday. This is a picture of Sam and Hagen eating lollipops at Hagen's party.



Sam posing with Mimi in one of his new outfits.



We went to the neighborhood pool for the first time. We really like it. The pool is nice and big and has plenty of shallow spots for little ones.



You can see the splashground in the background of this picture. Sam was pretty scared of it this first time that we went. He gets a little more used to it each time we go.



Looking cool in Mimi's shades.



We decided to go to the Dallas Zoo before it gets too stinkin hot this summer. There is this huge statue of a giraffe that towers over the trees that greets you as you enter the zoo.



Sam wasn't sure what was going on, but all the adults sure seemed excited so it must be something good. He hurried to see what it was.



We stopped for a group photo just outside the zoo amongst a group of elephant statues.



Sam wanted to ride the elephant statues. It took some convincing to get him off them. Hey, we told him we were going to see elephants, and these were, in fact, elephants. I can see the confusion.



There was a big carousel just inside the entrance of the zoo. Sam wanted to ride, but he really didn't know what he was getting into. I think he really just wanted a closer look. He definitely didn't want the belt on. There was a little boy that was screaming, so they had to stop the ride. Sam took the opportunity to get off too.



We had a lot of tokens so everyone got to ride.



Sam was in a big "my" phase that day. My birds (parrots). My monkeys (lemurs). He really wanted to hold and pet and squeeze them. I'm not sure how much fun "just looking" is for a two year old.



Cute fuzzy lemur.



Chris and Melanie looking at the flamingos.



Cool shot Chris got of flamingos, up close and personal.



It didn't take long to get hot. It also didn't take long to realize that the zoo was big and we needed to rent a stroller, I mean wagon. Sam didn't want a stroller, but it sounded like fun when we called it a wagon. He got excited when I pulled out the vanilla milk too.



We passed by the birds of prey on the way to the elephants and giraffes. There was this really cool harpie. The wind was blowing its feathers and making it look really big.



We had a lot of fun watching the otters get fed and swim under water. I couldn't believe that Sam posed for this picture.



We took a lunch break and then headed back to the children's zoo area. They have a big playground with a man-made river with mini waterfalls. Sam splashed in the water for a long time and got soaking wet. He really didn't want to leave, but it was way past his nap time.



Lulu bought Sam a shirt from the zoo so he could be dry for the ride home. He ate a few cookies left over from lunch, then fell asleep with his hand in the bag.



Back at home ... "pay tains, Wuwu, pay tains."



Watching a movie ... Sam wanted a closer look.



Sam got this cute overall outfit from Yiayia and Papou for his birthday. I wanted to get a picture of him in it, but he wouldn't sit still for long.



Melanie offered to babysit, so Chris and I got a chance to go check out a new Italian restaurant at Watters Creek at Montgomery Farm in Allen. We hadn't been out on a dinner date for a while, so it was a nice break.



Chris got inspired by all the overripe bananas and found a great banana bread recipe. He's made it a few times since we moved into the house. He thought it would be fun to get Sam to help one night after dinner. Sam loves to help cook, so he had a blast.



Who knows what was going on here! I suppose we were just messing around trying to get Sam undressed for bath time. You pretty much have to trick him into it. He'll have a meltdown if you try to make him do anything. It's gotta be his idea.



So this is Chris's latest, "I love me" purchase. It's a Herman Miller Eames Lounge Chair. We've both loved the chair since we first saw it over ten years ago. They've been making it since the 50's. It's even in the Museum of Modern Art. It's probably the most comfortable chair I've ever sat in. Of course, Sam claimed it as his when he walked through the door ... "new chair? my chair!"

So, what's new with Sam besides the pictures?

We had Sam's two year checkup the week after we moved into the new house. He weighs 26.6 lbs (30%) and is 35" tall (64%), so he's tall and skinny. I'm glad he doesn't weigh too much because he wants us to carry him up and down the stairs a lot. They were novel to him at first, but now they're just a hassle! His head was 19" around (37%), so his head isn't too big for his body. We still say he has a tater-head though, especially when he's running around without clothes on and you can actually see how skinny his little booty is.

Sam is learning to count. His favorite numbers are 8, 9, 10. When he counts he skips right to those numbers. Everything is either 8,9,10-8,9,10 or 9,10,8-9,10,8. I don't think he likes starting with 1,2,3 because we always give him a 3 count chance to straighten up before he goes on the naughty step.  He's really learning his colors too.  The only ones he doesn't seem to know are red and orange.  "Yeddow" is his favorite color right now.