Just Hanging Around

We've spent a lot of time hanging around the house lately, especially with Labor Day weekend. It's been nice to relax and spend a lot of time with Sam. He knows the word "weekend" now. I always tell him it's the weekend on Friday night. We say that means all-day Mommy, all-day DeeDah, and all-day Sam tomorrow. He always goes to bed without a problem on the weekend. Sam's favorite things to do are bounce house, play-doh, paints, markers, books, Dora and Diego cartoons, trains, balls, singing, chasing Cleo around the backyard, and taking Cleo for walks.



Play-doh with DeeDah.



Colored pencils with Mommy.




Sam has graduated from simply jumping to jumping off of things. At this point the only thing he's jumping off of in the house is the last stair on the staircase. It's his favorite game right now, and he wants us to jump with him too. He's tried jumping at the top or in the middle of the staircase too. Thankfully we've always been holding his hand because he never actually lands on his feet. He usually overshoots it and slides down a few stairs on his bottom. When we're out and about he'll jump off anything he can, like the curb or even just an uneven sidewalk.



Here's a video of Sam jumping. He likes to count before he jumps. We usually get a 1, 2, 3, but sometimes we also get an 8, 9, 10. Sam has been counting for a while now, but he really doesn't care for the numbers 4 through 7.

On this particular night, it was getting pretty late. I yelled from the living room to the office to ask Chris if Sam was getting a bath that night. Sam answered, "No, I not take bath tonight!"



This is a picture of Sam in his cute new hat and overalls outfit that Yiayia got for him. He loves the hat, and he roars when he sees the lion on the overalls. I'll have to get Chris to take another picture the next time he wears it. I took this one with Chris's camera not realizing that it wasn't on automatic mode. The picture was completely blown out. I did my best to salvage it with post-processing, but pretty much just ended up with neon grass.



See, he loves the hat. He's been wearing it around the house all week.



Just hanging out with DeeDah in the kitchen. Sam loves to help Chris in the kitchen. He'll do anything ... grind coffee, make banana bread, unload the dishwasher. He loves being DeeDah's helper.




We went swimming a bunch over Labor Day weekend. Sam had a blast. The last several times that we went to the pool, Sam just wanted to run around the sprayground. They adjusted the spray heads so that there aren't any dry spots now, so Sam preferred to stay in the pool. He really seemed to want to be able to swim on his own. He kept pushing me away. I'd let him sink a little, and he's grab me when the water got to his ears. He really liked swim chasing DeeDah around the pool.





Of course Sam mostly wanted to jump off the ledge. He put his hand in his mouth every time that he jumped. That's not going to work out so well when he starts jumping on his own. I really wish we had swimmies or a life jacket that day. He really wanted to jump by himself. There were a bunch of kids at the pool that day that were three or four and were doing their own thing. He wanted to be just like them. They were hanging off the ledge so he wanted to do that too. Of course he didn't want me to help. He would let go a little and start sinking in the water. He would freak out as sook as the water hit his ears though.



We always change Sam into dry clothes and get a snack before we go home. Sam was making goofy faces at DeeDah.



Sam is quite the little talker now. He loves to sing too. He can even sing his ABCs. He usually says "K,K" instead of "J,K" and "eh, eh, eh, eh" instead of "L, M, N, O". I love it.




Lulu sent Sam some Thomas the Train "destinations" this weekend. Sam was soooo excited to get a present. He was ooooo'ing and ahhhhh'ing the whole time we were opening it. I can't wait for Christmas! As soon as he saw the blue and red box he said, "Thomas!!!!"



One of the destinations was the Sodor Engine Wash. You drive an engine up to the blue foam grips and turn the red knob. It lights up and makes sounds while the train is going through: wash, rinse, dry. Then you push a button which makes a ding and pops the train back onto the track. Sam got all his trains out and wash them all weekend. "M'on (come on) Momma, m'on DeeDah, wash trains!"





Here's Sammy playing on his favorite perch with the oven mitts. He's covered in red sauce from Spaghettio's. He's eating really well now, as long as you don't expect him to sit at the table and eat. He eats on the run. He's pretty much too busy to feed himself so we pop bites in his mouth when we can.

Melanie's Birthday

We celebrated Mimi's "happy day" with a nice steak dinner at home.



Making a wish ...



and blowing out the candles. Yummy cupcakes.



Sam loves birthdays, but he was not exactly thrilled that there no presents for him. He helped Mimi open her presents, then watched her blow out her candles. He didn't want a cupcake -- he wanted to blow out the candles.



Borders opened a new bookstore near our house. They had Dora and Boots there for story time the opening weekend.



There were lots of kids there to see Dora and hear the story.



Sam was overwhelmed with the crowd, but interested in Dora. He was ready to leave after we saw her.



We've been doing a lot of arts and crafts lately. Sam is very interested in painting.



Sam found some old tempora paints in one of the boxes that hadn't been unpacked yet.



We painted with sponges and brushes ...



and fingers!



He liked painting so much that I got him some watercolors and a Dora coloring book.



He liked them so much that he painted until it was all gone. He really liked painting with black. I don't understand why they include black in kids paints. Once he gets black on his brush, all the other colors turn into a muddy gray-brown.



I thought Sam was finally old enough to get some play-doh, so we got this cute duffle bag of four colors and some toys.



I think Melanie and I were more excited about it than Sam was.



It was funny to see Sam play with the play-doh. He mostly pounded on it.



I was very proud of my little play-doh turtle.



Sam asks to play with the play-doh all the time now. He mostly just wants to dump it out of the cans and smash it, but he really likes it when we roll it out for him so he can cut out shapes.

Here are some random pictures of Sam hanging out around the house and being silly ...

Family in July

Wow! It's been a whole month since we posted anything. I finally had to take a few days off of work and the first thing on my list was to finish this post!

My Mom, Grandma, and Aunt Sharon came to visit in early July. It was fun getting everyone together. I'm glad we have a house that is big enough to have lots of family over!



Here's a picture from the last time we got together, 5 years ago! That's Melanie in the first picture and Andrea in this one.



We had a lot of fun cooking together. Here's Sam watching Aunt Sharon make a pineapple upside down cake.



Sam and Lulu playing in the kitchen.



Making salmon for dinner.



Momma's birthday was in June, but we waited until she came to visit to celebrate.



I got a birthday present too, and of course Sam got a few. It seems like his birthday has been two months long.



Here is Sam pointing out on the computer which Thomas the Train pieces he wants next.



Our little coffee drinker. Yes, Sam loves "toffee." He honestly slams it when we give it to him, and asks for more, more, more. Of course it's mostly milk and sugar, but he loves it.



The bounce house is still inside and is still a big hit. Sam loves to jump with the Mardi Gras beads.



Deflating the bounce house with Great Grandma.



Sitting around the breakfast table talking while Aunt Sharon styles Melanie's hair.



A nice photo of Great Grandma.



Playing at the neighborhood park.



Another photo at the park.



Sam playing keep away with Aunt Sharon.



Sam loved playing with Aunt Sharon. She also got him to eat a lot by playing "I'm gonna eat that." Sam's favorite was the square dance that she made up.



Good-bye hug for Aunt Sharon



Good-bye hug for Great Grandma



My dad came to visit the next week. Sam loves having family around.



We all love it!



We also love to cook (and eat)!



This was a new recipe that we tried for ribeye roast. You coat the whole thing with butter, salt, pepper, garlic, etc. Then cook it at 5 minutes per pound at 500 degrees. Then you cut the oven off and don't open the door for an hour and a half. It was easy as could be and tasted wonderful. The left overs were great too.



This was another easy but wonderful meal of pesto salmon, potatoes, and salad. We've been cooking at home a lot more lately. I probably only ate out three times in the last month. We've been looking for quick, easy, healthy things to eat.



Good-bye hug for Pops. You can tell Sam's hair was getting pretty long here. We got it cut a few days later. Sam was dressed for Splash Day at day care.



Melanie had her wisdom teeth removed the day that Pops left. I took this picture about six hours after the surgery. The swelling got a lot worse, but I didn't think she was in the mood for more pictures then.



Sam likes to line up his chairs like a train.



This is one of Sam's favorite places to be. He stands on his stool at the end of the kitchen island while we're cooking, cleaning, and just standing around.



We actually have better luck getting Sam to eat standing up than sitting at the table. We try to get him to sit down with us at the table, but he usually only lasts about five minutes. We eat our dinner then chase him around the house and put bites in his mouth when we get the opportunity.



Sitting in DeeDah's chair eating a pancake.



Washing the truck with DeeDah.



Hanging the whiteboard with DeeDah, and playing with magnets.



Painting with water.

A conversation with Sam at the dinner table. He was eating ravioli. He has this cute habit now when he talks ... "I break it, cracker." "I build it, [train] track." "I kick it, ball." "I drink it, milk." " I make it, poo poo."

Yes, we are attempting to potty train Sam. We are really just trying to get him comfortable with the concept. He's used his potty a few times at home and a few times at day care. He thinks it's fun, but he's easily distracted.

No pictures on this one, but Sam's two year molars are coming in. It hasn't been nearly as bad as his previous teeth coming in, but he has woken up several nights because of the pain. He goes right back to sleep after getting a little medicine.