Hats!

My mom (granny) has been visiting us for a few days.  She brought along several hats for each of the kids.  Sam was having a blast with his hats and he has even figured out how to get some of them onto his head.  He has a fishing type hat and last night he was picking it up and forcefully/quickly cramming it onto his head.  He was so proud of himself each time he did it.  He would smile and sometimes clap for himself.  If the hat wasn't open he would try to get it on and "swoop" past his head.

This morning he grabbed one of Megan's ball caps and he put it on himself backwards.  He looked really cute.

It must taste good

While Megan is riding Daisy Sam is playing in the wagon.  He goes all over the wagon and every once in a while will climb out and onto my lap; but he prefers to crawl around and stand up on/in the wagon.  Today he was reaching down and touching the tires and getting the dirt/gravel/mud off of the tires again.  But today he would get it on his fingers and then stick them in his mouth.  I kept telling him to stop eating it but every time I would turn to watch Megan for more than a few seconds I would catch him trying to lick his fingers again.

High-Five

We have been working with Sam to give us a high-five and he hadn't quite gotten it until today.  He was sitting in Will's lap in the kitchen and I walked over and said "give me five" and held out my hand and he reached out and softly slapped my hand.  We cheered for him and I had him repeat it 3 or 4 times and then Will asked for five and he did it to him too.  He gave me five later in the day too so I think it might have stuck.

Following Megan's lead

Yesterday I decided to play with Sam's cars that had scared him the other day.  I want him to get used to them so that it doesn't cause an issue for him.  I was sitting in the living room with both kids and I pulled a car back and let it go on Megan's bench.  It ran off of the end and then did a flip.  Sam wasn't sure whether he was okay with it or not but Megan laughed.  She thought it was funny.  When she laughed Sam smiled a little.

I did it again and this time Sam watched Megan to see what she was going to do and when the car did the flip she laughed so he laughed.  This pattern continued for the next few times that I did it - Sam would look at Megan to see her reaction and then he would react the same way she did.  Finally he was getting excited and clapping and laughing when the cars ran off the end of the bench.

A little while later I put them on the kitchen floor and got them going across the floor and Megan chased them.  When they stopped I sent them back toward Sam and he was fine with it.

Doing it his way

Sam has his own way of getting toys out of his basket.  Megan has always pulled the baskets out from under the table, played with what she wanted and then put them back or left them and moved on to something else.  Sam, on the other hand, crawls over to the edge of the table, crouches down, looks into the basket and then reaches in and moves toys around until to finds something he wants.  He will then grab the toy and then sit up and play with it.

This method only allows him to see a very small portion of the toys that are in the basket.  This afternoon he went over and reached in and pulled out a toy and played with it for a few minutes.  Megan saw him do this and crawled over and pulled out the basket for him.  He got soooo excited about that. He looked through the entire basket, moving toys around, seeing what was underneath and he found his blue teething dog that he got for his 1st Easter when he was 2 days old.  When he saw the dog he clapped his hands, excitedly moved his legs back and forth and then grabbed it and put it in his mouth.  When Megan saw him get all excited she clapped for him and then gave him a kiss.  Such a sweet big sister.

Happy Mother's Day

Sam picked out a blue plastic boat for me for Mother's Day.  Sam was sitting beside me on the couch when Will handed it to me.  Sam reached over and took it from me and babbled something that sounded an awful lot like "mine, mine, mine."  He really loves his gift for me.

Berries, daddy and cars

This week Sam has had fresh strawberries, blueberries and blackberries.  He loves the berries.  He gets so excited when he sees me with one.

Sam has been really wanting his daddy lately.  He has always gotten excited when Will comes home, but the past few days it has been nuts.  He doesn't just want Will when he sees him, he flips out if he doesn't get to spend every single second with him immediately.  It is sweet that he wants to spend time with Will and we are working on patience, sharing daddy and not pitching a fit when he doesn't get exactly what he wants.

For his birthday Sam was given a set of 4 cars that make noise and that "go" if you pull them back and let go of them.  He loves playing with the cars so I put one on the kitchen floor and pulled it back so it would go.  He did NOT like this.  He didn't like it going by itself and he started crying.  I tried again 3 days later just to see if maybe he was tired the first time, or if maybe it wasn't the car but he freaked out again.  So, no making the cars go again for a little while.

Birthday Party!

This morning was Sam's birthday party at the park.  There were several people who were able to make it, though some were unable due to the reschedule.  His party theme was Little Buckaroo Sheriff.  We had the pavilion at the park reserved for 3 hours so we made the party for 2 hours so that there would be 30 minutes of setup and 30 minutes of cleanup time.

I got there early and set everything up.  I decorated a table, his highchair and hung up a Happy Birthday banner. We had his cake, cupcakes, drinks, a bucket of juice boxes and water, subway sandwiches, fried chicken and all the fixins.  Once Will arrived with the kids we took them over to the swings until everyone else arrived.  As people arrived everyone ended up on the playground and stayed there until time for gifts and cake.

We had Sam open his gifts first and he is still not into tearing the paper so Harper, our friends 7 year old helped him open everything.  He wore his cowboy hat for the first few minutes and then decided he was done with it too - I am sure it was making him a little warm.  After gifts it was time for his birthday cupcake.  I stuck his #1 candle in the cupcake and put it on his tray while we all sang to him.  The cupcake stayed on his tray for about 1 second and then he had it in his mouth.  He got a little bite, maybe two, and then he dropped it in his chair.  Harper gave it back to him and it was on.  He tore it in half and dropped most of it on his tray.  He was just eating that thing as fast as he could.  After taking several photos I started getting Megan and Sam's lunch together so that I was sure to get them what they would eat before it was gone.  It was time to clean Sam up so we could move onto having lunch so I took his tray off of the highchair.  He didn't fuss about it but he definitely watched where I put it.  It just had frosting on it and a few very small pieces of cake.  I washed his hands and face and then took him out of the chair so I could clean him off and he started crying.  He wanted the piece of cupcake that was sitting beside him in the chair and he wasn't happy that he couldn't reach it anymore.

The rest of the party was just everyone eating lunch and then a little more time in the swings for the kids before we headed home.  I stopped by Goodwill on my way home and dropped off the highchair because Sam transitioned to a booster seat a few days ago and I was just holding onto it for the party (I am so happy to have the space back in my entry).

Will took the kids straight home so they could get cleaned up and ready for nap.  Sam was completely out by the time they got home.  The park is only 5 minutes from home, but he was tired because he missed his morning nap and was outside all morning.

Sam got some fun toys and we all had a good time.  Sam and Megan both handled the "chaos", heat and morning really well.

On the move - with assistance

Sam got behind the walker wagon and took off today.  This morning he did great on the carpet and fell down every time he got on the kitchen floor because the wagon moved faster.  By this afternoon he only fell down about half of the time he was on the kitchen floor.

What was really cute was that he would walk until the wagon ran into something (his highchair, a wall, a chair, etc) and then he would just stand there so I would pick him up by his shorts and walk backward across the room while he pulled the wagon.  I would then put his feet down and he would take off again.

When he was done I put the wagon up against the play yard so that if Megan stood up at it, it wouldn't take off on her.  Eventually Sam decided to stand at it again.  I was changing Megan and he was pushing on the wagon with all of his might trying to get it to go somewhere.  He "dug in" and really gave it his all while grunting at it before he gave up and went to play with something else.

Feeling great and playing in the wagon

Sam woke up this morning feeling so much better.  Since he was feeling so good I decided to take the wagon to Megan's horse appointment instead of the stroller.  He had a blast sitting in that wagon while she rode the pony.  He played with his toys, the seat belt straps, the cup holders, the floor of the wagon and his sippy cup.  He was happy and smiling and putting his feet up.

Revenge of the MMR

For the past 2 days Sam has been running a fever from his immunization.  His fever started 2 nights ago and was 100.4; yesterday morning it was 100.8 and then gone after his nap but back again last night at 100.7.  I had to get him out of bed just before 10p to give him some more Tylenol and wait for it to kick in.

This morning his fever was 101.4 and he just felt lousy.  He ate all of his breakfast without a problem but didn't stay up for long.  I let him sleep until 12:30 and then I woke him up for lunch/fluids.  He wanted to eat his sandwich but then wouldn't chew it.  He just sat there and cried until I took the food out of his mouth.  I have extra baby food on hand just for this instance so I fed him 2 containers of peas which he ate happily.  He just didn't feel up to chewing.  He was only up for 30 minutes and then was asleep again minutes after I put him back down.  He slept a ton yesterday too - his way of working through the shot.