T-ball

T-ball

Monday, December 31, 2012

Hi sissy

This morning when Sam was coming downstairs he saw Megan at the bottom and said "hi sissy" to her.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Just couldn't resist the sheep

We went to a friend's house tonight to Will could help them with their computer.  They have 4 kiddos with their youngest just younger than Megan.  They have a village setup on a coffee table area and the floor.  I told Sam not to touch it and he did so good for the first couple of hours.  I was sitting in the floor in the other room and Sam walked up to me with a little sheep in his hands from the village.  Super cute - but he had to put it back.  He did really well and put it right where he found it.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Learning not to throw fits

Sam has been really struggling the last couple of days with throwing a fit every time he doesn't get what he wants.  Today was particularly rough on him so he spent a lot of time in time-out.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Christmas recap

Christmas Eve we went out for our traditional special dinner.  This year we chose a Chinese Buffet to be different and a little funny like in all of the Christmas movies.  The kids loved the food, once Megan got to start eating off of daddy's plate.  When we got home it was time to open their Christmas jammies.  Neither kid is into wrapping paper so we had to work with them but once Sam got the paper free he stood up and took off with it.  He didn't care about the gift, he just wanted the paper.

Christmas day was wonderful.  Will made our cinnamon rolls and then we got the kids up.  We had their gifts separated by the tree and when I put Sam down he made a beeline for his tool bench.  He grabbed his circular saw with one hand and his drill with the other.  He didn't know what to do with them but he was so happy to carry them around.  Megan went right for her blocks wagon and figured out immediately how to make it talk and sing.  As soon as she had the wagon going Sam put his toys down and went and sat down with her.  The two of them played with that wagon for several minutes, just as happy as could be and probably would have stayed there for a lot longer if we hadn't moved them to show them more of their stuff.

Sam loved his train depot and his tractor.  He got on exactly as Will thought he would, which was backwards.  Megan showed his the buttons and he was loving it.  Once we went through making sure they knew about everything we just let them play - Megan was happy with her wagon and Sam with his tools.  I called for breakfast and Sam cleaned up his tools and ran to the table.

After breakfast it was time for them to give us our gifts and then to give their gifts to each other.  We were letting them play again until Megan saw me with her stocking and then they both wanted to check out what was inside.  After seeing everything and eating an animal cracker they were off again.

After nap we facetimed with Granny so she could watch them open her gifts to them.  Sam loved the slinkies and Megan went right after the books.  They played for a couple of hours and then we had Christmas dinner and I gave them their dessert.  Lemon creme pie with cool whip - no crust.  Man they both loved it.

Megan and Sam both had such a fun and wonderful day.

Monday, December 24, 2012

What's for Christmas


Sam's Christmas Goodies:
Giant tool bench with tons and tons of tools
Circular saw and drill
Personalized truck chalkboard and write/erase board
John Deere ride and walk tractor
Spiderman house shoes
Train track

Stocking Goodies:
Light-up bouncing balls
Crayon cup
Bubbles
Stamp
Light-up pinwheel
Giant glow stick
Christmas animal crackers
Cookie monster notepad

Letter to Sam

Sam this post is for you so can look back and see what you were like at 20 months old.  You are such a sweet little boy. You freely give kisses and hugs to mommy, daddy and sissy.  Sometimes you won't give kisses to daddy, instead you give mommy all of his kisses; but you always give daddy kisses if mommy tells you to share.  You love on your big sister when we tell you to give her night-night kisses; but you will also just give her a hug or kiss spontaneously during the day.  She will snuggle you back and it is so sweet to watch.

You are my little helper.  You bring mommy anything you find on the floor that shouldn't be there - like a piece of grass, or lint or cheerio.  You will get someone their shoes if you see them - you know which shoes are daddy's and which ones are mommy's.  Speaking of shoes, you love your shoes.  You want shoes on all of the time and you get so excited when you see us getting your socks for you.  You try to put your own socks and shoes on, which is super cute because you just lay the sock across your foot and then touch your shoe to your foot and then you look a little bewildered as to why that didn't work.

You love, love, love to eat and drink.  You can feed yourself with your hands and are getting good with a spoon until there is not enough left in the bowl for you to scoop.  You can use a fork if we put the food on it for you and you are learning to drink from a regular cup.  You haven't quite figured out that you need to leave the cup touching you so anytime we work on this skill we have to change your wet clothes afterward.

When you are really excited you get flustered and aren't sure which sign to use to ask for what you want and you do every one that you know.

You are great at climbing up and down the stairs and can go really fast when you want to.  I usually chase you up the stairs and that makes you squeal and hurry; though you will stop along the way so I can get you.  On your way down the stairs you like to practice your words and you will just say random words all the way down.  You used to say every word that you know but your vocabulary has increased so much that you don't do that anymore, but you will still say quite a few.

Your favorite word right now is still rabbit and you love to say it with different inflections.  You are picking up more and more words and sounds now and are getting better at trying new words.  If I ask you to say something that is too hard you won't try though - you just look at me like I'm crazy.

You are my sweet little mommy's boy and still do and say things for me that you won't for daddy; though most of the time now you will eventually give in and say the new word for him.  When I get you out of bed you will say "morning" to me and it took you a very long time to finally say it for daddy.  You should give him a break on this kid and stop making him work so hard to hear your sweet little words.

You are attached to the phone from Megan's kitchen.  You carry that thing around and talk into it non-stop.  You will push buttons and say hey and then start babbling and then you say bye and push another button and start again.  Daddy will take his phone out and pretend to talk to you and you love that.  You just tell him everything (can't wait until we can understand what you are saying).

You do an amazing job with cleaning up the toys.  You are learning to put things back before you get something else out and to not just drop something to run and get something new.  Unless you are tired you do a great job of cleaning up anytime we ask you to.  Most of the time you have to put everything back exactly where it goes; but sometimes if you are in a hurry I will find everything in one container.

Sam, you are so smart.  You are learning new things all the time and you seem to pick up on them so effortlessly.  You will watch your sister do something and then copy it immediately.  You love to play with her but you also enjoy your free time when she is at school.  You get so excited when I put you in the car to go get her - you just keep saying "sissy" over and over again.

We love you buddy.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Super excited to be at the park and enjoying the library

We took the kids to the park this afternoon.  Sam was unhappy when I put him in the car because he wanted to walk down the stairs into the garage by himself and I told him he could climb down by himself or hold my hand to walk.  He has a very hard time walking down when holding onto me so no way I am letting him do it by himself.  Well, he thinks he is a big boy and he was so unhappy.  Anyway, he was crying in his car seat and we told him we were going somewhere fun, but it still took him a few minutes to calm down.  When I parked the car at the park he started clapping like crazy and he said "yay" and "wheeeee bubba".  Message received Sam.

At the library he was loving that he could walk up to the shelf, pick a book and then sit at the table with it.  He kept wanting to just sit at the table and then get right back up to get another book.  I am going to start taking him to the library while Megan is in school.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Fun days

Sam is such a sweet little guy.  When Megan is getting a diaper change or something he will take toys to her.  He will also turn on the dancing snowman for her anytime she points at it.  

A couple of days ago while Megan was sleeping late Sam and I went outside to play.  He was having so much fun playing chase and running around with me.  At one point he tripped over the cord between the Christmas trees that line our driveway.  He slapped his hands on the concrete when he fell and he did not like that so from then on he would stop at the tree line and turn around.  I showed him how to step over the cord so he wouldn't trip and he was so cute about it.  He would be running and when he got to the trees he would stop abruptly and very slowly and deliberately step over and then take off running again.

This afternoon he was playing chase with Megan.  She has gotten fast enough and smart enough to figure out his moves so he can't get away from her as much.  He decided to climb up to the 4th stair so he was out of her reach.  When I caught him he was grinning at her and kicking his feet.  He got in trouble for being on the stairs without mommy, but I did think it was a clever way to escape.  Megan can climb the stairs but she won't do it without me so he was safe.


Sunday, December 16, 2012

Various words and new activities

A few days ago I let Sam's breakfast cool off enough that he could feed himself (instead of it having to be blown on).  I put the bowl on his tray and gave him the spoon.  He was so happy until he turned the spoon over and some of his oatmeal fell on the floor in front of his seat.  He leaned over as far as he could pointed at the food and fussed.  He was very unhappy that he had lost some of his precious breakfast.

He loves to eat off of plates and out of bowls, even if he is just using his hands.  He will pick up his pizza or quesadilla or whatever.

Sam has started saying words that we haven't taught him, meaning he is picking them up from our conversations.  He was playing with the phone, he pushed some buttons, put it up to his face and said "Hey".   He is also saying "what" which is something I say to him a lot now because he will say "more" and I will say "more what".  A couple of days ago he was clapping and he said "yay".  So three words he definitely hears us use during the day.

Megan has a cute little felt square bag.  Yesterday afternoon Sam found it and was carrying it around.  At one point he put the phone into it, waved to us and headed for the front door.  Will was cringing - Sam was using it as a purse and copying me.  I thought it was adorable.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Mouthing the word rabbit

I talked before about how great Sam is at whispering when you tell him to use his inside voice.  Sometimes he also just whispers because he wants to.  Well last week he did something new.  He said "apple" and someone said "wow that was very clear" and I told them he could also say "rabbit".  I told Sam to say rabbit and he just smiled at me and the lady.  A few seconds later instead of saying it he mouthed it.  The lady said she could clearly see that he was saying it, but there was no sound.

Cute little guy.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Drawing and new words

Sam has been doing a great job this past week drawing on the magna-doodle.  He scribbles away and is so proud of himself.  He scribbles a little and then shows me and then scribbles some more.

Today during Megan's therapy session I was playing with Sam in the hallway.  I gave him one of the clips we use for the sippy cups.  He would go a little ways down the hall and put it on a chair and then come back to me; then he would go get it and bring it back to me.  When he would give it to me I would ask him if he wanted it back and he would say "yeah".  I was telling him to say please but thought that I needed to figure out something else for him to say so he could ask for what he wanted.  I realized that when I wanted him to give it to me I was saying 'can mommy have it', so I taught him to say "Mama, I have please".  He says "have" perfectly and then uses sign language for please.

Other new words: home, tree, wan (want), shoe

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Pointing

Sam started pointing at things two days ago and boy is it cute.  Most of the time it is apparent what he is pointing at but sometimes it is hard to tell.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Sick little guy

Sam was sneezing a lot yesterday and then last night he started doing his barking cough.  It is awful sounding when he coughs.  This morning he woke up with a low grade fever and he just feels awful.  He is in bed right now trying to sleep but coughing a lot.