Big squishes, real kisses, 3T pants and more

I have been working Sam for months to get him to hug with his arms and to kiss with his lips closed.  Like everything he has learned he went from not doing it to doing it perfectly the next instant - no in-between.  He now gives the biggest squishes (hugs) and pursed lip kisses, except when kissing Megan.  For some reason he still gives her open mouth kisses on the head when saying night-night to her.  

Sam is now officially, fully in 3T clothing.  He moved into 3T tops a few months ago but his short little legs couldn't handle the pants.  Last week I noticed that, though the 2T pants were still too long they were too short in the crotch area.  He is handling his bigger pants well with the assistance of a belt to hold them up.  

This weekend we got out a funny footprints walking mat.  It has colored footprints on it and when you step on them they each make a different noise.  Sam loves it and will walk back and forth on it.  Yesterday when he was playing with the baby doll he took her over to it, held her upright and made her walk on the footprints.  He was telling her "walk, walk" while doing it.  He is so cute with baby dolls, feeding them, pushing in the stroller, swinging them and just chatting with them.  

I have been fighting my annual sinus infection so during Megan's speech session yesterday morning I sat in the car with Sam in the front seat.  He was playing with his puppy dog.  When it started singing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes Sam started singing along.  He sang almost every word.  I haven't even heard him attempt the song before.  

Stay at home vacation happenings

Sam has started putting baby dolls and stuffed animals in the jump-jump and then saying "jump" to them.  He then bounces the jump-jump for them.  He also says "swing" and then pushes them.

New words: cheerio, table (though it sounds remarkably close to dammit) and truck (and he says it when he sees them).

He is finally comfortable climbing on equipment at play areas like McDonald's and Chik-fil-a.  He loves to climb all over the toddler area at the mall.  He is suddenly very into swinging too.  He used to just want to run around and climb but now as soon as we get to the park he asks for the swings.

He recognizes places that he has only been to once or twice and sometimes months ago like daddy's office.  As soon as I pulled into the parking lot he said "dada".

He is now singing the song Wheels on the bus by himself, meaning he just breaks into song while playing or riding in the car.  He doesn't sing every word, but he hums the song for the words he can't say.  He does most of the motions that I do with it as well.

Two weeks ago when I was walking with Megan on the horse Will let him play with the farm cat.  I don't like cats so I always shooed it away, but Will let him pet it and play with it and he had a blast.  Yesterday at the farm he kept trying to pet it but it would run away.  One time I told him he had to go slow to not scare it so he got down and crawled to the cat.

He had so much fun at the Children's museum.  He was confident and brave and not shy at all.  He went all over and played with everything.  He really loved the hospital nursery area where he got to take care of the babies and rock them in a kid size chair.  He wore a pair of glasses to be like sissy in the eye doctor area.

I am working to teach him to say boy or girl when he sees another kid because right now he just says baby for all kids no matter how old they are.  The other day I said "Sam is a boy" and he said "boy" and then said "sissy boy?".

He is afraid of our neighbor Joy for some reason.  She was in the yard a couple of days ago and he wouldn't say hi to her and then wouldn't look at her and then he ran to the corner and hid behind the edge.  It sounds worse than it was - it was actually pretty smart of him to know he could go there to hide.  He used to play with her all the time so I am not sure what was up that day.

During our vacation we kept Megan out of school except on therapy days.  The weather was really nice most days so we were constantly going to the park or going on walks.  Yesterday morning when I told Sam to get his shoes because we were leaving he said "swing?" and I said no buddy not right now and then he said "walk?".  He loved having daddy home for a week and a half and he loved getting to be outside so much.  He is going to love it when he can be outside every day.

Animal Sounds

During a 10 minute car ride Sam learned several animal sounds.  He could make the noise but this was the first time he responded correctly when asked what sound a specific animal makes.  He can do cow, duck, horse, dog, pig (he snorts) and rooster.  It was amazing that he got that many at the same time when he had previously only done one correctly.

Sentences and concerned about Megan

This past weekend we took the kids to the playground after nap.  I said "you guys want to go on a walk" and they both got very excited.  Megan was sitting and playing with her kitchen, I was on the other side of the living room with my back to her putting on Sam's shoes.  Sam leaned around me so he could see her and said "you gonna go for a walk?".  He said it 3 times and after the third time Megan came over and joined us.  First of all, that little sentence was crazy adorable.  Will and I both understood him perfectly but I am not sure someone else would have known what he was saying.  Second, he managed to get Megan to stop what she was doing and join us so she could go too.

A couple of days later I was driving the kids somewhere and Megan tooted.  Sam said "sissy stinky" and then he said "sissy diaper stinky".  Anytime he is dirty we talk about him being stinky so he knows what it means, but I was surprised that he understood enough to attach that to her.

Yesterday Megan was in the jump-jump and Sam was on the bouncy horse.  After a few seconds Megan started laughing, seriously laughing hard and every time I tried to peak to see what was going on one of them would see me and they would both just stare at me.  Finally, I managed to sneak around behind and peek.  Sam was pulling his arm into his shirt and then after a few seconds he was shoving it back into his sleeve and bursting his hand out.  Every single time he did this Megan cracked up.  He was entertaining her and he loved it.  He just kept doing it until I got snack ready for them.

This morning Megan slept in so she was late going to school.  Normally Will gets Sam up after I leave with Megan to take her to school.  He asks about her but after a couple of times telling him she is at school he is good to go.  Well, this morning it was so late that I had to take both of them with me.  Sam was great with that until we left Megan in her classroom.  He was so concerned that we were leaving her behind.  He kept saying "sissy?" in a concerned little voice.  He has never gone to drop her off, only to pick her up so he didn't understand what was going on.  I thought it might be hard on him so instead of feeding him breakfast before we left I took him out for a special breakfast.  Sadly, it didn't work.  He asked about her in that same little voice until we picked her up.  He got to eat a special breakfast, go to the store and to the library but he never stopped worrying that we had left her behind.  I kept telling him that she was at school and we would go get her in a little bit but it wasn't until we pulled into the school again that he was okay with it.