Lighting up, beaming with pride

This morning Sam had to attend a meeting with Will & me.  We would normally get a sitter for this type of thing but due to the timing of it we had to take him with us.  He sat in a chair and played with the iPad while we talked, occasionally needing some redirection.  After the meeting is over I called him over to me and said "Sam, you did a good job and I am proud of you".  His little face lit up and he had a huge smile.  He loves it when I tell him I am proud of him and I love that it builds him up.

Jingle bells makes a come back

Yesterday while Sam was playing he started singing Jingle Bells.  This is the first time I have heard him sing that since Christmas and definitely the first time he has sang it on his own initiative.  He sang it a few times today as well.  So now he rotates ABCs, Old McDonald, Jingle Bells and his made up songs.

Pretend phone conversation and playing with stuffed animals

Sam has loved talking on all of our toy phones for a long time.  For the longest time he wouldn't do anything other than hold a phone up to his ear and then he gradually progressed to mimicking behavior he witnessed Will and I do with our phones.  When we pretended to call someone on the phone he would typically only say hi, bye and sometimes a few other words.

Well yesterday he had an entire conversation with daddy on the phone. He called Will and told him all about the special kleenex tissues that Megan was using because she had an owie on her nose (using the cool tissues because her nose was so raw from being wiped).  Then he told him about the medicine she had just taken and how mommy prayed for her to get better.  His pretend conversation went on for 2-3 minutes.

Tonight before bed he was pretending to feed a couple of different stuffed animals from a coffee cup. He would go to different places in the room to fill the cup with different items and would always go back to the same spot for the same item. He was having the animals say their prayers before they ate and drank.  Super cute little pretend play tonight.

Getting a little more freedom, more animals and helping Megan

Because big sister Megan is developmentally delayed and hasn't been able to break ground in every area for him Sam is getting to experience some "first kid stuff".  I am having to learn things with him that go with the first kid territory.

We have a game room upstairs, which is where Sam's train table resides.  I usually take the kids into the room when I get them up from nap.  We play in there until snack time and then we move downstairs.  Well Sam started asking to go play with his train table when Megan is at school.  I had been going up with him and decided instead to "send him up alone" the other day.  He is doing great with this and will ask to come back down when he is done, or hungry.  :-)  We are having crazy warm weather right now so I have been taking the kids to the playground in the afternoon.  On Monday Sam asked if he could go in the backyard while Megan was in school.  I let him go out by himself and I opened a window in the kitchen.  He would venture off for 1-3 seconds and then come right back to the window to talk to me.  Eventually he got up the nerve to go beyond my line of sight for a few seconds.  This made me really nervous and I had to fight the urge to run outside to be able to see him.  He would only run a few feet and then come right back - it seems he is also struggling with mommy letting go.  :-)

At one point he was running around and the neighbor's dog started barking.  He came running up to the window and said "doggie get me" and I said no the doggie is just saying hi so he ran back over and said "hi doggie".  Super cute.

I took the kids to BB&B to get some soap dispensers on Monday afternoon.  The store is located in a strip that has 6 or 7 stores attached to it.  After the very brief trip inside BB&B (it is very fragrant in there) the kids and I walked down the sidewalk to the pet store.  Sam loved getting to see the animals and kept saying "more animals please".  We are definitely planning a trip to the zoo soon.

Yesterday afternoon the kids were playing together and I ran upstairs to grab something.  When I came back down they were facing each other and Sam was hugging Megan and saying "sorry sissy, I love you" and then gave her kisses.  This is what we have them do when they have to apologize and he must have done something because he was apologizing on his own.  I then saw him put her glasses on her face, so I am assuming he poked her the first time.  Anyway, he would carefully put her glasses on and then she would make a slight adjustment to get them correct and then take them off and hand them back to him.  He would then put them back on her and she would adjust and then give them back to him.  After the third time Sam said "sissy, leave them on" in a sweet little voice.  She just handed them back to him again - after all this was a fun game.

Mimicking daddy

Yesterday Will was hobbling around because he had a sore ankle.  Sam watched Will limping around and started walking just like him.  It was very cute watching him try to look like his daddy.

Timeout for the frog

Sam has started talking to his toy animals like we talk to him.  A couple of days ago I heard him say "pig, you obey me, no taking toys".  This morning he was playing with the stuffed frog he got for Valentine's Day and he put it in time out for taking his toys.

You can see what our biggest struggle is right now - Sam keeps taking toys away from Megan and his friends.  It sounds like he is getting the message. :-)

You call my name

A popular theme is Sam's love of food.  We wait for Will to get home from work to have dinner (most nights).  When Will walks in the door Sam typically runs over to him, says hello and then comes to me and says "you make our dinner?".   He will then ask several times if he can get in his chair to eat and Will says "mommy will tell you when dinner is ready".

When I finally say "dinner is ready" Sam responds with "you call my name!".  This still cracks us up even though he has been saying it for weeks.  To Sam telling him food is ready is the same thing as calling his name.

Special breakfast

About once a week I get Sam a special breakfast, which means I buy him breakfast from somewhere.  This morning was special breakfast day.  I went by Sonic and got him a jr burrito and some french toast sticks.  The french toast sticks were definitely a good choice, he would take 1-2 bites and then say "bubba likes it".

Song about tacos and waking up for breakfast

Yesterday Sam was singing a song he made up while playing in the toy room.  I was listening to him sing and couldn't quit smiling because the word "taco" kept coming up every few words.  He does love his tacos.

This morning Sam was still asleep when I went to get him up.  I made all kinds of noise and he didn't budge.  I sat on his bed and starting rubbing on his back to wake him up, eventually he stretched, looked me and then put his thumb back in his mouth, covered his head up again and went right back to sleep.  I decided to try something else so I said "its time for breakfast".  Sam sat straight up and said "bubba wake up".

Back to blogging

Sam's height and weight on 1/1/14: 38 1/4 inches tall and 31.2 pounds

Sam is doing great.  He is such a sweet and funny little boy.  He has grown into a wonderful little brother who looks out for his older sister.  He loves to make her laugh and anytime he does he will repeat the behavior over and over again to keep her laughing. 

Sam can now get dressed and undressed all by himself except for snaps on his jeans.  He loves all vehicles and has so much fun with the train table he got for Christmas.  He is still all about the food.  He loves to eat and gets very excited about food.  He has a great time pretending to cook and will feed the stuffed animals and little people.  

We recently had our new neighbors over for a play date and Sam watched out the window for them and kept saying "my new friends come over to my house to play?".  He had a great time with them.  

Sam is doing great in his big bed.  He sleeps all over it, moving from end to end, every time he is in it.  When he had a cold recently I would put him down in the morning for a rest time because if he is up he just keeps going and going and wears himself out.  I would tell him that he didn't have to sleep but just needed to rest.  Now every time I put him down for nap he tells me that he is just going to rest - of course he is asleep 5 minutes later.