Trust me. I do this all the time.

Baby Shower

2012-02-05T14:35:00.005-06:00

Last weekend (January 28th) three of my dear friends threw me a baby shower! To be specific, it was a diaper and casserole shower. Quite perfect for a second-time mom-to-be who doesn't need a bunch of equipment and supplies, don't you think? I came home with lots of little diapers (they look so tiny compared to the ones Sam was using a few months ago!), tons of wipes, and several yummy meals that now sit in my freezer awaiting the day when I just can't get my act together to get to the grocery store or to cook. I was even surprised with a few "cute" items - some new PJs, blankets, etc. All in lovely, gender-neutral pallets of course.

I forgot my camera, so there are very few pictures of the event. This one of me and my mom (who was in town visiting and got to join us!) was taken on a phone, so I apologize for the quality. But I can tell you that my guests and I dined on a lovely brunch of egg casserole, berries and pound cake before diving into the oh-so-adorable Beatrix Potter cake. Isn't it the cutest! And the little veggies cupcakes make me believe that they are actually healthy. Ha!

The guests also played a game to see how well they knew me. They each took turns answering multiple choice questions about my childhood, with answers provided by my mother. I didn't even know the answer to one of them - turns out I came home from the hospital in a purple dress. It was fun to see how well people knew me.

Thank you Gayle, Mary and Julie for making me feel so special and cared-for as I await the arrival of baby number 2!

The Growing Belly - Volume II, Part III

2012-01-31T21:16:00.003-06:00

I feel huge. That's all there is to it right now. I feel bigger than I did last time. But the scale at the doctor's office today indicates that I am right on track compared to my pregnancy with Sam. I don't know, take a look at these pictures and let me know what you think - I am bigger now than I was then? I am a whole 3 days farther along today than I was in the first round of pictures...I am 33 weeks and 6 days here:
So that means we have 6 weeks left until my due date. Yikes! This entire pregnancy is absolutely flying by. I've made a long to-do list and we are, in fact, making progress on it. The crib is in place, a new dresser purchased and the gender-neutral clothes have been washed and put away. We still need to install the car seat, put all the "equipment" back together, pack bags, etc etc etc. Some days I feel very overwhelmed, but I am motivated to get it all done. I want to spend my last few weeks going out on mommy-son dates with my boy before its too hard for us to get out of the house anymore!

Babies

2012-01-18T20:21:00.003-06:00

Over the last few weeks we've started to put some real thought and effort into preparing Sam mentally for the pending arrival of his new sibling. We got some books from the library, practiced holding Elmo, talked about what babies like and don't like, etc.

So you can imagine my swelling mama heart when I walked into the childcare room to pick-up Sam from the gym and saw this:

He was just sitting there with her. No adults around, the other kids running wild around the room. I sat down next to him and asked what he was doing. "I'm holding the baby's hand." A minute later, "I'm not ready to go, I'm still sitting with her." And then he went and grabbed a stuffed duck. Earlier in the week we talked about how babies only like to play with soft toys. And a minute later our scene looked like this:

After the animals, he went back to holding her hand. When I finally convinced him it was time to go he told the baby goodbye and promised they would play again next time. I am so encouraged that this Big Brother is really taking ownership of his role! I pray that this enthusiasm continues when the real thing arrives in just about 8 weeks!

School Picture

2012-01-12T18:04:00.001-06:00

Isn't he a cutie?!

Big Brother Prep

2012-01-08T20:39:00.005-06:00

When I found out that I was pregnant last summer, a whole slew of to-do's whirled through my head. Among them were the ways that we would need to prepare Sam for our new arrival. There would be the emotional preparations, of course, but I also came up with three practical, tangible changes that would need to happen in his life before our family would be ready for baby: transition to big boy bed, potty training, and kicking the paci habit. Not going to lie, I was nervous about all three. Mostly because I have heard my share of horror stories relating to them all, especially boys and potty training. But I had to give it all a shot...so we set out.

1. Shortly after Sam started school in the fall we decided to make the transition to the big boy bed. We got took the front off of Sam's crib, got the toddler rail out of the attic and set about bolting it onto the bed. And that's when we realized that Babies R Us shipped us the wrong rail...months and months ago. After a small fight with the store, we had the correct rail about two weeks later and we put it on right away. And you know what? After being told once to stay in bed when we left the room, Sam stayed did just that. He went an entire week before even trying to get out at naptime, and he only tried that twice. Since day one he has called for us to come get him when he wakes before setting a toe on the ground. He LOVED the freedom of getting in and out himself. He even respected the "paci lives in the bed" rule and would climb in and out when he wanted that comfort item. To my shock and delight, it was a seamless transition!

2. I gave y'all a good bit of detail on the potty training front when we started in November. Well, as of now I will PROUDLY proclaim that my son is completely potty trained. In fact, he now earns his rewards for completing the entire process all by himself. He has had two accidents of any kind in the last 5 weeks. I was more anxious about this one than anything else. Our success is proof of the power of prayer. I am enjoying my 4.5 month hiatus from diapers.

3. We saved that paci removal for last. I thought that he would need that security item to make it through the other two, and it turns out I was right. But I had absolutely no idea how I was going to accomplish this one. I'd been given a few ideas, ranging from trickery to reasoning, and just couldn't decide which way to go. But I new that if we didn't get it done before baby arrived - likely with paci of his/her own - than it might be another year before we could get it done. We were down to one paci (I've since found the others, go figure), and it was well-loved. So well-loved, that something started to happen. While we were living in two places, the nipple of the paci started to rip due to his habit of biting plastic items. Slowly, slowly the rip got bigger. Sam told us that it was broken, but we just handed it back to him and sent him off to bed. We began to notice that he wasn't sucking it as much in bed, half the time he just held it in his hand. And then, halfway through our Christmas trip to Florida, we realized that paci had been sitting on a bedside table and Sam had not touched it in three days. I put it in my purse and he has not mentioned it since. Slowly, slowly, Sam self-weaned himself from his Paci. Now I'm not going to lie, there are plenty of replacements in the bed - so many things go to sleep with him that there is literally barely room for him in the bed. And we have had a few issues with calling for us in the night and waking earlier in the morning, but they seem to be lessening and I find them to be totally worth it for the sake of this transition.

So there you go. We were blessed with three relatively painless transitions, and in a matter of months there is basically no baby left in our boy. Its sad, in a way, to realize how much he is growing up. But at the same time, I am so in love with the boy that he is right now. He has so much personality, is mostly so sweet, and makes us laugh so much.

He is also growing more and more interested in the baby. He has asked repeatedly over the past week if the baby is coming out now. He talks about holding the baby. Today he kissed my tummy and put his mouth up to it to say "Hi" to the baby. Then sat down next to me so that he could sit with the baby. Makes my heart happy. Now, I am under no illusions that it will all be lovey when baby comes home, but I am encouraged that he is going into it with a willing heart.

Sam's First Prayer

2012-01-03T20:23:00.000-06:00

Last night at dinner Chris asked us all to fold our hands and he started to say Grace. Sam quickly stopped him and said that he would pray. It went like this:

"Dear Jesus, help us drive safe. Amen."

A lovely prayer, and a valid request. Out of context? Yup. It was wonderful to listen to him pray independently for the first time. We praised him, and then advised him to try again by thanking Jesus for our food and our day. Which he did successfully.

So maybe he is just repeating prayers he's heard in the past, but its a step, right? So we talked again about how prayer is talking to Jesus, and what that means. I can't wait to watch his faith grow!

Christmas 2011

2012-01-02T15:12:00.014-06:00

Christmas with a 2 year old is fun. There's no other way about it. But let's start at the beginning.

This year it was Christmas in Florida. This was our first drive all the way to Sarasota, and it really wasn't bad at all. The DVD player was a huge help in overcoming the afternoon restless period, even if the video selection left something to be desired for the adult ears.

Anywho, we arrived early on the 22nd, which allowed us a few days to finish up our preparations and celebrate a bit. I took a nap shortly after we arrived and awoke - 4 hours after we arrived - to find my son in the pool. He wastes no time, and cares not that it was only 70-something degrees out, a whole 30 degrees colder than when we went swimming last. We hit up a psychedelic light display at a local church, did some wrapping, some grocery shopping. On Christmas Eve we celebrated Great Grandma's (Debbie's Mom) birthday in the afternoon before heading off to church in the early evening.**

Afterward we read the Christmas story from the bible, donned our Christmas jammies, listened to "The Night Before Christmas" as read by Gammi and Papa (thanks to recordable storybooks!) and tucked the boy into bed. We also explained to Sam what was going to happen in the morning: Santa will leave your stocking by the bed, we'll open it on Mommy's bed and get some presents, then head out to the Christmas tree to open even more more presents!" He looked at me and said, "Seriously?!" So cute!

I made Cheese Soup, a tradition in my family, and then we got to work assembling. We were done in 30 minutes. I have faith that our Christmas Eve assembly will not be that quick again for another 15 years.

After experiencing Sam's first night terror around 1am, I was worried that our morning would be ruined. But it was quite the opposite. He was stoked about every single item he pulled out of his stocking, alternating between wanting to play with everything and wanted to see what else was in there. And yes, he started on the candy before 8am.

When we headed out to the living room he started playing with his new basketball hoop right away! Then we all - Grammy, Papa, Mommy, Daddy, Aunt Becky, almost-Uncle Benton and Sam - sat down for what turned out to be almost 3 hours of gift opening! There were many great gifts exchanged, including a new iPad for Mommy! Once again, Sam did not finish with his packages in the morning, there's just too much to play with! And at the end we pulled out the new trampoline from Gammi and Papa and the boy jumped so much he was out of breath!

After nap we paid the price for feeding him candy and cinammon rolls all day, but once we arrived at the big family gathering we were all back to better spirits. Oh how that boy loved playing with the big kids! It was great to see everyone.

The days that followed were relaxing and lovely. Sam had an endless supply of playmates, Chris and I got to go out on a date, Chris got to go golfing, we visited Great Grandma again, we hit up a great park, etc. Sam consumed more candy than he should have in 6 weeks. We actually ended up staying a day longer than planned!

We brought home way more than we took there, but my engineer husband got it all in while still being about to see out of part of the back window! We made great time on the way back and arrived to a very cold house (we didn't need heat when we left 10 days earlier) at 4:30 am. All 3 of us climbed into the big bed, with space heater right next to us, and slept until 7:30! With that three hour nap in a real bed, the adults felt the best we ever have after an all-night drive.

We used our last few days of vacation to work on organizing Sam's new bounty - easier said than done - and beginning to plan out what baby preparations need to be made. Chris is back to work today, but it feel strangely ok to be getting back into a normal routine. It really was a wonderful Christmas!

**I cannot wait for the year we get to worship at our own church on Christmas Eve. I miss the service structure, the liturgy, and the wonderful music. I love that we budget for a full ensemble - brass and all - to celebrate both Christ's birth and resurrection! Most of all, I miss the opportunity to sing "Joy to the World" the way it was written, without being re-mixed with something trying to sound like pop music. Blah."

Yule Time Fun

2011-12-31T16:02:00.006-06:00

In between solving renovation problems, moving back into our house and packing up to leave again, our family did actually manage to prepare a bit for Christmas this year!

Even if we couldn't decorate the inside of the house, I wanted to do the outside. But then it rained one weekend and Chris was sick the next. I thought I was out of luck all together. But then Sam and I came home one day to find Daddy on the roof. He had left early to put our lights up and surprise us! I felt so much better to have some decorations up, and Sam had a ton of fun helping Daddy get every string - and every "eye bulb" - ready.

My sweet, sweet husband also brought home a 36" Christmas tree that he strung with lights so that I wouldn't be too bummed that we didn't get to put ours up. Isn't he thoughtful?!

Over the month of December Chris and I enjoyed listening to Sam sing one of the songs he'd learned at school. He'd grab a bell and cheer, "Ring those bells and jump up high! Ring those bells and stomp your feet!" Sometimes we even heard it from his bed once he'd gone down for the night. We heard it a lot. So you can imagine how excited I was to see this arrive in my inbox:

Finally, I decided months ago that I wanted to attempt a gingerbread house with Sam this year. Then we started renovating and I quickly realized my visions of crafting it all from scratch were beyond unrealistic. So I bought a kit, thinking surely we'd find an hour to put it together. Well, we ended up taking that still-closed kit with us to Florida and Sam woke me up on Christmas eve asking to do our special craft (seriously, it was the very first thing I did that day, so please don't judge my appearance!). Well, we finally got it done! He enjoyed eating the candy and placing it on my icing dots, and I had fun finishing it up with some prettier details. I think next year is our year for the homemade one!

Next up...Christmas in Florida!

The Growing Belly - Volume II, Part II

2011-12-26T10:12:00.004-06:00

Here we are, me and Marshmallow, a few days ago a few hours short of 28 weeks. So now we are officially into the third trimester - the home stretch! And now that the renovations are over, and Christmas celebrations are winding down, and I think I can finally turn my brain and focus towards preparing for this child's arrival. First up: by Sam a new bed so we can convert his back into a crib!I'm starting to feel large. I think I've moved right on past the "cute pregnant" stage, sigh. But in looking at the pictures from last go round, I don't look too much bigger than I did with Sam, but I was a week further along in those pictures. I think I'm a different shape though. Maybe that's because I'm having a girl, or maybe its because Marshmallow is still head up (Sam was already down by this point). Only time will tell!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-26T10:10:00.003-06:00

Sorry its a day late...

Merry Christmas! Love,
Chris, Lindsay and Sam Hunniford

The Accidental Remodel

2011-12-18T20:16:00.017-06:00

I've alluded to it in a few other posts, so here you go: the story behind why we weren't exactly living at our house recently.

It all started when I got pregnant - no, really. Our house has two bedrooms. Do we stay or do we go? Well, let's think about it till about week 20, then chat with a few Realtors. Decision? Let's list it! But before we do, lets fix one or two small things, and the foundation. Foundation problems aren't a big deal in pier and beam houses like ours, but it'll still sell better if its done.

So we get a contractor and the foundation guy out here. The news wasn't good. The foundation had problems, but they were fixable. But both workmen found some serious issues with our sub-flooring due to long-term termite and water damage (slow leaking shower). The next thing you know, we are in the middle of a major home improvement project. By the time it was all said and done, here's what we did:
1. Remove carpet in 2 bedrooms and hallway to expose severely damaged sub floor
2. Remove damaged sub floor and corresponding damaged portions of walls
3. Rip out entire master bathroom due to sub flooring and shower leak issues
4. Spend too much time and mental energy resolving conflict between contractor and foundation guy
5. Repair foundation
6. Repair sub floor and walls
7. Remove exterior door in master bedroom, replace with window
8. Expand master closet, add pocket door
9. Move patches of old hardwoods hidden under carpet to hallway and second bedroom
10. Re-texture and paint bedrooms and hallway
11. Remove kitchen window, replace with door
12. Re-build bathroom, including new tile, expanded shower and new cabinet
13. Refinish new hardwoods
14. Install new carpet in master

I think that's it. In truth the kitchen door and the master closet didn't have to be done, but they've been on "the list." The kitchen door we've wanted to do since we moved in 4.5 years ago, while the expanded master closet is going to double as a crib room for new baby. The rest was a necessity to insure structural integrity of the house. I'm not going to lie, its a little less fun to do these projects because you have to, but in the end we are really enjoying the results.

The process, I won't lie, was incredibly painful. Granted it was our first ever re-model, so we had a lot to learn. We now know a bit more about how to work with contractors, what to expect, communication, sourcing materials, etc. But that was only part of the pain. For me, the worst part was living through it. Obviously, we had to move everything - every shirt and tiny item we'd stuffed in closets, all the furniture, etc - into the other half of the house. Our house isn't big, then you double up the furniture and the living space we were left with was tight.

So we kinda moved out. Our wonderful neighbors recently finished their garage apartment and graciously allowed us to stay there during the work (which we initially told them would be about two weeks...oops). It was an incredible blessing to have a free place to stay, close by so that we could keep an eye on everything! Unfortunately, there was no kitchen over there. So we were actually back and forth between the two places several times a day. I was constantly packing and unpacking, thinking of what we needed, etc. Sam learned to ask about the "other house" and learned the term "next door." And he didn't sleep well there, because it was basically a studio apartment.

And back at the house it was DIRTY. I mean DIRTY. Yes, they hung plastic, but there is nothing on Earth as messy as drywall dust. The floor sanding did not even compare. I had to clean my kitchen before I would start cooking every time. Over time it just made me start feeling dirty all over.

So you can imagine that after almost a month of living between two imperfect places, we were thrilled to death to move back into our home last Saturday night. We were beyond motivated to get things put back together. We worked continuously to clean and clean and clean and move and replace and put it all back together. And while I wanted to curse our decision at about 3:30, I am now proud to say we had it restored and ready for our company that arrived at 7:30 on Thursday evening. Sometimes deadlines are really just needed inspiration to get it done!

We are still waiting on our shower glass to arrive, but Sam is graciously sharing his shower in the meantime. I am told the glass will be here tomorrow...

Now if you're paying attention, you'll remember that we started all of this so that we could list the house and move. Then I mentioned expanding the closet to make a crib room. Conflict? Yeah, kind of. Turns out, I think that we're going to stay here a little while longer. Anyhow, here are some pics. We're so glad to be home!

Pulling up the carpet revealed some interesting patch jobs done by previous owner. There were holes in the sub flooring that had just been covered with plywood:
Here is an example of bad patch jobs, but also a poor mid-century decision to glue linoleum onto what would now otherwise be beautiful, 90 year old hardwoods. In case you're wondering, linoleum glue ruins hardwoods beyond repair. We also have old hardwoods with linoleum glued on top under our tile in the kitchen. Sigh:
This was our master bathroom. The previous owner used fence posting to try to patch some foundation problems. Seriously:

Finished work. New hardwoods in the hallway:
New hardwoods and repaired/repainted walls in the second bedroom:
The master without furniture and new paint. You can see our new closet door here:
Inside the new closet. There used to be a door where that window is. The crib will go on the wall to the right:
The master with furniture.
The new master bathroom. Still need to hang the mirror and towel bars, but we're holding off till the shower glass goes in:
I can't wait to shower in there:

Breakfast with Santa

2011-12-08T08:19:00.004-06:00

This year we stepped up our Santa visit a bit - all the way to a breakfast! Actually, it was an easier, more enjoyable, and cheaper experience than any mall Santa could be.

The church that houses Sam's preschool offers a Santa breakfast as an annual outreach to the community. I'd like to say you can consider us reached, but I'm not entirely sure that's true. We hit up the Sunday morning affair bright and early at 8:30 and we're at our own church for worship by 11am (and we stopped at Home Depot in between!).

Anywho, we joined the Lutheran folk for pancakes, bacon and oranges - an incredibly nice change to the cold/dry cereal we've been having under our current housing situation. They provided some crafts for the kiddos, so I have a few beautiful additions for my tree this year. And then of course, the main event.

I'd started talking up the man in red a few days before. I explained that he comes the night before Christmas - only after everyone is asleep - and brings a few presents to help us celebrate Baby Jesus's birthday. But he also makes some visits a few weeks before Christmas so that we can all tell him what we'd like him to bring us for Baby Jesus's birthday.

Sam was good with this idea. Decided he would tell Santa he wanted candy and trains. But he wasn't going to sit on his lap. Hmm...more talking to do.

The day arrived, and as we were walking to the car Sam asked me,
"Mommy, talk to me again."
"What do you want me to talk to you about?"
"About him."
"Umm...oh you mean Santa?"
"Yeah!" So we went through it all again.

When we walked in he didn't want to go right up to Santa. We let him eat first, in full sight, to get used to the Big Man. At one point he said he was ready to go see him, so we walked right up (no line - beautiful!). Then he got stage fright. I feared this wasn't going to go well, until the camera suggested that Santa offer a candy cane. Now, Sam had never tasted a candy cane before, but he heard "Sam, Santa has candy..." and that was all it took. He walked right up to him and let him pull him into his lap. With candy cane in hand, he timidly told Santa that he'd like trains for Christmas this year. A few pictures snapped, and the visit was over.

I'm pretty sure this was our best Santa visit so far. I am having a blast this year as Sam really learns and enjoys all of the Christmas traditions that I loved as a child. Still more fun to come!

Thanksgiving

2011-11-28T15:28:00.000-06:00

Look at me, getting my Thanksgiving post up in a timely manner this year!

This year it was Ohio for Turkey Day. We flew out Monday afternoon and came home on Saturday night. If those seem like weird travel days, its because they are. But they were strategically selected based on airline ticket prices. The Stegmiller trio wasn't able to join us, but all reports are that they had a lovely time back home in San Diego.

Once again we waited until the day of travel to inform the boy that he'd be flying on an airplane to visit Gammy and Papa. Even half a day was a bit too much anticipation, but he is proving himself to be an expert traveler. In fact, now that he watches videos and plays games on the iPod, he's almost easy to fly with! He even achieved his first 30,000 ft pee!

All in all it was a very uneventful and relaxing trip. Wonderful! I did hit up 6 grocery stores on Wednesday for a variety of reasons, but most of them were suspiciously calm! We decided that the fact that Whole Foods was the busiest is in indication that the economy can't be that bad, right?

Sam was spoiled rotten with attention by his grandparents, Uncle Matt and Aunt Kate. Someone was always willing to play whatever game it was he could come up with. A couple of times he even got to go out and play golf on the real putting green! Kate came up with another fun new game, which seems to be her gift. And the little man sure did turn on the charm for his people. Comments like "Thanks for playing ball with me!" might just earn him an extra Christmas gift!

Friday night we kicked off the Christmas season by visiting the Zoo Lights. I'll tell ya, two and a half is a fun age for such an event. From the second we walked in the little boy's eyes were filled with wonder at all the twinkling lights reflecting off of everything. "Its so pretty!" he announced to Papa. He enjoyed naming all of the different colors he was seeing, and feeling the fire. And then he spotted the train. "Hey let's ride that!" And a few minutes later, Gammy had purchased 7 tickets for the Polar Bear Express. There was a bit of panic when were standing in line and the train left without us, but once he understood that it would come back for us he just patiently waited to hear the whistle, and declared "All aboard the choo choo train!" He also got to decorate a cookie at Mrs. Claus's Kitchen. He sufficiently discouraged his aunt and uncle from having children anytime soon with his meltdown at dinner, but still declared that the extremely creepy singing bear Christmas tree was his favorite part of the excursion.

Saturday morning I met up with my high school girlfriends again. It was a quick visit, but good to catch up nonetheless. Sam did not care to be photographed, but Lex's little Will was cooperative.

I could probably write a book, but there are the highlights for you. It really was a great trip and we, especially Sam, were sad to come home to our disaster of a house. Thanks again for having us, Gammy and Papa!

The Growing Belly - Volume II, Part I

2011-11-27T16:38:00.003-06:00

In attempt to document this pregnancy in the same way that I did my first, I have taken my first set of "belly shots." For comparison's sake, I will try to wear the same outfit for all my pictures this time around that I did last time around.

Here we are, me and Marshmallow, about a week ago. We were 23 Weeks 3 Days in this picture, almost exactly as far along as I was in the pictures in this post from my first pregnancy. Hmm, seems I am a bit bigger this time.

Please excuse the partially wet hair. I have a good excuse, more on that later. In related news, we have now passed the 24 week mark, meaning Marshmallow is now viable outside the womb!

All Aboard the Potty Train!

2011-11-18T13:24:00.001-06:00

Friday, November 3 was a very big day in our house...we removed a diaper from Sam's body for the very last time.

Although we'd been practicing whenever he wanted, we hadn't pushed it or talked about it much before that day. And he didn't really know it was coming. But I did, and I was scared. So I prepared and I prayed...a lot. I am not generally a parenting book reader (I find much more value in talking to other mothers, and I feel the books are like the line from the sunscreen speech, "Do not read beauty magazines they will only make you feel ugly!"), but I read several on potty training. I ended up combing three methods into something I thought would work for us.

When he woke up on Friday morning the bathroom was ready. Potty chair in the corner, potty ring on the toilet, incentive poster (what two year old doesn't love stickers?!) on the wall, a stack of books and DVDs about going potty, a bag full of cleaning supplies and a stash of candy. He had already seen his underwear - 20 pairs of licensed character 2T briefs to be exact - and was pretty excited about those. I explained that each time he went in the potty he'd get a jelly bean and a sticker. I handed him a cup of "special juice" so we'd have plenty of practice and we sat on the potty. All morning we read books, watched the DVDs, and ran to and from the potty every time the timer went off. If nothing came out he got an "I Tried Candy." I wonder how old he'll be when he figures out they're actually called Skittles?

We actually had more success than I anticipated on day 1. By the end of the day he had 6 stickers. Several accidents, yes, but he learned quickly that he didn't like the feeling of being wet and cried every time it happened. Since I removed his diaper he has yet to have an accident during nap, and had only one the very first night. He is night trained!

Learning to go outside of the house has been exciting, too. His first day back at preschool (day 4 of training) was an epic failure. At that point we had to take the little potty chair away so that he was more comfortable on the big potty. He's doing much better now, and I think feels proud to be part of the crowd using the potty. He now goes at church, and he's gone at McDonald's (they had a little potty in the play area bathroom!). I was concerned when he announced at Pei Wei that he needed to go, as I knew they would have no little potty and we had no potty ring, but Daddy came up with a brilliant "stand on the potty rim" solution. I'm not sure my female mind ever would have come up with that one.

Here we stand two weeks later. He hasn't had a pee accident in 6 days. He has no interest in going if he doesn't need to, but will always ask when he feels the need! That is success enough that I will not be turning back in spite of the fact that in these two weeks he has earned only 3 poop stickers (they are puffy and "better" than pee stickers). Every single Mama I've talked to - including his teachers - say that poop takes longer with boys. I don't love the clean up, but I am so pleased with the other half that I mind it a little less. And he knows it should go in the potty - yesterday he danced around for 6 hours trying to hold it in, then running to the potty where he couldn't let it go, repeat, until finally it was in the underwear. I do give him special privileges to encourage him sitting on the potty to try, but that hasn't work yet. I am open to suggestions on this one.

He did, however, finish his first incentive chart with a poop sticker. We were quite proud. It took him 10 days to fill it. I'm thinking the next chart will be for poop only. With the chart full he received his new toy, the Little People Nativity Set. So now we're potty training and learning about Baby Jesus.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

2011-11-13T20:24:00.002-06:00

One of Sam's teachers sent along this short little video. They are performing a song they learned in music class for some of the church members. Sam is in the back row, on the left in brown pants and a striped shirt. Usually there would have been a lot more of them there, but they had 9 (ane one teaching assistant) out sick that day!

Its possible that one of the stars of this video is obsessed with watching this over and over again...

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-01T13:26:00.022-05:00

We had quite the Halloween celebration at the Hunniford household this year! Let's start at the beginning, shall we?

I took great care in selecting Sam's costume this year. Some of you will remember how we terrorized him by forcing him to wear his ridiculously cute puppy costume last ye ar. I didn't want a repeat, but wanted that kid in a costume! So when he came home fro preschool talking all about how Mrs. Gauthier wore a fire jacket on fire safety day - and kept talking about it - I started hunting down a fireman costume. The one I found was for 3-6 year olds, so it took some minor adjustments to get my small 2 year old into it, but he actually liked it!

So here he is in full outfit on Halloween morning. It was pretty cute, because he thought he was going to ride in a fire truck. Really glad I had other exciting plans to distract him with! The costume came with an ax (he is now quite good at fighting fires with an ax), a whistle (which he blew, yelled "time to come inside!" and stuck up his sleeve "Just like Mrs. Bathe!") and a walkie talkie - plenty of pretend play to be had.

We met some friends at Zoo Boo! The zoo has all kinds of special things set up for the kiddos, including some games, and chance to decorate a free "pumpkin," trunk-or-treating, etc. Let's talk about how wonderful it is that the did this on Halloween Monday!!!! Usually they only do this Friday through Sunday. Friday is field trip day, and Saturday crowds at the zoo are bad enough without a special event, but in the past it has been a nightmare for zoo boo. Monday it was toddler town everywhere, not crowded, and lovely.

We hit up a few trunk-or-treat locations and he loved on his "wollipop" for about an hour and a half, then kept begging for lunch because I told him no more candy until we ate lunch!

Sam actually got a bonus prize for getting a ring around one of the pegs in the ring toss, too!

Leo was an elephant, and later after they'd all ditched the costumes, Sam was too.

Sam passed out on the way home. After nap we had work to do! Outside to carve our pumpkin. Not gonna lie, he wasn't much help. He kept scooping the seeds and pulp back into the pumpkin! So we got a second bowl and he enjoyed scooping for one bowl to the other. You know what he is good at though? Washing pumpkin seeds! He loved sloshing them around in the colander, and at one point I realized he was taking my directions to "clean the seeds" quite literally. I looked over to find him lining them up on the kitchen sponge. Too cute :-)

Daddy got home a few minutes early from work, so as soon as the clock struck 6:00pm we hit the pavement for Sam's first official Trick-or-Treating. In years past he's gone to two neighbor houses, but this time he had the bag, the phrase, the whole deal. He was understandably nervous to knock on the doors, but quickly got the hang of things when he realized there was candy to be had. "We better knock on another door!" he would advise us. Generally he would say "please," so I had to remind him to say "trick-or-treat!" but everyone thought he was adorable! And only a few times did he ask to go home so he could eat his candy.

We had one negative experience. People, please please please think before you let your teenage son answer the door in a gorilla mask. I know its fun, but maybe no masks until after 7pm? Or maybe restrain your dog so he doesn't run out at my son? Am I too sensitive, or is Sam?

He wanted to eat all the candy right away. We, obviously, had to cut him off - yes there were tears. He asked for his pumpkin bag right when he woke up this morning (literally, he wasn't out of his bed yet) and wasn't too pleased to learn he had to wait until after lunch.

After bath and bed, Chris and I handed out about 225 pieces of candy. Some were from the neighborhood, some were coming in car loads from surrounding areas to our nice, safe, urban oasis. Most of our crowd comes after 7:30, and it was actually getting busier when we ran out at 9pm. I roasted the pumpkin seeds with a yummy recipe I found on allrecipes.com, and fell asleep watching TV. It was such a good day.

Here's your bonus picture: last weekend the real estate office down the street from us held their annual "pumpkin patch." They load their front yard with pumpkins and invite neighborhood kids over to pick one out. Sam and I walked down with our new (to us, its been well loved by another family) Sit 'n' Stand stroller, grabbed a pumpkin, a cookie and a balloon and were back at the house 10 minutes later. It was time well spent, and Sam promised the baby wouldn't mind if the pumpkin borrowed its seat :-)

Marshmallow's Anatomy Ultrasound

2011-10-25T16:26:00.009-05:00

First, meet Marshmallow. This is the name we have given our unborn child. Sam's prenatal name was Poppy (because when we found out about him, he was the size of a poppy seed), and we got so used to saying it that for a good 18 months after he was born I found myself referring to Poppy whenever I spoke of my pregnancy. Weird, huh? Well, this name is derived from the proximity of my due date to St. Patrick's Day. Chris didn't like Lucky Charm, so we went with Marshmallow, because that is the best part of Lucky Charms. I'll admit that we don't use this name quite as frequently as we did Poppy, but I think that's largely because a certain someone thinks we're actually offering him one every time we bring it up.

Anywho, today we got our second peek inside at little Marshmallow. Today I am 19 weeks and 6 days pregnant and Marshmallow is weighing in at 11 ounces. That is exactly what Sam weighed at his anatomy ultrasound, which I believe was at 19 weeks 1 day. Not only are our children similar in size, but they appear to be similar in personality, too. It was almost scary how paralleled this appointment was to Sam's! It appears that we produce children who love to swim and kick until they are asked to do so, and then curl up as tightly as possible so that no one can see anything. We went through a whole list of antics just to get the kid to move enough to see the necessary anatomy.

Summary of the ultrasound: we have a healthy baby growing in there!

And that's all we really know. Once again, we will NOT be learning the gender prior to birth. I'll admit that I was super tempted to peek today, but alas it is still a secret shared only by God and our ultrasound tech. My chart now contains a big red flag indicating that this information is to remain a surprise - it is written down nowhere.

So here you go, the latest pictures of our little one. First up, knee in the face - profile shot of head on the right and you can see some arms and legs all bent up on the side:
This one is a bent arm - hand on the right side:
Next we have a foot (top left):
And two feet right together in the center:
And finally, a creep front shot of the face, complete with alien eyes:

The Steel Trap

2011-10-18T22:09:00.004-05:00

At Uncle Matt's rehearsal dinner we all realized how much alike he and Sam looked at the tender age of 2. More recently, I've come to realize that Sam not only resembles him physically, but shares some of his personality traits, too. Top of the list: a memory like a steel trap. The kid seems to remember everything.

Take, for example, our car ride to church on Sunday morning. After informing me that we were also going in the direction of the gym (he also recognizes the turns for school, Kroger, home and church), he reminded me "Daddy take you that store buy plants" as we drove past Home Depot. Half a mile down the freeway he recounted "Last time wait our turn, its raining!" See that would make sense to you if you knew that last Sunday we had measurable rainfall for the first time in 3 months, causing an accident and major traffic on our way to church. We had to wait our turn to get through the one open lane in that very same spot. One mile later, we passed a temporary carnival in a mall parking lot. "Gammi, Papa take you that, go high around!" Y'all, my parents joined us on the Ferris wheel when they were in town for the Rodeo LAST MARCH.

He regularly tells stories from weeks ago. (Ok, so it helps to understand his stories if you were there with him, but they are still correct.) In the mornings he asks me what we're doing today, and he can remember not only the days plans, but the order in which they will happen. Its quite helpful that now he remembers where he leaves everything.

Sometimes its overwhelming to think that he is absorbing, processing and remembering SO MUCH of what happens in his every day life. Will he remember my less-than-friendly reactions to other drivers? Will he remember the times I react in frustration or anger when he's just being two? Sometimes I hope not.

But maybe 50 years from now when Uncle Matt is on the mental decline and no longer able to remember such details, we'll be able to ask Sam exactly what he was wearing on his 39th day of 2nd grade.

Dewberry Farms

2011-10-15T14:46:00.008-05:00

I have very happy childhood memories of the pumpkin farm. Circle S - who remembers? Bundling up, hot cider, donuts, hay barn, hay rides to the pumpkin patch, picking out the perfect pumpkin lying right where it had been cut from the vine. I want those memories for Sam, too.

So I googled and asked around - there is one option in "Houston." Out we drove (almost an hour) to Dewberry Farms. I dressed us all in jeans because I was overly excited about the overnight lows, but it was still 80+ by the time we were done. They were selling sno-cones, not hot cider. The pumpkins had been trucked in - not a vine in sight. The Christmas Trees they drove us past were not douglas firs, but some Carolina something-or-other-variety that didn't look like they'd hold an ornament. Guess we won't be cutting our own down anytime soon.

So it wasn't the same as in Ohio, but WE HAD FUN!

We hit up the Cow Train first. I couldn't tell if Sam was enjoying the ride, because he has a tendency to concentrate really hard when experiencing something new and different. But we hopped off and he announced, "I had fun on that!"

Next we jumped on the wagon ride. No hay, but in truth my husband's allergies may have appreciated that. Sam definitely enjoyed this ride! In addition to the tree lot and the flowers, we drove past the corn maze. I think it wouldn't have been too difficult for any adult over 5'6" this year - stupid drought!

Then it was time to pick a pumpkin. Sam thought they were all great, and enjoyed examining all of them. He was NOT, however, interested in taking a cute fall picture amongst the pumpkins.

(At this point in the day our camera died. Someone used it for his fieldwork this week.)

Sam got to sit on a big tractor, and reluctantly got down as a line of other little boys began to form behind him. We moved on to "Little Farmerville" to play with the other 6-and-unders. Not at all interested in digging in the box of loose corn, and frustrated that he's still too short for most tricycles, he found joy in the big roller slide and long tunnel.

Then he found real joy in feeding the goats! Oh how the boy giggled as he felt their tongues on his hand. We visited more animals in the barn, visited some singing stuffed chickens, and called it a day.

Chick-fil-a on the way home was a wonderful way to end our family outing.

Visitors

2011-10-03T18:14:00.001-05:00

Gammi and Papa came to visit from Ohio over the weekend. Actually, Gammi flew in on Wednesday afternoon and she and I played while Sam was at school on Thursday. It was my first completely non-productive school day, and I enjoyed it. Too bad they can't all be like that! Nothing like Starbucks (decaf), a pedicure, shopping and lunch :-)

We are finally seeing a bit of a break in our weather - highs are only about 90 these days, and lows are in the 60's - so our mornings are lovely. We spent a lot of time outside with Gammi and Papa. Not a whole lot of really exciting adventures to recount, but we had a bunch of laughs and fun. Here are a few cute pics for you:

Gammi sat down to do her bible study. Sam ran to get his Bible, then asked for a sheet of paper and a pencil. He put the paper on top of the open Bible, just like Gammi, and got down to work.

We celebrated Papa's birthday with some really yummy chocolate cake. Sam made us sing to him about 8 times. And he enjoyed helping to blow out the candles.

Thanks for coming to visit us!

Preschool

2011-09-17T13:23:00.000-05:00

So, we've finished our first three weeks of preschool at the Hunniford House. How's it going? Really well!

The mornings are great - he jumps out of the car and grabs my hand, "hold hands, parking lot and street!" Once in his classroom he grabs his lunchbox and puts it in his cubby - he knows which one of his, first time, every time. Yesterday, immediately after he put his lunch away, he declared "I'm going to go play with that!" and pointed to the table with peg boards. I asked for a hug and kiss, he obliged. Then quickly sat down and got to work. He looked up at me and said, "Bye Bye, Mommy!"

His teachers say he does really well during the day. He's even eating his lunches!!! One day he chose not to paint, but I am told that happens from time to time - 2-year-old texture issues. I get to hear small snippets about his day, about as much as my little guy can recount in linear fashion.

Naptime is a different story. At first he was "opposed to the idea of the napmat" (said teacher b). He's adjusted to the concept, but with the no-paci-rule, he isn't sleeping well. On Tuesday and Thursday afternoons he is TIRED and cranky. We had to leave the library yesterday in pure meltdown mode. But he is sleeping longer at night and at naptime on non-school days, so I think he is making it up. Hopefully this will improve.

And what am I doing? I'm so busy! My bookkeeping job about half the time, cleaning the house, doctor's appointments, etc. I've only actually gotten out to run errands once so far! I thought I was going to get all these projects done. HA! I think I need to work on my time management...

So we are adjusting. We aren't totally set yet, but we (most importantly, Sam) are having fun! He loves his teachers, his friends, his days. Hooray!

On My Fridge

2011-09-16T13:16:00.003-05:00

These are the items hanging on my fridge right now:

-2 Baby Shower Invitations
-1 Birth Announcement
-3 Kids' Birthday Invitations (1 First and 2 Third)
-1 Preschool Calendar
-1 Singing Magnetic Alphabet Set
-Numerous "Art" Projects Created By My 2-Year-Old

In recent months I have removed take-out menus, pictures of me and my husband and wedding invitations. I think I'm really in the throws of this life-stage, now!

The River

2011-09-13T11:56:00.002-05:00

I'm almost a month behind with this post, sorry 'bout that (oh...now I see why Sam says that all the time). But we did make our 12-hour trek there once again this year. It was much relaxing, playing at the "river beach," soaking up the sun, and hanging with family. At the max there were 12 of us there, so its a good thing we were upgraded to a friend's house down the road. 6 bedrooms! I'm not sure I'll be able to go back to the other house now, I've been spoiled.

Sam had a blast. We have no fear of water this year, and he had a great time running in and out, splashing, playing, making "food" and working on his swimming. So brave was he, in fact, that he wasn't allowed to take his life jacket off at all.

I think I'm just going to post all of the pictures. If this link doesn't work, let me know :-)

Our Big News

2011-08-31T13:31:00.004-05:00

So, it appears that my last attempt at making this announcement was a little bit less than successful. Take a look at the shirt that Sam is wearing in this post. Did you read it? It says "Big Bro." As in, Big Brother. As in, I'm pregnant.

He wore that shirt up to Chicago, where we told our siblings and a few close family friends. And a few other people who guessed and/or my husband/mother didn't lie properly. The next week I had my first doctors appointment and we got these beautiful pictures taken:

The pictures measured baby at 8 weeks 3 days, the calendar put me at 8 weeks 1 day. That's a week later than our first pictures of Sam, and I can honestly say I can see a difference. Not in what I see, in particular, but in size. And the heartbeat was VERY clear on the ultrasound this time, whereas I never really saw it with Sam. I go back tomorrow for my 12 week appointment, not sure if I'll get new pictures or not.

So there you go. Baby #2 on the way. Mark your calendars for March 14th!

Sam's First Day

2011-08-30T17:56:00.008-05:00

Today was the day. Sam's first day of preschool. I know, I know, he's only 2 ("he's just a baby!" my mother will tell you, every time the subject of preschool comes up). But 2 seems to be the new 3 when it comes to starting preschool. So after much prayer, consideration and time on a wait list to get into one of the in-demand neighborhood preschools, we signed him up.

And now I'm glad that we did. He's ready for it. I think I'm ready for it. Time will tell. For today I am proud to report that there were no tears - from either of us - at drop off.

Zion Lutheran Preschool is 5 minutes from our house. There are 24 tots in the 2's class. They spend their mornings in groups of 12 with 1 teacher and 1 aid each, then the afternoons together with all 24 kids and 4 teachers. I can tell you the Lord did not make me for that job, but he did make these women. We were there for orientation and then again today, and I've yet to see any of them stand all the way up for more than a minute at a time.

All reports were that Sam did well until nap time. Yes, they nap there (the program is 9-2). He even ate a good bit of his lunch! But there is a no paci policy, and they sleep on nap mats, so it was a new ball game for him. The director says she sees it every year - "give it a week and he'll be napping just fine." I hope so, cause that cranky boy wouldn't nap once he got home either!

(That's him next to his cubby after we put his lunch away. He was already too distracted to look at the camera. While I was loading it with nap mat, lovie and diapers, I tried not to be discouraged by all of the pull-ups going into all the other cubbies. Granted most of them are pink, and we haven't even tried yet, but something tells me I can't put it off much longer.)

Once we were calm and over the excitement, he started asking to go back. Excellent, how's Thursday sound? Great, cause Mommy has your red shirt clean for "red day!"

A Pic From The Trip

2011-08-08T20:07:00.003-05:00

I know I didn't include any pictures from Matt's wedding weekend, and there's a good reason: I didn't take any! I'll post a link when the professional pics are ready. In the meantime, here's a good one of Sam waiting to get on our plane up to Chicago!

Uncle Matt Gets Hitched - Part III

2011-08-07T13:52:00.002-05:00

Sunday morning came really, really early. And shortly after came a blissful knock on the door - Papa Dave was going to take Sam. We went back to sleep until 8:45. We were shocked when we woke up to Dave's knock to return Sam to us.

Up and dressed as fast as we can, back to the club for brunch. Yummy, yummy brunch with lobster crepes and chorizo omelettes (yes, I had both). It was a beautiful, sunny morning, actually a pretty pleasant temperature. Which is funny, because my sister kept complaining about how hot it was. Too bad we can't all live in San Diego. More chatting, more balloon play for Sam, and finally some goodbyes. Aunt TT got a big "two arm hug" before she left for the airport -they're pretty addictive if you haven't gotten one yet.

We made the wise decision to stay Sunday night. Sam doesn't fly well in the afternoon, and I knew we'd be exhausted. We all crashed in the hotel for the afternoon before Dave and Debbie left for their flight around dinner time. I have to say, our little trio could not have pulled off our part of the wedding weekend without Grammy and Papa. Their child watching services proved invaluable in allowing us to be where we needed/wanted to be every day. THANK YOU.

Then it was just us and my parents. Pizza for dinner - ordered in to the hotel because that's how energetic we felt. Even the adults were asleep before 10pm. Flight the next morning. Sam got the window seat. On the runway he informed me we were "going fast!" and craned his neck to look as we left the ground. I turned to say something to Chris. I turned back to find my son fast asleep. It literally happened that fast. He slept for an hour and a half, and it was not even close to nap time. I think we sufficiently wore the kid out.

But he also fell in love that weekend. With Baby Molly. I told you he shared his lovie. He asked for her constantly. One morning he even asked to hold her, which looked cute cause she weighs, at most, 7 pounds less than him. So after a minute I took her back. He looked at me and said, "More hold baby Molly!" So that's what he did. Then he settled for sitting next to her. Its pretty sweet.

So there you go, a summation of Matt's wedding weekend in more detail than most of you probably wanted. But now its out there for Matt and Kate. I could have written more, but this isn't a book. We had fun, and we can't wait to see where life takes you two (Houston, maybe?!).

Uncle Matt Gets Hitched - Part II

2011-08-05T18:37:00.009-05:00

We were up early again the next morning. Of course when sharing a hotel room with Sam, you're up early every day. But Saturday I had someplace to be. 9am at the Denison's house, loaded up the car with 7 fancy dresses and plenty of primping supplies. A quick breakfast and off to the salon. Tom, Kate's Dad, cried as he hugged her in the driveway and told her to, "have fun today!"

My mom got her hair done by the famous George. Kate's beloved hair dresser, we'd all heard of him and finally got to meet him. But he doesn't do updo's, so he did the moms. I got to sit next to the bride, and got two stylists since they were running behind and started me 20 minutes later than everyone else. Truth: I kinda liked it.

The bride and her maids headed to the country club, our make-up artists were waiting on us. We lunched on tea sandwiches and lemonade while taking turns being made beautiful. We peaked in on the set-up in the dining room. Gammi brought Molly by for some lunch from her Mommy, and hand delivered Kate's wedding gift from Matt. Happened to double as her something blue. Well done. The lady who worked at the club kept bringing out everything we could have possibly imagined to forget and I decided I need to someday belong to a club. Before we knew it, it was 1:30. Time for dresses.

Round about the time we were donning long black dresses I began to grow nervous about my son. I was trusting that Grammy and Daddy would follow all directions, and he would make it to the church on time having already lunched and napped. Aunt TT and I were pretty nervous.

We looked smashing, if I do say so myself, but there were others still to get dressed. Jeanne, Kate's mom, came out all dolled up and made her husband cry for the 3rd or 4th time of the day, certainly not the last.

Kate and her sister slipped into the locker room and the next thing we knew she was a bride. Seriously, like something straight out of a magazine. My brother got lucky! Accessories, veil, old, new, borrowed, blue...time for the limo!

Which turned out to be a party bus. So much more fun than a limo. And so much easier to get in and out of in a formal dress. And waaaaay cooler in the eyes of my two-year-old.

At this point we must discuss Brian. Brother-in-Law of the bride, Right-Hand-Man to the Matron of Honor. Our 7th Bridesmaid. The answer to every question seemed to be either 1. I'll text Brian, 2. I'll call Brian or 3. Brian has it under control. We pulled up to the church and there he stood out front, in suit and yellow tie, holding up Tom's missing yellow pocket square. He'd handled the final missing piece - time for a wedding.

The church was hot - broken A/C. But Sam found a toy kitchen and Grammy assured me his mood was more good than bad. He looked quite smashing in his tux. And then there was music.

We stood in line. Sam told me we had to wait our turn. With no one left in front of us I told him to tuck the pillow under his arm, I took his hand and the two of us started down the aisle. I'm told he looked quite serious. All I know is we made it down. I distinctly remember thinking, "I can't believe he's doing it, he's not freaking out, just keep smiling and keep walking!" I handed him to Papa in the 4th row and took Uncle Geo's (my real escort) arm for the rest of the walk. And then he cried for a minute because he wanted to stand up front with me.

Then came Kate. Of course I'd already seen Kate, so I watched Matt. So serious, trying hard not to cry. Yoder, his childhood best friend, beaming beside him.

"Her Mother and I do."
"I will"
"I Kate..."
"I Matt..."
"As Long As We Both Shall Live"
"I now pronounce you husband and wife!"

The pastor spoke directly to them, I liked that. Her sister sang beautifully. DeLisa's prayer for the Marines caught me off guard - that wasn't where I expected to cry. Sam called out for Daddy a few times, I heard Molly once too. Then we recessed. Sam declined George's invite to come with us, but was gladly scooped into Daddy's arms for the walk out.

We walked to the back room to wait for pictures. Someone called out for Mrs. Sivard and I tried to get my mom's attention. Oops - they meant Kate!!! My son's hair was wet with sweat, I was pleased to be in a strapless dress.

A few family pics and back on the party bus. Campaign toast. Much joy.

Pictures at the club. My feet hurt sooooo bad from trying to stand in stilettos sinking into the soft grass. As soon as he was done with pictures, Sam started stripping layers of his tux. The serious business was over, it was time to play golf. God himself walked up to Sam in the form of an 8-year-old boy and handed him a golf ball. Kate's cousin Lucy played with him for an hour, easy. They bonded. Appetizers and drinks on the patio.

The bell chimes. We line up for our introductions. I force a jacked back on my son but there is no hope for the vest and tie. He plays a rousing game of kick-the-balloon with the groomsmen. He cries again when we hand him off to go sit at the head table. Yes child, we are torturing you by making you eat dinner with TWO sets of doting grandparents.

Toasts. I believe Yoder's to be the best, he even memorized the whole thing, never once looked at his notes. (Later I would talk with Yoder's mom, who was beside herself with excitement to have been included in the day. It was quite sweet.) Dinner: soup (insert too many jokes about blowing on the cold soup), fancy salad, steak, cake. They forgot Sam's chicken fingers, we fed him some fillet. Chris went to the kitchen to claim the boy's meal, but it was too late. We ate his fries. The table in the corner adopted the slow clap and crowned themselves the best table ever. Sam tried to join their clapping every time.

Dancing. My parents' skills have increased dramatically since my wedding. Chris and I took them to their first ballroom dancing lesson. They have been taking weekly lessons since our wedding. Now they are good. My dad taught me a new dance. He's better at it than I am. Am I proud or embarrassed? Plenty of country music at the beginning - I like this party. We tried to take Sam out to dance but he was beyond exhausted. Papa Dave took him to lay down on the couch in the other room. I got a dance with my brother.

It was decided that Grammy and Papa would take our boy to bed. Thankfully they got to stay for the little deserts. We must discuss the little deserts. Deep fried Oreos, mini milkshakes in shot glasses, hot donut holes with milk, cotton candy, cheesecake bites and more. That might have been my favorite part.

More dancing. More talking with friends and family. Before we knew it, 11:30. Time for the sparkler send-off. We cheered as we tried not to burn anyone. Someone said, "Matt wants to say goodbye to you," so Chris and I rushed through the sparkler tunnel ourselves. We hugged the newlyweds and I felt honored that they wouldn't leave without that goodbye. And then they were gone.

Back inside. Collect our things, our favors, our flowers. We ride with my parents instead of the party bus. Back to the hotel and off to bed.

My little brother is married.

Uncle Matt Gets Hitched - Part I

2011-08-03T14:49:00.008-05:00

It all started last Thursday. In truth it started years ago at Miami University, but for our purposes here today, it started last Thursday morning when our little family of three boarded a (delayed) plane for Chicago. Wiser this time, we didn't tell Sam about the plane until we were putting him in his bed the night before. The anticipation is just too much for the little guy.

He did well on the plane. We landed at nap time, collected our bags, got in Papa's rental car and hit up McDonald's for the boy. By the time we were in our hotel room the exhausted child was begging to go home. Until they wheeled the crib in. He started throwing things in ("I need this, I need this") and attempted to climb in himself. After 2.5 minutes in a strange room in a strange city, we shut the door behind us, went to Papa's room next door and heard from him 2 hours later. Sometimes it is good to wait till they're really tired to put them to sleep.

The hotel was a buzz with our people. Our traveling nannies (aka Grammy and Papa, aka Chris's parents) next door, George, Kristen and Molly across from them, Gammi and Papa (aka my parents) next to them. The place would later fill with numerous other family and friends...fun!

Something important happened at some point on Thursday afternoon. Sam was in the elevator with one Papa, when they ran into another Papa getting off. I am told he was confused, didn't know where to look. He announced, "New Papa!" By the end of the weekend, when we asked how many Papas he had, he'd squeel with delight, "TWO PAPAS!" Oh the love and joy in having two papas!

Thursday evening was a BBQ at the Denison's (Kate's Parents) for family and bridal party. I met some new faces, at one delicous burger and lots of amazing salad. Sam displayed his corn hole skills - it was determine his skill level is equal to that of his Gammi. A compliment and an insult all in one! We left early to put the ring bearer to bed, only about an hour late. We had to, because he seems to think that if he stays up when its "getting dark outside," that something very bad will happen to him. I'd like to keep his line of thought in tact for now, thankyouverymuch.

Friday morning I pretty much handed all of my parenting responsibilities over to my husband and his parents - I simply had too many things on my personal itenerary to be Mommy! First it was nails with the bridesmaids, French Manicures to be exact. A word of advice - if you are going to overbook your nail stations, don't try to push the wedding party to the side. Do you see these 6 sweet, pretty faces? We WILL make your day a bad one if you make our bride stress. We'll be leaving with 7 manicures please. Now.

Then it was off to the Bridesmaids luncheon. Gammi and Molly (her very first ladies luncheon), along with several others, joined us for a cooking demo, salad trio and apple tart. Cute little restaurant in a neat little neighborhood that my husband has assured me we will never be able to afford. I am happy to visit.

After some ironing and changing into my second dress of the day (this stay-at-home mom is not used to getting dressed up so many times in a row!) it was off to the rehearsal. If I told you that this went well for our little trio, I would by lying. You see, it was dinner time. And Sam said that he was all done with "Big Church" and wanted to go to "Sam's Class." Not an option, dude. Now take this hungry, bored two year old and force him to partcipate in a run through of the ceremony. HAH! Much screaming. We offer a granola bar - the good, chewy kind with chocolate chips - which he begins shoving in his mouth. Too fast. He gags, chocks, almost throws it up. Grammy and Mommy display no fear or disgust in catching it. We wash up - more tears, still hungry. I offer a second, but now he fears this yummy, blood-sugar-boosting bar and refuses. I give up. He finds solice on the floor with Molly - he feels big and important with her. He shares his Lovie. If ever there was true love, that is it my friends.

We arrive at the rehearsal dinner. Its beautiful, but Gammi was in charge so you would expect no less. The immediate goal is to get food into my son. The first few appetizers are sooo tasty, but not toddler-friendly. I hunt down the woman in charge of food and beg for rolls. She delivers and Chris takes the boy outside where we learn that coconut shrimp is, in fact, toddler fare. 2 for Sam, a beer for Chris, and I decide I could survive on these bacon/blue cheese puffs they are serving, all the sudden our trio is happy again.

With my boy well entertained outside by Daddy and Papa, I get busy socializing. Many friends and family to catch up with. One rather miserable Sarah to send home. She gets bonus points for showing up 4 days post-op, on pain killers and sick because of them. More food consumed - Mexican (Kate's station), Asian (Matt's Station) and Junk Food (do you need a reason?), followed by ice cream sundaes and Miami Merger Groom's Cake. Papa Dave gladly took Sam to bed (probably around 9?!) so that he could get work done at the hotel. I got a present. We looked at old pictures of Matt and Kate. Turns out toddler Matt looks a whole lot like toddler Sam.

My parents thank Chris and I for helping them clean up. We admit they are our ride back. Off to bed for us all...

Tomorrow is a big day!

Summer in the City

2011-07-07T17:51:00.000-05:00

So, we've been back from our trips for almost a month now. What have we been doing since then? Trying to stay cool is the name of the game...

Vacation Bible School. Exactly 14 hours after Chris and I placed our feet back on American soil, Sam and I walked into church to participate in VBS 2011. It was pure "Pandamania!" We spent the whole week learning about how "God is Wild about You!" Sam was in the youngest class of the preschool program. I'd love to tell you how much he loved every minute of it, but that would be a lie. It was a bit overwhelming for the toddlers, especially the one who'd been all over the country for the past three weeks. He was happiest in his little classroom - never made it through the story/worship time once. One day I asked him if he liked storytime today and he said, "I cry. illiam cry too." Poor guy. BUT all was not lost. If you asked him about the panda stamps on his hand he'd yell "Thank You God!" and by the end of the week, he could do the motions too. That made a mama's heart happy :-)

I was in charge of the Friday Night Dinner this year. Not gonna lie, it was a good bit of work. And if you asked me at about 5:35 on Friday night, I'd have told you it was a disaster. The food showed up at 5:20, I had 250 people coming at 5:30 - YIKES. But at the end of the night we fed 270 people in an hour in a building we weren't sure could hold that many for a meal. And then we played games, bounced in multiple bounce houses, sang songs, etc. Everyone else told me it was a hit, so I'm choosing to believe them!

Swim Lessons. The very next week Sam and I started a 2 week swim class. We went everyday (Mon-Thur) for a half hour. It was a Mommy-And-Me class for 6-36 month olds, so the class was a bit varied. We sang songs, played with kickboards, and bubble belts. Sam's favorite was the "Piser Song" (Itsy Bitsy Spider). He also loved the balls that he could throw and "swim" to. He is now quite accomplished at kicking and paddling when you hold him in the swimming position, and can blow some mean bubbles, but not all at the same time. If you get him to the wall he can climb out. He's awesome at jumping off the edge.

But going under must still be on his terms. I lost a little bit of his trust by forcing the issue - he won't let go of me in the pool anymore! But the last day he would let go of the wall and "swim" to me (i.e. go under water and move his arms and legs until I grabbed him). I was a little bummed he wouldn't try the water slide, but they made the toddlers wear life jackets to do it and he really doesn't like tunnel slides. All in all, we both had fun.

Summer Reading. So this was our first week without any planned activities since mid-May. That was surprisingly daunting for me! We did schedule a playdate, but we also decided to check some summer reading programs off our list. We made piles of books we've read over the last few weeks, made our lists, and went to various locations around town giving away free books for those who read 10+ over the summer. Yeah for free books! We've earned 3 so far.

There is still a great deal of hot, sticky, nasty summer weather ahead of us. Its looking like the baby pool will get much use, and the library will get many visits. As will the mall playgrounds. I'm thankful that our church plans weekly playdates over the summer, too! And believe it or not, we aren't done traveling yet! So stay tuned as our adventures continue...

Chris And Lindsay's European Adventure - Final Thoughts

2011-07-05T16:04:00.000-05:00

So far I haven't mentioned too much about the climate for our trip. Except for the first day and a half in London, it was basically 50 and rainy the whole trip. Everyone kept apologizing to us for the weather, but we were coming from 95 and humid so we honestly didn't mind. Don't get me wrong, we were glad we brought sweaters and raincoats, but we didn't mind the cold. What was a bit harder to get used to was the daylight! It really didn't get dark until almost 11pm, and was light just a few hours later. All of our hotels had blackout curtains! There were a few days we were thrown off on our schedules because of the light. We talked to Tim and Sophie about it and they said it still affects them too - negatively in the winter and positively in the summer. If you aren't careful, you might never sleep in June!

I forgot to include Chris's collection of work-related pictures. Do you think we collected enough of them that we might be able to write-off a portion of the trip? First up: The Garderobe, aka a toilet in the Tower of London. There were channels built into the wall so the waste went directly outside. Second: The Society of Civil Engineers in London. We just spotted this as we were walking down the street one day. Third: Some ancient Roman plumbing in the British Museum. Fourth: And old well at the castle in Oban.

So it was a long trip, and a long time to be away from our boy. I missed him terribly - I really did. By the end of the trip I was ready to come home just because I wanted to see him. I do love technology, though. Thanks to my iPod and our hotel internet, we were able to video chat with Sam several times during our trip. It was so wonderful to see him having a fun time where he was, and reassuring that he didn't flip out when he saw us on Grammy's iPad. He's not great on the phone, but he was happy to run around the house and show us what he'd been playing with since last we'd spoken.

I put a lot of time and energy into planning this trip. I wanted to go, and I knew that it would be good for Chris and I to get away and to get a break. I thought it would be good for us as a couple. What I didn't realize was how good it was going to be for us as a family. Yes, Chris and I enjoyed lots of couple time together. But we also enjoyed 10 days without toddler demands, without work, without laundry, without all the demands of our life, but also without the routine of our everyday life. We both returned revived and ready to attack life head on.

Here was the real surprise - so did Sam! He was at a real low point behavior-wise before our trip. Tantrums and defiance all around. He couldn't entertain himself, barely touched his toys, etc. He's still 2, but he seemed different when we got back, too. Chris and I both noticed right away, and decided that he needed a change in routine and scenery just as much as we did. Maybe he missed us? He definitely missed his house. We've all been getting along so well since we got home!

Or maybe his change in demenor is just a reflection of all the fun he had without us...check it out!So there you go - our trip to Europe in far more detail than you ever cared to read. I hope you enjoyed our trip as much as we did!

Chris and Lindsay's European Adventure - Edinburgh

2011-06-29T08:32:00.017-05:00

It makes me very happy to tell you that the very first thing we did after checking into our hotel in Edinburgh was to have dinner with Sophie. She (and her wedding) was, after all, the whole reason for the trip. And she was kind enough to spare and entire evening for us just 3 days before her wedding so that we'd be sure to have time to catch up. We met the day we moved into our dorms when I studied abroad at the University of Edinburgh in the fall of 2003 and become best friends almost instantly. Although it had been 7 years since we'd seen each other face to face, it was like no time had passed at all. Still the same Sophie, but an improved version now with Tim in her life. Oh yeah, and we got to meet each other's husbands, which was a bonus! And I got to see her beautiful flat, and meet her mom, and it was just wonderful to chat for several hours. I left that night truly saddened by the fact that we live worlds apart, and as I type this I am missing her dearly.

The next morning we were back to being tourists - Castle Rock was calling! Oh how I love this city! So unique in its structure with all the levels, Old Town and New Town, a 1000 year old castle overlooking a modern train station. Anywho, we took a short guided tour of the castle grounds and then went inside all of the buildings on our own. We went inside the oldest structure on the grounds, 900 year old Margaret's Chapel. I sweat the walls were 2 feet think and there would barely be room for 25 people to stand up in there! Of course there were royal banquet halls and chambers, a few military museums and a memorial to those killed in combat. There was also an old prison, used as recently as WWII I believe! In more "recent" times it was used mostly for prisoners of war, and they talked a great deal about how well all the prisoners were treated. Except, of course, for the Americans during their "war for independence, as they were traitors to the crown!"Over the next day and a half we explored the Grassmarket, my old university stomping grounds, and the Royal Mile, including The High Kirk of St. Giles. Being Presbyterian, we did a little reading while we were over there and learned that the Church of Scotland (of which St. Giles is a part) still actually holds many beliefs similar to that of the modern PCA. Another reason to like the country :-) We walked by many, and into a few, "closes" (small alleyways) along the royal mile. Look what this one was called...not too far off of Hunniford, eh? We went down a few of these closes at night during our "haunted history tour." Fun stories, but it lost a little something since it wasn't dark outside.

We also explored that Palace of Holyroodhouse. By the way, do you know why the street is called the Royal Mile? Well, at one end in the castle, at the other is the Palace, and its about a mile long. There you go. The Palace is still a "working royal residence" and is closed to the public when the Queen is in residence in the middle of the summer. So, even when its open you can only see certain areas. No one gets the see QEII's bedroom, bummer. Last time I was there the ruins of the old catholic church out back looked even sadder because it was cooooold and wet. BUT this time I got to see it in the summer, which means the gardens were open! Maybe someday I'll snag an invite to the Queen's garden party.

I had in my head that we would climb Arthur's Seat while we were in town. Arthur's seat is a dormant volcano that is over 800 feet tall and is in the middle of a large park in the middle of the city. It also happened to be right behind my dorm when I lived there, so we climbed it often. Truth be told, we were a bit worn out by the time we got to Edinburgh - we crammed so much into our 10-day trip, and were particularly worn out by the adventures in Oban. So we settled for looking at it from afar and crashing in our hotel. We spent 5 blissful, child-free hours relaxing on our hotel bed one afternoon. Ahhh.That brings us to the wedding! Saturday we switched hotels so we could stay close to the venue. We got ourselves all dolled up and headed to the castle where Sophie and Tim were to be wed. Pretty cool place for a wedding, huh? The ceremony was in the original chapel and to say it was a tight fit would be an understatement! But they squeezed us all in and I watched my Sophie get married! Since she is from Germany, the ceremony had several elements in both languages. That was a first for me!

Next was cocktail hour. I got to meet several of Sophie's friends that I heard about over the years. Fun fact, several of them knew who I was before we ever met. I felt like a bit of a celebrity! I even got to be in one of the formal wedding pictures with all of her college friends!

Then we moved out to the tent for dinner and dancing. Too bad it was a rainy day or it would have been lovely to walk around on all the castle grounds. The food was yummy, the picture booth entertaining, and the whole thing long-lasting. There were several toasts, and they were collectively some of the best wedding toasts I've heard in a long time! I tell ya, they know how to party over there! The ceremony started at 2 and when we left around 10 they were just starting the traditional Scottish dancing (we tried, we just couldn't keep up). It was so fun, so wonderful to see Sophie, to see her get married, and to meet her friends. The perfect way to end our trip.

The next morning we boarded a plane and headed home to our boy. More on his trip to come!

Chris and Lindsay's European Adventure - Oban

2011-06-28T19:48:00.000-05:00

4Late Sunday night we boarded a night train to Scotland. We had our own private sleeping birth complete with two beds that fold out of the wall, and sink with a counter that folded down over it a place to put our two duffel bags and about 2'x4' of floor space. I'd been on one before and knew what to expect, so we didn't pack in large suitcases. It was a fun experience! In the morning we changed trains in Glasgow and continued on to Oban in the Highlands.

I find the Scottish Highlands to be one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Well, at least of the places I've been. So I knew I wanted to get Chris up there for a few days. We had help in selecting the small coastal town and then did a little research on our own of how to spend our time there.

We started at the Oban Whisky Distillery on Monday afternoon. Did you know that if Whisky is made in Scotland (Scotch Whisky) it is spelled with no "e," but if made anywhere else it is spelled Whiskey? We learned all kinds of fun facts about the process, how they achieve different flavors and strengths to the whisky, and even got to sample some.

Next we headed up to McCaig's Tower. Some guy wanted to build it to look like the coliseum, but it was never finished because they ran out of money when he died. Its very pretty the way it is and offers some really wonderful views of the bay, the town and everything around. I decided it would be a wonderful place for a wedding ceremony.
Tuesday morning saw the beginning of our outdoor adventures. Ever been gorge scrambling? This is how the website describes it:
An exhilarating adventure through an awesome natural gorge. Weave along deep narrow passages and splash your way through water pools. A truly captivating and awe-inspiring experience, one you will never forget.
You can see a few of their professional pictures on the website too, but I don't want to steal them. The third and fifth pictures look like what we did. We had so much fun! We looked ridiculous and the water was freezing (and I'm literally only off my a few degrees), but it was great. It was just the two of us and our guide. We climbed and swam and slid down waterfalls. At one difficult point our guide tried to get a rope out to help us. He got it stuck and spent 10 minutes trying to un-stuck it. In the meantime Chris and I climbed up the obstacle ourselves and were quite proud of ourselves! By the end of our adventure my feet had gone from "a little numb so the cold isn't as intense anymore" to "so numb that I can't control them and should probably get out." So the timing worked out well. Interesting - way easier to climb up the gorge than back down.

We were exhausted after that, so we had a laid back afternoon boat ride over to one of the nearby islands. Once there we walked to a castle that was randomly shut down because its up for sale, so we only saw the outside. We decided this was the one thing on the trip that we would skip if we could do it again, but we did enjoy riding on the boat and got some nice views, and a warm cup of coffee, on the ride.

I need to tell you that at dinner on Tuesday night at a lovely pub down the street I was hit on by an 80 year old man while Chris was in the bathroom.

Wednesday morning we rented bikes! We had them for a few hours and enjoyed lovely and hilly ride to a few more castles. Along the ride we saw some little neighborhoods as well as pastureland. Nothing like those hairy highland cows to make you smile :-) The castles were both in the state of "ruin," but its pretty neat to imagine what would have gone on there so many years ago. These things are kind of all over the place in the Highlands, and if you understand the old Scottish clan system then you understand why.

That afternoon we caught a train to Edinburgh. The first two portions of our trip could not have been more different. We never stopped moving in London, and to be honest I don't see how you ever could. There's just so much going on all the time, you feel like you're missing something if you sit down! Oban, on the other hand, is much sleepier. We were among the youngest there, which was funny. We certainly took a different, more active approach to our time there than the old people did! But it was nice to slow down a bit and just enjoy the beauty around us.

Chris and Lindsay's European Adventure - London

2011-06-27T20:24:00.019-05:00

Less than 48 hours after returning from Ohio, we put Sam on a plane with Grammy (Chris's Mom) to spend 10 days in Florida. That night, Chris and I boarded a plane for London. The reason for the trip? A dear friend's wedding, but we'll get to that later. We made a ten-day excursion out of it, so we'll start at the beginning. Forgive me if this gets long, but this blog is the only real way I'm documenting my trip.

By the time we arrived at our Hotel in London it was 2pm on Friday. So after a quick turnaround we headed out to the nearby Tower Of London. One of my favorite tourist spots in the city. Excellent stories of torture, imprisonments, battles, tradition, treaties, etc. They like to tell you that its "still in operation" because it houses the crown jewels (the line was 2 hours long, we skipped it. So sad.) and its ceremonially locked and guarded every night. If it were really in use, I think there'd be a few more executions available for public display, because they were sooooo into those around those parts. We also found some armor for Sam! They used to believe it was made for a midget, but later learned it was made for a young prince. I'd give anything to see him wearing it!
We rounded out the day with a visit to the Tate Modern museum (we loved the photography exhibit), dinner, and back to the hotel early. That, however, afforded us the opportunity to watch some awesome British television. Lets just say they're pretty loose with what they allow on broadcast TV over there! The view from our window on the back of the hotel was better than I anticipated!

Day two, Saturday, we hit up the super-touristy "Hop-on, Hop-off" bus tour. We only had a few days and I knew it was the best way for Chris to see lots of attractions quickly. Chris would want me to tell you about this pub, which is very near to Parliament. There is a bell inside that, for centuries now, is rung when it is time for a vote so all them men can finish their drinks and get back on time. One of the places we hopped off was near Buckingham Palace, but we couldn't get too close because they were practicing for the Trooping of the Color the following weekend. We did, however, get up close and personal with St. Paul's Cathedral. Admission to St. Paul's includes a self-guided audio tour which now comes to you in the form of several podcasts on an iPod touch. So modern! After completing the ground level of the tour we hiked up - and up and up and up a total of 528 narrow, winding, single file, oh look there's more damage from the Blitz, hope you're not claustrophobic steps.

*I'd like to make a note here. This is not an activity I recommend for 5 year olds. If you've got one with you on your vaca to London, please think of the child and skip the climb. If you are foolish enough to take her up, be prepared to carry her down. Not willing to carry her? Kindly step aside when there is an opening to let the 100 people behind you pass by. Not willing to do that? Ok, you just continue literally dragging your poor, exhausted child down the steps while the rest of us wait patiently...*

Beautiful views, though. Very windy! And there are some pretty cool stories about how the locals worked to protect the church during WWII.

Saturday night we went to the theater. We saw Jersey Boys and had and loved it. Chris was really going to humor me, but he ended up really enjoying it himself. Its such a fun show that is full of songs you know and can sing along to. Good story, too. Perhaps just as much fun as watching the show was watching the other audience members watch the show. There were people there who were clearly young when Frankie Valley and the 4 Seasons were popular, and you could practically see the memories rush back to them. And the two middle aged women in the box to the right of the stage? Wow were they having fun. They literally danced their way through the second act. All this to say, an excellent show that's worth the ticket price if you get a chance to go.

Day 3, Sunday, we visited the Churchill and Cabinet War Rooms. This was a special request by my WWII-obsessed husband and something I'd never done. Basically, its a basement to a random government building that was covered with a 6' cement "ceiling" and used as offices and living quarters for the cabinet and support staff during most of WWII. A few days after VE Day the last employee walked out and no one walked back in for another 30 years. The map still holds the pins that were in place at the end of the war, and one man's desk still held his carefully wrapped ration of sugar cubes. A very neat place to visit.

We also spent a few hours at the British Museum. Interesting thing about this place is that nothing here is actually British, but more like stuff the British have collected as souvenirs from their various conquests throughout history. The mummies were pretty neat to see, and I really liked the clock exhibit! They have lots of pieces old statues and parts of structures from ancient Greece and Rome, and I get it, they're really old and its amazing they survived this long. But really, that's just a leg. You're putting just a leg on display? Anywho, we saw the Rosetta Stone too.

Our last tourist item in London was the Jack The Ripper Walking Tour. We learned a little history and a little lore while seeing a part of the city we hadn't seen yet. It was an enjoyable evening.

Lets see, other notes from our time in London... Being in London reminds me that Houston likes to believe its a big city, but we're not quite all grown up yet. London has a lot going for it - awesome public transportation, great theater, fun markets, etc. We actually stayed near a wonderful market (Borough Market) that we stopped at a few times to grab yummy, fresh food, and then visited another one (Spittlefields Market) where I bought a fun dress :-) But the TRAFFIC! I know there's always traffic, but there's also lots of construction right now as they prepare for the Olympics next summer so it was way worse this time.

Next up...Scotland!

Lakeside with the Ladies

2011-06-22T12:30:00.000-05:00

Mama got away for a few days. Its a big part of the reason that Sam and I stayed the whole week. It was time for my annual "Girls Weekend" with my dear friends from high school. So it was Memorial Weekend 2011 with the class of 2001...I'll let you do the math on that one ;-)

Remember last year when we went to Megan's parents' place in Florida? This year we hit up Meri's parents' place in Lakeside, Ohio. What? You've never heard of it? I'm shocked! It is a quaint little community on Lake Erie in northeast Ohio. Its an old Methodist vacation spot where no one locks their doors (honestly, we didn't have a key to the place we stayed in) and kids roam free on the streets. Golf carts or walking are favorable to cars and there's no need to do anything other than sun on the pier, play putt-putt and hit up the evening show.

And chat endlessly with your girlfriends. Our lives are all so different that on paper you'd never pick us out as friends. But at one point our lives were SO similar and we just can't seem to shake that bond :-)

A week in Ohio

2011-06-20T21:46:00.000-05:00

Before I forget to mention it, this is how to survive a plane ride with a toddler:

After all the excitement of the shower weekend, Daddy headed home to go back to work while Sam and I hung around Gommy (sp?) and Papa's house for awhile. I spent some time prepping for my next trip (more to come!), but we also had plenty of time to fit in some fun.

Sam spent a lot of time playing out back. It wasn't 95 and humid, which was WONDERFUL for us. And he had lots of willing participants, including Papa and Uncle Matt. He picked up a new sport - Lacrosse. He mimicked everything that Uncle Matt did with that stick! And he and Papa played endless amounts of "baket ball." And my parents have new neighbors (well, new since I lived there) and there are kids on either side! So he got to play on a swing set and a bounce house out back as well.

Gommy and I and finally got around to taking Sam to COSI (http://www.cosi.org/), which we'd been meaning to do for quite some time. We went straight to the little kids area, which is the same concept as the Tot Spot and the Children's Museum in Houston that we love so much. What made this kind of special, though, was that Mommy used to play here when she was little. Well, kind of. The museum has moved buildings and changed a few things, but there were several elements that I clearly remembered using when I was little. No more baby chicks, though :-( It took Sam a few minutes to get comfortable in the new space, but once he had the lay of the land he felt like he owned the place. He even started telling other children what they were not allowed to play with because they were "mine!" Yeah, not uncommon these days, unfortunately. By the way, I love that they had rain coats for the water play area, but am wondering why they didn't have any in preschool sizes in an area designed for 5 and under? Hmm... But they DID have a very cool "hang out" room for big siblings. Since absolutely no kids over 5 are allowed in the little kid area, they have a supervised movie room for big siblings. How nice that must be for the mamas with a wide spread of kiddos!

Gommy also schedule a playdate for Sam. Who knew that she had friends with preschoolers?! Well we had a great time at an amazing park. Our neighborhood has some great parks that are always full of kids, but this one was fancy! Aw, the suburbs. They do have their draws...

And guess what - I got to go shopping for an entire afternoon! Papa kept the boy and the ladies hit up 2 malls and I took my time trying on dresses. Ahhh. It was wonderful, and I am a much better shopper when I have another opinion, and Sam doesn't care yet.

Sam also got to hit up the Big Pool for the first time this year. He loves the pool in my parents' neighborhood. With the beach entry, splash pad and baby pool that comes complete with "friends," who wouldn't love it? He mastered the art of jumping off the edge and is practicing kicking his legs while in a swimming position. I don't think we got any pictures, but I think he went three times while Mommy was gone.

That's right, Mommy was gone for a few days...

Celebrate Kate

2011-06-16T15:38:00.008-05:00

Almost a month ago...wow its really been that long...we all flew up to Ohio to Celebrate Kate! It was time to throw this Bride-to-Be her first shower, and the whole family was coming for the occasion. For the first time, all TEN of us were in the same city: Kristen, George and Molly flew in from SoCal, we flew in from Houston, Matt flew in from Chi-Town, and Kate drove in from Indy. We're keeping the travel industry afloat.

Yes, so not only did we have a shower, but I met my niece for the first time! Sad that she was 5 months old, but fun nonetheless. She and I practiced rolling from back to front (a skill she mastered the day after she left me, I might add) and gave her mommy some tips on how to coerce a less-than-enthused baby into eating from a spoon (a skill I wish I didn't have, but glad to assist anyhow). She also gave me a nasty glare several times when I tried to make her do tummy time...he he he. She looks like a Stegmiller and has her daddy's mellow personality to go along with it. Speaking of whom, we also George for the first time since he returned from war, which was over a year ago. It'd be super-great if that threesome would move eastward and stop heading off to the dessert for lengthy spans of time.

The shower was pretty, my mom and DeLisa did a wonderful job. I felt for Kate, as I once had a shower much like this one was for her. All the guests are your fiance's family and his mothers' friends - its just a bit overwhelming! She did an amazing job meeting everyone and putting faces with stories she heard, etc. And it helps that Matt and Kate got loads of good loot. Kate's parents also came in for the occasion, so I finally met them.
Poor Sam didn't love that afternoon. The boys went out for lunch and to get fitted for tuxes (yes, Sam, too) while we partied. They brought him home an hour past nap time, so he didn't sleep long. When he woke up lots of people were still milling about, he was still tired, and disoriented, and just plane overwhelmed. He had probably his worst meltdown to date. It was BAD and LONG. Nothing would calm him. Finally he was able to get out the words "People Leave!" And slowly they did. And he played with Matt and Papa out back till it was all clear. Poor guy just doesn't do well with unfamiliar crowds. I guess he takes after Papa a little bit, too ;-)

Home

2011-06-13T14:43:00.002-05:00

We've been gone, and gone again. Hence the radio silence on the blog front. We are home now, but its also VBS week at our church, so Sam and I are spending most of our time there this week. Hopefully I'll have some updates by this weekend...

A Day At The Park

2011-05-17T21:45:00.003-05:00

This morning it was in the 60's. Ridiculously beautiful and unexpected for this time of year in Houston. Sam and I hit the park. This is how our outing began:

And this is how our outing ended:

No, the two are not related. He slipped on a pile of leaves on the concrete when he was running after a ball. It looked bad at first, and he couldn't shake the pain like he normally does. After a rinse in the drinking fountain, a call to the pediatrician (placed by a Mommy Friend while I consoled the injured), and a few pictures emailed to Dr. Grandpa, it was determined that no stitches were needed. Hopefully the lip, and Mommy's cute yellow shirt, both experience a full and speedy recovery.

Two Years Old

2011-05-04T17:37:00.004-05:00

So Sam is now two years old - time for a developmental update. We hit up the pediatrician yesterday and Sam cried from the moment we walked into the building until the moment we left, except for the 5 minutes right before the doctor walked into the exam room and I was able to distract him with a Thomas book that had clearly been placed in Exam Room 4 by the Lord himself. No other distraction, not even candy, worked. At 18 months he started to cry in the waiting room...next time will it be when we get off the freeway? Or maybe it will go better, since he doesn't have another well visit until he's 3, didn't get any shots yesterday and won't get another shot (even flu shot can be the inhaled kind once you're two) until he's 4!

This time I remembered to take his immunization card - hadn't remembered it since his 6 month well visit! And I had to take in his first school form. Good news: he's fit to attend preschool in the fall. Also, he passed the very scientific autism screening.

But I digress. Because he is a big boy now, Sam weighed in on the normal person (read: not infant) scale for the first time - standing up, fully clothes, just like a grown up. And got measured standing up, which means its probably the most accurate height measurement we've had in his whole life. Sam is officially 33 1/2 inches tall (grew over two inches in 6 months), placing him in the 27th percentile. And my skinny little boy gained 4 pounds in the last 6 months to weigh in at 25 pounds, moving him all the way up to the 15th percentile. Woohoo! And get this - my take home sheet lists a BMI for the first time. Are we concerned about obesity in toddlers? Anywho, his is 15.66 for all those who are interested. I did some googling and that puts him in the green "healthy" band according to the CDC. Underweight? Not my kid!

He's talking up a storm, Chris and I are often the only ones who can understand him. Its hard to say how many words he has, because he'll repeat most things when asked. Still working on stringing things together, but he'll get there.

He's still a physical guy. Climbing on everything, jumping off everything, throwing everything, kicking everything. We're really encouraging the use of balls for the last two. I take him to the park almost everyday or else he has too much energy to take a nap. And mama needs naptime as much as the boy does.

Terrible Two's? I think so. Not truly terrible, but a power struggle for sure. He throws himself on the ground when he doesn't get his way, but I find that easy to ignore. Its when he uses his pathetic cry that I tend to give in more. He's learned to ask to go in his crib with paci and lovey when he feels emotionally overwhelmed, which I think actually displays some maturity even if it is reaching for "baby" comforts.

I'm trying to lighten up a bit about his eating. Its without question our biggest battle. He wants to graze, I want him to eat 3 meals and two snacks. But he's always been a grazer - he nursed 5 times a day (2-3 ounces at a time) until he was 12 months old! My pediatrician reassured me that I can teach table manners at any age, and that they don't enforce much with their three year old. Ok. I'm going to try to focus more on WHAT he's eating rather than WHEN he's eating it.

For those in the "children should be potty trained at their second birthday" camp, lets not talk for about 6 months. He's just not there. We can see signs that he's getting closer (telling us right before or after he dirties a diaper), but I know for sure there is no control there yet. Then there's this: few weeks ago he pooped in the tub and it really frightened him. Poor kid is very afraid of pooping anywhere other than a diaper right now.

What else? He can pick out his favorite books from the shelf. I've heard him make his first attempts to sing along with his "Amen Car" cd. He's graduated from pointing to the matching picture on his chunky puzzles to placing the pieces in the right spots. He now likes to color and really likes stickers. This year he loves playing in the water outside. Ok, I'll stop now. But let's do one last list for the boy...

Likes:
Running, Jumping, Climbing
Throwing and Kicking balls
Thomas the Train
Planes, Buses, Trucks
Playing with his Friends

Dislikes:
Not getting his way
Transitions he isn't prepared for
Being left alone
Overwhelming Social Situations
Rob Hays (I wish I were kidding)

Sam's Second Birthday

2011-05-01T18:05:00.013-05:00

The day started bright and early with a bang...a huge pile of presents waiting for the boy as soon as he woke up. We wanted him to know that it was a special day from the beginning, so we started it with presents from Mommy and Daddy, Gammy and Papa, Nana and Papa, Aunt Becky and Mommy's Becky. You can see from the size of the pile that this child is loved. It took us about an hour and a half to get through everything because you have to stop and play with everything as it comes out of the package! And we did stop for pancakes when the birthday boy declared, "EAT!"

The next real excitement came after nap when Sam's friends came over for his Thomas the Train party. I tried my hardest to go with the theme this year, from the decor and food to the craft and activities. The result wasn't quite as dramatic as some of the things you might find if you do some googling, but I was still pleased.

Mostly, I was pleased with the cake. A friend of mine in our community group told me it was a "bold move" to bake my own cake after the amazinglyDelicious one I bought for the party last year. Then the group prayed for my cake making skills. In all things, seek the Lord in prayer, right?! Most of my Friday was spent making the cake and watching the royal wedding. Again, not as fancy as some you might find on theinternet , but for my first attempt at making my own birthday cake (ever!), I was a little proud of myself. I liked this cake plan because of all the candy - you see, Sam doesn't actually like cake. He gets really excited when you talk about it, asks for it, and then doesn't even taste it. Every time. Weird. So this way he got to look at the cake and eat the candy off the top. He was happy about all the jelly beans!

Sam cried through the first half hour of the party. I think it was caused by several things, but mostly he was overwhelmed. Once he calmed down, everyone seemed to have a nice time snacking, playing trains, decorating their own train cars, and climbing on the new fort that Chris built for Sam. And I think there were only two time-outs given out during the party...not terrible considering the presence of 8 toddlers!

After all our friends had gone home we took the birthday boy for chicken fingers and fries at a local place where we could eat outside on the patio. He opted for the regular chair instead of the high chair...so big. He even mostly obeyed when Daddy told him not to touch the water.

After all that he was too tuckered out to attack the presents from the party guests, so we didn't officially celebrating until after dinner on Sunday! He seemed a little disappointed that there were no more to open, silly boy. All in all, I think it was a great weekend for our boy. Now to see what the next year will bring his way...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG BOY

2011-04-30T12:36:00.003-05:00

Its a busy day around here, so no time for a full post of the big day. But today Sam is 2 years old...a baby no more.

At about 9:50 this morning Chris was getting him dressed - he got away and came running to me in his "birthday suit." It was a bit surreal to realize that two years ago to the minute they handed me a tiny baby in his birthday suit for the first time.

Thomas the Train is exploding all over our house for the "Happy Sam Par-y" in a few hours. Lots of pictures soon!

Easter

2011-04-25T19:59:00.005-05:00

I think that Easter 2011 will go on record as the first holiday that Sam really "got." Now to be fair, he certainly does not understand that Christ died and rose again to save us from our sins, but he does understand that there is candy to be had if you can get to those eggs!

Several weeks ago we received an invitation to a toddler Easter Egg Hunt. I wanted Sam to have some clue what was going on, so we checked out "Spot's First Easter" from the local library and read it a lot. It was a cute book, but I really think all he needed was to be told that all of the eggs needed to be collected and that would be that. We gave instructions and set him free, and he was a man on a mission. Much like when he works hard to scoop up ALL the sand on the beach, he wouldn't stop until all the eggs were gone.

And then he figured out that there were prizes inside. Some of them had candy, some had bouncy balls, some little animals, some stickers. All treasures to an almost-two-year-old. He spent the rest of the day asking to "see eggs?"

And yes, my son collected Easter Eggs in a reusable shopping bag, because Mommy left his cute little blue gingham basket next to the front door. Oops.

Saturday night it was time to prepare for our own visit from the Easter Bunny. To my surprise, he was very into the egg-dying process. He watched me do one, and that was it. "Sam do it!" was all I heard for the rest of the project. With each egg he took a moment to tap it on the edge of the cup, just like Mommy does when she is baking. Then he plopped them in the die and immediately went in to retrieve them. Patience is not his gift...no idea where he gets that. He was SO SAD when they were all done. "More gye! More gye!"

We had a wonderful worship on Easter morning, but don't go looking for any pictures of us all fancied up in our Easter finest - we forgot to take one. This was our first holiday that we celebrated as a nuclear family. No friends, no family, no brunch buffet. Just the three of us and a Honeybaked Ham. It was laid back and lovely. After nap we did Sam's personal egg hunt - this time he was more focused on the treats inside than collecting them all as fast as possible.

Don't judge me when I tell you that my son ate candy for both breakfast and dinner on Easter.

It was really fun to see him enjoy the holiday so much. It made me even more aware of how much he has grown up even in just the last few months - he was still pretty much clueless at Christmas. I can't wait to teach him more about the real reason for all the celebration as he continues to grow.

My Little Chatterbox

2011-04-14T16:02:00.003-05:00

Over the past several weeks Chris and I have had the joy of listening to Sam's communication skills grow by leaps and bounds. Not only is he picking up lots of new words, he's using them more intently and, most of the time, properly. We can get him to repeat almost any word we say, and sometimes he repeats words we don't intend for him to say. Last night he spent five minutes repeating "Oh. My. Gosh." at the dinner table. Oops.

Most of the time things are still coming out as one word, which I can interpret as an entire sentance. A mother's gift. We are encouraging him to put two and three words together, especially when it comes to attaching a descriptive word to "please." Three words is still pretty hard, perhaps because its most often encourage during discipline. You see, I make him repeat the offense he is NOT supposed to commit so I know that HE knows why we are in time out. "No Throw Cup" usually comes out "no no ... cup ... no frow ... no cup."

Its precious, though, because you can see how hard he is concentrating. He is working so hard to get it right. I feel like I can actually see the wheels turning. At lunch today he tried 6 times to pronounce a word right, without my even asking him to. He knew it wasn't right, and wasn't going to stop until he got the right combination of sounds. He has always been one that is only able to really focus on improving one skill at a time, and right now that skill is speaking!

Not only is it fun to hear him talk more, its helpful. Recently amidst a fit of hysterical, inconsolable tears he was able to utter the word daw-per (diaper). Yup, raging diaper rash, but no poop in there. Would have taken us a while to find that one. Or at least it would have felt like a while with all of the hysterical, inconsolable tears.

Of course, it also adds a new challenge to parenting. I can no longer give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to disobedience. He understands, there is no question. And the word "no" tests the limits of my patience, endurance and faith.

But I guess I'll take all the no's, as long as they keep coming with requests to "carry you" (carry me), praises of "ni kick" (nice kick!) and recaps of an entire day is 10 words or less, that really only he and I can understand :-)

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

2011-04-08T13:29:00.002-05:00

It appears that the "he's all boy" theme to Sam's life is continuing right on track. Of latest note: his obsession with big, loud things that move.

When we bought this house 4 years ago, we had no idea how the corner lot would serve as such a particular blessing to our future offspring. You see, on Thursdays the trash trucks come. Yes, truckS. The city of Houston uses the kind that only require one driver and have a mechanical arm that grabs the can, lifts, dumps, and places/drops the can back on the ground. The mechanical arm is only on one side of the truck, so it must make two passes down every street. We live on 2 streets, so on any given Thursday we can see the trash truck 4 times from our own yard. Once a month a recycling truck comes too...those days its up to 6 times. We spend the whole morning with our ears tuned for the sound. When one of us hears it, we announce to the other and both RUN outside as fast as possible (you can't imagine the disappointment if we are too slow and miss it!). I have now run out of my house in various stages of "ready for the day" in order to properly greet the truck. And there is one driver who looks for us now and is sure to honk his horn for Sam every week. Its really sweet.

The other unmistakable sound that Sam always has his ears tuned for is that of a train. We live a few miles from 2 sets of tracks and at certain times a day we can hear some train horns. Honestly, Sam hears them way more than I do. But he'll make sure I don't miss them. "train. Train. TRAIN TRAIN TRAIN." You must acknowledge the train to be able to move forward in life. One set of these tracks runs right behind our YMCA. And you know what? You can see the tracks from the window of the childcare room. Its like the Lord loves my son, or something. He now asks to go to the gyms so he can look for trains. Yesterday he heard the whistle in the parking lot and started panicking. We ran into the building and burst into the room lest the train be gone before he could see it. Good times.

He knows the sound of airplanes, too. Early on I started to respond to his announcement of "ah-peen" by saying "I see it!" or "I hear it!" Now he declares "Ah-Peen, I see it!" even if he cannot. Not sure he really knows what that phrase means. We also talk about Gammy a lot when we see the planes. "Gammy ah-peen" means that My grandma went home to her house on an airplane.

Its really cute to watch him get so excited. And I am thankful that I can use "do you want to get in the car and look for trucks?" as a bribe to get him into his carseat without a fight. But what will we do for our after-lunch entertainment when the finish the construction next door?

A Little Boy

2011-03-24T14:10:00.000-05:00

Saturday morning Chris decided to water our bushes. Sam wanted to try to stick his hand in front of the hose. Well that was so fun that he'd better try his whole arm. Quickly it escalated into some impomptu sprinkler play. He laughed and laughed until he got cold, cause its not quite summer in Houston. Last year my baby boy was afraid of the water, this year it is a source of endless fun.Later I went to pick up some infant Motrin for Sam, just to have on hand because we were about out of it. When I got to the store it occured to me to look at the label. The dosages stop at 23 months/23 pounds. I bought the Children's Motrin instead.

That afternoon Daddy was finishing up a project. Sam was pretty sure that daddy needed some help, and I think he was right.When did my baby become a little boy?

More Animals!

2011-03-23T13:49:00.001-05:00

Last week was spring break in Houston, which doesn't actually impact us at all. BUT it did mean that one of my friends who usually works as a school librarian had the week off! She invited us to join her and her kiddos at the zoo. It was crowded, and I am still a zoo snob and think Houston's isn't all that great, but the weather and company were great and we had a really nice time!
Sam's two favorites: lunch by the duck pond and more goats at the petting zoo. Yes, that was our second petting zoo in 4 days, and our 3 trip to see animals in 5 days. This time he actually enjoyed climbing more than looking at the animals...fortunately we found lots of things to climb on.We'll have to try again when its not so crowded and he can get a better view!

Gammy, Papa and Animals, Oh My!

2011-03-20T20:54:00.010-05:00

Gammy (rhymes with mommy) and Papa, aka my parents, came to visit last weekend. My mom arrived during Sam's nap. When she went in to see him in his crib he said, "Papa?!" Hmm...not exactly what she wanted to hear. But I think the problem wasn't so much that he only wanted to see Grandpa, but that he didn't yet have a name to call Grandma. By the end of the weekend we'd arrived at Gammy and all is well. He even keeps asking about Gammy now that they're gone!

Friday we went to visit the horses again. Sam didn't seem quite as excited to feed them this time, until we figured out he needed a little more control. This time he needed to stand on the ground by himself and reach up really high to feed them. Of course "really high" when you're only about 33 inches to start with doesn't get you very far. It was pretty funny to see him reaching so far up and the horses bending so far down to get that carrot!

Saturday we hit the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Now Sam can officially say he's Texan! We visited the petting zoo, saw a baby chick hatch, awed at some one-day-old piglets, rode a Ferris wheel and stopped at EVERY SINGLE automatic hand sanitizer dispenser we could find. Apparently it is absolutely hilarious when a goat runs into you, but the bunnies are kind of boring. And since no good fair-type experience without it, he experienced the bliss of all kinds of fried foods, including Oreos. Mmm.

There was lots of outdoor play and toy demonstrations as well. My parents were impressed by how much our little guy is talking now, repeating everything and even putting some words together here and there (like "I got it!" whenever he makes it up a big step or grabs something that was hard to reach. so cute!). I think everyone had a great time, as evidenced by the tears and cries for his Gammy and Papa as they walked into the airport on Sunday afternoon.

Nigh Nigh

2011-02-22T20:33:00.002-06:00

Sorry its been awhile. We've been busy living outside the past week and a half, seeing as its been sunny and 75. Ironic, since my last post was about cold weather.

Anywho, here's the latest in Sam's world. The little man seems to have developed a love for taking items to bed with him. Random things. He gets himself attached to them and then insists that they go "nigh nigh" (night night, as in, to bed).

Looking back, I think it started with the "paci lives in the bed" rule. Before, he had always taken paci and lovie to and from bed. Even though the new rule only applied to paci, he couldn't bring lovie. In his mind, the two are connected. This meant he had no loved item to carry to and from bed with him. Really, really sad. I think he's searching for a replacement.

First it was the silicone cupcake baking dishes he pulled out of the drawer under the oven. They're soft for sleeping, and its fun to put snacks in the cups. And it was funny to seem him holding one in each hand when we went to get him in the morning.

Next it was the foam pictures that pop in and out of his bible story books. Eight of them in total. Fun to organize, and again not too hard to end up sleeping on top of.

2 days ago it became his bear. This bear has "lived" in his chair in the family room for about 10 months now. He plays with him every once in awhile, but never seemed too attached. Sunday night I found Sam feeding his snack to the bear. A few minutes later he put him on the couch, patted his lower abdomen and declared "poop" (he was performing his first diaper change). When it was time for PJs, Sam declared that his "be" (read: baby) needed some too. After all this, it was no surprise that the bear was to go nigh nigh with Sam as well.

I think we're getting much closer to an acceptable new bedtime companion. In the meantime the crib is getting VERY crowded, and I am relieved that I can officially check the "initiates pretend play" box on his 2-year Autism screening.

And you'll be happy to know that when Sam was really upset last night, there was nothing like rubbing lovie's big old elephant ears to calm him down.

Seriously, Y'all?

2011-02-03T14:45:00.002-06:00

Yesterday it was 19 degrees when we woke up. Now I think that's cold no matter where you're from. But cold enough to cause such an uproar? I think not.

Yesterday we had rolling blackouts - something about a burst pipe at some electric substation or something. But even with that problem I find it VERY difficult to believe we were using anywhere near as much electricity yesterday as we do when its 105 and humid in August week after week. I mean, we have gas heat! (Disclaimer: we never lost power at the house. It went out twice when we were at bible study and Chris's office lost it a few times.)

Around lunch today HISD (Houston Independent School District) announced that all schools will be closed tomorrow. Why? Because there is snow in the FORECAST. I mean, why wait to see if it actually snows or not when you can go ahead and shut down ahead of time?

Toto, I don't think we're in the Midwest anymore!

Horses!

2011-01-27T14:54:00.009-06:00

The wonderful thing about living in Houston is that Sam and I have a vast array of outings available to us on any given week. There are plenty of places that want to charge us a small fortune to participate in their pint-sized entertainment (The Children's Museum, Zoo, Wonderwild), but there's also a host of places offering entertainment and/or education at the rock bottom price of FREE. Library storytime, mall playscapes (2 within 20 minutes of us!), countless city parks, etc. Today we found a new one to add to the list, and it might just be our favorite yet:

Welcome to the Houston Police Department's Mounted Patrol Division. That's right - on weekdays you can just walk in to the HPD stables anytime you want and spend as long as you like looking at, petting and feeding the horses. I'd heard speak of this adventure but we just hadn't made it over there yet. When another mom in our playgroup suggested we all meet there, I decided it was finally time.

I'd kinda made up my mind ahead of time that Sam would want to look at the horses from a distance but not get anywhere near them. Boy was I wrong! When we walked in and he looked down the long row of stables with giant hairy head sticking out of them he giggled! I offered him a pet, which he declined. I went another route and pulled out our bag of carrots. I showed him how to hold the end and offer it to the horse. I did it once - I only got to feed ONE horse - because Sam wanted to do the rest. And he had opinions about which horses we would feed, and he didn't want to feed any twice. When he was ready to feed another he would tell me "bite!" Next time I will bring lots and lots more carrots!

We met a horse named Sam! Get this: Sam-the-Horse had an appointment with the chiropractor while we were there - I'm serious! Who knew? Here are the two Sams checking each other out. Sam-the-Horse's human officer was there and we talked for a bit. He seemed very proud of his work, so it was neat to listen to him. We learned that the stables are a relatively new, $8 million facility, one of the finest police facilities in the country (I wonder what facilities are like in Canada, what with their love for Mounties and all). They have room for 50 horses but currently have 38 working.

Tomorrow there will only be 37. I commented on a sign announcing that another horse, Scotch, was scheduled to have his picture taken this afternoon. Another human officer informed me that he is retiring tomorrow - bad shoulders. He went on an on about what a great horse he is, and showed us how he answers questions by shaking his head yes. It was funny how over-exaggerated it looks when a horse shakes his head! I asked where Scotch would go and human officer was rather vague..."I think some type of rehab facility." For a man that clearly loved that horse he seemed to know very little about his future after tomorrow. Something tells me I may not want to know the real answer to that question.

Anywho, there was a little black kitten there too. The little ones had a great time chasing her around and trying to get her out from under the vending machine. I don't think she liked them very much.

At lunch I asked Sam what he was going to tell daddy about the horses we met today. "Bite!" I thought he wanted me to eat, but when he repeated it I realized that he was trying to talk about feeding the horses. I think we shall add this to our regular rotation of outings!

Emotional Birthday

2011-01-26T13:12:00.002-06:00

It was like a switch. He woke up one day about two weeks ago and it was like it had always been there. He'd never used it before, but suddenly it was his favorite. It seems to carry a different tone, an air of authority.

No.

The other day I caught him practicing in his crib before he called us to get him up for the day. "No, no, no" in a sweet little sing-song voice. Prepping for his day, I guess.

To be fair, it probably didn't happen over night. He used to say "all gone." It was a multi-purpose word meaning "I'm done eating," "I need more," "Your plate is empty," "I don't like my current situation," "stop" or "no." It was so much cuter than no.

His mastery of the word does, however, seem to coincide with an increase in his willfulness, his demands, and his reactions. He gets a little physical when he really doesn't want to do something - the kid can hold on to the back of the carseat tighter than you'd believe. Sometimes he hits me, which earns him an immediate time out. He cries and flips over when I try to change his diaper until I wrestle him into submission.

And he tricks you. His tantrums aren't the super-violent type. He tried throwing himself on the floor a few times, but quit when we laughed at him. Yet he knows that we always give in to his pathetic face because its, well, pathetic. He uses his sad cry and pathetic face to manipulate us. And you know what? We didn't even realize it. It certainly started before no arrived. we just didn't see it until now.

Now we must discipline for real. Now we must distinguish what is manipulative, on purpose and disobedient. The other mamas have convinced me that he understands more than he lets on - they all do.

Welcome to the two's, little boy. Lets not stay long.

Milestones

2011-01-22T14:29:00.002-06:00

Even though Sam has reached most of the major physical milestones that people generally associated with babies, I feel it is important to keep you updated as he reaches some emotional ones. Not as Earth-shattering as rolling over or first steps, but important nonetheless.

First - the pacifier. Its funny, we spent so much time encouraging Sam to take the pacifier. Chris referred to months 3-5 of Sam's life, the time during which he wouldn't take one, as the dark period. It was nice. It was crucial in helping him sleep through the night. It was wonderful in the car, necessary for nursery drop-off, and countless other things. My favorite parenting book hails pacifiers as the best way to teach a baby to self-soothe, an important role in emotional development - I felt vindicated in our use of the item. But my pediatrician continually reminds me that it could affect his teeth.

Plus, he's just getting older. And instead of needing it less and less only to soothe those difficult moments, he was wanting it more and more. It had become a security blanket. He was addicted. It was constantly hanging out of his mouth and starting to annoy me. So as of last weekend, it lives in the crib. There have been some really rough patches as we transition, but he does know the rule. Most of the time now he knows to set it down before we will grab him. Once he did try to wrap it up in lovie to sneak it out...oh that sin nature.

Second - dip. This probably isn't one you'll find in too many of the books, but common amongst the toddler sect. Apparently most foods taste better when they've been dipped in something, anything. Today he dipped his baked beans and vitamin in ketchup. The other day he dipped a green bean in pickle relish. He likes salad dressing, too. Whatever gets the food in his mouth.

My little boy is growing up!

Thanksgiving

2011-01-12T16:58:00.013-06:00

Did you know that there was a Thanksgiving this year...and that we celebrated it? Looks like it might be an annual tradition to document our Thanksgiving adventures well after the fact. I'm going to blame it on the fact that Christmas follows immediately after, rather than on the fact that I never take my own pictures and thus have to wait for others to send me theirs.

This year was Thanksgiving in Florida. This time he was totally into watching the airplanes and trucks drive around the airport. Good thing since we got there early.

These are all of the people who stayed at Dave and Debbie's for Thanksgiving weekend:

Don't recognize a few faces? That would be Chris's Uncle Mike (Debbie's brother), Aunt Val, Cousin Nathan and Cousin Alex. Think that's a lot of people? Our big meal was at Debbie's Cousin Vaughn's house. If I recall correctly, there were 32 of us - I might have missed someone. I believe there were no fewer than 4 turkeys, 2 of which were fried. You know how its always hard to give up some of your favorite holiday dishes when you aren't home? Adding fried turkey to the list kinda helps make up the difference. Mmm. I stole so much of it as soon as it came out of the fryer that I barely put any turkey on my plate when meal time came around. But I digress. The 32 of ranged in age from 13 months to 93 years. Impressive, eh? Here are the three youngest:
Sam is one hour older than Zoe, Zack is 6 months younger. The three of them had great fun bouncing around on the trampoline. Sam would run all the way across and fall into a waiting adult's arms. When Great Aunt Val caught wind of this she jumped on the trampoline to await her first ever hug from the boy. We had to remove the little ones. every once in awhile because the big kids were getting bored with the gentle bouncing. Later that evening Sam entertained himself by filling his cup with ice from the cooler, taking it to the pool, throwing the ice into the pool one. cube. at. a. time. For about an hour. Many thanks to Val for supervising the entire hour.Later in the week we spent some time outside. Sam enjoyed trying to climb this tree at a big state park in Sarasota. Now when I was packing I asked Chris, "Do you think we'll go to the beach at all? Should I bring Squirmy's bathing suit?" He replied, "We might go but I don't think you need to bring his suit." Well we went, in regular clothes that came home salty and sandy. I think I will now live by the rule that you should always pack a child's bathing suit when heading to Florida, even if you think its too cold to get into the water.

Speaking of too cold, it wasn't. In fact it was too hot, at least for the clothes I packed for my child. I didn't really pay attention to the weather forecast and packed more for fall/winter than the summer/fall weather we actually had. That is why my son is rocking his undershirt while enjoying a ride on his new motorized "truck" from Grandma and Grandpa.

I think that catches most of the highlights. In related news, I've been practicing my own turkey-roasting skills. Soon I'll be ready to host my own fest. Gobble Gobble.

Snow

2011-01-05T14:49:00.000-06:00

Did I mention that it snowed in Ohio? Well, I wish I could say that Sam just loved it. It seems to be a trend with Sam - he's not totally keen on most things the first time he interacts with them. Remember when he was afraid of the pool last spring? It seemed like he wanted to like it, but it was just so cold! He did decided that gloves were maybe and ok thing...

He enjoyed being pulled around in the sled. I used to enjoy being pulled around in that sled. He liked going fast, but he didn't like it when snow got kicked up in his face.Doesn't he look cute in his daddy's old snowsuit? The jacket was actually a little bit too small, but the pants worked well.

The boy always likes to have a job. His favorite part of the snow? Shoveling. So serious about it! Its like the sand at the beach...it all has to be moved and someone has to do it!
Maybe next year he'll throw a snowball...

Ah-Ball

2011-01-04T19:51:00.003-06:00

Tonight we are all watching Ohio State play Ah-Ball. That would be "football" for those of you that don't speak Sam. We're 4 minutes into the first quarter and he has already noticed that all the players are wearing hats. He's told both teams to Go! He enthusiastically announces boom! whenever someone gets tackled.

This all makes me very excited to watch with him over the years to come.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-04T12:54:00.010-06:00

Do you know what happens when you live 1000 miles from your closest family member? You travel - every year - for every holiday. Chris and I have been doing it since we met. Its great to see all of our family, but the packing is exhausting. Some years we wrap pictures of the gifts we've gotten for each other, some years we blow a wad shipping things around the country, some years we jam it all in our checked luggage and hope for the best.

But this year we had Sam (ok, we had him last year too, but last year he was pretty unaware). And this year Sam was getting a Cozy Coupe. He plays with one at the gym and loves it. I knew he'd recognize it. I wanted him to have it on Christmas morning. I wanted it under the tree.

So we drove. For the first time ever (yes, I moved between Houston and Columbus 3 times and had never driven it - God Bless corporate moves!). 20 hours door to door, including 2 sizable stops. Chick-Fil-A playgrounds are a beautiful thing, as are old family friends along your route. We drove overnight and through naptime, so Sam slept most of the way. Mom and Dad were TIRED when we got there. But I didn't hate the late night drive all that much. It was Christmas music non-stop and I had some nice reflective thinking time. But that's another post...

It was cold in Ohio. I spotted our first snow 76 miles south of Cincinnati and it stayed with us until the day we left for home. It snowed on Christmas eve as we were walking out of church - kind of perfect. Unless you're Sam, then it was both concerning and a bit frightening. Both my boys had their first White Christmas, and it made me happy.

Uncle Matt and (almost) Aunt Kate joined us in C-Bus as well. Kristen, George and Molly stayed in California this year - something about not wanting to fly across the country with a 2-week-old, not really sure about that ;-) It was (almost) Aunt Kate's first Christmas away from her parents and siblings, so we were honored to have her.

The first day and a half were pretty hectic - wrapping, assembling, cookie baking, food prep, and a quick visit with my High School Girls (we missed you Megan!). For the first time ever we brought kids - OUR KIDS - to the rendez-vous.

The volume of presents on Christmas morning was awesome. We did stockings upstairs first and then let Sam lead the way down to the tree. He ran right to the Cozy Coupe and jumped in. Five minutes later he got out and checked out his new car ramp, then knocked over a few cardboard blocks on his way back to the coupe. It took us a week to finish opening his gifts. The rest of us were much speedier and had a wonderful time opening all the packages. Daddy broke the rules and got Mommy a very special pair of earrings!

That afternoon we were joined by my Grandma and Grandpa Sivard, Grandma Gaffney and Uncle Tim. We cooked, ate, and opened a few more gifts. It was a very nice day.

The rest of the week was incredibly lazy - and wonderful. (Almost) Aunt Kate received seasons 1 and 2 of Criminal Minds and we watched a great deal of that show. I don't think many people showered before 11am the whole week. A little shopping, and lot of playing, some napping. Nice.

I feel like there are more stories to tell from the week, but this post is already quite long. I'll add more later.

Merry Christmas with love,

The Hunnifords

The Bottom Drawer

2011-01-04T12:48:00.002-06:00

One Saturday morning Chris opened the refrigerator to get Sam a drink. While Chris was pouring, Sam opened the bottom drawer and then quickly ran off.I guess when you leave an open package of hot dogs in toddler's reach, this is what you get. Nothing like cold hot dog at 8am. Mmmm! Maybe I should load that drawer with peas and carrots instead.

Home

2011-01-01T14:22:00.003-06:00

Just a quick note: yesterday we returned home from a 9 day adventure to Ohio. We drove this year (hence the 9 days - 2 of them were in the car). I didn't feel much like touching a computer on my week away. There is much blogging to be done, but today I am organizing toys. Stay tuned...

A Whole New Person

2010-12-14T09:35:00.002-06:00

It still totally amazes me that a mommy and a daddy can love each other very much, and nine months later there is a whole new person. I mean, wow!

As you might have guessed, I'M AN AUNT. Kristen's doctor decided that 41 weeks at 98.6 degrees was long enough to bake, so they went in for an induction on Sunday night. Baby girl was born at 8:46pm Pacific Time. 8lbs 3oz and 21 inches long.

Introducing Molly Katherine Stegmiller:

A Christmasy Kind Of Day

2010-12-12T20:42:00.014-06:00

Saturday was a lovely, Christmasy kind of day in the Hunniford household. After spending most of last weekend baking a decorating cookies, it was nice to take a more laid back approach to celebrating this week.

After a lazy Saturday morning complete with cinnamon rolls, we headed out for the anticipated Santa visit. Last year's picture was pretty cute, but this year Sam is much more keenly aware of strangers so I had pretty low expectations. In fact, I expected a picture of a terrified, screaming child with the jolly old man. Fortunately, he was pretty interested in the giant flash on top of the big old camera, so that distracted him from the strange man we just handed him off to with the promise of toys. Clearly he's not thrilled, but he didn't hate us for it either. Maybe next year he'll understand...

We thought he would be pretty excited about lunch at Chick-Fil-A right after, but he's also teething hard core right now. He mostly used the french fries as a way to get the ketchup into his mouth.

In the late afternoon we rode our bikes over to some friends' house to enjoy the annual festivity known as Lights In The Heights. A small portion of our neighborhood (The Heights) takes it upon themselves to put on a lovely, laid back, outdoor Christmas party each year. There's a low-key parade, tons of decked out houses, bands playing outside, food trucks, Santa, etc. We watched the parade (he wasn't too sure about the police horses, but was pretty excited about the roller derby ladies all covered in Christmas lights) and walked around for a while with some friends. I found myself thinking about what the evening would be like in Ohio...I probably would have taken a coat with me.

We had one tired little boy on our ride home, but he had fun. There were so many kids at our friends' house - they all had a ball running all over the place. And he loved the adults too. He saw Chris shake another man's hand a reached his own out to shake Chris's hand. He saw these two sitting on the step and pushed their legs out of the way to join them. Just one of the guys.

After we tucked the tired one into bed, Chris and I capped the evening off with Home Alone. A true classic, and a great way to end the day.

**On the subject of Christmas, I feel it is important to note Sam's affinity for gingerbread men. He steels them. He begs for them. He does care about the sugar cookies - just picks the candies off and leaves the cookie. But the gingerbread men...that's the good stuff!

Sam's New Word

2010-12-07T20:07:00.002-06:00

Sam is a boy, which means that Sam loves trucks. More accurately, he loves things that drive and make lots of noise. Sometimes its motorcycles and loud cars that catch his attention, but mostly trucks...and buses. Because buses are big and loud too.

He's really good at pointing the trucks out to us. He announces their presence loudly and with great enthusiasm. Its really the only word he uses when he's in the car seat. We hear it a lot. But here's the thing: sometimes he proclaims "truck!" when its actually a bus. So I taught him the word bus by telling him that the yellow ones was "bus." He caught on quickly - even pronounced the S at the end.

But then we noticed that he was calling trucks buses, and he was calling buses trucks. I can totally see mixing up the city buses, but he was having a lot of trouble with the school buses too. I kept trying to teach him which word to use for each vehicle.

I think I overdid it. I think he is tired of being corrected when he's simply trying to share the very exciting thing that is driving by. I think he's just confused.

The solution? Sam has now coined the phrase "BusTruck." One word. All encompassing.

Now that's problem solving.

Daddy's Little Helper

2010-11-22T14:34:00.004-06:00

I think I've mentioned before that Sam is mimicking EVERYTHING we do right now. Sometimes its sweet, only occassionaly is it annoying, pretty much always cute.

This weekend we got the Christmas decorations out of the attic, which requires moving Sam's changing table. On Saturday Sam watched us move the furniture, open the attic, go up and down the ladder, close the attic and push the furniture back. In his little world it only takes doing something one way once before that is the way it is always to be done. So on Saturday when we put the boxes back he was already a pro. After closing up the attic Chris and I left the room. Sam ran after us motioning us to come back. He ran to the far side of the changing table, sat on the floor and started pushing against it with all his might. Daddy and I only had to help him a little bit to get it back into place.

While outside over the weekend Chris grabbed his rake to tidy up a pile of leaves. When Sam saw Daddy start to mess with the leaves he took off in a sprint. He came back from the shed carrying his prized plastic rake and shovel and started helping. Precious!
I think we need to try to capitalize on his willingness to help...can I give an 18-month-old chores?

Home Sweet Home

2010-11-22T07:32:00.003-06:00

I am pleased to report that Uncle Geo arrived home safely to Camp Pendleton yesterday evening. After 7 months in Afghanistan with the HMLA 369 Gunfighters, my sister treated him to a dinner out last night.

This deployment to Afghanistan was much more involved than his first to Iraq in 2008-09, so we are incredibly thankful for his safe return. We are also thankful that Baby Girl Stegmiller is still quite comfy inside her Mama, now less than two weeks before her due date.

And on that note - it was really sweet of you to wait for your Daddy, Peanut, but we're all ready for you now! Hurry up and make me an aunt!

Shoes

2010-11-15T21:36:00.000-06:00

If you'd like to get Sam a gift this year for Christmas, you can just send me a new pair of heels. I swear, he'll love 'em. The boy is absolutely obsessed with shoes right now. He is constantly asking us to put his shoes on so that he can go outside. He's constantly telling us to put our own shoes on. He knows where to go to find his shoes when you tell him its time to go - he even knows which ones are his play shoes and can bring you a matching pair if they are both in the basket. He's gotten pretty good and slipping his tiny feet into Mommy and Daddy's shoes and shuffling a few steps.

And now he actually likes to play with the shoes. Mostly adult shoes. One day I left my closet door open while I was getting ready in the bathroom. I went to get my clothes and this is what I found:
This is his new game. He moves all the shoes from one location to another. Then to another. Then to another. Generally he is moving them from their starting location to whatever room in the house I happen to be in at the moment. He usually moves them one at a time, and boy is he determined. There is little that can distract him when he is on a shoe moving mission. There is purpose in every move, and it seems that he hunts out the perfect spot to place each shoe. Its pretty funny to watch.

That is, until you need your shoes. Because inevitably one or two shoes gets left behind during each move. By the end of the game there are shoes in every room of the house. As I type this we are missing one of Chris's slippers - honestly all three of us looked (OK, I don't think Sam looked that hard) and couldn't find it. Hmph. Guess I need to tidy up a bit...and keep my closet shut!

Big Boy Chair

2010-11-14T21:02:00.003-06:00

Sam's never been much of an eater. The effort required to get food into the boy has been my greatest source of stress for about a year now. So last week when Sam started fighting me when I tried to put him in his high chair I really just thought it was the latest chapter in our struggle. He'd tells me he was hungry and then refuse to get in his chair. WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!

For three days this happened. It was a literal wrestling match to get him strapped in. And then he pulled his bib off as soon as I turned around. He'd eat a few bites, then throw food on the ground and announce "all gone!" (which also means 'all done'). Tired of fighting, we'd let him down and tell him to go play while we finished eating. He didn't. He begged "up" until we let him sit in our laps, where he'd pick food off our plates. He'd actually eat a good bit more.

It took me three days but I finally clued in: he wanted to be at the table with us! Its not like he was far away, just tucked in the corner a bit. But that wasn't how Mommy and Daddy were sitting, so it just wouldn't work for him anymore (have I mentioned that he is mimicking everything we do these days?).

So we pulled out the booster seat and sat him at the table like a big boy. He's pretty pleased with his new arrangement. I think he looks pretty cute at the table, don't you? I wish this transition meant he would eat with big boy behavior, but it does not. He still throws food on the ground when he gets bored and dumps his plate or bowl just because its fun. Bibs still aren't cool so he eats a lot of meals without a shirt on at all. The good news is that the booster is infinitely easier to clean than the high chair.
Someday dinners will be calm again. And someday Chris and I will be able to keep our drinks on the table again. (He just points at our glasses and says "want want want" if he sees them, again wanting to mimic what we do. Then he sticks his hand in the cups and spills them. We're choosing not to fight that battle right now.) That's what date nights are for, right?

Breaking News:

2010-11-07T14:34:00.005-06:00

Sam is back on the chart. That's right, after hanging out in the "Below 5th Percentile" category for a full year, my little man is back on the chart. Weighing in at 21lbs he is now in the 3rd Percentile for 18-month-olds. Now some of you may be thinking, "isn't that still below 5%?" Yes, yes it is. But it is actually on the growth curve. My pediatrician plots all of Sam's weights on the graph and he hasn't been any where near any of the lines in a year. Now he is. That "Below 5th Percentile" was just to make me feel better. Its not very nice to say "0%" or "Too Small To Compare." So there you go. Still super skinny, but now he's at least comparable to his age group.

But it appears the boy spent all of his energy on getting fatter and not any taller, because he only grew 1/4 of an inch. At 31 1/4 inches he is now in the 21st percentile for height. I looked back on his height history and that one has bounced around all over the place since he was born. Honestly, its so hard to get him to hold still that I don't think any of his heights measurements have been that accurate.

Once again he was terrified the entire time we were at the office. The doctor and I had an entire conversation over his screaming. I thought he was going to stop breathing when it was time for the physical exam. Poor kid needs to be allowed to go there sometime when he isn't scheduled to get a shot.

The only other real highlight from the visit is that the doctor was impressed by Sam's count of 30 words. Ha! Said it was especially impressive for a boy. Word count was the milestone he missed at 15 months! I will tell you, though, that 30 words isn't cutting it. Sam and I have some major miscommunication throughout our days and I think we could both avoid much frustration if he were talking in full sentences.

He's met all of the other milestones that were posted on the wall, which is great. I looked ahead to the 24-month milestones and some of them seem pretty daunting, like I don't feel like there's any way he'll achieve them by then. But three months ago I didn't think he'd have 10 words today, so we shall see!

So there you go. All is well at the 18-month check. We're not scheduled to go back until he's 2 - a whole six months! Wow, two sounds old.

At 18 Months, here is Sam's List...
Likes:
Being Outside
Climbing
Lovie
Paci (no, we haven't taken it away yet. I finally got the pediatrician to admit his kid had it till 3)
Fruit and Cheese
Bath
Trucks
Cats and Dogs
Reading (He brings us books constantly, and sometimes "reads" them to himself)

Dislikes:
Diaper Changes/Getting Dressed
Coming Inside
Going to bed when people are over
The Highchair

Scared Little Puppy

2010-10-31T20:22:00.006-05:00

Sam loves dogs. He's loved them for months now. Before he turned one he would point and say "ooh" when he saw one. He'd laugh when he spotted one in a book. He's recently taken to calling them "ga ga." So naturally, when I thought about what Sam might be for Halloween this year, I settled on a dog. I found an adorable costume at a reasonable price and was pretty pumped to see him in it. Would he recognize himself as a dog? Would he point and say ooh or Ga Ga?

Nope. He hated it.

Our little man was and is afraid of his costume. I merely took it out of the bag and said "look!" and he shook his head no at me. How did he even know he was supposed to wear it? How did he know it was any different from his stuffed animals, and folded up like that? I wish I knew.

We thought we'd try to condition him, that with time he'd get used to it. Chris tried to put it on his last weekend and this was the result:

We left it out all week. Chris and I would touch it, play with it, ask him if he wanted to be a dog. He violently shook his head no. It didn't look good.

So the day arrived, and we tried again. We put him in it, literally kicked and screaming. He calmed a bit when we told him he could go outside, but he still required a paci to have any bit of self control. We made it across the street, where he got some MUCH loved M&Ms, and next door to where we joined a party already in progress. He wouldn't be put down, he wouldn't smile. He looked so darn cute I just didn't want to take it off of him!

Finally Chris realized that it was, indeed, 85 degrees today and the boy was pretty hot. So daddy saved him. I knew the time would come and I was prepared with his back-up "costume." At first I was thinking he was a Steelers player, but then I realized that he was really dressed as "Daddy." Just two Steelers fans in their Steelers shirts and khaki shorts.

With the wardrobe change complete, our little man was scared no more (except for the occasional scary mask that came to the door). He climbed the front steps of our neighbor's house over and over and over again. He at M&Ms. He waved and said Buh Bye to the Trick-Or-Treaters.

Until it was time for bed. Then he picked an M&M over his paci and went willingly into his crib.

Maybe next year will be his year. He'll be 2 and a half, old enough to Trick-Or-Treat for a few blocks, and old enough to understand that with costume comes candy. Hopefully.

This Is New

2010-10-31T15:12:00.003-05:00

I peak at Sam when he is sleeping all the time. Every night before I go to bed, and sometimes during his nap, if I'm convinced he's really asleep. The other day I peeked at him and found this:

I heard him playing in there for almost 30 minutes before he fell asleep. My guess is that he literally played until the moment he fell asleep. Do you think it was comfortable? Do you think he's experimenting with how to climb out?

By the way, he's holding "favorite lovie." All 4 lovies used to be interchangeable. Now he prefers the one. The one that came with the flower arrangement displayed at my shower. The generic one who's brand name I cannot find anywhere on the internet. The one I will not be able to replace. Awesome.

Word Count

2010-10-30T18:29:00.003-05:00

Today Sam turns 18-months-old. Officially one and a half. Normally I would writing his big milestone post, but his well visit isn't until Friday and I want to report all his stats, so that will come next weekend. But today Chris and I made a list of all of the words he now uses. Sometimes he uses them on his own, sometimes with prompting, but he clearly knows what they all mean and we've heard them enough to know they're here to stay. When we saw how long the list was growing we were pretty encouraged, seeing as he only had 2 at 15 months. I think he only needed 10 words to reach the 18-month milestone!

1. Hi
2. Uh Oh
3. Cat
4. Ga Ga (Dog)
5. Ah Ah (Hot Dog)
6. Thank You
7. Pa (Please)
8. Up
9. All Gone
10. Truck
11. Car
12. Papa (Grandpa)
13. Buh Bye (or just Bye sometimes)
14. Ths (This, used whenever he doesn't have another word)
15. Socks
16. Shoes
17. Ys (Yes)
18. Papi (Paci)
19. Ball
20. Bubbas (Bubbles)
21. Hat
22. Bath
23. Amen
24. Ome (Home)
25. Ju (Juice)
26. Sup (Step)
27. Cheese
28. Bus
29. Boom

So he's made incredible strides in the language front in the past three months. I have to admit, though, that I don't think he's grown much in height or weight since we checked last, but we'll see for sure in a few days!

Ohio

2010-10-16T13:01:00.012-05:00

Sam and I spent the first week of October in Ohio. The main reason for the trip was my sister's baby shower, but Chris had a conference in New Orleans and I figured there was no reason to be home without daddy, so we extended the trip. We were gone for 8 days! Thankfully my mom keeps her house stocked with essentials (toiletries, blow dryers, bibs, toys, etc) so I was able to pack for both of us in one suitcase. We even had to pack some "winter" clothes!

The first time I flew with Sam he was 3 months old. I was terrified of that trip. Looking back it was a piece of cake. He was tiny and slept or ate the entire time. Those days are long gone. But Grandma got the little man his very own seat, and I borrowed a CARES harness, and the trip was more manageable than I anticipated. Not something I choose, but manageable.

I wont bore you with a detailed account of all 8 days, but here are some highlights:

On Sunday (Grandpa's Birthday!) my parents and I took Sam to a pumpkin farm. IT WAS COLD. A true fall day. None of us were really dressed appropriately. Sam LOVED playing on the tractor (truck is currently one of his favorite words) and riding on the "banana bus." He wasn't as into the Hay Barn as I anticipated. I thought he'd love climbing all over it, but he didn't like the way it felt on his hands. He decided the goats were ok when Grandma fed them, but a little too scary to touch himself. The "corn box" (think sandbox but with corn kernels instead of sand) was a huge hit. We both still had corn in our clothes when we got home. We had a yummy lunch in the warm barn, picked out some gourds (he preferred them to the pumpkins) and headed home for a warm nap.

We spent a good deal of time at an amazing playground in my parents' neighborhood. Instead of mulch it is surrounded by shredded tires - so nice and cushy! He had a blast on the smaller climbing structure. Unfortunately, he also loved running down the brick path, which resulted in his first busted lip. It was bound to happen, I suppose.

Saturday was the big shower. Obviously my sister was there, but so were Matt and Kate, most of the Ferguson ladies, my grandmothers and aunt, and lots of other ladies I don't often see. I got to meet Colt Minder for the first time! Friday night the Fergusons came to visit and Sam and Hayden (turning 2 this month) had a ball together. It was the most playing WITH someone that he'd ever done. She even taught him to scream. It made my heart happy to see him playing with a Ferguson!

Sam had a bit of a language explosion while were in Ohio. I come from a family of talkers, and I think he was trying to keep up. Some new words from the week: football, outside, shoes, truck. He can repeat a lot of words. And he says Papa, clear as a bell. He was standing on the coffee table (my parents have NO rules about climbing on their furniture) when my dad got home from work. Its a clear shot to the back door. The door opens and "Papa" comes out of the babe's mouth. No other human has ever received a greeting by name from Sam.

Notice I said human. Because Grandma's house also has the cat. And the cat was greeted with more enthusiasm than anyone else all week long. He'd run around chanting "cat, cat, cat, cat, cat" all day. He'd demand to go look for him as soon as he woke up. He'd make us check all the usual hiding places regularly. Fortunately the two of them have a good relationship - Sam is surprisingly gentle and Danny (the cat) is surprisingly tolerant. Its pretty cute to see them together.

It was a great trip, but we were happy to come home to our Daddy. Next trip to Ohio will be for Christmas, and then we will take Daddy with us!

Special Skills

2010-09-27T22:00:00.002-05:00

Many parents are proud of milestones and accomplishments their children reach. Most parents enjoy watching their children learn new skills. We are no different.

But today we are not highlighting the fact that Sam learned to walk (we already discussed that), has a massive vocabulary (its growing but not massive), or learned to read (not even close). This milestone is discussed far less frequently. But to a boy who has been itchy since infancy, its just as important.

That's right, Sam has learned to apply his own lotion. He can flip open the cap, wipe his hand across the tube, and then rub his belly. Just like we've done for him him every day for over a year.

Can your 17-Month-Old do that?

Bye-Bye Baby Curls

2010-09-20T14:02:00.011-05:00

I just don't think he looks like himself anymore. I think that his wild, untamed hair matched his personality. Its too clean cut, too neat. He'll have to smear a bunch of food in it to better suit himself.

But he does look handsome, doesn't he? We took Sam to a real barber shop - pole and all - in our neighborhood for his very first hair cut on Saturday morning. I was the only girl there. It took a while (10-15 minutes) but he did great for most of it. A little restless at the end, but I was actually surprised he lasted that long without getting fussy.

We saved two curls for his baby book. Now you can vote - did you like it better before or after?

BEFORE: Right after nap on Friday. Look at those curls, and that awesome bed head!

AFTER: He was showing Sam that the razor wouldn't hurt. Sam knew that - he plays with Daddy's every morning. We don't comb it to the side like that, I like it better straight forward.
And here's some of the process:

Separation Unanxiety

2010-09-16T12:06:00.003-05:00

Remember last winter when I kept talking about how Sam had separation anxiety? He hated to be dropped off, hated babysitters coming over, hated anything that made him think we were leaving? Someone flipped the switch. All of the sudden, its gone.

I think the biggest reason is that we've started prepping him for what's to come. We tell him that we're going to church, he'll play with other kids while mommy and daddy do "boring adult things." We tell him that friends are coming over, but mommy and daddy will stay to. I tell him we're going to the gym, he'll play with some big kids, and I'll be back in a little bit to get him. Honestly, I think he understands.

Also, I think he has finally figured out that these places we take him have REALLY cool toys. Our church moved into its brand new building last week and Sam's nursery room (1 of 10 for children 3 and under) is full of brand new things. On Sunday he hesitated for 30 seconds about going in. Then they pulled out the little buggy car and he never looked back.

And let's talk about the Y...there are always "big kids" to play with. One day they took him OUTSIDE to a preschool-sized playground. Today they took him to the basketball court to run, throw balls, and ride cars. When I picked him up he was in the Cozy Coupe. I approached him, asked if he wanted to come home with me. He slammed the car door shut and shook his head no. I guess we know what's going on his Christmas list!

Some parents would be sad that there children were so indifferent to their leaving. Perhaps if it had always been this way I would be too. But after 8 months of tearful goodbyes and being paged out of church, it makes me smile.

Lately...

2010-09-12T09:10:00.000-05:00

A few pictures to show you the types of things that Sam has been up to recently:

1. Forts and other Sam-Sized Spaces. He likes to squeeze into places that adults can't. He like to be "in things" and "under things."

2. Climbing. On anything and everything he can get onto. Its no wonder that one of his few words is "up," he says it frequently when he needs a boost.

3. Chewing. He was doing so much better about putting everything in his mouth, but he's slowly getting molars. So everything is getting shoved way in the back.

How about those slippers in that last picture? They were a gift from Chris's aunt and uncle. They're mooses. Meese? One moose on each foot. Either way, they're the right size for a 3 year old but Sam loves them. Also visible in that picture is his Buddha Belly. It comes out after dinner most nights. He looks about 7 months pregnant. Ha Ha.

Loved To Death

2010-09-11T08:45:00.003-05:00

Meet Birthday Bear. Or as Chris and I refer to it, Creepy Bear. He was a gift to Sam from his Great Grandma Sivard. When you squeeze the button on his paw the candles on his hat light up, his head tilts about, his mouth opens and closes, and he sings "Happy Birfday" (yes, I intentionally spelled that wrong - the bear can't say his "th). The whole thing reminds me of those anamatronic characters at Chucky Cheese's - which makes him creepy to me.

But not to the under 5 sect. Ever child who has come over since Sam's birthday was loved Birthday Bear. Every single one has smiled and giggled and made him sing again. At first Sam would drag him over to us so we could make him sing over and over and over again. Then we taught him to squeeze the bear's paw - mommy and daddy no longer required. But he still dragged the bear around the house. Sat the bear in his chair. Loved the bear.

And there in lies the problem. Birthday Bear isn't a true stuffed animal. He has a hard case holding the electronics, wires, lights, etc. Banging around on the hardwood floor has been rough on the bear. First one of the plastic "flames" popped off exposing a tiny little light. Then he started singing with a strange accent. Then two more "flames" popped off. Then he started singing slower...and slower...and slower. And then it happened.

Birthday Bear died.

Mommy and Daddy tried to revive him, but it wasn't the batteries and we couldn't get to all the wiring without destroying the exterior. So Birthday Bear sits quiet, dark and still.

Sam doesn't understand why his bear doesn't sing to him anymore. He started bringing him to us again, asking us to make him sing. We have to tell him Birthday Bear is sick and we show him that even Mommy and Daddy can't make him sing. But he forgets and tries again a little later. Its sad.

So Birthday Bear must go away now. Don't worry, Sam will be fine. It will be an "out of sight, out of mind" situation. Its just too sad to see him try over and over to make the bear sing. Birthday Bear is officially the first toy that Sam has Loved to Death. I'm sure there will be more to follow.

The River

2010-09-05T20:21:00.009-05:00

About a week and a half ago we returned from Sam's first trip to "The River." By river I mean the Ichetucknee...no I didn't spell that wrong. It is a spring-fed, clear, cool river in the middle-of-nowhere northern Florida. Chris and his family have been vacationing there since he was little. In 2005 his parents went in on a cabin with his Aunt and Uncle, so now we can go whenever we want. Theoretically. Because, you see, its a 12 hour drive from Houston. So while this was Sam's first trip, it was only my third. I went once as a "single" gal (Chris proposed our first night there!), once as a DINK, and now as a mom.

Great-Grandpa Hunniford was able to join us there for a few days - isn't it amazing that Sam gets to vacation with his Great-Grandfather?! Aunt Becky was there for a few days too, and she brought her boyfriend. We finally got to meet him! So it was a full house there for a few days, but the rule at the river is "the more the merrier!"

Here's what's wonderful about the river: once you get there, you're there. Literally. There are no places to go or people to see. You hang out, play games, float down the river, play on the beach, eat food, hang out, sleep, repeat. I wore nothing but swim suits, t-shirts and gym shorts the entire week. Ahhh. It is wonderful to travel to your parents place - fully stocked so you don't have to pack as much. And when the co-owners have a three year old, there are also age-appropriate life jackets, waters shoes and toys for our little man as well.

Our trips to the river are always relaxing and this one was no exception - it was just relaxing in a "we have a 16 month old" kind of way. Chris's mom did almost all of the cooking - including a yummy birthday cake for me! - and there was no laundry, cleaning, work, etc for either Chris or me. But we shared a room with Sam and he didn't sleep well. As soon as he stirred and saw us the night was over - which meant 5:30 eastern (4:30 Texas time!) on our last morning. Thank you, Grandma, for taking him so Chris and I could go back to sleep! And of course our peaceful floats down the river were punctuated by moments of tears and unease, but those were the exception rather than the rule.

Actually, once we figured out the best way for him to ride, Sam really enjoyed floating down the river. And what was the best way for him to ride? Not in the contained little boat that mommy took just for his comfort. Nope. Perched on the edge of daddy's tube, practically falling in the water was the place to be. I mean, why wouldn't my child who was terrified of water back in May want to splash, pour and drink the 72 degree water the whole time? Other than position, our keys to a successful river run were a simple cup and squishy ball. The cup allowed him to fill, dump and drink to his hearts content. He even liked to drink from the ball - dunk it in the water and then suck it dry.

**Quick note: Sam started getting molars on this trip (the two fingers jammed waaaaay back in his mouth were our first clues, the chewing on ice our second). The obsession with drinking the cold water was likely related. Although he drinks his bath water too, so who knows.**

At the end of the run is a little beach area frequently populated by the "redneck yacht club." Boats come in for the day to swim, with music, food, etc...and dogs. I'd say 75% of the boats bring dogs. Oh what joy for our little man! He played with all kinds of different breeds, but one stood out. At the end of our trip we met a tiny little lap dog (complete with life vest!) that played so well with Sam. The two of them played their own little game of hide and seek/peek a boo around a giant tree stump. I'm not kidding - without any initiation from any adults one would hide on the far side until the other found him, then they'd both run around, hide again and repeat. Ohh the giggles! They had people from two other boats laughing too!

Let's see, other notes from the trip: Grandma and grandpa got him a monkey stool which he now loves to sit on. Sitting on Sam-sized furniture is now an obsession for him. Watching him stick his tiny tush out in hopes of hitting the seat is pretty cute too. Is it bad if I giggle when he misses? Also, he learned quickly that "go" meant we were going to the river and knew exactly which vehicle to head towards. He was afraid at first, but quickly learned to love rides in the golf cart. He did NOT like being in the very back of the Pilot with Aunt Becky - he knows he belongs in a car seat in the car.

We can't wait to go back as soon as possible!Who taught him to do this? Not me!

A Man of Few Words

2010-09-04T11:10:00.003-05:00

Sam has always been a very physical guy. He's always been more concerned with getting around than master fine motor skills or talking, and this has manifested itself in different ways over the months. Right now it means that he is a pro at climbing all over the furniture, but doesn't have as many words as some of his peers. He's making progress though. Here's a little update on Sam's communication.

Sam's Vocabulary:
1. Hi
2. Uh Oh
3. All Done
4. All Gone (he's uses 3 and 4 interchangeably, but only one at a time. this is an "all gone" week.)
5. Hot (we taught him this in relation to the open oven. he now remembers which foods have been served to him too hot to touch and reminds us when he sees them again. its also becoming his word for anything dangerous)
6. Up
7. Go

Non-Verbal Communication:
1. Waving. Sam finally learned to wave in the last two weeks. Yes, most kids accomplish this months before their first birthday, but we're still proud of his accomplishment.
2. So Big! When you ask him how big he is, he sticks his hands straight up in the air. If one hand is busy, he'll do it with just one arm. Pretty cute.
3. This Much! When you ask him how much he loves Mommy, he sticks his arms straight out to the side. My favorite, for sure.
4. Touchdown! Ok, I got this idea from a friend who taught it to her toddler. He now sticks his hands straight up in the air when I say touchdown :-)

Comprehension:
I've been told over and over again that this is far more important than his word count at this age. I have no fear that the boy's comprehension is just fine. You ask if he needs a no diaper and he violently shakes his head no. You ask if he wants a snack and he runs to the fridge. You ask if he wants lunch and he runs to his high chair. He observes everything that Chris and I do to figure out just how things work. Yesterday he stole my keys and reached them with all his might up to the door knob on our shed (where the outside toys are kept). We never taught him what keys are for. This morning he held an empty cup up towards the "through the door" ice and water dispenser on the fridge.

Creative Play:
This week Sam built his first fort. He intentionally knocked over his stuffed chair and crawled underneath it to play. We didn't teach him how to do that.

This really has nothing to do with communication, but its a fun story: Sam is getting tall. He can reach every surface in our house except the kitchen counter. Yesterday he got into the candy dish and started sucking on the Hershey kisses - through the wrapper. He kind of nawed the wrappers off to get to the chocolate. He cried when I tried to clean up the mess because he wanted more. He could care less about cookies and cake, but apparently chocolate is a different story.

It is so much fun to watch his little brain develop and I'm so proud of everything he has learned. Its fun to imagine what his stream of consciousness must be while he's getting into trouble or figuring things out. I can't wait till he can tell me all about it!

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

2010-08-29T16:20:00.004-05:00

Steelers play tonight, and Sam is all dressed.

This reminds me - he doesn't have an Ohio State shirt that fits. Guess we better do some shopping!

It's Official!

2010-08-29T14:47:00.004-05:00

Sam is getting a new...

AUNT!

Best Wishes, Matt and Kate! We're so thrilled to welcome Kate to the family with our impossible-to-pronounce last name.

15 Months

2010-08-06T09:58:00.003-05:00

Sam had his 15-month well visit at the pediatrician yesterday and it was a different experience. The boy was very aware the entire time that something was up. He was uncharacteristically cautious of every person that waked into the exam room (2 nurses and 1 doctor) and cried on and off the entire time. The doctor always has me hold Sam in my lap for the physical exam and the poor boy clung to my arm very hard the entire time. And then came the shots. I think he knew they were coming. And then they came, and his face was bright red and his little body shook. I almost cried again. I think I might make Chris take him for his flu shot in September.

My boy is still long and lean. Well, average and lean. He is 31 inches, which is 50th percentile on the growth chart. He grew 2 inches in 3 months, and moved up from the 30th percentile for height! Weight...that's another story. He did gain wait - almost two pounds in fact. But at 19lbs 3 oz he still is not on the growth chart. He has a very nicely shaped growth curve, its just well below normal. But the doctor says he's developing well and looks healthy. He is slightly behind on the talking front (his only words are "hi" and "uh oh") but the doctor wasn't concerned about that yet. He said comprehension is more important at this point, and Sam clearly comprehends. Obeying is another story. Maybe in the next three months he'll gain 2.5 pounds and learn 7 new words and not be behind on growth or speech!

I was also told that he should be off the bottle and pacifier. I proudly announced that he'd been off the bottle for 6 weeks...and sheepishly admitted that I was afraid to take away the pacifier. It just seems so harsh. We'll see.

Likes:
Being Outside (even if its 100 degrees and humid)
Running and Climbing
Rearranging collections of objects
Pasta
Fruit
Reading "interactive" picture books
Trucks
Juice
Standing on a chair to "help" Mommy make dinner (This was a necessity. He is miserable if he can't see what's going on)

Dislikes:
Sitting still to be changed
The doctor's office
Being contained

**The picture this month is from they day the house next door to us was demolished. There was much big truck love that day!**

All Tuckered Out

2010-07-26T08:53:00.003-05:00

Sam and I had a busy week because we spent our mornings at our church's Vacation Bible School. We both had fun, but this meant that Sam didn't really have a morning nap all week. So when we tried to put him down on Saturday morning, he really didn't feel it was necessary and never slept.

A few hours later...I had my back turned for a few moments while he was eating lunch. I should have known it was too quiet! He woke up when I sat down to check on him, but fell back to sleep mid bite. So I tilted the high chair back and he slept there for 20 minutes.

Guess we're still not quite down to one nap per day!

HHI 2010

2010-07-21T07:52:00.016-05:00

This past Saturday the three of us returned from a week on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, where my family has been vacationing for as long as I can remember. We drove through the night to get there - a little tough on Mom and Dad, but worth it so the little man could sleep most of the way. We were met there by my parents (drove from Ohio), sister (flew from San Diego), brother and brother's girlfriend Kate (drove from Chicago via Indianapolis). Uncle George could not attend because he's still away at war. We all stayed in one big house that was walking distance to the beach and had its own pool. It was a great place - and once he adjusted, Sam actually slept quite well in the walk-in closet we turned into his crib room!

With so many adults in one house with only one little boy you can just imagine the kind of attention and spoiling he received. Uncle Matt actually set his alarm so he'd be sure to get in plenty of "Little Buddy" playtime before morning nap. Kate was constantly making him giggle with the silly games she came up with. And there was always someone to sneak him a cheez-it as they passed through the kitchen (ok, so all 8 of us were pretty much constantly snacking the entire week). He loved it all. He loved it so much that he couldn't stand to be held captive in our bedroom. The first two nights he woke up at random times DESPERATE to go back out to the living room to play with everyone. He just couldn't understand that everyone else was sleeping.

You might remember that Sam has been in the pool a good bit recently, so he was really comfortable on that front. This pool wasn't really ideal for him as there was no water shallower than 3 feet, but he had fun "jumping" off the side and climbing up the deck stairs.

The real fun was at the beach. I now wholeheartedly believe that God made beaches for little boys - the rest of us were just an afterthought. Sam ran in and out of the waves, up to the tide pools, back to the waves, this way and that. Running running, giggling all the way. I'm so thankful that it wasn't a crowded beach so we could let him do all this running! He even enjoyed letting the waves crash right into him and sticking his face in the water. He loved to pick up all of the wet sand, demolish the castles that my mom and I built for him, and climb in and out of the holes that Uncle Matt and Kate dug for him. And when he was finally low on energy, he enjoyed some long walks on the beach.

And I LOVED watching him take it all in. I loved that I had so many extra pairs of legs to help me chase him down. I loved that I good be in the pool while my little guy napped. I didn't even mind that I only read 3 pages on the entire trip.

We also managed to squeeze in some bike rides, putt-putting, a visit to the marina, and a trip up the lighthouse in Harbor town. We went out to eat several times. While this was actually a little exhausting with Sam in tow, he did enjoy the show at the Japanese steakhouse. Chris and I kind of rocked at the after-dinner board games :-) And we got to listen to a local children's performer named Greg Russell. Apparently he has been performing in Harbor Town for 34 year - my siblings and I went for the first time probably about 20 years ago. At the beginning of the show Greg asked who had attended as a child and was now returning as a parent vacationing with their own children - I was so excited to get to raise my hand!

All in all it was an awesome trip and I think everyone was sad to go our separate ways and head home. Its getting harder and harder to find a week that all of us can make it, but hopefully we'll have many more of these trips in the years to come!

4th of July Trips

2010-07-07T20:54:00.009-05:00

Chris and I have returned safely from a whirl-wind, child-free Fourth of July trip. That's right. We went away, just the two of us. Cause? Micahl and Courtney's wedding in Manchester, CT combined with a few days visiting my childhood friend Meri in Manhattan. Its been a long time since I've covered so much ground on so many different forms of transportation in such a short time. Here's how the logistics played out:
-Thursday: Lindsay flies with Sam to Ohio, drops him with Grandparents at the airport, flies to NYC where she waits for Chris who flies directly from Houston after working a half day. Chris and Lindsay share a cab to Meri's.
-Friday: Chris and Lindsay take the Subway to Grand Central Station where they catch a commuter train to CT, where they are picked up in a rental car by a groomsman.
-Saturday: Chris and Lindsay return to train in the same rental car and return by train to NYC.
-Sunday: Chris and Lindsay stay in NYC and have a lovely, laid back day, but do travel by city bus.
-Monday: Chris and Lindsay share a cab to the airport to take separate flights - Chris to Houston to again work a half day and Lindsay to Ohio to claim the child.
-Tuesday: Lindsay and Sam fly back to Texas on a half empty regional jet that didn't have enough fuel to fly around the weather system thus requiring an unplanned stop in Memphis.

The wedding was set in a beautiful park and we are so glad that we made the trip to share the day with the happy couple. Highlights of our time in the city included walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, pizza at Grimalde's, and viewing the NYC fireworks from above on the roof of a 53 story building. And three adults sharing one 400 square foot Upper East Side studio apartment for the weekend. I must say that Meri has the space arranged so well - there was a table for dinner, beds for all, and even a place for our luggage!

Meanwhile, Sam was having the time of his life at my parents' house. Friday they took him to the Columbus Zoo (one of the best in the country) where he got to spy on a toddler elephant touch goats - which apparently was hilarious. Saturday he went to the Dublin 4th of July parade where he saw lots of dogs, had a sucker, and ice cream. Sunday he went to the neighborhood pool, complete with a "zero entry" that allowed him to run in waste deep, blow bubbles, and splash to his heart's content. And his heart was so very content that we all returned to the pool on Monday.

And those were just the outings. While at the house he also got to play with a whole host of new-to-him battery-free toys (read: Uncle Matt's circa 1986), the neighbor's swing set, the fisher price slide that hadn't been out of the attic since the late 80's, and the cat. Oh the cat. The squeals that erupted when the un-characteristically patient cat was spotted were those of pure joy. Grandma and Grandpa even let him go outside first thing in the morning - before even getting dressed!

How do I know for sure that Sam didn't get bored - not even once - at Grandma and Grandpa's house? Because of all of the things he DIDN'T touch. He didn't try to splash in the toilet, or unroll the toilet paper. He didn't empty any bookshelves, or clear off any coffee tables. He didn't even open the kitchen cabinets. No no, he saves those joys just for mommy.Thanks, Meri, for hosting us! And thanks, Grandma and Grandpa, for taking care of our squirmy!

Little Boys

2010-06-27T16:20:00.004-05:00

Sometimes little boys make big messes.

Sometimes little boys are able to clean up their messes.

Sometimes little boys get boo boos. Stupid Mosquito.

3 Years

2010-06-24T14:03:00.003-05:00

Yesterday Chris and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary. I secured "Aunt" Betty to babysit several weeks ago, but informed Chris that I didn't feel like planning anything. Fortunately for me, he took the reigns.

When we left the house I had a pretty good idea where we were headed for dinner, so I thought I'd figured out Chris's grand surprise. Well, I was right - he took me to a wonderful restaurant in the neighborhood that we've been meaning to try forever, and it was delicious. He even picked out a place downtown for us to grab some drinks afterward. I thought his selection of the lounge at Hotel Icon was a bit odd, but chalked it up to his wanting to surprise me with something new and different. We had a lovely time.

When we were done he suggested we walk around - weird, but the hotel is inside an old bank, so maybe he wanted to see the vault? Nope! He led me upstairs to our room for the night and informed me that Betty would be staying at our place all night! What a treat! He'd even left work early to check in and drop our stuff off so I wouldn't be suspicious of anything in the car. Betty and Chris can keep a good secret - I really had no idea (trust me, I would have cleaned my bedroom)!

Thank you, Chris, for my wonderful retreat! I love you! And thank you, Betty, for giving us our first night away together since Sam was born!

The Ultimate Laundry Mishap

2010-06-16T14:59:00.003-05:00

It was about an hour into Sam's afternoon nap. I'd already cleaned the kitchen and done some online reading about my new-to-me bread machine that I acquired this morning (for $10!). I decided it was time to get some ironing done.

I pulled out my ironing pile, took the board off that back of the laundry room board and set it up in my bedroom. I got out the iron, plugged it in, and filled it with water. I went back into the laundry room to grab the magic sizing, and as I reached for it I heard the door close. Instantly I realized what had just happened: I'd locked myself in the laundry room. Never had the notion of being held prisoner by the laundry rung more true.

You see, our house is 90 years old and has some additions to its original footprint. Houses like this have, shall we say, quirks. Ours is no exception. Our laundry room is off of our master bedroom (trust me, its actually really convenient, most of the time). The laundry room also has a glass panel door to the outside. Because of this second door, we've always kept the door between our room and the laundry room locked - with the kind of knob that has the twist button in the center to be easily locked from one side, but a key is needed on the other.

So I find myself on the side of the door that requires a key. Like a fool, I try to open the door, thinking that maybe this time it didn't lock when it latched. It did. I turn to look at the door to the outside - I'll go out that door and back in the side door that I know is unlocked. Let me just undo this lock, and this one, turn the handle and...there's a deadbolt at the top. For which I do not have a key.

Ok, I'm really stuck in here. My phone is plugged in on the nightstand. I look at the fire alarm - maybe if I set it off the firemen will come?! No, our security system is monitored and none of my neighbors are home during the day. Ok, think. How bad is this? Well, its 2:00 - Sam will sleep for another one to two hours. Chris will be home another two hours after that. Worst case is the kid screams in his crib for three hours until Chris gets home. Or today is the day he learns to climb out of his crib. Neither situation sounds appealing to me. But for the moment, he is safe. But I just plugged the iron in - what if it starts a fire? No, they shut off automatically.

I need a plan. There is always the option to break the glass in the exterior door, but something tells me Chris wouldn't appreciate that. File that under "last resort." Gotta get one of the doors open. Must find tools. In a laundry room? I'll tell you, there were no tools. But there was a sewing box with safety pins and a seam ripper.

I begin my attempts to pick the interior lock with my safety pin. I half expected it to just pop open, like you always see happen on tv. The thing is, I don't know how to pick a lock! I fiddle around, and I can feel something moving in there, but the lock isn't budging. I tried picking the deadbolt on the other door - that definitely wasn't going to happen. Back to door one.

My safety pin wasn't getting me anywhere, so I pondered the seam ripper. I grew concerned that jamming it into the lock could break my seam ripper. "You can buy a new one - your child is alone on the other side of that locked door, you moron!" Ok, ok, into the lock it went. It wasn't working either.

Back to door number two. The seam ripper was useless there as well. I pondered the hinges on both doors. Surely I could just pop the hinges out, pop the door off, and be free. "With what tools?!" I actually half attempted this with the scissors that were in my sewing box, but the hinges had been painted over since the doors were hung and it was clear they weren't going anywhere without REAL tools.

I thought again about breaking the glass, and realized even if I wanted to that would be difficult with the lack of tools in my current possession. And the mess! I settled on the notion that picking the interior lock was going to be my only way out. I had at least 45 minutes until Sam would wake up, so just keep trying. Just keep trying.

As I kept trying, I prayed that God would get me out. Then I thought how wonderful it would be if someone happened to drop by right now. I have one friend who needed to return something to me, maybe she would drop by. I have another friend who never knocks when she comes over - that would be ideal! I looked out the glass paneled door, and neither was there.

About 20 minutes into my adventure, the seam ripper broke.

I kept trying to pick the lock. I was getting really hot. Did I mention that the add-on laundry room isn't climate controlled, and its June, in Houston? And by this point I'd broken my thumbnail too. To be honest, I really thought that eventually I'd get that door open. And I'd have this great McGyver-esk story to tell about freeing myself with nothing but a safety pin and a seam ripper - a broken seam ripper.

I think because I really believed this, I was never really scared. I probably should have been. And maybe in another 30 minutes I would have been. But then it happened.

I looked out the door again and I saw someone walking along the sidewalk. He's singing and swinging his 7-up bottle. My mind begins to race: He's a crazy person (there are lots in our neighborhood. Including one guy who runs around in a pink tutu - yes a grown man. But that's another post). Maybe, maybe not, but he's probably my only shot. Do I do it? I think I have to.

I start banging on the door. My crazy man turns, looks at me and waves, then keeps walking. NO!!! I start banging again. He looks at me again. I start to motion for him to walk towards me. He looked confused, and then he starts to walk towards me. As he's walking I realize that he's not a crazy man, but a 13 year old boy who was walking home from Summer School.

He comes right up to the door and says "Hello!" I tell him that I'm locked in this room, he puts his ear to the glass to hear better. I repeat myself. He looks confused. I tell him to go through the unlocked side door, come to the back corner of the house, and open the door. He agrees. I watch him through the glass until I can't see him anymore.

I freak out. I just invited a complete stranger into my home while I am locked in the laundry room and my baby is sleeping in his crib. This stranger could steal my baby, my things. A few moments later I hear him call out "hello?" "Back here!" I yell through the door. "Oh..." A few more moments. He should be here by now, its a small house! "In the back corner" I yell to him. "Oh I see!" I hear in reply. A moment later he opens the door. I am free.

I thank him profusely, explaining at the same time how the door locks from the other side. Its no use though, I certainly look like the crazy one in this situation. He happily replies that its no problem, and trots back through the door he entered by.

And just like that my savior and his 7-up were gone. My ordeal was over. All in all it only lasted 27 minutes. It felt like an eternity.

So what are the morals to this story:
1. Laundry is dangerous? Ehh, probably not.
2. Its best to always leave one door in your house unlocked? Under most circumstances, no.
3. Always feel free to invite strangers off the street into your home? Usually not the BEST idea.
4. Don't keep your laundry room door locked? Probably not a practical application for most.
5. Just because you're a 13 year old boy stuck in summer school doesn't mean you aren't the answer to someone's prayer? Yeah, that sounds good.

The Lord is good for sending a sane, friendly boy to rescue me. And it turns out, he wasn't even cutting it close. I still had time to finish my ironing and type this post before Sam woke up from his nap.

Thanksgiving Pictures

2010-06-12T19:45:00.009-05:00

It looks like my sister is using her Saturday to upload pictures to Facebook...lots of them. I just yanked these Thanksgiving pics from her page.*

Hanging out at Kristen and George's house on base in Oceanside, CA.

We all "ran" (my mom and I walked as Sam had no interest in the stroller and we took turns carrying him) in a 5k at 7am on Thanksgiving morning. It was COLD that morning.

Sam got a Finisher's Medal! He still plays with it. Daddy picked out that Thanksgiving Day outfit for him!

The race finished along the beach!

This trip was the only time that the WHOLE family has ever been together!

Uncle Matt entertaining Sam at a restaurant.

Grandpa gave Sam his first french fry that weekend - he's still a big fan!

*No, I don't have a Facebook page. My husband is "friends" with my sister.

Outside

2010-06-10T15:14:00.002-05:00

To say that Sam loves to play outside would be an extreme understatement.

I don't bother to put shoes on him when we're staying inside, so he now knows that shoes mean outside. I'll hold them up and ask if he wants to put them on. He walks over to me, turns around, and sticks his little butt out (an indication that he'd like to sit in my lap). I put the shoes on him, prop him back on his feet and the child makes a beeline for the front door. He's there waiting for me, trying to pull it open by sheer force (not by the handle!), until I manage to catch up to him.

Once outside, he heads for the shed where he knows the toys are stored. He climbs up the step often before I even get the door unlocked. He knows exactly where to find his rake and shovel, grabs them, and heads back out. He only looks back at me when he needs help getting down the step.

He goes and goes until his little cheeks are bright red. Of course, that doesn't take long during the summer in Houston, so we bring water out with us. He's as happy as can be...until its time to come inside. And then he cries. Every time.

Yesterday he was definitely not ready to come inside. Once inside, I took his shoes off and gave him more water. A few fussy minutes later he collected his shoes and handed them back to me. "Sorry, buddy, we're done outside for the day." And I put the shoes away. He collected his shoes again and this time went to stand by the front door. I again explained we were done out there. His third try involved bringing me my shoes to put on. Too cute. I was finally able to distract with with a graham cracker.

I wish I could take him outside all day, but alas we would both melt. Water and shade are our friends right now. I'm counting the days until October when this heat goes away!

Birthday Weekend

2010-06-08T14:46:00.001-05:00

We had a very busy weekend of activity to celebrate my Sam's first birthday. The little boy was fortunate to have Grandma and Grandpa Sivard come into town the night before (Thursday), and Uncle Matt joined the fun on Friday evening.

It was important to me that everyone know that it was my son's special day, so I made him a birthday t-shirt to wear on the 30th. The front says "Today I am 1," and the back says "Birtday Boy." That's right, birtday - with no h. We were about 75% through the day before we realized the h was missing. Sigh...

The shirt worked though, because Sam got many birthday wishes when we took him to play at his favorite place - The Children's Museum. He was also treated to french fries (he'd already eaten his "real" dinner) and bird chasing on the patio of his favorite restaurant, Little Bigs, while the rest of us enjoyed our sliders.
After dinner we went home to open presents. The pile of gifts that had arrived even before his party was rediculous. He immediately took to a few favorites, but still doesn't really get the concept of opening. Tissue paper is fun though!

Saturday was the big party. We invited our church Community Group, some neighbors, and some friends and we realized how much our group of friends has changed in the last year. There were over 10 children under the age of 4 there! It was really fun to have such a crowd out in front of our house and to see all the children playing. We ate dinner and cake and just played and chatted. Of course I planned an outdoor birthday party for the weekend that summer arrived in Houston, but I think everyone had a nice time in spite of the heat. Sam did enjoy playing in his cake, but I think he only got as far as the frosting. Too bad for him, because it was goooooood cake.

Sunday we were all exhausted so we took it easy. We went out to brunch after church, where Sam thrilled the other diners with his enthusiasm for black beans, hung out in the yard, and took a walk. We all deserved a rest after the work of Saturday. Yes, I put my house guests to work. Grandpa, Uncle Matt, and Chris did a TON of work out in the yard while Grandma and I decorated and made all the food. We could not have pulled off the lovely party without all of their help!

Grandma and Grandpa stayed until Monday, so they got to attend yet another well-visit with us. I think our pediatrician might soon think I'm incapable of bringing Sam to an appointment by myself. The appointment was fine, we learned that he's still small and that his lack of talking is fine for his age. But then there was the blood draw. Ohhh the horror. First there was the tiny, crowded, hot waiting room. Then there was the prick, and the scream - both of which seemed to last for 5 minutes. When he and I came out the whole waiting room gave us sympathetic looks - oh yeah, they could all hear. I'm not sure I'll be subjecting my son to anymore "routine" blood tests!

So now he's 13 months and you're all caught up from his birthday. Sorry about that. I'll put more pictures from his party into his web album, so click on the link to the left to view them.

4 Teeth

2010-06-08T13:31:00.003-05:00

Just thought I'd drop you a quick note to let you know that Sam now has four teeth. The top left front tooth started to pop through at the end of last week, and we decided yesterday that we definitely see the top right front tooth as well. Kinda funny though, because his first two teeth still aren't all the way in. I think its really going to change the way his smile looks to have some top teeth in there! Hopefully it will mean an easier time with table foods as well.

Comprehension

2010-05-24T09:17:00.003-05:00

Last week Sam was playing with a light-up toy while eating in his high chair. He was getting ready to throw a big handful of food on the ground, a habit we are trying to eradicate, so I searched for a distraction. I asked him, "Sam, can you show Daddy how to push the button on your toy to make it light up?" He immediately put the food back on his tray, grabbed the toy, turned it over and pushed the tiny button.

On Saturday we had some friends over to play. As is likely to happen when multiple toddlers are involved, there were multiple sippy cups around the room. Sam kept going for the green cup, which we told him about three times was not his to drink from. One more time he approached the green cup, but this time as he touched it he shook his head no and walked away. He repeated the action a few minutes later, as if he was now telling us that it was not his cup.

A little while later the owner of said green sippy cup was playing with a toy that Sam wanted. On first attempt, she was not willing to give him the toy. Sam walked away, picked up the green sippy cup and returned to offer it as a trade. He actually handed her the sipply cup and then tried again to take the toy from her. Unfortunately, she then walked away with both, but I was impressed with his ability to remember how we'd traded toys at playgroup.

So clearly Sam is now able to understand our instructions and some relational concepts. Since he doesn't yet have any words other than Dada and Mama (which is brand new), we weren't entirely sure. While this is encouraging, it also means we no longer have an excuse not to discipline...

M.I.A. Mom

2010-05-17T15:50:00.002-05:00

For four beautiful days and three long nights over the past weekend I enjoyed a Girls' Weekend. There are 4 of us that all graduated high school together that have made a point to visit each other once a year (unfortunately I missed last year's trip because Sam was only 6 weeks old) and 9 years after we graduated, we're still going strong.

This year we went to Ft. Myers where Megan's parents own a beautiful home. We went to the beach one afternoon, but for most of the weekend we were content to float in the pool at the house and chat, read and chat some more. We cooked some yummy meals together and hung in the hot tub. We did make it out to dinner twice, but most of the clothes I packed stayed folded in the bag. It was wonderfully lazy.

And I slept. For the first time in twelve and a half months I slept in. One morning I slept until 10:00. It felt amazing.

Fear not, I did not leave my child to fend for himself. Because I was going to be gone for two business days, Chris's parents came into town to watch our little man while Daddy was at work. From all accounts, the 4 of them had a lovely time while Mommy was being rejuvenated. For me this was a much needed Mommy break - my first since Sam was born. After a few days of total relaxation and adult conversations, I am more than ready to dive back into peek-a-boo and diapers. I missed my little man very much!

I feel blessed that I have such amazing friends that still make an effort to see each other after all this time. Yes, we're still young, but 3 of us have jobs and one of us a kid, we live in 4 different states in two different time zones and lead full lives. Our continued friendships are purposeful, which makes them precious. Megan teaches high school and told a story about how her students, who are imagining graduation and the possibility of never seeing each other again, were encouraged to learn she'd be seeing her high school friends over the weekend. When we were at the airport leaving Heather and I saw a group of middle-aged women clearly traveling as a pack. They gave us similar hope that these trips will continue well into the future.

(Thanks to Mrs. Welsh for opening your home to us. Just like in high school, you're the coolest chaperon.)

Water and Mickey

2010-05-12T09:05:00.003-05:00

No, the two don't go together, but I have two thoughts to share and I only feel like writing one post.

First, the water. It appears that Sam is afraid of it. He will not get in the baby pool - at our house or a friend's. He'll stand outside it and splash around, but that's it. If a toy floats a way, he'll step in far enough to grab it and then reach for me with a panicked look on his face to help him out. I tried sitting in it with him, no luck. Yesterday we went to a splash park with a bunch of fountains, he cried the entire time - it was his "scared" cry. How did this happen? He loves his bath! As a child I LIVED at the pool in the summers. This will not do. So what to do next...keep exposing him? Take him to a "big pool" where we can hold him in the water? Mommy and me swim lessons?

Second, Mickey Mouse. Sam got this fantastic push toy/ride on for his birthday from our neighbors. Its shaped like and airplane - with propeller and all - and is Mickey Mouse themed. My point isn't really about how much Sam loves it, although he does. My point in mentioning it is what I realized this morning: every time I hear Mickey's voice come from that toy it makes ME happy inside. I think that hearing his voice makes me think of all kinds of Disney magic and childhood fun. It makes me happy that I get to experience all of that again with Sam.

Mail for Uncle Geo

2010-05-06T09:35:00.002-05:00

We've received word that Uncle Geo has arrived safely in Afghanistan, where he will remain until late November/early December. In case you'd like to send him any letters or packages, his address is below. I'm pretty sure that any package sent to a deployed unit's address is a flat rate, but the post office also has specific flat rate boxes for the purpose in case you want to go that route.

Captain Stegmiller, George J.

HMLA 369 S-4

Unit 40081

FPO AP 96427-0081

One. Year. Old.

2010-05-04T09:03:00.005-05:00

We made it. Sam is one year old. I know I say it every month, but I just can't wrap my head around the fact that its been a year. I still feel like we're just figuring this out, like I'm still a new mom, like Sam is still a brand new person. But he's a baby no more, and when I look at what he's done in his first year it does seem like a lot. In his first year of life Sam has:

-Been to 6 states
-Touched both the Atlantic (technically the Gulf of Mexico) and the Pacific oceans
-Met Mickey Mouse at Disney World
-Traveled on 5 round trip flights
-Developed a livable sleep schedule
-Maintained his nic name, Squirmy
-Moved from nursing exclusively to eating a wide variety of table foods
-Earned a reputation for his pathetic sad face and his amazing eyes
-Learned to walk

That's right, baby boy is now officially a toddler. He'd been putting steps together for a few weeks, but was only using them as a mode of transportation when highly motivated by his destination. Then, on his birthday, something clicked. I think it was the trip to the Children's Museum where he realized he was less vulnerable in the standing position. He is now walking by choice, with or without a destination in mind. Is he stable? Not at all. He walks like Frankenstein with his arms straight out in front of him, which is totally adorable. And he still likes to use an object to help him stand up, so if he's in the middle of the room with nothing around he'll still crawl. But, the kid officially started walking on his birthday!

In other developmental news, Sam is still tiny. At his 12-month well visit he weighed in at 17lbs 9oz and was 29 inches long (30%). No percentage for weight because we're still off the chart. The doctor said it'll probably be a few years before we're back on the chart, but that Sam will be thankful for his build as a 40-year-old. I need to also note that this was a particularly traumatic appointment for the boy - three shots and a blood draw (routine). The blood draw was long and he screamed the whole time. Then they wrapped his little finger in a big bandage that he hated and kept shaking at everyone, hoping they would remove it for him. He even tried to bite it off. Thankfully he has a short memory and there was no damage a trip to Olive Garden couldn't fix.

Still not much talking. Don't get me wrong, he makes a lot of noise. He tends to focus on one consonant at a time (da, ba, ge, nge are his favorites), but hasn't put together any words yet.

I almost forgot to mention that he also got his first teeth this month. I've been meaning to post about it, but wanted to wait until I had a good picture of them. Well, I still don't. He has his bottom two center teeth, but they aren't all the way up yet. It took them about 3 weeks to break through the gum, which they finally did on daddy's birthday (April 9).

That brings us to our likes and dislikes for the month.
Likes:
Playing outside
Apple Juice
Walking
Holding onto stick-shaped objects (pens, chapstick, etc)
Putting in/Taking out
Reading interactive books

Dislikes:
Blood draws
Being contained

Sorry this post is a few days late...we had a very busy weekend around here! I will write later about all the birthday festivities, including the party.

One Year Ago Today

2010-04-29T07:32:00.000-05:00

One year ago today I was a childless woman. Yes, Sam was very much alive inside of me, and I loved him already, but practically speaking, I was still childless. I did what I wanted, when I wanted, because I wanted to. I thought that I was very considerate of my husband, friends and coworkers, and I really was. But still, it was my life.

One year ago today I planned my day around conference calls, gym hours and tv shows.

One year ago today I attended a quarterly finance meeting and built some spreadsheet model.

One year ago today I was well-rested.

One year ago today my life fit neatly into lists and spreadsheets, and all my ducks were in a row. For the most part, everything went according to my well-laid plans.

One year ago today I went to my 39-week OB appointment and was told I'd made no progress from the week before. My doctor offered to schedule an induction for me, which I politely declined.

One year ago today as we were climbing into bed I told Chris that he was wrong, we weren't going to have an April baby after all...

What a difference a year makes!

Sneak Peak

2010-04-28T06:56:00.002-05:00

We had some family pictures taken last Saturday to mark Sam's first year. Here's a sneak peak at a few from the photographer's blog. Enjoy!

The Birth-Week Begins!

2010-04-26T19:13:00.004-05:00

Today we helped my friend Betty use her gift card for lunch at Buca Di Beppo. When we sat down our placemats announced to us that anyone dining within 7 days of his birthday would receive a free cupcake. We enthusiastically notified our server that Sam qualified for the birthday freebie. "Does he eat cupcakes?" server man asked. "Yes!" we both replied. "Alright then, frosting as big as your head is coming your way."

We thought he was kidding.
"Aunt" Betty, who doesn't limit herself to one day in June but celebrates a Birth-Summer, was quite pleased to realize that this early treat meant that Sam would be celebrating a Birth-Week rather than just a Birthday. Let the festivities begin!