A Little Boy

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!

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!

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

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?

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!

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

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.