My Baby is 2!!!!!!

 Sammy is one funny little man. He is so much fun to have in the house. He is our comedic relief in life.  It is really hard to photograph his cuteness. Those precious moments are hard to capture. Here are my attempts from the other day.

 Here are a few things you should

 know about my little man. 

• He loves to snuggle!!!!!
• He calls everything green. If you tell him it is a different color he gets really mad and yells " No isssss gweeeen!"
• He hates having dirty hands. We usually have to clean them off about 3 times during each meal.
• He loves watching Jake and the Neverland Pirates. He can even sing the songs. Sometimes he will get a little treasure chest we have and put it on the floor and walk around it and sing the song just like they do in the show. 
• He calls any super hero or villain for that matter Batman. But he doesn't just say batman he says "na na  Batman!" He usually yells it at the top of his lungs. This happens frequently when we are in stores. On lookers think he is hilarious. Sometimes he says batman in his deepest darkest voice.
• He hates fruits and veggies. just last week he let me put some squash on his plate. He didn't eat it but at least he let it be on his plate.Baby steps people, baby steps.
• If you tell him to do something he doesn't want to do he growls at you.
• He is a very serious guy especially with the camera. He doesn't like looking at it and smiling I have to catch him doing it. Which means I get a lot of blurry head pictures as he turns away from me. He loves the camera though. He calls it "cheese" he loves pretending to look through the view finder while it is around both of our necks. 

 His favorite foods are hotdogs, pistachios, chicken "chicky", whip cream, anything else non healthy.

• He hates drinking water! Even if it is 100 degrees outside and we were just playing at the park he wont drink it. I have to mix it with juice. We are now at about 90% water 10% juice. 
• He likes to drag his left foot. I don't think anything is wrong with it I think he just like the way it feels on his shoe.

• He loves going to nursery at church. One time we were walking in the hall and we passed by the door and he started crying because we didn't go inside. When we moved to a new ward there was no hesitation, he just ran in and found a Buzz Lightyear and I never turned around again. 
• He hates riding in the shopping cart. EVERY time we go to a store it is a huge fight to get him to sit down. He kicks and screams as I am shoving him in. Then he cries for the next 10 min in the store. It is so awesome :0/ Any suggestions on this one? I have found that candy works some of the time. 
• His favorite songs are popcorn popping and the wheels on the bus. 
• He loves his little lovey. He and Ben call them Heady. It started out as Eddie but I guess Ben realized that it has a big head on it so they call them Heady. This is a new love for Sam. He wasn't very attached to it until a few months ago. 
• He is a great little sleeper. Sometimes he actually asks to take a nap. Usually we just have to tell him to go get Heady and he will find him in the house and go right to bed. We are going to be giving him a big boy bed this week so we will see if all that changes. I'm so scared. It took Ben over 6 months to sleep in his bed through the night and naps. He slept on the floor for probably 3 months. I hope this time goes better. 
• He has a funny little bald spot on the side of his head. No idea where it came from or if it will ever go away. Can you see it?

• He loves to laugh and be silly. Especially with Ben.
• He loves his 6 year old cousin Jaren. He always runs up to him and gives him a big hug and tackles him. 
• He loves to say prayers. Usually kids repeat what you say but all he says the whole time is "Thank you for this day" over and over again until you say amen. 
•  He is a really happy easy going kid. Some of these quirky things make him sound like he is a handful, which I guess he is, but he is a great listener and super sweet!

We love you so much little Sam Sam. We are so happy you are a part of our family. 

 You are one special little guy!

Sammy's first bee sting

There are a million bees at my parents house. I feel like I tell the boys to leave the bees alone at least 5 times each day. Earlier this week Sam got a little too close. He and Ben were playing outside alone when I heard Sam crying. Ben let us know what had happened. All Sam could say was "Bee on a feekee (finger) owee!!!!" As soon as he stopped crying which was only about 30 seconds he would say the same think but instead of saying owee he  would start cracking up. I tried so hard to make a video of him saying it because it was hilarious but as soon as I brought the camera out he stopped. I hope he learned his lesson but something tells me he didn't.

Movie Monday ~ Sammy saying his ABC sounds

Sammy's favorite show is "Leapfrog Letter Factory." Because of this show, Sammy has learned almost all the sounds of the alphabet. He is only missing about 5 letter sounds. He was only 16 months old when he started doing it. This video was taken a few weeks before he was 18 months. Sorry it is focused on the blinds and not Sam. Don't really know what happened here.

Potty Training Secrets

Ben was really easy to potty train. We had him in underwear when he was 2 years and 2 months old. He only had a few accidents and then he was pretty much done (he regressed when we moved but that only lasted about 2 weeks).

So since it worked out so well with Ben we are going to try the same method with Sam.

Here is what we do. When they are about 18 months (Sam will be 18 months in one more week) we start sitting them on the potty before bath. While they are there we pour warm water from the bathtub on them. The warm sensation triggers them to pee.

After doing this for a about a month they won't need the cup any more.

We kept doing this for over 6 months with Ben. Very low key - only the one time a day. I'm not really sure how long I would have kept going with this but Tom lost his job so we didn't really have a choice. We couldn't afford 2 kids in diapers so Ben had to be potty trained. He showed no other signs that he was ready to be trained but we did it anyway and it worked perfectly. (Well almost)
We started with Sam a few weeks ago. For a long time nothing really happened. But this week he started going. He has now gone 3 nights in a row! I am so proud of my little man. His favorite part is getting the toilet paper to wipe!

Movie Monday - Sam Walking

Sam just started taking his first steps. As you can see he is very proud of himself as are we. Way to go little Sammy!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Sammy

Yep you read that right. My little baby is already one year old!!!!!!!! It is so hard to believe. I still think of him as a little baby, but he is quickly turning into a big boy.

His special day started out with chocolate chip pancakes shaped like a 1. I decided to do a penguin themed party but like all my party ideas I ended up not going very far with the planning. I didn't make the cute invitations I had planned (people got a phone call instead) I didn't make the cute igloo cheese-ball (it would have cost $15 to make and at least 3 hours of my time, and then no one would eat it anyways. They got gold fish crackers instead, penguins eat fish, right!!?!!) I didn't do a fancy shmancy cake. Not that I didn't try, the idea was great it just didn't turn out like I had planned. I had trouble melting the chocolate to dip the Oreo cookies in, and then I had trouble with the frosting melting. Who knew I would have so much trouble with melting in one day. Oh well at least they tasted good. Two of them dropped on the trip over to the pool, and then I forgot to bring a knife to cut the big cupcake for the adults.

So now that I have told you all of the things I didn't do I don't have time to tell you all of the things I did do. For now I will just say that we had an awesome swim party with lots of family and a few friends.

Here are some of the pictures I took of Sam for his photoshoot.
I made one absolutely adorable kid. He is so happy and loves life.
We had a lot of fun taking pictures in Old Town Orange.Here is what he is doing at One Year Old

• crawls really fast (especially when the opportunity arises to do something naughty i.e. we left the bathroom door open, he wants to bug Ben when Ben is in his bed, the cabinet to the DVD player is open, we haven't opened the blinds yet, we left the front door open, Ben put down a toy that he is playing with, he finds a random sippy cup on the floor, the dish washer is open, etc.)
• Stands up but doesn't let go
• likes to lean up against people or couches
• no walking but getting really close to taking those first steps (unless you count the time the homeless guy at the park said he did it while I was taking a picture of Ben two weeks ago)
• Absolutely LOVES bugging Ben! He looks at him and then touches him waiting for Ben to yell. Or he will start doing what we call the pterodactyl scream. Ben hates it
• Loves playing with cars and tries to say the word car. It comes out as ku ku ku
• He crawls along pushing cars along the floor all day
• Usually has at least one car in his hand at all times
  
• Says mama and dada
• waves bye-bye
• does his version of the sign for more (he points to the middle of his open hand) Usually just does the pterodactyl scream to get what he wants.
  
• Does the sign for all done
• Loves to laugh, especially at his big brother
• Doesn't sleep through the night most nights. He does it about once a week.
• Still nursing
• working on switching to one nap a day
• Likes to stick his finger in my mouth when he is nursing which is WAY better than when he use to stick his finger up my nose and then start cracking up.
  

~Stats~
Height: ?? his Dr. apt is in a few weeks
Weight: ??
Hair: Strawberry blond like his mama, growing mostly on the top of his head
Eyes: BIG brown eyes
Teeth: 4 on the top 2 on the bottom
Cloths: 12 month
Diaper: size 3

Sammy, you are one funny little man!
We love having you as part of our family.
We feel so blessed to be your parents.

Look Who is Up

Sam finally pulled up all by himself on Sunday. He has been trying for weeks now. He is changing so much every day. I can't believe how fast he is growing up.

We are so proud of you Sam Sam!

Movie Monday- Sammy's New Moves

Wow, what a difference a week makes in his little life. The first video was taken a week ago. And the second video was taken yesterday.

He is just about ready to crawl too. He is up on all fours and can move his hands forward once but then he falls on his tummy. I am sure that a week from today he will have it.

Movie Monday - On the move

Sam loves to roll! He has no need to crawl because he can get to just about any where he needs to go.

He's Up!!!!!

On Friday Sam got up on his knees for the first time. He hasn't quite figured out how to move once he is there, but I'm sure it won't take long.

He just needed a little motivation!Most of the time he just tried the reaching method.
Just a little further!But it always had the same result. At least he got the car.Don't worry Sammy, you'll figure it out soon.

9 months old

Yep, my little man is already 9 months old. I think I say it each time but -
time really goes by fast.

Here are is stats:
Height: 29 in 75%
Weight: 19 lbs 25% - you would never know it with all of his rolls.
Teeth: 2 bottom - His first one popped out on his 8 month birthday.
Hair: starting to come in and looking more red each day
Eyes: deep deep brown, you almost can't see the pupilSome of the things he can do:
Roll over both ways and uses it to get around
For the most part still stays on the blanket you put him on
He just started getting up on his knees today
Loves to eat! His favorite things are bread and Cheerios. but we are finding that he is becoming quite the meat eater like his brother.
Loves screaming especially when he gets a reaction from Ben.
He loves 5 little monkeys swinging in the tree. He gets so excited when the alligator is about to come.
Occasionally sleeps through the night
Loves being tickled
Still likes sleeping with his lovey on his face
Claps all the time
Spits when I feed him vegetables sending food particles all over me. He gets the funniest grin on his face when he does it.
Loves his pacifier - or Mommy does. I'm not sure which one it is :0)

I love this grin

Don't you just want to hug him.