Three Poodles

I told Samuel, "I love you boocoodles." He said, "I love you three poodles."

Potty Time!

OK. So, I'm pretty terrible at this blog posting. I should be much better! I just am out of time I guess. If I had a better/faster laptop at home... If I blah blah blah... I could find a bunch of excuses.

Anyway! Lots of exciting news on the Samuel front. My child is picking up on words and sentences so quickly. He now says wonderful things like, "May I have some more milk, Mommy?" and "I don't know, Mommy." It's great! He is also potty trained. He went to school two weeks ago in pull-ups; last week in big boy underwear and now it's old hat. We still have to drag him sometimes into the bathroom for our hourly potty routine, but most of the time he comes willingly. And most of the time, he has something to do in there. I'm so excited for him, but sad at the same time. My boy is growing up... no longer a baby for sure.

We're moving on to new things. Leaving behind the old ways. Discovering the new. It's almost like growing ourselves - seeing things in a new light and experiencing them through the eyes of a two-year old. Miraculous, perhaps.

I'm sure no one reads this anymore, and it is primarily for my sad attempt at journaling. But, perhaps it will be meaningful someday to go back and look at it. ?? Perhaps.

iHeartFaces Giveaway (KODAK!)

Hey everybody! There's a HUGE giveaway at iHeartFaces! A Kodak all-in-one printer! Go check it out and enter!

Silly Samuel and other Updates

Just wanted to catch up on a few funny things that have happened lately...

Last night, Samuel and I were talking about the fire truck they saw at school yesterday. They were able to go outside and look at it (not sure if they climbed in or not), heard the siren, etc. I asked him if the siren went like **my own siren sound** and he said, "Yeah. That's right." Just so plainly and matter-of-factly. I fell into him I laughed so hard.

The other thing that's kind of funny is the way he tells us to get out of his way. If he wants me to move, he just says, "Scuse me, Mommy". Soooo polite! (Sometimes, we do hear... "No, Mommy! No!")

He's gotten to the stage where he laughs if we laugh. He may not know what is funny, but he'll laugh anyway. Which makes us laugh harder.. then he laughs harder... then he gets the hiccups.. then we laugh more.. vicious cycle.

He's using complete sentences now. Especially when he wants something: "I want some milk. I want Barney." or when he's bossing us around: "Sit down, Mommy. Come on, Mommy." I love it! And, I may have said before... he says "Please and Thank You" at the same time. He says he wants something, we say "What do you say?", he says "Please and thank you."

We sing the crocodile song from Barney all the time... I'll try to get that on video sometime soon. We also like the fine musician song. Samuel plays trombone, guitar, drums, cymbals, violin, keyboard, and who knows what else. The kid is a genius!

Other News: He moved up to a new class this week. That has him unhappy in the mornings. But, they still tell me that he has had a good day. So, I guess he gets over it pretty quickly. Probably when his girlfriend, Ana Collins, comes in. :)

I'm still trying to plan his birthday party. Yes, I know - it's about a week away now. This is just not my thing. I need a party planner. We'll see!

iHeartFaces Giveaway

CUTE bag giveaway at iHeartFaces!!! Go check it out!

May 26 - iHeartFaces Entry

This is my first iHeartFaces (www.iheartfaces.com) entry. This week it's for silhouettes. I remembered this photo... not one of my greatest, but a wonderful moment of Samuel and his daddy playing. I took several, some with a flash and some without. I love flipping through them... seeing their faces, then their silhouettes. It was a precious moment. (March 2008 - Samuel was 9 months old)

Zoo and Other Stuff

So, I'm feeling like a pretty bad blogger. I usually feel like I have no news to share... which is bad. I guess this little post is just to say... we're still here.

However, I can say that we had an exciting weekend last weekend. We went to the Memphis Zoo. We cleverly forgot our camera, but I managed to remember late in the day that I had a camera on my phone. The pics below are from that day... not great, but the subject matter sure is cute!






I recently took this video of Samuel singing "Mr. Sun". It's better the second time around. I apologize up front for the quality... it is from my phone.


I also got some cute video last night (on my phone) of Samuel. My kid is CUTE... even if he doesn't say it right!


I wanted to post this picture too. After the fun with the above video (and some procrastinating by the little one), Samuel and Daddy konked out in the chair:

What It Was Like

What was it like without Samuel last week? Well, in a word... NICE!

We truly love and adore Samuel. No doubt about it. But, last week was so refreshing. We didn't do anything unusual really... but just to be home and to be able to talk to one another for more than one minute was wonderful! We were able to get some much-needed rest.

Samuel had a good time at Granna and Papa's. They played, read books, colored, ate and ate and ate, slept... ... ... I think it was a little tough on Granna... Samuel requires a lot of attention these days. Her house is pretty much baby-proof, but there are a few places he should not go but does anyway. It was cold up there, though, so they didn't get out very much. BUT, Granna all day and Papa at night is a lot of fun for a little kid.

Saturday, we met them at Corinth. I admit, I was thrilled that he was happy to see us. He kept saying "Mommy, hey! Daddy, hey!" over and over. He'd hug us and smile so big. What a treat!

Then we got home. Saturday and Sunday nights, he kept us up. We felt like all our rest had flown out the window. I don't know what his deal was.. gas, dreaming, mouth hurting... ?? Who knows. Then, Monday night he had this stuffy nose and kept acting like his mouth was hurting. So, of course, I doped him up. Motrin and Benadryl (and of course Mylicon.. that's nightly anyway). And... he slept all night. He got more Benadryl last night, and he slept all night. I know it sounds cruel... but sometimes, you gotta get some sleep!

So, while it was nice for Samuel to be gone for a while... we are VERY glad to have him back home. He is so much fun... and funny. Now he is doing the Mr. Sun song from Barney - motions and all. He cracks me up. I love that little turkey-trot.

In other news, I just received word that MSU will not be closed for spring break. Here's the deal... no classes, so no students and no faculty. No major administrative initiatives to be implemented that week. Spring Break is the perfect time to shut down and conserve. There's no telling how much money we could save in utilities.. and with the budget crunch coming, why not? It really makes no sense to me. It would be so nice to be home or travel or whatever. So, what does this mean for me? I'll end up turning in leave to take off so that I can spend some time with Kris and Samuel... probably go up to TN and monkey around with the fam for a couple of days. Oh, the joys of university life... non-faculty university life that is. :)

A Few Days without Samuel

It sounds highly unusual, right? A few days without Samuel. It is almost like we've disowned him or something. But, no! He's spending a few days with Granna and Papa. Like a vacation for him and us. We took him up there Saturday and came home yesterday without him. It's a little weird, but I am kind of excited about it. We haven't been without him since July. Since we've had sickness for about 3 months straight, we need some extra rest! I'm hoping this will give us an opportunity to do just that.

So, last night we went to a friend's house for a bible study. It is the first time I've been to a meeting since Samuel has been born when I could actually focus on the topic and not on Samuel. Think about that... 20+ months of being in meetings where my attention has been divided. Wonder how much I've gotten out of those meetings.... pretty near nuttin'!

Tonight, we have no plans. We're going to come home after work and flop. (Maybe we'll go get something to eat... but then we're flopping!) It's going to be strangely quiet, but I am not going to complain!

I miss my little man already, but he is having a lot of fun with Granna today. They were coloring when I called him earlier.

Here's a funny... I've been saying, "Guess what".. he started saying "What?".. and I would reply "I love you." It progressed to... "Guess what"... "wuv wuv you". Now, we're up to "Guess what"... "I wuv you". Well, this morning it went like this: "Guess what"... "I wuv ME!" I cracked up! My boy is just something else!

Testing, testing. Anyone there?

I don't know why I picked that title... that's kind of how I feel right now... like I'm testing a microphone to see if I can hear myself or knocking on my head to see if anyone's home. Just not keeping myself on track too well today.

Anyway... I just thought I'd post a little about Samuel these days while I wait on a process to finish at work. Samuel and I have had the evenings to ourselves this week. Kris went on a trip to Jackson, so Mommy was totally in charge. Boy, did we have fun. The house was a wreck... nothing got done... I ate supper late... it was great! Samuel and I talked and talked. We giggled and cackled. We also fussed at each other some, but we were mostly happy. :)

He's begun talking in short sentences. We can actually carry on a bit of a conversation with him. One night this week, he was remembering our visit to church. He would talk about people and what they did... Mike-guitar, Betty-flag, Raymond-staff, Vickie-piano. Last night, we looked at one of his alphabet books (this one is scriptures by the alphabet), and he would tell me most of the letters correctly. We went through them in order, and then I picked pages at random. He did very well and got most of them right!

And now I remember what I wanted to write about earlier... I feel a little sad that my son knows more about "the chicken dance" than I do. I picked him up one afternoon this week, and he started saying "chicken dance". Someone told me that Ms. Jennifer and he were doing the chicken dance. We talked about the chicken dance all the way home. Of course, it's been a while since I've even thought about the chicken dance... so I couldn't really help the boy out! So, I'm kind of sad about that.

We're planning on going to see my parents this weekend. And.... we're going to leave Samuel with them for a few days. I'm glad and sad about this. We need a little break to catch up on rest. I know he will have a good time. BUT, I will miss him truckloads! It will be weird to come home and not have a toddler in the house. I plan to do as little as possible. :)

Camden Lane, Get Down

Last week, Samuel came home from day care and started to tell me about Camden. This is a little boy in his room that he is friends with. I was asking him who he saw at school, and he started saying "Camden." Then he followed that with "Lane"... that threw me a little... wasn't sure what that was about. And then he said, "Get down." He was tattle-telling on Camden! Sure enough, this past Friday, I confirmed with one of his teachers that she had been telling Camden to get down by saying, "Camden Lane, get down." Samuel had told me that Camden was climbing on chairs. Is my boy smart or what??

Also at day care, there is a little girl in his room who bites. And who does she bite? The sweetest kid in the room, Samuel of course! Last week, he was bitten three times. The center is working with the girl and her parents to try and get her to stop. But, what's so great is that Samuel told me who it was. I looked at his arm and said, "Samuel, what happened?" He said, "Kafryn". I said, "Did Kathryn bite you?" He replied, "Kafryn bite." Since I don't want Samuel to be a biter, I've told him to tell her "No-no". And he replies to me, "No-no... Sorry".

We are telling Samuel to say "Sorry" to us when he does a no-no, and this is carrying over to his conversation with Kathryn. I think that is ok.. I don't suppose I could expect a 20-month old to know that he doesn't need to apologize to Kathryn when she bites him. Aside from this biter, I am very pleased with the center and Samuel's happiness there. He is thriving each day and has become a favorite among the staff. Even the director told Kris the other day, that Samuel was the bright spot of her day.

Last week was his Valentine's dance at school. Samuel was not interested in dancing (a vast change from his normal nature they tell me). He instead wanted me to hold him the entire time. So, I have no picture or video of Samuel at one of his first social gatherings. I did manage to get a couple of pictures of the two of us... I hope to have them posted soon. It was a sweet day though. He came home with lots of Valentine's cards and candy.

It seems that one of the biggest challenges these days is getting Samuel to chew the food he puts in his mouth. He wants to swallow everything without chewing it! Then his gag reflex kicks in... and you know... time to clean up.

And finally... this morning he was so happy. He just hugged and kissed on me. It was wonderful! I was thrilled to have that much attention from him. I suppose he's like his Daddy... a true morning person.

Another Great Video

This is hilarious. A friend found this on YouTube and posted it on Facebook. I just needed to put it here. Kids are great!

Finally

Well, for the first time in I don't know how long... Samuel woke up in a good mood this morning. I got up to go to the bathroom and heard him in his crib just talking to himself or his elephant or whatever. This is such a relief as the past couple of weeks have been tough. I believe he's working on his 2-year molars, and he's just not been in a good mood. I will be glad when the teeth are in and we are done with that. I love him when he's cranky... but it's SO nice when he's not cranky!

The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power

This little one is not related to me at all, but this video was too cute to not post. I'm sure her family won't mind... since it's on YouTube!

Prepare to sit back for about 4 minutes...

Samuel's Sayings

I thought I'd take just a little time to write down some of my favorite "Samuelisms". Some are just words I love to hear him say, and others are phrases.

I wuv u
Mommy-Daddy
Hodyoo (hold you)
Dere is! (There it is!)
Barney zoo (When he wants to watch the Barney at the zoo video)
E....fant (elephant)
No wike it (don't like it)
cudur (color)

no sir k (This requires a little explanation. We're teaching him to say "No sir" and usually after he says it, we'll say "Okay". So, he's begun to say "K" after he says "no sir". Cute, right?)

pite (polite)

tank you wurds (More explanation... He's learned the "Please and Thank You" song from Barney... they say "they are the magic words". So, now he says "thank you words". More cuteness, huh?)

kanroo (kangaroo)

There's lots more, but I have to go now.