Little Performer

Sam has become quite the little singer!! He loves to sing. I was finally able to catch him singing a few of his favorite songs on video!!

Enjoy!

ABC's


Sam is starting to recognize letters and their sounds (mostly thanks to a video he got for Christmas called "Letter Factory"). He also likes to play with his magnetic letters and will pull them out of the bag and say, "Mom, look! It's an 'O' " and it really is an O! What a smart boy!

He also ALWAYS sings the ABC's by ending it, "Next time won't you sing with ELMO." We keep trying to tell him that it's, "Next time won't you sing with ME," but Elmo has a pretty solid place in his heart!

I am a Child of God (or cheese...either works apparently)


He is such a ham!

Sorry about the song ending so abruptly - my camera ran out of memory card space before we could finish.

We love our little performer!!

Sam Funnies

Sammy is really a great talker. He amazes me every day with the things he says and how smart he is...and he's quite funny! Here are a few of our favorite quotes Sammy has said in the last few weeks.
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Sam and I were playing catch. I threw the ball to him and hit him squarely in the chest. He was wearing a San Diego Zoo t-shirt with several animals on the front. The throw must have been a little harder than he liked because he said, "Ow Mom! You hurt my elephants!"
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Each night we crawl around on the floor helping Sammy pick up his toys before he goes to bed. One night, Dave let Sammy get on his back for a horsey ride. He told Sam that he was a cowboy riding his horse. So now, each night, the conversation goes something like this...
Sam: Dad I want a cow ride
Dad: Horsey ride Sam, I'm a horse!
Sam: No Dad, you're a cow!
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We had some friends over a few weeks ago. Carrie was asking Sammy to name the type of ball on his pajamas. Sam, apparently missing where she was pointing said, "That's my peanut."
(He appropriately censors his own comments, the best part was watching Carrie turn a deep shade of red. Maybe we should have waited to teach him the name of that body part.)
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Sam is a sponge. Whatever we say, we'll be sure to hear it again. This means he's picked up words like "Gosh Dangit" and "Oh my gosh." So we've been working on replacing these phrases with "oh man!" The other day, Sammy dropped a piece of food on the floor during lunch. I said, "Oh man!" and Sammy said, "No mom, say "my gosh!"
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The other day, Sam was pushing his plastic chair around the hardwood floor and it made a horrible screeching sound. I was on the phone for work, and the following conversation ensued...
Mom: Sam, are you making noise?
Sam: Yes. I'm making nose-y.
Mom: Stop making noise with your chair or I'm going to throw it away.
Sam: (walked over to the garbage can - looked in and said) No, it can't fit. See the milk in there? It can't fit. (Funnily enough, he was right. Sometimes he can be very logical.)
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Sam's latest argument for not sleeping:
Mom: Sam, it's time for a nap.
Sam: No Mom, I can't. I'm awake!

A Visit from Santa Elf

This year, our family started a new tradition with the help of this book.


The book comes with this cute little elf, who hides around the house watching the children all day and then returning to Santa each night to report if they have been naughty or nice. Sammy LOVES him and looks for him faithfully every morning. We wanted to think of a creative name for him, but we really wanted Sammy to name him. When we asked Sammy what his name should be, he said, "Elf." (we're working on creativity - maybe next year, he'll be given a better name)


The night we started this tradition, Sammy was heart-broken that he didn't get to play with the elf. So, we gave him a little Santa Claus instead. And from that point on, any Santa that Sammy see's is "Santa Elf." (Driving down the street past a Santa lawn ornament, "Look mom, Santa Elf! See it? See it Mom??" The Santa in the mall = Santa Elf. If he's wearing red, has a beard and carries gifts, he's Santa Elf.)

So here's our sweet Santa Elf wishing you a Merry Christmas!

Great big brother

We've been meaning to post some things for what we've been up to this summer, so stay tuned, hopefully it won't be another 4 months before another post comes up. In the mean time, here is a fun video of Sammy making Katelynn laugh. Sammy loves Katelynn and enjoys holding her and hugging her and touching her face (Sam! Stop touching her face!) I love to see how she absolutely loves her big brother. There are a number of pictures that we've captured that show how much she idolizes and adores Sammy. Already, nobody can make her giggle quite like him. Here you go!

It's moments like these that make you forget all about how they try your patience!
Here's that giggle video I mentioned:

One final thought: Michelle picks me up from work and we're sitting behind a truck waiting to pull out. Sammy from the back seat yells, "Go Go Go!... Come on, My Gosh!" Oops, I guess the road-ragedness is contagious. We'll have to watch how we express our frustration!

Second final thought: Cute: Sammy calls all stuffed animals pooh (because Winnie the Pooh is his biggest bear). Not as cute: Cinnamon bears are therefore called pooh, thus comes: "I want to eat pooh!" (To myself: "be mature, be mature, be mature ... Nope!") Dad: "You want to eat pooh?! Bwahahahaha!!"

The Big T-W-O

Sammy turned 2 a few weeks ago! He had a great time opening presents.

We celebrated by opening presents and blowing out candles at home and then we went to Grandma's for more presents and candles.

Here he is opening presents...

Sammy didn't quite know what to do with the birthday candles. It was fun to watch him learn what you're supposed to do with them.

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Isn't he just the cutest little boy ever!?!

Under the Lights

Our sweet Katelynn has had a bit of jaundice. This means that her liver hasn't developed enough to get rid of the biliruben in her blood. The best way to treat this is to put her under the bili-lights.

Sammy was quite concerned with this process!! Every morning he'd wake up and walk over to the light machine and say, "Hi baby." He's pretty intruiged by those lights!

Katelynn's had a rare type of jaundice because it won't go away!! Our dr said he's never seen anything like it, but thinks its related to nutrition, so we are supplementing her with some formula and that seems to have helped. She's still not in the clear yet though, but she doesn't have to be under the lights every night anymore. yeah!

I think Sammy is a little jealous of all the attention Katelynn has been getting - so he tried to make himself yellow as well!

He's such a good big brother!