Halloween Tryouts

So with the pumpkins growing orange and the weather getting colder, it was high time we found a halloween costume for Samuel.

We were at target the other day and they have quite the impressive collection of halloween costumes. Well Sammy loved holding a little puppy costume, which was completely adorable. We also really liked a Superman costume, because we always call him our super sam. We decided we would get them both and then see how they fit and things.

As we tried the two costumes, it was apparant that Sammy had a strong preference:

Not bad..

Not great..

Horrible!!!

Cool..

Distracted ..

Still distracted (which is a good thing!)

Learning to fly

So yes, the poor little puppy costume went back to the store, and Mr. Sammy Kent's cape went into the closet soon to come out and fly to a house near you shouting "trick or treat!" Okay let's be honest he probably will be saying "ball" over and over because you also have a pumpkin on your porch!

Our Active Little Boy!

We love our little boy! The little Sam-Man is very active. He is loving his ability to run around and play and get into everything. I just wanted to share a couple of his favorite activities. Some of these movies are a bit long, but oh well.

1 -- The Stair Toss or Gravity Game.

What an incredible idea, create a large pit and then surround the top with turrets so that one can bomb the pit! Also, the magic of this game is that when most the toys have been thrown down the stairs, Mom or Dad will go and pick them all back up and we can start the game again!!

I went down a couple stairs to get him in the middle of the action. I love that his good friend Simba is always curious about his games and wants to play along and watch.

Here is the result of the toy toss on a typical day:

#2 -- Bouncing on the Bed!

In the morning Sammy usually wakes up earlier than we do, so we bring him in our room and he loves to play on the bed with us. Bouncing is super fun and a new thing is to dance or stomp around on the bed. He also does this on the couch and anywhere else that is nice and soft.

#3 -- Playing catch.

Sam's favorite things all start with B's. His Ball, his blanket, and his binky. Sometimes these change order of preference depending on how tired or active he is. Tonight on our car ride home we just had to laugh at how content he was in his car seat: He had his passifier in his mouth, his blanket on his one side and his ball under his other hand, and Mom and Dad were close by. His happy little world was complete! Well he loves to play catch and keep away and fetch and all things related to playing with his two little basketballs. Today we had him in his chair and got a kick out of him playing catch with me. It was a cute little progression of me throwing the ball at his belly with little or no response, to him playing catch, to him getting bored!

My favorite part is when I say, "Ready?" and he throws his hands up in the air.

I often pause and marvell at how fast he is growing up. My dad commented, "just wait till they are 6' 7" and have kids of their own!" Hopefully that doesn't happen too soon, but when it does, I hope he remembers fondly the times of playing with Mom and Dad.

Quick Zoo Trip with Daddy

This week Michelle's work did a zoo trip for all the home schooled families in the program. Michelle didn't really go in, but met all the families as they were coming in and made sure they got their tickets and all that jazz. Then all the teachers wanted to go out to lunch. Since I was in between class (I have a 3 1/2 hour break) I came and got Sam. It turned out that they had leftover tickets, so Sammy and I got to take a quick zoo trip while while the girls did their thing. It was such a nice day (Thursday) that all the animals were out pretty good. My favorite was the mountain lion (go cougars!! great game by the way, but I digress..). When we came up to their cage, one cougar was standing on a log right up next to the fence as if he was staring everyone down. By the time I got my camera out, he had left, but the other one was perched on the ledge just surveying the crowd. It was very nice of it to pose for us:

The warthogs were also out having fun and were very close.
One of my favorites were the cute little penguins. The manager was cleaning out their pool so she locked them into a little shed-like place. Anyway, one snuck out and was playing around in the dirt and apparently that didn't go over well with all the rest so finally they all sprung the cage, here they are storming up the rocks! What fun little guys! The manager just shook her head and laughed, I bet they give her grief all the time.
One of Sammy's favorite zoo attractions is the small animals exibit. When we went during the summer with Tanna and Megan's families he loved it too. He really likes being able to walk right up to the cage and see the animals up close. A lot of times they will approach him as well, which just makes him all smiles. The Lemurs in the primate house were great too, they came right up to the windows to check out all the kids.

"Hey Dad, let's play a game. I'll pretend I'm interested and watching an animal and then right before you take the picture, I'll look away.

Ha! Too slow! Man you're getting old! Is that all you got, I was barely in the picture!!

Argghh! You caught me!

Wow, caught me on the first try this time, maybe you aren't such a waste...

And what was Sammy's favorite part about the zoo? Why the grates of course! Nice little metal objects in the middle of the floor. Perfect for touching and if I had a toy I could push it through. How do people come up with these things to entertain. Brilliant!!

Well, we had a great albeit brief time. To be honest, it was my type of zoo trip. We just cruised through and saw most of the animals and then shared a snow cone and a sprite, and the weather was so perfect, I think it was only high 70's that day. Couldn't have worked out nicer!

Sweet drunken parrot

Here is a recent video of sammy.

The drunken refers to his drunken sailor walk. He is doing great with walking and running and standing up without climbing up things. I think because of his height, and the newness of his task, he has a little bit of Jack Sparrow in him. You'll see in the end of this clip as he is running from Mom that he kind of pin balls between the couch and the table. We enjoy watching him, but feel bad when the drunkenness makes him hurt himself. He runs into a number of doorways and chairs and things. In fact if you look at his cheek close enough you can see a little line that might match a bar on our chair.

The parrot part is a new thing of his. Just very recently he is starting to mimick words and phrases of ours (This morning I got a B-Y-U out of him that was darling!) with Uh-Oh being the favorite. He is also mimicking some of the baby signs which is fun, so we'll have to get some of those as well.

Enjoy!

Birth of a Toddler

It has been so much fun watching Sammy's walk develop. He's been walking along things for several months now.

Thanks for the cute outfit!!

But...on Tuesday, July 15th he decided that walking has its perks! Here are his first, tentative steps. He's so careful to make sure he's balanced and when he's not, he knows crawling is much more stable! This is also his favorite blanket, could you tell?

Sammy has been practicing his walking all week and he's getting VERY good at it. He's even better now than when I took this short video. He's a very quick learner!!!

Picnic in the Park

(This post is LONG over due. Sorry.)

We had such a great time meeting with you for lunch the other day! I am so glad that you are willing to meet with us and hope that you enjoy it as much as we do!! Thanks again - we LOVE you!

Dancing Sammy putting on his groove!!!

We love that giggle!!! I love watching him interact with Greg in this video. These two pals get along great!

Who doesn't love opening presents??? OR...playing with the pretty red bag it comes in???

Thank you so much for the toys! Sammy is enthralled with them and loves to toss them around and listen to the noises they make.

Thanks for a great day at the park. We had tons of fun!!!

Travelling with Sammy

We just got back from a road trip to Yellowstone and my sister, Nicole, had a great time with him...for the first five hours of the drive.

But the last hour was more than she could handle and she was ready to go nuts! Dave and I are able to just tune him out - especially if we have a good book on tape to listen to, because we know he's just making noise out of boredom. It's pretty cute!

We've been on several road trips this summer so I thought it only appropriate to give you a taste of how Sammy travels. He actually does really well on short drives - but anything longer than a couple hours seems to "awaken" his talking side.

We stayed near Yellowstone Lake.

Daddy tried on my hat a for a bit. I think he likes it more than me.

Sammy's favorite part of the trip was playing the back of the car. I don't blame him - he never got the chance to "roam free" on his own unless he was in the back of the car!

Sammy's view of all the geysers, hot pots and springs was usually from someone's shoulders. Grandpa was his favorite horsie. We thought the plumbing shirt with the baby "crack" was darling.

Old Faithful. Sammy really enjoyed watching the geysers.