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.

Birthday Bash! 1 year old

So this is a bit overdue, but here are some cute movies and pictures from his 1st birthday party.

He was kind of the center of attention, and tried unwrapping a few presents from some of his aunts and uncles. Then it was time for the birthday cake. We got a full cake for all of us to enjoy, but then got a small triangle slice of cake for Sammy to eat and destroy. So we got him down to his diaper and set the piece in front of him and let him go to town. It was so cute!! Here are a few movies and pictures of this fun event.















I can't believe that 1 year has come and gone. Sammy has grown and changed so much, it's amazing to look back and see some of the early pictures and just be amazed at the miracle we have enjoyed. Our whole family couldn't be more thankful for you and your sacrifice.

The Slide

Here is Sammy's first time down a slide. It was pretty windy at the park, so sorry for all the background noise.

We have reached ZION

...Zion's National Park that is. To celebrate the arrival of summer we took Sammy on his first vacation to Zion's. We spent all day Saturday in the park hiking and walking. We got this great back-pack carrier to lug Sammy along. He really had a good time. It was a great first family vacation!