Samuel at 18 months

Samuel is still a pretty easy little boy. Of course he has to be reminded often of what he is allowed to do and what he is not allowed to do but is learning very fast. A threat of a timeout is usually all it takes to get him to straighten out. :) He continues to eat like a grown man. Some favorites include: meat of any kind, grapes, bananas, oranges, peaches, broccoli, peas, green beans, cereal, popcorn, chips, crackers...pretty much anything! He continues to love balls and throwing. He also loves being outside and would spend the whole day outside playing on the swing set, in the sand or with the water table if he could.

He enjoys being read to and is very interested in farm animals. He also likes listening to music and still loves to sing "E-I-E-I-O." He still takes a nap after lunch for 2-3 hours. He goes to bed around 7:15 and wakes up around 6:15. He likes to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Super Why with Grace. He is always into coloring, especially with markers. He also likes pushing cars and trucks around saying "vroooooom." He loves Maggie and plays with her often. She can't get enough and it helps tire them both out. :)

He has all of his teeth except for his 2 year molars although I think he's been working on those for the past couple of weeks. He loves his flip-flops and gets ticked off because he can't quite get them on by himself yet. He had his first "big boy" haircut a couple of weeks ago. My cousin used the clippers and he screamed bloody murder the whole time. As soon as the clippers went off he stopped and was fine. What a little stinker. He's still ornery as ever and we love every minute of it. Love you Sambam!

Last weekend we decided to take the kids to the zoo because it was beautiful out. We hadn't been there since last fall (except for the lights at Christmastime) so it was fun to see all of the animals again. There was hardly anyone there which made it even better. :) Samuel was hilarious to watch because he was way more aware of all of the animals than when we went last time. He was not very happy when an ape ran up to the glass and smacked it really hard right in front of him. At least he didn't fling poop at him. :) Grace's favorite animals were the lions and the penguins. She had millions of questions about all of the animals.

Quick Update

Here's some updates from the past month:

Steve is in the midst of baseball season. He is the assistant coach at Pettisville again and is enjoying the season very much so far. He also just finished up his second semester towards his masters degree. I have been hearing a lot about "good golfing weather" so that has been adding to his good mood. :)

Grace is enjoying preschool at St. Pat's and is looking forward to starting a preschool program that the high school parenting class does 3 days/week for the next 6 weeks. 3 of her friends from the babysitters are going as well. She is excited every day when I pick her up and tells me what she did and what she made. Today she was all excited because they painted with red and blue paint to make purple. They also played a rhyming game that was a big hit. She is thrilled for this warmer weather to be here for good so she can play outside more. She is always wanting to go for a walk down to the bridge which makes me smile because I remember loving to do that when I was a little girl.

Samuel has 6 new teeth which all decided to come in the same week. This makes the grand total 14 and my guess is 15 and 16 aren't far behind. He thinks he can run now which is pretty entertaining. He is still in love with balls. I went grocery shopping after school one day last week. I happened to grab a cart that had a broken seat belt (how annoying) so I had to keep a hand on him every time I went to grab anything off the shelf so he wouldn't fling himself over the side. He did a really good job until we got to the produce aisle when he took a massive dive screaming "baaalllll"!! He was trying to grab every orange, apple, tangerine, mango etc. in sight. Luckily I caught a hold of him before he could totally leap out of the cart. Note to self...check the buckle BEFORE I take the cart next time.

We are all excited that we will be adding another member to the family in October! I am 13 weeks and feeling better and better. Some mornings are still a bit rough thanks to my insanely sensitive nose but all in all I can't complain.

New Words

We were sitting in church yesterday and all of a sudden Samuel started bouncing up and down and pointing excitedly. I looked to see what he was pointing at and saw my parents sitting a few rows in front of us. Then he looked right at me and said "gampa, gamma". He kept pointing wildly and saying gampa, gamma over and over. It was pretty entertaining.

Rain Rain Go Away

Grace has been requesting to make "colorful cupcakes" for almost a week now. She's asked me at least once each day this week but we had a busy week full of check ups and meetings so we never had time. We decided that a rainy Saturday would be a great time to bake.

The kids loved being the taste testers for me. The frosting tasted kind of like marshmallows and was a big hit. Besides tasting they both loved decorating them.
I thought they turned out pretty cute. They were fun to make. Grace has already made the comment - "Mom, can you please make this for my birthday on August 2?" Too funny.

Samuel at 15 months

Sorry about the blurry picture...our digital camera broke so I'm using Grace's Vtech camera. It's not quite quick enough for Samuel's action. :)

Samuel is such a funny little boy. He loves to laugh, tease and bug. He says Gace (Grace), ah dah (all done), mom, dad, dog, woo woo (woof woof), ball, hi, bye-bye, no, uh oh, dink (drink), ow, poo (poop), yeah and e-i-e-i-o (he loves Old MacDonald). He mimics everything we do. He will brush his hair, talk on the phone, brush his teeth, put wipes in diapers and try to wrap them up, dance like we do and many other things. He loves throwing balls, looking at books, taking baths, his toothbrush, coloring, dancing, music, food and helping us fold laundry. He takes 1 thing at a time out of the laundry basket and hands it to us until the entire thing is empty. He thinks it's hilarious to point to his belly button and loves it when people point theirs out to him. He is beginning to test us to see if we mean what we say and has therefore started having timeouts...which he loathes. :) He is quite the climber and has no fear. I've caught him on the back of the couch, climbing from a chair to the kitchen table, trying to get on top of his play kitchen and many other interesting places. Amazingly he has only had a couple bad spills and they hardly even phased him. He attempts to dress himself which is always entertaining. He flew for his first time at 12 months and did great. He cried on the way home for about 10 minutes before we even took off and then fell asleep for the remainder of the trip. He had a bout of fifths disease right after he turned 1 as well. He has 8 teeth and his molars are almost through. He takes 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 hour naps every day right after lunch and still is completely pooped by 7. There are some nights where I have to force him to stay awake until 6:45 because I feel bad putting him to bed earlier than that! I suppose since he has to wake up at 6:15 it makes sense. I'm hoping that this summer I can move it back so he sleeps more like 7:45 to 7:15. :) He is walking all over the place. I should have posted earlier about that...for the past 6 weeks or so he has been walking the vast majority of the time. He loves riding his toy train around the house and does so with gusto. I've never seen a kid go so fast on one of those things. He is so ornery...and we wouldn't change him for anything.

Grace at 3 1/2

She moved! :)

She got a camera for Christmas from Jill, Eben and the boys and we are having fun playing with it! :)

At 3 1/2 Grace loves playing mommy to her baby dolls; feeding them, dressing them, bathing them, changing their diapers etc. She loves skirts, dresses, tights, shoes, barrettes and all other accessories. Just the other day she told me she was coming into the kitchen so she could hear her shoes (dress up high heels) click on the floor. She is little miss independent and insists on dressing herself, attempting to do her own hair, brushing her own teeth and attempting to bathe on her own. We still have to help her rinse her hair but she always tries to do it first. Grace is a spitfire and has no problem asking questions or speaking what is on her mind. She is full of questions about everything. Answering her questions isn't good enough...she is also looking for an explanation. She has to be reminded daily that she is Samuel's sister, not mother, as she sometimes thinks she has the right to tell him what he can/cannot do. Grace is very observant and can remember places and things better than I can. She will often point out people's houses as we drive by. When we drive by the Health Department, Medical Group, certain churches and certain schools I always hear a comment from G. Marie about who works there or who goes there. Grace loves Playland in Archbold, and often requests to meet friends there. She is in love with preschool and can't wait until next year when she gets to go 3 days/week instead of 2. She enjoys singing, coloring, wrapping presents, playing with her dollhouse, watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Strawberry Shortcake, "reading" with her TAG reader, sledding, dancing and baking. She loves her grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends and cousins and asks about them on a daily basis. There are 5 other girls her age at Martha's (her babysitter) and she really enjoys playing with them each day. Last week we were cancelled a couple of days because of weather and when I told her she asked if she could go to the sitter's instead of staying at home with me! Not good for my ego but I'm glad she enjoys going there so much. :) One of my favorite things about Grace is her sense of humor. She is able to laugh at herself and does so on a daily basis. Every time she trips and falls she bounces up laughing and saying "I'm ok, I'm ok!" She flew for her first time in December and did great! She played with stickers and colored the whole time. She will often ask me when we are going to fly to Florida again. She has a great imagination and I often hear her playing sleepover, restaurant and house. She is such a funny girl and makes us laugh many times on a daily basis. We can't believe she is 3 1/2 already and are looking forward to what she throws at us in the next 6 months...we love our sweet girl! :)