High-Five Sambam!

Mark this day down...Samuel pooped in the potty for the first time! He's been peeing in the potty for the past couple of months usually a few times a day. Starting a couple of weeks ago he became way more interested and started peeing in the potty more often than not. He's only having a couple of wet pull ups a day! Right before nap time today I asked him if he had to go to the bathroom and he went and pulled his pants down and sat on his little potty. He farted (which is always hilarious to a little boy for some reason) and so Steve asked him if he had to poop. Samuel said "poop" and then instead of the dozens of false alarms we've had he actually went! The only motivation he seems to need is a high-five after he goes. I am so excited and proud of my little man! :) Here's a G-rated toilet photo:

Grace is 4!

Grace at 4

Blowing out her candle

Reading a bedtime story with dad

S'more cookies we made to take to the sitter's for her birthday treat (I'm back teaching summer school for half days for the next 2 weeks). They were pretty awesome if you like s'mores.

My first attempt at working with chocolate. Grace and I melted chocolate and made the flowers and then used a letter mold for her letters. I thought it turned out pretty cute for a first attempt! Grace and Samuel loved that the flowers were edible. Samuel almost wouldn't believe me but I convinced him by taking a bite first. Then he proceeded to eat 2. My little tank. :)

The wait is finally over. Grace is officially 4. She's been waiting for this day for months. She's been wanting to be 4 because all of her friends at school have already turned 4 and she thinks that as soon as she is 4 she doesn't need to take naps anymore. I'll let you know how that works out for her. :)

At 4 G. Marie:

likes books and to be read to

loves coloring, painting, drawing etc.

enjoys puzzles

loves the movie Tangled

loves balloons

enjoys helping me in the kitchen

would live outside if we let her

likes to swim and play in the sand

is very excited about the baby and thinks it's going to be a baby sister

always wants to hug and kiss Sam-bam

loves music and dancing

likes showers more than baths and requests them often

is obsessed with jumping and running, "look how fast I can run/high I can jump!"

loves the fireman pole on her swing set

talks nonstop to the point of almost driving me nuts some days "but mom, I neeeed to talk."

asks about her cousins on a daily basis

is outgrowing naps and often takes an hour nap or just has an hour of quiet time up in her room

goes to bed at 8 and gets up at 7 (soon to be down at 7:30 to be up at 6:15 again...yuck)

loves to play pretend - favorites being teacher, doctor, hairdresser and mom

goes up for a nap by herself, dresses herself, picks out her own outfit (it sometimes needs editing) :), brushes her teeth (and is insulted when I insist on going over them one more time), tries to rinse her own hair, tries to do her own hair and sometimes will ask when she gets to stay home by herself - ahhh! I tell her not for a long time and find the need to give her another hug because she is growing up way too quickly

is completely pumped about starting preschool at the end of the month again; her teacher called and left her a message on my phone today wishing her a happy birthday...so nice!

There is so much more I could write about Grace. She is loving, sensitive, stubborn, independent, funny...I could go on and on. :) Happy Birthday Marie!

Swim Pictures

Action shot - Grace jumped off the diving board twice and went down the twisty slide 3 times today. She did so well this week!

Action shot - Sam jumped off the diving board 3 times and went down the twisty slide twice today! He holds the teacher's hand to walk out to the end of the board and then just leaps. Such a little daredevil. :)

Cheeeeeeese!

Swim Lessons

For the past 3 weeks the kids have been having swim lessons. The first 2 weeks were group lessons where Grace was with about 10 kids roughly her age and several teachers. Samuel was in the toddler class where he got to do a lot of 1 on 1 stuff with Steve. They both had a lot of fun with that. This week they have private lessons. Grace has come a long way. I'm so impressed to see how she's changed from last summer and even from a month ago to now. She's going under to get rings, going down the massive twisty slide, floating on her back and learning how to use her arms and legs properly. She's even jumping off the diving board all by herself (into the arms of her teacher below). I took a picture of her jumping in today but a little boy walked right in front of me at the exact wrong moment. I'll get one tomorrow and add it on here. Samuel is doing awesome too. He usually is nervous and cries for the first couple of minutes but then does fine. Today he cried for about the first 30 seconds and then was laughing and giggling the rest of the time. He has been going under, jumping off the side, reaching under to get rings, blowing bubbles, using a kick board, going down the twisty slide and jumping off the diving board! When his teacher asked me if it was okay if he jumped off I said sure and then immediately thought holy crap...what did I just do?! I'm sending my 20 month old off a cliff into 8 feet of water. :) He loved it and today he walked out on the diving board holding a teacher's hand and jumped off all by himself to his teacher below.

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.