Like a roller coaster

Some days staying home with a toddler is like riding a roller coaster because his moods change so often. There are times he's goofy and silly, times he's frustrated and inconsolable, times he's adorable and loving, times he's irrational and unruly and times he brings utter joy and love. That's okay, though, I'm along for the ride.

The Next Generation of Computer Hackers

Thanksgiving 2008

Just tap and say "Mama"

Sam has recently taken to running up to me and gently pushing/batting me with both of his hands. It's not very hard, but I don't want it to turn into hitting. I had a theory that maybe he was just doing it when he wanted my attention so I decided to teach him to tap me on the shoulder or leg with one finger to get my attention. When he came up to me as I was finishing dinner and pushed my leg with both hands, I took the opportunity to stop him and say that if he wanted my attention, he should say "Mama" and use one finger to tap me. I demonstrated this by saying "Mama" and tapping his shoulder gently with one finger. I went through this several times and it appeared he was starting to get it. He decided to repeat it back to me to show me he understood it. So he said "Mama" and gently with one finger tapped his own shoulder. Of course I meant for him to tap me like I was tapping him, but being the literal toddler he is, he thought he just needed to tap his own shoulder and say "Mama" to get my attention. Needless to say, Dave and I had a good laugh over that. :)

My burgeoning web programmer

Note how Sam has arranged the letters JSON in his blocks. Coincidence? I think not!

Too tight!

Sam was wearing Andrew's shirt - we thought it was just a little small....

Adjusting to brother

The most common question we get about Sam these days is: "How is he adjusting to being a big brother?" All in all, Sam is doing quite well. He likes to give Andrew kisses and give him his blanket or pacifier. He alerts us when the baby makes noises and says "uh oh" when Andrew loses his pacifier. He's learning the art of gentle one finger strokes of Andrew's hair and to leave the baby alone when he's sleeping or nursing. However, Sam is pushing up against boundaries more and I feel like I'm saying "No" much more often. He's reverted back to biting when he's excited, experimenting with standing on the arm of the couch, climbing the back of the couch and head-butting. Some of it is also his age and the excitement of having Grandma and Grandpa come visit. I try to be sure we have some good one-on-one time and that he knows sometimes the baby has to wait while I finish taking care of him. We'll see how things change as Andrew becomes more interactive and also demands more of my attention.
-Christine

All tucked in and tuckered out

Sam generally is very good as we are reading him books and getting him ready for bed, but after we put him in and say it's time to sleep, he usually lets out a cry and stands up. Now, he only lasts about 5 minutes and then quiets down. The other day Dave experimented with tucking Sam in under his blanket and it worked like a charm! No getting up and no crying. Was he just waiting all this time for us to figure out he likes to be tucked in? We don't know, but it seems to work so we're sticking with it.

Bursting Forth

Sam has started to try out all sorts of new words in the last month and even just this last week: yogurt, off, on, Andrew, carry, mine, grandma, train, plane, go, stool, please, thank you, hello, up, raisin, bib. Most are just one syllable renditions of the words...but still his communication skills are just growing by leaps and bounds.

Adjusting to baby brother

Sam is in an adjustment period right now, getting used to finally having the baby home (it's been 6 days) and learning what that's like. In some ways he's helpful and quite observant. He's always bringing me Andrew's pacifier when he finds it somewhere and says "Baby, baby." He also likes to bring Andrew his blanket and offers up his toy cell phone to him to talk on. He goes around labeling all the things that belong to baby (car seat, chair, bassinet, changing table) and alerts us whenever Andrew starts crying by shouting choruses of "Baby, baby." On the other side, he's testing out limits with Mom and often does things he knows he shouldn't just to get a reaction (climb up the end of the couch, stand on a chair, bite, head butt). He started experimenting with doing these behaviors while Mom is nursing, to see if she'll actually put baby down and stop Sam (answer is yes, she will, so don't think she's immobile). I'm trying to make sure to put in quality play time with him and he's getting lots of attention and outings with his grandparents as well. Luckily the baby is sleeping so much he doesn't require a lot of attention right now, so I can spend time focusing on Sam too. One thing that warms our heart is he's learning to say Andrew's name: "Ah-ew" and enjoys gently stroking his hair or foot (with one finger to ensure gentleness).

Ice! Cars!

A few weeks ago Sam bumped his head in a tumble down the stairs. He survived just fine (phew!), but I wanted to avoid a big goose egg between his eyebrows, so I told him we had to ice his owie. In order to sweeten the deal (normally icing lasts about 20 seconds with a toddler), I said we could watch the movie Cars while his forehead was being iced. I made it clear, though, that if the ice came off, the movie went off to. Well, we iced for 20 minutes! He was enthralled with the movie and decided anything was worth enduring to watch. This week he made me laugh because several times he's gotten small owies which are followed by a request for ice and then a request to watch Cars. Apparently he remembered the treat he got and is looking for opportunities to get it again. Too funny.

Banana Eating Machine

Ever see someone inhale a banana?

Now you can.

A strawberry?

One of Sam's favorite books now is "The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear." In it, a mouse picks a strawberry but is warned by the narrator that the big hungry bear might come eat it, so in the end they split it in two and both eat it all up before the bear can.

Another of his favorite books is called "You can do it, Sam" about a bear who delivers cakes to his neighbors all by himself. At the end, Sam and his mother share the extra cakes and it shows a picture of mice eating the crumbs. The other night we pointed to the mice in the book and asked Sam what they were eating. He sat and thought for a while and then said, "Strawberries?" A very thoughtful guess...after all, the only mouse we read about eats strawberries! We just thought that was very cute, but maybe you had to be there.

Trash Truck Man Daddy!

Sam's newest sentence is "Trash...Guck...Manh...Daddy." The translation: "This is trash, it goes in our bin then into the trash truck which has a man riding on the back and Daddy takes me out to look at it every week." Needless to say, you can tell that he's been enamored of the trash truck recently...

Mama mia!

So for a long time Sam has just been saying Daddy and not Mommy. He started saying Mum at one point and for whatever reason gave that up. At some point he started calling both Dave and me "Daddy" so I went on a "I'm not Daddy, I'm Mommy" kick - so he just didn't call me anything! Well, somewhere around the beginning of September he finally figured it out and called me "Mama." Now, it seems like every other word he says is Mama or Daddy...but it warms our hearts each time. He's such a cute kid and it is amazing to see him starting to try out and master different words.

Potty Training

So we haven't been pushing Sam to use a potty, but yesterday he misunderstood "bring me that pot (for cooking)" for bring me your potty. (He similarly brought me a stool today, when I asked him for a tool.)

Well, I asked him if he needed to use the potty and to my surprise he said yes. So I sat him on the potty and read him the "Wheels on the Bus" about 5 times and then "One Duck Stuck" and finally fed him Strawberries, Cheese and toast. After about 45 minutes, he went! I think it was a novelty thing though - today he went straight back to using his diaper. But it would be SO nice to only have one kid in diapers....

Dave

Stuck!

One of Sam's favorite words, starting around 18 months, was "Stuck"...or as he says it "Guck." He's proved to us just how useful this word can be as he applies it to a myriad of situations: his foot stuck in his pajamas, his head stuck in his shirt, the peanut butter stuck to his toast, a toy stuck under the couch, the buckle stuck closed, Sam stuck in a hug with Mama or Daddy, a sticker stuck to a shirt and my favorite - Mama's eyes stuck behind her glasses. With a vocabulary of about 30 words you'd think it'd be hard to get concepts across...but not if you have words like stuck! --Christine

Here's a current list of Sam's words at 21 months:
Adu = water
Guck = truck, duck, stuck
Buh = banana, blankie, bath
Cucker = cracker, Tucker (his favorite stuffed animal)
Gigger = Tigger (his second fav stuffed animal)
Ga ga = all done (accompanied by waving hands at end of meal)
Bapu = apple, diaper, Grandpa, Grandma, backwards
Dat = cat, light
Bupple = buckle, bubble
Ga = again, pillow
Daddy = daddy
Mama = mommy
Diddy = dirty
Chews = juice
Poh = spoon
Booka = fork
Ahs = ice
Geez = keys
Eel = wheel
Bap = button
Eye = eye
Oh oh = phone
Jews = shoes
Booko = book
Cah = car, avocado
Bwa = blocks
Bah = pillow, ball, sheep
Beh = bear
Bir = bird
Poor = door
Bye-bye = bye bye
Muh puh = more please
Baguh = bagel
Gack = quack (like a duck), squawk (like a bird)
Woof-woof = dog
Kickin = chicken
Bus = bus - he says it correctly!!!

Photos from this weekend

Here are a bunch of photos I took of Sam this weekend to give you an idea of what he's up to these days. He's also adding more and more words to his vocabulary (eel = wheel, bap = button, eye = eye, kickin = chicken, dat = light, chews = juice, geez = keys, oh oh = phone)


Sam and Mom on the aerial tram at the Zoo...he really did enjoy it despite the face he's making.

















Sam drawing with crayons at his table and smiling for a photo to send to Daddy.

















Sam drives home from church! At least he was happy until he accidentally honked the horn and scared himself.

Our Big Boy

It just occurred to me last night when I looked at Sam asleep in his crib that he is no longer our baby or even much of a toddler. He is really turning quickly into a little boy with whom we can fully interact and who can mostly understand what we tell him. True, we still are figuring out how to understand him. This picture shows the line he is walking perfectly. He is wearing one of my hats (maybe his 95th percentile head size is the reason it fits), looks like the perfect little boy, but still needs and likes to be pushed in his stroller.

Our little Communicator

Sam is understanding a lot and trying to say even more. However, he doesn't have many consonants or vowels he can pronounce to draw upon so things either have multiple meanings or sound quite similar. Here's his vocabulary at age 1 1/2:

Adu = water
Baguh = bagel
Bah = what a sheep says
Bapu = apple, diaper, Grandpa, Grandma, backwards
Beh = bear
Bir = bird
Booko = book
Buh = banana, blankie, bath
Bupple = buckle, bubble
Bwa = blocks
Bye-bye = bye bye
Cah = car, avocado
Cucker = cracker, Tucker (his favorite stuffed animal)
Daddy = daddy, mommy
Dat = cat
Ga = again
Gack = quack (like a duck), squawk (like a bird)
Ga ga = all done, come with me (if accompanied by a grabbed finger)
Guck = truck, duck, stuck
Jews = shoes
Muh puh = more please
Woof-woof = dog

Molars!

In the course of about a week in July, Sam popped out four molars! He didn't get too cranky, though I think there are more on the way and he does seem to be waking up more at night and drooling a bit more. It's kind of funny that he's waited so long to get teeth and then they all come at once. Maybe he can shorten the amount of time he spends teething this way...his parents can only hope.
-Christine

Molars are Overrated

Sam still has only his 6 front teeth, 4 on top and 2 on bottom, so when he breaks out with his frequent laughs he is just adorable. For my money, a full set of teeth can wait.

Our Little Monkey Boy

Mr. Peanut is learning to climb! He started with the little chairs that we got from Shannon and quickly proceeded to start climbing the sofa. He has always loved our sofa - just in terms of running full bore into it and smacking into it, but now he climbs on and cruises on the top of the sofa. We try to make sure he is careful not to fall off, but he has already taken two head dives. hi favorite is to sit in the corner with a book or one of the remotes and push buttons.

Growing So Fast

Sam thought it was a kick wearing dad's tie.

He still loves his pasta....but what kid doesn't?


Sam got to see his Aunt Amanda graduate from High School


He can't read quite yet, but boy does he love his books!

Our little communicator

Sam's vocabulary and comprehension are increasing daily and it's amazing to watch. His first words have been:
1) Boom
2) Mum (sometimes Mama now)
3) Daddy (sometimes Gaggy, Daggy, or Gaddy)
4) Book (for a while it was just Buh)
5) Bah (for ball)
6) BAH (for banana)

He now nods his head yes and shakes his head no in answer to our questions. He's good and answering most things and is pretty consistent (i.e. he nods he's hungry and then eats when you give him food), although I think he still has his moments when he says yes when he means no, or vice versa. He's also intently watching as I say words and you can just see his little brain working on how to say them himself. Such a fun time!
-Christine

Happiness of being a Dad

There are a number of little things that just make me so happy to be a dad. Waking up early in the morning with Sam can be tough. However, the joy I get out of having him in my lap as we sit on our comfy chair overlooking the canyon, reading his selection of children's books once we get out of bed makes it all worth while. And then every day, when I come home from work and open the door, he runs to me with squeals of joy. Sigh. I keep telling people that there is nothing I have done in my life that has made me feel so blessed as being a father and every day, even with the challenges, it is so true.

Of course, it couldn't happen at all without a great mom to fill in the in between times, which makes it easy for me. Thanks Christine. :)

Hansel?

So Sam is big into this phase of exploring everything he can, testing his physical abilities and seeing how things work. Generally, this is fine and he does a great job hanging out exploring by himself. He sits on his little car and pushes around, he distributes our shoes around the house, he practices sitting on his little Sam-size chair, he pulls his books off the shelf and flips through them, he pulls pillows off the couch and lies on them, or he pulls out his toys and plays with them. I keep an eye on him and if he's not tired or hungry or in need of lots of attention, I can get some work done at the same time. I'm aware of where he is and what he's doing, but occasionally he throws a little surprise in. Like just now when he followed me into the kitchen and started playing with the warming drawer under the oven as he often does (we always have to check for toys before we turn it on, and keep Sam away). I turned my back for a moment and when I look back over, Sam has climbed into the warming drawer and is happily sitting there playing with his toys. So now we're going through the teaching phase of explaining he can put his toys in there, but not himself (I doubt it's designed to hold much more than his weight!). Gotta love the little explorer though...so creative. :)
-Christine

Sushi Time

We took Sam out for Sushi at Masa, our local hole-in-the wall sushi place in Mission Hills. He loved the food, but was confounded by the super-sticky rice which he couldn't manage to get off of his digits.

BOOM!

Sam has recently said his first word that has a clear meaning. "Boom!" He says it when anything falls down, but especially when applied to knocking down stacks of blocks, which are his favorite toys. But it actually comes out closer to "Baum!" He loves knocking down stacks of blocks and for a while could not stand to have any block on top of another, so his one word has gotten lots of use.

He is now also getting closer to saying "Mom" and may have said it on one occasion, but it is not as clearly correct as "boom". I'm betting the next couple weeks will present us with a real chatterbox.

-Dave

Card Sharks

Scarface

Sam took on a plastic spool of ribbon this weekend...unfortunately I think the spool won. He tripped while walking and caught himself with his arms but was carrying a plastic spool of ribbon in one hand (think Christmas present-wrapping ribbon) and managed to scrape his head along its edge from the middle of his eyelid to the middle of his forehead. It scraped very superficially, but enough to create a scab and looks rather gnarly (being about 1.5 inches long). The holding still to wash the wound with soap seemed to bother him more than the wound itself, but his huge facial scab turns out to be quite the conversation stopper. This is just the beginning of the toddler bumps and bruises...
-Christine

Discovering the trash can

So a couple of days ago I was trying to read a magazine and Sam was trying desperately to take my magazine. I decided to find a compromise and tore off pages as I read them and gave them to him. Sam would take each page and walk into the kitchen and come back for another a little while later. This went on a dozen or so times, and finally, I said "Sam, you must have a huge pile of paper in the other room to play with. Isn't that enough?" I went to investigate and found no paper on the kitchen floor. How perplexing. Then I noticed the cupboard with the trash can was open the 2 inches allowed by the child lock and when I peered inside I could see a nice, crumpled pile of magazine pages stuffed into the trash can. Aha, that's what he'd been doing. I thought it was really cute. Alas, since then, he's been not quite so discerning and rather than throwing in only used paper, he's tried his hand at throwing away socks, foam toys, playing cards...pretty much anything. So, we've moved the trash can to the back and now there's an empty gap so he can throw things away, but they come right back out the bottom. Luckily, he doesn't seem to mind. :)
-Christine

Recent photos

Grandpa Carta and Aunt Amanda with Sam




Grandma and Grandpa Brochard with Sam




Mohawk Sam




Sam and his cousin Clemente and their favorite condiment

Technical Difficulties

So posts for Sam's blog were down for two months. I ended up changing all of my passwords due to a break into my eBay account, and the blog flew under the radar. We bring you back to your previously scheduled peanut.

I've got the whole world in my hands

For a while Sam was in a phase of serial processing. He could only hold one thing in both hands at one time. And even if one hand was free, that didn't mean it could hold something. If he was holding a toy car but wanted to take the straw Dave was offering him and throw it on the floor, first he had to give Dave his car, then take the straw, then throw it on the floor, then take his car back. He couldn't keep the car in one hand and with the other take the straw and throw it on the floor. No...that would be two things at once.

Now Sam seems to be in a phase of fitting everything he can into one hand. As I put away laundry he pulls out all the socks and tries to carry as many as possible in one hand (and gets immense satisfaction out of it when he carries many). Or he walks around carrying various wooden puzzle pieces in one hand, or takes all his apple pieces and holds them in one hand while he eats one by one with the other hand. It's rather comical...

My name is "Aagh"

Sam is starting to sound like he's getting the hang of how to make words. He displays his understanding of them quite well (he follows directions like "Please give this toy to Mommy" or "Are you done eating?" or "Are you hungry?" or "Go over there and wait for the wind up car to come to you") and we think on Sunday he tried to say Da-da and Bye-bye. However, I'm still convinced that his name for me is "Aaagh." That seems to be what he yells when he wants me or to get my attention. Ah, well.
-Christine

Vegetable fiend!

Sam seems to continue to be a big fan of vegetables! For a while it was green peas, then green beans. Now he loves carrots and is just scarfing down broccoli florets as fast as I can cut them right now...how great is that! Go Sam! Keep it up for the next 17 years :)
-Christine

Sheila's note

At the end of January 2008, our friend Sheila helped watch Sam while Christine had training with the Registrar of Voters. Sheila wrote this note about how Sam was while they hung out and I wanted to reproduce it here since it did a great job of describing what Sam is like these days:

"Hi Christine!
Sam woke up about 3 o'clock and had (no tofu or cottage cheese), but quite a few peas, a couple of cheese chunks and avocado and several grape pieces. Made a few "noises" but no aroma and seemed to want to get up and play. :) Fun with the tupperware drawer - love to see him walk! What great balance. Lots of BAA's a few GAA's and one long sentence :) and nothing but laughs, smiles and serious confidences. I love his shoes! Hope you had a great meeting. So nice meeting Clemente and looking forward to seeing Dave's Uncle, too.
Lots of Love, Sheila
PS A few Cheerios. OXOX"

Entering toddlerhood

A week and a half ago Sam decided to use walking as his primary means
of transportation. So walk he does, sometimes nearing a run! He finds
great joy in it, particularly in running at our L-shaped couch and
flopping against its corner. Sometimes he doesn't make it all the way
to the corner...he falls face first in his excitement. But he's a
tough kid, he usually just gets up and completes his run to the couch
corner.

He's also using newfound mobility to get into every little nook and
cranny that he can - all cupboards, baskets, drawers and boxes. At
least now he's finding as much joy in putting things away and closing
them as he does in opening them and taking them out.
-Christine

External mastication

Sam has been going through a phase of squishing his food before he eats it (blueberries, beans, etc). It finally occurred to me today why he does it! He's just compensating for his lack of teeth (two on bottom, one on top, two more little ones starting on top) by performing some mastication external to his mouth. Of course. Why didn't I think of that before....
-Christine

I guess all the walking has gone to his head

We just took Sam in for his 1 year appointment.
His current stats are:
Weight: 23 lb 7 oz = 60%
Height: 30.25 in = 70%
Head Circumference: 48 cm = 90%

New post, old news

Since we are storing all of Sam's records in this virtual baby book, I thought we would put his baptism service online >>here<<.

Sam on his baptism day - October 20, 2007
with his Parents and Godparents Justin and Alex

A Good Belly Laugh

Sam and I shared a good laugh last night as he practiced using a spoon. At the end of his meal he was enjoying a few bites of cottage cheese and became particularly interested in how I was dipping the spoon into the bowl to get more. He was assisting me in maneuvering the spoon into his mouth, or doing it on his own. Then he wanted to help get more cottage cheese on the spoon. He enjoyed it so much, he kept doing it even when he wasn't hungry and just spit the cottage cheese out once he got it in. On one try to make it from the bowl to his mouth himself he accidentally flicked the spoon a little and a big glob of cottage cheese landed on his nose. We looked at each other and had a good laugh about that. Messy dinners can be fun!
-Christine

PS Hi to Sara who is reading this in N.M. Give us a call sometime.

Happy Birthday Mr. Peanut!!

Today is a birthday, we wonder for whom
We know it's for someone who's right in this room
So look around you for somebody who
Is smiling and happy, my goodness it's you!
Happy Birthday, Samuel, from all of us to you
Happy Birthday, Samuel, from mommy and daddy too
We congratulate you, and pray good luck follows you
Happy Birthday, Samuel, may all of your good dreams come true
Boop boop!

It's hard to believe that Sam has been in our life for one year. He is such a blessing to us and we feel so lucky to have his smile in our lives. We greatly look forward to the new adventures that lie ahead!

For his birthday, Sam got his own little carrot cake to do with what he would.



As it turns out, he took one swipe at the frosting and got upset at frosting sticking to his hand and didn't want to have anything to do with it. Later on, though, he did give in and eat a few bites from mom and dad's cake.

What's mine is yours

Sam is big into giving things to people these days. He picks up a toy, thrusts out his hand and arm at you, and hands it over. If you aren't looking, he patiently waits, arm extended. until you take it. If you aren't taking it, sometimes he just puts it down near you so you can have it for later. So cute!
-Christine

Messy eaters!

Sam says hello to his fans

"Baw bao baw bah ... gah guh guh guh ... baw ooh oh oh ooooo ... guh kuh kuh kah kah guh guh."
-Sam

Food prep zone

Sam felt the need to put his food on his water cup before every bite this evening. He is such a great eater these days...every thing from sloppy joe's to curried chick peas! Yum!

First Steps!

Sam just took his first three steps in a row this morning. How exciting! Pretty soon he'll be walking all over - it's obvious he wants to.
-Christine

Bathtime!