More Mess Making

Sam has decided that he would rather feed himself with the spoon than let us do it. 

But sometimes it is more fun to use his hands.

Climbing

Sam is starting to become a climbing machine. He climbs on everything. He loves to climb on the stools in the bathroom, climb the stairs, and anything else he can grab a hold of. The other day I was doing laundry and kept hearing Sam squeal. I finally looked around the corner and he was sitting on the bench in the hallway. He was so proud of himself when I finally looked at him and he had the biggest smile on his face. I tried to get a picture of him quickly but he was off as soon as I had my phone out.



- Posted from my iPhone

The Mess That is Us

If I am being honest, I am a horrible housekeeper.  I know that it is part of my job as a stay-at-home mom but I just stink at it.  Our house is rarely clean unless other people are coming over.  It makes me crazy but I always seem to be playing catch-up.

Each meal turns in to this…

And this is actually tame compared to how it normally gets under Sam’s chair…

There are always shoes at the door…and yes, these are all three mine.  I, actually, wore all of them in one day and seemed to have forgotten where my closet is located!

Grrr….the dishes!  Cleaning the kitchen is probably my least favorite chore.  I always feel like I am playing catch-up in this area.

Our counters are magnets for clutter!

When I actually get on a clutter-busting mission, the stairs become a hazard.

And the playroom…good thing it has a door on it!

Reese’s bookshelf seems to throw books off of it on a daily basis.  Either that or Sam loves to yank them all off.

I am proud to say I got most of that cleaned up yesterday…but you wouldn’t know it to walk in to my house today!

Happy Valentine’s Day

Tonight Reese and I made a chocolate chip cookie cake.  I then let her decorate it with pink icing which Sam seemed to love.

It didn’t turn out that pretty.

And Reese didn’t seem to really like them.  It is totally my fault.  I didn’t have any baking soda so I had to substitute baking powder and I only had seven tbsp of butter instead of eight…and that really seemed to make a difference.

We had a really nice afternoon.  We got to go on a walk and I loved it!!  It was so nice to be outside in the beautiful weather with my little lovies!

“We love because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Brad Paisley

For Christmas, Becca and I bought Tommy and Lance tickets to see Brad Paisley.  Last night was the big night.

And it was so much fun!!

The four of us went to dinner first and then made it to the Arena in time to see Darrius Rucker (aka Hootie).  We missed the first opener. DR played three Hootie and the Blowfish songs and one Hank Williams, Jr song.  He put on a great show.

Our seats were center stage…second to last row.  Ha!  They were actually really good though.

And he got closer to us for a few songs. 

He even came and stood at the bottom of our section before he walked back to the stage.

We had so much fun!! I am glad we had this time together with Becca and Tommy…and BRAD!

And, yes, this concert was much more my speed than the USHER concert.

Sam~15 months

Our little man turned 15 months old yesterday and today he had his check up.  He did great and is still small!!  Lance blames it on my family genes.  Lance is 6’2” and most of his family is tall too.  My dad is 5’10” and his brother is 5’8” (on a good day).  So we very easily could have a daughter who is taller than our son.  Ha!

 

Sam is 30.5” (32%), 23.4 lbs (32%), and his head circumference is 18.5” (45%).  He hasn’t grown much since his 12 months visit but seems to be staying on the same curve so that is good. 

One thing that we are struggling with are his ears.  He has had ear infections (both ears) going on three months now.  We went through three round of antibiotics and then three weeks ago we did all three rounds of the antibiotic shot.  Nothing has helped so we scheduled an appointment with an ENT for Monday.  Today when the doctor looked in his ears he said they do not look good.  It wasn’t what he said but the way he looked when he said it that scared me.  He said we could do the shots again but I just couldn’t bring myself to do that to Sam again.  They are so painful.  When I said I didn’t know if I could do that again he said he wouldn’t do it right now if he was making the decision.  He knows how painful they are.  I even cried the last round with him so I knew I couldn’t handle it again (like its about me).  We have started another round of antibiotics instead that is as close as you can get to the shots.  I am not surprised that his ears are so bad because he is not sleeping well.  He is a trooper though.  When Reese had a double ear infection (the only one she has ever had), she woke up screaming with a really high fever.  He just whimpers until I come in to get him, rock him, and he falls back asleep in my arms or I lay him down and he is right back to sleep.  He is amazing!

He LOVES bubbles.  We were bad parents and didn’t do bubbles with him until recently.  He gets this huge excited face every time we start playing with them.

He also loves his sweets.  I went to the grocery store the other day and this huge bag of M&M’s was on sale.  We have popcorn and M&M’s every Friday while watching a movie so I figured I would stock up.  While I was unloading the groceries he spotted this bag on the floor and immediately dove for it.  He then carried it around  for a long time. 

He is very much so a boy.  He loves to play rough, climb on things, make all kinds of noises, and loves to make us laugh.  If we laugh at something he does, he will do it over and over again.

Reese seems to tolerate him when he is being crazy but will constantly give us a play by play. 

Sam is always interested in what Reese is doing and what she has…and then he has to have it.

While waiting on his prescription at Publix today I got him a cookie from the bakery.  He was in heaven until he dropped half of it on the floor.

Sam is, surprisingly (because of all of his ear problems), becoming very vocal. 

He says:
*Ma-ma
*Da-da
*Bye-bye
*Ba (ball)
*Cah (cup)
*Ah-ah (hot, hot)…when he touches the oven, warm food and then he blows on his food to cool it off
*Eh-o (Hello)…when he picks up my phone and puts it to his ear

He signs:
*all done
*more
*thank you (occasionally)

He barks when you ask him what a dog says and when he wants to go outside.  He also barks for any other animal…silly!

When it is bed time we all go to Reese’s room, read two books, do a devotional, say our prayers, and then say good night and give kisses.  One of the sweetest things he has recently started doing is when we start wrapping things up and start saying good night, he comes over to each person, puckers up his lips, and gives kisses.  He will go to each person and then start on another round.  It is so sweet and funny.

Getting in to things at the drs office

Conversations with Reese

I have had some funny conversations with Reese today.  Here are three of them:

*We were talking about hanging out at my parents house.  She asked, “Mommy, could you please not send Gigi an email and tell her I need a nap?”

*She has socks with the days of the week on them.  This morning she wanted to wear the Friday socks.  When we were driving to lunch, Reese asked me what day it was.  I said that today is Wednesday.  Her reply was, “But my socks say Friday.”

*This one is kind of gross but so funny.  She said, “Mommy, do you remember when I throwed-up?  It made my snot hot.”  Haha!  She cracks me up.

Not Fair!

*A while back I started a new routine. I set my alarm for seven so that I have time to wake up, get ready, and enjoy some quiet time before the kids wake up. I usually hit snooze and the alarm goes off five minutes later. I then turn the tv on and slowly get moving. What is unfair about that? My kids have inevitably started waking up earlier since I started this little routine. This morning Reese walked in to my room at 7:07. Sam woke up at 7:20. They used to wake up at 8:00! Not fair!

*On top of not getting to wake up quietly, I feel like I have a newborn in the house. But it is worse. Both kids are waking up multiple times a night. Last night I was up four times. The night before I was up five times. Not fair!

*I realize how dramatic I am being. I am just sleepy so give me a minute.


- Posted from my iPhone

We have had another fun day today. After ballet we went to a fun little indoor playground to celebrate the birthday of one of Reese's friends from school. They had so much fun running around and playing together. I got a little glimpse of what they are like together at school. It was sweet. They gave each other the sweetest hugs when we were leaving. It is fun to see Reese in her element.

I totally forgot my camera today so I will leave you with a picture Reese drew this morning while I was getting ready. She said she was going to draw a cat so I thought it would look like the circle faces she usually draws. I was so shocked to see her cat when she was done. Amazing!




- Posted from my iPhone

Champion Kids

Today we went to Champion Kids with some friends of ours.  It is a gymnastics gym that has open play during the day.  All four kids had a lot of fun running around and playing.  They have a jumpy and a huge blow up slide.  Sam LOVED going down the slide with me.  Each time we got down he would point at it to go back up. 

Over the foam pit they have a rope swing.  They also had this at Reese’s old gym but she never had any interest in swinging on it.  Well today she saw Kayleigh swing on the rope and realized how much fun it was.  After Kayleigh went Reese wanted a turn.  She loved it the first time.  The second time she went I was able to record it and she didn’t seem to enjoy it that time.  She never got on it again.  Too funny!

Reese swinging

We had a fun time out today!  It is always fun to spend time with our friends.

Much Needed Day

We had a last minute trip to the Aquarium today.  We picked Reese up a little early from school to head down.  Sam was so excited to see Reese!

I snapped a couple of pictures with the camera and then the battery died so I had to take the rest of the pictures with my phone.

I tried hard to just be in the moment and not take too many pictures though.  The Beluga Whales are just so hard to watch and not take pictures of…they are beautiful and so graceful.

The penguin exhibit was open and it was pretty nice.

Each time we walked in to an exhibit Sam would start pointing and getting so excited.

He really enjoyed the tunnel.

Reese had a blast all day.  She was SO good today.  She stayed with me, she followed all directions, and was just overall so sweet. I was so proud of her.

Sam went all day with out a nap (until the car ride home) and he was the perfect little angel too.

My camera just doesn’t do this exhibit any justice.  It is so bright and colorful.  The kids love it.

When we were in the room where you could see the whale sharks I let Sam out of the stroller.  For a while he just sat with us and snuggled up to Reese.  They have been so sweet together.

Sam loved walking up to the glass and banging on it.  He would squeal as the fish went by.

Today was such a wonderful day with both kids.  It was a day I needed and didn’t even know that I needed.  Thank you, Kristin, for setting this up for us.