Samuel - 20 Months

So I kind of feel like saying Samuel's age in months is getting a little ridiculous. When people ask how old he is now, I usually just say "One and a half" or "He'll be 2 in January." For my own records, though, I figure I'll keep up with months for a little while longer. Obviously his month-to-month changes aren't quite as drastic as they were this time last year, but they're still significant (I think. But I am his mom. :-)

Samuel started preschool again this month and, not surprisingly, he LOVES it! His teachers this year are Mrs. Katie and Mrs. Sharone. They have music time and get to play outside, two things he didn't do last year. They also do tons of artwork and play with cars and trucks, apparently a winner with him as well. We pull in and he starts saying "Car! Car!"

 He still likes to go visit his old teacher, Mrs. Barbara, as well. Hers is one of those names he can say really really well, so he likes to go point at her and say "Bah-buh! Bah-buh!" It's really cute.

I like him going to preschool too. I can get so. much. done! It's crazy! Tuesday I did some work around the house and ran errands, and I think I went to 8 or 9 different places in the hour or so I was out. I also went and bought myself some shoes today, something that would be next to impossible to accomplish with Samuel in tow. Starting next week I will be watching an extra baby on one of his preschool days, but I'm still really pumped to have my one morning a week to myself.

Anyway, back to Samuel.

Eating: Um, still a lot. He has gotten pickier lately though. He's slowly learning how not to throw food on the floor if he doesn't want it. His (and my) new obsession this month are laughing cow cheeses. Holy schnikes, those things are good! I managed to get a bunch of them on sale, so we've been having one every day. It's a nice little boost of protein since the only meat he will eat is chicken nuggets/tenders. I still pretty much give him whatever we're eating, though, so hopefully he'll come back around one day. 

Singing: Skinna-marinky-dinky-dink. And Twinkle Twinkle and Itsy Bitsy Spider. The only one he actually sings is Twinkle Twinkle. And don't even try to fool him by singing ABCs instead, because he WILL NOT stand for it.

TV: Apparently Super Why is out, Clifford is back in. This week anyway. And Daniel Tiger is ok too, unless it's an episode that Owl isn't in, because why watch it if you can't see "Ow-EL?"

Sleeping: We've had some 6-6:30 am days thanks to this one last eye tooth that WILL NOT COME THROUGH. Not fun. I make him stay down til 7 at least, but with our rooms being right next to each other, if he's awake, I'm awake. Naps are still 1 1/2-2 hours usually. We had a few bad days with that recently too, but 9 times out of 10, there's no real problem.

Clothes: We're pretty solidly into the 24 month clothes now with some 2Ts mixed in there. A few of his 18 month things are still acceptable, but definitely getting tight. When did he get so big?

Books: I'm so glad my child loves to read! A few favorites right now are Hop on Pop, The Nose Book, Bunny's Garden, B is for Bear, a Thanksgiving book, Peek a Boo! I love you!, and Hands are Not for Hitting (oh yes, we went there!).

Toys: As aforementioned, the kid is loving some cars right now! I also got him a little truck he can ride around on and that's a hit, as well as anything he can push around. He also likes to hammer on his tool set, "ride" his bike, and play on his slide.

Play/Climbing: Because the two are synonymous for him. He learned how to climb up the twisty ladder thing at the park and get onto the platform 5 feet off the ground. And go up the rock wall. And down it. He scares his mama to death every time we go. He can also climb the fence a bit. And get on our dining room table. And climb the shelf in my closet. Oh my.

I think it's also significant to note that Samuel RUNS. Like, seriously runs. Everywhere he goes. Not just sometimes. Not just a quick spurt of running then panting. But a literal, all-out toddler run. I have to jog to keep up with him. Walking beside me and holding my hand is torture for him. Poor guy. I guess he got his momma's genes there. ;-)

Words: Samuel talks a lot. We've gotten pretty good at the yes/no game, so I can typically deduce what he is saying after a series of questions. He's gotten really good at saying several names, particularly "Carter" "Josh" "Conner" and "Barbara." He's also started calling Eric and me "Daddy" and "Mommy" which is really cute. He refers to his grandparents as "nana" and "bubby" (why I don't know!) and, occasionally, correctly identifies "pappy". He can also correctly identify a good chunk of letters, which I'm pretty impressed with. And, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that he loves talking about his "wee wee." He tells it "hi" and "bye bye" every time we do a diaper change. He's such a boy.

Annd now it seems that nap time is over. ;-) I love my crazy cuddly little bug, as much as he wears me out. And, as always, I'm so glad to get to be his mom! <3 nbsp="">

Beach Bums.

Eric and I finally got away for a weekend by ourselves! It only took us 19 months. (I swear I'm not a super-attached-can't-leave-my-child kind of mom. We have just never had an opportunity to leave him since our family is so far away).

After a lot of debate, we decided to go to Hilton Head for our getaway. That might have been a mistake, since it's a good 6 hour drive from our house and we were only staying 2 nights (talk about waaay too much time in the car!). So we didn't think that part through. 

We did have a great time relaxing, though! Our room was oceanfront so we could see/hear/smell the water and salty sea air while lounging around. It was amazing. There were 3 or 4 pools, only one of which we actually used one day (seriously, 2 nights just isn't enough!), and some fire pits and restaurants and such at the resort. We spent a lot of time wandering around and even more time just doing nothing. Together. 

We did take one morning to explore part of the island we hadn't visited before. 

We found a random farm with a free petting zoo where Eric got licked by a deer (possibly the weirdest part of our trip??) and met/talked to some cool parrots (who can apparently live up to 90 years?!? Am I the only one who thinks that's crazy interesting??). 

We went up a lighthouse. 

We played putt-putt (and essentially tied - the score card said Eric beat me by one point, but there was a questionable round or two, so I'm holding to a tie if not a win.;-) 

We ate. A lot. 

We dressed up and went to a jazz club/restaurant with a bunch of 60 year olds and listened to one of the best pianists I've ever heard (and a crazy latin lady singing and dancing...). 

It was random and fun and, as much as we missed our little guy, we totally wished we could have stayed a few more nights! 

Fingers crossed it won't be another 19 months before we escape again. ;-) 

Owls and Grace. And Mountain Dew.

Those two things don't have anything to do with each other, they're just two things I meant to record and they seemed obscure enough to sound good together. ;-)

Owls - Nothing special there, just that my child is obsessed with owls all of a sudden. (???!?) I'm not totally sure where it came from.

There's an owl on Daniel Tiger (Named O the Owl. Super creative, right?). He never really cared about him before, but now he's choosing to watch Daniel over Super Why.... "cause OWL!"

There's also an owl in this ABC book my parents got him last week and he keeps opening the book to the "O" page and squealing "Ow-elll! Ow-ell!!" in the most exaggerated way possible.

To top it off, we got to see a real owl at the Science Museum on Monday. He was over. the. moon. He "talked" about it the rest of the day (or, as the case may be, he kept saying "owl owl owl - hoo hoo!!" the whole way home. Vocabulary isn't his strong suit. ;-)

So there's nothing special about that, it's just something I wanted to remember.


And grace - Well, I was just thinking after a very long, fussy, napless, beat-your-momma-up-and-scream-about-every-little-thing kind of afternoon about how beautiful grace is.

Sometimes it's really hard for me to be gracious to my child when he is having a rough day, especially when I'm tired or, like today, super sore to go with it (that's what I get for working out too hard this week). But I know that I have been and can be way harder to deal with than that. Not only do I (internally) throw fits (I usually keep my all-out kicking and screaming tantrums to a minimum these days), I'm stubborn and overly questioning and at times even belligerent, and sometimes I sure do think I can do everything by myself.

Man, I'm so grateful that God has shown me grace! And that He gives me grace to make it through afternoons like these. Because even when making it to bedtime is a struggle, there's no where else I'd rather be.
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That was going to be all. But then I remembered this:

Samuel's "job" at dinner time is to bring Eric a soda, usually Mountain Dew or Dr. Pepper. 

One evening a few weeks ago Eric had to work late, and I found Samuel in the living room like this, calling "da da!! da da!!" It was sweet and sad and hilarious all at once. Apparently Mountain Dew must have magic properties, though, because Eric walked through the door a few moments later. We'll have to test this one out again on MICU next month! 

Anyway, that is all (for real this time!).