Baltimore Trip, September 8-12, 2006

Mama, Daddy and I went to Baltimore to see Mom-Mom, Pop, Aunt Jen, Bob, Great Aunt Pattie and her brood; and to attend the Fifth Annual Bilger Family Reunion. (I met a lot of people!)

Here are some pictures from our trip:


MSP is a cool place to hang out and play! Here I am driving the fake luggage truck.


And here I am sitting in one of the kiddie rides.


Sitting with Pop


Reading with Aunt Jen


Watching some kind of racing with Bob - an instant bond.


Touching some kind of sea creature at the Baltimore Aquarium


Laughing hysterically with Aunt Jen on the way home from the Aquarium. After this giggle session I passed out for about 30 minutes.

It was a fun trip. I liked riding in the airplane ( my 16th and 17th flights!), especially since I'd been talking about how "Ba" flew an airplane when he and Nana left. I only napped two out of the five days so I kept my parents busy and I was tired, but I had a good time - except for I got a huge dollop of Old Bay Seasoning in my mouth and I squawked because it was so spicy! Mama had to wipe out my mouth with a napkin, then for the rest of the night I was saying "hot" and waving my hand in front of my mouth, "ha, ha!" Hey, I was interested in the crabs, but trust me, the mallets are just as fun and they don't burn your mouth!

More pictures from Nana and Ba's visit

Crusing around the backyard and stepping in dog poo on Ba's watch!


I get up and down the stairs, open the latch to all the gates and escape (and help Emma escape) quite easily now. Thankfully Nana and Ba are watching me.


Racing boats with Nana at MCM


Ah, the scene of the imfamous, "Get me down now."


Rockin' out. I only wish MCM would get cooler tunes to karokee to. Who can rock to "The Wheels on the Bus?" Ugh. Shudder. But I do love to see myself on the TV.

Fun with Nana and Ba!

Nana and Grampa James (or as I call him, "Ba") came on Thursday, August 30th to stay with us through Labor Day. Cool.

Grampa James helped me on all the different vehicles at the Minnesota State Fair....

4x4


Bush Hog


Then Nana led me through the Little Farm, or whatever it was called.


Score! A little green tractor at the Little Hands Farm!


Can we take it home?


An enclosed ATV - so awesome!


Close the door, Ba!


Ending the Fair trip with another 4x4.


I loved the fair.

Then, more fun with Ba...

"Hellooooo!"

"Get me down now!"

So my parents were real impressed with me yesterday...seems I said my first intelligible "complete" sentence. "Get me down now." Shoot, if they'd listen more closely, they'd hear me bark out plenty of commands. "Get me some milk." "Take me to Big Bowl." "Put on the Wiggles." "Buy me Elmo TMX on September 19th." You get the point.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!

I heard the real party was last night - I can't believe I slept through cake, balloons and board games!

(pre-guests shot)

But I thought today was pretty awesome, too. First up, a birthday breakfast for Daddy at "the Square", then fun outside at the park with Mama and Daddy.

We came back to the house for lunch and a nap. When I woke up Eric was over helping Daddy grout tile in the kitchen so Mama, Leah, Cal and I went to the Park at MOA and we rode Truckin' and the Bloomington Express.


I'm Truckin'!

Then we went to the "sto", as I call it, to pick up a few things for dinner.

Me and Cal in the car cart.

Finally, back home where we decided to get pizza after all that. But what a day! I hope Daddy had just as great a day as I did! I "wuv" you, Daddy!

Mega Sale = Mega Score (Way to go, Jess!)

Sammy and his "new" Seasame Street Camper.


He *loves* this thing.


He played with it for 20 minutes, all by himself.

A super find at the Mega Church Sale that Leah and I went to last night, depsite the rain and the crowds. I found a bunch of other great things, too, including a dump truck and lots of books, but alas, the toddler boys clothing section was sadly disappointing so the little guy is still in need of winter stuffs...

One more cute picture

Taken last Wednesday before we went to the beach.

pictures from last Thursday's playgroup

Since my camera batteries were sacrificed for the greater good (aka Shout Elmo) I haven't been able to take pictures for a week. But thankfully another mom at playgroup caught Sammy in a few. Here they are:


Sammy, Vica and Cal playing in the sandbox


Sammy and Hayley on the trampoline

Sammy size

With my new super shoes on I weight 32 lbs and measure 34 inches. I figure those numbers are close enough to the real thing for any of you (grandmas!) that might be wanting to buy me fall and winter clothes. :)

"How old are you Sammy?"

"Twoooo!"

Well, almost. I know this post looks confusing - I actually won't really be two for a few months. My parents are just teaching me my answers. :)

mmmm....Thai food

a Thai dinner after MCM


I love sticky rice, fried Tofu and sauces, even the spicy ones! Topping off the meal with a zing of lemon.

Me at MCM

I've been to the Minnesota Children's Museum at least eight times since we've moved here but these are probably the first pictures I've posted of me there. Here's a glimpse of today's fun:


Mona Cute-za


crawling throught the hollow log in Earth World


Weeee!

From Jess:

I swear Sammy just told me "love you" - I was putting him down for his nap and I tucked him in and said, "love you" and then as I was leaving I heard a little "wuv-ooou." Awww, he's the sweetest thing.

"Having fun at the beach!"

Today KP came up and we went to Nokomis Beach.


Yup, we hold hands.


We snack.


We play.

Happy Birthday Grandma Dianne!

And today's words are...

"Foo-baaa booo!"
i.e. "football blue!"

Today Mom, Miss Leah, Cal and I met up with some kids from the Minneapolis playgroup at a sprinkler park. It took me a while to feel comfortable enough playing on my own, but after we were there for a while I was running back and forth through the sprinklers with a plastic toy from Monsters, Inc. (I don't know where that came from but I liked it.) It was a fun way to spend a HOT afternoon.

Also, today's new words included: stick and teeth. I am pretty good at trying almost any word that my parents ask me to say. It doesn't always come out correctly but the point is that I'm trying. I am not 100 percent on my colors yet as I get stuck on purple and yellow a lot - those were the first I learned to say - maybe they are my favorites? I guess I'll make a good Vikings fan.

Lunching with Cal.

Cal's friend Hannah had hives so he hung out with us this Wednesday.

I love The Wiggles!

Wow! The Wiggles are so fun! My mom borrowed a Wiggles VHS tape from the library and I loved them so much that my mom broke down and bought me my very own Wiggles DVD (Toot Toot for those of you who are familiar). This way we can fast forward to the songs - my favorite part.

My favorite character is Wags. I get so excited when I see him, I point to the TV, pat my leg, squawk out something that might be "Wags" and turn around in circles. Then I dig.

Here's me dancing to "Move Your Arms Like Henry"

Damn I'm good looking

Today's fun

Today Mama and Daddy took me to one of most magical places I've ever been. There were rides, games, lots of other kids, and a Mouse seemed to be running the show. We met up with Kennedy and her folks and had so much fun! No, we weren't in Anaheim or Orlando, we were at the Burnsville Chuck E. Cheese!

Here are some pictures:


Me, going down the slide. Wee!


KP was riding the carousel so I jumped on, too!


And here she comes! KP on the carousel.


There were lots of rides to drive here - I was in paradise!


That's my girl KP!


Watching Daddy set the Chuck E. Cheese hoops record.

Big Trucking

This morning Mama and Daddy took me to the Mall of America. It was so fun! I liked watching some of the big rides go by, and whined to go on the Battle Axe, but I'm still too little (boo!). But I did get to ride Big Trucking twice! It's this cool ride where I get to sit up in a Big Rig, in a line of other Big Riges and "drive" it around a loop. I'm really good a honking the horn and steering. My mom rode with me the first time and my dad the second - they just wanted to get in on the fun, it's not like I needed a chaperone.

I also played for a while at Legoland, got to eat part of a rice crispie treat for snack, and tried to open a few of the shop doors earlier on before most of the mall opened - I even did better at staying with Mama and Daddy while walking around. The MOA is a fun place.

Oh, and lest I forget, I saw the Teletubbies on TV for the first time today and I quite enjoyed them, to my parents' horror.

Pictorial Update

Me, Cal and Miss Leah's foot. Taken the day my parents closed on our new home: June 5, 2006.


My new posse, getting ice cream at Izzy's. (I had a blueberry Izzy. Mmmmm!)


My first rock injury: a HUGE knot!


What?! Haven't you ever fallen head-first into a set of bongos? I'm sure Matthew McConaughey has!


Me and KP. Aren't we sweet? Father's Day 2006


The 'rents bought a new car! The fam and our Mazda5, June 22nd, 2006.


Playing on Nokomis Beach with Cal - that's me in the yellow hat, getting all sandy. June 23, 2006.

Fun in Mini Apples

I am having too much fun with my friends here in Mini Apples to stop and post in my blog - sorry! I have lots of pictures and will hopefully get a few cute ones up soon. We've done so much stuff since moving here - going to the lake, playing at many different parks, lots of trips to the Home Dee-po (sometimes in the race car cart!), hanging out at the ice cream shops with my friends, dinner at my friend Cal's, holding hands with KP, and, of course, getting one very large knot and cut on my forehead (Daddy calls it my first rock-n-roll injury).

Some of my favorite new words: Texas! (which I learned at the tail-end of my trip to Texas), Bevo, Balloon and Yucky.

Also, during a trip to Wal-Mart yesterday I became enamored with a pair of suede gloves. They were on clearance from the winter (only $1!!!), and chances are they won't fit me properly until I'm seven, but I had to have them. I like to put them on my hands and clap, or just wear them when I'm sitting around. I wore one while I was eating lunch, I even went down for my nap wearing them.