Christmas in Texas

I had a great time spending a week in Texas at my "eee-ma's house" visiting with Daddy's side of the family. Here are some pictures of my trip. (Thanks to grandma for letting Mama use her camera otherwise there wouldn't be a Christmas pictorial update!)


Papa helping me jump on the trampoline. Wee!


Texas is awesome! You can play outside in the wintertime!!!


Oh, yeah, those two.


Me and my cousin Will ("Whiiiiiiiiiiilllllllll" <---- sounds twangy when I say it.) I wanted to do everything Will did - if he had milk, I wanted milk. If he was playing with blocks, I was, too. I am sure this got to be slightly annoying for him, having a pushy little cousin tagging around all week but I had lots of fun.


Me and grandma playing the piano and singing - one of the highlights of my trip.


More fun with Will.


Playing the piano with Will on Christmas morning - Wake up everyone!


On the piano again. I love this thing!


hee-hee-hee-hee!


Look out! Naked toddler on the loose!!! (Oh, this is going to be so embarassing in 10 years!)

More Christmas pictures to come once we charge up our camera....

I'm going to have a little brother!

Yay! Christmas came early for our family this year - Mama, Daddy and I went to the "baby docto" on Monday where we watched the baby in Mama's belly on TV. It was okay for a while, and I was thrilled to find out I have a baby brother coming this spring, but after a while the baby show on TV got a little boring. Mama and Daddy smiled like goons the entire time while I kicked back on Daddy's lap with a snack and my "nutnee" (aka blankie). I was so good (quiet, still and undemanding - all very un-toddler like) during the baby show that I got five (FIVE!) M&M's when we left. I hope my brother is good like me because my parents really know how to treat a kid!

Oh, yeah, WOOO-HOOO! I'm going to be a big brother of a little brother!

PS Ultrasound picuture to be scanned and uploaded soon. Check back after Christmas.

"I ain't scared of no mouse!"

(Okay, now go back and read the title to the Ghost Busters theme. Good. You got it.)

Yes, folks, we have a mouse. A small quick little thing that seems to live under our fridge. Today I brought it a piece of cheese. (It was a piece of wooden cheese that's part of my magnet book, but I know mice like cheese and that's all I could find.) Like I said, I'm not scared of the mouse. "Mowww-sse."

"Neemee go school!"

Today was our first Early Childhood Family Education class. We are enrolled in Terrific Twos and so far so great! Class starts at 9:30 a.m. with a free play and parents stay with the kids. After about 30 minutes we start circle time, which involves parachute time, songs and group interaction, then at 10:30 the parents go into the next room for adult discussion and the kids do crafts, play with play-doh, have story time and snacks. We wrap up at 11:30.

Overall today's class was a complete sucess. Sammy loved all the toys - they had school buses, planes, and loads of "little people" not to mention tons of animals. He even skipped out on the part of parachute time because "Neemee play animals?" He was quiet and only one little girl followed him over, and for two-year-olds that's appropriate. I'm sure after he gets used to the toys he'll be more into the parachute, but I think the parachute smells kind of funny so maybe it's the funky smell that turned him away... (?) He also loved the part when the kids each got to pick two sticks and then sing a song about tapping them together - Sammy is a genius!!! - he picked up "two" sticks (yay! he sort of knows his numbers!) and then he followed the teacher's instuctions very well ("rolling the sticks" or "tapping way up high"). I guess he had fun while I was away, too, because there was no separation anxiety or anything and when I returned he was doing a happy skip in the room, and then told me about his play (and hopefully a bit educational!) time and snack. :)

We walked home from the school and by then he was beat. He was lounging on the couch with his blankies and saying, "Neemee go night-night couch."





This is him going night-night. Whadda nut!

When Twos aren't so terrific, but strangely amusing.

He goes to the fridge to get out the Eighth Continent, all the while whining, "Eight Cont-nent..."


Brings it to his little table...


Table's not dramatic enough - he puts it on the floor as he points and cries, "Eight Cont-nent!"


Trying to maintain the crying and whining even though he's eating and he's finally thinking it's pretty funny that Mama's taking pictures of all this.

Terrific Twos, oh yes.

How old are you?

Jess to Sammy, "What's your name?"

Sammy, "Neemee."

Jess: "How old are you?"

S: "One!"

J: "No, you're two."

S: "Neemee two!"

J: "Emma is seven."

S: "Emma seven. Mama eight."

ha ha ha

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!"

"It's beginning to look a lot like... a one-eyed dog-clops?!"

"It's beginning to look a lot like...a baby belly!"

Adventures in eating oatmeal

Pictures from Friday. Sammy didn't really eat a lot of his oatmeal (aka "meatmeal") at breakfast time but he was chowing down right before lunch. Cleaned his bowl and then ate lunch. Yay! He's eating again (sort-of).

New favorites and interests

1.) the MOON - I am loving the moon. I like to look up in the sky and say, "Neemee find moon!"

2.) Penguins - there is a penguin on my Christmas placemat that I like to point out. I am also very excited to "go bite-ight penguin sheet" - i.e. sleep on my new flannel crib sheet.

I'm still loving some old favorites: cars, trains, airplanes, cows and Elmo. Oh, and Christmas lights. Driving at night I am constantly saying, "more lights?" and then, "more lights!"


Oh, and one of my favorite shirts.

"Snow!"

I looked out the big window this morning to discover a dusting of snow on the deck. I kept telling Mommy "snow!" for the longest time (she thought I was saying "no") but she finally got it after looking out the window. (Hey, I'm two - some of my vocabulary continues to be a bit subtle.) Now I'm asking to eat snow.

Christmas Tree

We picked up our Christmas Tree this morning. I have been facinated with the whole process thus far - honestly, I have been waiting patiently all week for this tree to arrive so we could put "Christmas lights up!" inside the house - and I am very excited to finally have said tree here. Here are some pictures from our day...


Hooray! We brought the tree home and I "helped" Dada put the stand together.


"Tree"


I kept getting up next to the tree like this and saying, "Cheese!" I'm a nut.


Lots of pesky pine needles to sweep up at first. I'm a great helper.


Finally, my turn with the camera! I've been very excited to wear the "Woof" shirt I received from Cody and Ashley - I needed a picture of it, too.


Another fine picture from my perspective. They don't all come out so good..


I also took this one.


Mommy has the camera back - here's me and Dada in front of the newly lit tree.


And here's the tree! I helped put the tinsel on before going to bed. Maybe tomorrow we'll get to the ornaments.

"Neemee sit bouch watch Texas Football?"

A please would have been nice, but with a request like that, how can a mom refuse? So I put on Jacob's National Championship DVD. I figure the boy's learning history. :)

Pictures!

I've been kind of neglectful with the picture-updating lately. Here are some shots of Sammy taken before Thanksgiving - you'll notice his face is clear of all bumps, scrapes and bruises - he looked so good! :)


Me and Cal playing on my birthday!


"Hello?"


smiles after being punky during breakfast

Roughed up.

I am a menace to myself.

Here I am after falling down Ba's front steps and under his wheelbarrow.

Ouch!

And here I am after pulling my stocking holder down onto my forehead.

Owwie!!!!

Eh, I look worse than I feel. It's gonna take more than a couple bumps to slow me down.

Two year well-check

I went to my new doctor today. She is a very nice lady. Mama thinks we'll continue to see her - she had all kinds of good things to say about me and didn't mind when I got a little T.O.ed when she measured my head. So I've got a big ol' noggin, big deal! (Actually I don't, my head is in the 50th percentile which means I look less like a "lollipop" than some of my fellow 2-year-olds.)

Here are my stats:

Weight: 33 lbs., 90th percentile (whoa!)
Height: 35.75 in., 75-90th percentile (come on, look at my folks, I'm destined to be tall!)

The doctor said I'm a very healthy boy, right where I should be. Unless I get sick I shouldn't need to go to the doctor again until I'm 3 years old. :)

My visit with Santa.

Today Mama and I went to the mall to see Santa. I was very excited while we were in line - I was talking about Santa and the train that runs above his chair, but I wasn't too sure about him when it was actually my turn for pictures. I think he was a bit too in-my-face, well, his elves were really. (The elves kind of got on Mama's nerves.) Santa was trying to be mellow, he sat behind me while I looked at a book on a chair, but then he tried to pick me up and bounce me. I was not having that so I cried a little bit. I guess I'm not 100 percent comfortable with strange chubby men throwing me in the air just yet. But I sure did like talking about him - "Neemee pick-toe Sanna!" (i.e. "Sammy took a picture with Santa.")

PS I said I want a train for Christmas! "Choo-choo!"

Monkey boy

I woke Mama up with a few "ooo-ooo, ahh-ahhs!" this morning. I love sounding like my Little People monkey!

Sammy's party!

Sammy's party was last night. He invited his three closeset friends - Cal, Hannah and Kennedy - and we danced, played stick the hat on the turkey, made hand turkeys, opened presents and, of course, ate cake and ice cream. The party turned out *so* well. I think all of the kids had a blast, they all especially liked pin the hat on the turkey.

Here are just a few of the pictures from the party. I have a whole album online so if anyone else would like to see more, please send me an email. These five might not be the best but they were fun moments of the party. Also, there are some great pictures on Cal's blog at http://calmiller.blogspot.com/ (PS I took the red-eye out of all the pictures but for some reason when they uploaded all my editing went to waste. Boo. And, I'm too lazy to do it again.) So here they are...


Sammy's cake. And in case I haven't said it enough, "Happy Birthday Sammy! We 'ov ooooou!'"


All four toddlers waiting paitiently for cake.


Our little turkey.


Present time!


All the kids were facinated by Elmo TMX - Sammy's gift from Mama and Daddy. :)

Current conversation...

Jess: "What would you like for your birthday breakfast?"

Sammy: "M 'n M!"

Jess: "No, you can't have M&Ms for breakfast. Something else?"

Sammy: "Red bar please!"

Jess: "Red bar (aka cereal bar) coming up!"

Santa Parade

Santa came to town in a parade at the MOA. Guess which two hooligans were there?


Santa's arrival - I sawa dancing elves, reindeer, and, of course, Santa Claus!


Hooligans!


Mom tried to get a picture of the two of us in front of the tree but it didn't come out because it was too dark.


I love running around the mall!

Hilarious

Super Sammy in Elmo Socks!

Today's fun: baking!

Mama made cookies today and I helped! Well, what I really did was help to empty out the baking pantry.


me and my collection from the pantry


counting caramels

My son is a catalog shopper.

We received a Fisher Price catalog in the mail yesterday and Sammy has looked through it several times since. There is a picture of Doggie in there that he likes to look at with his doggie. He'll also flip through the pages, point to something he likes and say, "Sammy play!" This morning he put Doggie on top of one of the pages with a picture of a Hot Wheels and said, "Doggie drive."

I guess he's making his birthday/Christmas lists! :)