Sammy loves his preschool.

What a great decision. Thanks so much Lisa and Leah for doing all the investigative work and bringing it up to me. I honestly never would have thought to send him this year, but I am more pleased after each school day that he is enrolled. *huge grin*

Today in school they read "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" and Sammy had all kind of mouse crafts in his backpack that he couldn't wait to show me when we got home. (He also had a chocolate chip cookie that he couldn't wait to "share" with me.) Before his nap he wanted to read stories about mice, and one of his crafts - a brown paper mouse complete with brown string tail - had to go upstairs with us and is now resting on his little table where he can see if from his bed. :) (I do wonder if he'll feel so kindly toward mice should we have any come to stay with us over the winter. *shudder*)

Preschool is fun!

Mr. Six Monther

I still can't believe he's six months already!

And, yes, he really really is as sweet in person as he is in his pictures.

More for Ashley

Because we *wub* you.



and



He wore the red one today but alas no photos.

Keep Rockin

A hearty thanks to Awesome Auntie Ashley for picking this shirt out for young Sammy last year. Fits him beautifully this year and he adores it. He continues to go around singing, "I wanna be a rockstar!" (ask Jacob...)

A belated Happy 1st Birthday to Isaac!

So sorry this is coming a week late, Ike. We had so much fun at your party yesterday. Thanks for inviting me even though I boss you around and rarely let you play with the big kid toys. I really do love you. You are just growing up fast than I anticipated!


Awww... he still has the baby look here... complete with drool, blank stare, and the adoring gaze directed at his big brother Cal.

Birthday presents are arriving!

And it's reeeeally hard to ask a 3-year-old to wait another two weeks to open them.

We got this box from Target/Amazon, but I'm not sure who it's from. Thankfully, Sammy distracted himself by coloring the box today. This was great! We colored the box for about 25 minutes!


Earlier this week I made the mistake of opening a box that he knew came for him (he was bugging me) and I now have a bday present hanging from a hanger in my closet. He is constantly going to check on it throughout the day. (This was the box from you, Wendy.)

Note to self: Wait until naptime to check mail!

Bling

An early Christmas present for Freddie. It's an amber teething necklace. Google it if you want to know more. Or don't if you're gonna make fun of me. Either way, he looks super-stinkin' cute in it. And, no, he does not sleep in it.

Well checks!

Both boys went in for their well checks today. So, here's the scoop (along with some other stuff I'm "writing" down so I don't forget it):

Sammy ~ 3 year well-check
weight 39* lbs, 97 percentile
height 40* inches, 95 percentile

*Both of these measurements are estimates because Sammy completely freaked out when he had to get measured. Jacob had to weigh himself and Sammy, then weigh himself alone to get Sammy's weight. The nurse figured Sammy's weight by subtracting Jacob's weight from their combined weight (yes, exactly like we do it at home). Then, I held Sammy against the wall so she could get his height, except he would not stand up straight so the height was pretty much a guess from looking at a semi-crouching Sammy. Little punk. No idea what was going on. He just wigged out.

In complete contrast, however, he looked on while getting his flu shot and we didn't hear a peep out of him over it. He thought the shot was pretty cool. He's a weird little dude.

Freddie ~ 6 month well-check
weight 21 lbs, 95 percentile
height 29.5 inches, over 100 percentile (this is how tall most kids are at over a year, people!!!!!!)

Freddie is thriving. He is now eating bananas, avocado, oatmeal single grain cereal, pears, full-fat yogurt and sweet potatoes. He rolls over and he babbles "dadadada" now. He usually sleeps from about 5:45 p.m. until anywhere between 7-8 a.m. (On bad/rare days he gets up between the 5-7 a.m. hours, but I usually try to nurse him and put him back in his crib and sometimes luck out and get more sleep out of him, But sometimes I don't.)


Tidbits for myself:
Sammy shouldn't be drinking more than 20 oz of milk/day, and this includes 8th Continent (aka soy milk). Too much milk can effect the body's iron abosorbion, and obviously one become anemic with too little iron, and since we are a vegetarian family (for the most part) and I am known to have bouts with anemia, we need to keep his milk intake within limits.

And his doctor (I love her!) gave me the 3 pairs of underpants rule, which is never go through more than 3 pairs of underpants in one day when potty training. And always have a neutral reaction to "accidents" because at this age kids are smart enough to know when and how to upset you (and they enjoy it, the little turds). So, plan-of-action: instate 3 pair/day rule and have neutral/no reaction. Sit Sammy on potty every 2 hours w/praise, even if no elimination occurs. And we'll go from there.

Teething age runs in families. Expect Freddie to teeth in a similar way/timeline to Sammy. (Hooray for another easy teether!!! But with waaaaaaay more slobber.)

Trick-or-Treat!

Sammy really enjoyed trick-or-treating this year! He and Jacob went around the neighborhood and Sammy did not want to be done. But he came in, chose two pieces of candy, shoved them both in his mouth (eats like his dad, that one), and then quite enjoyed himself handing out candy as well.


Jacob thought Sammy need to take his Caillou doll trick-or-treating so people would know Sammy really is dressed up and not in his good ol' everyday freaky primary colored clothes. ;-)

Oh, and in case you're wondering what that gaping hole is in our jack-o-lantern, well, a squirel decided our pumpkins would make a tasty treat and ate his way through our festive decor.


More proof. Guessing he figured he could "eat on" this one for a few more days.

Halloween diaper cover :)

Happy Little Scarecrow

Happy Halloween!

Another Jacob-carved jack-o-lantern. (darn, I should post this tomorrow, huh?)

MCM Habitot Halloween

Yesterday the Minnesota Children's Museum held a private Halloween party. Anyone could make reservations, it was just a better deal for members. (thumbs up!) It was so fun to take Sammy and let him trick-or-treat around the different exhibits, decorate yet another Halloween cookie - a giant haunted house!, and play at his favorite spots without a crush of kids and their parents. The best part is that all the kids wore costumes and we had a lot of comments on Sammy's clever get-up - quite a few "Hi Calliou" and "Look, it's Caillou!"

All of the following pictures are from the Sesame Street exhibit as it's new and we've never been there before. Sammy loved it - it's totally geared toward preschoolers and very awesome.






Sammy's on TV with Elmo!


My boys in the theater. :)

Happy Six Months!

Well, Slobber Face has hit a milestone. No, it's not unbelieveable cuteness, he's been there for a while. He's now SIX months old! How in the world did that happen so fast?

Six months and as sweet and smiley as can be.

Trick-or-treating at Minnehaha Falls

Sammy and Jess spent some QT at the Falls. There was a band, trick-or-treating, a hayride, a moon walk and even some pit fires for smores.




He was so pleased that so many people recognized he was dressed as Caillou. Me, too!


The theme this year was pirates. I didn't take enough pictures - the trail and booths were decorated really well and all the candy handlers were dressed as pirates.

And back at home, testing out some of our goodies...

Hannah's Birthday Party!

Fun from this morning. Kids attended in costume.


Eric was cracking Freddie up.


I loved that Lisa got up on a chair with Hannah. She held her through a hello, a prayer, a song and the birthday song. The chair would have surrendered had I attempted that with my three year old, I'm certain of it.


I loved that Shae (holding Matthew) was making sure Cal didn't sample the cake during Lisa's speech. (Leah, Eric, did y'all miss this? :) )


Sammy was so happy.


"I wish I loved anything as much as my kids love [balloons]." (See Knocked Up. You'll get it.)

GMI Fall Festival

our baby scarecrow


Caillou!!!


We made cookies. (Sammy really like the container with M&Ms - he pulled that to him and dug in as soon as he sat down. And kept going back for more to "decorate" his cookie.)


Trick-or-treat fishing


Cuteness. He kept crewing on his hat strings.


Poop. Yep. Part of the Zoo exhibit.

Ghost Cookie

Look what had to happen to Slobber Face's clothes

I had to have them cut and made into shirts. That's what happens when you have a looooong baby, folks. Onsies do. not. work. (And neither do rompers.) These are clothes the fit aside from the snaps, and all hand-me-downs (thanks, Leah and big brother Sammy!) and/or gifted. Now he has a full winter wardrobe. Woot! :)

Little boys, pumpkins and leaves.

Three of many reasons I love the fall. Look at these kids.


Rolling around in the leaves - after Mom and Leah raked them into big piles to bag up, of course! (oooh, look on Sammy's shirt - it's his Junior Firefighter Bagde sticker)


Oh, yeah, this guy is walking! Thankfully he's not too fast yet so he's still photographable. The other two, eh, they move too much or make goofy faces. I think most of my good pictures are of Isaac LOL. And Freddie slept through the whole outdoor adventure.


Leah buried Cal in the leaves and Isaac wanted to get in too!


The boys baggin 'em up!

Raking up leaves is so much more fun when your friends help!