For Owen: hands and knees

For Samuel: a race car

“No!  I’m NOT going to take a nap today!”  Said while stomping his foot and swinging his indignant fist.  “It’s not my naptiiiiiiime!  I don’t need a NAAAAAAP!”  Little does he know, the worse he reacts, the firmer I am in my conviction to MAKE. HIM. NAP.  Sometimes, though, he just doesn’t give in.  But I definitely don’t stop him from thinking he has to be sneaky about playing quietly in his room.

The other day I got in the shower while Owen napped and Sam “napped.”  When I came out, I found someone hanging out on my bed.  Wearing completely different clothes than when I last saw him.  He didn’t hear me.

But then he heard the camera, and knew he was caught.  Busted.

I chuckled at the obvious expression of guilt.  “Sam, it’s ok.”  And that was all he needed.  “Oh I’m not in trouble?!”

“No, Samuel, you’re not in trouble.  What are you doing?”  “I’m fishing, Mom!”  Duh.

Sam won this naptime battle.  But only because I let him.

When I was pregnant with Samuel, I suffered the normal motherly fears of “What if my child isn’t cute?!”  All I wanted for my baby was lots of hair and a pretty mouth.  And if I had to choose only one?  Hair!  During my 3 hours of pushing, it was a huge reward to when the top of Samuel’s little baby head was spotted, and the doctor said, “Wow, he has a lot of hair!”  The nurses told me later that he got the Most Hair Award of the week at the hospital.  It was thick and dark, and there was lots of it.  And I loved it!

7 1/2 months

8 1/2 months

Then I had Owen.  He wasn’t born with a ton of hair like Sam, but there was still a good thick fuzzy head of blonde hair.  And then it fell out.  All of it.  Except a teeny tiny strip at the bottom of his neck.  Fortunately, I have been thoroughly pleased with the fact that it is didn’t take long to start growing back.  But not all over his head.  Mostly in a patch right on top, and then a patch over each ear.  I get a kick out of it, and still think he’s cute as can be.  Although sometimes I do kind of think he looks like the Baby Ruth guy from Goonies.

Holllaaaaaah!  Samuel finally earned his truck, the one that has been sitting on top of the fridge all month just waiting for him to earn it by being a bright shining Sunbeam.  Today was the day.  The trick?  I hid and make Erik deal with it.  Erik took Samuel to the row his class sits on and just walked away.  I peeked in ight after, and saw Sam turned away from his class hanging his head, but I think his buddy Jacob got him over that pretty quick.  Then when they came into the Primary room after opening exercises I hid again.  And Samuel did SO awesome.  I was really proud of him.  He found me hiding in the back during singing time, and came running to me, but it was only to go to the bathroom.  When we came back, Sam asked “Now you’re going to sit with me, Mom?”  I said Nope, he said Ok, and walked right back into Primary, sat down with his class, and started singing.  He turned back to me a couple times, flashed me a Sunbeam smile, and waved.  Wahoo!!  Success!!!

I took this and realized this is the first sleeping baby picture in months.

Sam wouldn’t let me take a picture of his cool outfit, so when he was playing, I yelled “Sam! There’s a lizard on my head!!”  It was the best I could do.

Going for an early morning drive.

Big Boy O Bear.

Pickle Eating Contest.

Bath time. 

Right now, you are trying really hard to figure out a good sleep schedule.  You are becoming more consistent about taking regular naps.  You still haven’t slept through the night yet, but you are getting really good at putting yourself to sleep.  If I put you to bed very sleepy, you roll onto your left side and pull your fuzzy blanket over your head.  If you still need a few minutes to fall asleep, you kick around for a bit and fall asleep on your tummy.

Right now, you can easily down a 6 ounce bottle.  You do a bottle dance when you see it coming, kicking your legs, bouncing up and down, making “eh eh eh” noises, reaching for it, and trying to put it in your mouth.  You still like to pull the hair on top of your head and pump your arms while you eat.

Right now, you can sit beautifully, and you are happy to do it if you have enough toys to keep you entertained.  You can even push yourself back up if you fall too far over.  You have also figured out how to scoot yourself forward like a little inch worm.  And you love to jump jump jump.

Right now, you are so very friendly, and will flash the most adorable smiles at anyone.  Sometimes you get a little shy and snuggle your head into my shoulder.  But you still show off that big smile.

Right now, you are getting good at the baby food business.  You don’t like applesauce or juice.  You do like carrots, green beans, peas, peaches, and prunes.  But you prefer apple slices, carrot sticks, graham crackers, french fries, brownies, and pickles.   

Right now, you get so sad if you see me walk away, even if it’s just to the kitchen.  You aren’t quite as willing to go to other people as you used to be.  I have to admit that gives me a small amount of satisfaction to know that I’m your favorite . . . at least until Sam plays with you or Daddy comes home.

Right now, at seven and a half months old, you are starting to grow up faster than I would like and you’ve finally convinced me that you aren’t my itty bitty baby anymore.

This was Samuel’s third Sunday as a Sunbeam.  I spent most of November and December utterly flabbergasted that my baby was old enough to be going to Sunbeams.  The first Saturday of January, we had a Primary activity for the kids to meet their teachers and play a get-to-know-you game in their classrooms.  Then everyone came back together and watched a movie with popcorn and twizzlers.  Sam was stellar.  He was so good, followed right along, and fit right in with all the other kids.  I couldn’t believe it.  Little Sam was so grown up.

Sunday, unfortunately, was not so effortless.  Sam screamed and cried (I never would have thought that’s how he would react!) and was all over me as I tried to do Sharing Time.  It was a huge struggle.  The Sundays since have been just as trying.  Samuel is having a hard time adjusting, and I really think it’s totally my fault.  If I wasn’t in there, I think he’d be doing so much better.  At least class time goes really well.  He and I will just have to figure out how to make Sharing and Singing time work with Mommy there, too.

Samuel these days is growing up fast.  He has so much to say, and does not stop talking . . . ever.  He still loves to pretend, and he also enjoys making up crazy stories.  He spent a good 10 minutes telling me about how he went swimming with a shark, and they were fighting, and it bit him so he bit the shark and they were both very hurt, and it was naughty to fight, so then he got out of the water and was cold and needed a towel but the towel was in the laundry and on and on and on.  I wish I could remember the whole story.  It was amazing.

We were driving in the car and I started singing a silly song.  Sam, the bossy little thing, told me, “Stop that!  Don’t sing Chicka Chicka!”  So I asked what I should sing instead.  “Sing I am a Child of God.  That’s my favorite!”  So we sang that instead.  Then Sam was quiet for several minutes, kind of spacing and staring out the window.  He broke the silence and explained to me, “Mommy, Jesus was a baby on his birthday.  And Mary was Jesus Mommy and Joseph is the daddy and the three kings and wisemen brought Jesus his presents on camels.”  Oh.  He DOES listen.

I might have taken a turn a bit too fast one day when we were out.  Sam hollered at me, “Whoa, Mom, be careful!  You’re going to crash me!!”

With all the commotion that was going on in our house the last several weeks, Sam loved to follow the guys around, ask them their names, and find out what they were doing.  “Hey man, what are you doing to my house?”  It was all good and fun to have people in and out, but when they started taking things apart, Samuel was very ticked.  “Noooo!  Noo that’s my HOME, don’t break my HOME!!!”

I told you about Sam’s sad reaction to Owen’s 6 month check up.  So, a couple weeks later, when we had to take O to the doctor when he was sick, Samuel was beyond concerned.  He cried and cried most of the way there, telling me Owen was not sick anymore so I didn’t need to take him to the doctor again.  “Owen’s go to the doctor already, he doesn’t need go again and get more pokes.”  Once Sam figured he had me sufficiently convinced, he calmed down and turned to Owen.  “It’s alright, Baby O.  You don’t need to be afraid.  We’re not going to the doctor for pokes.  We’re going to see Grandpa W and the doggies!”   

Last night, Caroline came to visit.  We decided to go to Fuddrucker’s for dinner, but Caroline drove separately.  Samuel was a bit concerned, and kept asking me where Caroline was, and if she was coming with us.  When we were stopped at a traffic light, Sam gasped.  “Oh no, Mom!  Caroline’s going to get lost and go to McDonald’s!”  Much to his surprise, Caroline did in fact find us at Fuddrucker’s.

Also at Fuddrucker’s, Sam was ”playing” one of the arcade games.  He pulled out one of the big guns and started waving it in the air as he hollered, “Watch out everyone!  Stand back!!  I’m going to shoot now!”  Seriously, you don’t want to mess with this kid.

Lots have been asking, so here’s an easy outlet to fill you all in.

The boys and I have been in Colorado with my parents since Tuesday, and it looks like we might be here at least until next Tuesday.  So, what I’m reporting is just what I hear . . . I’m sure Erik can give you a better run down with more details.

The bathroom vanity is still out in the loft, but putting it back is all that’s left for the master bath. 

Our kitchen floor has been replaced.  The appliances (dishwasher, fridge, and stove) are all sitting in the front room.  

Right now, the dry wall has been replaced, patched, sanded, and textured.  It was supposed to get painted yesterday, but the crew got caught up on another job and never made it.  Erik has taken on the task of painting himself.  And the sweet sweet man let me choose a new color, instead of just color matching like the restorers were going to do.  So that means, instead of just painting the spots that were cut open, Erik is painting the entire downstairs.  Love him. 

A crew is coming in next week to replace the carpet pads.  Now I’m just trying to convince Erik we might as well bite the bullet now and get new carpet.  Just drops in the bucket at this point.  It’ll have to be done before we move anyway.  He’s not even close to being sold on the idea.  [*Edit to add* Um what?  Erik's out carpet shopping right now.  Wahoo!!]

Then comes the clean up crew to fix up the carpets (wouldn’t need to do that if we had new carpet), dust, wash, whatever.

Ideally, this will all be done by Wednesday.  Sure am looking forward to having my house back!

Woo-ooooo-ooo-oooo I get around!  {And backwards, and in circles.  But still working on forward.}

We had one more adventure left during our Christmas vacation in Fullerton.  We left early Saturday morning for a day at the zoo!  It was cool, a bit cloudy, and not too many people were there at all.  Compared to our past experiences at Hogle Zoo, this zoo was HUGE!  I asked Sam if he remembered going to the zoo with Emma and Marianne after Thanksgiving, and then I told him that the zoo we were going to this time would be much bigger.  This was thrilling news to Samuel, “Yeah, I want to go to the bigger zoo and see DINOSAURS!”  Well, there weren’t any dinosaurs, but we still had a great time and every single one of us was completely and entirely pooped by the time we left. 

Samuel adoooores his cousins!

Sam’s favorite zoo finds: “Santa’s reindeer,” “A big silverback gorilla!” and “Russel’s snipe!”

Some pictures I stole from Rob.