Sam loves pretending, and I {love} watching him.  It’s always fun to see what he will come up with next.  Besides making up conversations between his animals, or acting out some exciting race with his cars, Samuel comes up with some pretty clever stuff. 

I wish I’d gotten a picture, but I was too busy laughing.  Samuel was playing with this . . .

It’s a charger for one of Erik’s Xbox controllers.  Sam had the USB end held up to his ear.  The other end he moved around to different spots on his chest.  “Thump thump sound.  Doctor!”

Here’s another cute one.  Sam was running around with this tub on his head, pretending to be “Sammer bobot” jumping on the moon.  Yep, he came up with all of that on his own.

Then he tripped and fell.  “Whoa,” he gasped, ”Bobot crash.  I ok.”

A few days ago I was watching Erik work on something.  I couldn’t help but laugh when he put on his Concentration Face.  Erik rolled his eyes and gave me a, “What?!”  I’ve always loved his Concentration Face, but it’s even funnier now because Samuel does the exact same thing when he is concentrating really hard.

These nesting Santas kept Sam busily concentrating for a pretty long time.  Thanks, Grandma B!  We can’t wait to see what else we got over these next few days.  It’s been lots of fun so far!

Lollipop! *POP* Buh-boom boom boom boom.

Samuel had his first lollipop today.  When I called to tell my mom she said, “He’s just now having his first one?!”  Yes, just now.  The sugar high and sticky mess has never been too appealing, lollipops aren’t something I keep close by, and the few times we get offered one at the bank I kindly refuse.  Today the nice gentleman didn’t give me a chance to refuse.  He just sent a couple our way in the vacuum-thingy-whatever-the-crap-it’s-called.  So, since Samuel had been a trooper all morning, and the bank was our last stop, I gave in.  I wish I had the camera the moment Sam stuck that sweet blue deliciousness into his little mouth.  “Oh boy!  Where have you been all my life, sugary blue raspberry Dum-Dum?!”  We came home and Samuel did not let that thing go.  Even when he wasn’t sucking on it, his mouth was hanging open just waiting for more.  While he chilled with Curious George, Sam was nice enough to share a couple licks with his dinosaur.  What a good boy.

Humor me and all the pictures of a single lollipop.  I couldn’t choose just a couple, I loved them all.

It is 4:16 am.  I probably would have woken Erik up to tell him this story, but he is getting up in an hour to go golfing, so I’ll let him sleep.  But I know I won’t be going to sleep any time soon –it’s just how I am– so I will tell you the story.

Sam started coming down with a little something yesterday, so I expected a rough night to be in store.  I’ve heard him coughing several times during the night, and crying a couple times, but overall he’s been pretty ok.  About half an hour go I heard him have a little coughing fit, and then I heard him talking.  A lot.  This kid was wide awake.  He was talking about the cup of water he found in his crib — a very rare “treat” saved only for hot outside days and being sick — and about the trucks on his pants, and who knows what else.  So I went in to make sure he hadn’t thrown up or pooped or soaked himself with his treasured water.  Sam was just sitting there, leaning against the side of the crib like nothing at all was unusual.  He said to me, “Blue’s Clues, downstairs play” which means change my diaper and then I’ll be ready to go for the day.  No way, Jose!!

I did change Sam’s diaper, then we snuggled up in the glider for some quiet time.  Sam and I sing a lot.  Wheels on the Bus and Itsy Bitsy Spider are his favorites.  But Primary songs are what I sing to Sam before going to bed.  I held my sweet little angel and started singing I am a Child of God.  “I am a child of God.  And he has sent me . . . ” and Sam shouts “HERE!”  “Has given me an earthly . . .” he enthusiastically joins in again “HOME!” “with parents kind and . . . ” “DEAR!”  By now Sam had realized he was being clever, so each time he knew the word he just beamed at me with his amazingly blue eyes.  “Lead me, guide me, walk beside me.  Help me find the . . . ” “WAY!” and a little giggle.  “Teach me all that I must do to live with Him some . . . ” you guessed it, “DAAAAAY!”

I was amazed and touched by the amazing Spirit my toddler could bring into the room at 4 in the morning.  I don’t take credit for this one at all.  I bet he sings that song every Sunday with his nursery leaders.  I am so thankful for the gospel; to have it in my life and to know that it is 100% true.  I am so thankful that Samuel, at 20 months, already has it in his life.  I know my family and I are truly blessed because of the gospel, and I know that it gives us the chance to live together forever.  And for that I am so grateful because I love the gospel and I love my family, and I wouldn’t want to ever be without either one.

I can still hear Sam.  Talking about trucks.

Samuel put words together for the first time this weekend.  He’s said the same thing enough times now that we’re sure it’s not a fluke.  For a boy who is 100% his dad, Sam’s first sentence couldn’t be more appropriate.  “I poo, dada.”

I finally finally FINALLY got this on camera.  Sam has been cracking us up with this trick for probably almost a month now, and each time his conversations get much more intense and very entertaining to us.  I barely got the “good” part recorded, but I thought it was still worth sharing.  This little boy is such a hoot!

Then Sam handed the phone back to Erik and came after me and the camera, even though I was hiding behind the sofa.  The moment {at least on video} was over.  It’s fine, he’ll do it again tomorrow.  And lucky Mom doesn’t need a special blog post to see it again!

Sam used to sleep bum-up for the longest time.  As soon as he could roll himself over, he would almost always sleep like this.  Now, we don’t see it as often.  But when I do, I just can NOT get over that adorable little bum sticking right on up in the air!

Sam and I hit the mall today, just for fun (and then later to feel bad about/for myself because I couldn’t buy anything because {a} it would never fit my fatt arss and {b} it’s not like we have the money for it anyway) sooooo . . . we were in a store and one of the sales ladies was talking with Sam.  He has been doing super great with not having stranger anxiety, and he’s becoming friendly again. When we left the lady said “Thanks for coming in, bye.”  And what did my little cutie do?  He waved and and said “Bah-b!”  That’s the first time he has ever said bye to someone he didn’t know.  I thought it was stinkin’ cute, and so did the sales lady.

Sam also started something brand new just today.  Every kid does it, but we hadn’t seen it from Sam before.  So this morning when Sam was waking up, he was just having his usual grand ol’ time.  Then out of nowhere, he started screaming.  I headed in to find every single thing from his crib now on the floor.   Same thing happened when he woke up from his nap this morning.  Then it happened again when I put him down for his afternoon nap (like 2 minutes ago).  It would be a lot cuter if Sam wasn’t so mad about not having a blanket.  Oh well!

Every day, when I think my little guy can’t get any cuter, he does!  Sam was just standing in a total daze, staring at the wall.  The camera was right there so I grabbed it, called his name, and captured this priceless little face.  I’m absolutely smitten; smitten by Sam.  Man, I love this kid!!

So it’s no secret, I LOVE the snow! And also no secret, Erik HATES it. (That’s New England vs. Southern California for ya!) But we had a good dumping last night, so I thought it might be fun to take Samuel out and see how HE feels about the snow. So I bundled him up in his adorable snow suit, and we went exploring around the back yard. It was a bit windy and still snowing, so Sam kept making these little huffing noises. Then I figured I would set him down and take a couple pictures. So I propped my little cutie against the fence. He sat there for a few seconds investigating, trying to decide whether he liked it or not . . .

Well, looks like he decided! As if we didn’t already know Samuel was his father’s son, we now have one more thing to add to the list.

He did better once we got back inside, but I think he was still pretty anxious to get out of his snow suit!