"Look peease"

Famous to-do on Sunday mornings with Daddy! Reading the paper, or in Sam world, looking and tearing! This week headlines were, "oh, oh, elephant"! There was a sick elephant at the Zoo and Sam had a lot of compassion.

A little tykes picnic

We had a great playgroup yesterday at the Mosca's home! Thank you for the yummie breakfast! We were able to play outside with all the fun toys and Bocca, the family dog, sure kept Sam busy!

Sam and his friend Jake!

Thanks for letting us visit together! We had a great time. Jake, you're such a good big brother!

Sunday morning at the park!

Taking turns on the slide!

Eating!

It was that time of the month where we met our playgroup for some books bagels and babies! We had a great time as the weather held out for us and it didn't rain until we got home. We had a ton of good food along with great company! Our next playgroup we will be escorting 2 little kids to the park:) WOW! I can't believe it.

I can finally reach the pedals!

Comfort food!

Typical child meal: Cookie, milk and a bagel!

It's you!

definition of you: Used to refer to the one or ones being addressed

Sam loves pictures. We have created a few picture books, "Who loves baby" (which we all know and love), and "My photo album" baby proof albums where we can slide in pictures of loved ones. We love these books. Sam loves taking them to bed with him during story time and he points out all the people in the books. I believe this strategy has made his vocabulary grow and his recognition progress continue to thrive.

I have to share our struggle. It's the definition of 'you'. Now I know that he is only 20 months old, but it cracks us up every time this happens. When we go through pictures, we are constantly saying, "Sam, who is this?", he will repeat, "Papa, Gaga, Mimi, Papa, Daddy etc..." He also is in many of the pictures and we say, "Sam, who is this?" And he will say, "YOU"(pointing to himself in the picture). He is absolutely right! It is him, but whenever we would go through the books, we would say, "And that's you!". So he thinks that his name is: YOU.

Sams vocab continues to grow every day, however, he is determined NOT to say "SAM". He just will not do it. I thought it was because the letter S is a hard one for kids to say, but he sure can say, shoe, sand and sad.

definition of Samuel: Strong willed, joyful.

No Fear

Our pool finally opened up!!! And thankfully the weather last week was hot and humid and Sam and I decided to take a peek at what the pool had to offer us. So, after nap time we headed down to Pirates Cove Pool in Port. It was great! Sam screamed in the parking lot, "WOW" "WOW" "GO MOMMY" running in FULL FORCE to the pool. The pool was packed wall to wall with kids and parents everywhere. I had to hold Sam all the way into the park because he wanted to head straight for the pool with his shoes and socks on, and his towel wrapped around his neck.

I learned a lot about my son that day. Especially his determination to get what HE wants and WHEN he wants it. I also learned that Sam has 0% fear of water. I had to dunk him 4 times because I need him to understand that deep water is dangerous. My thought was...if I dunk him, the water may intimidate him....WRONG....it just made him go deeper and deeper. NO FEAR NOTHING. So what I've concluded, being almost 9 months pregnant, chasing a toddler around a pool and not being able to move all that fast, is not going to work. So, we will wait until Daddy can go with us so I can not feel so pressured.

I guess I may have to be that mom who has her son in a life vest and flotation devices when ever getting near water. Hey, he will probably like it. I think swimming lessons are in the near near future.

Sorry, I was unable to take pictures of this event, however, I think it was best that I didn't.

School picture

Big Belly & Tie dye shirt

He just wants to be like his mommy, as he points to his tummy and says, "Baby"! Sam has also fallen in love with his new tie dye shirt that his "Uncle D" and Aunt Heather made for him. I never thought at 19 months he would tell me what he wanted to wear, but ever since this shirt arrived, it's been dragged and pulled everywhere with him. He dug it out of the laundry bin when he saw that it was about to be put in the wash, took it for nap with him, and this is the ONLY shirt that he will let me graciously dress him in. Looks like uncle D needs to get to work on some more! This shirt is officially named: "Joshy shirt", and that's because he wants to be just like his cousins and they wear tie dyes all the time too!

"Help" and "Hammer"

Since we've moved, we've been doing a lot of hammering around the house, getting our pictures on the walls. Everytime we bring out the hammer and nails we hear, "help hammer peease". So, thankfully, his little tykes toolshop has a plastic hammer which he feels completely helpful with. A few nights ago he insisted on sleeping with his hammer and he stood on his bed and said, "hammer peease yes" "hammer peease yes" "yes, yES, YES"! Once we delivered the hammer, he was fast asleep. I suppose it's the little things in life we have to give into once in a while.

Time outs

We've officially started the "time out" corner. I am proud to say that it DOES work. We had our doubts about doing it this early, however, it has proven to become more and more effective. We have designated a specific corner in which Sam understands that he goes in the corner for 1 minute if he did sometime intentional. Of course, we get some screams, and some very loud "NO's", but if we ignore him, he stops. When his minute is over, he will say "ssssorry" with his monster tears and goes about his business. It's not an every day event in this household, but we're happy that he is understanding that he is NOT the boss of this house!!! Mommy and Daddy make the decisions!!!

"Mimi" and "Papa"

We had a fun time at the zoo this past weekend!

The sad sad pony ride...

We tried something different this time at the zoo. And an adventure it was. Sam tried a Pony ride. He was all excited when he saw the ponies, all excited when we asked him if he wanted to ride the pony, and devistated when it was his turn....the what was supposed to be fun and exciting ride 4 times around the hay stacks, filled the barn with "No daddy, NO" and (sitting on the side lines) "No Mommy, mommy, NO" then looking at Mimi and Papa, "NO NO NO Papa". The eyes swelled up with tears and the poor pony just kept going. APparently, as I've been told, like father like son.

New fun development

Words have formatted into sentences, which to our surprise is making sense, well sometimes. We still get a lot of garble, but we he is getting so much better at communication!

Here is what we have been hearing:
1) All done please mommy
2) More please mommy
3) outside mommy & daddy
4) No Mommy No - No Daddy No
5) Peas please
6) Doggie outside "GO"
7) Pool outside please
8) On your marks, get set, GO!!!! (and then runs)
9) Watr (water) more please
10) Daddy at work
11) Happy Birthday to you (we've been to a few birthday parties lately)

Opposites are also in full effect:
Up, Down
Out, In
Sit, Stand
Left, Right
Black, White

Another HUGE word around the house is: HELP
Helping mom fold clothes, empty the dishwasher and help move things. He loves to "boom" (sweep) the floors with us, not to mention vacuum. If we don't let him help us, he gets very offended and has a tantrum. So we save the bigger chores for nap time.

Vocabulary, such a great gift.