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.

HOT & HUMID DAY

That's right...the temperature is finally HOT AND HUMID here in good ole WI. We went from 50's to 90's overnight. So, we decided it was time to fill up the baby pool and have some good summer fun! Sam enjoyed splashing in the back yard and loved the fact that he could splash everywhere and thought he was too cool to be in his backyard.

"I donno?"

Was the million dollar phrase of the day. I turned my back to answer the phone and Sam ran for the pen drawer and discovered the red pen.

I was so proud of the fact that he was not hanging on my leg saying, "Mommy pleese" my entire phone conversation. Instead, I thought he went in his room and was reading his books like a good little boy. I checked on him a few times, and his back was to me, sitting in front of his bookshelf, quiet as could be...I ended the phone call, went to continue playing with him, he immediately turned around, stood up, dropped the red pen and said, "I donno???" and RAN.

Darn kids are just too smart and sometimes just too cute.
So here is a picture of the latest masterpiece creation by: Samuel Lewis

My new brothers clothes

We spent last weekend in the new baby's room! What fun we had. Sam had a blast trying on all the little baby hats and shoes. He was a little upset that his foot was bigger than the shoe, and didn't understand why the newborn socks didn't fit him, but he did find a hat! He put this on all by himself. Didn't he do a good job?

Uncle Darren

came to visit us! He was home for a few days from Vegas. Thank you Uncle Darren for my cool new sippy cup and Beliago snow globe! Hopefully soon my mom and dad can plan a trip out to see you. Take care of your hand and visit us again soon.

They're BACK!!!

Paige and Keira (and their mom and dad too) are back in town!!! Horray! We visited them last weekend for Keiras baptism and we saw them again today. It's nice that we only have a 1 1/2 hour car ride instead of a 3 hour plane ride to play. Paige and Sam have so much fun together, and Keira, well, she's just Keira, happy as can be, rolling around on the floor and smiles at everything. Let's hope that Keira can inspire baby Teplin #2 to be happy as can be.

Sound asleep!

First time for nap!!! HE DID IT!!! After only 3 attempts to sneak out of his room, HE DID IT!!! He fell asleep by himself in his NEW big boy bed. Let me break down the events that led up to 12:15 p.m...

1. Sam got himself all situated in bed, and insisted on bringing in his bigger than life size dog with him. So, fine, he won that battle. So along came the "doggie" and but of course, mommy forgot the "bankie". Ok, now we're all situated again, ninnies in hand (pacifiers) and we're ready to fall asleep. As I started to close the door, I told him to put his head down and go sleepies. He blew me kisses and waved bye bye.

2. 5 minutes later out he came. He snuck around the corner, found me and said, "mom-mmy" in a questionable tone. I told him to go back in his bed and put his head down. To my surprise, he did just that, me following behind to once again shut the door.

3. 2 minutes later, he came running out. He had something in his hand. "mommy?" He had attempted to find a piece of fuzz that was preventing him from sleeping. So I took the fuzz, and we threw it away, and he took my hand and we walked back in his room to his bed to again put his head down.

4. It's now 12:15...Some time had passed, and I didn't hear from my little guy...so I decided I would sneak around the corner and just give a little "peek". I was so happy to find a sleeping Sam completely passed out! There were even some little snores!

The time is now 1:42 and I haven't heard from him...Now I can't wait for him to wake up!!!

"Apple, Apple, Apple"

A new favorite snack: Apples!!! And not just cut up, but Sam can attempt to finish an entire apple, whole. Afterall, I can't be mad when he stands by the fridge and says, "apple peese" it is a healthy snack. This picture was taken in the middle of an apple eating event. Mommy had to have one and so did daddy per direction of Sam. He just sat at the table and said: "mmmmmm" the entire time, with the juices running ever so fast out of his mouth. Sometimes we just have to let him be him.

"more peese"

A favorite past time for Sam...seeing which toys he can sit in and laugh and say, "more peese" which means, someone PLEASE pull me around the upstairs!

Sam LOVES his new playroom loft area.

"Buss peese"

Papa Stan, Uncle David and Uncle Marc are all going to be very proud of Sam's pearly whites! Sam insists on brushing 4-6 times a day, all I must say, are very appropriate times. Most of our brushing events follow with a new shirt as he gets SO carried away with the water. But it's all about the learning...right?

Mommy No...Mommy No...

were the words that came from Sams room for 1.5 hours yesterday and today. Napping for the past few days has been out of the picture. We normally get a solid 2-3 hour nap a day from him...but not these past few days. I picked him up from daycare at 12:30 on Monday, which is right at the start of nap time. Bad move mommy...He had crashed in the middle of the floor on a pillow and Mr Brian said there was NO waking him up, so he let him snooze until I got there. I don't blame Sam...all the other kidos were sleeping in their cots, the lights were out and the soft sleepy music filled the room. One more Monday of mommy working and no more late pick ups for us!!! YPPIEE!!!!

The thing we've learned about Sam is even if you let him doze off for 2 minutes in the morning, he will NOT take a afternoon nap and suffer through the rest of the night. Monday night was a disaster and tonight was worse. You think after only getting a 5-10 minute snooze he would WELCOME bedtime, instead, he throws screaming tantrums and nothing will satisfy him. So a tired, upset, mad little boy makes for a really exhausted mommy and daddy.

Tonight we got his big boy bed delivered...but heck if we were going to attempt that. We'll try it on a good night, which we will strive for tomorrow and Thursday! June 2nd is mommys last day at work and soon Sam we will be on a more permanent schedule.....that is until his new baby brother meets the world!

18 month check!

Well, let's just say this was a "good" visit to the Doctor. And the best part of his 18 month check is........NOOOOO shots. Just a lot of talking and Sam showing Dr. Paley his new moves and new words. When she went to listen to his heart and lungs Sam gracefully pushed her hand away and said, "all done". She laughed and continued. When she asked him if she would look in his mouth and see his teeth, Sam stuck out his tongue and opened wide.

Results:
Weight: 26# 6 oz (60%)
Length: 32 1/4 long (45%)

Favorite foods: Peas, chicken, pasta, french toast, lasagna, turkey, animal crackers and Milk.

Nap: 1 nap a day, 2-3 hours.

Favorite activities: Going outside to watch the "birdies" and "doggies". Love to Color and draw.

Favorite band: The Laurie Berkner Band & Gymboree CD

Favorite books: Elmo books, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Button Book, The Quiet Book

Favorite shows: "Barney", "Wigg.."(wiggles), The "Laurie" Berkner Band

As we were finishing up the appointment, Sam waved "Bye Bye", and the doctor told him that she'll see him at the hospital when his new brother is born...wow...that was a little reality shock for me!

Cousins!

Birdies!

It's Zoo time! We visited the Milwaukee County zoo last weekend and it was so much fun. Going to the zoo this year was SOOOO much more exciting than last year. Sam was able to identify the birdies and get excited about them. And, most importantly, he was able to WALK the entire way around the zoo. Needless to say, he took a LONG LONG nap that afternoon!

Happy 83rd Birthday Great Grandma Trudy!

Play day

Here are my 2 little girl friends! It has been warm in good ole WI the past few weeks and we have definately taken 100% advantage of it.

Learning to color!

A big boy cup!

And yes, the chubbs around the wrists still exist!!!

Is the bunny gone yet mom?

Scary Bunny..

Great Grandma Trudy protected Sam from the Easter Bunny. It was a traumatic event for him.

Happy Easter

Words words and more words...

Sometimes he thinks he's cute, sometimes he thinks I'm cute...but tonight we thought we were both pretty darn cute. All day today Brad and I have been thinking about all the words Sam has develpoed. Our list got long and tonight, at bedtime, he proved to us that he is a big boy, who knows what he is talking about. We did our usual, read books, cuddle, rock, and drink the rest of our milk routine. When the milk was done, the lights were out and his "nene" (pacifier) was in his mouth and the eyes were getting heavy, Sam woke up, looked at me and started with a story... This story lasted for 25 minutes or so and boy was it funny.

I couldn't help but to join in conversation with him. He repeated almost everything I was saying. We stumbled a few times over a few strange words, but he knew that he couldn't say them because he would look at me with complete confusion and say, "ha?". We decided that we both want to go to the park tomorrow because the weather is supposed to be nice, and Sam also wanted me to know that he wanted me to bring his doggie and nene with. I asked him if he wanted to go on the swing for the first time at the park and he stated with PURE enthusiam saying, " MMMHHHHMMM". I asked him what he wanted me to pack for lunch at the park tomorrow and he said, "cheese".

The story went on about a few other things, like papa's car and daddy being downstairs, but he truley amazed me and proved to me that he IS growing up. What a fun stage. Sam is a true precious gift to us and we are blessed everyday by his intelligence and of couse the tantrums that come along with being a toddler.

It's a Gymboree Day!

Whittney and Sam....is it love?

It's parachute time!

Bubbles Bubbles in the Air!

Thanks Mary for taking such great pictures of the kids! As always, Gymboree is fun for all. Most importantly, us moms get a chance to catch up.

CRASH:THUMP:BANG:BOOM

We tried...no one warned me it would be this difficult. He fell asleep so nicely in a big boy bed at 8:00 p.m. after reading bedtime stories...but struggled throughout the night. The things we heard last night were priceless. Brad and I made numerous attempts to keep him in the bed, but he didn't stay there. Here it goes:

1. 10:05 p.m. CRASH...Sam had managed to unlock the siderail and slip between the siderail and the bed and got stuck. When Brad got there he was angry. Tears and tears of sadness and a little sore. However a little suck on his "Nene" (pacifier) Tucked him back in and the room was full of snores...

2. 11:30 p.m. THUMP! I ran in there to find Sam not only out of his bed....but clear across the room laying on the ground by the window???? How does this happen. And, the best part was...he was still sleeping???? So I gracefully attempted to tuck him back in bed.

3. 12:00 a.m. BANG!!!!!!! This time, Sam was STILL in his big boy bed, but standing up, blanket in hand, thrashing his head against the wall, STILL SLEEPING, but this time, Screaming. So, after some calm cuddle time, we both went back to sleep, and Sam was tucked back in his bead, sound asleep....

4. 3:00 a.m. BOOM!!! Not only was Sam out of his bed AGAIN, but he was out of his bed, laying in front of the door, so I could not get in.....thank heavens Gaga and Papa have 2 entrances into his bedroom....

5. 4:58 I'M UP!!!! Yes, that was the wake up time this morning. He had a very rough night. I think we may hold off on doing the bed thing again until we move....it was a disaster. Or better yet....how about 2 cribs?

I'll complete this post with a precious Samuel Lewis phrase:
"All Done"

Is it Summer YET???

Ever since we got home from Florida, Sam insists on playing outside, no matter what the temperature is. He constantly points to the door and insists on going out. So...we ventured to the park these past few days and he had a BLAST. He didn't know which slide to pick from. As you can see from some of the photos...it was cold. We had boogies dripping the entire afternoon. With all that said...he loved it, and I got a maternity work out as I chased him around the park! Sam went up the stairs to the slide and came crusing down with NO fear. A few times he landed on his head and had woodchips stuck to his hat, but then clapped and got up.

We just need the weather to warm up a little bit:) It's cold in Wisconsin.

Teplin Cousins!

My new green backpack!

Fun outside with Paige!

Fun at the Beach

Sick Eyes

At the pool!

Hanging out with the girls!

Paige and I

Hanging out with Paige! She was such a great friend to Sam.

At the Beach

Sam did great at the Beach. His new word of the trip is: "Beach"

We're Home!

Our plane arrived last night around 8:45 p.m. What a trip it's been. Needless to say, Florida was great, but it is really really nice to be home. The beginning of our trip we spent with the Jahners! We went to the pool, out for ice cream and paid a visit to the Venice Emergency Room! Sam had came down with another ear infection (#4) and he was miserable. He was running a temp for the first few days, but we kind of thought it was teething. So, after our 2.5 hours at the hospital, we were discharged with a script for the ears and a script for his eyes, which resulted in pink eye. After a day of antibiodics, he was feeling better, stealing all of Paige's toys and being himself. Thank you Jahners for your company. WI misses you :(

The second half of the trip we spent with Gaga Judi and Papa Stan. We enjoyed the pool everyday, took many many walks with Sassy the dog, and enjoyed spending time with Stephen and family! The weather was perfect. 70's everyday and beautiful. Our plane left last night and we were off. Stay tuned as I'll be uploading pictures very soon...