Catching up: TX at last!!

Getting to Houston, we got to see all our family again! The first few days we got to see Aunt Jenny and Cousin Sophia, and then Aunt Beth came for a little visit. Josh LOVES his Aunts and Uncles!

Playing with Aunt Beth

Kisses and love for Aunt Beth!

First night back...Josh and Sophia reading bedtime stories with Grandmom (very happy to have 3 grandkids with her!)
Talking to Daddy on Skype

Sam may be a dentist someday...but he may need to invest in a chair and some instruments...


Sophia liked pointing at Sam
Sophia and Sophia's mommy

My sloth son
Grandad getting some good Josh time in
Sophia and Sam
Sophia and Aunt Kathy...love my niece!!
Grandad enjoying his grandkids

Aunt Jenny lovin' on her Sam
bouncing w/ Aunt Jenny
Josh loved this Kawasaki 4 wheeler that Grandmom found for him.

Aunt Jenny loving on Sam again...it's like she missed him or something...

Catching up: Driving Home to TX

So my Mom flew up to SC to drive down with me and the boys to Houston. So awesome! Made it all a lot easier. We ended up driving for 3 days, spending two nights on the road. It was a LONG trip, but went pretty well, considering the time we had to spend in the car and the ages of the boys!

We took breaks during the day driving, of course, and one of those was at the visitor's center when we entered LA. It was pretty nice. Josh had fun playing soccer and "baseball", though it looked a little more like cricket...

Sam had fun crawling around on the grass and trying to eat leaves
Catch, Mommy!!
Look, a leaf!
CHEESE!!
Grumpy face
Happy face
Froggy friend
Sam fell asleep while "working" on his computer
keeping the sun out of his face while napping
This guy was so funny...he was just dancing and grooving. Had his headphones on and was just goin' to town. I had to get a video of it!

And a video of Sam crawling in the grass

Sam is 10 mos old!

TODAY! And I'm posting on the actual day! I'm proud of myself...especially considering I never did actually post a 9 month one. BAD MOMMY!!

Anyway, took some pix tonight of Sam in his pj's...size 18 mos!! They're still big on him, but not a lot! He's really grown since his 6 month appt!

These pix are backwards, but if you scroll from the bottom up, you'll see that he spies a block on the floor, reaches down to pick it up, grabs it, and proceeds to try to chew on it...unfortunately it's round, so that didn't work too well...

MY BLOCK!
Oooohh...I WANT that!
YAY SAM!!
What??

I finally decided he was moving too much, so I just took a video...sorry it's sideways...

Sam:

• is crawling FAST!!
• is pulling up
• can stand alone for a second or two before sitting (NOT falling!) down
• is TEETHING in a serious way
• can say "mama", "ada" (daddy), "da" (doggie/gus), "uhohoh" (uh oh), "uhuhuh" (eheheh, as in, no don't touch that), sign "all done", "more", "milk" (though he doesn't really do that one much anymore), "hi/byebye"
• is still nursing
• still uses binkies
• still can't find his binky in the bed if he wakes up in the middle of the night
• still wakes up in the night frequently...stupid teeth...
• LOVES all cords, computers, buttons, lights, anything electronic
• LOVES to knock over his brother's block creations
• loves his brother and doggie!!
• loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, just like his brother
• loves ice cream
• can push his cars/trucks along the floor
• can "walk" using his little walker or the dog food container on wheels, even on the wood floor
• is very good at falling...he does it A LOT!
• has very good fine motor skills
• always wants to eat the BIG piece of food, not the small bite sized pieces Mommy spends so much time and effort creating for him
• hates lunchmeat
• can drink out of a sippy cup really well (unless he gets it backwards...but he already knows how to tip it up and stuff...took josh ages to figure that out!)
• likes to draw on josh's glow doodle and magnadoodle (did i mention his fine motor skills are really good?)
• is very smart!
• is very cute!
• is very manipulative
• is very very upset if mommy leaves his sight, or sometimes even when he just is not being held by her, even if she's right next to him
• loves having an audience (just like his brother!)
• is the sweetest Sam in the world! (in my completely unbiased opinion...)

Why furniture shopping and 9 month olds don't mix

So the other day we went out looking to replace our couch. We decided to start at a place that has TONS of couches! Well, of course we had to go through and sit on the ones we liked and this was a really BIG store, so it was taking forever. Anyway, I had sat down on a love seat (SUPER CUTE, btw, multi-colored stripes w/ sailboat accent pillows!) to rest, and Sam was being super squirmy and of course wanted to get down and crawl around, so I let him stand holding on to the couch I was sitting on.

There were little plant stand type table things next to us, 4 of them, wrought iron w/ a tile top, really small, sitting a couple feet away. On one of these tables was a plant in a ceramic pot. (I'm sure by now you can see where this is heading...)

I took my eyes off Sam for one second to answer Josh or something, and next thing I knew, I hear a huge crash and Sam's screaming! Then Josh starts wailing...(I think he thought he was in trouble or something...he was REALLY upset! He cried way longer than Sam did, who had fallen down! Crazy...)

Sam had tried to transition b/t the couch and the little tables, fell against the first one, and knocked them all over like dominoes, including the one with a potted plant. The pot, of course, smashed into pieces all over the carpet, the plant went rolling across the floor...it was bad, y'all! So there we are, Sam screaming, Josh screaming, me trying to calm them both at the same time, while AJ's picking up the pieces of the pot and freaking out. I'm sure the people in that store were so happy we'd picked their place to look at furniture! They were really nice, though, wouldn't let us pay for the pot that broke, or anything, and let AJ have a bandaid when he discovered he'd cut his hand when trying to clean up the mess!

Later, we discovered Sam had a SCREW in his mouth, no idea where he picked that up, and by the time we left, we were all exhausted!! Whew! BUT...we found a new couch! AJ went back and bought it the next day (we wanted to make sure it would all fit in our living room), and it's supposed to be delivered on Friday or Saturday!! I'll post pix when we get it all in and set up.

He's lucky he's cute...

Yesterday after Josh's rather short nap, he asked to "wock" w/ me as I fed Sam. When we were all snuggled up together, he was rubbing his eyes, and said, "Mommy, I am not sweepy, I am just putting on my happy eyes. I not want my sad eyes anymore."

That kid is lucky he's so cute...he got out of his bed and into my bed this morning at 0400, and when i woke up and put him back in his bed, he didn't stay, so when I went back in there to put him back in bed, he FREAKED out and SCREAMED bloody murder. I was SO MAD, as his brother had slept all through the night up till then, which he hasn't done in WEEKS, so I got really mad at him and shushed him up reasonably quick, and somehow, Sam didn't wake up! But I got him to stay in bed after that.

Don't shoot me!

Sorry, y'all, I know it's been FOREVER since I posted! I have high hopes of posting a ton of things once we get back home to Chas. but we'll have to see...may just have to post the highlight pix and then get to AJ coming home...I don't forsee me having any free time really before then...or while he's on leave! We'll be busy being a family again!

So anyway, all that as a long rambling way of saying I'm sorry, and I'll post Thanksgiving/Christmas/TX visit pix when I have time.

Sam is 8 Months Old!

Sam is:

• crawling
• pulling up
• has eaten (in no particular order) peas, green beans, mixed veggies of different sorts, carrots, sweet potatoes, jar and homemade, bananas, jar and "homemade," peaches, apples/applesauce, strawberries, pears, yogurt, plums, grapes (in a mixed fruit jar), squash, butternut and acorn, corn, avacados, oatmeal, rice cereal, and mixed cereal, refried beans, breads of various sorts (he generally still chokes on these, though...), puffs, yogurt melts, cheerios (choked on them, too, so he doesn't get them anymore), and some bites of a cheesy turkey and rice casserole from my mom the other night when he was begging (he didn't get any turkey, just sauce and rice).
• says "hi", "hey", "yay", "didi" (pronounced diedie, meaning Daddy), dada (meaning mommy), and baba (meaning almost anything, including brother).
• can sign more, and knows what the sign for milk means
• is growing more tufts of hair on the top of his head
• has 6 teeth, 4 on top, 2 on bottom, and has puffy places on top where his canines and molars are, and slightly puffy on bottom where the secondary incisors are.
• loves to smile and make people laugh and be silly with him
• crawls around growling all the time
• loves to knock over his brother's block buildings
• loves to chew on things
• is absolutely ADORABLE!!
• LOVES any kind of electronic device, especially laptop computers!
• can move at lightning speed when moving toward laptops that have been unwisely left on the floor w/in reach of a Sam.
• knows his daddy, but thinks he lives in the computer
• wants to eat any "grown up" food in sight, but usually chokes on it
• weighs more than he did, but i have no idea how much

Sam with Uncle Nate...Uncle Nate REALLY loved playing and snuggling with Sam!
If his binky was moved, maybe you could see the resemblance b/t him and that dino w/ all the teeth on his shirt!
Playing in the leaves
Grabbing Aunt Missy's nose, one of his favorite pastimes!

He's such a fun, cute, full-of-personality little boy, and I loveLoveLOVE him!!!