Makin' One

Well, one thing I've learned since moving down here is that kids don't 'turn' a certain age, they 'make' a certain age. For example, I'm often asked when I go places how old my kids are and once people find out, I'm then asked when they "make" their next age. "Oh he's three, huh? So when does he make four? My grandson just made four." (and other statements similar to this) So, I guess I better start using the proper lingo. Since little Sam just made one, here are his "official" pictures I thought I'd share (most of them in the color and the b&w version). I'll be getting them all printed at least in 4x6's for his album, but I think I'm leaning toward this one up top to go on the mantle, but I'd love your help in deciding. I often need a different set of eyes to look at them. And grandparents (and other relatives), please say which one(s) you'd like a copy of (and be sure to click on them to see them bigger-they look better bigger!)...







And I think we may have Sammy's Halloween costume figured out and it just may have this hat included. :) I made the mistake of putting him on it in the store just for fun and I saw those little cheeks popping out underneath it and his eyes lit up and I had to think of a reason to buy it...FAST. So, I think he ought to make a pretty stinking cute little cowboy. Now we just need to come up with something for Tyler (he is saying he wants to be a boat---um, I'm not even going to attempt that one. Sorry!).










And I couldn't help but throw this last three in here because these are his little expression as of late. He does this when is literally trying his hardest to not smile at you. He tries to look mad, but there really is a smile under there. He often gives this look to strangers when they are trying to talk to him (but I still get it a fair amount during the day as well). What a stinker!


A few notes about my boy who just made one (since I let him take over the keyboard and type all about his birthday, I didn't get a chance to record a few things about him!):
He still isn't walking, but is slowly showing more interest in it.
Even though he's not walking, he displays a level of 'fearlessness' that Tyler never did. I may have some new challenges ahead of me very soon.
He loves to push buttons on anything and everything and will go to incredibly great lengths to get the remote, the phone, a cell phone, keys, etc, etc, etc and gets very upset when they get taken away from him. And of course, anything but the 'real thing' is totally not cool.
He is starting to get very vocal about the situation if he is not getting what he wants.
He loves to open and close all the cupboards and doors in the house and can often be found shut in a room all by himself. He also finds great joy in banging the cupboard doors over and over and over.
When Tyler's puppy is not available, he has become quite attached to a soft blue baby blanket that used to be Tyler's and rubs it on his face when he falls asleep and hugs it while he's sleeping. It would sure be nice if he'd attach himself to something that was "his" to begin with!
He has gotten to be very loud.
Bottles are a thing of the past and sippy cups with whole milk are the way to go. No more of this 'baby' business for this boy!
He is not a cuddler, but I usually get a cuddle while I sing to him before bed. This is honestly the best part of my day!
And have I mentioned how much I love this kid??? Just checking!

And, remember you have until Wednesday morning to enter the drawing for the ghost blocks (see post below). So, get to crackin' on that!! A winner and a new giveaway will be posted Wednesday afternoon.

Because I LOVE Halloween--it's Give-a-way Time!

Well, I do believe I have mentioned on this dear blog before that I love Halloween. For many reasons...it's the kick off to an entire fun holiday season, it's FALL--and that alone is worth loving it because I love Fall, it's totally fun for kids, and the list goes on. Not to mention I am psychotically drawn to black, orange, purple, and green! It's the only time of year you can put those colors together and get away with it. Love it! And, Fall definitely gets me wanting to get crafty, for Halloween and all the upcoming holidays. It's just something about the time of year!

So...some of you remember that we have a little ghost that visits our house starting in October, (click link if you want more info), so I figure I'd play the part of the ghost and send some goodies to one of you. My first give-a-way (yes, there will be another one coming in a few more days...), is a set of ghost blocks that I just finished. I was wanting to do some little festive craft and found these kits on a website and ordered two kits, so this set will go to one of you...
Now, here's the scoop on how you can win this. ANYONE is welcome to enter my drawing. So, whether you know me, know a friend or family member of mine and you read my blog, or whatever the case may be...you are welcome to play along. So, all you lurkers, this is a chance to make yourselves known!! All you have to do is leave me a comment (make sure your name is included in your comment, of course!) answering one of the following three questions:

#1

What was your favorite thing you dressed up as for Halloween when you were a kid?

#2

What has been your favorite thing you have dressed your child(ren) up as for Halloween?
(can you tell I'm still looking for some costume ideas here, folks. See, you're helping me out!)

or #3

If you don't have any good costume memories, indulge me and share with me your favorite post or picture I have posted on my blog.

Of course, there are no wrong answers, so comment away...and remember you only have to answer ONE of the questions. Comments must be made by 10:00 am CST on October 1. A winner will be drawn at random from all the comments on October 1, and then I will mail out your blocks to you (or deliver them to you, if you are local). Thanks for playing, it's going to be fun!

And remember to keep checking back--there's gonna be another one (hint--it's NOT another set of ghost blocks...LOL)!

Zoobilation

Last Wednesday (Sept. 10), our zoo had its annual Zoobilation event, which is a big "party" for zoo members. We had it marked on the calendar a month or so before and had planned on going, but then we had been evacuated for Gustav the week before. When we returned from evacuating, I can honestly say I had no desire to leave the house for anything! So we had been back since Saturday and Wednesday rolled around and I kept saying I'd just play it by ear. A lot of the things on the agenda sounded enticing, but I was really dragging my feet at the thoughts of heading out. So, the boys took their nap and while they were napping, I figured 'why not'? So, after naps, we headed out to the zoo and ended up having a great time! The only bummer was that it started at 3 and we didn't get there until 5, so we only had two hours to cram it all in. We definitely could have used the extra time.

So the first thing we hit were all of the close up animal encounters when we first walked in. They had a bunch of the animals out of their cages, with the help of the zoo employees and volunteers, and you could pet almost all of them and just get closer than you normally would be able to. It really was pretty cool and Tyler thought it was great. And of course he touched all sorts of icky things that I wouldn't, but he is a boy after all, so I am not too shocked!

The first thing he pet was some sort of African Hedgehog: (I have to admit, I kind of thought the hedgehog was cute. Tyler said he felt pokey...)
And the next was some sort of skink. I've never seen a skink before. I'd heard of them, but had no idea that they were big lizard looking thingies (yes, that is a very technical term, I know.).
The bottom two fingers are Tyler's petting that icky looking skink:
And we saw all sorts of birds...the parrot, parakeet, and a macaw. The parrot was doing all sorts of tricks. He was fun to watch and Tyler kept laughing.
And then the icky of all ickies...a snake. I couldn't believe the female zoo worker could stand there and hold it like that. Oh, it makes me shiver to think of it. I hate snakes.
But Tyler didn't mind, of course. He just sat there and petted it over and over. He loves snakes (this wasn't his first time petting one either).
And then they just let a great big tortoise walk around (under supervision, of course) and let all the kids touch it. Tyler could have chased this thing around all day. It was hilarious. He loved it.
At one point they had to tell Tyler not to press on the poor tortoise so hard. I think he'd have jumped on him and rode him if he could have.
And our brand new Insectarium in town (which we haven't been to yet--it's on the list of things to do!) had its Bugmobile there and they had some of their icky bugs there for people to see. They had millipedes, beatles, some enormous ants, and this bug called a walking stick. Check it out, that thing is as big as that person's hand!! And they just sit there and hold it like it's no big deal. Ugh, I don't think I've ever seen a bug this big. It was hard to believe it was an insect and not an animal! And of course Tyler jumped right in and pet the dang bug too. Yuck.
Then we hit the sea lion exhibit. It is a big hit. The sea lions have only been back at the zoo for about six months. They had to evacuate the sea lions for Katrina and it took them almost 2 1/2 years to get their home fixed so they could come back. I'm so glad they are back. It is so fun to watch them.
Even little Sam was enthralled by the sea lions. He loved watching them.
But he broke away long enough to give me an adorable smile. He was having a great time too, even though he got a little bit sunburned!
And we had to finish things off by seeing these beautiful friends,
and one of our great big white alligators.
We also made some crafts and rode the Merry-go-Round (Sam was a little unsure what to think of it), and rode the Swamp Train. Not bad for a free event at the zoo! Garrett even got to meet up with us for the last hour. So I'm glad I decided to take the kids out (they were probably more than ready to do something more exciting, it was just me feeling a little bit of post-evacuation exhaustion). And I'm sure we'll do it next year--we love having a zoo membership. We'll just have to make sure we go a little earlier next time!

PS--check back in a couple of days for a fun Halloween give-a-way!!

I Survived My 1st Birthday

Hi. I'm Sam. Some of you may know me and if you don't you probably at least recognize me from this blog, since my mom posts an excessive amount of pictures of me on here. Well, you may also know that I just turned one on Sunday. And now that I am one, my mom says it's time for me to start pulling my weight around here and start contributing to this blog. So my first assignment is to tell you all about how I survived my first birthday. It has taken me a few days to become mentally stable enough to talk about it, but now I am ready. So, here's how it went down...

I woke up on Sunday, feeling as fresh and alive as a new one year old could be. I had two brand new top teeth poking through my gums and my mom said that was a present to her since they have been coming in for SOOO long. As a new one year old, I felt an undeniable new sense of independence so I figured I'd help Mom unload the dishwasher (because she had to unload the dishwasher in order to make me my breakfast). Helping with the dishes was a lot of fun, but I also found it to be a lot of work. I was tired and wondered if I should just head back to bed.
But I kept working because now that I am one, it is expected of me, of course. But sure enough, I was just working away, and I threw this plate right on to the floor and it shattered into a million pieces. My mom scooped me right up and put me in my high chair so she could clean it up. She said she should have put the camera down sooner so that wouldn't have happened. Her bad, I guess.
So she swept up all that glass and then made me the traditional chocolate chip birthday pancakes and I feasted away. Mmmm, this birthday business is sure messy. I of course had to go straight to the bath after I finished.
After the bath, I took a nap while my mom baked some cake for the party later. When I woke up, we had to kill some time before we went to church, so I watched a Baby Einstein DVD. I was totally enthralled with it at first.
But then I thought, 'this is BABY Einstein, and I ain't no baby anymore. I'm a freakin' year old now. I am much better off practicing my climbing skills than watching some hand puppet draw shapes. That's for babies.' So, off to the climbing I went.

And I got all the way up on the top of the couch and my mom finally put her camera down and saved me from my near death of falling between the couch and the chair. Phew.
And then it was time for church and my mom insisted that my dad take some pictures of her and me together because she said she's been sad to look through pictures this last year and there are almost none of us together. So she handed the camera over to Dad to have him take a few (but not before she messed with all the settings just right and stuff, cuz she is kind of picky about that...). So I smiled for a few pictures and then we headed off to church.

Church from 1-4 pm was hard because I should have been sleeping peacefully in my crib, but I survived and we came home and got all ready for my party. But since my mom was busy moving stuff from the kitchen out to the table, she didn't realize that I had crawled into the kitchen. When she found me, I had blood gushing out of my knee. So then she also realized that she hadn't swept up the glass very well from when I chucked that plate onto the floor earlier in the morning. So she dug the piece of glass out of my knee, cleaned up the blood, and we were good to go.
This is the cake my mom made me for my birthday. Supposedly I was supposed to be really excited about it, but I'm not sure why. And my mom wants to make sure that y'all aren't jealous of her mad cake decorating skills or anything.
So we were getting ready to start the party and my pesky older brother Tyler got all excited about the noise makers and made this most horrendous noise and it scared the poop out of me. I screamed my head off and wouldn't let my mom put me down for at least 30 minutes. And then I wouldn't go within 20 feet of those noise makers for the rest of the night. They are pure evil as far as I'm concerned.
So we finally got that incident out of the way and it was time to get the par-tay started. My shirt came off, I got put in the high chair, the lights went out, flames were ignited and people started singing. My mom put my dad on 'cake duty' so she could take pictures and he plopped that cake right in front of me and everyone sang. My mom took this picture:
And about two seconds later I grabbed one of those cool yellow fire things shooting out of my cake, and it hurt. I cried for a second.
But then I regained my composure, only to grab the red hot wick and dripping hot wax, and that's when all hell broke loose. (Well, I guess I should say heck since I am only one and stuff, I shouldn't use such strong language).
Then it really hurt, I mean really bad. I had blisters on my fingers and everything. And then my mom got mad at my dad and said that he shouldn't have put the cake that close to me and then my dad got mad at my mom and said that her picture taking endeavors are endangering the children and they'd be safer if she'd put the camera down. He also told her something about the fact that candles shouldn't be put on cakes for one year olds--it's too dangerous. I didn't really care what they were saying--I just wanted someone to help me.

So after 20 minutes of screaming, and some Ibuprofen, playing in a sink full of cold water, I finally felt a little better. But I couldn't BELIEVE that these people were still going to try to get me to eat this evil thing. They kept putting me in my high chair, but I was having none of it. They were trying all sorts of tricks. First they gave me a sippy cup and then put me in my chair. I was fine with that as long as the cup was held up to my mouth and I couldn't see the cake.
And then they went so far as to put a little frosting in my mouth to try to show me that it tasted good (supposedly it was going to take my mind off the pain and fear--whatever), but hello! You try to put that burn inducing stuff near my mouth? I don't think so!
So they just let me crawl around and play while they all ate their cake and I was fine with that because I didn't want any birthday cake anyways. I couldn't figure out what all the rage was about. I did crawl over to my mom at one point and she gave me a bite of hers with a spoon. It was pretty good. Then she gave me another and another. Ingenious, I thought! Being able to eat the cake without touching it. Now we're talking.
So I got put back in the high chair with a spoon in hand and proceeded to eat my birthday cake. And the evil cake didn't even burn me one time using this method. And besides, now that I am one I probably should be doing mannerly things like using utensils anyways. I don't know why anyone would want to dig into their cakes. It's highly overrated.
I'm starting a new trend of eating the first birthday cake with a spoon. I'm sure it will catch on in no time at all.
So I finished off the birthday cake and it was time for presents. Again, I couldn't really figure out what all the rage was about, but my mom made me come and open them. I stuck my tongue out a lot at this point.
I got some new books from Aunt Marilee.
And a puppy from Grandma A.
And a whole slew of other things. Grandma A also sent me my very own package of mini Oreos. Hello, she knows the way to a man's heart! I also got a John Deere shape sorting barn, and a few other John Deere toys and books.
And then the sugar kicked in and I started getting cray-zay!

Oh yeah, I also got these cool new shoes from my friend Luke. It was funny to be wearing them since I haven't worn shoes since I was three months old. My mom says that I have bricks for feet and claims that she can't get any shoes on my feet. But these ones seem to work, so I'll be cruising around this joint in no time at all!
And then I played around with my friend Luke
and played on my new toy from Grandma T.
And then finally this crazy day came to an end and it was time to go to bed. So I put on my cute new dino jammies from Aunt Marilee and I had my new puppy that my parents gave me (they were trying to get me one like Tyler's, but his ugly, worn, abused puppy is SOOO much better than this new one, seriously) and got ready for bed.
But not before Tyler blew that dang noise maker again and scared me to death.
So I stole his puppy to get back at him. That'll teach him. Watch out, Tyler. Now that I'm one, I am a force to be reckoned with.
So that, dear blog readers, is the story of how I survived my first birthday. The blisters are healing nicely, thank you for asking. And after having a moment to reflect on the day, I can say that I learned a few things. I learned that my parents are not very smart, and that I'd be much safer if my mom didn't take so many dang pictures. And as for how I feel about birthdays--the verdict is still out on that one. Oh yeah, and my mom wants to include the stats from my doctor's appointment yesterday too:
24 pounds, 2 ounces (70th percentile)
30 inches tall (60th percentile)
19 1/4 inches--head (95th percentile)

The End.