Up To No Good

Wow, March is very nearly done and I'm not sure where it went. And I don't even have a good excuse as to why it went so fast. I've scoured through my pictures, which didn't take long because I took almost NONE of my kiddos this month. It's been the strangest thing! But I guess we were plagued with some sickness and a surgery, so that should count for something, right? So...what have we been up to? Well, I tell you what...Mr. Sam has definitely been up to no good!! Evidenced by these pictures:
It seems the boy has a slight fascination with the q-tips these days. Tyler raced into the living room to tell me there was an "emergency" (Hillary, you ought to get a kick out of that statement!) and I thought for sure Sam was pinned underneath some heavy piece of furniture or that he was choking or something. But no, apparently our big emergency was that Sam was throwing all the q-tips onto the floor in the bathroom. This was his total mug shot when I found him. He thought he was going to be in big trouble! And he's even wearing his prison stripes and everything.

And I wasn't sure if I should just enjoy the fact that he was entertaining himself quietly or stop him and clean it up. I just watched for a while and found it pretty amusing actually (mostly because he was being SOOOO quiet, it was apparently a very serious thing to throw them all over the place).


It became a real issue when they were sticking to the bottom of his feet!
And other than that, I know part of the reason I've been somewhat absent in blogging this month is that my little sweet mellow baby Sam has decided to turn into an incredibly demanding toddler. We are not only adjusting to one nap a day, but I am also realizing that Sam needs my time and attention right now more than he ever has. It's been a little difficult for me, truthfully, because I was just so used to my little mellow baby who just didn't require all that much of me. But times are a'changin and I've got to give my time to him--encouraging talking instead of screaming and being soft instead of hitting. You get the picture, right? Trust me when I say it's been exhausting, though! And a little sad for me at times since a year ago, I would have never ever ever pictured my little sweetheart giving me the run for my money that he has! But of course, somehow I still love him more every day... and I know that this too shall pass!
And I suppose while I am making this a randomness post, I realized that I completely forgot to post these pictures from Mardi Gras. On Lundi Gras (the Monday before Mardi Gras), my parents, Carter, Tyler, and I all went to the French Quarter to get some beignets at Cafe duMonde in the morning. As we were sitting at our table inhaling the powdered sugar, Carter saw the group sitting right behind our table and thought they looked really familiar. Then after a minute he realized it was the cast from Reno 911. (I found out later that they were riding in the Orpheus parade that night)
So I was going to take their picture and went to grab my camera, thinking it felt awfully light. Yeah, no battery...I left it on the charger the night before. Of course! Well, at least Carter had my mom's old camera pieced together with duct tape and all. And he was brave enough to go introduce himself before we left and they offered to get a picture with him. I wonder if they were impressed with the duct tape... But we were just glad to get a picture for Carter! Recognize any of these faces?

Oh yeah...and we did go a little "green" for a day. Of course we celebrated St. Patrick's Day at our house. How could we not, with our obsessive green lover? So yes, we woke up to find out milk turned green, green eggs, and green pancakes. I thought the green might make Tyler excited to drink his milk (since it's been a battle these days), but no. It didn't help. I guess he's a little too smart there...
And we even manged to get Tyler in the St. Patrick's Day pajames ON St. Patrick's Day this time (since he was also wearing them on Valentine's Day!). We also had our meal of corned beef and cabbage and green jello of course. Yum!
And during the day we took the opportunity to head out for a walk and enjoy the AWESOME weather we get this time of year. Living in Louisiana ain't that bad during the winter months. :) So the wardrobe was a little difficult, though. Tyler of course has green shirts galore, and he decided to wear his green shirt from last year's St. Pat's Day. But Sam, on the other hand...only one green shirt to be found. And as you can see, I ended up with one boy dressed for Summer and the other dressed for a blizzard. Ah well, it's all for the love of green, right?!
This picture is "so" my boys right now (a little blurry, don't mind). I was trying to get them to look at the camera and Sam was more interested in looking at the ducks and since Tyler just about can't handle himself when SAM is the one not behaving, he takes matters into his own hands. Literally. Here he was turning Sam's head to get him to look at me. Don't they both look happy?
This was much better for Sam!
And then we fed the ducks. This is Sam's number one favorite activity right now. He LOVES it. And he loves the baby ducks, and we have quite a few of them this time of year. It's so cute. So see the picture above for the before and the picture below for the after. And check out where the bread is...yeah, let's just say the bread doesn't always make its way to the ducks when Sam's throwing it! (have I mentioned that we think Sam might be a little lefty? He seems to quite like his left hand, see him throwing with it?)

And March has been a big month for Tyler learning how to ride this bike. It was a hand-me-down from a friend and it does still have training wheels and all, but he was not very comfortable on it for a long, long time. But he's finally got it down and now he cruises with no problems. Now I'm always yelling way ahead telling him to wait up for me and Sam while we walk. So we have been doing laps upon laps around the lake and he could go and go. It has been SO good for him and great for all of us since it means we're getting out and going a lot more.
Daddy said he had to have a helmet (is it terrible that the thought didn't even cross my mind that he needed a helmet???) and Tyler said he needed a bell for it. So he got the helmet right away.
And he got the bell as a reward for a deal we'd made, so we were able to go to WalMart and buy the bell for him. I think it's totally funny that he thought it needed a bell (where does he come up with these things sometimes???), and think it's cute to hear him ringing his bell as he rides.

And that, my friends, is pretty much all we've done this month. And now March is just right on its way out...