Meet Sam, our Spritz Sprinkle-Shaker extraordinaire.
Christmas offically doesn't begin until the first batch of Spritz come out of the oven. This year, Sam was our little helper, and he did a great job of shaking the sprinkles and "pretty balls". When Gram asked Sam, "Do you want green or red?", Sam eyes got big and he shook his head YES, so green
and
red is what he got, one color for each hand. Our cookies have never looked prettier!
Really, Santa, REALLY?
Let's just say things didn't go according to plan last Tuesday. Despite the cold drizzle that fell from the sky and the fact that all three of us were worn to a frazzle from a hectic day, we decided to trudge out to Allen to see Santa and have a little Family Fun Night. What really happened is something completely different. It's a long story involving electronic check-ins, miscommunication and poor planning on the part of Santa's Little Helpers.
As a result there is no Santa & Sam picture - yet.
It wasn't our fault.
It wasn't even Santa's fault.
We're over it.
We made the best of the night and tried a new place to eat - Freebirds Burritos. The staff there was outstanding and gave Sam a sticker that HAD to go right on the front of his Christmas sweater. (
whatever
...) We also discovered a huge Christmas tree that sings Christmas carols, and Sam spent a good twenty minutes dancing in front of it, entertaining his shivering Mommy and Daddy.
We decided it was worth it.
Oh kih-kih-me, oh kih-kih-mee,
You're full of many "no-no's".
Actually, Sam's done very well with the ornaments and the tree. We didn't put one up last year because he had just started crawling and was trying to pull up on things. But now that the initial excitement and urge to pull off all of the "bawls" and "yights" has passed, Sam is enjoying his tree, gently touching the branches and "bear-wees", and pointing to all of his ornaments including "Gee's bird" and "baby Zeezus".
Sam loved his first museum visit.
We visited the Dallas Children's Museum at Fair Park with our playgroup. It was a great place with different rooms set up for the kids to play in. There was a fire station, complete with a truck/slide, coats and helmets. We explored the theater with fun-house mirrors and the musical instruments station and the construction site, where we pretend-sawed some things in half. Sam's two favorite spots were the water table, where fresh, cold water trickled down from a mountain (and gave giant rubber duckies a place to float) and the farm where we played with fake veggies, collected wooden eggs from clucking chickens and milked Elsie the cow. I liked the backyard exhibit, despite the many glass cases full of creepy-crawly bugs, because the termite tunnel wore Sam out for the long ride home!
I promise I'm not making this up.
I took Sam to the park by our house this morning. He loves the playground equipment, especially these four green steps that lead up to one of the platforms. He's too little to climb on them, even with my help, so we usually just bang on them and pretend we're drumming. Today, as we were rat-a-tat-tatting, I noticed two sticks on the ground that would make perfect drumsticks. I showed Sam how to tap them on the "drum" and then handed them to him so he could try.
He tapped them two or three times on the drum and then stopped and tapped them together and said:
"Whan, tyoo, free, fhmw", which translates to "one, two, three, four", before continuing with his "riff".
Where did he pick THAT up? I laughed so hard I startled him! But he kept on going, tapping his drumsticks together and saying 1-2-3-4, drumming for a while, then repeating the whole process. This went on for a good five minutes, which is a long time in Toddler World.
Usually when he does something funny we know immediately where he picked it up or who he is mimicing. But this one baffled me. He's been so into music and dancing lately, he must have a little of Mommy's show-choir gene and Uncle Funky's musical instrument gene.
I was going to title this post "Little Drummer Boy", but I decided it didn't sound rockin' enough. He's more than a little boy with a drum, he's a ROCKSTAR!
We've discovered a new favorite snack to help Mama get through this trying time known as Toddlerhood - Frosted Mini Wheats. Turns out, Frosty likes them, too.
We went to a Frosty the Snowman playdate/photo shoot this week and while Sam enjoyed playing with all the stuffed snowmen and musical, dancing snowmen, I wasn't really getting good shots of him. I asked him to feed Frosty and then give him a big hug and that did the trick. One of only a handful of times this week Sam has actually cooperated! Added bonus - action shot of our pint-sized athlete, running with a "foo-bawl"!
Sam and I made a stop on the way home from the aquarium Friday.
We decided to get out and stretch our legs at Addison Circle, where Mama lived when she first met Daddy. I took Sam to each of the parks I used to take Sophie to when she was just a puppy. He chased squirrels in Bosque Park and, before I could stop him, picked two pansies from the flower beds outside Pastazios Pizza. We played peakaboo around a lamp post and did the freeze dance at the dog park. We'd done a lot of driving and had a lot of wiggles to get out! Our final stop was at Quorum Park to visit the sunken fountain where I'd taken Sophie for pictures almost ten years ago. Sam had a blast throwing acorns into the fountain and I got a few more great pictures. It was a great way to end a fun fall day with my handsome boy!
Sam's trying really hard to say "Granny Nell".
He's getting there and had lots of chances to practice the other night when we went down to Duncanville for a quick Thanksgiving visit. Not only did Granny make a fantastic pot pie for dinner, she had lots of toys and teddy bears to play with. But as it turned out, Sam's favorite toys that night were Granny's piano and full-length mirror. Might Sam be a musician someday? He looks pretty comfortable with those piano keys. Or perhaps he'll be an actor. Just look at that expressive face!
Buzzzzzz.
The day I got Sam's bee costume at our local children's resale shop, I stopped at a thrift store in town, just to look around. I found a bee "body" for grownups for $1.99. It was looking like Sam and I were meant to be a pair of sweet honeybees for Halloween this year. Brian asked if I could get my hands on some yellow duct tape so that he could join in the fun. A quick trip to the craft store for some duct tape, pipe cleaners and yellow pom-poms and our costumes were complete!
We invited the grandparents over to the hive for dinner and trick-or-treating. Sam made it just halfway down the block, stopping at only a few houses for treats, but that was plenty for us, too. We all ended up sitting on our porch with dessert and coffee and passed out candy to the neighborhood kids by the light of Daddy's second awesome jack-o-lantern.
What a Happy Halloween!.
It was SO big, and SO orange, we had to go twice!
The first time we went to Celina's famous Big Orange Pumpkin Farm, Brian and I took Sam on a Sunday afternoon, after waking Sam up from a short afternoon nap (a nap on Mama, no less). Late afternoon naps tend to make Sam cranky, as do naps cut short because we wake him up. He enjoyed the farm just not as much as we had expected. There was a lot of whining.
A lot of whining.
And I'm pretty sure we made the hayride fairly unpleasant for three other families. The massive crowds didn't help anybody's mood either!
But when we went with our playgroup, on a weekday, we pretty much had the place to ourselves and Sam had a bit more fun! He enjoyed running around, feeding the goats and playing on the pumpkins.
Do I look like I'm ready for the hayride to be over? Because I am.
And with both trips to the farm, we got to pick a small pumpkin straight off the vine. Happy Fall!
Fall has come to Texas!
Gram and Pops and I took Sam back to the Dallas Arboretum to enjoy some beautiful fall color!
Sam was a bit clumsy that day. It started before we left Gram and Pops' house, when he fell in their yard and rolled over some crushed acorns. Then at the Arboretum he fell in front of Strega Nona's house, right into a big mud puddle. After we wiped off all the mud on his face, all his bumps and scrapes were easier to see. Here's a little before-and-after:
But he was a trooper about it. We stopped for lunch on the lawn, changed his shirt and enjoyed the rest of the park. The pumpkin houses were so colorful. Sam especially loved Cinderella's mice and her carriage that had turned back into a pumpkin. There were many varieties of gourds, arranged in clever scenes.
(swans in a pond)
We were a bit early for the mums, but the pumpkins were amazing. Everywhere you looked there were more and more pumpkins!
Another special treat was the concert playing on the north side. We stopped so Sam could listen. He sat with Gram for a while and then and of course, he had to get his groove on!
He didn't make it back to the car before falling asleep. Too many pumpkins for one little boy...
Happy Birthday Gram!
We had fun celebrating with you!
So
that's
how the piggies eat.
Sam and I had a great time at McKinney's Grisham Farm today, tossing bread to the goats, feeding milk to the little piggy, and just doing some general running-around. I think Sam would make a pretty good little farm boy!
I think Noah would have welcomed this cute bee onto his ark with open arms.
Sam got to dress up for Mother's Day Out today. The kids could either be someone from the Bible or an animal on Noah's ark. We had already found this cute bee costume, so we were all set for today. Sam loves bees and has for a long time. He can't say his zzz's yet, but he has a bee sound all his own and points out bees, real and otherwise, everywhere we go.
We are planning on taking him trick-or-treating this Sunday. Granny Nell and Vic and Gram and Pops are coming over to help us celebrate and I'll be taking lots of pictures for sure. Until then, here's a preview of our little bee. We took these pictures out front this morning before we left for school. I like how they turned out, but I'm kicking myself for not getting a shot of his stinger. Oh, well...on my to-do list for Sunday!
Daddy carved us one great pumpkin.
Sam was only mildly interested in the carving part and wouldn't have anything to do with the touching the slimy seeds part. But he did enjoy looking at the lit pumpkin - even asked Daddy to light it first thing the next morning.
Gram and Pops got Sam a t-ball set for their yard and WOW can this kid hit!
And he does it all holding the bat backward! Imagine how far he could hit the ball if he turned that sucker around! In honor of the World Series - where Mama's hometown is playing against Daddy's hometown - here are some pics of our little slugger.
He wasn't quite sure what to think at first.
But eventually the squishy red stuff grew on him and he decided he might actually like this Play-Doh Mama had put out on his tray! We cut out shapes, rolled out some "worms" and Mama reluctantly attempted an Elmo face. And nothing like the smell of Play-Doh to take Mama back to the olden days!
I decided Sam was ready for a project.
I have a book called "Toddler Busy Book" full of ideas of fun things to do with toddlers. One suggestion for 18-24 month-olds was to make a pinecone bird feeder. We had pinecones that Great-great Aunt Carol had given me long ago and plenty of peanut butter in the pantry, all we needed was birdseed and we were ready to feed the birds.
Despite my attempts to keep from making too big a mess, we got peanut butter and birdseed everywhere. But we had fun. And Sam did really well. I was surprised at how good of a job he did spreading the peanut butter and sprinkling the birdseed on. His favorite part was playing with a bowl of birdseed after we hung all the feeders! And now...we wait for birds!
It was Sunday afternoon.
We'd been out to McKinney for church, which always wears us out. A trip to the Celina Pumpkin Patch was planned for the afternoon. But first, an impromptu nap was in order.
