I am Sam

He says his name! What's your name? "Sam" he says. Cutest thing ever. Think we've asked him to tell us his name about 100 times a day since last Saturday when he started saying it out of the blue! And all of the sudden he says a bunch of "s" words - sweeper, slide, sky, sun, stack, etc. Joe and I use the phrase "shocker" a lot when one of us says/does something that isn't suprising. He started repeating that now and thinks its funny. He likes using the word "help" now a lot. Anytime he gets frustrated with something he in a slightly annoyed voice yells "help". We've definitely hit the stage where we really need to be careful about the words coming out of our mouth!

21 Months

Sammy turns 21 months tomorrow! Here's what he's up to these days:

- Is starting to say more words. My favorite is that he says "thank you" (or it's actually tank you). He seems to always say it at the appropriate time and it's the cutest thing ever. I just start giving him things to hear him say it. He says "Mickey" now, not just "Mick". He really recognizes/can say a lot of things when we're looking at books (can identify different animals, boat/plane/car, some shapes, etc).

- He has a hilarious pouty/fake cry. He'll frown his mouth, squint his eyes and kind of whine when he doesn't get his way - it cracks us up.

- He's still a big blankie and paci man. He is off his bottle!

- He's still going to Little Gym and loves it. Last week he climbed up on a platform, grabbed a bar and hung from it by himself!

- Still loves his train table he got at Christmas - he's contantly wanting to go downstairs to play "choo choo". He's also really into his ball pit and crawling on the pool table to roll the pool balls.

- He likes to run in circles, chase people and chase the dogs with his push toys.

- I know he doesn't understand that he has a little brother coming, but we do ask him to give his little brother a kiss and he'll come kiss my belly!

A Very Merry Christmas

Sammy had an awesome 2nd Christmas! As you can imagine, he was completely spoiled by our family. We spent Christmas Eve at my Mom and Dad's house with the Smith family, spent Christmas morning at home and then Joe's family came over Christmas Day in the afternoon. He got so many fun toys and we've spent the last couple of days just lounging around watching him play with all of them. It's been so fun watching him and spending all this time with him!

We also got really fun news that we're going to be having another little boy! Joe and I peaked at the ultrasound picture on Friday and then surprised our families on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We keep telling Sam that he is getting a baby brother, but don't think he quite gets it yet! =-) We're really excited - it's going to be fun watching Sam and his brother grow up together. They are going to be best buds (hopefully!) and the biggest Mama's boys you've ever seen! =-)

19 Months

Sammy turned 19 months old today! He has had a busy Thanksgiving weekend - went to the Festival of Lights at the Zoo on Wednesday night, went to Great Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house on Thursday, got goldfishies for his room on Friday (Dippy and Gipper are their names), went to Nana and Pappaw's for Thanksgiving on Saturday and now it's Sunday and he's been napping for 3+ hours - I wonder why. Here are some current Sammerism's:

- LOVES blankets and paci. He loves to hold the tag from his blanket and rub it against his face.

- Still loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Chuggington

- Has moved from the "Birds" class at Little Gym to the "Beasts" class. He's one of the youngest kids in class, but is doing really well. He can hang from a bar and walk across a balance beam with some help

- His favorite books right now - Corduroy Bear, any Mickey books, Pooh Alphabet, Good Night Gorilla, pop-up books

- Favorite foods - definitely still "cakes" for breakfast. He loves pancakes and we can't get him to try much else. Big Mac n cheese, hot dog and "chick" lover. But don't forget the ketchup!

- Really likes to say "Hi" and "Bye". Was big into giving pucker-kisses up until a couple of weeks ago, but now he seems to prefer to just lean in to get kisses and hugs

- Can identify his hair, eyes, ears, belly (likes to lift up his shirt), nose, feet, etc

- Says a lot of 1-syllable words and turns 2 or 3 syllable words into 1-syllable words: clock, book, home, green, blue, bee, goat, moon, etc.... apple is "app", baby is "ba", etc

- Favorite things to play with: Shooting baskets (loves to say "shoot"), building blocks, cars, choo-choo

- Loves going to the zoo - favorite animals are probably the manatees and monkey's

Moooooo

As you can see, Sammy ended up being a cow for Halloween. Cutest cow we've ever seen! He walked around and said moooo when we would ask him what a cow says. He had his first actual trick-or-treat experience. Wasn't so sure about it at first, but then had a couple of houses where he held my hand and walked up to the door with his candy basket, rooted around for the best chocolate with Mom's guidance and proudly walked back to his wagon. He's a big fan of Kit Kat's. And yes, that is Joe as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man at Aunt Kel and Uncle Ted's big Halloween Party. He was hilarious! We also celebrated Cousin Keelie's 1st Birthday last weekend. Here's a picture of her starting to dig into her cake - she is adorable!

Pumpkin Patch

Here are some updated pictures - I'm a little behind. Daddy went out of town last Sunday so Sammy and I went with our friends, the Foley's to a Pumpkin Farm. Sammy and Kellen had a blast checking out the farm animals and pumpkins and even took a hay ride. I couldn't stop thinking about last October when we took him to a Pumpkin Farm - he was six months and we were posing him next to pumpkins. This year I was begging and pleading with him to stand by a pumpkin, while he just wanted to run around and explore everything. It's so amazing how fast they change in a year! Still trying to figure out what he's going to be for Halloween...think maybe Cookie Monster.

Slumber Party

Sammy's cousins, Karsyn and Madie came over and spent the night Saturday night. Sammy loved it! They played outside for awhile, went crazy in the ball pit, watched a movie and got donuts the next morning - think they all had a lot of fun!