Christmas In May

Sibling Rivalry

I've decided that I like babies. Mostly, just to bug Ben. (He hates it when he has to wait while I have a turn holding them.) Pretty much, my policy is to want anything Ben wants and to try and take it from him.
I have to admit, they are kind of cute though...
You know what I like even more than liking babies to bug Ben? Acting like a burnout with that guy. He's funny, and sometimes he gets such great ideas of things to do... Especially in the bath.
I'm a little smarter than Ben though. I took my suction cup off my forehead before it gave me a hickey. Ben still has a red circle a day later.
Pfft. He's not as good at doing dumb stuff and hiding the evidence afterwards as I am.

Sweet Sam

Here's my scrambled egg, just being sweet sweet sweet. Doesn't he just make you want to SQUEEZE him?

The Boy Loves a Parade

Sam loves parades. Ben likes going because he loves getting the candy at parades, but Sam just plain loves parades. There was no firetruck at this one, which disappointed him, but he was still pretty impressed.
Here he is in his classic parade watching pose.
Sig and Sylvia came to the parade with us last year, we had such a good time we decided we needed to keep up the tradition and watch it with them again this year. Here we are trying to convince Sam that the parade is over.
He wasn't buying it.

Everything Ben Does is Hilarious

First Snow

Here I am making my very first snowball.
Look out Daddy! This one's got your name on it!
Here I am taking my first taste of this year's batch of snow.
Some for me...
... And some for my puppy.
(That's really what I'm trying to do, feed my puppy.)
And, finally, here I am, happy to be coming inside.
I am NOT done playing yet!
(This is after way over an hour in the backyard and it has turned completely dark outside.)

Just Sam

Since I'm not only behind on the boys' blogs, but also way behind on their baby journals, I've decided to describe some of the funny daily things that Sam does that don't usually make it into a post. I'm including a picture of him "helping" me grocery shop that isn't interesting enough for a whole post, but is just one of the many cute daily things that go on around here that make me smile and are passing by so quickly I have a hard time remembering them all.

Funny stuff Sam does:

• Dances by doing a sort a galloping hop.
• Rolls his body all over people. It's his way of wrestling.
• Likes to pretend to squirt people with my hairdryer, the Mr. Potato Head lightsaber and fire extinguisher, and his favorite: his thumb stuck between his pointer and index finger clenched into a fist.
• Copies almost everything Ben does, and then gets mad when Ben copies him. This is especially noticeable when they are playing with toys, but also when they are choosing places to sit.
• Sings the opening song from Hairspray over and over anywhere, anytime, anyplace. "Oh, oh, oh! At my hair! Uh mine today!" (This is my favorite thing he does, and incredibly hard to capture on video since he hates cameras.)
  
• Rocks his head and sings "Twinkle, Twinkle", "Row Your Boat", and "Jingle Bells" while he looks at books in just the cutest possible way.
  

Funny stuff Sam says:

• "Ow! Dat hurty me!" This is said a LOT whether you really did hurt him or just stroked his hair. It totally cracks me up every time. So much so, that sometimes I poke him just to hear him say it.
  
• "Go away!", "Stop dat!", "Don't talk now!" and various other commands. Usually these are issued in a very loud voice complete with an imperious point at the person he thinks he is commanding, usually me.
• "Benny". He used to only call Ben by his full name, "Bejamin", but lately has switched to Benny. I find either completely hysterical for some reason. Probably because he tends to use his name in almost every sentence he directs towards Ben. For example, "It's dancy time Benny!"
• "Hurty, dumpy, trainy, Benny, dancy, blanky, sharky... etc." Sam likes to add a "y" to some of his favorite words. Hurty is my favorite, followed by sharky, and dumpy truck.
• "Go Gabba Gabba!", "Backyardigans!", "Mickey Mouse!" or pretty much any TV show that comes on. The thing is, he doesn't just say it once, he sings it over and over accompanied with his funny little galloping dance.
  
• "Huh?" This is one of my favorites. It is often used when I call him or ask him to do something, but can also be used in a sentence of his own construction. For example, "What you got? Huh?"
  

Stuff Sam really likes:

• Boston Pizza. Ho man, that kid gets so excited when he sees a Boston Pizza. He really should be on a commercial.
• Swimming.
• Sharks and pretending to be scared of sharks. "Ohhhh! I'm cared! Cary sharky!"
  
• Macaroni.
• Any food that I, or anyone else really, am eating. ("What you got? Huh?")
• Any toy that Ben is playing with.
• His blue blanky. This one is actually becoming a bit of an obsession.
• Fake barfing. "I pooky!" (Pukey.)
  
• Watching kid's (for lack of a better word) music videos on YouTube. His favorites right now are a song called "Slippery Fish" which someone filmed with a book they drew themselves, and then of course, the opening song from Hairspray.
• Operating the TV and DVD player. This is a problem only because he has not mastered getting the DVD's out of the case without busting them in half, the rest he's got cased.
  

Stuff Sam doesn't like:

• Peeing on the potty. He can do it on command, but he sure gets mad when we make him.
• Getting his picture taken.
  
• Going for a nap.
  
• Waking up from his nap.
• Getting dragged out of Ben's preschool every time we drop him off and pick him up. Sam really wants to be able to stay and play with the kids and the toys. Why can't they make that place look like less fun?
• Being teased by Ben. This happens more often than you would think by looking at Ben's angelic countenance. Ben loves to tease Sammy and Sammy gets enraged very easily. Luckily they don't usually hit each other and their usual method of expressing their anger is to roll all over each other. (Which I find hysterical.)

So there you have it, all the strange little things that make Sam the fried egg we all know and love. (I'm sure I'm missing some and if I think of them later I'll probably add them to this post.) Overall, he is a weird, WEIRD little crazy person who makes me laugh every single day. I love him. He's just the best and funniest kid ever.

Hanging Around (May 31st)

Sam. He likes to climb. And he likes to dangle. And he's STRONG. Once I saw him fall from some monkey bars and catch himself with one arm. He dangled there for a long time till he managed to get his feet swinging enough to be able to reach a foothold and pull himself back up. Whenever he does his dangle thing I laugh like crazy... Because he's seriously SO. STRONG.

Once he was playing by hanging off of the handles on my mom's treadmill. They are pretty much as far apart as his arms can reach. He grabbed hold of the vertical parts of the bars and then lifted his feet and hung there like a gymnast doing the iron cross. It blew my mind.

Here are some pictures of him climbing and dangling at the park near our house.





After all that climbing he got a little tired. Who wouldn't?


Good thing Daddy was around for him to climb onto for a ride home!

May 21st

I finally got to go to school with Ben on his very last day. I've only been asking forever. Sheesh people.

I did some climbing.

And I blew some bubbles.

Then I did some more climbing.

I found a ladybug.

Hey! Where do you think you're going? (I guess he/she? likes climbing too.)

Then I did some more climbing.

Then I got in trouble and I had to sit on my bum.

I like school this school thing. Mommy says it's too hard for me because I am so little, but what was hard about that? School's a cinch.

... And still... No Birthday Pictures

(Sorry Mom. I think the problem with the Birthday post is that there are just too many pictures, and for some reason I am finding sifting through them and cropping them to be too daunting of a task. I'll do it tomorrow. I promise.)

For today, I will post this little tidbit of Sammy weirdness and some pictures to go with:

Sam fell down the stairs once a few months ago. Not all the way, just a few steps, but I heard the thumps and the crying and so I came running and scooped him up and comforted him like any mother would. Now, I am pretty sure this could be read as a sign of bad parenting, but ever since then Sam has been faking falling down the stairs to get my attention.

What he does is calmly walk down the stairs, calmly lie down on the floor, calmly cover his little eyes, and then calmly fake cry till I come to see what's wrong.
(Here he is getting ready to cry. I hung the camera over the banister to capture this early part of the performance. If I had been standing at the top of the stairs he would have instantly started crying.)
(And here he is in the middle of his theatrics. He really gets into his role. LOL.)

It's frickin' hilarious... To walk by the stairs to discover him lying all "broken" and "injured", "crying" in "agony", waiting for me to scoop him up and comfort him. That kid is so fried. He makes me laugh.

I need to get the whole thing on tape, right from when he starts down the stairs all the way through to when I pick him up, but I never know when he is going to do it so usually I only catch the closing scene.

Falling, Playing, and Eating

Well, it took a while, but Mommy finally took me outside for some more puddle walking. Too bad I fell down and shortened the trip...

(There's supposed to be a video of Sam falling in a puddle here... And if I wasn't so busy today I'd put it in. I'll get to it someday. Promise.)

Since my boots were all wet, (my FIRST booter!) we had to stay in the backyard away from any more puddles, but I had a pretty good time playing with our sand toys and with Ben anyways. We couldn't go in the sandbox, it wasn't ready for us, but the deck was lots of fun and had plenty of snow for us to dig in.

Plus, as far as I can remember, snow tastes a lot better than sand anyways.

It's Snow Good

Mommy and Daddy put me in the snow to take my picture. I didn't like it. Not even a little.

When I started to make this face...

... Daddy came to rescue me.

Up I go! (And down goes Ben.)

He put me on the top floor of the snowman for a little bit.

Then he put me on the sled with Ben. Where are we going?

Then he put me on the deck. Mommy shoveled a nice spot for me to stand and do some digging with my shovel. I didn't move as much snow as she did, but I had fun and I looked cute, which is all that's really important anyways.

Conversation

Mommy: Heeeeey... When did this get taken?
Ben did you take some pictures today with Mommy's camera?

Mommy: Wait this is Sammy. Ben did you take pictures of Sammy?

Mommy: Oh. Never mind Ben... Sammy!

Sammy: Smiles innocently.
Translated: Huh? What did I do?

Mommy: (Laughing) Sammy! Why did you take all these pictures?

Sammy: I nunnooooo!
Translated: I don't know!

Mommy: Oh for...

Mommy: ...Crying out loud... Sammy! You are such a monster!

Sammy: Smiles mischievously.
Translated: You ain't lyin bout dat.

(Incidently, there are at least 10 more photos from Sam's little stint as a photographer. (Mostly of his sweater and his mouth.) All of them with his lips pursed like that. And... This is currently Sam's favorite outfit. He wants to wear it all the time and when we try to take it off he cries, "Tiger! Tiger! Tigerrrrrrrrrrr!")