Author: eaumaison (Page 68 of 210)

Sam is 18 Months Old

Here is another Friday the 13th to commemorate Sam.  Is it just me, or have there been a LOT of Friday the 13ths since the one when he was born?
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I post a lot so I don’t have much new stuff to say.  Sam loves his brother.  He has to copy EVERYTHING Jack does.   Consequently, he plays with more advanced toys and playground equipment than Jack did at this age, and is scribbling earlier too. 
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Now that the weather is warmer we’ve been playing outside more.  Sam is trying to ride the trike and swing and blow bubbles and anything else he can get his hands on.  For my birthday I got a bike and kid trailer.  This week we’ve taken three trips to playgrounds.  The kids love riding in it and they get more time to play than when we walked.  (Yes, they both are buckled in five point harnesses and wear helmets.  This photo was while I was taking them out.)
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Sam has a large vocabulary.  It’s mostly monosyllabic and highly dependent on context to understand what he is saying.  But it’s clear he is trying to communicate with us.  His favorite word is “sure.”  He says it with a Chinese accent, and says it even when he means no.   We giggle at his enthusiasm when he answers us “sure sure!” I made a list of other words that he says consistently:
  • Mom
  • Dad
  • Jack
  • Amanda
  • Dog
  • Bird
  • Yes (“sure”)
  • No (“mm mmm” in a sassy tone)
  • More
  • Shoe
  • Sock
  • Hello
  • Hi
  • Uh oh
  • Bunny
  • Chocolate
  • Chicken
  • Cookie
  • Cheese
  • Bubble
  • Thank you
  • Book
  • Bottle
Sam loves to help me with the chores.  He vacuums with me, either getting his own or taking a turn with the big one.  I bought him a broom for his dinner sticker chart prize and he sweeps the kitchen with gusto now.  Lately I’ve had him help me with laundry and he gets so excited, you’d think it was his favorite activity.
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Sam must be getting close to age two, since his fascination with trucks and trains is growing.  He plays with our trains every day and beelines for them at the library.  At home, he runs to the window when he hears a garbage truck.  In this photo we had several trucks clearing snow from the street in front of our house.  A front loader, a road grater, and a dump truck all working together right in front of us! 
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I realize this is a rather whitewashed account.  For the past two weeks he has been teething 3 new teeth at once.  That means he hasn’t slept through the night for a long time.  Teething and weaning (today was the last time I’m going to nurse him) have caused havoc with meals. They are emotional and difficult and he has become super picky.  He also has had the sniffles for two weeks, with a constant stream of boogers, and a sore nose from all the wiping.  Yesterday and today he has had diarrhea, causing a bleeding diaper rash, making him scream every time I change him, which is often given the diarrhea.  Toss in all the usual toddler bumps and scrapes, and you can see how he spends about 80% of the last few days crying.  Poor kid.  
I love you Sam.  It’s a tough time but you will grow out of it.  You impress me every day!
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Date night

Last night we dropped the kids off at the rec center for date night.  We all love using their babysitting.  The kids get to play on the indoor playground, have pizza and a snack for dinner, watch a Disney movie, play in the bouncy castle, and get changed into jammies, ready for bed.  Meanwhile Ben and I have four hours of conversation and quiet fun. 

We had reservations at “the range” (lower case) in the Renaissance hotel.  It used to be a large bank and they’ve made some fun renovations to the building, complete with enormous Native American murals and random vault doors with hand wheels and bolts. The furniture looked like it was selected by Tom Haverford.  🙂 
Dinner was delicious, we enjoyed the Restaurant Week 5280 menu.  But I admit I had more fun wandering around beforehand.  

It was freezing but we warmed up with hot chocolate and found an amazing tea shop!  It’s hard to find loose leaf herbal tea, but this place had an amazing selection of herbals and roobis.  

Neither parents not kids wanted the night to be over 🙂

Countdown to nap time

I’m trying to get their wiggles out with the Xbox Kinect game.

Karate chop!

Monster wrecking the city

Layering pictures
Bath time

In the rain, I show Sam that he’s on TV.

Lightening strike on screen and IRL.

Sam would rather play peekaboo.

Valentine’s Day in Grand Junction

Last weekend was extra long because Jack had a day off school.  The weather looked good so I packed up the boys and took them to visit my parents in Grand Junction for Valentine’s Day.  It was a fun packed weekend, as usual.  Lots of playing, lots of food, lots of attention for both of them. 
I have more pictures on my photostream, but here are some highlights. 

As soon as we arrived the boys ran a muck in their office.  Their new space has a great kid waiting area.  They also loved watching and feeding the fish.
Grand Junction for Valentine's Day

That night and many other afternoons they played in the neighborhood playground.  Sam is far to adventurous for my liking.  Jack likes to play “Prison” with Grandpa.  Sam laughed his head off when we played “Surprise Kick in the Backside” on the swings. 
Grand Junction for Valentine's Day

While the folks were at work on Friday a neighbor kid came over to play.  I found Andy’s old Ninja Turtles in the basement and they were fascinated.

Grand Junction for Valentine's Day

The boys are really good at messing up a house in no time at all.  Some of their favorite activities are:

Two hour long meals in front of the big TV. 
Grand Junction for Valentine's Day

Banging on the piano:

And fighting over a some obscure toy when there are literally hundreds of other toys around them.  (In this case, a plain black rod that must be part of a frame to something larger)

Grand Junction for Valentine's Day

They also took the chaos outside for tower building and chalk drawing.

Grand Junction for Valentine's Day

Grand Junction for Valentine's Day

On Valentine’s Day they each got an obscene amount of candy.  These boys don’t mess around when it comes to enjoying a cupcake either. 

Grand Junction for Valentine's Day

Grand Junction for Valentine's Day

Jack did the Lowes Build and Grow project with my dad while Sam and I and mom shopped for fabric for the musical.  Then we went downtown for my birthday present – a bike and kid trailer!  I was wondering if that might be a fun and easy way to get my kids around to schools and playgrounds once the weather is warmer.  I HATE car seats, and while strollers are nice, Jack doesn’t have much endurance for walking and there isn’t much storage space on them.  We went to Brown’s Cycling to try some bikes with a trailer and it’s actually so fun!  We found a comfort style bike that’s more upright and cushy (I hate traditional biking posture) and they had a used trailer on sale that we hooked up.  The boys’ faces melted into smiles when we pulled them around.  It was surprisingly effortless too!  Mom said the bike order is ready today and they will drive it up to me when they come out for the musical.  I’m so excited to use it! 

I had planned to return to Denver Monday, but there was a bad snow storm in the mountains and holiday skiing traffic to fight with.  So we stayed until Tuesday, when we had an easy drive home.  Jack was sad to miss a day of school, but by the end of the day was thrilled about everything we did on this “bonus day.”

  • Bookstore trip with me to buy a couple new books
  • Dinosaur museum in Fruita
  • Lunch at Mickel Donnulls
  • Paddington movie with Grandpa
  • Cook orange marmalade with Grandpa
  • Fly a kite in the front yard

It was a wonderful weekend.  Thanks Mom and Dad for all your help and love to the kids. 

Grand Junction for Valentine's Day

Grand Junction for Valentine's Day

Precious moments

In case you wondered how the next couple days fared – was up all night Wednesday with Jack retching and having explosive diarrhea.  Thursday was better, then Sam tangled my knitting and cracked my ipad while I was preparing dinner (a yummy variation of this).  So, not great. 

Can’t wait for this week to be over.  Hooray for Friday! 

I snapped these precious moments for you all this morning.

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

What a week.  Things keep falling apart.  I keep telling myself that it could be much much worse, and that keeps me sane. 

Bad thing
During our movie date Saturday Jack started vomiting.  Continued through night.
Good thing
He woke up completely fine, no one else caught whatever he had.

Bad thing
The heat broke Monday.
Good thing
It was a simple fix that only cost a service charge.

Bad thing
I lost my wallet Monday.
Good thing
The grocery store found it and called me to pick it up.

Bad thing
 The van in front of me suddenly braked and turned. I slid in the snow and crashed.  Cracked my bumper.
Good thing
Very nice gentlemen, no damage to their car.  Very minor, slow moving accident on almost empty street.  No injury to me or Sam.  My car still works.

So I think I’ve had my fill of bad luck for February.  Bring on Valentine’s and my birthday and happy times, please!

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