18 Months

Last Saturday, Samuel officially turned 18 months old. Last night we made it in to have his pictures taken. Here are a couple of our favorites.

What's new for Samuel this past month...

2 stitches to the forehead wound he suffered while playing the piano with daddy.

Way too many Christmas gifts.

10 hours of flight time for our trip back to Michigan.

18 hours of driving time on the trip down to Georgia and back to Tennessee.

A large obsession with puzzles. He does different puzzles at least 20 times a day.

A continued love for books.

Bob the Builder has become another favorite cartoon he gets to enjoy.

Continually dancing around the house sometimes to his very own music.

Many, many more words and a few new signs.

The discovery of candy! We gave in and gave him a sucker after the stitches. Now he knows and asks for it whenever he sees it.

A new love for coloring. He has even tasted a few crayons.

Beginning to learn the difference between cars, trucks and tractors.

Samuel continues to amaze us as we watch him grow. This is one of the best stages we have experienced so far. He is so active and has such a pure joy for life. I know we may be a bit biased, but we still believe he is the best little boy ever...not to mention the cutest!

The Joy of Coloring

Samuel loves to color. For Chirstmas he received several coloring books and some crayons. I have to hide them around the house because the moment he sees them it is non-stop begging to color (accompanied with many pleases).

Once we get all the stuff out and the table protected, he has to have Mike or I help him. He starts by choosing the crayon he wants then gives us the one he would like us to use. Since coloring if so much fun, we willingly sit with him and color whatever picture he has chosen.

The only question we generally have at the end is whether more ended up on the paper or on him. Oh, to be a kid again!

Our Christmas Story...Part 3

The rest of the story...

Wednesday afternoon we all packed up the car (8 suitcases, 4 adults, 1 child in a car seat, lots of candy and several extra bags) and headed down toward Georgia. We were all meeting there to celebrate the marriage of Ashley (Jenn's cousin) and Chris. After spending about 7 hours in the car accompanied by a two hour stop at Cracker Barrel, we arrived in Nashville, TN where we would spend the night. Thursday morning we got up and drove the remaining 5 hours down to Conyers, GA. Lots of family gathered at the same hotel for what promised to be a weekend of fun.

Friday morning Nana, Mom, Dada and Samuel headed into Atlanta to get Aunt Angie from the airport. She was thrilled to see Samuel and he was finally starting to feel a bit better so had a bit more life in him.

Friday afternoon we met more family at the Atlanta Aquarium. It was a beautiful aquarium, but way to crowded. I think we all would have enjoyed it much more with about half the amount of people there.

Saturday morning we spent time relaxing at the hotel and preparing for an evening of dancing. At 5, we went to the wedding which was immediately followed by the reception at a beautiful mansion. We had a wonderful dinner and Samuel enjoyed dancing all over the dance floor.

Sunday morning we packed up and headed back. After dropping Angie back off at the airport we made our way back to Nashville were we would leave Monday morning. We made it to the hotel in time to watch the Bears play. It was not a good game at all and everyone ended up falling asleep long before the ball dropped to bring in the new year. Oh well!

Monday morning we all got up, ate breakfast then headed to the airport. Since Nana and Papa had a long drive ahead of them we arrived at the airport plenty early for our flight which ended up being delayed. After a very long wait and a very long flight we arrived back in Seattle around 6:00pm. We were very excited to all see our own beds after many days of travel!

And that is the rest of the story.

Christmas Day Pictures

Here are a few pictures from Christmas day...

Santa brought Samuel the Little People Barn and a boy Cabbage Patch Newborn.

Santa brought Uncle Mike a new PS2. Just what he needs for college next year!

Opening presents was fun this year. Samuel enjoyed tearing the paper and discovering what what inside.

Samuel opened all his presents very quickly then helped everyone else with theirs.

Samuel and Daddy in front of the tree. Samuel loves both Elmo and Cookie Monster!

Samuel with his baby. We didn't see any smiles from Samuel since his mouth hurt so badly.

A friendly game of Euchre for the boys.

Mike and Matt enjoying presents.

Samuel and Uncle Mike enjoying some chicken and biscuits. Samuel just helped play since he wasn't eating at all.

Our Christmas Story...Part 2

Thursday morning we woke and were thrilled that we would be able to spend the next three days just relaxing and enjoying time with family. Around 12:00 we headed over to Mike's dads where we would be staying throughout the weekend.

Samuel has his dad's passion for music and instantly found the piano. He and Mike have spent many minutes sitting playing together so today was going to be no different...wrong! After a few minutes the music was playing and Samuel was loving it. He tried to scoot himself closer to the piano and bam. He slid right off the bench and fell between the bench and the piano. The next few minutes were a blur. Samuel was screaming so I picked him up and he quickly buried his face into my chest. After a minute, I pulled him away to assess the damage. He was covered in blood from his forehead to his chin. We quickly escorted him off to the kitchen where we tried to determine where it was coming from. We found that he had split his forehead open right between the eyebrows. After a few minutes we decided that a trip to the urgent care center was needed with the possibility of a few stitches. We loaded up and took off.

By the time we arrived Samuel had calmed down and the bleeding had slowed. They got us in right away and after one look decided that a couple of stitches would be needed. Since they don't want him to move they use this backboard with these large Velcro straps to hold him down. To say the least he (nor mom) liked the experience at all. They gave him a shot then quickly put two stitches in. It was the longest five minutes of my life. I had just as many tears down my face as Samuel had. When it was all said and done we gave in and allowed Samuel to have his first dum-dum and headed back to Grandpa's.

Samuel seemed to be in pretty good spirits for the rest of the evening despite the large lump that had developed. We bathed him and put him to bed expecting a nice headache the next day.

Friday and Saturday were the start of a cold for Samuel. He was pretty stuffy and was not sleeping well at all. At this point we were not sure if it was the headache or the cold that was getting the best of him. By Sunday morning he had additionally developed a large blister on his lip and was refusing to eat anything. The only food we were able to get down him was Pediasure given in his bottle. Sunday evening we noticed that not only did he have a sore on his lip, but the entire inside of his mouth was covered with them (blister/ulcer like sores).

To say the least, Samuel's Christmas was pretty miserable. He would not smile, laugh or talk at all and spent most of the day taking medicine and cuddling on laps. Tuesday we headed back to the urgent care to find out that he had both an ear infection and a viral infection in his mouth. They gave us a medication that would help with the pain, but they sent us home saying that his body just had to fight it. At this point, Mike and I were ready to jump off a cliff!

...to be continued...

Our Christmas Story...Part 1

Since we were gone for such a long time, I wanted to catch everyone up with how we are doing.

We left Seattle on December 16th and headed back to the Midwest. We arrived in Chicago early evening and was greeted at the airport by Gram and Addison. After loading all the luggage and getting the car seat set we headed off to Mike's Aunt Karen's house were we would be spending the evening. Samuel had a chance to play with Addison, Evan and Tristan. It was a loud and crazy house. Mike, Kate and Dave headed over to a Christmas party and I stayed to play with the kiddos.
Sunday morning we headed into the city to Kate and Dave's to watch the Bears and have our family Christmas. Samuel and Addison were all set for the game and did a great job cheering the Bears to another victory.

After an awesome dinner, we exchanged gifts and spent some time watching the kids get pretty excited over their presents. Later that evening, we headed back to Lansing with Gram!


onday and most of Tuesday we had the chance to sit and relax. We spent time with family and spent some time catching up on life. Tuesday evening, Nana drove up to Lansing to pick us all up so we could go cheer Uncle Mike on in a basketball game. Coldwater also squeaked by with a victory over Fremont. Samuel did awesome during the game. He watched pretty intently and cheered all the guys on!

Wednesday we were able to spend some time in Grand Rapids visiting with friends. We met Mark and Heather for lunch and meet Jack for the first time. He is such a sweet baby! We then traveled over the Mike's old stomping grounds at Grandville and were able to say quick hellos to lots of people there. We took a quick coffee break at Panara Bread then headed to Holland to have dinner with Kate, Troy and Lauryn. They were able to take us to see their new house! It was great to spend some time catching up!

Wednesday evening we headed back to Lansing where we thought we would get to relax until Sunday morning. Little did we know that Thursday afternoon all the fun would begin...

...to be continued...

Grease Ball

Lately we have been noticing how dry of a scalp Samuel has. He almost has dandruff at times. I have tried changing shampoos and washing his hair less, but it didn't really seem to help at all. Last week, I took him to get his haircut and asked the lady about it. She looked at it and explained that it wasn't dry scalp at all, but a build up of shampoo left on his scalp! Gross! She said that children's shampoos are generally so mild that if a child has sensitive skin (he does) that they will often just build up. She told me one of the best ways to get rid of it is to take oil of any sort and massage his scalp with it then run a comb through it and it should all come out.

Since we didn't have any baby oil in the house I used cooking oil! It was so funny. He loved it and looked like he was ready to be thrown into either the oven or back into the 80's. It was great fun for Mike and I as we styled his hair in many different ways! And...it worked. I bathed him shortly after and his head is clear of all build up. We have also switched to a shampoo that is not suppose to build up as much. I guess we will have to wait and see!

ELMO DANCE

Mr. Efficient

Well, Samuel has picked up a few things from watching me around the house. I generally try and do things the most efficient way possible. This includes loading my arms with 15 grocery bags so I only make two trips, carrying way too much in the laundry basket, loading my arms up with toys to make the clean up process faster, the list goes on! Anyway, like it or not, Samuel has started to pick up on this. He loves doing his puzzle, but thinks that he needs to carry all the pieces at once. He will spend 10 minutes trying to pick one more up and tuck it under his chin or in the crook of his arm. He often ends up dropping two for each one he does retrieve and ends up pretty frustrated with the whole ordeal. Like mother...like son...

Friends

Just had a couple of older pictures I wanted to post. Samuel loves all his friends and is so excited when they come over to play!

Samuel and Jase looking around me to see their favorite...Sesame Street!

Samuel and Matia wrestling together. Matia held her own really well!

Roxy sharing her Thanksgiving meal with Samuel. He wouldn't eat anything I tried to give him!

Gram's Visit

Gram was able to visit us for the week of Thanksgiving! Samuel loves being spoiled and had a chance to get a lot of it in!

Books with Gram...

Puzzles with Gram...

Outside in the rain with Gram...

We had lots of fun and can't wait to visit everyone in a few weeks for Christmas!