17 Months Old

Above picture taken in October of 2009. He was 5 months old :((

And here he is now! BUSY AS EVER!!

Sweet, rough and tumble boy! You are getting so big! Here's what's going on with you right now:

• You are wearing 18-24 month clothes and some 12-18. You are in size 4 diaper and size 5 or 6 shoe.
• You weigh about 24 lbs and are about 31-32 inches..I think.
• You are ALL boy! It is so funny how your little personality has developed lately. You are obsessed with trucks, fire trucks, diggers and airplanes. Whenever you hear an airplane, you drop whatever you are doing and search the sky. When can be at a park with all sorts of fun stuff around us and you will just stop and stare up.
• You love to dance!!! And let me tell you, I hope you have better rhythm than me. Your favorites are Sesame street, our Baby Genius video with children's songs, and the music on the Wonder Pets. You just bounce up and down and spin around in a circle. Cracks me up!
• You are a great sleeper but lately you just can't seem to pick a consistent wake-up time. Some days it's 6 am, others 7. You still go to bed at 6:45 or 7 and if you go to bed later, you ALWAYS wake up earlier. You are sleeping about 12 hours at night and a great 2-3 hour nap during the day.
• You LOVE school. You go 2 days a week and at first you cried when we would go. Now, you lead me by hand down to your room and just walk away when we get there. You are sleeping about an hour at school on your nap mat.
• You hate to have your clothes changed or diaper changed. I think it is just because you have to stop what you are doing. You are very active!
• Oh my, you love Thomas the Train! Any blue train that we see..whether in a book or on TV is Thomas to you. We now have a t shirt, Pj's, videos, bath toys and books all about Thomas.
• You are still a decent eater, but very picky at times. I don't stress about it though. I know that you will eat when you are hungry. Your favorites this month are: grilled cheese, macaroni and cheese, bananas, strawberries, apples, green beans, avocado, turkey hot dog, anything dipped in Ketchup, Ketchup by itself, ice cream, broccoli and cheese, toast and butter, bacon, pancakes, etc. And you love your milk!!
• You are definitely in the hit, pinch, bite stage. This is so hard for me because I knew it would come, but I've dreaded it. You really only pinch me, but this has stopped since the day I pinched you back. Yes I did!!! I pinched you back and you cried and haven't done it since. Hey, whatever works!
• You love to read books. Some times when I am getting ready in the morning and you get really quiet, I will go peak in on you in your room and you are in the floor just looking at your books and jabbering away.
• You are much smarter than I've given you credit for!! You rarely will point to body parts or things in books so I've been a bit concerned. But last night, you just proved to me that you will only do it when you want to. You pointed to: nose, ears, eyes, tongue, teeth, toes, fingers, head, hair, belly button and bottom. This week as we were reading your "First 100 words" book, you pointed to so many things. Off the top of my head: truck, airplane, boat, ball, boots, shoes, frog, butterfly, fish, elephant, etc. Sometimes you won't point but I'll see your eyes move to the object I mentioned.
• You absolutely torment the dogs. Mac is so annoyed by you and Wrigley just deals with it. Poor things!! Hopefully you will learn "gentle" soon!
• You say more words lately: ma, mamma, dada, daddy, da(dog), outside, ta(truck), ta(airplane), ta(digger)..you get the point. However, you have been saying things on command: tutu(turtle), byboo(diaper), poopoo(no translation needed). When I ask you if your diaper is wet, you grab yourself and nod yes or no! Too funny!
• Every morning you have gotten used to walking around for about 30 minutes before breakfast with your snack trap and cheerios. Bad habit and hard to break!
• You are so big at parks now!! I don't have to follow you up any of the big toys..and I love this!

Well, that's a lot of stuff but I want to remember it all!! Love you little pumpkin!! Can't believe you will be 1 1/2 years next month!!

More Pumpkin Patch pictures

Tis the season for multiple pumpkin patch visits. I just wanted to share a few more photos from our trip this morning! Enjoy!

not quite sure why this flipped, but cute anyway! I just love his little feet!

Pumpkins

We made a quick Arboretum visit last Sunday and it was beautiful!!! I can't get over how gorgeous everything looks when the temperature is perfect and the smell of fall is in the air. Samuel was a little out of it that day so we didn't do too many pictures. However, I can't wait to take him out there again in a couple of weeks and hopefully get some good, happy boy pictures!

Such a BOY!

On Friday, Samuel and I got to go tour the fire station in Addison with some friends. He really LOVED it, but wasn't too interested in the fire station tour as much as he was the firetruck tour! Oh my goodness, it is definitely encoded in a little boy's genetics to like all things that go!! He has loved firetrucks for about a month or two now so I knew he would love this. The hardest part of the day was keeping him in one spot long enough to listen to the firemen. He was running everywhere like a mad man! Here are some precious pictures from our day!


Here he is looking at the massive coats they have to put on. They look so giant next to his little body. Just a cute picture where mommy got to play with photo editing!

I HEART this picture! He was in total awe of the truck. I had to struggle to get him out to give other kiddos a turn.

This day reminded me of how fun little boys are!!

The Real O.C

About two weeks ago, Thad and I were able to get away for about 5 days and have some nice, relaxing time together in sunny southern California. We LOVE California and usually head west when we get the chance. Samuel enjoyed his time with Nana and Papa and Thad and I were able to spend some much needed quality time together. We went to Monarch Beach, which is just about 10 minutes south of Laguna Beach. We slept in everyday(well, not really that late but it was nice to wake up on our own without a sweet boy talking in a monitor), read MANY books, lounged by the pool, walked on the beach and surrounding areas every morning, watched surfers, and of course, ate lots of really good food. The weather was beautiful every day once the marine layer burnt off and the temperatures were perfect.

First night at resort...enjoying a nice sunset with dinner

Second night, eating Sushi in Laguna Beach

Our gorgeous resort; view from our balcony. We had a full ocean view and it was so nice to watch the sunset.

This picture is hilarious to me! In true Ashley fashion, I grabbed the first person I saw and asked if he would take our picture. Little did I know, the guy was a photographer who was there to shoot one of the three weddings that we saw. He took about 20 pictures while playing with the settings on my camera. I think he was laughing at my little old camera but he did his best!

Sunset from our room

The last day before we left for the airport, we walked down to the golf club to have lunch. This is the view from our table.

So ready to see my baby by this point!!

Goodbye Cali!!! We love you!!

First Day of School

On Tuesday, Samuel started MDO. He will go twice a week for 5 hours each day! There are really no words to describe the "cuteness" that was going on in the above picture. Samuel was so excited to wear his new backpack and was such a big boy walking in. And then....the crying began. Poor thing! He was so happy until he realized that mommy and daddy weren't staying with him at school. I'm usually really strong about leaving him in places because I totally understand that they are better once you are out of sight. But for some reason, I gave in to the crying, opened the class door and immediately picked him up. I then made the mistake of saying "say bye bye to daddy." He melted down! So, I put on my tough mommy face, and handed him off and we said goodbye. They tell me he cried for a millisecond and was fine the rest of the day. He took a 30 minute nap but I really hope that improves. As I'm typing this, we just finished our second day and he is sacked out upstairs. Maybe he will always take a nap when he gets home:))

This picture was Tuesday morning before school. Thad and I got home on Monday night from a 5 day vacation in California (bliss) so Samuel woke up to find us home and was so excited to see us....and the new car we brought him.

All dressed and ready for a big first day!! Nana and Papa were still in town because they kept him while we were on vacation. It was so nice to have them here!

Time to walk in to school!

And...I'm off!!

15 months..a little late

Here is Samuel this time last year...he turned 3 months old and our lives got SO much easier!!

Samuel Cade...NOW!!! Such a big boy!

-You are now 15 months old! Where has the time gone? It seems like yesterday that you were my tiny little baby. I remember laying you on the bed to watch Praise Baby while I would shower, holding you for hours at at time and being able to actually get pictures of your face! Fast forward 1 year later...and WOW!! You are so busy and I love it.

-You now are going everywhere and getting into everything. I honestly cannot do anything without you getting into something that you aren't supposed to. You love to play with toilet paper, tupperware, the phone, the remote controls, etc.

-You aren't really eating as well as you used to. You have become quite the picky little eater. You still enjoy grilled cheese, cinnamon toast, regular toast with butter, apples, grapes, strawberries, carrots, broccoli with cheese, chicken nuggets, french fries, cheese quesadilla, cheese dip, cheese slices, etc. Are you seeing the trend here??? You LOVE cheese! You still only drink water and milk because that's all that mommy offers you:((

-I have learned that you love to be on the go! I have days where I would love to stay home all day, but you just won't have it. You are so fussy when we have days like this so I usually plan something for everyday. You are great at the gym and now walk away when I drop you off. You are still pretty good in the stroller if you have a lot to look at. We go to the grocery store often and you always NEED a balloon. So funny!

-You love to look at books and we do this before every nap and bedtime. Your favorites are the "Things that Go" books that have trucks, cars, boats, etc. You love to look at animals but only make the Elephant sound. We hear you through the monitor some mornings making the elephant sound. Pretty much every animal makes this sound!

-You now give hugs and kisses when we ask for them. I LOVE THIS!

-You love to be tickled until you are sweaty all over and your hair is soaked.

-You are growing fast and transitioning into 18-24 month clothes and size 5 shoe.

-You are still taking 2 naps a day. I thought you were ready to move to 1 nap but I was wrong. You are definitely a boy who needs his sleep and I'm fine with that. If we need to do some things during the day in the morning, you can roll with 1 nap but your little body still prefers 2. We will see how long this lasts. You start school in 1 week so this might all be changing soon!

-You still don't say many words: daddy, dada, mama, tata(truck) and dadada which means every thing else. You point to everything and want to know what it is.

-You are really into the tantrum phase..and I hate it! I'm reading books on discipline and think that isolation and time out will work best for these. Updates to come soon on how that works out. You HATE to have your nails clipped, lotion put on, diaper changed, etc. You also throw yourself on the ground and beat the ground with your fist when we say "no", take a toy away, or when you are caught playing in the dog bowl. Ahhh, my strong willed child! Unfortunately for you, I'm a tough cookie, and I usually just laugh..on the inside of course!

Samuel, you are an absolute joy to my life and my world is so much better with you in it. I love everything about you and your little personality. You are the best sidekick I could ever ask for. Looking forward to watching you grow...but not too fast ok?