A New Toy

Samuel's Uma (my Mom) is here to visit for the week, and she has, of course, spoiled him with presents. She found a walker/wheelbarrow for him at Ikea, and he loves it so much. His only problem is that he can't quite seem to figure how to push both of his walkers at the same time, but he sure has tried.

Before we could even get the walker completely put together he decided to try to take it for a spin last night....He is one determined little guy...

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Wagon Train

One more post for tonight. Our little guy has just started doing so many funny things, and for the first time in a while I've actually been able to catch them on video.

The story behind this one: He has a little red chair that he loves to push around the house, unfortunately, we have carpet every where but the kitchen and the bathrooms, so it's pretty much impossible for him to maneuver the chair any where but the kitchen.

Today he put some of his toys on the chair and started trying to push it around the living room and got mad. So I got one of his wagons out and put the toys in there for him. Now he has a new favourite game!

Go Dogs!

My parents are UGA fans, and while we were staying with them, they got Samuel a football that plays the UGA fight song, and says "GO DOGS!"

He's been saying the word 'dog' for quite some time now, but a few weeks ago Samuel started saying "Go Dogs", or at least what sounds pretty close to it, after the fight song finished playing. I finally caught it on video tonight:

Uba, notice that he's wearing his shirt you got him for the full effect :)

Yum. Yum.

So.....We're still working on the utensil thing....right now they are more for drumming and throwing... But yesterday Bill was feeding him some applesauce as an appetizer to tide him over until I had dinner finished, and Samuel started using his teether as a spoon! - well... at least as a mechanism to move the food from the tray to his mouth....

At least it's progress... right?

(FYI: the background noise is Pirates of the Caribbean....We were all so engrossed with his new eating skills we blocked it out, until I started to post the video....)

Our Little Comedian...

Samuel has started playing new games, and one of his favorites is to pretend to be different Sesame Street Characters. - He has a floor puzzle mat that has several of the monsters and he and his Daddy have worked up quite a routine. They were at the end of their performance when I finally arrived with the camera, but here is a glimpse of our Clifton-style theatre:

Memories

In looking through old photos last time we were in Blackshear my mom ran across several photos of her as a young girl perched on top of shiny new cars. She remembered one time when it was summer time and car top was very hot, but my granddaddy insisted that the photo be taken. He was very proud of his girls, and very proud of his cars.

When we were at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History last weekend they had an antique car on display. I couldn't resist taking a photo of Samuel and me with the car.

It wasn't a hot sunny day, and Samuel actually thought it was pretty cool to be perched up so high, but this one's for you, Mom, in memory of Granddaddy Hugh.

And He's Off, Walking, and Ready to Run!

Well... Samuel is getting, really, really good at walking.....

He actually did some running today, but that's still ending him in a lot of face plants.

The video below was taken in the Children's Section of the Fort Worth Science Museum, the day after Samuel decided to really start taking off on his own.

There were so many things to explore, but he spent almost the entire time running back and forth between the train table and the Lego table with two train pieces in his hands!

When we finally got him to give up the train pieces -after some bribing with a new ball and toy that we had to purchase at the museum gift shop- Samuel took off down the halls, and walked up, and down, three flights of stairs with Bill's help. Bill's poor back was killing him the next morning. But both of our backs are beginning to recover nicely now that our near 24 lb 15 month old is transporting himself.

This One is for Uba

Bill found a tumbleweed outside a few weeks ago, we saved it so Samuel could have his picture taken with it for his Granddaddy Carlton to see.

Samuel hits the Streets

...or grass rather...

.....

He's only taken one step on his own so far, but he's cruising along at lighting speed.

This video was taken this morning, while waiting for a friend to arrive to go with us on a day trip to a neighboring town, where he walked the side walks, with assistance, of course.

Later in the day we went on a walk with him and his walker along the sidewalk. He LOVED it.

It won't be long now......

Samuel's New Modes of Transportation

Samuel has been crawling for a little over a month now. He has developed his own method, different from anything I have ever seen.

It's taken me a while to get figure out how to get a video that is small enough to post, but here finally we have it:

(It takes him a few minutes to get going, but then he's off to the races.)

His Uncle Dan and Aunt Dez gave him a red ride in car for Christmas. He squealed when it was pulled out of the box, and I don't even know how to begin to describe how much he loves this thing. He cries whenever he has to be separated from it.

This weekend we reached the point where all of us where tired from pushing him around, so we put him in his walker and attached the car to the walker. Now his very favorite thing to do is pull the car behind him. He's gotten pretty good at it.

Rip and Tear, Rip and Tear!

One Christmas when my family was still living in Germany, my mom and brother were opening a box with Christmas presents, which had all of the paper, wrapping paper, stuffing paper, and all of that good stuff that packages that are mailed across the ocean need to make it there safe.

As they were taking all of the packages out of boxes, they started saying, "Rip and tear! Rip and tear! Happy Christmas Everywhere!". Every since then, we've said it every Christmas when we open packages.

Tonight, Samuel got his own introduction into the fun. My mom was busy organizing all of her ribbons and boxes and paper and Samuel got a hold of some of the ribbon, and boy did he have fun! - He liked the gold ribbon the best. He didn't even mind that his Uma put a bow on him. - Don't worry Dad, just a Christmas bow.

Farm Day!

My parent's church had a 'Farm Day' today at a ranch out in De Funiak Springs.We took Samuel to see what it was all about.

Here are a couple pictures from our adventure:

It was really cold (for Florida) so we bundled up for the outside fun.

Granddaddy and Samuel spent some time watching a sheepdog herd goats.

- I guess that would make him a goat dog?

Then we ate some good home cookin'.

Samuel, unfortunately had to sit that part out and just watch.

- They didn't have a baby food section on the buffet.

With our tummies full, we went exploring.

We saw lots of pied cocks, donkeys, horses, goats, several old saws, and a pig.

But Samuel's favorite part of the whole day was when he got to sit on a big red tractor!

Grandmamma and Granddaddy had to hold on tight. Samuel didn't want to get off.

So he and Mama sat on another tractor together.

After we had seen all there was to see we loaded up to head home.....

It was a long, but very, very fun day.

Teeth!

Well they have finally broken the surface! Samuel has two little pearly whites that have broken the surface of his lower gums, and he has taken to biting everything from his teething rings to my chin and nose -? -

He seems very excited about getting to use these new additions, but not too happy about the pending arrival of their friends. I keep telling him just to hang in there, and he'll be eating steak before he knows it. I'm not too sure he believes me.....

Firsts....

Samuel is all of 6 months now ( well, he will be in two days ). And we've started to slowly add solids to his diet. Last night while I was feeding him a little rice cereal he took the spoon out of my hand and informed me that he wanted to start taking control of the spoon.



I think I see lots of messes and frequent baths in our future.



This weekend while Bill and I were playing with Samuel on the floor, he discovered that he can balance himself while in a seated position.






He was very excited about that, and so were we.

A Lot Can Change in a Year...

It's been over a year since I posted anything on this blog, and a lot has happened since then.
We've moved (again) though this time within the same city. We needed a little more room than our 2 bedroom apartment could provide, as we've added a new addition to our family. Our baby boy Samuel was born this past February, almost six months ago.



And since my life is primarily consumed with him I am going to change the format of my blog a little bit, so that I can share photos and videos and events in his life with those of you who are interested in watching him grow. I'll also continue to post on other things as time allows as well, but as he's about to start crawling, I think my opportunities to sit down and pick up a lap top are going to be rather limited.

Small Pieces of Paper Say

This past Friday I went to a Chinese buffet with Bill and my brother Dan.

My fortune cookie said:

You have a charming way with words

you should write a book.

I think I might.

Three Cups

Two years ago one of my dear friends gave me a copy of Three Cups of Tea:

an AMAZING book about Greg Mortenson's life, and his mission to bring schools to the mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan.  

Only recently have I started reading this beautiful and inspirational book.  And it has reawakened desires to go and do and be and give that I had forgotten.

I am glad to be reminded of how much our lives are worth, and how quickly we can embrace a lifestyle where we take so many thing for granted. 

O ! Oxford

As I sit and eat a few of all my favorite things (Kashi granola, fruit and yogurt) and take a moment to wander through cyberspace I stumbled across this 

poem of Dorothy Sayers 

courtesy of The Inklings Blog.  It caused me to stop my hurried existence for a few moments, relish in, and long for the dwindling beauty of words, the art of reflection, and enjoyment of simplicty.

  We hurry far too much today.

I love my Daddy!

I have been browsing through photos over the past couple days and just ran across this one:

-My dad talking to both his sister's at the same time!
What a great version of multi tasking-

If I had a lot of money

I would like to say I would give it all away, you know, to charity, or something wonderfully thoughtful and moral and good.

But I think I might end up spending an unfortunately significant amount of it on things I think are scrumptiously beautiful, like Painted Ceramic Rings and Finishing Touch Necklaces from



So it's probably a good thing that I am, and will for quite some time, be substantially poor.