Flashback Friday

Last year on Sam's birthday...

Siding!

garage doors installed this week!

the siding started to go on today

not quite as dark as we hoped but we'll take it!!!

drywall tape and mud throughout (peeked in the back door!)

Big kid swing!!!!!!!

Sam loves to swing and always has!! He wasn't willing to give up the hassle-free ease of the baby swing this summer. Tonight he was comfortable swinging for a long time all on his own- relaxed hands, talking, showing us the moon, excited to have Dad swing next to him, etc! The list of firsts for this kid just keeps growing. We are so proud of you buddy!!!!!!!!

Two quick videos to prove it!

1. 2.

Resons we love Campbell Jean

I wanted to share a few sweet things about Campbell before I forget.  Here are a few random reasons we love this girl so so much:

... she's pretty into her momma lately and can often be found at my feet asking to be held.  We know she means to say 'you carry me momma' but instead, switches the pronouns and what you hear is "I carry you Momma."  Makes me smile every time. 

... she and I have a joke each morning while we share a bowl of cereal.  As soon as we start to eat she says 'cereal with milk momma' and then quickly corrects herself with a grin and says 'cereal with water!'  She giggles each time when I take the bait and say 'no it's milk silly!' and laugh with her!  This has gone on for the last few months.  Last week she mistakenly called Bryan's red truck pink.  I corrected her by saying 'no silly Daddy's truck is red' (she knows the difference) and you could see the light bulb go off in her head!  Now the milk/water cereal joke is immediately followed each morning by the red/pink truck joke!  She thinks she's pretty funny!  I think it's funny she knows she has two jokes and looks forward to making me giggle each time she tricks me! 

... she likes to talk.  : )  Bryan and I still can't get enough of it!  We have always said we would be careful not to shush her as we haven't been able to enjoy that kind of interaction with Sam.  Although she tries our patience at some point throughout the day with her need to fill all air space, we love to hear what funny thoughts she has to share.  Lately, while Bryan is working and Sam is at school, she talks about things the four of us will do.  She lists all four of our names (and repeats a few) about three times and sprinkles in there whatever activity we'll do when we're reunited again- for example 'park.... Daddy, Sam, Momma, Sam, Campbell... park... park Momma!... Sam, Daddy, Campbell, Momma, Campbell, Daddy... the park! Mom, Dad, Sam, Campbell!'   We have a conversation about day and night at least once each day.  It's suck in her head that the sun comes up each morning about the time that we are having breakfast.  She knows that when the sun goes doesn it's night night time and the moon gets a turn.  Bedtime is my favorite... 'no sun... night night... moon's turn... at freatfast... the sun... freatfast... sun... moon... night night... at freatfast... sun!' and we go round and round! 

... she likes her babies more than ever.  She pretends to feed them real food, puts her pointer finger over her lips and tells me to shhh! when they are sleeping, gives them rides in the little cozy coup car and puts them to sleep in her crib when they're really tired.  She brings me my phone and asks to see pictures of babies (on facebook ha!) and doesn't miss a single baby on a book, a commercial or for pete's sake in person.  She's got a baby radar!  It's pretty sweet to watch her imagine and nuture little ones already!

... she likes shoes.  Her favorites right now include a pair of butterly shoes (flutterfly shoes), her buckle shoes (two sizes too big), boots or boot-ies (cowboy boots, cute girly black boots or too big hand-me-downs with bows on them), or 'Kate's shoes (a lovely pair of pink shoes I told her Kate wore a long time ago)'!  She cooperates for the most part when I tell her she needs to wear her pink and purple (Nikes) if we're headed to the park or somewhere official.  My fingers are crossed she doesn't end up in size 10s like her mother, aunts and grandmother! 

She is a funny little thing.  Kind of fiesty too... she knows what she wants!  She is still quite at the start of being in front of friends or new people.  Her memory amazes me and she's adding new words and phrases at rapid speed!  Words that describe Campbell at almost 22 months: talkative, sweet, silly, demanding, and smart <3 p="p">

pointing to Kate's shoes

figuring out how to take a picture with my phone

my little baby lover sweetly slumbering

don't take my picture pout!  note the Christmas skirt, two birdie shirt, and beloved too big buckle shoes : )

And a short video just because she's cute! 
       

Drywall is up!

Our house is looking great!  This week they got everything insulated and all the drywall up!  My parents came down today and got to walk around with us too.  Sam and Campbell were funny--- things are clean and much more house-like than construction zone they had been used to these last few weeks.  They had fun going back and forth between their rooms talking about who sleeps in which.  Anxious to see what this next week brings!

our soon to be home!!!



pretty garage

we like the high ceiling

standing in the dining room- looking into living room- kids rooms beyond

kitchen- pantry door on left- mudroom on right

thinking through Sam's closet

he was pretty excited in Campbell's room

woah look up there dad!

he kept leading us back into his room : )

they marched around pretty proud... so did their parents though too : )

our low fireplace ready for a tv above

I still like the window above the steps

one of the big bedrooms downstairs with the closet framed

other bedroom, bathroom and closet under the stairs

second big bedroom

living room with storage room beyond

living room from the other end- we like the landing at the bottom of the stairs

starting to work on the stone pillars- Bryan checking out the lighs : )

my dad approves : )

can you picture the many first day of school pictures we'll take right there?!?

Campbell and her buddy navigating the steep driveway (kind of a bummer but what do you do?!)

Experimenting with pillows

 

tried out Sam's dinosaur pillow this day

and the monkey pillow pet another day

 

 

Buddies

 

Sam and Campbell have been playing together really well lately.  They have started to playfully wrestle a bit, they lay on the floor and protest together (Sam's form of a temper tantrum that she's decided to mimic alongside), and without fail... the second she wakes up (in the morning or from a nap) she asks about her buddy Sam.  She calls him Sammy often which is pretty adorable.  It's so great to watch their bond and friendship continue to grow!   

 

 

 

Star of the Week!

Sam sharing his tiger with the help of Mrs. Nicklaus

 

FOUR has been great to Samuel so far!!!  : )  He had a great, great week at school and got to be the star of the week in his classroom--- the special seat cover, his poster on display and each day he could bring a treat/trinket and five items to share (not sure we had 25 different items worth sharing??)--- the whole bit!  His teachers told me each day how much he loved being in front of the class- something he's oddly comfortable with there thankfully!  I'm glad they take a full week to get to know each student a little better.  Sam loved every minute of being the star!

 

This week also brought a few new big developments/milestones for our Sam.  On Wednesday, his class was in the library listening to a story before checking out books.  The librarian was reading a book called Wow! School! by Robert Neubecker.  It's a simple picture book- the page on the left says WOW! and the page on the right says a word like Classroom!, Teacher!, Art!, etc.  The illustrations are bright and busy.  We have heard ohs and woahs and wows from Sam before but while she was reading aloud this day, they were hearing the most clear, on command WOWs! they had ever heard from him!  He loved the book and said the word WOW! with her at the correct time throughout the story with great excitement!  Thankfully they held the book aside (another example of their above and beyond kindess to him all throughout the building!) so Sam was able to check it out and bring it home for the week.  We have read it many a times in the last three days and he couldn't be happier to point to the word WOW! and say it aloud clearly!       

 

Wednesday brought another new and fairly huge speaking accomplishment for Sam.  Ms. Jodi was trying to get him to make an mmm sound followed by an ahhh sound (so 'ma').  Putting the two together and doing it on command is not something we've heard from Sam before.  He was stuck holding on to the mmmmmm and she was trying to get him to open into the ahh (illustrating by bursting her closed fingers open by her mouth).  He wasn't totally cooperating and was more interested in the shaving cream she was holding.  She said finally she looked at him and said 'Sam say ma and I'll give you some shaving cream"... and he did!!!!!  On command!!  Several times!! An MMMM sound followed by an AAHHH sound!!!!! MA!!!  MA!!  MA!!!  Ms. Jodi (ps she's crying as she tells me the story as she loves him so and of course I'm bawling joyfully as I hear it!) then walked him over to his star of the week poster that had a picture of the four of us on it and she pointed to me.  She got Sam to say MA several times while connecting it to my picture!!!  He of course knows I'm Mom but it's a huge thing to hear the sounds come out of his sweet mouth and I'm so thankful she took the time to make the connection to my picture right then and there.  After school that day while we were talking to Jodi at pick up, he did it a few more times so I could hear it in the flesh.  Something I will never forget.  Huge to get those sounds together... on purpose... several times.  Huge.  A huge baby step for Sam.  The next day they were working on it again and he wasn't saying it.  Jodi ran and grabbed the silly shaving cream.  The crazy kid said it right away again!!!  Odd, but you bet your rear this mom went out and bought a can of old school shaving cream yesterday!!!  : ) 

 

Friday afternoon was another exciting first for Sam.  Mrs. Nicklaus emailed me and said Sam had signed 'potty' to her during rest time after lunch- not something he had done before to her so she thought what the heck why not- and walked him into the restroom.  He was dry AND sat right down and went potty!!!!!!  This is so exciting because the know-how of anything pre hasn't been there for him at all yet.  Pretty sure we got lucky that he was dry but we'll take it!  No denying this was the first time he recognized the need to go, communicated it with us clearly and then did it.  Huge.   

 

Who knows what's to come but we are so thankful and happy to have had these big firsts for him!!!  Patience is the name of the game.  He is such a good kid.  And he's in wonderful hands during the day at school--- they literally laugh, cry, dance and cheer with us and him.  We couldn't be happier or any more thankful!!    

 

   

House

 

We haven't been inside this week but Campbell and I drove by today--- new developments I could see from the road:  the garage is totally insulated, the gentleman was working on the columns on the front stoop, we have a back door in the garage and a front door and I could also see a piece of drywall in front of Sam's window!  We've been working hard to figure out a bunch of little things for the next go round- appliances, faucets, kitchen sink, backsplash, lighting, closets, etc. Lots to decide and things on this list add up pretty quickly!  Can't wait to get in there Sunday to check things out!!

Recent phone pictures

Last week was pretty busy with house decision stuff but the weekend was full of relaxation. It was lovely. I'm posting a few random pictures from the last few days- Campbell driving, the kids eating doughnuts while watching tv, our new kitchen lighting, follow the leader at the playplace, our mini pedicure, our princess and sleeping beauty, and the star of the week! Happy Monday!

doughnuts and cartoons

Sam and I worked on his poster this weekend- he's the star this week!!

Miss Campbell can be found often driving or pushing her babies around

who needs the play stuff when you can march around on the cushy benches?!

pottied right out the top of her diaper during nap- stripped, changed, covered and she snuggled right back in!

pretty princess!  she got to choose from the treasure chest at Sam's classroom

we took off our purple polish and then soaked our toes in the sink- she thought I was nuts but loved it!

soon to be lighting in our kitchen!

he's been napping hard and fast when he gets home from school the last couple weeks- such a good boy!

Cute Campbell

Campbell was full of it after nap today when we went in to wake her sleepy dad and brother. She's pretty cute.

Lucky Mom

She wanted me today mid-nap.  And I happily obliged. 

 

Windows!!!

This week has already been full of big decisions and major progress!  We finalized kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, bathroom counters, started working on trim/door and paint color, we've met with the electricians twice, decided on shower/tub fixtures and narrowed the search for the bathroom and kitchen sink faucets.  Today we also chose the stone for the front of the house and all of the windows went in!!!!  I know things will seemingly hault sooner than later but right now we seem to be flying!  Thankfully Bryan and I line up on so many of the big decisions.  Our eyes most often end up on the same color or style of things- kind of a good feeling!  Let's hope we're happy with all of these choices a couple months from now!  Thanks for checking in on our progress!

 

steps into the mudroom- you can see one of our electricians peaking out at me

standing in the dining room looking into the kitchen

low fireplace

far window is in the rear kiddo room

kid room, bathroom, kidroom

entryway coat closet with front kiddo bedroom behind

I'm still rather fond of the window above the stairs

master shower