Archive for June, 2009
Sammy Goes Bargain Hunting!
On a beautiful Saturday morning, around 6:30 A.M., Sam begins to stir in his play pen. You see, we’re at my folks house and when we sleep over, Sammy-boy gets the couch. Well, he gets the toddler equivalent anyways: the folding playpen. He’s not crazy about it, but after an exciting night with his Nanny and Grandpa, Sam is pooped out and sleeps pretty well regardless of his sleeping quarters. So the sun has barely crested the watery horizon when he decides that we should all wake up and start the day. He doesn’t just start crying and yelling like any other kid. No, our Sam stands up gripping the side of the pen, which lines up to about his nose, and with a hopeful voice blurts out: “Papa?!?” Yep, he asks for me. A house full of people, but he asks for me. Groggy Dad, who went to bed late watching movies, has to now get up and entertain, feed and change the alarmingly full diaper of his excited, wide-awake son. Now hearing him call my name in his clear, little voice as it cuts through the early morning quiet of the house is quite a heart warming thing to hear, it really is. The pamper-packer just woke up and he’s asking for me. I love it.
But I’d love it more around 7:30 or 8 o’clock! 
Sam Gets Into Summer
I want out! Take the screen off or I'll go through it!
While you can’t tell by the questionable weather we’ve been having lately, the calendar says summer is only days away. As I type this, looking out the window, sitting on the living room floor, I see nothing but gray, dreary skies and wet pavement. This is, assuredly, a spring-time climate. But come on already! It`s freakin` June 18th and I want some sun dammit!
Ahem… Pardon the outburst, I guess I’m vitamin D deficient.
We do get a nice day now and then. Sometimes we even get two or three nice, dry and sunny days strung together.
"I wanna touch... you!"
But that happens tops… tops once every three weeks. That is not enough! Is this global warming? Well I can’t help but feel a little disappointed if it is! 
When that sun does shine it’s glorious beams of loving warmth, we get outdoors and have some fun! Sam loves being outside. He loves it so much in fact, that every evening when we arrive home after work, we unpack him out of the trunk and bring him into the house to eat supper. As soon as we cross our front door threshold, he loses it! Big tears roll down his reddening cheeks as he throws out a finger pointing back outside and gives one of his best “feel sorry for me” frowns. He doesn’t want to eat now, he wants to explore! Sam loves the trees and plans and flowers that make up our little yard and it’s as if he has to walk around to each one and say “Hi!”.
Oh! And I was kidding about the trunk comment, he prefers the roof a lot more… He gets a nice breeze up there.
Angel Standing By
Regardless of how you spend time in your life, every now and then something makes you stop and reflect. It could be a song playing on the radio, a bit of news on the television or the sound of a familiar, yet long-forgotten voice. It may be the smell of banana bread cooking in the oven, watching kids splash in a puddle of summer rain or just hearing the wind rustle the leaves of the trees in your backyard. Anything can trigger a memory that makes you realize just how much time has past. How much of your life you’ve lived. Living my life in this hi-tech, fast paced time, I cherish these moments. I sometimes even close my eyes and concentrate to keep them alive with me a little longer. I can almost taste Mom’s piping hot, devilishly buttered banana bread on my tongue. But not all memories are brought to the surface of my jumbled, hurried thoughts by pleasant occurrences.
This past week, a particular wisp of remembrance stuck with me. The vividness of it astounds me and the amount of detail I can remember is far greater than most of my other lifelong recollections. Memories tend to change a bit over time as certain facts are lost, but the purpose of the moment will live on even if you are not quite sure what that purpose is… You may not remember exactly what she was wearing, but you know she looked beautiful…
So, here now I’d like to share a memory with you…
Sam Vs Scotch Tape
Well, there’s not much to say on this one. Sam was rooting around our kitchen junk drawer, under our supervision of course, and he fished out the scotch tape. He seemed overly curious about this little plastic item above all the other crap in that drawer, so I cut him off a piece and stuck it on his finger. This video chronicles his struggles to free himself of this sticky finger trap! That junk drawer is kind of like opening Pandora’s box… At one point, after giving up trying to wave the thing off, he tries to stick it on his diaper bag! Sneaky (but smart) freakin’ kid! 
Play safe with the scotch tape folks!
May Photo Round up!
Wow…. May just flew right by! It’s one of our busiest months of the year due to a bunch of birthdays and all the nice weather. Nice weather means outdoor chores! Being outdoors means not being indoors… where the computer is… from which I can post. So, yeah, May was a slow month posting-wise, but I’m looking forward to rebounding strong in June! Sam’s second summer is looking to be way better than his first. This is true mainly due to the fact that this year, Sam can actually move on his own. No longer is he a bump in a log, no sir! This summer, he’s and explorer and a discoverer with limitless curiosity. Naturally, we can’t wait to do all kind of summertime activities with the little guy like bungee jumping and spelunking… But until all that “perfectly safe for a toddler” fun starts, here’s a quick batch of pics taken in May that I’ve not posted before. Just a bunch of little ditties that I could not squeeze into a post.
Sam the Working Man
A few days ago, we were over at the in-laws helping them out with a little landscaping. I absolutely love this kind of work. Good manual labor to keep the mind sane, cause staring at pixels all day will make you lose your mind. While I tend to enjoy the more physical part of any outdoor job all the whilst getting my hands roughed up and dirty; Melissa prefers the gentile touch of a flowers petal on her hands and loves the aesthetic aspect of working outside. Now that was putting it politely folks. What it really boils down to is her telling me where to put the rock and where to dump the earth, so she can toil away with the flowers and make things pretty. But we are both happy in our roles, don’t get me wrong… It’s Sam that has managed to throw a little monkey-wrench into our outdoor proceedings.
Now that Sam is walking around like no one’s business, he sees fit to oversee any and all adult activity happening at anytime, anywhere. Thus, as we are busily working on his grandparents property, Sam pops over here to point and throw a little rock. Then, he shuffles over there to grab a stray gardening glove, only to walk back over here to place the glove in the hole I just dug, hoping to watch me bury it… So I do. Bah! If you saw the glove, you’d bury it too! Grandma’s got enough of them anyways! Then you hit this quiet patch where Sam hasn’t come by in the past three minutes, and you know something is up. Sure enough, he’s usually keeping himself busy by destroying flowers or picking up a stray item here and there: like the garden hose.
Now, while having a little foreman running around while we try to get some work done sounds like a cutesy thing; it’s not. Not only is he slowing down the work, because I can’t help but play with him when he comes waddling around, but he might get hurt around all the hoes… Ummm, gardening hoes. So, what better way to keep him occupied than putting the kid to work? Hell, he’s the youngest amongst us; he’s got a good back, endless energy and a basic understanding that he shouldn’t eat dirt. I say put him in the fields! Let him earn his keep! He’s been living free of charge with us for what… 14? 15 months? The free ride is over kiddo!