Well folks, as I write this, my holiday vacation has little less than twenty four hours of life to it, but don’t get me wrong because I’m not complaining.  It’s been a very busy, wacky and wild two weeks, and maybe a little relaxed, slacker time at work is just what I need! My bosses read my blog on occasion, so I really hope they picked up the sarcasm there! If not, I may be staring an unemployment related blog soon, stay tuned

Our Christmas festivities started off in the evening of the 24th, over at Melissa’s parents house.  The whole gang was there dressed to the nines and Sam was at his attention grabbing best.  Being passed around from adult to adult without the slightest frown or sob, Sam soldiered on until Mom plopped him down in his retro 80’s feeding chair that his “MamieNoune”, Melissa’s mother, had bought for him. The buffet was laid out and Sam was eating like the rest of us. He seems to enjoy that, I think it makes him feel like one of the big people. That when Sammy boy decided to shake things up a bit, and when Mom wasn’t looking, that’s when he struck! Mom’s head was turned and out flew his hand.  The slap completely knocking over his bowl of chicken pot pie and pea puray… all over his bib, the retro 80’s chair, the floor… and Melissa’s black dress pants! Merry Christmas Mom!

The rest of the evening went really well, except for the abrupt end that hit around 10:30, when my God-Son Jeremy, after an understandably exciting and long Christmas-Eve, was strung out and tired. So much so in fact, that after getting his “big gift”, the train set pic, he did what any five year old pooped out but over zealous kid does on Christmas when told by his parents he can’t open the “big gift” now:  complete meltdown! Quite the tantrum, so the family packed up an left with the little guy steaming… oh well we had some good fun anyways. Besides, if I’m still blogging in five years time, I might be writing the same thing about Sam!

Here are just some of the pics from the evening, enjoy:

So, here’s wishing you all a very happy and healthy New-Year! Better yet, here’s Sam to tell you himself!

Talk to you all in 2009!

*click the image to enlarge*

A very Merry Christmas, Kwanzaa or Hanukkah and a very happy, healthy, trouble-free New-Year!

Remember to play safe, don’t drink and drive and PAAARRRRRRRTTAAAAAAAYYYYYY!

Looks like Sammy-boy hit the eggnog a little too hard! Love & Peace to all and to all a good night!

But Hey! If you’re reading this Santa, Sam is still up for some gifts!  His stocking is hung up with care and he’ll throw in  a couple cookies for your troubles… you like chocolate chip?  Sam likes his stocking, but the tree is what really makes him giggle.  When he gets the chance, by slipping through Mom and Dad’s radar, he heads for the living room and takes dead aim on the tree.  Its lower branches, mostly unadorned for obvious reasons, are completely at his mercy.  We’ve also taped the tree to the floor so it can resist his little smacks and tugs. That alone cost us a roll of tape, but it was worth it!  He can give it a good yank when he wants to, and that’s about when I swing by an pick him off the floor, and away from the ghetto branches, to look at the more interesting ornaments on the higher, upper class, branches of the tree.  Then, he just giggle at the tree.  We’re not sure why, sometimes it’s when he touches the prickly artificial branches, other times he’s just staring at the lights. Funny kid…

Did I mention Sam is gift crazy? Just look at what I caught him doing this afternoon!  Totally of his own volition too! I swear! Just look at the guilt on his face! Caught red-handed! We can see his little thieving paw on the gift…which is not even addressed to him! HA! The little bugger was gonna keep ‘em all for him self! :shock:  Only 10 months old, and he belongs on the cast of Ocean’s 11!

And today, Sam had the privilege of meeting the Fat Man for a second time! This time, he sat on his knee with his cousin Jeremy, who claims to have seem his five times this year!  Freakin’ kid’s a Santa hog!  Let the other kiddies get some knee-time buddy! Sam’s reaction this this was more of a ho-hum attitude… like he’s seen and done it before.  He hardly even looked at him! That might affect his gift count, we’ll have to wait and see if this rookie mistake will cost him on the big morning! Here’s the pic of an un-impressed Sam… take it easy folks!

Hope you enjoy the comic!  It’s a first here on the blog and I had quite some fun putting it together, so I might throw more up here from time to time… If response is good of course!

That’s it for now, take ‘er easy folks!

]]> http://www.babysizelife.com/2008/12/16/sam-knocks-the-stuffing/feed/ http://www.babysizelife.com/2008/12/11/sam-wont-be-stopped/ http://www.babysizelife.com/2008/12/11/sam-wont-be-stopped/#comments Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:26:11 +0000 John http://www.babysizelife.com/?p=1096 Sam is almost 10 months now, how time flies! Every time I see him do something that an adult would do, like stand up, I kind of freak out an think “There go the fun baby times! He’s a tot already!” But then Sam drools a big wad of spit that touches the floor and his curiosity is piqued. He quickly reaches over to grab it with both hands. Problem is, he was using those little fingers to keep himself upright against a kitchen chair at the time! So down he comes with a plop as the diaper breaks his fall. Totally oblivious, he proceed to put his saliva back into his mouth… Yeah… He’s still my baby!

What’s Sam doing climbing chairs? We’ll he’s a little explorer now. Toys are of little consequence to him when he can instead explore the farthest reaches of the kitchen to discover the secrets of the white monolith… our fridge. He can delve deep behind the unforgiving jungles of the living room couches while fighting off evil dust bunnies. He may even bravely climb, the steep cliff faces of our Mount Everest: the stairs to the second floor. I might as well change his name to Indy. This kid is fearless people! Sam’s blatant disregard for his own safety is astounding! Even after he bumps his noggin after a spill. He gets right back up for another go! I keep looking around for a short Chinese kid waiting to drive ‘Dr Jones’ around. He loves those stairs… and no we don’t let him climb them alone… sometimes he brings his teddy with him But as you can see in the pic on the right, Mom is right behind him every step of the way.

Nothing stops Sam. If he has the choice to crawl around something to get to his goal, he won’t. He likes going right through things. His play-center, the kitchen table, chairs, benches, boxes and many other obstacles have fallen to his explorer’s lust for discovery. If he can’t go through something, two choices usually remain: climb over it or swat it out of the way. Naturally this keeps us on maximum surveillance whenever we let Sammy boy roam the wilds of our house. Make shift barriers of pillows and boxes too high for him to climb seem to be adequate for taming his need to see, touch and eventually taste anything he can. It’s getting harder and harder to hide things from him!

He notices everything now! We were at my parents house for dinner and my niece has her pet turtle there. Sam immediately took to crawling up to the tank for a look-see. But the tank was on a little wooden table, too high for him to climb. So, Nanny swiped him up to give him a better view. I say ’swiped’ because my parents are pretty fierce when competing with each other when it comes to Sammy cuddle time. I love seeing that: Mom and Dad fighting, but for a good reason. Not that they fight all the time, but…. Ah forget it! Flash, that’s the turtle’s name, seemed to like Sam as he kept swimming over to see the funny little human. Looks like Sam has made a friend!

Now that Sam’s really keeping us busy, we need to find creative ways of keeping him out of the blender or microwave. But don’t get me wrong, I love seeing him crawl around and curious. Sam’s past couple months, and the next few are great times for parents. Loaded with moments of self-discovery that will open new doors for us and him… Then the terrible twos hit.

Thankfully that’s still over a year away!

Take care all!

Well, it being the beginning of the season and the fact that it was an early Friday afternoon, there was only 2 little brats ahead of us in line! Good for Sammy-boy and good for us as those horror stories of long waits and fussy, whiny kids with their mal-odorant, numb-headed parents would pass us by for this year. When I saw that puny excuse for a line, I kicked Sam’s stroller into a two wheeled, accelerating arrow of death! I blew through the crowd of wandering, credit strapped consumers, making a B-line right for spot #3 in the line. I’m pleased to say my driving skills may just be unmatched in the stroller controller department. Got there with minor casualties: I hit two emo teens, the lady behind the information booth and an old guy with a walker. I admit to some degree of discrimination in this matter, however, as I did hit one of those three on purpose, but I’ll let you figure out who.

I park Sam’ stroller and peel, yes peel (I stroll fast remember?!) Sam from the seal into his mother’s arms as I reach to get the video camera ready. Just doing these simple tasks has dwindled the line down by one. Second place! Not bad for eight second of waiting! Just then, we turn around and an elf lets us scrutinize the photo package “deals” they were “happy” to provide us with. We ended up choosing the 8 picture for 30$ “deal”. It seemed like the lesser of the five evils, but I’m sure my pooch got screwed on that decision anyways.

Finally, after the wallet raping had ceased, it was Sam’s turn on Santa’s ever-richer-by-the-photo lap. At least we knew Sam would have a comfortable seat, cause Santa had just finished stuffing his pockets with a thick roll of twenties from the lunch crowd photo sessions. You saw the pic above, but check out the video below for the whole story… Samuel’s quadruple take is classic…

Enjoy & thanks for reading!

A good sign that the holiday mood is in the air, is that a local radio station starts playing wall to wall Christmas music.  Last year, they started three days after Halloween, which is a little nuts and wholly illegal if you ask me.  Drag the station manager into the street and shoot him… as Garfield would say.  This year, they started mid-November, which is borderline legal, no executions!  Melissa turned on the music tonight and we we dancing and singing along with the songs, with Sammy laughing and smiling all the while!  Totally in the moment, I ran downstairs and dug through the decoration boxes until I found my Santa hat.

Lets do the math here people: one Santa hat + one baby = good times! But it also equals one tough picture to take! Here’s our first efforts, but I’m sure we’ll get more opportunities as December rolls out…

Take it easy, and thanks for reading!

When I think about how Sam gets himself vertical, it is quite an impressive feat. Can you pull yourself to a standing position from flat on your belly using only your arms? Several dozen times a day? I tell ya my boy is in shape! He’s got better abs than Dad. Having your ever curious baby crawling around touching everything at eye level was mildly stressful, but now that he’s discovered the possibilities of not only going forward, but up-up-up! It’s a little nerve racking! It funny though, because his face just lights up when he successfully climbs some chair or table or shelving unit, to discover what Mom and Dad had previous taken off the floor when he started crawling to begin with! But to remedy the situation and give Mom and Dad a stress free break, we can’t always keep him in his crib…umm right?!?

So here’s our, hardly original yet effective, little solution to contain the little explorer: the play pen. We used to only use it when sleeping out at someone’s house for Sammy’s bed. Then one day, I was looking for a way to safely contain Sam while I got some washing done. I smacked my forehead when I thought of it. So obvious! Using the pen helps out big time, especially during the day when Melissa needs a little Sam-free time to get something done. Sam likes it too. He’s got some toys set up in there that he can manage at will. Basically it’s HIS area and he’s the bully. It might be his first case of a power trip. I will start to get suspicious if tattoos of of an escape plan start to show up on his body! Because then I’ll know he’s been watching too much TV

Even though he’s in this little fabric jail, he still likes to climb up the wall… and smash his face into the side netting…

Yeah that’s my nutty kid! *sniff* I’m so proud!

Have a great weekend everybody!

So, Melissa and I figure a cold has set in and we proceed to clean out his nose before giving him his pre-bedtime bottle, which is one of the favorite moments of my day. Sam and I settle into the comfy rocking chair in his room, I dim the lights, throw on a little sleepy-time music and plug the kid into his dairy fix. Bliss folks… pure bliss. That went well, the problem came afterward. Just as Sam was finishing his bottle and I was easing him off to La-La Land, Melissa sticks her head in the door way and reminds me to give him some Tempra infant cold medicine before he falls asleep. Ah Mommy to the rescue! Insensitive and uncaring Dad would’ve put little Sammy to bed all stuffed up and snorting boogers all night. Well, no, of course I would not have done that, but Mommy was right as it would help him sleep.

So up we get, away from the warm and friendly confines of the rocking chair to Sam’s crib where I lay him down. Sam immediately sits up, then stands up gripping the edge of the crib. Great! He’s more awake now and he’s vertical which should make giving him the medicine a little easier. Turns out, it just gave him greater range. Let me explain…

So I kneel in front of him and wrap one arm around his body as the other hand feeds him the meds. I had barely twisted the cap on the medicine bottle when some very warm fluid soaked my shirt. Puke! Not wanting to drop Sam, I call for Melissa to come and give me a hand, which turned out to be a good call, because Sammy-boy wasn’t done. The second and bigger projectile-like wave hit the crib railing, my left arm, his mattress, the crib bars and finally dripped down on his carpet. Super fun vomit party! Sam’s head didn’t spin, so we didn’t all a young priest and an old priest…

Sparing you some of the details (like pea and carrot chunks), everything was covered in a nice pinkish liquid, due to the fact that the milk and Tempra, a red colored cold medicine, had mixed… And the smell…whoo baby! I think I prefer the foul odor of a full diaper sitting in the hot sun. Melissa took Sam and cleaned him up as I worked on the room. After we got done, Sam fell asleep right away. Poor little guy was up way past his bedtime! Despite his rosé reflux, he slept great!

Dad, on the other hand, felt a little guilty about making his son behave like a super model on a diet, but now I know the rule not to mix red and white applies to kids too!

…and knowing is half the battle!