Our Baby Size Life!

Posts Tagged ‘Samuel’

During the week, our routine is pretty standard: get home from work, get in the house, get some food in our bellies, get Sam in a bath and get him into bed.  It’s not always that straight forward, we do throw in some good old on-the-floor playin’ around time, but that’s the gist of it. And while we go through this daily grind, Sam has pretty much been nice enough to play on his own and let us prepare supper undisturbed… unless we forget to give him his cheese!  This kids loves the mozzarella and he knows when it’s time for it.  We have barely all shuffled through the front door and Sammy-pants B lines right for the kitchen to stand at the counter where we cut his cheese.  He also has a little plastic bowl that he goes and fishes out of his toy pile and gives it to the cheese-cutter. Then an impatient finger points into the bowl expecting his snack. Naturally, to keep the peace with his grumbling belly, we comply and drop in about a dozen little cubes for him to munch on. Sam likes a quiet meal, so he used to look around for someplace to sit while eating, usually in front of the sink or fridge, because he has to see what we are doing in the kitchen. But sitting in front of the sink or fridge is a recipe for toddler trouble.  So, the we bought him the chair.

Sam likes his chair.

We place it near us in the kitchen and when he gets his dairy payment to leave us alone for a bit, he grabs his bowl and heads for the chair. At first,

we needed to pick him up and sit him down on it.  But Sam wasn’t going to take this pampering any longer; he wanted to do it himself!  Now I don’t have a video of this yet, but when I do I’ll throw it up here.  It’s the funniest thing to see.  He walks up to the chair, stops about two feet away, turns around so his back is to the chair and slowly walks backwards until his heels hit the chair.   Now, his reversing isn’t very good yet because he doesn’t look back at where his going; he looks up at you with a smile like he’s saying “Hey, check me out! I’m backing up man!” When his heels hit a part of the chair, his butt drops… And so does the bowl of cheese cubes! He’s missed the chair and cheese goes flying! We still find these little, hard and dried up cheese cubes under sofas and furniture across the house! He does manage to wedge his cheeks on the chair properly after a couple of tries. He then sits down with a smile and a new bowlful of cheese to watch us get his supper ready.

On some evenings, maybe it’s the food were preparing or the pre-dinner conversation that bores him, he picks up his chair and puts it at the front door of the house!  Our front door has a big glass window inset, so he just loves looking out onto the world while scarfing his mozza.  He’s our very own little old man, guard person.  He yelps when he sees a dog or cat, and talks out loud when people walk by. He’s even knocked on the glass to get people’s attention, and when he does, they usually wave to him which is all he needs to flash back his cute little smile.  It’s pretty neat as a parent to see your child grow up and be so aware of his surroundings.  While Sam can only speak about five words, he understands a whole lot more!  And yet, when he does something an adult would do, we are surprised. Not through doubt that he’d never do the things he does, just astonishment at the fact that this little guy, only a year before, couldn’t even roll over.  Now he’s yelling at people to get off my grass!   Clearly, he’s letting us get to know him a little more every day, quirks and all, which is great! He makes us laugh cause not only does he do funny things like this, but he knows they are funny and laughs with us. My kind of guy!

Don’t forget to laugh folks! Have a great weekend… cause Sam may be watching YOU!

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!

Continue Reading >>

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.

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.

Continue Reading >>

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.

Check out the pics here >>

Yes folks, it’s true.  Sammy has now upgraded his means of travel from the fast crawl to the slow walk! It was a gradual process, starting out with a couple hesitant steps and quite a few more falls on his pampered bum. But persistence pays off, as Melissa and I are now required to up our security measures as well!  And since those initial few steps, Sam has kicked it into high gear, getting to speeds of almost 4 feet per second!

Lightning!

We had security gates and door locks already installed, but now we just have to watch him because he’s a tornado of exploratory destruction! He’s constantly attracted to anything he hasn’t touched in the last 10 minutes… Think about that folks.  Melissa and I now refer to it as extreme babysitting.  The constant hits, smacks, obstacle course-like dodging of toys on the floor and the ducking of flying sheep, has made us into rugged, fit and tone-bodied parents. Richard Simmons would be pleased. But all that crazy parental survival has taken it’s toll… We now go to bed before 10 pm on most nights! Which sounds bad, but it sure does help with those 6 am wake-ups! Yep, every day of the week. That’s fine for the work week, but on the freakin’ weekend?! Come on!

Note to self: teach Sam the meaning of weekends.

Check out this little montage of Sammy’s walking evolution, and now that while it may be cute, it’s caused us a world of pain!

Seeing Sam walk is a surreal experience.  It’s as thought he grew up in one fell swoop. Kind of makes him look like a little man. No longer a baby. Actually, he looks like a little old man when he shuffles around the floor, shoulders hunched to keep his balance. Especially when he uses his little “walker”. That green thing with wheel in the video. It’s another big step (pun!  I hate puns) in his growing up, which is great to see, but brings with it fond memories of seeing him crawl for the first time.

Sam has been walking for a while now eventhough I am only posting about it know.  But iur Sammy-boy has been doing the one-two shuffle since he was a few days over a year old… Way back in early March! Yeah, yeah I know… I’m behind in sharing the news.

Take care and keep putting one foot in front of the other!

Sam loves food.  Melissa and I love food, so I guess Sam picked that up from us. Now I know all babies love food. It’s one of the three main activities they can do: eat, sleep and sh*t.  But Sammy-boy takes it to another level.  This kid shovels folks, he doesn’t eat. Daintiness is a lesson lost on this guy when the chow lands on his plate.  Grabbed by the handfuls and pulled into his semi-toothed maw, Sam consumes with a fury not known to nature.  He claims every last bit of sauce, food particle or crumb on his fingers.  Sam even goes as far as getting all four fingers in his mouth to ensure that no survivors remain.  This kids an athlete. He could go pro next year.

But the thing that makes us laugh is that during the whole “eating us out of house and home” thing, he talks. He just goes on and on blabbing until he’s done eating. This can stretch up to an hour! Between every chew, before and after every breath, he just has to make a noise cause he’s so happy to be eating.

Just to sum up: he won’t shut up.

It’s not pretty to watch sometimes, but man is he passionate about his food! It’s a good thing Mom is a great cook… and Dad’s not too shabby either!

Just check out the video below instead, and watch Sam at his dining finest!

Take care and eat well!

Spring is here! Yes! I love it! Winters cold, unfeeling grasp is finally letting go and the land shall live yet again! Yeeesss!  And what do we Canadians do when Spring’s-a-knockin’? Why we go to the sugar shack, or the “cabane à sucre” as it’s also known.  So, last weekend, we decided pack Sam up and to head on out as we were invited to a birthday party in a sugar shack.  It was a beautiful sunny day, about ten degrees celsius and every one was feelin’ good, ready for a fun time… Well let me tells ya, we almost killed each other on the way up there.

You see, this shack is were you’d think would be: way deep in the bush.  And this particular bush was over an hour away.  So onto google maps I go, pump in the address, print out the directions and we’re off.  However, these directions must’ve been written by Ray Charles, cause they didn’t have a clue where they were going, which pretty much means we didn’t either.  We struggled the whole way to figured out if we should go east or west on a highway, or north or south on another. Then when we finally arrive in the area of the shack, the directions end with us sitting in the middle of an intersection. Nice. Very freakin’ nice.

We then started driving up and down this country road that we knew the shack would be on, but after close to thirty minutes, we found nothing.  Melissa and I aren’t the best of friends at this point… ah couples! Luckily Sam was fast asleep in the back seat.  Finally, my brother calls asking where we were. He had forgotten his cell and was using his girlfriends, who’s number we didn’t have. He starts guiding us towards the shack and things are looking good when he suddenly cuts out.  Our cell phone’s battery is dead.

I swore. Loudly.

So Sam wakes up. Hungry.

It’s an hour past his bottle, and we are almost an hour late for the party.  We finally stopped when we found another sugar shack and asked them to point us towards their competition,  they did with a smile.  Following those instruction, we finally made it to this freakin’ hunk of planks in the woods.  Unpacking Sam, who’d by now had his bottle in the car, and headed inside, where we found my brother and had a good laugh.  We then proceeded to stuff our faces with the traditional sugar shack meal: ham, eggs, fried potatoes, beans, triple-cooked bacon, pea soup and a bit of pure maple syrup on top of everything!

Decadent. Delicious. Diabetic.

Now you might’ve noticed the lack of vegetables… Well yeah, you’d be correct… So, movin’ right along, what about dessert? Sugar pie, sugar donuts, sugar crepes… you seeing a pattern? And the “pièce de résistance”: maple toffee, or “la tire” as it’s called around here.  That’s when they boil down the sap from a maple tree until it becomes has thick texture.  Once that’s achieved, you lay strips of it on fresh snow. Wait a couple minutes and roll it up on a popsicle sitck! Quite a sugar kick but nothing’s like it! Funny thing is, Sam was not a fan! He didn’t like the sugar pie either, so we didn’t force him, and finished his dessert for him.

Overall it was a fun day, Sam loved the food, just not the dessert, and the party was a success.  All the fresh air and food had taken its toll on Sammy-boy, who once strapped into his seat, was out like a light for the drive home.  We followed my brother out of the backwoods maze of hell-streets back to civilization and made it back home in good time, Sam sleeping the whole way.

Whew!

Have a great weekend gang! Chat ya soon!

Hey people! What a crazy, sick, flu-ridden, ear infected, sinus infected week! Every since Sam’s been starting daycare, he’s brought home the whole array of kiddie sicknesses that one can bring back from a daycare. Kids really do share everything… and they then pass it on to the parents!  So, all that aside, I am, again, at home today with sick Sammy who’s recovering from a sinus infection. Yeah he’s doing good… the little bugger’s Irish! He’s tougher than nails baby.

Now, I know his birthday was about one month ago (already!), so I’m gonna breeze through the last part of his first birthday posts: the gifts.  After Sam had spaced out on the cake, we got him cleaned up and decided to let him use some of that newly acquired sugar-induced energy on unwrapping some gifts. And Sam didn’t disappoint with some very involved gift paper tearing… until all the wrapping paper was gone… Then he’d just crawl away, onto the next gift! So next year, we’re telling people to just wrap empty boxes!

Sam was spoiled as friends an family gave him some great stuff: clothes, toys, stuffed animals… and a huge, kick-ass kiddie play-set!  It’s got a soccer net, a basketball hoop, a climbing ladder and a slide!  I can see him having some good fun with this thing in our yard this summer!  The box was huge and Sammy-boy needed a little help unwrapping it, but as you’ll see in the pics below, he got it! Melissa and I would like to thank our awesome families and amazing friends for all their love and generosity!  We were even given a lasagna from our long-time friend has a gift!  It shows she knows me, because I can always be bought with food! And yes the lasagna was too good! SO thanks again!

That’s it for now, I hear Sam waking up from his nap and it’s time for lunch!

Take care and be good!

The turf war drama continues… If you haven’t, check out part 1 & part 2 !!!

Sorry Mister Lennon and apologies to Oasis, but Sam is the Walrus.  Now don’t take this literally.  He didn’t sprout tusks and gain five hundred and fifty pounds with a mean penchant for fish.  Nah! He hasn’t made any friends in the carpentry business… No! He hasn’t gone all “goo goo g’joob”… Never! Enough references for ya? (I love that song by the way)

It seems our Sam just sounds like a walrus because his previously, seemingly, normal cold with a slight fever has evolved into a case of… Ummm hold on here, checking my spelling… yeah here goes: Laryngotracheobronchitis! I said GOD DAMN! It hurt to type that. That is what the doctors called it however, but from now on, to save this blog from any further blasphemy, I’ll just call it the Croup. That’s what the parents call it. It’s basically the baby version of Larygi… ah! AH! Finger Cramping!!! Well, you know what I mean, and it causes a babies coughing to sound like a walrus.

Yep. I’m serious.

And it’s pretty common too.  We found out all this fun stuff at the hospital, where we spent the good part of Monday morning after a night of hardly sleeping because  Sam’s wheezy breathing was worrying us a little too much.  Finally, by 5 AM, his breathing wasn’t getting any better, so we decided to head out for the hospital.  I gotta say, Melissa and I work like a well oiled machine cause we packed Sam and his stuff and got dressed and out the door in fifteen minutes flat.  We arrived there expecting a long wait, but surprisingly enough, we saw a doctor within twenty minutes and… Hold on… I heard  a thump. I think one our Canadian readers just passed out upon hearing the quick emergency room response time we had… Well, anyways, the doc says it’s the Croup and it’s not a dangerous infection, unless it’s not treated and/or gets worse.  So, any parents out there who’ve read here or elsewhere online that what your kid has is the Croup, get off your asses and get the little squirt to the hospital anyways. Got it? Good.

Treatment is easy enough: oral injections of cortisone twice daily with food and some good ol’ fresh air. The only downside is that the Croup gets worse at night. Meaning, that when Sam’s breathing gets labored, we had to dress him up, and take him out for a walk… In the middle of the night… In freakin’ February.  So, while not sleeping, but laying passively in the sleeping bag on our bedroom floor (I left the bed for Sam and Melissa), I took the little guy out for a midnight stroll around the block.  It was weird, it was cold, but it was quiet.  Me and me boy… bliss.  After the quick ten minute jaunt, Sam’s breathing had returned to an almost normal state, which meant I could get a little worry free sleep.  Melissa took the next stroll at 6 AM that same morning.

As of today, Sam is doing better with no wheezing, but he’s still got a cough.  His energy level is back were it should be and he as vocal as he ever was.  He’s also got four teeth pushing through on the top gum-line.  His cheeks are almost blood red at times and he’s constantly chewing on his fingers.  We give him chew toys, but he pushes them aside and gives his fingers another go.  You see, Sam is a multitasking kind of kid; he likes to get several things done at once… And  I haven’t even mentioned the growth spurts.

I know this post ain’t the follow up to his birthday party prep-time one, but I have not told you yet that Sam deemed us worthy enough to share his cold.  Melissa and I are just recovering from the flu, with myself being hit hardest (fever, vomiting, all that fun stuff you just want me to write about but will not).  Melissa is one tough cookie, let me tell ya. She had two babies to take care of and still managed to get herself to work and back… And I couldn’t even post… But it was a tough virus I tells ya! Vomit on the ceiling! Kleenex’s everywhere! Dog and cats livin’ together! It was chaos!!!

So check in soon for the continuation of Sammy’s First Birthday Party Extravaganza!

That’s it for now, thanks for reading… And stay healthy!