Posts Tagged ‘toddler’
High Flying Lad, Low Lying Dad
Sam in his flight suit! Geckos!!!
Hey folks, it’s been a while, but I just got so busy with certain projects that were time sensitive that the blog took a hit. Aunt Ingrid is a big reason for this, and I’ll be posting more on that for sure, but the other time bandit that’s been infecting our little lives is, well Season 4 of Bones on DVD. Good characters and good writing a TV show make! Can’t get enough, which is what makes it so dangerous to own on DVD: you watch ’till you drop! Oh well, things are looking to lighten up however, and I think we should be back on track! Big news this week: Sam can fly!!!
Sammy’s Cheese Chair
The chair...
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,
Just sittin', eatin' cheese...
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.
Hey! Get off my Dads grass!!!
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!
Checkin' out the neighborhood.
Sam is Walking!
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!