Aloha!

I have heard that Aloha can mean “hello” and “goodbye.” I don’t know if that is exactly true but it is too late for me to research it so therefore, for the purposes of this post, I am assuming it is true.

Aloha, February!! (Goodbye, February!!)

I love February because it is my birthday month and it is a short month. Since it is a short month, we get to March faster and getting to March faster gets me to warm weather faster and I REALLY LOVE THAT! Today was a phenomenal day, weather wise… until supper. We had temps close to 80 but it ended when thunderstorms came through with a cold front. I have heard the high tomorrow is supposed to be in the 50s. Again, I am not researching all of this to get exact numbers. Since it was a warm today, I dressed Sam in his Hawaiian outfit. HE LOVES IT! I was also impressed in how well it fit. I knew the shirt would fit- it is a 4T but I figured the shorts, also a 4T, would be way too big. He tends to outgrow shirts before shorts/pants. However, today they both fit PERFECTLY! This is the outfit that I got at the consignment sale Saturday. I took a picture so that I could post it on facebook for my Uncle to see. Whenever I see Hawaiian prints, I think of him and so I wanted him to know that Sam was sporting the Hawaiian spirit today. I asked Sam to smile right before I took the pic with my iPod. Here is what I got…

From February 2011

Sam, the Ham OR Sam, the Chief Cheese (his Yaddy’s phrase.)

He has had fun today. Before he got dressed, he and I ate breakfast outside on our patio. Then we came in and got dressed. After speech therapy, Sam wanted to “rock rock” (his words- not mine, YAY!!) on the front porch so I let him do that for a bit. Then we took our lunch up to the seminary and ate with Daddy. We LOVE our Daddy break each day!! After lunch, we came home and took naps- both of us. Lately, I’ve been really tired and I think it is because I try to get a lot done during naps or, if I lay in the bed with him, I read the whole time. Today, I slept and it was N-I-C-E! After nap, we goofed for a bit and talked to my parents on Skype. Then it was supper time. After supper, we played some more and Sam made juice on the potty twice (in CLOSE succession- 10 minutes apart) and then pee pee’d in his underwear about 10 minutes after that and then again 10 minutes later. It wasn’t little accidental pee’s either- it was full blown pee pee. What in the world?! Anyway, after that it was getting late and so we put him in a diaper- for which we are thankful… he did #2 shortly thereafter. Now he is asleep, Travis is in bed watching TOP GEAR (hilarious BBC Car Show) and I am headed there to continue reading my 2009 Cook’s Illustrated Annual.

I hope everyone has had a great day and month and HURRY UP, MARCH!! BRING ON THE WARM WEATHER!!!

Steph

A Fun Saturday Exploring New Things…

We went to a consignment sale this morning at the Outlet Mall in Morrisville. I was able to score Sam some “new” (some really were new- tags still on) clothes for the Spring and Summer. My favorite outfit is this red and white Hawaiian shirt and shorts combo. I will try to remember to take a picture to share on here- it is so cute!!

After I finished shopping the sale, we ate lunch at the Food Court. Travis and I had Greek food and knew that Sam wouldn’t want what we ordered so I got him some Chinese. Gotta love the flexibility of the food court. 🙂 Anyway, I ordered him a small order of fried rice and a small order of chicken and mushrooms. What I didn’t realize is that the chicken and mushrooms were spicy- they had red pepper flakes in them! I tasted a mushroom and it was fairly spicy to me. I told Travis that I think I left my spicy taste buds back in New Orleans. Did that bother our little Boudreaux? Not in the least!! He demolished his meal- only leaving some of the rice. Below is a picture of his meal- the bowl really was small. When I saw the picture on my computer I left at the impact of distortion on his bowl- it looks HUGE! So, trust me… it was small. 🙂

From February 2011

After lunch, we went to the RDU Observation Park. It is this neat, FREE park located on the airport property. It was MAYBE 5 minutes from the mall where we were so it was a no-brainer. At the park, they have an observation tower so you can watch planes land and take off, play runways for the kids to run on, a SMALL playground (you don’t really go there to play on a playground anyway,) and speakers that play what the air traffic controllers are telling the various pilots on the runway in front of you. They also have picnic tables and bathrooms but we didn’t take advantage of either of those. Sam LOVED it! Travis enjoyed reading about the different planes and features and such of the airport. I loved watching the planes take off. I recorded some video footage with my iPod. When we got home, I played around with the new version of iMovie on my computer and made a “fancy” video. You should watch it- it is kinda of cute.

By the way, Sam is FINALLY starting to repeat lots of things we say. He doesn’t really come up with them on his own but will repeat things we say. Just today, he has repeated:

Ice Ice Baby (except he says Beebah)
Boom
Ross
Bob
Thank you, Mr. Bill (yes, he said ALL of that)

We are sure there are others but we can’t come up with them right now and since it is bedtime in our house, I am going to finish this and head there myself.

Good night!
Steph

Air Hockey Sam

Here is the previously mentioned video of Sam playing air hockey up at the seminary yesterday.
Enjoy!

Steph

Paging Sam the Photographer…

Sam received a toddler digital camera for Christmas from his Grandma Gail. He LOVES it! Amazingly, he only recently filled up its memory. Therefore, I downloaded them to my computer and uploaded the ones that were shots of his fingerprints. He now has his own photo album called “Photos Sam Takes” if you are interested in checking them out. I also uploaded a few that he has taken with my purse camera. You can see them all by clicking on the picture below…

Photos Sam Takes

Here are a few of my favorites…

From Photos Sam Takes

From Photos Sam Takes

From Photos Sam Takes

From Photos Sam Takes

His face looks kind of deformed/swollen in the picture below.

From Photos Sam Takes

From Photos Sam Takes

From Photos Sam Takes

I really like the picture below. I think it is because it shows just how blue his eyes are.

From Photos Sam Takes

He is understanding that he needs to turn the camera around when he takes pics and is therefore taking less and less self-portraits.

From Photos Sam Takes

From Photos Sam Takes

From Photos Sam Takes

From Photos Sam Takes

I hope you’ve enjoyed Sam’s random photo shoots.
Steph

Project 365- Week 8

From Project 365 (2011)

2-19-11 Horrible Picture Quality but this was Sam’s first time riding a go cart. His Yaddy taught him to say “Whee!”

From Project 365 (2011)

2-20-11 Sam and his “Yaddy” enjoying a drink break.

From Project 365 (2011)

2-21-11 Random shot of the sandwiches from The Court at SEBTS. Yummy!

From Project 365 (2011)

2-22-11 The different ways to move my fingers on my iMac trackpad. I have the original (this is a photo from my iPod) taped on my desk so I can continue to learn all of its nuances.

From Project 365 (2011)

2-23-11 Dinner tonight was Lemon Basil Pork Chops, mashed cauliflower w/ cheese, and sliced strawberries.

From Project 365 (2011)

2-24-11 Sam’s first dentist visit. He chose to look like a duck instead of having the flouride “painted” onto his teeth.

From Project 365 (2011)

2-25-11 Our almost 2.5 year old is tall enough to play air hockey and he LOVED it!

Hope you’ve enjoyed!

Lynn Meadows Video

This is from 3 months ago when we were in Mississippi. Sorry for the delay in posting. I also put all the videos into one video so it is kind of long.

Steph

Fluoride, Sugar, and Fish

The three words of the title of this post represent the highlights of today. It was a semi-random day but it has been a good day.

It started off with Sam going to the dentist for the first time. I KNOW that he was “supposed” to have gone when he got his first tooth. But, really? We brush them twice a day and he doesn’t eat a lot of sugar. PLUS, I never could find a dentist up here that would see him until his vaccines were up-to-date. I am still wondering about those parents who don’t vaccinate at all. Do their kids teeth just fall out? I doubt it! ANYWAY… he did pretty well at his visit. He did NOT like the straw sucky thing. At first, he didn’t want the dentist to stick the little mirror in his mouth but he was OK with it once she started. The funniest thing was the fluoride treatment. He had a choice between having the fluoride painted on his teeth with a paintbrush or wearing the foam duck thing for a little bit. He chose the duck thing. I chose to take a picture.

From February 2011

Tee hee!!!

After we left the dentist, we went to the NEW Harris Teeter to kill some time. I picked up a 16-pc California roll to split with Travis for lunch. Sam picked up a cupcake. Well, not really- he picked OUT a cupcake and the baker boxed it and off we went. It was huge! It was of Mr. Wuff, NC State’s mascot. Sam met him a few months ago at the pink football game we went to. He LOVED him- especially since he is a dog and Sam is “slightly” obsessed with dogs. Anyway, this is what it looked like before it got out of the box and into Sam’s belly.

From February 2011

The first bite…

From February 2011

Near the end of the icing he determined that a spoon would work better…

From February 2011

I also decided to make a video- why not? It’s not every day you get to eat a GIGANTIC icing mascot. 🙂

Tonight, for supper, I actually cooked fish. I do not cook fish at home because of how the house smells for days later but I decided to do it this time. It was tilapia so it wasn’t super “fishy” and I broiled it in the toaster so it was also very healthy and YUMMY! Sam ate an entire piece! Here is is his plate…

From February 2011

Yes, that is ketchup. I didn’t have any tartar sauce and so Travis and Sam dipped their fish in ketchup. I ate mine plain- which is what I normally do anyway.

While waiting on the fish to cook, Travis and Sam had fun dancing in the living room. Last night, Travis got Sam to say “ICE ICE BABY” except it was coming out as “ICE ICE BOBBY”- HA! Today, it has been “ICE ICE BEEBA” and Sam has been saying it a lot! He wanted to dance with Travis and that is the “song” they danced to. Please ignore Peeper- he is a staunch Southern Baptist dog and doesn’t approve of dancing.

I also am working on uploading some videos from my purse camera that have been on there since November. YIKES! The first one is done and so I am posting it below. Sam loves to watch a TV show called Postman Pat. It is a British kids show and so everyone has British accents and refer to things in British terminology. It is really cute. Well, for some reason, one day the show was dubbed in Spanish. If you watch their lips, you can tell they are speaking in English but you only hear Spanish. It was cracking me up!


Big Day for our Samster

I am going to share his big events in reverse order. Tonight, Travis was getting him ready for bed and was about to put his nighttime diaper on. Sam was lying there and started to pee pee. Travis got him to stop and asked if he needed to go potty. Sam replied that he did so off to the potty they went. Instead of putting him on the little IKEA travel potty (you can see a picture of that here– I am not willing to post that picture just out in the open on the blog- it is G rated though) we’ve been attempting, we put him on the actual toilet. Our toilet seat has a kids’ ring that stores via magnets in the lid- no extra inserts needed! It is similar to the one pictured below.

He sat up there and we asked him to “make juice” (what he calls pottying- we don’t know why.) AND HE DID!! TWICE! He “made juice”- stopped- and then started back again. He did blot himself with toilet paper when he finished but that technicality can be worked out later. For now, we are just ELATED that he potty-ed. This past week at MOPS, I was told by several moms that if I just wait for when he is ready, potty training will be a breeze- hopefully that is what has happened. Especially, now that he knows/understands what reward awaits him for pottying- pennies for his piggy bank!!! Now I need to round up all of our pennies. What a great problem to have!!

In other news, this morning I had to mail something and so Travis sat in the van with Sam while I ran in the post office. When I came back, Travis informed me that Sam can read and then showed me. I then pulled out my iPod and had them repeat it so I could share. Please watch- it is cute and just shows off our smart little boy.

Way to go, Sam!!!!
Steph

Video highlights of our day…

We have had a fun family day. For lunch, we decided to eat at Pei Wei- YUMMY! While there, Sam ate his lunch with chopsticks. He is such a talented little fella. Watch the video below to see him in action.

Then, tonight we attempted to go play putt putt. However, it was a cash only locale and we didn’t have enough cash for the 3 of us to play. Bummer! Travis did have enough cash for he and Sam to ride go-carts. You have to be 36″ to be a passenger in a go-cart and our 2 year old is easily that tall! In our very rough estimation at Target tonight (they have a ruler on the side of a clothes rack to show you what size your child would wear depending on their height,) Sam measured 40″! He really is our little giant! He loved riding the go-cart. Travis taught him to say “Whee!” and so once we got in the car to head to our next stop, he just kept saying “Momma, Whee!!” It was too cute!

I will apologize now if I sound nasal-y in any of the above videos- I have a sinus infection. I love that the warm weather is here for a bit but the switching back and forth between warm and cold is creating havoc in my sinus cavities!

Steph

Project 365- Week 7

From Project 365 (2011)

2-13-11 My AMAZING husband allowed me to upgrade my “little mac” to a “big mac”. My hard drive was starting to go out and we didn’t want to run the risk of it crashing without having a back-up.

From Project 365 (2011)

2-14-11 I’ve seen this chariot numerous times but have never been able to get a picture. This was the first time it was “parked”. The helmet resting on the chariot isn’t a decoration- the man who drives it wears it!

From Project 365 (2011)

2-15-2011 Sam is holding his first lady bug. Shortly after I took this picture, he starting spazzing out because the lady bug was crawling up his arm and he didn’t like it.

2-16-11
I forgot to take any pictures- oops! The main thing we did on this day was attend our church baked goods auction to raise money for missions. We raised almost $897.xx!

2-17-11
I forgot to take any pictures- oops oops! The main thing we did on this was play in our backyard while Travis was at basketball practice. He is part of a 3 on 3 team that is going to compete in a faculty/staff basketball tourney at SEBTS next month. I can’t wait to watch the game, take pics, and make movies- it will surely be entertaining.

From Project 365 (2011)

2-18-11 Sam wrestling a pig at the State Farmers Market Restaurant

Thanks!
Steph