"I Know What I Want for Dinner"

So tonight Sam decided what he wanted to eat and told me about it.  He was playing in the kitchen cabinets, when he found the little plastic cups of mandarin oranges.  He immediately removed them from the cardboard packaging and headed towards his high chair, one in each hand.  I turned around to find him standing at the base of the highchair, holding his hands up, saying, "more, more, UP, UP.. mowree.."  This translates to, "get me up now Mama, I need to eat these mandarin orange segments."

Touch-A-Truck

Not to perpetuate the completely sexist idea that little boys like trucks, (which seems to be innate with Sam but more on that later), we took him to a cool (& free!) event called "Touch-A-Truck."  A whole bunch of trucks, emergency vehicles, and heavy machinery parked in a lot and the kids had free reign.  There were machines that I never knew existed.
It was great, other than the children being able to honk the horns on the vehicles, which they did, at every opportunity.  Some parents did not object to their kids holding down the horns for extended amounts of time either.  Chris and I left with headaches, but Sam seemed to enjoy it, though will probably more so next year when he's a little older.  Sam also didn't want to wear his souvenir, promotional construction hat, so Chris & I rocked it ; )

Sam Found His Tongue

Sam's new discovery is his tongue.  It's very cool to have one and to stick it out and touch other peoples' tongues.

Life & Loss

A strong and beautiful woman died yesterday, bringing her baby into the world.   In this day and age, we so much take for granted the idea that we will go in to deliver our children, and be home in a few days, to raise and care for them.  Marissa will be missed and we will be thinking of her husband Jaap, and their new baby, Annie.  I hope that Marissa knows how many people want to help and care for her newborn, and how her friends are suffering.  I think of friends who have recently lost mothers and wish them strength.  I know how blessed I am to have a healthy baby and husband in my life, and family to help.

Words

Most of Sam's words are still at the observational stage.  Such as the other day at Whole Foods when an employee was setting up a potato chip display and a good quarter of the bags collapsed and slid to the floor.  Sam looked pointedly at the fallen bags and stated "down."
He wants very much to hold a conversation and interact though, so he will repeat things and make a lot of silly faces to hold our attention.  Today was his first two word phrase (other than "what's that?" and "bye-bye, go").  He was drinking his bottle and trying to walk around at the same time and repeatedly dropped his bottle.  He looked at Chris and I and told us, "bottle down," before picking it up and consuming more.
Earlier this week I was eating breakfast with Sam and had had an entire conversation that consisted of, "more, berries, O's, mama, er (water), and hot." When Chris came in to take over, I ran down what Sam had eaten and told him, "we're having a great time, but conversation is really lacking."

I read something the other day that said you can try to teach a toddler a new word, can say it up to 50 times and unless they are really interested they won't repeat it.  Yet you can say something once or twice, and if it's relevant and important or interesting to them, they will attempt to say it and retain it.  Which would explain why he can say things like "bubble" and "cheese" but not "diaper" or "crib."

So are we supposed to just talk at him?  Sometimes I ask Sam about his day and he looks blankly back at me and then finds something to play with.  He understands what is coming up and can follow simple directions, but a whole day of one word exchanges can get repetitive.  I sometimes feel like I am working with my ESL kids, simplifying my speech and wondering how much is actually being comprehended.  It will all come in due time and we're past the phase where everything, including cars and people are "kitty-cat."

Sam Shops

This is typically what Sam wants to do when we go shopping these days.  It takes forever to get any shopping done, unless he is in the cart whining/yelling to get out, and I am speeding around the store like a maniac.  Usually we are pushing the cart "together."

Mother's Day

This is from our chilly walk on Mother's Day.  We tried for the Lilac Festival at the Arboretum in Jamaica Plain.  Parking was very limited, so to get to the actual lilacs, it would have been an hour walk across the park.  An hour without a one year old who didn't want to stay in his stroller.  We made it about halfway (and discovered the diapers were in the car).  Sam had fun though and it was beautiful.  Then we found the camera was on some weird setting.  Live & learn.

Stroller Pushing. Time to Get Him a Horn

                             Getting ready to roll- a little redirection is necessary.

                                                                Gaining speed.

 

Crash.