Maybe Dad's tricking us...

I'm sure you can't make it out, but #66's jersey says "GARRETT."

As Josh headed into the ER for a night shift, I took the boys to the local high school football game. I noticed a Raider with our last name. I pointed it out to the boys & asked Jack if he could make out the name. He read it & thought it was pretty cool. 

Sam had a different take: "Hey, maybe dad's tricking us! Maybe he's not at work. Maybe he's really playing for the Raiders!" 

Yes, Sam, probably so....

Pre K

Then, this happened...on my birthday!

The Army fits his one qualification for future professions (you don't have to go to college.) 

We'll call it a First Date

Now that big brother is in kindergarten until 3:00, little brother and I eat a lot of lunches alone. Every now and then, we stop by Chick-fil-A, but most days is just a sandwich. 

On the days Sam goes to preschool, I pick him up at noon. Almost immediately he wants to know what's next. Typically, I tell him we're heading home for lunch and ask what he wants. Standard answer is a cheese sandwich. Oh, and star-shaped. And he'll add that he'll help make the star.

Today I asked him after pick up what he wanted for lunch. He said, "how about a taco?!" I chuckled and recommended we stop by the bell and pick one up. He said, "no...I want us to go to El Patron!" I considered it an invitation. So, to El Patron we went, and it was five bucks well spent. Taco for him, tortillas for me and cheese dip for us. 

Already looking forward to our next date!

Nap time humor

About once or twice a week for the last few weeks, Sam wakes up from his nap missing a sock. I realized a couple weeks ago that a sock wasn't missing but instead two socks had been placed on the same foot. I thought, "that's a funny mistake."

After multiple incidents, I'm thinking it isn't a mistake, so today I said, "Sam, why do you do that?"

He looked right at me and said, "because it is so funny!"

P.S. Today he had 3 socks on the same foot. 

Disney Diaries, Post 7 (Lions, Tigers & Gorillas?)

Thursday was our day to explore the wildlife and activity at Disney's Animal Kingdom park. We started bright and early with breakfast with Donald and the whole crew in their best safari gear at the Tusker House. Hands down, it was our favorite character meal. The food was fantastic, and it wasn't as loud and chaotic as the other two we had done. Another advantage to character meal breakfasts is you can score early park admission if you're willing to schedule them early enough. We did both our character breakfasts at 8 a.m. at parks that didn't open until 9. We were out roaming the park getting in position for the rides that fill up fastest before others had even gained admission. At Disney, it really is true: "the early bird gets the worm!"

We headed to Kilamanjaro Safaris first. Despite the chill in the air, we were not disappointed with our ride. We were able to see so many incredible animals. Sam was delighted to see the giraffes, "they're my fav-wit!" We got glimpses of lions, elephants and many other exotic creatures. Later we took the trail to see the gorillas, and the train over to the petting zoo. Sam loved brushing the goats, and Jack really enjoyed seeing the pigs up close.

Closer to the Tree of Life, we spotted a kangaroo darting around and took a stroll to see the tigers. I talked Jack into braving Expedition Everest with me, but just like Space Mountain...he declined the opportunity to ride again with his daddy.

Both the boys really loved the Boneyard play area. There was tons of slides, climbing structures, nets, ladders and fun. It was challenging to keep up with them in the huge space, but we managed to escape with the same two boys we entered with. Since Sam was tall enough for the Dinosaur ride, we all did it together. Neither of the boys were very crazy about it, but I was interested to see Claire Huxtible posing as a paleontologist.

Sam, eventually gave up the good fight and hit for the series...falling asleep in the last of the four WDW parks. While he snoozed, Jack got a frozen coke and watched the Jungle Jam parade. We ate an early dinner at Yak & Yeti, and then headed back to the resort to swim. Again, I elected to watch as it was still not warm enough for this gal.

Funny side story: when we waited for our turn at the obligatory family photo in front of The Tree of Life at AK, I noticed the couple posing in front of us looked really familiar. I was trying so hard to place them. Then, it hit me! It was a reality tv couple that had met on one of the seasons of Survivor, a show I used to watch faithfully! I couldn't remember their names, but Josh nailed it...Boston Rob and Amber. In case you were wondering they're still together and appear to have three little girls.

Jack & Josh shared their Thursday favorite in the Kilamanjaro Safari expedition. My favorite moment was riding Expedition Everest with Jack, despite that he was miserable. And, of course Sam's favorite would involve food..."the doughnut at breakfast!" I told you the breakfast at Tusker House was good.

Disney Diaries, Post 4 (Epcot...The Big Ball, Y'all)

Monday began with a journey to Epcot. The boys were so excited about seeing the "Big Ball." Jack couldn't wait to go inside it. I used a website to help map out our plan for each park. The site requires an annual subscription fee, but I found it extremely helpful. I was able to come up with a plan to hit all our must-do rides at the least congested times. The site had a helpful app that allowed me to access our plan, revise it, optimize it and see the most up-to-date wait times on each attraction at any given time. If you are going to visit during an even moderately busy time, I'd suggest using something comparable.

Because of my research, I knew Soarin' was a popular ride that fills up fast, so we headed there first. It was quite an adventurous ride. The boys loved the sensation of flying over all the different locations. The smell of the orange grove and the pine trees was pretty neat. Of course, we had to head over to Mission: SPACE for our future astronaut. Sam didn't make the cut off, so we did a ride swap and Jack got to ride twice. I knew Epcot was much larger than Magic Kingdom, but you don't appreciate how spacious it is until you're walking around it.

The boys absolutely loved the Test Track. They had a great time zooming through the different tests and of course they loved bursting out into the daylight on the super fast track at 50+ m.p.h. Touring the World Showcase was fun, and the character topiaries were entertaining. We were especially entertained as we tried to get Sam to smile in front of the Woody topiary, his favorite character.

We enjoyed a late lunch at Le Celliar, the steakhouse in the Canada pavilion. It was incredible. The pretzel bread and cheddar cheese soup I had were a perfect appetizer to the steak. After lunch, we headed back to the hotel for rest time. Again, Sam fell asleep in the stroller before we even made it back. Once we returned to Epcot, we saw some more exhibits and had dinner at the Coral Reef restaurant, which overlooks a huge aquarium. While we were dining, I got the exciting news that my sweet nephew had arrived. It had been a hard, but fun, day with my mind on my sister and my body with my boys. I was relieved to learn how had gone smoothly. Now, we had such a great treasure to look forward to at the end of our trip...meeting Ian!

After dinner, we did Spaceship Earth, which took us inside the "Big Ball!" We also hit the Test Track again, which had been a hit with everyone. We finished our night with Illuminations, the light and fireworks display at Epcot. Jack's favorite part of the day was Spaceship Earth. My favorite was the Test Track. Josh's highlight was riding Mission: Space with his future astronaut, who did great. Some days, I asked the crew what their favorite things were multiple times during the day to see if it would change. I happen to ask during the bread service at our late lunch what everyone's favorite thing was so far. Sam loudly and delightfully shared, "butter!"

Disney Diaries, Post 2 (Daddy's Birthday)

I'm not sure how many posts it will take me to get through our 9-day trip, but feel free to check out and anytime (but you can never leave...) The second full day of our trip was Saturday, which was also Josh's birthday. We were so excited to be celebrating at Disney World. Josh again had conference obligations in the morning and the boys and I goofed off a bit at the resort. Once Josh snuck away we headed for Downtown Disney, take 2. It was a beautiful, warm day. After walking around for a bit, we had lunch at the TRex restaurant, which the boys thought was pretty cool. The food was okay, and the place is pretty loud, but Jack & Sam loved the huge fish tank and roaring dinosaurs.


The park tickets we had purchased included a free add-on, which could be used at one of the Disney water parks (no, thanks) or Disney Quest, at DD. If you've never heard of Disney Quest, think Chuck E. Cheese on steroids, minus the ball pit and hamster tubes. It's a multiple story arcade, where you play as much and as long as you like with the price of admission. So, we gave it a try. I'd rate it a 5. A few games didn't work properly or were just too hard for preschoolers. If you have an older kid, who is big into video games, they'd probably love it. For us, it was just okay. We were glad we had not paid extra to do it. All that being said, the boys loved playing "Fix It, Felix, Jr.," the video game from Wreck It, Ralph. Sam also enjoyed racing as Mater, and the Star Wars pod racer was a treat for Jack.

There was lots of celebrating going on at DD since it was St. Patrick's Day weekend. There were Irish dancers, street performers and bands. It was a fun afternoon. We again returned to the hotel for a snooze before dinner. Since our bus trip to DD had been so lengthy the night before, we opted for a cab on Saturday. The whole 15-minute ride Sam kept saying, "I never been in a taxi before!" Then, when we took a van cab (rather than a 4-door sedan) back, he changed it up, "I never been in this kind of taxi before!"




Later that evening we headed over to the neighboring Polynesian resort for dinner at Kona to celebrate Josh's birthday. It was a great meal and the boys sure loved the umbrella's served in their drinks. I had called a few days earlier and arranged for a birthday cake to be prepared for our celebration. Our waitress brought it out, and we got to sing to Josh. The boys loved it, and hopefully it was special for their sweet daddy too!

We headed back to our resort to call it a night. Of course, we watched Wishes again first; it was now a nightly tradition. Jack's favorite part of Saturday were the rides at Disney Quest. Sam's favorite were the fireworks (which is probably when I asked him what his favorite thing was that day). Josh's favorite part of the day was the boys singing happy birthday to him and helping him blow out his candles. My favorite was celebrating Josh's birthday; a close second was the silly castmember who gave us a lift on his golf cart over to the Polynesian. He was a riot.

It yooks yike a...

Sam is a talker. He tells you everything he knows. You never know what will come out of his mouth next. One of my favorite things is that he can't say his L, instead it comes out with a Y sound.

A couple of weeks ago, the boys & I were leaving one of our favorite lunch stops, Chick-fil-A. Sam was still working on his Ice Dream cone when we began to make our way home. The cone had been gnawed into a somewhat interesting shape. Leave it to the two-year-old to put it into words,
"Mommy, it yook yike a toy-yette!"

Translation: "Mommy, it looks like a toilet!"

Well, go ahead, see for yourself. Yep, he's pretty much a genius. Now, if he could only figure out what toilets are for! :)

Big Fat Spider

Sam likes to sing, and sometimes makes up his own words to some classic tunes. Hence the creation of Big Fat Spider, borrowing the tune & most of the lyrics of Itsy Bitsy Spider. Enjoy!

C is for...

Chick-fil-A...duh!? Life in the Sham is now complete bliss. We officially have our very own Chick-fil-A just miles away from our house. We've been drooling since January when construction began. The signs have been up at least three weeks. Each time we drove by Sam would say, "Too fay, Mom! Too fay!" I would tell him it wasn't open yet. So, his proclamation developed into, "Too fay, not open."

On Thursday, that all changed! I had a meeting at 6:30, so the boys and I met Josh at Chick-fil-A for dinner at 5:30 for our first bite as a family*. Never mind that Josh had already had breakfast there. Everyone thinks I'm the crazy one, but none of the employees have called me by name yet. Ask my husband if he can say the same after a breakfast trifecta their third day in operation?!

So, as you can see, it was a big week around here. And, I'm still working on Sam, who continues to say, "Too fay, not open," every time we drive by. Now, I can reply, "Only on Sunday, Sam, only on Sunday!"


*FYI, I chose the Caesar Chargrilled Cool Wrap meal as my inaugural bite at our Chick-fil-A.

What a Ride

With Josh scheduled to work all weekend, we made big plans to do it up right on Friday night with a fun family night. Luckily, this weekend was the Mountain Laurel Festival. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the festivities, Pitts Park became a carnival of fun.

A small side note: whenever Josh asks Jack what he wants to do for fun he always says, "go to the fair!" Josh always has to remind him that the fair isn't until the fall and even then it's only for one week.

You can imagine the excitement when I drove by Pitts Park on Tuesday after preschool to show the boys what we were planning to do on Friday night. Sam said, "that be fun!"

They rode every ride they were tall enough to ride, some of them even twice. And then of course we stuffed our faces with hot dogs & cotton candy. It was a full and fun Friday night!

You can see lots more of our fun here.

He is a Male

Sam: mom, I like pink milk
Me: Sam, where is your cup?
Sam: (without so much as even glancing around) don't know. Can't find it!

Medicine for the Heart

You may recall my post from last week about how I was caught a bit off guard by my oldest's words. I didn't lament over it, although I do recall he seemed to mouth the same phrase at me a couple of days later following another incident.

And, even though I wasn't stewing on it, it did feel good to hear him do a 180, without any thought to his previous statements. On Monday, while he, Sam and I were eating lunch, he said, "You're the bestest Mom." I smiled and said, "Oh, thank you! What makes me the bestest mom?" He said, "Well you are always fixing things. And you make the bestest things." He could have meant I make the best hot dog, pineapple and pretzel lunches or perhaps he meant I had done a good job at fixing him and his ailing brother as Monday was a bit of a sick day. Either way, it felt good. I told him how much I loved hearing him say that, and that it made me feel very good.

On a related note, Saturday night as I rocked Sam before bedtime, I was telling him how much I loved him. I told him that I love him, and that was the reason I made him a birthday cake and we had a special party. Without skipping a beat, he muttered, "I wuv Ooo too!"

Bedtime

Almost nightly Sam insists on reading his "I ye book" (Ali book = photo album from last summer's VBS). Highlights include "every ba ee cups" (the photo where all his classmates have their juice cups. Also, "like a my cake" on the photo of a round road sign, which resembles a pancake to him? Of course he enjoys "find yachoo libberpy!" (statue of liberty)

Jack always lobbies for a different book, but I don't mind. I love it!

A song of prayer

Each night when we go through our nightly bedtime routine, we help the boys with saying a prayer. Sam's are usually prayers of thanksgiving, as are Jack's peppered with requests for forgiveness. In the last week or so, Sam has elected to sing songs at prayer time. The first couple of times it was "Jesus Loves Me."

The other night he threw in "Jesus Loves the Little Children," then promptly transitioned directly into "We Will Rock You."

Now I know my ABCs

I know we've done this all before, but I am again amazed at the sponge-like capabilities of my almost two-year-old's brain. He regularly speaks in such plain language that I have to remind myself he's not yet two. He picks up everything and incredibly has figured out the correct usage for certain terms. A few weeks ago, I had to tap the brakes and stop quickly as a car ahead of us made a last second decision to turn left. A couple of seconds later, I heard Sam pipe up from the back seat, "BOCKERS!" (aka bonkers!)

He loves to sing and regularly requests "We will rock you" when riding in the car. He doesn't sit still long enough to watch much, but on long rides he prefers "Coos Coos," "Fire Sam" or "Gabba." (Blue's Clues, Fireman Sam or Yo Gabba Gabba.) Most days his older brother will oblige. 

Here's a clip of him singing the alphabet. I think the thing that impresses me the most about his rendition is that he can be interrupted, and somehow remembers where he left off. I can still remember when Jack first learned his alphabet he would start over if anything messed him up. (My apologies that the video is out of focus.)

22 & a Talker

Dear Sam,
You just hit the 22-month mark last week and are quite the conversationalist these days. I don't want to forget all these wonderfully cute and incredibly hilarious things you come up with. So, I'll do my best to record them here. We really never know what will come out of your mouth.

You were right alongside me the morning I put the Christmas trees up, but you & brother were both napping when I finally managed to get ornaments put on the following day. You had already impressed me the day before by repeating after me, "Kissmas Tree!" On the way down the stairs after nap, you said excitedly, "Kissmas tree!" When I took you in for a closer look, you turned to me and said, "I wove it!" I was so tickled, that you just kept saying it over and over again. Now, it's part of your bit. If you want to make me or your daddy laugh you just say, "Kissmas tree. I wove it!"

Your other favorite phrases:
"Bubba. Stop!"
"Daddy truck!"
"Choo choo outside," which today developed into "Choo choo outside. Scare. Wowd!" I heard a train approaching when we were in downtown Cornelia this afternoon, I hurried to get down to one of the stop signs by the track. You love trains, so I rolled down the window. Well, a horn sounds a lot more appealing from 3/4 of a mile away. From 50 feet away, it is apparently terrifying! You burst into tears. So, now it's "Choo choo outside. Scare. Wowd!"

You love to brush your teeth and prefer your big brother's toothpaste. "Bubba toothpaste, peas!" Your favorite bedtime stories are your VBS photo album, which you affectionately call your "Addy Book" (for all the pics of Ali Harris), and your "Monkey book." Your dad and I were impressed by how quickly you've learned to recognize the numbers on each page. You also like to do the silly voice of the doctor on the phone with the monkey mama, it sounds like this "No mwuh wah dah wah bah yah BED!"

Last week, we were just hanging around and someone said something about Sunday. You immediately said, "Muhday...Tueday...Whenday...Thurday!"

You're still a couple months shy of two years, and I can't remember your brother knowing anything about a single cartoon character at this age. You on the other hand are a huge fan of "Coos Coos" a.k.a. Blue's Clues and Cars. You love "Queen" and "Mater!" When it's time for bed you know we have to put "Queen Baket!" (in the basket.) I started keeping the basket on the gated staircase so you can only reach in and grab a few at a time because you and Jack kept dumping the whole basket out. Lately, you've managed to talk brother into letting you on the stairs, but you usually just line up your cars until the step is completely full.

You know that Santa says "Ho ho ho!" and your two favorite songs are "Jesus Loves Me" and "We will rock you." You sing them both with great enthusiasm. Sometimes in the car you will just start yelling, "Jesus Song!"

You will try just about anything food wise and like most of what you try, with the exception of pastas. You love to eat "cacakes" on the "choo choo plate!" (Pancakes on the Thomas the tank engine plate.) You also love bacon morning, noon or night...you don't care. You call it "bay bay," which I hope stays around for a while.

Your big brother is really starting to enjoy your company. You don't always enjoy his. Jack loves to play with you, but sometimes you'd just rather play with your cars alone. Try to be patient with him. He's still figuring this big brother thing out. Jack likes teaching you new tricks, which mommy and daddy don't always approve of. He doesn't mind sharing his popcorn, ice cream cone and other snacks with you. Sharing his chocolate milk is a different story...

Thanks for treating everyone around you to so much fun. We love your sweet smile and silly phrases. I really love the "hungs" you've started giving. You can squeeze my neck anytime!

Love,
Mommy

fifteen

 Sam hit the fifteen month mark during our sick week. At his 15-month check-up he was in the 25th percentile for weight and 85th for height. With the way he seems to eat, wonder if he'll be able to keep up the tall and skinny profile?

Over the last month Sam has really started flexing his vocabulary. When he's not savoring his paci, he talks non-stop. He will repeat a lot of things, including "good grief," which I learned after Sam overheard me saying it to Jack. Josh just taught him to say "love you." I think I love the way he says please the best. It comes out more like, "pweea," and always seems to sound so desperate!

He also a non-stop mover these days. He rarely sits still, although amazingly a "bup" (aka "book") held his attention for about 15 straight minutes yesterday. He loves to tackle, chase and run laps with Jack. I didn't realize how quickly they would turn into rough and tumble brothers. The next 15 or so years ought to be entertaining around here.

Sam Says (well sort of)

In addition to walking all over the place these days, our Sam is really beginning to communicate. He's constantly babbling his growing list of words: mama, dada, baba (brother), dink do (thank you), be boo (peek-a-boo) or put (poot, you can thank the other two boys in the house for that one, thankfully he says it very rarely). In the last couple of weeks, he's also begun to show off his signing skills. I will admit that I wasn't as aggressive with teaching him signs as I was Jack, but he has found a way to catch on despite my lack of consistency. For those that know him, it comes as no surprise that Sam has a good appetite. Somedays it's a healthy one, others it's merely for fruit loops alone. Regardless, his favorite sign is definitely "more."

More oatmeal.
More yogurt.
More pancakes.
More PB & J.
Or in this case, more bubbles!

His other favorite signs are "all done" and "milk." You'd think a kid that loves to eat would rarely sign "all done," but if it's one thing he doesn't like about mealtime, it's being restrained to a highchair. He prefers to graze, I guess. Can you blame him?