Pooping closet

Samuel likes to poop in private. He will go into this closet, or close the door to his room to do his business.

M&M friend

We walked by this big M&M dispenser at the drugstore, and Samuel stood next to the orange M&M guy and asked me to take a picture.

I wake up!

This morning, I didn't hear any sounds coming from Samuel's room, so I thought he was still sleeping. But alas when I slowly opened up the bedroom door, he was standing in his crib and said with a big smile, "I wake up, morning!"

Baby church

Samuel has been able to stay in baby church the past few weeks for the first time in his life.  We have been waiting what seems like forever for Samuel to get to this point. We can finally attend church service again.

First Dental Appointment

Samuel went to his first dental visit last week, let the dentist polish off the stains on his teeth, held the little mirror while the dentist brushed and flossed his teeth, and overrall did a great job for a 2yr old.

He was also quite the man for his 2yr old check up, getting two shots and just saying "Owee" and when they had to draw blood from him, he watched the needle go in, and after a few seconds, asked, "All done?"

Joshua Favorite

Samuel tries to be mindful of Joshua's toys, especially the elaborate lego firetruck creations he makes. Samuel will point to them, say "Joshua favorite" and not touch them.

Haircut

Samuel likes getting haircuts because he gets lollipops from the barber. Every once in a while, he'll say "Haircut!", pull up on a couple of hairs, and say, "Too long."

I love you Daddy

When I came home the other day, Samuel came up to me and said, "I love you Daddy. I miss you." Such a sweet little boy.

Today, he got his hand stuck in a chair and when I got it unstuck, he said to me so gently, "Thank you Daddy."

Money

When Samuel saw a dime on the floor today, he bent down to pick it up, saying, "Money, woo hoo!"

Privacy

Whenever Samuel wants to go number two, he'll walk into his bedroom, close the door behind him, and do his business in private, into his diaper. He won't allow anyone in while he is doing his business. When he's done, he opens the door and comes out very matter of a fact. Sometimes he announces, "Poop! "

Come back

While video chatting with Annette this morning, Samuel reached out his arms to the screen and said, "Momma, hold you. Come back. "

Best Friends

It's one of my greatest joys to watch the boys just be together. The pictures say it all.

Last beach day

For one of Annette's conferences, we went out to the Cape for one last beach vacation before the cooler days of fall came around. Probably will be our stay at Sea Crest, as they are undergoing renovations to be a "luxury" resort. The beach of Old Silver is really nice.

Happy 2nd birthday Samuel!

Do you like my hat?

Waiting for his shot at the birthday pinata. We had just one extra guest at his birthday party, his new girlfriend.

I like balloons!

After our hall's orientation dinners for 300 people, we had a lot of balloons for the boys to play with.

Samuel's words

Just hitting 2yrs old, here's what Samuel is saying:
"Watch this!" followed by, "See that?"

"I do that"

"My bottle dropped"

"I love you"

"Clang, clang, clang. Emergency! Fire truck! Pumper! Hook and ladder! Whew-whew-whew-whew! Police! Ambulance" aka, the emergency fire truck sequence.

"No thank you."

"Oh"

"TV"

"googles"

"Over there!"

Acadia National Park

Samuel could spend all day just tossing rocks into Jordan Pond.

Daddy!

This past week, Samuel was a total mommy's boy. He would cry for her in the morning, all day long, and at night. He didn't want me to feed him, change him, bathe in, or even hold him. It was the first time he's been like that, and though it was nice to have a break from taking care of him, it was also very sad to not be wanted by him.
BUT today, he wanted me again. And it felt like that week, had been a year. I almost had forgotten what it was like for him to call my name, and ask me to hold him. It was really nice. I had missed him.

Hello honey

Samuel says hi to the guinea pig ("Honey") at Joshua's school. He calls him, "Mouse!"

Our chatterbug

Samuel is a few week shy of turning 2, and Annette and I are constantly giving each other the "can you believe this guy look" because Samuel is just hilarious. He talks and sings all the time, tries to get into every conversation he hears, and repeats the last 2 syllables of everything Joshua says.

His speech these days:

over there!

gimme that

thank you

I love you

help!

airplane & helicopter (he used to call them both "baba")

ambulance

Obama car (the presidential limo that Annette gave him)

come here

Bob Bob (sponge bob)

monkey! (the baby computer that Auntie Celia gave Joshua)

TV

some (when he wants some of our food)

school (where he goes to pick up Joshua)

Tamuel (his name)

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Eating Toscanini ice cream with mom!

Birthday cake!

Samuel at 22 months

Samuel seemed to talk later than Joshua, but any worries that he had a speech delay has vanished as he has undergone his vocabulary explosion these past few months. He doesn't have as many words as Joshua had at this age, but he really uses what he knows:

1) "I got it!"

2) "Hold you!" = hold me

3) "Some" = give me some

4) "All done"

5) "Help"

6) "More"

7) "red", "yellow", "orange" are his favorite colors

8) likes to sing "Happy Birthday", "Twinkle Twinkle", the Korean grace song, and pretends to count to 5

9) his favorite items: truck, train, police, bah-bah (helicopters/fans/airplanes), boat, crane, backhoe, bucket, wa-wa, milk, mandu, pop (rice), mango shake, puffins, broccoli, cheerios, zebra, ball.

10) when he sees a fire, he makes a fire truck siren sound

11) He's a big ham. Annette saw him the other day, alone in the living room, holding a pretend microphone and singing for an invisible audience. He loves to volunteer at sing-a-longs to go up to the front. Not at all like his older brother.

12) He's a big animal lover--dogs, cats, squirrels. He got attacked by a squirrel today unfortunately while trying to feed it.

Samuel meets another cat

Samuel really loves cats.

Reading together

Cana 2010

Samuel had a great time at our Cana retreat this year.

Enjoying watermelon!


He loves legos.


And more legos with the boyz.

Ah-ga-me!

I was shocked when Samuel pointed to an ice cream truck today and said, "Ah-ga-me!"--his word for "ice cream." How did he learn that?

Asleep

On the way to the park, the boys fall asleep.

Picking Flowers and Hiking

After church on Sunday, we had a picnic and hiked at Fresh Pond. A beautiful summer weekend.

Samuel is self toilet training

I was shocked yesterday when prior to taking his bath, Samuel walked over to his little potty, sat down, squirted some urine out, stood up, turned around and pointed saying, "Pee-pee!"

Samuel's new supercut

I skipped the usual visit to the Chinatown barber for a quick visit to our Central Square supercuts, and it was really nice: clean, no wait, fast, and Samuel was super cooperative. We will probably be going back.

Talking a lot more

Samuel is finally experiencing his verbal explosion. He had me a little worried awhile back, but he's really come around. He loves to repeat the words he hears around him, for example, while he was picking his nose this morning, "Boooger!" Or when he points at his elbow and say, "Elmo!" He likes to lift up his shirt and show off his "Tummy!" And Thomas the tank engine is, "Tommy!"

But of course my favorites are when I come home from work and he stops what he's doing and runs to me saying, "Daddy, daddy!" and when I ask him a question and he says, "Yesh!"

Defiance

At breakfast this morning, Samuel wiped his hand on the leftover yogurt on his tray, and then started to rub it into his hair. I told him, "Don't put yogurt in your hair Samuel." While looking straight at me, he dipped swiped more yogurt off the tray, and started patting his hair again. This is something Joshua would have never done. Joshua was our rule keeper, and often the rule enforcer--even his teachers at preschool saying that "he is a good role model for following the routine and classroom rules even when there are changes that arise." Parenting Samuel is going to be very different.

First visit to the zoo

Samuel likes lions. Hear him roar!

Ah-mah

Samuel got to hang out with Ah-mah while mom was gone to Korea/China.

The boys like to read

Samuel does art

Samuel attends Annette's art installation reception at MIT
http://info-libraries.mit.edu/rotch/exhibitions/

Samuel Dancing

Samuel spins around dancing, and gets so dizzy he falls:

Listening to music

Samuel likes listening to music. He'll dance around in circles, bob his head when he hears music playing and when it stops, asks for "more!"

Getting started early

Actually, Samuel just likes to go through our recycling bin all the time.

Samuel likes cats

At the Easter party today, Samuel kept wanting to follow around and pet this nice little cat.

"Cute"

Annette was telling us the story tonight at dinner time about her first time in Disneyland. She was about seven, and when her uncle took her to the store and asked her to pick out any present she wanted, the only fairy tale she could think of was Cinderella, but the doll was dressed in rags and not very pretty, so her uncle urged her to get something else. So she ended up with a Snow White doll. I reached across the dinner table for Annette's hand after the story and said, "cute." Samuel then immediately grabbed Annette's hand and also said, "Cute!"

Frog Pond

Yesterday was 55 degrees, so Samuel and I went to the Boston Commons and got to enjoy the playground. Samuel is a climber, going up stairs for much bigger kids.

Winking

Samuel tries to wink at us, but he can only shut both of his eyes, so he ends up blinking at us. It's hilarious

Samuel's first voicemail

I was away in Minneapolis this week to help my friend Ryan get hitched. I got this call from my boys:

Shoe fetish

Samuel loves wearing peoples' shoes around the house.  He has also picked up Joshua's lego obsession, and prefers to play with age-inappropriate small legos instead of his duplos.

His vocabulary has gradually increased, and we even heard him said very distinctively "Joshua" tonight. But his favorite words are still: no, more, dada, momma, wow, & dat.

First Lego Creation

Though Samuel unfortunately chose tonight at 12:30am to discover his newfound passion for lego building, it was quite impressive nonetheless. Soon he will probably move on to building firetrucks like his big brother!

Snowball

17 months old

Words Samuel can say now:
ball, more, no, mama, nose, yeh yeh, ah mah, apple, babab (helicopter), Jay (Joshua), dada, cup, truck

Ah-mah and Yeh-yeh

Samuel loved giving goodnight hugs and kisses to Ah-mah and Yeh-yeh.

Even after they had left, he would still call out and look for them.

Christmas Day 2009

 

 

We took a walk to the local firestation to pass out cookies.