Sam Update

I realized I haven't blogged much about Sam lately, as far as what's new with him. I think when they get to a certain age where they are constantly picking up new things its easier to lose track of things and forget to "report" on them. He will be 2 in a month, 3 days before the baby's due date, but I have a feeling the baby will probably come before his birthday, if the timing is anything like it was when I had Sam. So I'm trying to decide if I should have a party for him the first week of next month. I really want to but really have no experience in that area at all so I don't really know what I would plan. If any of you creative moms (and there are quite a few of you!) have any ideas what to do for a two year old boy birthday party, let me know!

I decided to take Sam with me to my doctor appt. yesterday because Dave couldn't be home in time to watch him and I wanted to see how good he would do. The last time we took him he cried the whole time and Dave was even there with him but I feel he has grown up a lot in the last couple months and his understanding of things has deepened so I wanted to give it a shot. And he did GREAT! I realized with the ward Christmas party and the success of him meeting Santa, that if I explain things to him and talk to him about them before-hand, he will know what to expect. So I told him all day yesterday that we were going to mommy's and the baby's doctor. I think he's smart enough to know now that that means it isn't a doctor for him and he doesn't need to be scared. I also told him we were going to hear the baby's heartbeat so all day, especially on the way there, he was saying "baby's heartbeat." It was so cute. And he did so well in the appointment. Even when I was all sprawled out on the table he just stood on the floor with his cars and played. And when my midwife had the machine to my tummy we told him the "bump bump" sound was the baby's heartbeat and he thought that was pretty cool. He smiled and listened the whole time. I just love how every single day he seems to understand more and more of what is going on! He definitely knows he has a baby brother coming named Joshua and that he is in mommy's tummy right now but will be coming soon! Hopefully it's not going to be TOO hard and long of a transition for him when he's born, as far as being jealous goes. I'm just going to have to include him a lot in what's going on and talk him through things and I think we'll manage.

Speaking of my dr. appt. there is really nothing new to report. Everything is going well and measuring fine. Joshua is VERY VERY active and hurting me all the time, which is a good sign. I'm just ready to be done and can't wait till he's ready too! I have been planning this week on going through all our baby stuff and start getting everything ready but I haven't had the chance yet. I wish I knew exactly what day I was going to have him so I could prepare. I want my mother-in-law here when I have him, mostly to help out with Sam, but I don't know when to tell her to get her plane ticket! We will figure something out...

Anyway, Sam is talking more and more and we have to really be careful what we say around him because we have heard him saying "crap" and "gosh" a few times. I think it's more of a challenge for me than for Dave. I can have a temper sometimes... He hasn't learned how to talk in complete sentences yet but is close. Instead of saying something like, "This sucker is great!" he would say "sucker, great!" (which is what he was saying all afternoon after the nurse gave him a sucker). This morning when I heard him wake up, the first thing I heard him say in his bed was "Red, Jesus," and then "blue, temple," because he was looking at the pictures I have above his bed of Jesus with his red robe on and the temple with a blue background. He gets so excited about things and has to tell me everything going on and everything he observes. I love it. Especially in his high-pitched voice. :) He tells me, "I poo pooed," every time he even toots and sometimes will even tell me, "I pee peed" when he pees. He is so smart too...he knows (don't ask me how he caught onto this because I can't figure out how!) stuff like that you have to add an "s" on the end of things when there are plurals and when it's obsessive...like, "Mom's juice," or if there are 3 trucks he says, "trucks." He also knows what "you" and "me" mean now, and instead of saying "help you," and "hold you," like he would when he would copy me asking if he wants me to help or hold him, he says, "help me," and "hold me." I always worried I wouldn't know how to teach him the proper way when it comes to words and talking and stuff but really, kids are so smart at this age and soak everything up, that they pick up most stuff on their own! Every day he will say a word that surprises me because I can never remember teaching it to him. And funny story...the other day he was going around saying "Sammy white. Mommy white. Daddy white." I have NO idea what he meant by that... haha!

As many of you know, he learned how to count, his shapes, his alphabet, colors, etc. a long time ago, but now he knows how to count backwards from 10! A new thing he loves to do is count backwards from 10 to 1 and then raise his hands high in the air and say, "blastoff!"

He is also eating a lot better now. For a long while there we were kind of worried because he never wanted to eat. And when he did it was such tiny amounts of food and he was so picky. But in the last few weeks that has changed and now he eats pretty much anything we give him again! I love it and hope it lasts! One way we found that helped in the beginning was counting his bites of food with him and saying something like, "okay, now eat bite #1" and he would count along with us and eat. It worked like a charm. And I still have to do that sometimes, and when I do it still works, but for the most part he just does it on his own. Last night on the way back from Prescott I bought a half lb. tub of popcorn chicken from Walmart and put it with him in his seat, expecting he'd only eat half, if that, and he ate the entire tub of chicken! Along with potato wedges! And his new favorite food is little pretzel sticks....he'd eat those all day if I let him...

I know this post is freakishly long, but I could go on and on about my son...and I don't keep a journal or anything, so this is all I got! I have to tell one more funny story. This morning he got scared from something on TV for the first time ever! And what makes it so funny is that it was just on Go Diego, Go! He was sitting in his Cars chair watching it, really close to the TV I might add, and there was this part where they came up to a sleeping tree and as they were saying things to get the tree to wake up, the anticipation was so thick in the air that it scared him to the point where he quickly climbed out of his chair and crawled to me while whimpering, "mamma!" It was like when you're watching a scary movie and you cover your eyes (okay, so maybe I only do that...) at a part where you're anticipating something startling because you don't want to be startled or scared. He was scared of seeing the tree wake up or something. Anyway, he wouldn't turn back to watch it until he was cuddled up next to my leg. It was so funny and cute! I was laughing so hard!

Anyway...I guess that's about all!!