Merry Christmas!

With Love Blue Christmas Card

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A Special Message to our Family in Germany

If you are having difficulty seeing the video, double click on the video box once it starts buffering and view it through YouTube. :)

First Trip to the Zoo

We took a day trip to the Riverbanks Zoo today. I think Sam liked watching the animals, but he is a little young to really know. Although we brought the stroller, he had no interest in riding the stroller. So, while we pushed the empty stroller, Sam enjoyed walking...



and riding the merry-go-round.



















The best part of the day was the car racing video game at Fuddruckers. He loved it and we didn't even have to put any money in the game!





Sam thought the chocolate malts were delicious.














Ready for more!

The Ball Boy

I have heard friends say that boys and girls play differently, but I can't really say I know first hand how girls play. One thing that I do know is that Sam likes all the typical "boy" games and toys (chase, balls, cars, trucks, making funny sounds, etc.). I wonder if the things he likes now are any indication of what he will be interested in as he grows older.

Anyway, the boy LOVES to play with balls. Any kind of ball will do-- footballs, baseballs, tennis balls, basketballs, small bouncy balls, big bouncy balls, even my excersise ball!

He likes to throw the ball, chase after it, pick it up,
and throw it again, chase it, pick it up,
and throw it again, chase it, pick it up.... and again and again and again!

This little game will keep him occupied for quite a long time.

The cutest thing about his obession with balls is that he also sleeps with them and I often find him holding onto a ball like it's his baby. I took these pictures this morning to give you an idea.

School Spirit Week

This is Spirit Week at Sam's school.

Monday was Pajama Day--easy :)

Tuesday was Tacky Day--camo pants, rainbow stripped shirt, Halloween striped socks, orange jacket. Sorry I didn't take a picture...but I think the reason Sam was so grumpy yesterday morning was because he didn't like looking so Tacky :) haha.

Today was FANtastic Fan Day. We were supposed to dress Sam in the colors of his favorite team. Thanks to Grandma-Great, Sam has the most adorable little Wisconsin sweater and it finally fits him! Doesn't he look like a little Glee Club Member? Not from the racy tv show--but the goodie goodie type :)

Halloween

Sam's daycare had a Halloween Parade yesterday. I went to the school excited to see him wearing is cute little monkey costume and he was so happy to see me....



In fact, he was so happy to see me that he no longer wanted anything to do with the food, toys, children, or teachers at daycare --much less the Halloween Parade. So, instead of our big boy walking in the Halloween Parade like I knew he would do and couldn't wait to see, this is what we saw during the parade...


... a sweet little boy who just wanted his Mama.

15 month check up...

The big news lately is that Sam is walking! Everyday he gets a little more confident as he walks. It started about a month ago with a couple of steps here and there and has progressed to the way he is crawling some and walking some depending on how fast he wants to get where he's going. He's faster in the crawl :) His walk is still unsteady, but every step is taken with great care.

He now eats pretty much anything. His favorites are zucchini, grapes, blueberries, rice cereal, oatmeal, bread, and yogurt. I think he would eat purple grapes all day long if I let him :) I love that fruit is still an acceptable "desert food" for him -- I wish I could say the same for me!

Signing has become a great form of communication for Sam; he doesn't usually say words to communicate, yet. He can say Mama, Dada, "dis" (I think it means "this" when he points to something he wants), and a few choice animal sounds. Every morning he points to the cow on the yogurt container and says "moo". I think it is so cute...and it amazes me that he can recognize the small cow image on the YoBaby container!

His stats have remained consistent with his earlier doctor visits--approximately 75th percentile in height (31.75 inches) and 25th percentile in weight (22.03 pounds).

I started this post about a week and a half ago and I've already seen changes in him that I want to include in the blog, but I realize that I'll never update the blog unless I just do it now (even though I feel like it is incomplete). Large chunks of time don't fall in my lap as often as they used to! I write a few sentences here and there until I think it's ready to post and lately it just isn't getting done! He is changing so fast that I can hardly keep up!

The video below is my first attempt at piecing clips together using iMovie. I wanted to show Sam's progression from his funny little crawl to his clumsy walk. He also enjoys throwing the ball and he has finally figured out how to throw it forward instead of backwards--which you will see in the video clip. It's about a minute and a half. Let me know if you are not able to see the video on your computer. There were so many different options for saving the video and I wasn't sure which one to choose, so I may be able to save it in a different way if you can't see it (and you want to).