December into January

December was full of lots of traveling, a little bit more sickness, but a lot of fun.

Zach and I met a few of his buddies from Minot at the Chiefs game on December 1.  We just stayed for the tailgate, but it was nice to see old friends and experience that little piece of Kansas City.

Sam's Parents' Day Out day is still the highlight of his week.  He has certain friends now that he talks about throughout the week, and he is so proud of the crafts that he does while he is there.  He is always exhausted when we get home (I've started to let him stay until the 2:00 pickup time), so mid-week is a productive day around here.  On the days he is not at PDO, I am starting to get a few more things done though --- he is very helpful if I give him a task, and is also becoming more comfortable with playing on his own.

Baking Christmas cookies!  He is a big fan of using the
mixer and adding in chocolate chips.

In our shower using my face wash bottle as a gas pump
and the shampoo bottle as a car. 

We went to the Children's Christmas Party at Grandpa Mark's work in St. Louis on December 7th.  Lots of kids, crafting, cookies, and presents from Santa!  Sam was one of the youngest kids there, but quite possibly the most energetic.  He is a wild child in situations like that, but luckily there was plenty of space and supervision.  He just loves being around other kids and just cannot contain his excitement.

Little guy down in front!

 We celebrated Zach's birthday at home on the actual day, but went to the Country Club Plaza in KC for dinner with his parents the weekend prior.  It was fun to be there with all of the lights up and be amongst the holiday shoppers.  The Plaza….one of my favorite places ever.

Separate holiday post to come, but here is a run down of Sam's month.

* We've never been too into shows or movie watching with Sam, but with the amount of sickness we've worked through in the last few months, we've had the tv on more than usual.  A few favorites have been The Polar Express, Home Alone (really just the DVD case), Finding Nemo, and Planes.  He also caught the beginning of Elf one time and thought it was pretty fun to see Santa's workshop.  He later was seen walking around with the DVD case for Elf saying "I want ah watch ah Elf."  

The Polar Express song with Tom Hanks in it has been on repeat around here, he has a fancy looking toy train that he totes around, and he has a little jingle bell that he puts up to his eyes and says " I believe" and then rings it next to his ear.  A precious Polar Express reenactment.   I have a video, but Blogger doesn't seem to want videos on this post.

Being indoors so much has left us longing for summer, so we play "Papa's Boat" on the couch.  We build up a "boat" out of pillows and blankets on one half, and the other half is the water.  We snap on our 'boat coats' (life jacket), and start bouncing around.  Sam flies off the front, acting like he's gone into the water and then screams out "give me your hand!!" as he reaches back towards the boat.  Quite the homemade drama.

He is very okay with getting into bed, sometimes to the point where he says he's rather go to bed than read books.  Once he is in there he requests the "cowboy song" which is James Taylor's "Sweet Baby James" song turned "Sweet Baby Sam."

Lots of Christmas carol singing, dancing, digging in rice, shapes, alphabet, counting, and color recognition.  He is just a straight up chatter box, and those are the things he talks about.

He has started a "cheek to cheek" "nose to nose" type of thing with Zach.  He thinks it is hilarious to try "mouth to mouth" because Zach won't do it.  I think he's afraid he'll try to do it to another kid and appear highly inappropriate…but it is still cute to watch.

We spent New Year's Eve and our 4th wedding anniversary here at the house as Sam battled an ear infection.  Oh well!

Very into the Batman song