September: Apple. Apple-Apple. Apples!!!

Things I Have Learned

It used to be that Sammy wanted to eat or drink right when we got up. Now he just points to the stereo and starts to dance.  I guess he likes dancing!

I’m not sure what made Samson giddy with laughter at lunch a few weeks ago. Aunty Monica’s funny faces had him cracking up. But upon closer inspection he was having mac and cheese. And he had smeared it all over his face and in his ears and hair. He really loves mac and cheese. Toss up…

3 weeks ago I made a note that read “ Sammy’s bath is no longer....errrr….clean.” It was bound to happen at least once. Last night I added a note: “…And now neither is that small area on our carpet”

Sammy has become very friendly at the park. If you have food. His new favorite hobby is to walk up to all kids in the park that have food. He then says "hiiii". Followed by "mmmmmm". Followed by “bite?” bite?”  The way to a Sammy’s heart is truly through his stomach.

Inadequate parental moment of the week: I mentioned several weeks Sammy turns into a screaming tornado when we try to change him. Well Kenia (our nanny) has been working on this with him. Even trying to make it fun. So I walk in the other day, notice he’s in need of a change. All of a sudden Sammy runs over, rolls onto his back and picks his legs up and repeats after her chant of “diaper time! Diaper time!”. Really? REALLY???

Sammy started putting multiple word together in the last few weeks. Things like “Cheese please” or thank you”. My favorite us our daily, oft repeated exchange:  "hi Sammy" / "hi daddy!" Gotta love it.

1.       The term : “Eabery” 

EE-burr-ree

–noun

Eabery. Usually, when parents bribe their children to eat the foods they “should” be eating in exchange for foods that they prefer. The combination of “eating” + “bribery”.

           Example: I had to use Eabery this morning to get Samson some calcium: “Sammy, if you eat this bite of cottage cheese I’ll give you a strawberry.”

The word “bobby” has been narrowed to a couple of meanings. Most common is in reference to any phone (portable landline, iphone, blackberry all work) or remote control. Also we still have Uncle Bobby, Bobbi and Bubby.

How will we ever know when Samson is hungry? Eat eat eat!

What do you do when your child wakes up too early from a nap and is so pissed that he completely freaks out and hyperventilates without pause for 20+ minutes? No – Seriously. I have no witty answer for this. Wish I did though.

We saw Sammy’s first real tantrum. He just decided to have one. No real reason. Throwing blocks all over. Throwing other things. Forcing tears and semi-hyperventilating.  That’s when we founded Danielle and Josh’s school of bad parenting. It was just such a preposterous outburst that we both turned to each other and realized we were snickering – desperately trying to keep straight faces.  We just waited it out until he realized it was silly.

Sammy might be a good sharer. At least of knowledge if not of toys. The other day he walked over to Johnny (“Johnny! Johnny!) and began to teach him words he knew: “oval”,  “hockey”. Of course when Johnny went to sit in his chair? “NONONONONONONO!”.

Repetition works. After months of Sammy referring to Elmo as Abby? He finally said Elmo (which sounds astoundingly cute). Of course Sesame Street is still referred to as “Abby”.

I no longer need to wonder when we’ll be home. Sammy will let us know with  a “Home!” shout.

Sometimes Sammy will grab my arm-hair. If you know me, you know it’s pretty long, so I sometimes say ouch. So now, Sammy will pull my arm hair and say “ouch!” Ummm…buddy – I think you’re missing the point here!

When Sammy eats from time to time he treats it like it’s a heightened, extravagant experience for him. I know it’s a “fancy” meal when instead of the traditional handing over of unwanted food or the somewhat less frequent “I don’t like this so I’m going to hurl it on the ground” act, he will elegantly raise his hand, pinky out and proceed to  drop his food on the floor.

Life in a one nap world is a series of ups and downs. One day it’s a 2 hour nap. The next day he wakes up by accident after an hour and by 7 we are C-R-A-N-K-Y. Sunday 2 hour nap during football? Priceless. Sunday 5 minute nap followed by a lot of yelling? The opposite of priceless. Somewhere along the way I got it in my head that when Sammy went to one nap it was to last 3 hours. Yeah, about that…

Best idea ever? Having our Nanny take care of Sammy while we fasted on Yom Kippur.

If you take a 1.5 yr old apple picking, they will want to eat nothing but apples for the next 4 weeks. Good think he didn't care for the pumpkin patch.

Important Statistics We are Keeping Track of:

-          Number of Minutes Sammy lasted in the main service during Kol Nidre? 4

-          Number of times Sammy said Challah during the holiday weeks: 1 million. Or so it felt.

-          Number of whole apples Sammy ate at the orchard: 3

-          Number of times a day Sammy says “apple”: 30. At least.

Words (too many to write, but here was my list before it got too crazy):

This

Ice

Hot

Chair

What's this

Zaide (zee zee)

Oval

Soap

Hat

Eyes

Blocks (bocks)

Strawberry (strabry) - were working on vowels

Blueberry (bl-bry)

B-bye Johnny

Challa

Keepa!

Carrot

All done

Tv (though he doesn't watch it)

Danny

Gavy 

Pictures for your amusement

"Ok Dad, I know you want to document all the times that I play with Naama because you think I'll care later on down the road - Or because you and Naama's dad are best friends so it's neat for you. But really - you're just cramping my style. Big time.

"Finally, a chance to buy what I want instead of all that healthy stuff you like me to eat. Hey! Wait a minute, these are empty!"

Everything is cooler with a cape.

Baby Yoga

At first glance, this picture seems like nothing interesting. Then you start to see what it's like to have a Baby that Brunches. Notice how everything on the table has been slid over to the left side out of Samson's reach? It's fun to eat like this, let me tell you.

This car was fun for Sammy. Not so fun for Mom and Dad. He figured out how to climb in, but could not get out. on his own. Therefore, we helped him out of this car at least 20 times.

"Hat! Hat!"

Sammy loves his pal Baby Hannah

Good little Jewish boy.

Chilling with Ben at Wave Hill.

Picking apples with Mom

Eating lots and lots of apples. And drolling on Mom's head.

Ummmmm.....

Taking a break at the park

Loving the big boy swing

Couple of guys engaged in some (heavily supervised) rough housing. Having fun with pal Jaime.

Ben is a hugger. Sammy, maybe not?

Chilling with Aunty Monica on their regular Friday hangouts.

End of August: Wedding survival

Things I have learned

You want to see a proud and excited parent?  I wish I had a picture of myself when I saw Sammy running around yelling “Hockey hockey!”  He then hit a block with the hockey stick. 3 months – he’s on skates. Mark my words…

There was one day when Sammy decided to wake up at 7:45. 7:45!!!! Being as smart as I am, that was the day that I tried to outsmart him by getting up at 6:45 to shower before he woke up. Yeah. I did that. Crap.

We are learning to count. So far we’ve started at: “oooooooone , 5, 9”

It’s interesting that Sammy is speaking a little Spanglish: our counting efforts have resulted in some interesting improvements. Now he says: “ooooooone, dooooos, treeeeee”

Houston – we have a climber. Sammy has clearly mastered the idea of getting up onto things – He’ll climb onto the couch, the ottoman, run up slides, climb stairs. 90% of the time he’s figured out how to scoot down. I’m only mildly concerned about the other 10% where he sticks out his head to ponder his daredevil options.

Captain Destructo Moment of the Week:  Sammy broke into the pantry, took out a tub of Nesquik and proceeded to pour it all over the floor.

How to make a mother unhappy: See above.

Explanatory Note: The next bits are about Aunty Monica and Uncle Rob's wedding two weeks ago in Cincinnati

The definition of irrational can be seen in the following example:

In an attempt to pacify a totally energized and manic Sammy during Aunty Monica's wedding, I somehow ended up giving him two containers of Cheerios.  Only problem: if you are trying to eat cheerios but holding two containers you can’t really eat much of anything. Of course, when I tried to take one away to help him – freak out. He ended up sleeping with those two cheerios containers. I guess it's the principal? 

Sammy looked uber cool in his uber suave baby suit.  It only took 2 hours for his uber suit to be uber ruined. Now it needs to be uber washed.

Tired. That’s what you are while chasing after a one year old during a cocktail hour in a large open space with many pitfalls and things to knock over. As you run by, sweating in your tux, everyone will smile giddily and say “He’s Sooooooooooooooooooooooooo adorable." I smiled and ran on all the while withholding my internal plea for heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!

Massive confusion part 1: First, he called our friend Bobby “Bobby” (see past blog posts). Then, he began to call his new Uncle Rob “Bobby”. Well, there was a collision of worlds when we were staying at Bubby Bobbi’s house for the wedding in Cincinnati - with Uncle Rob. He said “Bobby” so many times he’s worn the word out. And now no one knows who he is referring to.

Massive confusion part 2: Sammy adores his Savtah (grandmother). But can you picture his confusion when we went to brunch with his Aunt Sarah (Savtah's twin sister)? I can only imagine what was running through his brain...

What happens when you spin your child around repeatedly on an office chair and then let him walk? That was rhetorical. What happens is what you would expect. Trust me it’s funny.

Things I am dreading: the fact that I can no longer watch Sunday football. When is Sammy old enough to start rooting for the Giants?

I'm worried for what will happen when, one day, Samson gets his own phone. He's really into chatting on it. At the moment, he will run around picking up every possible object (examples: remote, wire, paper) as well as real phones - and will  hold them up to his ear saying "hi!" and "b-bye!" There's a big bill in our future - I can see it now.

Sammy is kind of like a car with no brakes. 

Top new words of the week (we have some themes):

Friends:

Johnny

Hannah

Naama

“enia” (kenia)

Lea

Food:

Apple sauce

Eggs

Yummy

Eat

Other:

Boom!

Dance!

Up! Uppy! Up!

Pictures (and videos) for your amusement:

Sammy is afraid of no one....Least of all a giant dog.  Megan/Hans/Claire/Caitlin - Thanks for babysitting!!

Sammy's business stops for no one. He doesn't care whether someone is on the other end  of the line.

Sammy getting prepped for the wedding with Bubby Bobbi

A moment of reprieve during cocktail hour - overlooking Cincinnati at dusk.

Maybe he'll be "The Whiz!"

The Arcade: mind blowing for little ones.

It's all fun and games until someone (Samson) decides to BE the skee-ball. Luckily Aunt Rochelle and Uncle Steve were there to roll him up the ramp.

Pants-less fun at the outdoor mall in Columbus

Mass confusion - there are two Savtahs! (and a Sabbah rabba - great grandfather)

Samson will not sit still on someone's for anyone or anything. Except maybe chocolate Cold Stone ice Cream. Maybe the discussion explained in the next picture was due to all the sugar.

"Grandpa Steve: Here's what's going to happen. I am going to spend the next two hours running in circles around the main floor of the house. Don't try to stop me. This is not a negotiation." And so he did....

I see a giant tent in my future....

Flying is tiring....right Mom?

I'm really into the RNC. Can't wait for the DNC! Me and Clint! I talk to chairs too!

No caption required.

Dancing Machine

Spinning Fun!

August - Lots and lots of plane rides

Things I have Learned

Sammy has started “parroting” everything we say.  I only really started to worry about this about 45 minutes into our car ride home from DC while listening to Louis CK. After the 42^nd “f” word the guilt overwhelmed me and I turned it off. Playing Louis CK with your child in the car - Worst parenting move ever?

One of the best things Sammy says is his “bye bye”. It is perfectly enunciated and has several meanings. Here are the various definitions:

1.      I’m ready to leave (often spoken while climbing into his stroller and sitting down)

2.      You are leaving so – See you later

3.      Someone else is leaving

4.      I am leaving

We love when he says “byebye” to other people. But unfortunately most people do not get to hear it. I think this is Sammy’s idea of a practical joke. Without fail, he will wait until we’ve already left and are out of earshot of our departed friends. Then he will softly utter his byebye. We’ll get there.

Most kids love Elmo. However, Sammy is truly involved in a deep love affair with Elmo’s friend Abby Cadabby. We still can’t get him to watch TV but he does grab the Sesame street books and yell “Abby!!! Abby!!!” for extended periods of time.

Sammy is really getting into music. He finally started dancing a few weeks back. Now every morning he gets up and points to the speakers so he can bust a move to Ziggy Marley (random, I know – but a great adult friendly kids album called “Family Time” for all you parents out there). He’s also been humming music! My only concern is that he’s only going to want to listen to reggae. There’s only SO much reggae I can take.

Sammy is also proving to be like his mom. I think we can officially declare his favorite food being cheese. Whenever I take out string cheese or even say the word, he starts yelling “CHEEEEEEEEEEEESE!! CHEEEEESSE!!!

He also somehow knows to say cheese when his picture is being taken. I love that we are starting to understand him now.

Ok. Here’s something no one should attempt. 3 flights in 4 days with a 15 month old. Period. There’s just no good thing about that scenario.

Sammy showed us a new side of his personality on those flights. In the comics and stories there’s Jekyll and Hyde, Bruce Banner and The Hulk. Meet Samson and “Plane Samson”. One is a cuddly cute friendly child. The other is a lethal destructo out to make you and the general public miserable.

It’s official. We’ve become “those people” on the plane. On the flight from Detroit to Montreal, Sammy was freaking out so much that I decided I stopped caring what the rest of the passengers thought. He broke me. Sorry to everyone else, they can shove it.

The Detroit flight was so bad that it gets 2 lines in this post. In trying to contain Sammy for landing (he has to sit on an adult’s lap) I was:

a)      Sweating

b)      In pain from being repeatedly elbowed in the neck by a  strong, squirming child

c)      Did I mention tired? Because I was unbelievably tired.

Nap tease

Sammy believes in the motto “I’ll be good for everyone but Mom and Dad.” He decided that “plane” week would be the same week that he would test us. Making absolutely nothing easy. However, with the babysitter in Michigan, my parents, Kenia  - basically everyone but us got this little angel. I am grateful that this was short lived. Yikes. I was starting to feel like the boy who cried wolf.

You know your child is getting older by their level of dirtiness. The older, the dirtier I think. He’s like a magnet. Or a dirt vacuum. It’s bad when you literally have pangs of guilt on a day when they go to bed without a bath because they've gotten so insanely dirty you can see a thin coat on him.

There is this looming, scary, terrifying change that I can feel coming. I keep thinking it’s here but it’s not here yet. It is the impending doom of the change to 1 nap. It’s like being trapped in the suspense moment in a scary movie that never ends. I love the 2 naps!

What’s scarier than Danielle and I flying with Sammy? Well, it’s me taking a 2 hour flight with Sammy solo. The fear/panic I was experiencing led to some serious strategic work to survive this potential nightmare. Somehow we made it through the whole thing in one piece – no crying, no freak-outs – perfect! I’ve never been so tired though. Here is how it went:

Step 1. Pack enough finger food to last the whole flight.

Step 2. Prepare two squeezy fruit packs for take-off and landing.

Step 3. Pack as many books as will fit in the bag – make sure the books have pop-up or tabs for Sammy to play with for long periods of time.

Step 4. Pack bagels (like rawhide for kids) that he can chew for long periods of time.

Step 5. Cheerios, cheerios, cheerios

Step 6. beg flight attendant for an extra seat if there’s an empty one (key)

Step 7. pray

The worst moment of my solo flight? Nothing to do with Sammy. It was when I asked the flight attendant how much longer we had left (I didn’t know it was a 2 hour flight). I thought we had about 20 minutes left. She told me there was 1 more hour. How the hell was I going to survive that?? 1 hour! I broke into a sweat. I essentially treated it like my hike to Macchu Piccu. Baby steps. I survived that flight in 5 minute increments. Sammy had a blast though.

While running around the airport (and therefore having me chase him around) Sammy found a pay phone and started talking into it. It occurs to me that he will probably never use a payphone in his life. He may not even know what one is!

Coming next week: Monica’s wedding!

Important statistics we are keeping track of:

       -          Number of states/provinces visited in the last 2 weeks: 4 (Michigan, Quebec, Ohio, Kentucky)

       -          Number of flights taken in the last 2 weeks: 5 (!!!!)

       -          Number of two-bath days: 1

       -          Number of in-flight meltdowns: 2

       -          Number of poops taken during flight when the fasten seatbelt sign is on and we were confined to our seats for 15 minutes: 1 (and the guy next to us was not sympathetic – instead he stuffed his nose in his shirt for 15 minutes trying like a ______ to make us feel guilty. 1) it didn’t work. 2) Thanks for understanding dude – it wasn’t THAT bad).

Some of my favorite new words of the week:

       -          Doggy

       -          Woof Woof

       -          Honey

       -          Peach

       -          Neigh (horse sound)

       -          Up (or uppy)

       -          Apple

       -          Banana (or “nana”)

       -     Bubbles

       -     Bus
       -     Johnny
       -     Tree
-

      Pictures for your amusement

Just a bunch of guys taking a stroll (Johnny and Sammy)

Very important (according to mom) that Sammy gets the best view of downtown East Lansing as possible.

All we wanted was for Sammy to take a nap on the plane. That clearly did not happen. Instead, we got  "Plane  Sammy" . And then he promptly fell asleep after he got off. With Cheerios in his hand.

Normally we'd worry when Sammy disappears and we don't hear him. Luckily his idea of fun (on this day)  was to go and read some books.

At the Natural History Museum - did you rip off that hand!?!?

Sammy is pretty sure he could take the T Rex. 

Chasing Sammy in the airport is fun!

Sammy doesn't stop his business for anyone. He can be seen here making deals before boarding.

He is very into Safety. I'm pretty sure he looked  at all the pictures in the safety manual.

These headphones stayed on for exactly 2 seconds.

Letting the other passengers know he's there. Like I said - I no longer care about them.

Chasing Claire up the stairs! He somehow taught himself to climb down too.