Heiney Ho!

Sam's favorite sleeping position is with his butt in the air and his arms under his belly (a lot of the time - at least the times i notice). Here he is sleeping like this in his playpen. Lil bugger conked out on me 5 min before we were supposed to go to Gramma and Grandpa Samson's yesterday.

A Good Sport

Who says you can't use a dog for a pillow?

All Hallow's Eve

Wegmans was sponsoring a little "Fall Harvest Party" night for the kids on Monday, and the three of us went down. FYI, they were not allowed to call it "Halloween Party" for all the religious finatics that believe it's Satan's Holiday. Cracks me up. Anyhow, there was a really good turnout! Sam was getting a lot of attention, of course, as the Lil' Devil. But halfway thru the night (and we were actually shopping for groceries during!), we decided to see what Samson would look like if he were "Samantha." The results cracked us up BIGTIME!

Treehouse: (CHREE-haus) noun. A house in a tree.

Well here is the "final" (it's a never-ending work in progress) result of Ron's near-n-dear creation: his treehouse in our back yard. Now that the leaves are falling, the tree almost bear, the house has a less secretive and organic feel. IT'S OUT THERE now. I'm convinced by now that the cops aren't going to cite us or anything... they definitely KNOW it exists. I think Ron did a great job! It's pretty cool up there too, for sure!!!

Pot o' Gold?

While driving down 3rd Street on my way to a birthday celebration, i noticed the sky - very dark with sunshine everywhere. Time to look for a rainbow! Before my eyes is a FULL rainbow spanning the sky. I called Ron on my cell to let him know. The picture tells the rest!

BWAA-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaa!!!

DEVIL BOY SAYS:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Thank God for the Playroom!

Here are some shots of Sam in action in his playroom, a small room off our middle room on the first floor entirely dedicated to All Things Sam. So far, he loves it, and so do we. It makes for a safe play environment, he can scooch and crawl and stand and soon WALK in here virtually free of dog hair and "crappola" that inevitably floats around our floors. I'm looking forward to the day when he doesn't constantly put every dust bunny and crumb in his mouth, but i'm told that day is NOT around the corner. Until then, the playroom it is. Or rather, "The Kid Club of Sammy V" - as you can see, we have those foam floor letters, and Ron arranged them to say that. Very cool. I love hanging out with Sam in here. It's in this room that i'm watching his SKILLS ("Chicks dig guys with skills") develop. The one that really cracks me up is when he goes over to this little play table and intentionally spins a part to play the Alphabet Song, then looks to me with a great big grin. He definitely KNOWS this song, and seeing the recognition in his face is really fun.

My Husband

I just wanna tell you how awesome Ron is. I was "in a mood" today, starting early this morning, and had to work all day. I came home to the following sculpture, which warms my heart the more i look at it...

My Lil' Guy

What parent doesn't say this phrase A BILLION times in the span of their kids' lifetime:

"You are getting SO BIG!"

I must say this to Sam at least once daily, and I'm not "just sayin it." I truly mean it. There are some days that i have to be at work before Sam gets up, and then for some reason or another, i don't see him before he goes to bed, so i've gone a whole day without my "Samson Fix," and honestly (and this is weird to me), he looks OLDER the next day to me.

For example, today, when i came home from work, he had this little side-corner-grin thing going on. At first i thought it was from teething, but i had to chuckle when i asked Ron about it and he said, "babe... he's just testing out all the faces he can make." I'm sure Ron is 100% correct (eventhough Sam has had some tough times with the teething - he's up to EIGHT teeth!). The idea that Sam is TESTING OUT facial expressions thrills and fascinates me. Sam is doing things every day that I get to witness and soak in.

I love watching him use his fingers in such an INTRICATE way, eventhough his hands are so small. He quickly learned that a little yellow button on one of his toy trucks makes it beep. Sure enough, he 'commandos' over to it, pushes up to sit, and very precisely (and with great concentration, i might add) pushes that button. He often looks to me now for "approval" when he's mastered something or pushed a button to make a song play. Sam definitely knows the alphabet song - his eyes light up when i sing it (I also sign the letters as i sing). Sam knows what's coming when i grunt slowly "I'm - - gonna - - get - - cha." That means he's gonna be tickled and i LOVE that he knows that what i'm saying LEADS TO TICKLING!

Sam spends A LOT of time having entire conversations in "baby speak." Sounds, tones, gibberish and screeches all over the board, all while he's exploring and banging and smiling. So far, i have not heard any WORDS, but i am listening for them. Part of me THINKS he is saying "milk" when he says "mah" at supper time. It's pretty random and he's not pointing, but who knows.

Life is Grand with Sam. I love nothing more than being a mom to this awesome lil guy!!! (p.s. Ron is a phenomenal Dad too!)

HOPEY!!!

Ron's sister Hope and her boyfriend Sebastien (sorry, no pic of him this go-round... Hope, send me one and i'll post it!) came to visit for 5 days last week. It was awesome, as always, seeing her, and even more awesome meeting her "beau." We all had a good time, and one day, the entire family (including Shirley) got up to Ithaca to hang out, give Seb the tour, that sorta thing. At the end of the journey, we stopped at one of the small parks that lets you walk near the falls.
Sam seemed to enjoy everything, especially after I fed him! Too bad it wasn't warmer, i would have walked into the water and seen what he thought of it. It was a nice day.

Hope and Sebastien left on a bus on Thursday and Hope accidentally left her purse on the bus. While you might first think "OH NO!," the good news is they tracked the purse very fast and it was found and kept. The problem, of which i won't waste the space, your time, or my energy typing, is, GETTING THE PURSE BACK TO EITHER HOPE OR ME. There were many many many many many 'miscommunications' between the bus company dispatcher (named RON) and myself and Hope. They promised several times to put the purse on the next bus to Corning for me to pick up and it never happened. Then they were going to drop it off at the bus 'station' in Corning (read: a very small decrepit hardware store, run by a 100 yr old man and his 82 yr old son (okay, maybe a slight exaggeration, but GO SEE THEM!)). That never happened. FINALLY, just today, i physically obtained the purse from the Elmira station, after a week of running around and being told one thing vs. another. In fact, i thought i was going to wring the old lady's neck after the first thing she said was, "oh... YOU'RE the girl who keeps saying she'll be at the Corning station then never shows up." *FUMING* Don't mess with me old lady and JUST GIMME THE PURSE!

Purse is en route to Hope, and with any luck, will actually GET TO HER tomorrow, as my $18 Overnight promised...