This month has been just crazy busy! I am finally feeling like I can take a breath and come up for air. What have we been up to you ask??.. hmmm lets see. Well, on top of me being swamped with school work we celebrated Kim’s completion of her PhD, went up to OP for Easter, I went to Lakeland to help my amazing friend have her precious baby (and I DID NOT pass out to all you wondering family members, you know who you are. I had my big girl pants on that day), I have been out of town on couple interviews and now waiting to hear on a job, had some fam from TN visit, I cut my hair short and got side bangs (ok so this was not that stressful but I just love it so I had to include it), Sam switched to the night shift which has been huge adjustment for us, and Sammy has grown increasingly more “challenging” as we get deeper into this two year old stuff. Pshew! I have much to say about all of these things but basically, in sum, lets just say God has been growing me in my faith through it all and I’ve been drawing close to Him.
I have lots of pictures I would like to post up too but sadly they sit waiting patiently on my camera so… I thought I would post some from our Sunday School lunch-get together and a fun day we had with Sammy at the park. I just love seeing the world though his eyes. I absolutely love our conversations with him now, he is finally at the age where we can just chat. His language development and actually cognitive development in general are occurring so rapidly I can barely keep up. It seems like everyday he will say something or do something that I had no idea he knew. His imagination is HUGE and he is always surprising us with what is on his mind. As a developmentalist I obviously have studied this rapid phase of development but it is so amazing to actually witness it each day first hand.
In fact, I want to take a min and just for the record (since one day I hope to print our blog) I want to document a particular conversation between Hannah and Sammy that is so very classic “them”. I had to laugh out loud as I heard. We call Hannah during the week when she is not at our house and Sammy will talk for at least 5 min with her, it is very sweet. She typically is ever so doting and loves to talk with him about his day and teach him things she has learned but at times, she can get jealous.
Hannah: “Hi Sammy, I really miss you and can’t wait to see you Saturday. Give me a big hug through the phone”
Sammy: “I huggin Hannah. (he kisses the phone and hugs it then hangs up on her so we call back)
Hannah: now giggling, “Sammy you’re so silly. What did you do today. Did you miss Hannah Banana?”
Sammy: “Sammy missin Hannah. Sammy walkin on wagon ride. My (I) had an adventure!Adventure in big jungle!” (We can not get the boy to learn to say “I” instead of “My”")
Hannah: “Oh really? What did you see on your adventure? Did you see leaves and animals?”
Sammy: “Sammy not see leaves. Sammy saw sheep. Sheep said baaa baaa. Sammy saw lion, lion said roar! NO KITTY! Sammy said no kitty, kitty twied tickle Sammy. Sammy saw bumble bee, bumble bee was crying (he makes crying sound in phone)”
Hannah: “Nah-ah. That’s not for real. Where did you walk? You’re lying Sammy”
Sammy: “it real Hannah Bana. Sammy saw it ears!” (we’re also working on the eyes see/ears hear thing. He swaps them in and out right now)
Hannah: “No, I don’t believe you. Are you telling the truth?”
Sammy: “Yes, I’m twelling twuth!”
Hannah: “Teri, get back on the phone now.”
So, I get on the phone and she proceeds to question me about this walk. I explain that Sam and Sammy were just walking in our neighborhood by the woods and Sammy is using his imagination. She then says that she KNOWS we went to a jungle by our house and that I was only telling her that it was our street so her feelings aren’t hurt since she couldn’t come. She then gets all sassy wondering why I have never taken HER to our jungle that has lions and sheep. OH VEY!
Anyhoo… here are some pics from a great Saturday we had a while ago.
This was his first time doing the tire swing alone & with no help. He kept saying “I makin sand spin under me!” oh, my poor baby. Tire swings are confusing, in his defense. Wait. No they’re not. Ok, I’ve got nothing.
and this is why we got his hair cut when we visited mom for Easter….. wow.
He was FASCINATED by this caterpillar. He loves the Eric Carle caterpillar book so he said he wanted to “wait 2 min mommy, him gonna turn butterfly in 2 min” . After a good 20 min of watching this little creature we finally bribed him away (gulp, yes guilty as charged) with letting him watch a t-ball game
No we weren’t paying customers but he sure enjoyed learning about it. He loves to play with his t-ball set at home so he had a lot of questions about what the kids were doing
Check out my big boy!!! He always tries to climb up this thing at the park but gets half way and asks for help. This particular day he did it all by himself and boy was he proud. I am tickled pink that I got the shot below (in all honestly it would have been hard to miss it since the climb up took about 4 or 5 min and he said to himself the whole way “Sammy doin self..big boy… Sammy doin self..big boy) I figured he wouldn’t fail to give a big finale when he made it up and boy did he! This is right when he got to the top he stood up high and threw his arms up and shouted “I BIG BOY!!” and thankfully most of those around cheered him on adding to his excitement.
Sadly for our washing machine he has began to collect rocks and other treasures that will fit in his pockets. He spins around like a dog chasing his tail, literally full circle trying to get them in and it just cracks me up.
His little tongue spends more time out of his mouth than in! Anytime he is concentrating that tongue is sticking out helping him along. 
Lunch after church with some good friends!
We all headed over after church to Joel, Katie, & Luke’s house for some good eatin’ and good times! Joel grilled some delicious burgers and it was great to sit around and chat while all the kids played.
Sam provided the after dinner entertainment for the kids, he had them all giggling. I love this pic of Josiah and Sammy, something about the angle but Josiah looks even smaller than he is and Sammy looks like even more of a giant than he is!
Thanks Abby for showing me how to do cool stuff with pictures on the blog!!! =)
