Sam, 19 months

Favorite Toys:   He loves all cars, he repeatedly says "Car, Car, Car" all day long.  His favorite car is his bathtub Mater from Aunt Cami..  He takes it everywhere and even sleeps with it.  I've had to wake up and find it in his crib in the middle of the night.  He loves to see Tom lock the car with the auto lock because it makes a "beep beep" sound.  When we walk out to Tom's car, he'll immediately go to the front and start banging the headlights and saying "beep beep" to see the headlights blink when it gets locked.  He also loves trains. He carries around his "Percy" train all the time.

Favorite Foods: Cereal-he eats about 3 bowls a morning.  He also loves strawberries, blueberries, yogurt, apples, crackers, vanilla wafers, goldfish, bread with butter, and grilled cheese sandwiches.  He has become really picky and won't ever try what we are having for dinner.  He is very stubborn and won't even open his mouth. It is very frustrating-hopefully it is just a phase.

Words He can Say:
Car
Mommy
Daddy
Sitsy  (Ainsley or Sister)
Kiss
Milka (milk)
A-See (Asleep)
Nigh Nigh (Night Night)
Bye
Hi
Beep Beep
Blankie
Peas (Please)
Owie
Brady
Tchoo-Tchoo (Choo-choo for train)
Soos (Shoes)
binkie
puppy
horsie
kitty
baby
yeah

Mmm mmmn (when he likes what he eats)
Smooch sounds (for when he gives kisses)

Words He Can Sign:
More
Milk
All Done
Cereal
Bird
Bath
Asleep
Please

Favorite shows: Dinosaur Train, Signing Time, Thomas the Train, Cars
When he watches the opening credits of Dinosaur train, he will dance along to the song.  At the end of the song, the t-rex on the train roars before it goes in the tunnel.  Sam will roar along with her every time.  Its pretty cute.  
 

Favorite Books:He loves all books.  He will bring me board books all the time to read.  But he especially loves his Thomas book that makes noise.  When we read a book, he will point out all the cars in the pictures.  He knows where all the cars are in his favorite books and will skip ahead to find them.

Blankie goes everywhere!  We call him "Linus" because he is always dragging it around like the Charlie Brown character.  He loves to have it wrapped around his shoulders like this, he's even eaten many meals with it wrapped around his shoulders. He will have a huge tantrum if we take blankie away.  Blankie goes in the car, to the grocery store, Costco, and friends houses.  It's a bit crazy.  Good thing we have 3 of them.  Only 2 of them are currently out though, and he doesn't have a favorite.  They are both equally special to him.  Most times he'll just drag both of them around. 

I catch him on the dishwasher all the time, we have to keep it on the locked function because he loves to climb on top of it. My own brother broke our dishwasher this way growing up so I'm really nervous that Sammy will break it too.

He thinks he is so funny and he has the  cutest fake laugh.  When he does something that he thinks is funny, he'll throw his head back and do an "airy" chuckle or laugh.  It is really cute.

First Haircut-18 months.  We only had to trim the back it was sticking out really funny.  The top and the sides are still pretty short.

He climbs on everything!  He set this up himself, he also climbs on Ainsley's stool, the dishwasher, the top of the table, couches, and beds.  He's our little monkey. Luckily he hasn't figured out how to climb out of his crib yet. 

Sam only likes to take a bath if he takes it with Ainsley.  The few times he has taken a bath by himself, he cries the whole time.  But even when he bathes with Ainsley, he only likes the bath for a limited time.  When he decides he's done, he stands up and starts crying for his towel. I usually haven't washed him by this point and so he screams through this whole thing. 

One week Sam took to wearing Ainsley's school backpack.  He wore it everyday and would have a tantrum if i made him take it off to sit in his high chair or take a nap. 

Sam loved his binky, but we broke him of it at 18 months.  Occassionally he will find one or get one when we go out and everytime it is a nightmare to take it away.  I need to just throw them all away:)

Sam's favorite thing is to play with the trains at the library.  We usually go there about once a week.  There are two train tables there and they keep him occupied.  He loves it.

Sam is a little melo-dramatic sometimes.  If he gets bumped even a tiny bit, he'll say owie and come over for a kiss better.  He likes the attention and so sometimes he'll purposely bonk his head on something, say "owie, owie" and ask for a kiss.  For example he likes to bang on the tv with the palms of his hands,, say owie, then come over to the couch to have you kiss his hands.  Then he'll go back to the tv and do it again and again.  At night when we lay in bed together after reading a story, he'll bonk his head against Ainsley's on purpose and then say "Owie, owie" for a kiss.  Sometimes it really does hurt Ainsley and then he'll get in trouble for it. Its so silly, but he loves the attention.

We bought Sam a pair of lederhousen in Salzburg, we let him wear them to church one week.  He looked pretty cute.

He loves his sister and follows her everywhere.  When she is sad, he will bring her her puppy or blankie.  It is very sweet.

The tantrums have begun, yipee

His first library class.  He was very shy and clung to me the whole time.  He wouldn't participate but watched the other kids very carefully.  He is very shy in public.  When people at the stores look at him or say hello to him, he usually buries his head in his blankie.

First Shiner-the result of a run in with the couch while wrestling with his sister

This boy is crazy about ice cream, love his face as we gave him a bite

Favorite food is cereal, he easily eats 2-3 bowls every morning

Sam loves to put on other people's shoes, he has taken to wearing his sister's princess high heals.  He has a hard time putting them on by himself so he usually only has one.  He'll clomp around in them just like Ainsley.  Its pretty funny, hopefully it doesn't last:)

Halloween

 

 

This year for Halloween, Ainsley was Little Red Riding Hood and Sam was a cowboy.  I made Ainsley a dirndl and a red cape to match.  Sam wore a cute vest someone gave us and his cowboy boots from Grandma Reese.  We had a fun month full of lots of halloween activities.  My good friend Melissa held a "Monster Party" for a bunch of the kids.  They decorated their own little cardboard monsters, colored oranges to look like jack-o-lanterns, and read monster stories.  It was a lot of fun.  

A few days before Halloween, we went to our ward trunk-or-treat and chili cookoff.  Tom made his delicious chili again.  The ward had a little carnival for the kids with games and treats.  Afterwards the kids went outside to trick-or-treat at the cars. We invited our friends the Trappuzzanos to come and so NIkki and I helped pass out candy by our car while Tom and Andy took the kids around.  Ainsley was such a big girl that she wanted to go by herself to all the cars with her friends and didn't want to wait for the little kids.  They had a lot of fun and got a lot of candy.  

On the Monday before Halloween, we carved pumpkins for FHE.  Ainsley picked out a "Cat Bat" from our pumpkin carving kit stencils and Tom helped her carve it.  I attempted to make my first ever batch of the famous Reese family popcorn balls.  Tom's mom sends us a box of these popcorn balls every year.  After four years of living away from Utah, I thought I should try to finally make them myself.  But unfortunately they didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, I let them boil a little too long and so they were a little harder than normal.  But we ate them anyway and just hoped we didn't break any teeth while we ate them:)

On Halloween day, Ainsley's preschool had a Halloween party.  All the parents were invited and Tom was even able to come during his lunch break.  They had treats, games, trick-or-treating.  The kids sang some Halloween songs and then had a dance party.  It was fun to see Ainsley with all her little friends.  

That evening,, we went to Whitmore Lake to have dinner with Tom's cousin Scott and Tricia Winder.   After dinner, we all went trick-or-treating in their neighborhood.  Ainsley was so excited to go with her cousins, she loves hanging out with them.   Sydney was dressed as a witch and Owen was a transformer.  Their neighborhood was packed with kids and they got a  ton of candy.  Sammy didn't really understand the concept of trick-or-treating and wouldn't even hold his bag so Tom and I just took turns carrying him.  But Ainsley had a blast.  She and her cousins would run from house to house and didn't want to stop.  When it got too cold and late, Tricia and I had to finally convince them to head home.  When we got back to the Winder's house, the kids dumped out all their candy and started eating it.  It was a great Halloween, we are so lucky to have some family nearby to share it with. 

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