I thought it was high time I gave an update on Samuel.  It’s been a while.  He’s in constant motion until he falls asleep and then he’ll sleep 11-12 hours straight.  He occasionally skips naps now, but most days takes a 2-3 hour nap.  He has started falling asleep on his bedroom floor.  We never know where we’re going to find him.  Daddy then has to pick him up and put him back in bed when we come in to put Esther down for the night.  In the morning he will take his blankie and plug and lay on the floor bedside the crib talking to Esther.  It’s very sweet.  Esther looks at him as if he is the greatest thing in the world… other than the animals which elicit screams of delight from her.

Sam is also learning to talk.  We’ve had an interesting time deciphering his speech.  It’s so amazing to watch him learn and to see how he is learning to communicate.  The following is just a few of the words he knows and how he pronounces them:

Thank you = dope-a-dees (recently he started saying “thanks!”… I’m so sad)

Dump truck = dope duck

Dewey (our dog) = Dum or Chewy

Dog = arf

Garbage or garage = vo-vah

Alligator = ai-gah

Snow = who or hoe

Snowblower = hobo

Blankie = bank

Scoop = foop

Nose = nofe

Penny (our cat) = nauf (the sound a cat makes) or Nommy

House = hauf

Spider = itsy (for “Itsy Bitsy Spider”)

Tubby = daub daub

Big = deed

Cake = gake

Harmonica = hamaka

My harmonica = my hamahamaka

Sam = Ham

Pajamas = jab-jab

Swing = wing

Awesome = awesdum

He knows the primary and secondary colors as well as pink, white & black and can count a little.  He says, “One, two, one, five, nine, ten” and sometimes “59” or “14”.  He calls all meat “ham.”  He still mixes up his sentences.  When he’s done he says, “Done me” and when he wants us to read to him he says, “Read me.”  When he is trying to say he wants to help with some project he says, “I need my help!”  We laughed hard the other day when in the car we were singing “Old McDonald Had a Farm” and we sang the line, “And on that farm he had a…”  We waited for Sam to tell us the next word and he said, “Five!”  So we went along with it and sang, “With a 5, 5 here and a 5, 5 there…” etc.  He has also learned to ask “why.”  He seems to think that he has to ask “why” in a whiny voice though so it can get old fast.  He loves to have books read to him and his current favorite is “Hop on Pop.”  He always guffaws when we get to the part where is says, “Stop!  You must not hop on Pop!”  He will say, “Don’t jump Daddy.”  So we know he understands what it’s talking about and apparently it cracks him up.

Sam also is becoming quite the cook.  He helps me make dinner and do the baking.  It’s slower and much messier, but also much more fun to cook with him.  I make sure he isn’t around when anything is frying or when I’m taking something out of the oven, but he is allowed to help chop as long as one of us is there to make sure his fingers aren’t in the way.  He loves to “sys” (slice) and “hop” (chop).  When we first start a baking project he will climb up to the spice cabinet and remove any number of spices and say, “This my job.”

We have started the process of trying to get him to potty train.  He’s not at all interested although he does like flushing the toilet and he does want to wear big boy undies.  I bought him some Thomas the Tank Engine underwear and he likes to wear them over his diaper, but he really doesn’t understand that he could wear ONLY those undies if he went in the potty.  We’re not going to force the issue.  We are waiting for an opportunity to present itself.  I know eventually it will click and he’ll have the desire and I don’t feel like we need to do anything other than give him the option and take advantage of any times he actually does want to sit on the potty.  Still I can’t wait to be changing only one set of diapers a day. 

Lastly I should talk about the seizures.  Sam hasn’t had any major seizures since December 2006, however he does have several “glitches” everyday.  I call them glitches because they are so slight most people miss them and I miss them if I’m not looking at him.  He doesn’t seem to miss anything during them because they’re so slight.  Literally they are a fraction of a second.  We still pray that even these will fade as he gets older and before he goes to kindergarten.  We feel very blessed that the major ones haven’t appeared again even though he’s had a couple fevers since the first seizures.  He’s a very healthy and really active little boy.

Anyway, that is probably enough for now.  Samuel is the sweetest most wonderful boy and we all (including Esther) love him more than we can say.