Sammy Super Genius

A few recent accomplishments:

Sam can identify anything yellow by pointing and saying "yeh-woh". He can also point to and say "star" when he sees a star (very useful during the Christmas season)

He says "Hi Dada" and "Up, please" Tonight he stood and hung on to the oven door handle yelling "Ope, ope" because he was ready to eat but the food was not quite cooked yet.

Sammy sat in a pile of books tonight, calmly turning the pages and looking at the pictures. His favorites are pictures of real babies. "Baby!", he'll shout.

He will gesture that he wants something, so you point to an object and he'll say "No" and wave his hand until you point to the thing he wants.

Opa is his favorite person. He wiggled out of my arms several times today to get back to Opa. It is funny to hear him say "Oh-puh" in his little man voice.

All in all, little Sam is a great guy. He can be very sweet and snuggly, but sometimes very willful! He and Anne have had their share of screaming matches ("No, Sambo" (shrieking) "No screaming!!" (more shrieking) "Stop it!!") (and this happens in the time it takes me to go to the bathroom!) But we love you, Sam Roman, and we will choose to remember your happy, snuggly times and not your turf wars with your sister.

Christmas!

So, I did not take any pictures of my kids over the last 2 days. This is partly because I have other people to do it for me, and partly because I don't believe in having 65 pictures of every family event. Maybe my kids will resent me when they're older. We'll see.

So here's a picture of Auntie Erin and Sam Roman, taken by Uncle Todd on his phone. Thanks, Todd, for being there and having a sweet phone. And thanks to your dad for working for Verizon, therefore enabling you to have a sweet phone. :)More pictures to come, once I collect them from my various sources.

Keepin' it Real

A glimpse into our "real" life...I was trying to get video of Sam Roman coloring. He was standing at the table, waving a pencil around, eating more string cheese. For some reason I can't remember, he's wearing leg warmers instead of pants.

This is how we live, folks! If you want to try it for a day to see if you can do it better, I'd welcome the break. :)

Sam Roman's Ettiquette School

Here's little Sam displaying his good manners. Off-camera I'm offering him a piece of string cheese. He says "cheese" "please" and "thank you" here.

Not to beat a dead horse...

...but there was an interesting article on National Review today about school lunches. The author proposes that the program should be completely abolished and parents should pack a lunch for their kid every day. Low income parents would use food stamps to provide lunch for their children.

It is an interesting proposal, and the article sheds light on the true reason behind the school lunch program: federal farm subsidies. Give it a read here:

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/255702/will-mrs-obama-downsize-your-kid-mona-charen

Also interesting: 83% (average) of students eat school lunch, at a reimbursement rate of $0.26 per meal. My school has 650 students, so 540 of them eat lunch every day, earning our school $140.27 per day. At 175 student days, this means $24,547.25 of funding. Now, I do not know if this money can only be used for lunch-related things, but that's no small chunk of change. Also, our elementary students have "milk break" for which we are reimbursed $0.17 per student. Figure 325 students X .17 per milk X 175 school days = an additional $9,668.75

Again, I don't know how this money gets earmarked, but $34,216 seems like just enough to fund a full-time librarian! Maybe I am a fan of school lunch after all.... :)

Sixteen Months!

Sam Roman is 16 months old today. Sam and I were discussing our opinions of the baby last night. Sam thinks he has changed a lot since his birthday and I feel like he's the "same old Sam" even though I know he's doing a lot more stuff! Here's a bit about what he's doing

Physical/Motor
-climbs up stairs
-walks very well
-sometimes kicks things
-starting to do well with a spoon
-climbs up on a chair
-turns around and slides off the couch
-pulls his blanket out through the slats of his crib
-walks out to the car (so funny to watch him toddle through the garage!)
-still has only 5 teeth
-still favors his left hand

Communication
-hits his head when he is mad
-arches his back and screams sometimes!
-pulls out the box of Play-Doh, drags it to me, and grunts until I open it

Signs and Says
-more
-milk
-please

Words
up
Mama
Dada
Oma
Opa
Nana
apple
mow-mow (cat)
tay-too (thank you)
Ah-nee (Annie)
yellow
hello
Bye-bye
neigh-neigh
baa-baa
moo-moo
Lydia
Elijah
ball
golf ball
duck (sometimes)
night-night
Dee-Dee (his blanket, just like Anne calls hers)
No no!
po (phone)

He has had some dry patches of skin on his legs, so when I put his pajamas on I put lotion on him. Last night I was rubbing his legs and rubbing his feet. He took the lotion and said "More, more" I guess he likes it! A little baby massage for my little guy.

He's growing just like he should be and is still a pretty agreeable boy. Love you, Sam Roman!

The Digital Story of the Nativity

A cute re-telling of the story of Jesus' birth. Todd, please share with your seminary friends. You know you want to.

Via Doug Johnson at The Blue Skunk Blog

Photo Catch-Up

A few shots of the kids from the last 2 weeks. Enjoy!

Anne and Sam wore custom T-shirts for Opa's birthday. They said "Opa's Girl" and "Opa's Guy" on the front. And by "custom" I mean 2 Dollar Tree shirts that I wrote on with a black marker.

Anne devouring her current favorite food: brown sugar yogurt. Take plain yogurt, sprinkle on some brown sugar, and stir. Voila!

Sam Roman likes it, too, but he is less handy with the spoon. He ended up slurping it out of the bowl.

A rare glimpse of Mommy! Anne made me a necklace with her lacing beads "for my birthday" and I was wearing it. We tried to take a picture of it, but this is all we got. Nice shot of our faces, but no necklace!
If you hold your hands up to the screen and crop out our hair, you might find that Anne and I look alike. My ginger hair and Anne's blonde fuzzball distract from our facial features :)

We're Here.

Sam has been working in North Dakota since last Sunday, and he'll be gone until this Sunday. That's 15 days of Daddy-less life around here, and it has been keeping me busy!

Not much to blog about, but here are 2 flashback pictures to make you smile. Seriously, who are these people?