Double the Fun

Samuel has been having a lot of fun lately with his two new friends. Our neighbors down the block have twin girls just a month older than Sam and he can't get enough of them. Its funny, she dresses them the same and so the first time he would go to one and then turn around and see the other one and smile. We have been trying to have weekly play dates so I can watch Samuel and see if he tries to bite anyone (which he hasn't, YEAH!) and for her girls to start spending time with more kids since they stay home and its hard for her to get out with twins, can you imagine its tough enough with one that wants to get out and go everywhere I can't imagine two 14 month olds. Sophia and Lauren have a basement of toys just for them, its like an activity center, and Sam gets so excited to see all of their toys, and when we come home he looks at his toys like old shoes, its so sad - one reason we are so excited to have our basement done and space for Samuel to run around and put up his big toys we have kept in boxes since his birthday.

With Valentines Day being this week Samuel had to make some tough decisions, he decided it wouldn't be nice to pick just one of them to be his valentine, so he asked them both (what a ladies man.) Samuel had a good Valentines day, he still doesn't get it, but that didn't stop him from opening all of his packages on his own and even got his cards out and gave them to us to read to him it was really cute.

Also, this past weekend his Papster (Ben's dad) came to visit. This is a great age for them to interact. They really bonded on this trip. Samuel sat next to him and let Papster read him stories, which he never does for us. Samuel even went to the window when he left, to tell him not to go (or so it seemed) we really wish they lived closer, and look forward to their next visit.

Some of Samuel's favorite things these days are moving the chairs around the house, pulling toilet paper off and carrying it around the house, turning the lights on and off, saying uh-oh, being outside and taking Sunday morning trips to WalMart and running around the store.

Bitting cause we love??

Over the past few weeks Samuel has turned himself into a world class bitter. Samuel never bites while he is at home so we were surprised when daycare started calling. It is now rare for Ben or I to not get a call during the day from them telling us Samuel has bit another child. Samuel hit his climax last Friday when the school sent him home because he wouldn't stop biting the other children.

This has really been stressing me out, so I have contacted our pediatrician and a daycare specialist about things we can do, as well as visit every google identified search on the web. We are now realizing that Samuel may be biting because he thinks he is giving kisses/love to the other kids. We started observing him at home and realized if we asked for a kiss and let him sit there for a while he would open his mouth like he was going to bite. So is Sam bitting because he loves? We aren't sure, but we feel horrible if we are perpetuating it.

Looks like this kiss could have turned to a bite really quick!

Needless to say we are not asking for kisses at this point to try and avoid any issues. In addition, Sam is getting his molars and we think this may be causing some of the pain, and so are trying to offer him teething rings during the day to sooth his teeth if they are hurting him. We have shared this and other ideas our pediatrician gave us with our daycare and we are so lucky that they are wiling to work with us on them and try to help Sam. Daycare never shares who Sam bit and they don't tell the parents of the bitee which child they were bitten by. Even though I know this, I still find myself dropping him off a little later or getting him a little earlier in the chance that a parent may find out that we are the biting family. What they are doing seems to be working and the last two days at daycare we have been bite free, which has caused for much celebration at our house. Please keep your fingers crossed that we are through the worst of it.

When he's not biting he has become a little helper around the house. Every day when we get home from daycare I tell him to go let his dogs out and he walks right up to their cage and opens it so they can get it. The dogs almost tip him over but he thinks it is really funny. After they get out sometimes he crawls in. He loves his dogs and wants to do whatever they do, its cute.

Smiling and so proud of himself each time he opens their cage.

Sam has also found the plunger in our house and now carries it around and walks into the bathroom shower with it and tries to use it on the walls.

Then he has also started trying to use the vacuum and the broom around the house. Its amazing to us on how quick kids pick up on things like that and want to try it on there own. Finally he loves to put Ben or my shoes (no high heals) on and our jackets, hats etc. and walk around the house, until he stumbles or gets bored which usually isn't longer than 30 seconds these days.

Happy Valentines day to everyone!!

Toddler Pictures

I thought I would share the link here of Samuel's 1 year picture. I have promised family and friends to put this out and have done a bad job of it in the past.

www.jlinephotography.com/viewing

Select the 2nd page and then select the Levy Pictures

Password is Samuel.

Enjoy, they turned out pretty cute, its amazing how our little man has changed in just one year!!

Fun with the Babysitter

This past weekend Samuel had a blast with his favorite babysitter Melia. Melia came over on Friday night and babysat Samuel and his buddy Connor. It was so cute, Melia started throwing balloons around in the air and Connor and Samuel tried to catch them, and then they tried to hit them back, and then Connor who just turned 3 tried to bounce them off of his head. Samuel couldn't stop laughing. Sam loves to be around bigger kids, he seems to be amazed by them and tries to copy all of their tricks, it is great to watch.

$.10 toys are the favorites at our house for Sam and for us. We just wish we knew how to keep them popular after he is old enough to pick things himself!

We were glad Melia could watch Sam and Connor so their parents could have a great wine party/competition. Ben and I were really hopeful our wine would win the competition of the night but we came in 3rd. It was a great time, and by the end all of the wines tasted pretty good.

Melia wasn't gone for long, she came back to the house Saturday morning. Sometimes it takes Sam a few minutes to warm up to her, but since she was just at the house he ran to her as soon as he saw her. It is such a good feeling leaving Sam with someone he has so much fun with. I love playing with Sam, but sometimes I am get exhausted and he still wants to go, so it is great when a babysitter comes with 150% energy all the time. Some of our close friends drove to town on Saturday so the boys could go to the Nebraska vs. KU basketball game. Ben wanted to see one more game in Allen Fieldhouse before Nebraska moves to the Big 10. Ben and Andy didn't have very high expectations for the game, but it turned out to be a close game and really made for a fun last game between the two teams. While Ben and Andy went to the game I got to take Andy's wife, Karen, my good friend to register for their soon to be little baby boy. It was so fun to do all of this again, and its amazing how after only a year there are so many new things for the little ones!! Samuel had a great time with Melia and then was spoiled by Andy and Karen when we got home. Karen and Andy are going to be great parents and had a very fun time with Samuel.

Karen reading to Samuel and he sat still for the entire book where we can't get through a page before he runs away! Karen's got the charm.

Andy squeezing Sam's Sing-a-long bear, really Ben's favorite toy.

Kids are resilient

Samuel gave us a run for our money last week.

We are currently having our basement finished and during some of their work they ended up cutting off the gas to some of our things and got them back working last Friday. They left our fireplace on to make sure there were no problems, well Ben and I should have known better. After it was shut off Sam was playing in the area and went up and put his hand on the glass and screamed like neither of us have ever heard. We grabbed him and instantly knew the glass was still hot. Samuel proceeded to cry for what seemed like forever, and for sure the longest, hardest either of us have ever heard. We did everything we could think of to help him, but nothing eased his pain. After about an hour we took the pack off of his hand and saw he had blisters all over his hand. We then made our 1st trip to the Lee's Summit, emergency room. What amazed Ben and I was that the minute we left the house he acted like nothing had happened and never cried about this again, which is where I got the title to this blogs, kids are so resilient. The emergency room was a very unpleasant place for both Ben and I. We couldn't believe how many people came in and asked us to explain what happened and make sure that we were not neglecting our child and our ER physician started the conversation with I don't think he will need a skin graph. WOW, not something you say to new parents, or parents at all for that matter.

Other than that the oddness that surrounded our visit, the nurses treated Samuel with such care, and he seemed to love to be pampered by so many different women. We left with a happy little boy, now with a wrapped hand. Since then he has rarely been bothered by the injury and has enjoyed chewing on his wrap when he is bored in the care. All but 2 of the blisters disappeared on their own and the others are recovering well.

If you are reading this, please do not report us to CPS, if you knew how incredibly awful and scared Ben and I were and have been it is punishment enough. Needless to say, we are watching Sam like a hawk and he has been getting spoiled (I now see how easily kids get spoiled and how they learn to take advantage of it.)

We are so thankful Samuel is a tough little guy, and doing so well and we pray that these events are few and far between in Samuel's life and get easier to handle with time.

Here are 2 pictures of Samuel with his wrap and as you can see he didn't let it interfere with his activities.

Out with 2010...Excited for 2011

2010 was Ben and I's best year yet. With the addition of Samuel, Ben's new job, me with a job and so much more we feel really blessed, so we can't wait to see what 2011 brings us.

This was the 1st year since Ben and I have been together where we haven't traveled over Christmas which was awesome. But we got a little stir crazy and decided to head North for New Years, to see friends, family and let Samuel finally meet his buddy Luke.

Samuel and I stayed at my friend Tara's house which he loved, because her house is definitely not child proofed. At one point I looked over as I was making his breakfast and he was in a silverware drawer holding onto two knives (please don't call CPS, I swear it was an accident.) Her house is filled with very nice things and by the end of the trip they were all on the top shelf. Tara was so sweet to let us stay and he loved to explore the new house, and slept even better than he does at home!

On Saturday, Samuel got to meet one of my best friends son, Luke. They live in Colorado so the boys had not had the chance to meet, so Katie and I were really excited to get them together. Luke is 5 months old and such a sweetie, he loves to bounce around and make grrrrrrrrrrrrr sounds, it is really cute. Samuel seemed very interested in Luke and would go up and look at him, and as you can see by the pictures by the end of the playdate he tried to give Luke a hug and hold his hand, super cute.

Samuel and Luke were having good conversation here.

Sam with his Aunt Karen and Aunt Tara

And at the end of the play date, Luke and Samuel got exciting news, that in 6 months they will either have a new buddy or a girlfriend to fight over. Our friends Karen and Brett are expecting, which is such great news. What a great way to ring in the new year!

For New Years, we went to a friends house and Jiji and Papster babysat Samuel. This was the 1st time ever that both Ben and I had been gone from Samuel together overnight. It was nice for us to get to celebrate with friends, and we knew he wasn't even thinking about us but loving getting spoiled by Ben's parents.

The Big Ten Husker/Iowa rivalry started here! 3 on the left vs. the 2 on the right. This will make future Thanksgivings a lot of fun.

This trip was also our test for Samuel to see if he was allergic to cats. I am deathly allergic to cats and can spend very little time in homes with cats, so I have been very apprehensive to put him with cats in the off chance he is allergic. When we got to Omaha we took him straight to Ben's parents and exposed him to their cat and from what we could see we are in the clear for cat allergies. Samuel seemed very intrigued by his Jiji and Papster's cat, but no sneezing, or rubbing of the eyes. Samuel wanted to pet and grab the kitty but the cat just hissed and batted Samuel away. Hopefully Poppy will warm up to Samuel with time.

Samuel had a great holiday and New Years, but we think he is getting pretty bored with all of these adults and excited to get back to daycare with his buddies and of course his girlfriend Abby.

Happy New Year to everyone!!

Merry Christmas....A Little Belated

My intention and promise to multiple family members was to get this post out only a few days after Christmas, but as you can see between cleaning up from an amazing Christmas and hanging out with a mobile toddler it hasn't gotten done. Christmas this year was great, it was all about Samuel, just the way it should be. I had been really worried that Samuel would get jipped on either his birthday or Christmas but it was the exact opposite. My mother, and Ben's parents were able to be with us for Christmas and made the holiday even more special. They love Samuel so much, Ben and I just love watching them play with him all day, we are truly blessed to have such an amazing family (not to mention it lets us go out on dates and not have to pay anyone!!) We weren't sure how Sam would do with a Christmas tree so we made it pretty basic this year and for about 80% of the time it was up he never touched it, but when he figured out he could take the things off and use them as swords, toys, or things to hit his dogs with he loved it!! These are a few pics of the sneaky little man.

That face has "I think I'm pretty sneaky" written all over it

Someone is pretty proud of themselves!

One of the residents in our sub-division offered to dress up as Santa Claus for all of the kids and allow families to come to the club house and take pictures. Ben and I had said we weren't going to take him this year since he didn't really get it and he has a fear of men (most men.) But we decided to try it figuring their would be no line and right outside our front door. WOW, was it a bad decision. The minute we handed Samuel to him, he began screaming and throwing his arms around, but as Ben says its a memory we will never forget. We hope next year goes a little bit better.

This is actually a good moment in the few he let Santa hold him.

Looks a little better with mom, but what you can't see is his other arm wrapped around my arm like he is holding on for dear life!

We tried to do a family picture but everyone he is looking at Santa, like what are you trying to do to me and my family!

Everyone told us that the wrapping, tissue and peanuts would be the big focus this year and it definitely was, but I wish someone would have told us to invest in V-tech and Fisher Price as Samuel now has almost every toy they make for his age. Its crazy how many different toys and stimulation activities they have for a 1 year old. We decided to put a bunch of them away and take them out mid-year, so he can have "new" stuff once he has exhausted himself with these toys. Dancing Mickey was the biggest hit of the holiday, eventually. When we opened the box he was really scared and started crying, but after he sang a few songs and everyone was dancing he joined right in. It is so fun to watch him do knee bends and shake his body just like Mickey.

As you flip through these on the camera you can almost remake his dance, it is so funny.

This is a recent picture, now that he has practice he also tries to talk like Mickey.

Climbing and sitting on the presents was one of his favorite things to do, it was really cute.

Sam with tissue paper, he loves the sound it makes when it crinkles.

The other big gift for Samuel 2 days before Christmas was the birth of what we imagine will be his BFF as he grows up. Wes Williams was born on December 23rd. He is so adorable, and already has similarities to Sam he is a big boy weighing in at 9lbs 15oz. Ben and I also got a pretty amazing Christmas gift, we were asked to be Wes's Godparents, and we are thrilled beyond belief (but are they sure they know what they got Wes into?) Congrats Mallory and Dwight ya did good!!

We hope everyone else had a wonderful holiday with family, and hope that 2011 is even better than 2010.