Tape, Tape, Tape

Samuel has entered what I like to call the "office supply" phase. He loves tape, scissors, glue, and paper. Loves them so much that last night we wrote a letter to Santa and he asked for tape for Christmas. I think if we were to take him to Office Depot right now and let him loose in the tape and scissors aisle, he might just pass out.

This weekend Ernie was installing some towers that he built in our closet, and to keep Samuel occupied, we gave him a brand new roll of tape and some paper. He managed to use the ENTIRE roll while we worked in the closet.



The closet is not done yet, but here are how the towers are looking right now:





After we finished working in the closet and Samuel had used up all of the tape we keep upstairs in the office, we went downstairs, where he found the tape we keep in the kitchen (Santa? If you read our blog, seriously send him some tape.) He crawled under the kitchen table and was quietly working away with tape and scissors for quite some time.





A quiet kid usually means trouble, and this was no exception. Look what he decided to cut with his safety scissors:



Yes, that would be Ernie's shoelace. Did you know a 3 year old with safety scissors could cut shoelaces? We obviously did not. So we now have a rule that scissors can ONLY be used while sitting at the table, and they can ONLY cut paper.

Can We Build It? Yes, We Can!

Last weekend we went to a really cool thing at Lowe's called a Build and Grow workshop. Apparently they have these in their stores every few weeks. And they are free! Kids can build a different project each time. This time it was a truck, which Samuel loved because it opened up in the back like Mack from Cars.

Samuel was a little young for the building part, so we ended up bringing the pieces of the kit home and Ernie helped him put it together.

Here he is showing off his finished truck. (and the free tool apron and safety goggles he got too!):









If you have a child who is a little bit older (probably 6 +), I'd highly recommend checking these out.

On Top of Spaghetti

The other night we were eating spaghetti for dinner (well, some of us were eating it, others were apparently WEARING more sauce on our face and hands than seems humanly possible.) We sang "On Top of Spaghetti" for Samuel, who thought it was the funniest song ever. Especially the line about the meatball - it just kept cracking him up. (by the way, don't be fooled for a second into thinking he'd actually EAT a meatball. Oh no, that's not on the list of 5 foods he will try without screaming. Noodles - good, meatballs - bad.) But I guess meatballs are very very funny to sing about:

Halloween

Last year Samuel wanted nothing to do with Halloween. He had no idea what candy was, and he hated the monkey costume we got him. This year was a lot different. At school they got to eat candy corn, and we've been giving him M&M's for potty training, so he knows what candy is, and he is a BIG FAN. I bought him a lion costume at a garage sale this summer, and he seemed to like it, so he's been wearing it off and on since then. He had no problem putting it on Friday night to go trick-or-treating.

Here he is decorating pumpkins:






And here he is in the lion costume:

Roar:

Walking around the neighborhood. It was so warm we didn't even need jackets (nice change from Colorado, where there was usually snow on the ground on Halloween). Notice the candy in his hand. He didn't want to part with it long enough to even put it in his bucket:

Doesn't he look a little like a lion, but also a little like Lionel Richie?

Updates

I try to post on our blog every week or so, but we've been so busy lately that I don't think I have posted in almost 3 weeks. Here are some recent pictures of Samuel.

Playing a computer game with Ernie:

Different hats, different pajamas, same breakfast (he likes to dip his waffles in sour cream. If he was allowed to choose all of his own food, he would eat waffles with sour cream for every meal. Oh, and sugar. He'd eat that straight if we let him.)

We are having some success with potty training, which is great! He has been wearing underwear at home (except for when he sleeps.) We even went on a playdate last week, and he used the bathroom two times! Whoo-hoo! Now, if we could only get him to go at school, we'd be all set. For some reason he just flat out refuses to use the bathroom at school. He's almost ready to move from the middle toddler room to the older toddler room. I think when that happens he will be more willing because more of the kids in the older toddler room are potty trained.

It has been so beautiful here. Here are 2 pictures I took of the leaves last week:

It's a good thing I took them then, because yesterday the wind blew so hard that almost all of the leaves are now off the trees.

The wind was so bad this weekend that it woke Samuel up from his nap early both days. By dinnertime last night, he was so exhausted and grumpy that he just fell to pieces. We tried to get him to eat his dinner, but he just screamed and screamed and screamed. You'd think we were trying to feed him worms instead of a piece of potato from stew. So we ended up putting him in bed at 6:00 pm. He slept until 6:00 this morning. 12 hours of sleep at night is unheard of for him. He's usually more of a 7:30 pm - 5:30 am sleeper. He seemed much happier this morning, which is good.

Finally, here's something Samuel said to me the other day when we were sitting on the couch: "I am not kicking you mommy, I am giving you a high five with my foot." Way to spin the situation to your advantage there, future politician.

Giggles

Last weekend Ernie's Uncle Irv was driving from IL to FL, so he spent a night at our house. Samuel had a lot of fun with him, as you can see here:

Birthday Boy!

Samuel turned 3 this weekend. This was the first year he was old enough to really understand that it was his birthday. He was so excited to turn 3, to open presents, and to eat cake and ice cream (VERY excited about the ice cream. He would eat that all day long, if we let him.) Here are some pictures from the day:

unwrapping a present:



opening a box of cars from the movie Cars:



showing off new sunglasses:



this present of paint pens was so cool, he had to try it right then and there:



his birthday cake:



checking out the candles:



blowing out the candles:



And, just so you can see how much he has grown, here are pictures from the day he was born, his 1st birthday, and 2nd birthday: