Future Photographer

Lately Samuel has been obsessed with our camera. He wants to hold it all the time, and has figured out how to turn it on, take a picture, and even toggle between shoot mode and where you see what picture you just took. He can even bring up some screens that we have never seen on the camera before, and could not find again if we tried. I think when he grows up he will work in some field with electronics (unless he gets a job as a potato chip tester - his other love.)

Here are some of the pictures he has taken recently:

Samuel's godmother (Ernie's Aunt Roseanne) sent him the most beautiful quilt last week. It has all sorts of trucks on it. I can't even image how long it must have taken to make something like this. Samuel loves it.

In other news, between the combination of the freezing cold temperatures and the fact that Samuel was sick for an entire week, we have been spending most of our time inside. One of his favorite things to suggest is that we make hot chocolate. Then we have to get a bowl of snow for him to scoop into the hot chocolate to cool it off.

Last (but most certainly not least!) Samuel has been using the bathroom at school for the past few weeks. He has been potty trained at home for a couple of months, but for some reason refused to go at school until recently. We are so happy about this, his teachers are so excited for him, and he is so proud of himself. He earns a sticker at school each time he goes, and has already earned enough of them to pick a prize from the prize box. He chose a little basketball. Next we tackle how to get him to sleep through the night without needing the bathroom. Suggestions are welcome if anyone has any!

Little Drummer Boy

Okay, so I got the video to post, but I'm not sure how to rotate it, so you'll have to turn your head to watch it (or, get Samuel to come to your house and mess with your computer and turn the entire display 90 degrees, which he did to ours before.)

Christmas Pictures

Samuel was such fun on Christmas this year. In the past he has been overwhelmed, and wandered off after opening 1 or 2 presents. This year he was more than happy to open anything with his name on it, and even offered to help open things that were not for him. Here are some pictures:






Santa brought him some tape, and he had a great time sticking it all over the house:




And then sticking his tools to it:




Here are pictures of me and Ernie showing off our new hats:

Our christmas tree pizza:

I keep trying to post a video, but it doesn't seem to be working. I will try again later, so you can see Samuel playing a drum set that Bridget sent him. We refer to these in the video as "payback drums" since Ernie used to give Bridget's kids lots of noisy toys when they were younger. Samuel LOVES them.

Ice Storm

Last week we had an ice storm in Fort Wayne. Here are some pictures of the bushes and trees in our yard:

It has been so cold that nothing has had a chance to melt in almost a week. So we have been doing a lot of stuff inside. Here are some pictures of Samuel helping to make cookies (or eating as much dough as he can, and also for some odd reason, eating flour by the spoonful) :

He is beyond excited that it is Christmas Eve, and cannot wait for Santa to bring him some presents tonight. He doesn't seem to understand that the rolls of wrapping paper are just that - paper. He keeps trying to tear them apart to find the presents inside. He's going to have a blast tomorrow. We'll post more after Christmas!

Christmas Parties

Ernie's company had 2 different Christmas parties that we attended this year: one was for adults, and one was for children of the employees.

Here we are at the adults party:



And here we are at the kids party. If you're wondering what Samuel has all over his face, it's chocolate. He found these little treats made with pretzles, rolos, and m&m's. He had no interest in any of the other party things (like Bingo) once he saw those treats. He just kept wanting to eat more and more of them. Not that I can blame him - they are super good.

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.