Anta Clause

You are going to get a LOT of "Anta Clause" pictures because I love the progression from the photo progression of "stranger danger" to "hey, I really like this big, bearded guy" to "Elsie, what's the deal?" Admittedly so, the side entry random Santa hand is a bit creepy but I'll be able to tell Sam one day that that was in fact Cami's delicate and beautiful hand and Cami looking at me going ,"Whaddo I do with my hand?" Oh and we got an Elsie update about her feelings toward Santa and apparently at the Hubrich's latest family party a family member dressed as Santa and Elsie was absolutely, in no way, feeling any better toward Santa since this photo shoot.

Gobgles

Nope, that is not a spelling error, that's the way Sam says goggles. He has progressed so much with swimming, I thought for the record I should jot it down. He's just gotten over a big hump, for a few weeks there he cried every session and then one day, voila...He was happy, loving it and had jumped up another level. His favorite thing to do is to swim like a dolphin, which is the beginning movements of the butterfly stroke. He can dive in to the water from the side of the pool. He can float for 5 minutes by himself, but really prefers not too :) From back float position he can flip to his stomach to swim then back to his back to rest. He is learning "chicken, airplane, soldier" which is the beginnings of the breast stroke as well as "Mr 1 and Mr 2" which is the back stroke. To end his lessons, he loves to jump off the low dive! He looks so funny on the low dive because he looks so teeny jumping off the board all by himself.

A New Display of Independence

We've been working on teaching Sam basic manners such as Please, Thank You, Welcome and introducing mini-chores such as cleaning up toys, taking his plate over to the sink when he's done eating and throwing trash away in the can. All of these things are wonderful when played out in the way that we as parents want them. BUT we all know that's no always the way it goes and there are two sides to every story.

I made little man a PB&J today for lunch and he wasn't all that interested. He really wanted to go outside so I told he could go outside if he took a few monster bites of his sandwich. He looked at me, picked up his sandwich, took it over to the trash, threw it away, closed the trash door and said, "outside."

Didn't know what to do with that really other than laugh after he went to bed. Needless to say, the boy ultimately went to bed without lunch, which he didn't seem to care about and it's great as a mom to see that he's learning what we are teaching him :)

Ma Names Chubby

Ma Daddy's Chubby,
Ma Mamma's Chubby,
and My Dog's are Chubby.

One day my dad took me out for a motorcyle ride
and I said, "faster daddy, faster" and he went faster
and I said, "faster daddy, faster" and he went faster
and I said, "faster daddy, faster" and he went faster
and I said, "Slow down daddy!"

Tonight at dinner I was resting my jowls on my curled up fists and was just looking at my water glass for a minute. I look across the way of the table, which just happens to be the best view of Sam, and see Sam curl up his hands up to his cute chubby cheeks forcing his lips out.

I started to laugh and then launched in to my favorite story as a kid--"My name is Chubby." Sam started to laugh, so I started to laugh more and the story kept going, the motorcycle ride continued, until I was ultimately moving my chubby face to a stretched out face saying enthusiastically, "SlOWWW down Daddddy!" Laughing and laughing as a family I couldn't think of any place with any other people I'd rather be than right there with my family.

Inspired and Touched

This is a video of a plane crash survivor, Stefany Nielsen--Take eight minutes of your time to view this... you will be touched, you will be uplifted you will be inspired.

One Fish, Two Fish, Sam Fish, Blue Fish

A little monkey on the land and a fish in the water, Sammer loves his swimming lessons. He gets so excited when we pull up to the pool and even more excited when his teacher, Lenny, says, "Ok curly haired boy...let's swim." These were taken the other day when they were doing their under water photo session.

Little Friends and Slides!

Sam had a little friend in town, Kien Shapiro, that is about 6 months older. Despite their few territorial moments, they had a great time cruisin' around and bro-ing down.
Since Utah was warmer than their Florida weather (a balmy 50...nice right?), we cruised to the park. The boy charged up the stairs, down the slides and through the tubes. I realized I had a fearless wonder on my hands when he made his way up to the big spiral slide and without flinching, proceeded down head first laughing the entire way. Normally he waits for me to get to the bottom, turns around, feet first on his tummy. I guess that was sooo "baby" for him.