18 months

It seems like longer since this little guy joined the team.
In fact it seems like he has always been here with us- making us laugh and giving us hugs.
Maybe that is partially because I claim I knew him in my dreams before he was born.
Sadly because of this -his song that I sing him is the Sleeping Beauty Theme.
Jake says I need to pick a new song because this one is too girly.
Tough Beans Son.

" I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream,
I know you, the gleam in your eye is so familiar a dream,
And its true that visions are seldom as they seem,
But if I know you, I know what you'll do,
You'll love me at once, the way you did once,
Upon a Dream"

I have concluded you are tough enough to handle it.

At 18 months

Weight 23.14lb 23%
Height 32 in 47%
Head 19 1/4 70 %

He had to get a couple of shots too for us to find that out.
But he didn't even let out one cry.
The nurse was impressed.
Yup- he is strong, brave, and awesome I assured her.

I really need to stop calling you Chubs. It doesn't suit you.
Samson, Samuraii, Sammy, and the always Loveable Sam still do.

He likes to wrestle, get thrown up in the air and be tickled and chased.
He likes to hug too. And that is the best.
He follows his sister around most of the day, and sometimes fights with her.
He likes to play outside and in the water.
He likes shoes.shoes.shoes.
He likes bottles still, and pacifiers, and asks from them "BaBa and This" That is what he calls them.
He has lots of words now.
Growls, barks, quacks, Moos,Meows, neighs, Trumpets like an elephant, sticks his tongue out like a giraffe, buzzes like a bee.
He says all our names, and can even blame Kate by name when she hurts him.
He says drink, more, no,push, thanks you, all done, outside, and is starting more and more to repeat new words on a daily basis.
He runs, and climbs, and digs.
He likes blowing out candles, and on food if it is hot.
And refuses to sit in a high chair, he wants to be a big kid.
He likes riding in the car and on the bikes.
And drinks so much that I have to sneak in and change his diaper around 11:00 pm so he doesn't soak his clothes through.
He is handsome. Everyone tells us so all the time.
We agree whole heartedly.
He has his father's dimples, huge tongue, muscles and hair cut
His mother's hooded eyes and other dimple. And looks more like me all together.
He still has those strange masses in his chest we can't figure out.
He sleeps for 12 hours at night.....Who does that?

18 months of Samuel has brought us so much joy.
I can't imagine loving anyone more.

Things I've Been Up To

I haven't been taking the normal mass amounts of pictures of the wee ones this week.
I guess I have been doing other things.
That makes for a lack of blogging here.


Instead of photo journaling my children's every move
This is what I have been up to.

Harvesting this out of my garden



Remaking this bookshelf
see more pictures on ReadySetPlan


And doing some portrait work
See it here

Thursday was full of funny!

Yesterday was full of funny things.
I guess as the children get older and more capable of expressing themselves this is bound to happen.

#1- Suckers are Funny

Jake and I are trying out a new system for teaching our children reverence.
If you sit by us at church this makes perfect sense to you.
Our new system includes practicing reverence and being rewarded for it after dinner scripture study. The incentive program is that -if each child can sit with their arms folded and not say a word for 5 verses, they get a penny candy.

Why yesterdays suckers were funny.
First Kate said "Sam can't have one, I think he is allergic." Nice tactic to keeping all of the suckers for yourself Kate, but since when do you know what allergic means?

Secondly Sam lost his sucker in his hair (see picture below) and didn't notice and ran around with a red sucker in his head until we helped him out.
#2 Dress Up is Funny
Kate is constantly dressing up. In fact if you go into her dresser I promise you, you will not find a pair of matching socks. She is constantly using them for dress up.
Today she is "that girl cowboy" she means Jesse from Toy Story. Two necklaces, two purses, and tutu around your arms, character socks on your hands and feet, leg warmers on your arms and a cowboy hat sound perfect. The best part is that each time she finishes an outfit, she comes downstairs asks for a picture and then poses for it. Man, I have trainer her well.

#3 Hide and Seek is Funny.

This is how hide and seek goes in our family.
Kate asks to play Hide and Seek
Jake and I agree, then tell her she and Sam are the counters 1st.
Jake and I sprint upstairs without a word to one another. We hide under the covers in our bed and make out until the kids find us. I love that we don't even discuss where we are hiding, but just take off sprinting.
Hot as it sounds, they usually find us in under 60 seconds.
They have figured out the plan- Drat.

More funny still is that next it is Kate's turn to hide. We start counting. She runs to hide under the covers of her bed.
She thinks this is where you are always suppose to hide. This is where we always hide 1st after all.
I guess we haven't taught her the game very well.

It takes us about ten minutes to hide in every bed, closet, and shower in the upstairs in rotating pairs of family members.

Kate never lets you find her before she yells to you where she is, or is giggling uncontrollably making it obvious.
Sam runs around with his hands up and shoulders shrugged as if to say "where is Kate?"

Jake and I get to hide together again.
We throw a twist in the game and run to the basement to hide.
It takes the kids about two full minutes to find us this time.
Sweet.

And Hilarious.

McDonalds, Marshmallows and Super Readers

It is not like Jake camping with the Scouts is any kind of rare occurrence.
But I still seem to make each evening alone with the kids into some kind of holiday.
Mostly because it helps the evening go faster, easier, and some how seem less lonely.

This evening the kids got some pretty sweet McDonald's Happy meals, then ate these face size marshmallows while watching Super Readers.

More than anything it seems like Jake being gone= us eating like we are ten-year-olds without parents. I am not sure why having him gone gives me all the reason I need to not cook dinner and serve my children everything that is wrong with our food system.
But this is what seems to happen every time.

It is more than likely than not, that I will eat a sleeve of Oreo Cookies by myself as I online shop after the kids go to bed tonight too.

That is just how we roll without a father figure I guess.

My conscious has already come to terms with it.

Grumpy Kids

I thought today might be a decent day to get some 18 month photos of my little fellow.
I dressed him in some clean clothes and took the children both to the field behind the house.

And then began the complaining
about everything from they didn't like their shoes,
to they no longer liked looking for bugs in the field,
to attempts to run out into the road,
to general crying about everything and anything.
Turns out mornings are not our happiest times, but I already knew that.
Here is one of Sam's best shots.....
That is right- he was so mad he wouldn't even look at me.

Thinking to not waste dragging the camera and kids out here- maybe Kate would be a better subject.....
Think again.
She would apparently gag herself then let me take a picture of her smiling.
Yes asking her to smile is what brought upon that response.



I was surprised to see this upload onto my computer. I don't think he was actually happy, I just happened to catch his face a at good moment that tricks you into thinking he is smiling.
Sam eating a stick.... just the look I was going for.
More general grumpiness.

Kate at least tried to be cooperative for about 45 seconds,
and only because she understands a bribe.

7 Reasons My Kids are HIlarious!

Reason 1:
A Halloween costume catalog arrived in the mail today. I have passed on the love for the holiday to my oldest born. She scoured its pages all day. She picked out costumes for all of us. Sadly it looks like the days of me coordinating everyone's costumes together has come to an end, for Kate has her mind set on Ariel the Little Mermaid. She is so excited about Halloween and costumes that she just asked me to read her the catalog for her bedtime story, and I did.

Reason 2:
Sam slept for 3 hours straight today. He is awesome like that. During which time I was able to clean my entire house with Kate by my side, and spend more than enough time wandering aimlessly around the internet for things I will not purchase and projects I will never get around to. And I did so guilt free as my chores were already completed and I had already read Kate all 13 books we got at the library yesterday.

Reason 3:
I was cutting up some Fresh Mango for dinner.
Kate: What is that Mom?
Me: It is called a Mango
Kate: Like a Flamango? (flamingo)
Me: Yes Kate, it sounds like flamingo
Kate: Are we eating Flamango Mom?
Me: No Kate it is just a fruit
Kate: oh Flamangos eat them.
Me: Yes Kate they likely do.

Reason 4:
Sam says "Push" now to ever button, door, car etc. Anything he can push or pull.
"Puushshshshshsh" It IS funny, even if it doesn't sound like it to you.

Reason 5:
Kate and Sam were playing with the vacuum. They love the thing because it has an automatic cord wind feature. Kate smacked Sam with one of the cleaning extensions. I asked him what happened, mostly in a rhetorical comforting way, as I was aware of what had happened. He stopped crying, stood up, pointed his finger her way and said "kate". Let the blaming begin.

Reason 6:
Kate found two suckers downstairs in a box in the basement for a party a while ago.
She brought them upstairs. A pink for her (her favorite color) and a yellow for me (as she knows it is my favorite color). I told her she could have it, but I did not want mine. This confounded her. She didn't understand why I did not want to eat a sucker. She asked me several questions, like why I was not hungry? if I was going to save it for later? and why wasn't I going to eat the sucker. She told me my tummy did not look full. It just blew her away that I wouldn't want to eat a sucker. She eventually left it on my desk for me to eat later.

Reason 7:
The children amused themselves for a good 45 minutes today and yesterday feeding the dog cereal they sneak out the cupboard. It is funny to watch them work on the project together filling cups of cereal then taking it outside, then handing it piece by piece to one very happy dog. It may be a waste of cereal but it seems to be great for sibling bonding.

Reason 8:
We checked out a Childrens' Spanish vocabulary book from the library. Kate was reading one of he books to Sam this morning.
kate: How do you say ball is Spanish Sam?
Kate: You say "le ball",
La pelota is more likely correct, and her sounds more like a french ball than a spanish ball, but I think she is getting the feel for the language.

And that was my hilarious day.

Sam Eats Spagetti

I decided to take Sam to the after hours clinic this evening.
We tried the normal Walk In Clinic over at the IHC.
I am not sure why.
We waited over twenty minutes and had not even been checked in yet.
Some meth mom had her naked 7 year old sitting on the check in counter describing symptoms of a sick child that made me never want to go in the same room, let alone check my child in at the same counter where she currently sat, naked (she was wrapped loosely in a sheet).
For real parenting???

In frustration I gave up and headed to the 5 minute clinic over at the Clock Tower on Main.
I should have headed there 1st.
They are awesome.
We were checked in, seen, written prescription and checked out all in under 8 minutes.
Not to mention there were no naked children with what sounded like the Ebola virus in their waiting room.

Sam has joined the ear infection club. Just as I suspected.
He also apparently has a sinus infection the consistency of cheese. and the color of the hot green shirt I am wearing in the header picture of our blog... no really, I just happened to be wearing the shirt when I took Sam in and that is what the Doc told me

What does this have to do with the pictures.
Well Sam hadn't eaten dinner when we left.
We were gone longer than planned
He very happily consumed the spaghetti and watermelon he was given upon his return.

Spaghetti and Watermelon??? Does a messier dinner exist?
Likely not.





More than anything, he made me laugh as he ate.
I needed a good laugh today.
There is something good about having a Dr. tell you you kid is really sick.
It makes me feel better about not being able to stand him all day, and gives me hope that I will be able to stand him in a few days once the antibiotics have taken effect.

Here is to no more colds in summer time.

For Real Summer?

We got a new big shiny red ball on Tueday to play with outside.
And summer has been a stinker every since.

Boys, Girls and a Mantis

Kate was thrilled to find this praying mantis near the pumpkin patch yesterday.
So thrilled that she yelled "Mom I found a praying mantis" as she ran inside to tell me to come see. I followed of course.
We have seen hundreds of praying mantis in our yard this year, and grasshoppers too.
I have no fear of bugs- even spiders, so I usually point them out to her in an exciting way.
She usually in interested bordering on fearful.
I held the mantis for a moment to let them get a better look at their find.
Kate asked if she could hold it.
I let her, recalling the past six times she held a bug/ shook her arm and started to cry that I remove the offending bug immediately.
This time it turned out- she still was not ready to hold the bug.
See her face in the above photo.

Sam was more than willing to hold the mantis.
He didn't wince or whine and curiously watched it crawl up his arm for almost 1 minute.

At this end of this. Kate demanded another turn. If Sam was brave enough- I suppose she could be too.
So she also let this praying mantis sit on her hand for a few seconds. Slowly overcoming her fear of bugs.

I promise to in no way have shaped my children's feeling towards insects negatively.
But girls will be girls and boys will be boys I suppose.

New Project

I am funny about projects and hobbies.
I usually start a project only to loose interest before I finish.
Or put time into a hobby, but not enough to be any good.
I do have one hobby however, that seems to still around month after month, year after year.
That is photography.
I know that every mom with a D-SLR thinks she is a photographer.
In fact I often refer to these people as "faketogrophers", or "momtographers"
I am not saying that some of them aren't good.
Some of them are, some momtographers are very good.
And I wouldn't say that I was the best by any stretch.
But I am certainly not the worst.
In fact recently I began a search for our own family pictures, only to be recommend dozens of momtographers with full on websites with pictures far worse than my own.
So I decided to join the trend.

Truth be told I have had pieces of a portfolio sitting on my desktop for over a year.
I finally gave it a little time and constructed a website portfolio here.

Click on over and check it out.

www.crystalfreemanphotography.com

Growing

The kids seem to be growing faster than ever lately.
Samuel is such a boy, and is constantly attached to a car or truck- or anything with wheel that he can get his hands on.
Usually attempting to ride it no matter how big or small it is.
This includes any person laying on the floor (or even laying in a bed)
He usually takes this as an invitation for a horse ride.
He looks so big playing with these trucks here.
I also love to see the white skin that does not tan in the creases of his chubby wrists and arms.



Here is Kate showing me how tall she is.
It is most obvious in that the shoes and dresses that were purchased for her this spring are all too small to be worn anymore.
Curious to see how much she had grown- and if she was inching her way out of the 3% in height- I attempted to measure and calculate her progress in the last three months.
It looks like she has grown 3.5 inches in the last 3 months bringing her to the 13%.
She has been eating more like a normal child and falling asleep mid day more often.
We jokingly have been saying "maybe she is growing"
and it turns out that just might be true.

Also here is an attempted family photo.
This is what you get when you use a tripod to shoot a family on their way out to church in the hot 1:00 pm sun.
We tried anyways.