A Beach and Bailey (doggie) Nursery for Sweet Baby Sammy

So this post really cracks me up.   When I was writing up the post for the Little Miss' nursery, and wanted to link back to Sammy's I realized I actually never took pictures of Sammy's room once it was complete!  I honestly can't believe I'm two years late in posting these pictures.  That's one for the record books.  

So without further ado, here is the reveal for Sammy's nursery.

The Dali Decal I had designed and the beach and Bailey print we purchased in cape may long before Sammy was even a poppy seed in my belly.  He loves pointing out Bailey every morning.

 

These three Ikea shelves were a last minute edition.  I love them!  They hold so much art.  Sammy loves having pictures of his family in his room too.

 

A few closeups.  The big silver frame is from PBK and was an awesome baby shower gift from my Paul's brother and wife. We love it so much, we bought one for the Little Miss' nursery too.

  

Another wonderful PBK gift from a dear friend for Sammy's dedication.  She even took the picture of him too!

An empty frame still left to fill and a cute shot from our maternity session

The target bookshelf was the last thing we added to his room.  We accumulated a lot of well loved books over the first year and a half of Sammy's life, so this was a needed last edition.  For $80 it looks great too!

I love this shadow box I bought at homegoods.  It holds Sammy's coming home outfit and hat, his footprints from the hospital, his hospital id bracelet and his birth announcement.  I wish I had a matching pink one for his sister's room.

I actually lied, these starfish plaques were the last thing we purchased for Sammy's room.  We got them during our OBX trip this past May.

Paul's mom received an old rocking chair from the church nursery and gifted it to Sammy last summer.  He loved it, even at 9 months, so I refinished it with a quick sanding and spray paint and put it in his room.

So, two years later, the new big brother finally has his nursery revealed.  I hope he continues to love his room and crib for quite a while!

Easter 2013 and an Easter basket for an 18 month old

 Better late than never! Easter 2013

A little disclaimer before I move onto Sammy's Easter basket: Easter is a very special holiday for us.  While the Easter egg hunts, bunnies, and new toys are fun,  we celebrate because Easter gives Christianity it's redemptive Grace.  Sitting down for a nice dinner with family and rejoicing in salvation is truly something very special.

This Easter was extra special because we had just found out our baby's gender and were excited to share the news with our family.  I had planned a fun gender reveal with gender specific candy in Easter Eggs and some gender specific frosted carrot cake cupcakes and then whomp whomp, Paul went and told the whole world who of course let it slip to our parents.  High five to the face Paul, thanks. 

Here's the little basket I had put together.  It's a GIRL!!

We made Sammy a simple Easter basket and filled it with a lot of fun toddler friendly items.

• A new book and ball from the target dollar spot
• New sippy cup (target sells these seasonal munckin cups with straws for $3, they are the best)
• Eggs filled with
• Goldfish
• Yogurt drops
• Animal crackers
• Socks

A few new outfits for summer

His big gift was a water table purchased at Costco.  This has been SO awesome to have on the deck.  It keeps him busy while I cook and he loves it.  I see many years of fun ahead with it.

 

Catching up with Sammy (17-22 months!)

I really wish I had kept up with these monthly posts.  Semi hard to believe that the last time I posted was March.  It snowed in March and now I'm sweating from every pore imaginable.  So much has changed in our family in such a short amount of time and I have to sometimes just sit back and think about how it's possible for time to seemingly fly and crawl at the same time.

I mean seriously: March 2013

June 2013

I've heard this said so many times, but if ever there was an age to bottle up these first few months in toddlerhood would be it.  What a little man you have become Sammy.  You are just a ball of love oozing with an exuberance to explore and enjoy life in a way I have never witnessed before.  We haven't really hit the tantrum phase or intentional bad behavior which makes all of the sweet innocence and seeing the world with eyes wide open just that much more magical as a parent to witness.  Seeing the mental transformation over the last few months is truly magic.  So many connections being made.  It makes me wonder how much of this knowledge was there just brewing and waiting to show itself.  Also, how frustrated you must have been wanting to do so much but being limited by your physical and mental strength

We should all love life like a toddler experiencing it for the first time:
Bubbles

Fairfax Corner fountain for the first time

 

This may have been when you finally stopped playing in the dirt.  Praise God!

 

You love walking in mommy and Daddy's shoes

 OBX for the first time: Late May 2013

I love you stop to smell the flowers Sammy!!  Never stop taking the time to love the simple things!

 At the Reston Zoo.  I think you liked the birds so much you wanted to eat them!

Your first popsicle

 

Your first baseball game!

 A lot of what has transpired over the last 6 months (eeeek, I suck at blogging!) should really be split over two posts since the first half of the last six months did have the last tinge of baby and now in it's place is a full blown toddler.  In the last month especially your verbal skills have exploded.  I'd say the final shift from baby to toddler really happened at the beach in late may.  Maybe it was the new environment and just the abundance of new experiences, but I also think it had a lot to do with having both Mom and Dad with you full time for almost two weeks.

Speaking of independence, there have been some bad smelling roses in this whole change of scenery from baby to toddler.  Unfortunately two of my favorite past times shopping and eating out are better enjoyed Sammy free.  Gone are our pleasant family of three dinners out.  You are fine for 20 minutes or so, but then you are over it and want to get down and find something better to do (my suggestion, chill out and enjoy the conversation little dude).  Suffice to say, most of our dinners are now cooked at home or carry out.  You also are becoming slightly picky.  I'm not talking about chicken nuggets  and waffles type of picky, I'm talking about gourmet type of picky which leaves me having to prepare you a hot fresh (non leftovers) meal.  A Totally frustrating 180 to watch your eager eater become picky when I'm the type of mom who hates to cook.  Good thing we have Daddy to the rescue.

But hey, what kind of Mom ends on a sour note:  I saved the cute Sammy tales for the end.

Here are some of the fantastically cute things you've done that I want to bottle up like fireflies on a summer night.

• You still nurse and boy nursing a toddler is cute.  You make sure everything you like is in it's place.  For example, you like to make sure I'm rubbing your hair just so.  If not, you take my hand and start moving it in a circular direction while you nurse. 

• You also have found another comfort object: your nose.  This started with you rubbing the top, then moved to rubbing the sides, and has now moved to you full blown sticking your finger in your nose for comfort.  If you are really tired, then both forefingers go into each side of the nose.  It is rather gross, but at least it doesn't cost me a fortune in braces or lead to any embarrassing middle school yearbook pictures for you.

• For a while, even though the pediatrician said you were right on track, I was really concerned with your vocabulary. The cute toddler girls in our lives are way more verbal, but around 20-21 months you just went through this amazing explosion in your vocabulary.  I had a feeling this was happening because you have this cue of broken sleep whenever some major milestone is about to happen.  The way you say the words are so adorable.  Some of the funniest are 
• Nana= nang nang
• Up=Airplanes.  You LOVE pointing these out.
• Choo Choo, your lips crack me up when you do this.  Full out like you are about to give a big kiss.
• If I happen to say one, you always say two, no matter what. 

• You also have impeccable teething timing.  We rarely go on vacation, but both times you have decided it a great time to start acutely cutting 5 teeth at the same time.  Glad that's over!  We only have one more set of molars to go!

• One thing that has really amazed me is how quickly you remember things and how many a time what you remember hasn't been said or done in quite some time.  For example, you watched me putting on lotion and then the next day you found the lotion bottle, sat down next to me, pulled up your pant leg and had me lotion you.  This has made getting sunblock on you a breeze!  You love your lotion time!

• Some other things you love to do is clean and cook!  Let's hope this trend continues.  Whenever you reach for the swiffer, you know I've attached a cleaning pad to the bottom.  Not going to waste an opportunity for some free child labor ;) 

Hope you enjoyed catching up with Sammy!

13, 14, 15 AND 16 months with Sammy!!

Happy 16 month birthday Sammy!  16 months!!  Wow, Mr. Man, you are a cute busy little man and I'm always loving you more than yesterday.  Crossing into toddlerhood has made you much more a little boy now than a baby.  It is amazing to watch your personality and imagination take form.  Month 15 into 16 marked the start of your defiance...fun, fun fun!!  Gotta love the offspring of two strong willed parents.

There is really one word that best describes you and that is cute.  Cute in your kindness, cute in your silliness, cute in your defiance, cute in the way you love certain foods, drink out of cups with those sweet little lips.  You are just CUTE!

 Over the last four months there have been lots of changes but they aren't as dramatic as wow, you can hold your head up, roll over, sit, feed yourself, crawl, walk.  You still have one big milestone to hit which is climbing but I'm not in a rush by any means for that!  I think in part the lack of really physical changes may have been why I wasn't sure whether or not I was going to continue with these monthly posts, but then around 13.5 months I started realizing how many funny, absolutely hilarious things you were doing and wanted to be able to remember them later down the road.  I'm caught off guard daily by the things you know and can pick up easily.

Here are a few of my favorite Sammy things from the last few months:

• You've learned how to blow kisses and use that as your key to say goodbye, even to strangers.  You even say the sound Mauh when kissing.  Melts my heart.

• You pick up the phone and start talking.  You even pick up things that resemble phones and start talking.  And boy do you talk.  You are very serious and engaged and have some really animated facial expressions when you're on the phone. 

I let you answer the phone for a telemarketer and the convo went like this: "Hi can I talk to Paul" "YEAH" silence.  Telemarketer asks again, Sammy louder which more toy clanging "YEAH"  This went on four or five times before the poor guy hung up.  Maybe because he knew he was talking to a toddler or maybe because he heard me cracking up in the background.

• You give and want the BEST hugs.  It is so endearing and wonderful.  I truly think your love language is touch.  You love to be close.

• I think you may have started to understand the concept of being gentle with Bailey, which means you are now better friends once again.  Unfortunately, the love of your life Romie the cat, you haven't quite mastered the pat gently technique.  That is still a love hate relationship.  You chase him around saying meow, meow, meow meow.  I word you learned from your favorite thing on tv, the meow mix commercial.  Seriously, your face lights up when you hear it and you sing it back in tune!!

• You are very clean, it is pretty awesome.  You like everything in it's place.  Even the toilet paper you attack as if you were a rabid cat.  Gets torn to shreds and then the pieces placed one by one into the trashcan. You even walk things over to the kitchen, open the cabinet where the trash is and throw them away.

• Keeping up with your cleaning trend, if I open the dishwasher you are there faster than Bailey comes to sound of his cookie jar opening.  You love to put all of your sippy cups back together and stack the plates for me.  The other day I was putting dishes away and found a paper plate you'd been playing with had ended up put away in the dishwasher.  It was even placed the way it should be. 

You also started celebrating the first of many seconds.  It is amazing to see the transformation year after year. 
Your second halloween

Second thanksgiving and Christmas: You absolutely LOVED Christmas this year.  Your favorite gift was your wagon from grandma and grandpa.  I can see a lot of memories being made with you in that wagon.

Second New Years

We did a bunch of fun local stuff during the Christmas Season.  The first was a trip to Frying Pan Park and the second was the Cox's Farm Christmas tree farm.  A great time was had and you got to visit Santa for the first time (for free!!).  I was happy to report you weren't at all phased by the big guy and Bailey even got to get in on the action too.

Sammy you are so loved!  Thank you for being the light in my life.  I will try to get your 17 month post up before you turn 18!