Fortunate Son

The tree has been shook! The good thing about this Christmas is that Sam does not know its Christmas. Sounds funny, but as many times as we told him that Santa was coming and bringing gifts, he really did not comprehend it. Not to say that the boy does not enjoy opening gifts! So, Christmas morning for us started around 7 AM when Sam got out of bed. Mommy and Grammie were waiting downstairs with baited breath for his arrival, and he made em wait. The first thing he ran for when he got downstairs was .....a cup. He was really excited about the cup too. He eventually warmed up and got into almost everything. He has to take all the paper off the gift before he says "wow". We opened everything and played with it all. He really loves the kitchen set that Santa brought and as soon as he figures out how to steer the Jeep, he will be big time. The little guy is really tuckered by this season as he has taken to sleeping in until 8 and taking 3+ hour naps. We are heading to Louisville this weekend to see Pop Pop and Grammy Re. Merry Christmas!

Dont look at my bum

This is Auntie Em and her new boots, I have removed the unauthorized portion of the photo....

Party at the Peters

Yes, yes tis the season. We just got back from a weekend excursion to Michigan to celebrate Christmas with Cheri's family. We flew up on Friday morning and Uncle Robbie and GrandPa picked us up at Flint International. The flight was uneventful as Sam is as Sam is a seasoned traveler and enjoys flying. There was little traffic at the airport and nobody at security when we left on Friday. On Saturday, all of Cheri's cousins, uncles and aunts came over for a family Christmas dinner and gift exchange. Sam had a great time playing with his cousins Andrew and Ryan all weekend long. Sam got a WHOLE bunch of gifts up there, his favorite part of opening the gifts was making sure every single piece of wrapping paper was off the box. His favorite part of the whole weekend was singing the ABC's at the top of his lungs at 6 AM both days. This made Auntie Em really happy. All in all we had a great time and it was great to see everyone up there. Merry Christmas.

Christmas Party!

Last night was our annual Christmas party. We have been doing this event since we got married 6 years ago. It is always a fun event and the invite list grows each year. Last year we started the tradition of inviting the kids and having Santa show up for a bit. Santa is a great sport and nobody has any clue it is the same guy they were just enjoying meatballs and crackers with. I am going to play Santa at Sam's holiday party on Thursday, should be fun. Anyway, this is always a hectic week for Cheri as she goes into max party planning mode. One of Sam and my responsibilities was to make the sugar cookies for the party. So on Thursday I made the dough when I got home and Sam and I made the cookies after dinner. He had the best time spreading the flour out on the counter and decorating the cookies with sprinkles. He kept chanting eat, eat throughout the whole process. Cheri did a great job with the party and everyone had a great time as usual. On a side note, my fantasy football team, the Amish Rake Fighters put up a great fight but will probably be bounced from the playoffs a week too soon. Thanks for listening.

Yet another singing video

Do you know that Sam loves to sing? Well he does! He has a wide range in his vocal ability, and has several tunes in his head. You should see him on the piano, its pretty cool. He can set up all the beats and tracks by himself and rock out. He also discovered a new trick, which you can see at the end of this video. He is quite the acrobat...only 11 more shopping days.

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Ho Ho Ho

Sam is really picking up on who Santa is and anytime he sees anything that resembles santa, he says Ho Ho Ho in his little voice. Today we took some Christmas photos in front of the tree and we actually got him to pose, which is tough to do. We also went over and played with Aidan and Evan during the football game. He is doing so good, in fact we missed his 6 month anniversary home with us. He loves school so much and even better, they love him. His speech is getting better and his therapist is working on pronouncing words correctly. He might as well be the posterchild for potty training. After graduating from Co Co's potty training bootcamp he has not looked back. We put a rubber sheet on his bed a week ago and he has not even tinkled a little bit. He is so casual about it all. He still loves his Mommy very much and if he could be surgically attached, he would.

Pic with Santa

Here it is.....

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Thanksgiving Weekend!

We have been busy around here! We stayed in town for Thanksgiving this year and we all went over to Courtney's moms house to have dinner with her family. All of the usual suspects were there and Sam got to enjoy his first Thanksgiving with all his friends. We were very thankful to have all these great people in our lives. Friday, Cheri got up super early and hit the black friday shopping which is her crazy tradition! Aunt Co Co called and since she wanted to go shopping too, I volunteered to watch all the childrens. So, Sam, Bella, Aidan, Evan and I partied our butts off with no supervision and gorged out on ice cream and pie.

Saturday was Uncle Joes birthday. We all went to the mall and saw Santa and the Cat in the Hat. Sam was a tiny bit scared of Santa, he did eventually warm up to him and did not look at all uncomfortable in Santas lap. We did not get much of a smile for the picture, but we did get a very cute one of Santa reading to him. He is stating to grasp the concept of Santa and what he does. He knows Ho Ho Ho very well. We spent the rest of the morning at the story time with the Cat, playing on the big food at Macarthur and eating pizza at Granby Street Pizza. Sam is growing so much everyday in so many ways, it is so fun to watch. The way he interacts with the other kids is fun to watch.

Today, I did my best Clark Griswold impression and hung the exterior lights on the house. It is a process that takes about 5 hours, pending burnt out light slowdowns. As of right now, all the lights are functioning and burning bright. Inside we were able to get all the Christmas stuff out of the attic and get the tree set up with all the lights. We will probably start decorating tomorrow or Tuesday. Sam is good at hanging the lower ornaments.

He is such a sweet kid and we can't wait to see the glow in his eyes this season.

Sams Weekend

Before the video below was taken, Sam was having a great weekend. Actually, those of you that know Sam, know that simply falling off a chair will not dent that kid. He can take a lump or two. Saturday night we went over to Kelseys house for her 3rd birthday party. There were a bunch of kids runing around and Sam jumped right in and ran around with them. Kelsey got a great little pink jeep and she took Sam out on the inagural ride. They laughed and laughed so hard, it was great to see. Santa might bring Sam one of these things, not in pink though. Christmas is going to be fun fun this year as we transiton from Father Frost to Santa Clause. Boy oh Boy....

No Kids were harmed in the filming of this video

Sam is a singer, he loves to sing, mostly at the top of his voice. Kid has a little Joe Cocker in him I think. Anyway, this morning I set out to catch some of this singing on tape and apparently singing makes him a bit woozy......

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School and other stuff

Wheee! We are having fun now....Mommy is in Memphis this week on a business trip, so its just Daddy and the boy for a few days. He started school on Monday and he is having the best time. The first morning he walked in and started playing right away and played all day until I picked him up. He cryed a little bit the other two days when we walked up the stairs to his classroom, but when he gets in, he calms down and gets down to business. All the teachers at school are great and they give us daily reports on his progress. He is also the potty champion with no accidents in at least 5 days. His teachers at school walk around and tell the other teachers how well he does on the potty. I know its crazy.....so tonight we went down to the Macarthur Center after school to play on the big pieces of food in the play area, have some dinner, get some winter clothes, and walk around the mall. He is becoming quite the independent walker. We got a call today and his speech therapy is starting on Firday morning and will continue once a week until January or as needed. We are very excited and Sam is too! He is the happiest kid when he comes home from school. Love that kid.

PS, no new pictures, so these are from the archives!

First Day of School!

Yes, tomorrow is Sam's first day of school. Well, yes I know its just pre-school and you get to take naps, but its still school! Mommie leaving for Memphis for 4 days and she is going to take Sam in the morning. We had to assemble all his school stuff which includes, a sheet and blanket, toothbrush and toothpaste, a bib, and two changes of clothes. He is doing very well using the potty, 100% today and oh 90% yesterday. He will be wearing the big boy pants tomorrow. He has changed so much just in the last two weeks alone. We really think the time he spent with Co Co really made a big impact. Tonight he and I went to Beth & Adam's house to watch the Patriots game with at least 15 other people. He had a great time chasing the kids around and an even better time chasing the kitty around. He is interacting very well with the other kids and you can tell by his belly laughs. Lately he has taken to naming all of the things he sees, such as Daddy, Mommy, Maggie, socks, shorts, juice and then points to himself and says Peter. If you ask him his name, he says Sam. Hopefully we will be able to put those two things together in the near future, or we might be calling the boy Pete. Love that kid.

Halloween!

So this is what its all about! So far in my 35 years I have not been on the "walking down the street collecting candy" side of the equation. That all changed tonight as we spent our first night walking the streets asking for candy from strangers! We went over to Joe and Co Co's for some pre haunting lasagne and salad. All of the ususal suspects were there to include, a pirate, a cheerleader, tinkerbell, Tom Brady, Wolverine from X-men, and a chicken. Sam was the chicken. Grammie joined us as well as G, who is the pirates, cheerleader, and Tom Brady's grandpa. We had a great time roaming the streets in the neighborhood. It did not take Sam long to figure out how to get candy. He stayed with the full chicken outfit for quite a while and then he said "all done" and off the suit came. He made sure to say bye bye to everyone that gave him candy and he loved to see the dogs at all the houses. Even better news was although he was wearing a diaper under his chicken suit, he came home dry! He is asleep now, and except for the ring pop he got, all his candy booty will be out of sight!

Petting Zoo

Yall, its ok to buy houses! Due to the market being a little slow around here, Sam and I had Daddy day today. We started our day by spending 2 1/2 hours at the car dealership while my car was worked on/repaired from the break-in. Kinda tough entertaining a 2 year old at a car dealership for 2 hours. Sam ended up test driving a Honda Pilot as well as the new Accord. He really liked the trunk room in the new Accord. The salesdude was really pushing all of the kiddy stuff on the cars, like cupholders and third row seating, for one kid? So, we finally got out of there and went to meet Mr. Dan, our accountant. Mr. Dan has a water cooler in his office and the spout was right at Sams level. In no time Sam was pouring us all cups of water. Carmen, Dans office manager trusted Sam enough to give him a pink highlighter! Must be the smile. So, after some hugs and kisses, we rolled out to meet Mommy for lunch. Lunch was fun and Sam ate more than his share. Co-Co called and said everyone was going to the farm and so Sam and I jumped on the train and went out to the petting zoo. He had a great time chasing around the chickens, goats, puppies, and the other kids. His favorite was a goat named Oreo. One last thing, Sam loves his Boston Red Sox hat that Uncle Joe gave him. He wore it all day today, including his nap and at last check, he wore it to bed. Love that kid.