Welcome Baby Macie, my new niece/cousin!

Yesterday I got the joy of meeting my new niece and 1st cousin, once removed (I think) Macie Ann! She is chubby and beautiful and looks nothing like her sister Maddie! Congratulations Brooke and Jon! I love her already!

Our new favorite Sam thing

Yesterday in the car Matt said to the boys "who wants to go to the children's museum!?" Right after Jake said "I DO!" Sam raised his hand straight next to his head and said "I DEW!" It was the cutest thing, so of course since then we ask as many "who.." questions as possible to get him to say it. We set this one up right when Matt was taking them swimming. You can see Jake is totally over us saying it, although he has been a trooper playing the game right along with us and loving it. To continue the "Sam blog" entry, since I always have stories about Jake, I will share other cute latests of Sam. His favorite passion in life, besides swimming and being a total maniac in the pool, is reading. He will bring books to me and go from insistent to angry if I don't drop what I'm doing immediately and READ! He will pull my legs away from the sink area when I'm washing dishes. When he's sitting in my lap waiting for me to get started he even starts to shake until I begin reading and then his body calms down. It's SO strange! If I lift my head from the book to talk to Matt or Jake he will pull my neck downward so my eyes go back on the page! Sound familiar, Mom? (rumor is I used to control my mom's head too to get her attention) A funny thing he does when I'm laying on my back is he'll strattle my chest, stomach or even neck to sit vertically. He may have a book in his hand, facing backward or if he faces forward he starts bouncing really hard and saying "trot!" or "bronco!" (two songs I do where they bounce on my lap) As soon as Sam knows a meal is coming, or he thinks it should be, he ups the volume to a scream. He reaches into the sippy cup and bowl drawer to hand me the proper diningware needed, which apparently he assumes is the only thing holding me back from getting him the food or drink. He also scales his highchair and hangs from it while screaming at me. It's good times. Lots of screaming and demanding. Speaking of climbing, in the last week he has climbed out of his crib and up to the second shelf (above 3 cupboards)of the linen closet. He also climbs onto the kitchen table and chairs, Jake's top bunk but in all cases gets stuck and fortunately asks for help so far. His language has exploded lately. His vocabulary is great which makes communicating a lot easier. He mimics everything we and his brother say (greaaaat). The funniest this week has been, of course the "I do" and then he took a sip of water and smiled and said "tasty!" Because of his obsessant reading he knows just about every animal in all his animal books. He likes to add an "e" sound to the end of several words like hugy, kissy, jumpy, milky. My last Sam favorite to mention is his elbow. When he is climbing up, out or even down, he shouts "ELBOW! ELBOW!" This started with him learning how to climb out of the pool in his swim lessons at Hubbards. We teach "elbow, elbow, tummy, knee). The other funny elbow thing is whenever he gets excited, especially when he runs, he tightens his left shoulder, tucks his left arm, bent and runs or jumps or whatever he's doing that's exciting. SO CUTE! He's a real joy to this family! . . . By the way, if you check Jake out in the background of the video and then as it ends he shouts "Mommy," that's because he just realized he has pockets in his swim trunks (he was thrilled). Random.

Blog-worthy Jakey-isms

Jake is obsessed with Lyndee's husband Michael playing guitar for him, to the extent that it is all he talks about with him, and Jake will find the guitar in their home and drag it across their house to Mike so he can play for him. Recently Jake had an on-going scab on his nose because he picks and doesn't let his owies heal. Jake said to Mike, "Do you know any bandaid songs?" A few minutes later he would NOT go potty before we left, but knowing just where to get encouragement, he asked Mike, "do you know any pee songs?" to which Mike strummed his guitar, made up a toon, and Jake dropped his drawers and peed!
The next few have to do with his recent attention to physical traits, especially mommy's :)...
I was leaning back on the couch and my shirt was pulled up a little bit. Jake stuck his finger a few times in my belly and said, "you have cheese in your belly."
Pointing to my heel, he said, "mommy, your feet are cracked!"
Grabbing his hair in frustration he said, "mommy, I don't want all this hair, it's killin' me!" (Amy, no comment!)
In the car he noticed my attempt at a new hair-do and said, "mommy, you have funny blonde hair" (not sure where the blonde part came from)
After I successfully swatted a fly and said "YES! Got it!" Jake responded sympathetically, "mommy, that fly deserves". I said, "deserves WHAT!?" J: "deserves to fly." Surprising from the kid who's usually on board to kill the boogars.
Me: "Jake, you woke up twice last night, what was going on?"
Jake: (shrugging his shoulder and talking non-chalantly), "I dunno, every day is different."
In the pool...
Jake grabbing the pool net beginning to lower it in I said, "Jake, go put the net down against the wall." Jake:"I want to scoop the dirt. I'm an expert scooper."
Refusing to rollover for a breath (as usual) while swimming, Jake pops his head up and says, "ayudame!" (thank you, Diego and Dora!)
We were reading from his bible the story of Samson, and how he got his strength from his long braids, and when the Philistines cut them off, he lost his strength. Before Jake let me finish the story he interrupts, grabbing his hair and says with his serious face, "but mom? When I am tied up with strings, I'm still strong, even with my hair cut."
And finally, my favorite was today, 5 minutes after I put him down for his nap, he shouts from his bed in a very concerned and serious voice, "MOM! Why am I taking a nap!? This doesn't make sense!" (He was asleep within 60 seconds of that statement)