5 years

I like how things can go crazy, and then God works making series of fortunate and unfortunate events still work out better than the original plan.

Our 5th anniversary is Friday (wow that was fast!), so is our SS Christmas party. We talked about it, and had decided to go to it and instead celebrate our anniversary on Saturday. I was thinking it might be better anyway since I'll be done with finals and recuperated from the past few weeks by then. We talked again and decided to wait a couple more days when we would be in Austin for the whole week before Christmas and my awesome in-laws can just watch Sam and we can just enjoy the time without watching the clock. [It's also going to be nice being able to relax as a family. Plus David was overseas and then in CO the first 10 days of December. He came back and I've been working on things for finals so it's almost like the entire month we've seen each other only in passing.]

The more I got to thinking about it, I realized David first asked me out at the New Years Party (close enough) for our then-Sunday School class The Junction. What first REALLY grabbed my attention about him was a certain pair of white elephant gifted Santa socks he had worn to church a week or two prior, just before Christmas. He sat a few rows in front of me and while I was already acquainted with him I thought, "any man that can wear those socks in public must really have some serious self-confidence." That's right, much to his chagrin a pair of socks won me over initially. We still have them. He gets to wear them on Friday. Unless they somehow disappear before then. ;)

The Director of our single-life class is actually now the Director of our current married life class The Gathering. Austin isn't where we met, but it was the first place we lived as a married couple. It will be fun to celebrate (at least to me!) on the actual day with our friends who we've known since the start of our relationship (and Sam since it's family friendly!!!) and then a few days later be able to take a trip down memory lane (lovingly known to me as W. 18th Street ;)) when we celebrate it just the two of us.

Thank you Lord for changing my plans.

Into the Woods...

In high school I was active in the drama department and my favorite part of the year was the musical.  My junior year we did "Into the Woods" and now every time we go to the Houston Arboretum the title song keeps rolling through my head.

"Woods" as Sam likes to call the place is a great favorite with us. There are VERY few places in Houston where you can go outside and feel like you don't live in a concrete jungle. This is one of them. It even smells like a forest there. Often we pack a lunch and hit a trail, any trail, and just roam for a few hours. Sam loves it. Last week we went with our playgroup and he had great fun being the tour guide. He paid special attention to Kennedy (who was at the end of our little string of Moms and kids) to make sure she was okay and keeping up. He definitely is starting to have a thing for pretty girls. This includes our sitter/nanny Amy (who he asks for all day. "Mama go sleep, wake up, AMY!") and fortunately, at least for the moment, Mommy. He's still very much the snuggle-bug he was as a baby. I always wonder if that's because I wore him, breastfed him, stayed home with him, etc., or if that was just his nature to start with. Hmm...

Dad has been very busy with work and I have been very busy with school. Sam has been busy with...jumping, trains, running, balls, cars, letters, numbers, words, sidewalk chalk, tickling, and pillow fights. He loves to be around other kids, make people laugh, and even more touching, he tries to comfort others who are sick or hurting. He loves church now and is getting more and more curious about the mysterious place called "school". His vocab has exploded and he is talking SO much more. This includes reasoning and of course the funny phrases that make you want to explode with laughter when you need to keep a straight face.

For example, we were taking Caspian for a walk and he broke away from my hand and took off. I took Sam home, then started trying to find him and round him up. I came back and as we were going up the stairs Sam said "D you make me CRAZY!" Gee, I wonder where he heard that.

We went to the Arboretum again Wednesday and Sam learned to cross the rope bridge. I had to help stabilize it, but other than that he did it all by himself! Here's some video of it....

Learning to cross:


Actually making it:

The Third Person

Last night Sam said his name for the first time. We've been trying to get him to do that for what feels like ages! He uses all the sounds necessary for other words so we knew he could do it, the little turkey just didn't feel like it I guess. Now he likes to say it, sometimes referring to himself in the third person. What a goofball. We got some video of it so I'll try and post it (along with so much else) soon. :) We took Sam to a giant train show last weekend and before that we did A Day Out with Thomas thanks to Nonnie and Bubbie. The boy LOVES his trains. I often get woken in the morning with him standing by the bed holding out Thomas and saying "TOOT TOOT" rather loudly.

Among his other achievements are being able to "read" all of his letters (U and W are causing a little trouble but we're working on it) and he can count to ten (but likes to exclude 6 and 7). Hide and seek is his favorite game, and he loves running, jumping...anything requiring movement! He's also started making sure I do not call him a "bay" (baby) he is a "boy".

All else is pretty static in our house: school, work, playing trains, occasional sleep. Sam got the kiddie tummy bug that's been going around but has recovered and is pretty much back to normal. David has a business trip this week so it's just Sam and I (and Miss Amy, thank goodness!) The next 2 weeks I've got several papers and exams so until Nov. 8th I'll be in a constant state of "AHHHHHHH!!!" and at the library as often as possible.

See you on the other side!

What is a Fish's Favorite Color?

Blue! At least, it is if you're a fish in one of the tanks at the Galleria...

Last weekend we took Sam to play there and stopped to look at the "Me-yo Ush" (Nemo Fish). David was wearing a bright blue shirt and the fish all gravitated towards him. We made him move to the other side and they did it again. And again. And again. Sam thought it was hilarious.

We went again on one of the super-humid-hot days this past week and I had a blue sweater with me and decided to see if it was David they liked, or the color. David is very attractive but they went gaga for the sweater too. Sam and I went over to a different tank and tried it there, same thing. Sam kept taking my sweater all around the tank; those fish needed a nap by the time we left I'm sure!

Sooo, either the folks that feed them wear blue, they are attracted to the color blue, or they really like members of the DeGroot family. I have plans for another test at the zoo sometime this weekend. Regardless, if you're in Houston, happen to be at the Galleria, and are wearing blue try it out. :)

Port A - The End

So here it is...the final Port A post for 2010. It's a little bittersweet - it was the last loose-end from our trip.  Sam is still asking for "pool beach", poor kid. Now it's really over...until next year! :)

I posted while we were there about Ava, Sam and I digging clams and watching them burrow. These next few  pictures are of that.

The beautiful, imaginative Miss Ava...

We had a surprise baby shower for two lovely ladies on Girl's Night. Somehow although Girl's Night was on Sunday we all managed to keep it a secret the ENTIRE weekend! Amazing.

The decor...

The "Brainiacs" and "Sexy Beach Bodies" (We played Taboo and those were our super-cool team names. The Brainiacs lost.)

The rest are from Monday morning before we left.

Sam and Archer had a great time playing while we were there. We had Sam's trains/track with us so between everybody's toys there was a lot of fun to be had. I missed getting a picture of our other roomies, the Prewitts. Their son Mason is very creative and probably enjoyed the trains more than anyone. This year we roomed with people I had never met so it was really great getting to know some new, sweet families.

This is Archer's "why are you suddenly getting camera-happy" face...

They played like I imagine brothers would...

Sam on the balcony giving me his smoldering look. Aunt Sissy told me that when David was younger he would give her this exact look when she told asked him to do something he wasn't sure he wanted to do. How fitting, I had just told Sam he HAD to stay on his bottom.

Sweet smile...

David was wonderful and did all of the car-loading. Sam and I stayed inside and just played with the camera.

We had a wonderful trip and can't wait for next year! It'll definitely be great not to have to study while I'm there ;)

Port A - Part B

Dad putting the "John Hampton" necklace on Sam.

Pico and Jonesie

This is the obligatory family shot I make David and Sam take. A candid, not-facing-the-sun, picture actually turned out better than....

The say cheese, facing-the-sun picture. Oh well.

The 2010 Port A Everybody shot

How many parents does it take to get a shot of all the kids?

Here's what Sam thought of the whole process...

And what we ended up with...the usual photo of [insert # of kids] crying children :)

The annual toddler race. We thought for sure Sam would at least be in the running this year, especially since running is just about all the boy does.

But as you can see Macy won by leaps and bounds, followed by Matt and Josh. Like last year Sam sort of teetered off to the side. He's fast, he just didn't care.

And then it kicked in and he won the congeniality prize. Most of the kids kept running back and forth having race after race. Sam just never really got into it. Next year I'm sure he'll leave everyone in the sand dust!

What do you do with 50+ sandy Longhorns and their kids? Throw them into the pool! Going to the beach, hosing off and then jumping in the pool is the standard flow of the days we spend there. Food and sleep are thrown in there somewhere too :)

Port A - Part A

I read an article recently that discussed a research study that found multitasking actually helped students to retain more information and perform better. So, in an attempt to improve my American Political Thought paper on Lockean institutions here is the first part of our annual UT Port Aransas trip! :)

These aren't exactly in order....

We always stay at La Mirage, and Allison Brown magically makes it all happen. She literally takes care of everything. Thanks Al!

This was our setup, the tents provided shelter from the sun, rain and toddler's flinging sand...most of the time.

As usual, moving sand around was a primary occupation while on the beach, as were silly faces.

Sports were played....

Massive trenches were dug...

The kids watched Finding Nemo Friday because it decided to pour buckets on buckets of rain. They all loved it. Finding Nemo (or Me-yo as Sam calls it) is his current favorite movie so he was super-excited. I think it rained every day that we were there, but most of the time it was during nap time and didn't spoil our fun! :)

The Condo's have a playground and Sam went down backwards for the first time after watching Brooke do it. I don't think he's gone down the "normal way" since. The playground was a nice backup for when it was raining. It's always a big hit.

The Dismount.

Something about Sam in this picture makes him look very grown up to me, I'm not sure why. 

The Clam Show

We're having a great time in Port Aransas with all of our proud, burnt-orange, longhorn friends. I'll do a picture and sum-up post in a few days but this morning had to have been one of the best times we've had. Ava R. and I were sitting in the waves with pitchers full of sand and seawater catching clams and watching them burrow down. We must have been at it for at least an hour. At some point I finally got Sam to come over and he started calling it "show!" and asking for "more show!" The name "show" caught on for all of us and now when he asks to go to "Beach...Pool..." we've added "Show!" to the list of things he wants to do. Ava and I already have a clam-catching date for next year. So precious! :)

Be Careful Little Mouth What You Say

When you have kids you expect to have to make adjustments. Lots of them. I expected to have to watch my words and actions but no one is perfect, least of all me. One of Sam's myriad changes the past few weeks is saying "Nice" after he does something bad, messy, wrecks his trains, etc. In this case it was smooshing banana all over himself and his car seat on our way home one morning. Clearly a no-no. It didn't take me long to trace that back to my saying "nice" (only more drawn out and dripping with sarcasm) frequently when David, Sam or I do something accidentally that is messy, etc. Wow. And ouch. Since then this old sunday school song has been running through my head the past few days:


O be careful little mouth what you say

O be careful little mouth what you say

For the Father up above

He is looking down in love

So, be careful little mouth what you say

There's another Christian song I've heard on the radio, I'm not sure by whom, that incorporated this same song but the verse about "be careful little feet where you go" because your little one's feet aren't far behind your own. As Sam grows up into his own little person I'm seeing that more and more. Lord help me!

David's Trips

David has a website: daviddegroot.net. This is where he puts up pictures and blogs (not sure this is the right word) about his trips. It's also where stuff that is pre-Sam like our honeymoon, his year in Japan and other things are.

You can read about and see pictures from his recent trip to Jordan, Israel and Palestine here.

This Week...

This Week with Samuel Stegosaurus...

At just over 37" he might be as tall as George Stephanopoulos! :) He's had a few growth spurts over the summer and I'm hoping he'll hold off getting too big for his summer clothes until just after summer ends.

It's been one of those weeks where all of a sudden you start to see a hundred changes all at once. Maybe it was more pronounced because this has been a sort of transition week for us. I started school again Monday (after a summer break of one whole week) and since I finally ran out of classes I could take at night and online I have to be at school Monday through Wednesday by 4. We lucked out and a MOPS friend had a nanny that we were able to use. We LOVE Ms. Amy! Sam does too, thank goodness, and that's made it a lot easier for me since my head isn't in two places at once like I had expected it would be.

Another change is that his verbal skills have suddenly astronomically improved. We're getting whole sentences and so many new words I've lost track. If he's not caught up to other boys his age he's got to be close. The one thing we can't get him to say though is his name. We're not expecting "DeGroot" to come out anytime soon but he says lots of things harder than "Sam". When pressed he either flat out refuses or says his name is "Train." Nice. After I got a birthday box from my Mom last week he started calling her "Mama-Mama" when I told him the stuffed Loch Ness monster that Mama's Mama had sent was for him. It seems to have stuck as her nickname supplanting Gigi. We'll see if it sticks or not, but we think it's adorable.

His cognitive abilities never cease to amaze us...he doesn't seem to forget much of anything. His comprehension is also very good. The other day in response to an either-or type question he said "both" and meant it. I had no idea he had stuff like that knocking around in his little head!

Sam has also really started to develop his personality. He's VERY funny and loves making us laugh. He's a ham for everyone really. He's started having pretend conversations with his trains on a little plastic fake phone. (So cute!) He's a little OCD when it comes to his trains or cars; he remembers exactly where he put them on the track and if they move even a hair he flips out and moves it right back, but his sharing overall has improved by leaps and bounds. He also loves to help us whether it's cooking or cleaning.

His new favorite game to play is hide and seek, known to Sam as "One, Two." He prefers to be the one hiding, but we're having to work on learning to change hiding spots. Right now he hides under his bed, the table, etc., and when I find him he just says "More one two!" and curls up in the same spot again. Silly boy. I've started counting in the spot he hid in and assigning a new room to him to go hide in, hopefully that lesson will stick without me having to say anything. He knows how to count objects up to about three, though we were reading a "Five little monkey's" book the other day and he said, "One, Two, Twee, Oy, PIE!!!"

This boy LOVES desserts, hence pie instead of five I suppose, but lucky for me he also loves chips and salsa. We're working on getting him to eat veggies, he'll eat fruit with total abandon, and is really starting to enjoy meat more.

We've got lots of pictures and video to post of our summer, but since it's super late I'm going to stop here and likely come back and revise things tomorrow. Nighty night!

Father's Day, Early and Late

David went to Jordan/Israel for about 10 days this month, I've been suffering from school-brain and so for some reason I thought Father's Day fell on the 13th, while he was gone. Sam and I even packed our cards in his suitcase. Oops. But I'm happy we ended up having Daddy home for the occasion.

I meant to post these pictures on Father's Day, for Father's Day, but naturally it's only just now getting done.

It's hard to think that it's already the second Father's Day we've celebrated, Sam has grown SO much. Here are the boys dozing together 2 years ago:
And here they are now:
David, you really are an amazing Dad. You always have energy to "Co-Co Duck" with Sam, even when I know you're tired. You clean the kitchen, take out the trash, walk Caspian, play trains, build with Lego's, change diapers and SO much more without my even asking (or often saying please or thank you :S). You go to work for us, play with us, take care of us, serve us, support us, are patient with us (err, me...) and love us so unconditionally. I can't imagine a better father for Sam (or a better husband!) WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

A little behind...

I can't believe it's been nearly two months since I posted anything. The Reader's Digest version of the last 2 months goes something like this:

Between May and June David will have spent ~4 weeks overseas.

The spring semester of school ended, I made the Dean's List again but my grades weren't totally what I wanted although I do feel I got the grade I earned. I'm getting school burn-out. Bad. The summer semester is already started so things are pretty much the same there.

And now the update on the one people check the blog for :)

Sam had another growth spurt and is now 35.5". He wears a 9 for shoes and has nearly outgrown his 4-5T socks. We're half-heartedly working on potty training but that will get serious when he and I get back from a visit to my in-laws this week. His language is very much improving and so is our comprehension of what he is saying. Lots of multiple word phrases are starting to come as well as unprompted "Please"s and "Thank You"s. Yay! He loves being outdoors and at the pool but doesn't understand why he doesn't get to go in the deep end alone. I converted his crib to a toddler bed tonight and then realized after I finished and was looking at the instructions that they say the bed isn't for kids over 35". Great. Yet another thing outgrown.

He still loves his trains, planes and cars most. Sam also LOVES puzzles and can do 24 piece puzzles with ease, they're actually getting too simple for him. I got a lenticular Cars puzzle the other day thinking the shifting image might make for more of a challenge...nope. He can recognize pretty much every capital letter and say it aloud properly. K, Q, X & W are the holdouts. He knows how to count 1 & 2 but won't count higher if there are more than two things he's counting he says "One Two One Two..."

It's late so that'll do for now, right? I'll try and get pictures/video up soon!

Easter Weekend

Finally I made some time to get our pictures from Easter weekend up, along with a short video. We went to Liberty Hill to see David's family and it was a great weekend. The key feature of the weekend...the leaves...obviously. :)

Daddy and Sam swinging...

Cool, leaves!



Nonnie obligingly kept raking leaves into piles for Sam to leap into.

All dressed up on Easter morning
So what does a frog wear to church? A frog of course! [And apparently a cowlick...]
This may be my favorite picture from the whole weekend. He's getting his 2-yr. molars so we have A LOT of pictures of Sam with his hand in his mouth.

Twee, Ow & Sam - we were so glad that Aunt Sisi, Uncle Tod, Tori & Alee were able to join us for Easter Sunday at the very last minute! Sam ADORES his cousins and loves playing with them.

Easter egg hunt!


And more leaf throwing...the weather all weekend was gorgeous and we spent as much time outside as we possibly could. We even ate our Easter lunch outside on the porch. It was just too nice out not to enjoy it.


What I wish I had caught on video was David sneaking up behind Tori, pulling her legs out from under her making her faceplant in the leaf pile. She was SO surprised and we were all rolling with laughter...

Boys are gross!

This morning as I was eating my breakfast Sam asked for a bite. Nice mommy that I am, I shared my cereal and it looked like he was leaning over for a kiss. He's very affectionate and so it isn't out of the ordinary for him to lean over and give me a kiss...it's also not uncommon for me to have my mouth open when I'm about to take a bite of food.

I was expecting it to land on my cheek but Sam instead proceeded to give me a very boyish kiss: he stuck his mouth on mine then quickly (and deliberately) transferred his chewed up bite of cereal to my mouth. EEEEWWWWWW!!!!!

The reason I know it was premeditated was that he fell over laughing afterward. Little scamp.

Under the Sun

I've spent the greater part of the weekend trying to form a backbone for a relatively short paper (8-10 pgs) that really should only take about a day to write. For some reason I'm one of "those people" who want to do more with their schoolwork than just the bare minimum. It's for one of my political theory courses so all I need to do is write about one of the theorists we've covered in the course (Hayek, Marx, Locke...), or one of the concepts (conservatism, liberalism, freedom...). It could be as simple as a book report, but I realized after I checked 17 books out of the library (not all at once!) and culled about 20 articles from JSTOR that what I was actually trying to do was be original. I want to have a hypothesis or just plain thesis that is my own and not just "a mediocre copy of another man's genius." It really does feel like there's nothing new under the sun and that I'm just banging my head against the wall. What on earth would someone like me be able to posit that 100s of other people hadn't said 100s of times before. Especially for an assignment so minor. Why am I still trying?

You'd think that being married with a Sam would make me want to just do the bare minimum that will get me out of school as fast as possible, but that's not what I'm finding at all.

A Wee Rant...

I'm beginning to think David's office is trying to find an equation for how much interference there can be before I get B's instead of A's. I'M KIDDING!!! I love his coworkers, he loves his job, (Even I love his job! I worked there a few weeks when I was pregnant with Sam...) but he'll have been out of town for every exam I've taken in my hardest class. Oy! It's really just a series of unfortunate events, and he's getting to go some awesome places...so maybe the real bur in my saddle is jealousy ;)

February he was in Saudi Arabia at KAUST, in March he went to CO for 2 days and came home very late the night I had an exam, and during finals week he's headed to Istanbul for his new project. That's right, my darling, precious turkey will be in Turkey when I'm taking my last exam. Don't worry though, he'll be home the day after!

I registered for summer classes today. 2 online over the entire summer and one during the day Mondays and Wednesdays from 10-12 in the 2nd summer session starting July 6th. David received a grant to go to Jordan/Israel for a few weeks in June, so I'm glad I was able to plan around it. Again with the jealousy. Hmm, that's not one of the fruits of the spirit :S

In other news, Easter was fantastic. My Sisi-in-law and her family decided to come down from Lubbock at the last minute and Sam got some good play time in with "Ow" and "Twee". [And I got good pictures/video!] I'll try and put the new pictures up soon.

Stats

Sam had his 2-year well-check this morning. Here are his stats:

Weight: 28 lbs (50%)
Height: 35" (75%)
Head circumference: 18.5"
BMI: 16-0
Shoe size: 8.5

That's right. He's huge.

Dr. C gave him rave reviews, noting that his teeth were very well spaced and that from the looks of it he'll be one of the lucky ones who should have enough room in his mouth for his big boy teeth. Bad for the orthodontist, good for Mommy and Daddy! [I had no idea they checked the space between teeth...good thing we brushed before we went!] His vocabulary is still below where it should be but even to Dr. C it was notably improved. His range might be small but he's very confident in what he does say, Dr. C had no trouble getting him to answer simple questions.

If any of you don't have kids, let me just say that once you do, having the Dr. check them every now and then is SO reassuring...especially with the increasing rates of Autism, Aspergers, etc. It's always a blessing to hear you have a laid-back, healthy, happy, social little guy - all things parents of disabled children may never, ever have.

Dinosaur Train

Sam gets to watch a couple of 'toons in the morning, Dinosaur Train and Sesame Street, to help him with his language development. It seems to be working...he is pretend counting/spelling things and trying new sounds. Yay!!! Mama finally isn't "Dada" any more, I'm "Baba". Sometimes he gets confused and says "Dada Baba" or vice versa but most of the time he gets it right. Last night before bed David and I went through the ABC's with him, he does try to say most of the letters which is great. But by the time we got to 'j' I was stifling laughter and by 'r' controlling it was hopeless. It's just too cute!

He's always liked dinosaurs and today he found Daddy's "Dinosaur Encyclopedia" and had a blast looking at all of the pictures. I tease him about being an Ornithomimus, according to Dr. Scott (or is it Steve?) on Dinosaur Train they were very fast and ran all the time, just like Sam. I found it in the encyclopedia and showed him. It'll be a sad day when he finally realizes that dinosaurs didn't actually ride on trains. Here is our conversation.

Sam: [Growl noise]
Baba: Here YOU are Sam, ornithomimus. They run very fast and all the time.
Sam: Toot-Toot
Baba: [laughing] Does ornithomimus ride on the Dinosaur Train?
Sam: Oh Yeah.

Mr. Brown

Sam is starting to really get into making more of the noises for Dr. Seuss' "Mr. Brown Can Moo Can You?" This is really more for Daddy than anyone, but if anybody else wants to watch Sam be a ham for 8 minutes here ya' go:

Oh Sam

I had a hard time putting Sam to bed tonight...he was VERY keyed up. Obviously tired, but very worked up. Anyway, he kept getting down from the bed where I was attempting to read him a story and going and bringing back various toys I had brought for him. (We're at my Uncle's house in Katy so that they can watch him during my exam tomorrow.) Mostly he was just getting more of his books and trains, but when he tried to bring the tracks too, I had to draw the line. Then he slapped me so I tucked him under one arm, carried him off kicking and crying, and thunked him down in the pack n' play without toys or books, prayers or songs and left. He cried for awhile, maybe 5-10 min. and then all was quiet.

I gave it a little while longer and then went to check on him...he had escaped the pack 'n play and was up on the big guest bed stretched out sideways fast asleep. I think he's officially outgrown it :S

I wish I had the camera with me...it'd be a cute picture. This is the best I could do with my cell phone, I had to turn a lamp on and I'd already moved him into a little nest...