Would You Like More Hay?

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There’s something a little bizarre about a traveling petting zoo. But, obviously, I didn’t pass along those feelings to Sam. We attended a party this past Saturday that included a petting zoo. Sam spent 2 hours (minus the time that he spent negotiating and eating cookies) with the animals trying to get them to eat the hay that he had removed from the hay bail. He would follow the animals around shoving (in a gentle manner…mostly) the food in their face. Of course, none were interested but that didn’t stop him from trying.

The biggest attraction was a baby goat that was born in the back of the trailer on the way to the party. We weren’t allowed to touch her, but it was amazing to watch her walk around at only 2 hours old. Now that’s an amazing delivery!

Carrots Rock!

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Ben started solids a few weeks ago. So far he doesn’t have a favorite food because he loves them all.

The Soccer Team

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More soccer fun

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Mike, Deta & Dabo (fresh from Army graduation) came out to support Sam during his soccer game today. We had such a great time and appreciate them take time out on a weekend to watch a bunch of 3-year-olds kick the ball around.

Goal!

Sam steals the ball (from his own teammate…oops) for his first goal of the soccer season.

Mom, please stop...

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Our family & friends have accepted that I’m always going to have a camera on hand and will try to take a picture at some point during the gathering. Most of them actually welcome it now. But Sam’s not one of them. I haven’t been so good about taking photos over the past few weeks so I tried to capture a few moments between the boys this afternoon. After about 30 minutes of me following him around, sticking the camera in his face, Sam had enough and covered his face saying, “No Mommy No”. Okay Sam…I get the point. I’ll give you the rest of the day off but I can’t promise anything about tomorrow.

Where's Ben?

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Just a Swinging

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Though he’s a little too small, we’ve started putting Ben in the bucket swing at the park. He loves it & it’s great to have somewhere besides the stroller and our arms to put him! The only problem is that Sam has now abandoned the appropriately sized big boy swing so that he can swing next to baby brother.

Another M&M, please

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I should have written this a month ago, but parenting got a little easier in early January when Sam potty trained himself. One morning (at the very end of December) Sam decided he wanted to wear his Thomas underwear that we had purchased a few months prior. We were thrilled and told him that he would receive 2 M&Ms for each successful trip to the restroom. After a few stressful days (and one incident of peeing in the park), he was deemed potty trained.


Looking back, the only thing I regret is not keeping count of how many M&Ms he has eaten. It's definitely in the hundreds!

Thanks Sam for only making us change one set of diapers each day! You ROCK!
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Toothless Smile

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For the past two days, Ben has been unusually fussy. We assumed the worst…that he was getting sick. But this afternoon, I discovered that Ben’s first tooth has arrived!

But I love my house

Scott believes that looking at houses is a spectator sport. And now that we are a family of 5 (don’t get any ideas…I’m including Sadie in this count) our house is getting smaller and smaller by the minute.

We’ve been doing our “research” by looking at tons of houses in neighborhoods all over Houston. By the end of most weekends, we’ve picked up multiple house flyers while driving to and from places. Sam has now gotten actively involved in the process by pointing to houses and saying “that house is cute”.

Tonight on our way home from dinner, Scott asked Sam if he wanted to move to a house closer to Sean (his BFF). Sam was very excited about this prospect and wanted detailed information on how we would move our house over there. Of course, we immediately laughed at how literal he is and tried to explain that our current house would stay on W Cottage Street and we would move to a new house. Sam was quiet for a minute and then VERY sadly expressed, “but I don’t want to move”.

So, I guess we’ll continue the house search (and hang out very closely together in our tiny bungalow) until we can convince our 3-year-old that a new home isn’t the end of the world.

Coach - We're not interested in playing soccer!

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Soccer was a bit chaotic this morning. The schedule had team pictures at 7:45am followed by a short practice and playing time at 9am. But by 8:45 we had twenty uninterested, cranky children. Aunt Deta came out to support Sam and her arrival was the only reason that Sam decided to spend 2 minutes playing soccer. During this time he did travel the soccer ball all the way down the field, past the goal and onto an adjacent soccer field where Scott said he was trying to score a goal. The rest of the time, Sam and Sean ate snacks, drank water, wrestled, ran around off the field and played on the playground. Hopefully, we’ll have more focus next Saturday. If not, at least they’re having fun!

Cuties

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Here come the Tigers!

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Sam had his first soccer game at the Weekley YMCA this past weekend. His team (the Tigers) practiced for 30 minutes and then played the opposing team (the Dolphins) for the next 30 minutes. It was so cute to see all the 3-year-olds in their matching uniforms chasing the ball around. Sam’s team won the game thanks to two older kids who must have practiced a lot in the off-season!

Once we left the YMCA, Sam refused to take off his uniform for the rest of the day. And though he didn’t score any goals in his first game, every time someone asked how many goals he scored he said “a whole bunch”.

If anyone’s looking for something hilarious to watch on a Saturday morning, here’s a link to their schedule:

http://www.quickscores.com/Orgs/ResultsDisplay.php?OrgDir=weekleyymca&LeagueID=83580