Pictures

 I love the look on his face.

At the Magic House for Noontime New Year's Eve. 

We all promptly got the stomach flu after this. Happy New Year!

 One stop on our trip to Phoenix.

 At the ghost town near Phoenix.

He stayed outside in the snow fewer than five minutes. 

Not a fan of being cold.

Christmas Pictures (Yes, I realize it's late February)

I knew Sam would freak out, so I didn't even try.

He wears this shirt constantly. 

I hope he's always so excited when I buy him shoes. 

The State of Sam (at 15 months)

Height: 32.5 in. - 95th percentile
Weight: 26 lbs. 8 oz. - 95th percentile
Head circumference: 47.5 cm - 75th percentile

Sam is all floaty blond hair and blue-gray eyes that everyone always comments on. He's getting that mischievous toddler nature and will look back at me and giggle before he does something he's not supposed to.

Sam is trying to keep up with his big brother. He's confident in his walking, so he's speeding things up, which results in a lot of falling. But sometimes he's just standing there not moving at all and suddenly he'll be on the floor. I always say, "The Earth moved so he fell."

Sam's favorites right now include bananas, opening and closing the microwave, climbing the stairs, playing in the toy kitchen and reading Sandra Boynton books.

Sam is dancy! He flaps his chubby hands and moves his chubby feet along to the alphabet and counting songs that stream from his toys constantly. Even in the grocery store he'll bob up and down in the cart when he hears a song he likes. It's delightful, since Ben had absolutely no interest in dancing at this age. Sam and Avery will cut a rug together.

Sam is snuggly. Sometimes we'll be playing and he just comes up and gives me a hug. And when he's tired he pops his thumb into his mouth and lays his head on my shoulder.

Sam is independent. He wanders around the house and plays by himself like a champ. After SUPER-CLINGY-I-NEVER-WANT-TO-BE-AWAY-FROM-YOU Ben, it's a breath of fresh air. But if he hears the dishwasher open he comes runnin'.

Sam takes a while to warm up to new situations. He has to survey everything and get the lay of the land before he dives in.

Sam is smiley, silly, go-with-the-flow and happy. He'd fit right in at a Jimmy Buffet concert.

Ben and Avery dancing

This video is a few months old, but I just cleaned a ton of videos off my phone, including this one. It's too cute not to share:

Cousins

As a reward for reading about Thanksgiving and puking in the same post:

We are family

We've never been all that close to our extended family. We see our grandparents and a few aunts and uncles, but for the most part I don't know any of my cousins. Which is why it's so exciting to me that Ben and Avery (and any future cousins) get to grow up together. It's an opportunity my brothers and I didn't have and it's going to be fascinating for me to watch how it unfolds.

So last Wednesday Ben and I visited Bekah and Avery.We went to the playground near their house. After some swinging and sliding Ben had a snack of Goldfish. Avery was just chilling in her stroller, but as Ben was eating he leaned in and tried to share a Goldfish with her. Of course we had to explain that she can't eat Goldfish yet, but it was the cutest thing ever...

UNTIL Avery was having a little down time on her activity mat. Ben noticed, said, "Sleepy," and then crawled under there with her and laid down.

Yeah, this is going to be fun.

Thomas, Thomas, everywhere

With Ben's and Avery's births, our family now has a streak of birthdays at the end of August through September. Between August 23 and September 14 there are four: Avery, my dad, Ben and then me. For various reasons, this year Ben actually had three separate birthday celebrations, the last one of which, his playgroup party, was yesterday. Have you ever thrown a party for 10 kids between the ages of 0 and 3? If so, then you know why I heaved a sigh of relief when the party was over. Finally I could take down the Thomas the Tank Engine decorations. Finally we were done with birthdays for a while. Then I realized my birthday party is on Saturday and it just sort of made me feel tired. However, I quickly remembered that my wonderful in-laws will be hosting Ben over night so I can enjoy my birthday celebration to the fullest. Hooray for in-laws!

Speaking of Thomas the Tank, we are now a fully Thomas household. For his birthday Ben got Thomas pajamas, a Thomas shirt and shorts, a Thomas bath toy, a Thomas train holder, a bunch of track and no fewer than a dozen Thomas and friends trains. I also managed to find him a Thomas Halloween costume. Thomas goes in the car everywhere and even into the crib at night. The craziest thing is that Ben's never even seen the TV show. He learned about the trains only from visiting friends' houses and playing with them at several children's museums around town.

So, I think Ben's 2nd birthday has been celebrated enough. Now it's time to round out the streak and celebrate my 30th!

Meeting of the minds

Last night was the first time Ben met Avery. Of course Avery was as charming as can be, but when Bekah held her up for Ben to see he took a look at her and said, "Go outside!" Apparently he wasn't impressed.

A little later I held him while my dad held Avery and he was a bit more interested. He touched her tiny toes and he kept saying, "Baby!" He can also say, "Avy," because we've been working on it for months.

Right before we left I held Avery. When Ben stopped chasing the dog and noticed he freaked out a little. He said, "Milk! Milk! Go outside! Home! Home!" I'll say anything to get you to pay attention to me! So, overall it went pretty much as I expected.

The other exciting event of the evening was that Ben finally said, "Uncle Ian." He's been saying "Aunt B" for months, but we couldn't get him to say Ian, which naturally frustrated Ian a bit. But at dinner we were treated to a chorus of "Uncle Ian, Uncle Ian, Uncle Ian."

The kicker is that when Ian said, "Can you say Uncle Nick?" Ben said it right away.

I will always have gum

I pulled my first all-nighter in a looooong time last night. But, it resulted in this:

Avery Geneva was born 8/23/10 at 3:48am. She was 7 lbs 13 oz and 21.5 in. Bekah had roughly eight hours of labor and did awesome. I was so glad to be there to support her the way she's supported me. Ian was a total champ. He was a wonderful partner and didn't show any nerves the whole time.

Both Bekah and Avery are doing wonderfully. She looks like Bekah's grandfather! Genetics are crazy things. I'm so excited to be an aunt! She's an adorable little girl and it's going to be great watching her and Ben grow up together.