Annual Santa Pic

Another annual chat with the jolly old elf. twitter.com/leftymama/stat…

— leftymama (@leftymama) December 16, 2012

Autumn 2010

At Grandma's family reunion in Pasadena, TX.  Fun day of BBQ, bounce house, swings, cousins, and fly-overs from the nearby air show at Ellington Field.

First Real Cowboy Hat

Purchased in Luckenbach, Texas while visiting with Aunts Kelly and Patty, plus Cousin Seth, and Uncle Robert.

Happy Holidays

Let's catch up a bit from the last few weeks....

Samson had his 3 year check-up and he's now in the 80% percentile for height (39 inches) and 75% for weight (34 lbs). Dr. Dudley was very impressed with his verbal and math skills, which of course made us giddy with nerdly pride. Guess we can safely say that the preemie status has been put to rest.

We had our family photo shoot with Alison Eden in mid-November, and it's just incredible how much Samson has changed and yet still looks the same in the 2 years since our last professional portraits. I've uploaded the whole set of recent ones to our Picasa Web album, but I'll share a few favorites here.

With just 5 days left till Christmas, we're busy at home getting ready for our whirlwind tour to visit family over the holiday break. This year, we're heading down to San Antonio for Aunt Kelly's annual Xmas Eve party where we'll get to see lots of Mama's family and Samson will be spoiled rotten as the only child in the whole group of 15+ loved ones. Then it's back to Austin for waking up in our house for the Thomas & Friends extravaganza that Santa will bestow. After that, we're back in the car for the trip to Houston for more spoiling at Pawpaw & Grandma's house. Whew! That's a long while in the car, but since Mama finally gave in and bought a portable DVD player for the backseat, Samson has become a champion road tripper - 2 Thomas movies watched (with headphones on so grown-ups can chat freely) and we're there.

It has been a lot of fun this season sharing all of the holiday traditions and stories with Samson now that he is old enough to understand and participate in what's going on. He loves retrieving the daily treat from the Advent calendar and turning on the lights on the tree and decorations outside. He even got to meet Santa at a toy drive in Pawpaw's neighborhood. And it seems that we have at least 2-3 conversations each day about the actions and attitude required to remain on the nice list and stay off the naughty list. The only wish that he has for Xmas morning is to receive Emily and Molly and their respective coal tender cars... I must confess that Santa & his elves may have reserved just a few more engines and other Thomas paraphernalia for Samson than just those two items....

If you haven't kept up with our Twitter posting, you may be unaware that Samson has gone full on obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine (aka Thomas & Friends) since about the end of the summer. It began with reading the same two books over & over, which led to Mama recording the single weekly episode off PBS so that Samson could enjoy the characters on-screen, too. After that, the stockpiling of toys began, with Duplo sets for his birthday, and then going bonkers for the Take Along engines and playsets (which are more small, portable, and durable). Since then, Samson's daily routine involves waking up to play with his engines, coming home from school to play with his engines, and before bedtime - you guessed it - putting all the engines in a bucket to move from the living room to his bedroom where he has more tracks for playing with his engines. We've been amused and surprised at the level of adoration Samson has for these toys, and it definitely comes in handy when we need a carrot or stick for behavior modification.

Speaking of behavior modification.... we missed out on the Terrible Twos but we're making up for it by getting slammed with the Tyrannical Threes. Samson somehow recently learned (can I blame one of those bad seeds at preschool?) that there's really nothing stopping him from refusing any parental directive or request. We've had to adapt with an expert level of mind-games (aka cognitive behavioral tactics) to stave off wild-eyed tantrums that occur when Samson feels as though his will is being ignored. Samson insists on independence and wants to do things for himself, in his own way, and on his own time table. When transitions don't occur according to these preferences, the "I'm very displeased" jig is performed (imagine an angry leprechaun), complete with coordinated head, arm, and alternating foot hops accompanied by a piercing howl. Mama and Daddy must be very careful to hide our amusement at this passionate display. The top 5 situations (if not skillfully orchestrated) likely to lead to the angry leprechaun dance lately are:

• Requiring that a coat be worn before going out into cold weather
• Requiring that hands be washed prior to eating
• Requiring that PJs be removed and school clothes be put on in order to go to school
• Requiring that the evening TV watching session be ended and that bath-time begins
• Requiring that Samson get into his carseat without dilly-dallying

Could you say no to this face?

Thanksgiving Nap

After 2.5 days of being the little prince at PawPaw's house, Samson finally gives in to naptime. A chorus of snores fills the house after our 3rd turkey-based lunch of the long weekend, and Mama gets to read a trashy paperback - bliss!

Fall is finally here

And that means a trip to the pumpkin patch for pictures and picking out our jack-o-lantern prospects. This was the first year that Samson actually understood what was going on, but he was too excited to sit still for long. You can view the rest of the best pics online here.

Christmas morning treasures

Two Sams in a Wagon

Trail of Lights 2008

Eggs and a Dirty Rabbit

Oddly, given that we're not a particularly churchy family, it appears that Easter has become the source of our first bona fide family tradition for Samson. For the second year, we took a trip to IKEA for photos with the Easter bunny, and earlier in the day, Samson collected eggs in the yard.

Mama hid several hollow plastic eggs and a few dyed boiled eggs along the path Samson usually takes when he goes into the yard: up the back steps, into the grass toward the pool steps, around the house into the front yard, and to the swing. At first, he wasn't that interested in the eggs, but then he realized that the hollow ones rattled when he picked them up, so he could shake-shake-shake like with his musical shakers. Inside were either Matchbox cars (Samson is newly obsessed with all things wheeled) or coins. Unfortunately, the excitement of the plastic eggs made the silent boiled eggs seem boring in comparison, so these were quickly discarded.
((check back here later for video of Samson testing the eggs))

After the egg hunt, the cold windy weather pushed us back inside for some traditional Easter treats. Here Samson tastes his first Peep:

















Then it was time for lunch and a nap, with the outing to IKEA waiting for the afternoon.

As you'll recall, last year's photo session with the Swedish Easter bunny did not result in a very good photo. The amateur photogs were more intent on featuring the IKEA products than the children and the guy in the bunny suit was less than enthusiastic in engaging with the kids. This year, the set-up looked better and the process seemed improved, even if the bunny had a curious brown stain on his head. We waited for a few minutes in line and then it was our turn. Samson seemed fine until we close to the bunny's sofa and he realized that Mama intended to leave him there (if only for a minute). Samson was not in favor of this plan.


Needless to say, we didn't get our free portrait this year. Oh, well... we'll try again in 2009.

No more pictures, please, Mother

Our little crawfish after an arduous day in front of the camera

Autumn Tradition