Samson, 15 months (almost)

Sam is so hilarious these days. He is such a little boy lately instead of a baby, and his vocabulary grows every day. For my own documentation (Because I still look back at my Jackson posts to compare), I wanted to record some of the new things he says and does.

Words he can say:

Mama

Daddy

No-no-no (with scolding finger)

Dooooon-toukk (Don't touch)

Jjsh (juice)

Hi-eee (Hi)

Bah-Bah (Bye-bye)

Ni-Ni (Night-night)

dawh (dog) (The woof-woof sound shortly follows)

duh (duck - not so good at the execution of this animal sound, but he does try)

DAH-duh (Jackson)

Ow!

Whoa!

YAAAY! (with clapping)

Peeeee (Please)

Mooh (More, which he can also sign)

Tanka (comes out throaty at the end -Thank you)

He can also fold his arms for prayer on demand, give a scolding finger with the no-no, show you where his hair and nose are (and other parts of face on a good day), and he is starting to sing what sounds like the Alphabet song. He can tell you the sounds that a car, a dog, a cat (MEEEE-OOOOW, super dramatic), and a cow make. He gives hugs and kisses with sound effects, too.

But my favorite thing is how much he LOOVES his brother Jackson. If Sam is awake and running around, you can always find him following close behind Jackson. If Jackson plays with blocks, Sam is, too. If Jackson watches a movie, Sam does, too. If Jackson is playing Nintendo (or trying to), Sam is sitting there holding the spare controller, too.

...Like a Mustard Seed

Sometimes I am so prideful that when I hear the phrase, "Have Faith," I just get so frustrated.

What if I am doing the absolute best I can to be right with the Lord, and I fervently pray about something, and I feel like the Lord is pleased with me, but then signs in my life point to otherwise?

I really need a couple of changes to occur in my life, and they just aren't happening; things that will very soon be very detrimental to my family and my daily life. I keep trying and trying on my end, and I feel like I am pushing against a brick wall. Nothing is happening, so I pray and pray harder, and I focus more on being righteous, but still...nothing. Today, out of a complete loss at what to do and total frustration of how I handled a situation, I decided to just sit down and open my scriptures and just read until I felt inspired with an answer. So I randomly opened my scriptures and found Matthew Ch 17. When I got to the verse where the apostles asked the Lord, "Why could we not cast him out? referring to their attempt to cast a devil out of a crazy child, I thought of "Lord, why am I not being successful at getting this change made in my life?" and I felt that the answer was in the next verse. I'm sure you know it. "And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you."

Argh! I DO have faith!! I mean, I know the Lord will answer my prayer, and that it may not be the answer I want, but what does that mean? That doesn't tell me what to do!? That I just sit here and wait? Doing nothing? And my problem will just be fixed? Or keep trying and trying, getting nowhere, meanwhile, instead of moving forward, I'm being pushed backwards by some invisible force until I am looking over the cliff I am about to fall over!? I just keep telling myself that the Lord knows how much I can handle, so even if I think I can't handle it, and might go crazy, He will take care of me, but I'm just such a dang control freak, that I admit I am panicking a little!! I feel like I am already walking through the valley of the shadow of death, how much closer to I have to get before I lose it!?

I want to go home. I miss my family. I know they would help me if they could. I don't want to be an adult anymore. Can I close my eyes and be a teenager again, like this is all a bad dream!? I promise that I'll be good this time, and I'll be the sweetest to my mother who I was so horrible to!! I'll be the best example to my little sister and brother...let me try that whole teenager thing again and then maybe I'll be a little better prepared to be an adult woman on my own. Are there do-overs? :)

POTTY-TRAINED!!

...And we are officially POTTY TRAINED! Fully. Yes, that's right. He pooped. and pooped. and pooped again.

So now we can pee-pee in the potty. Sleep in underwear at night and at naptime with no accidents. (That has actually never been an issue, thankfully.) And now we can poop. Okay, so I have always been able to do that, lol, so when I say we, I really mean Jackson...:)

I have definitely been taught a lesson here, and that is that nothing is too small to pray about. I had thought it was too trivial for prayer, and although it has been a major struggle in our lives now for months, I kept trying to handle it on my own. Finally, Jackson and I both came to a traumatizing point in the potty training process, and we both added it to our prayers, and I guess that was all the Lord needed. Less than a week later, Jackson has absolutely no fear about pooping in the potty.

Strangely, the first time he was successful was while we were on our family camping trip. He really wanted his bb gun that his Papa De had brought for a present (Don't even get me started on that...picture fumes coming out of my ears...nuff said), so I told him that I would only get it down for him if he would go poo poo on the potty Daddy had built for us at our cabin. (It was a potty seat attached to a metal chair frame - rustic, but better than being in the very vulnerable position of squatting in the dark, praying fervently that the slight brush against your naked bum was a mischievous plant blowing in the wind.) Anyway...you never saw a person get up on a potty and push one out so fast! So of course, we praised him. And praised him. And praised him. We gave him candy, toys, and...grrr... the promised gun. And he got to play with it (unloaded, safety on, and with me and Daddy within arms reach) for a few minutes until he smacked his brother in the head, and then I snatched it back, and then out of sight and out of reach it returned.

We wondered if that experience would transfer, and the first day back at home he was't interested, but when we reminded him about his gun, we have had no problems since. Every day since we have been back, he has made a bowel movement. No constipation, no tears, no turmoil. At this point, if I had to dip a little into redneckville to acheive said status, then so be it!! Actually, I have been fairly successful at distracting him from the gun reward and giving himcandy or toy rewards instead. After a 2 week period, I hope to remove all treats and we'll just have a completely potty-independent kid!

I'm in love!!

A friend of mine shared a link to this website on fb, and I have found myself absolutely glued to it, so I added it to my blogs that I follow.

http://shanty2chic.blogspot.com

Here is a project I found from following a couple of links, originating on that page. I am planning on doing since we are currently redoing our bathroom. My bathroom project started with Ben FINALLY putting in a new tile floor since ours for the last year has been the wood floor under the carpet I ruined when I was pregnant with Sam and left a bath running for 45 minutes. Since we were redoign 9ur floors, I decided the bathroom (which has never been painted and it still yucky builders off white) needed a fresh coat of paint. I bought a new shower curtain, rugs, and accessories to match and was just thinking abotu how to decorate the walls when this project came along.

Now to actually do it!! Well, it IS summertime and I HAVE been saying that I wanted to do stuff like this when I have more time. No time like the present right? I have been feeling particularly crafty lately...

One year and 2 months later...

My how they've grown, huh? They keep me laughing every day. Jackson is so truly sweet to Sam and Sam looks up to Jackson SOOO much. He follows him around everywhere. It is funny to see them interact and play with each other. Sometimes they are just being silly laughing at something that only they get, but it makes us all smile! I hope they always get along this well, but I won't count on it. :)

And then there was #2

I was awakened this morning to the sound of a frantic pounding on Jackson's door and him hollering, "MAMA! I need-a go pee-pee!" About a month ago we had put the childproof lock back on the inside door knob of his door because his newfound freedom was causing him to think it was time to get up every time he woke up, even if he happened to wake up at 5:30 am. Anyway, I rushed in to let him out and take him to go potty, and his diaper was dry, and he peed on th epotty...a lot! YAY, victory #1.

Later we dressed to go to the gym, taking a potty break before we left, and being the forgetful rushed mommy that I am, I did not remember to take him while we were there. We had to leave the gym early since Sam had suddenly decided that 45 minutes was way too long without mama. On the way home, we hit up Sonic and got a snack to help us be happy for our next errand, the car wash. After the car wash, we ran over for one thing at Wal-mart, but when we got there (at this point, I had completely forgotten about potty breaks and such), I noticed Jackson dancing around a lot. I said, "Jackson, do you need to go potty?" "Yes," he said, so we raced to the front of the dtore (we came in the side at the auto center) and we made it! Dry diaper, and LOTS of pee-pee. The time in which he had held it was almost 3 hours and that was with a sippy sup of juice and most of a small Sonic slush in his bladder! YAY, victory #2.

We got home, had lunch, and during which, Jackson said he needed to go potty again, so I got him down and helped him go, and again, DRY diaper and a successful #1 in the potty! YAY! Victory #3.

After lunch, he got really agitiated and danced around again, straining and saying that he needed a blanket - this means he needs to go poop and wants to hide himself from my view. We have not been pushing the #2 in the potty because he is so freaked out by it that he will simply NOT go. for days. We had to give him 2 doses of laxatives over 2 days one time to get him to finally just get it out, so we always encourage him to go no matter what for that need. But this time, he was in the middle of the act, so I just raced him into the bathroom, stripped him down and had him finish the push and let the #2fall in the potty, and we made it! No poop in the diaper, no screaming meltdown about pooping in the potty, and a technical successful poop in the potty! Now I know this isn't our end goal, but I'm hoping that maybe it is a step in teh right direction because he was so dang proud of that poop, you'd have thought he deserved a gold medal! Of course, I made a big deal about it, too, so here's hoping'! YAY! 4 potty victories at the Blake house today! Maybe, just maybe, we'll be completely pee-pee trained for GrandMollie next week and she'll only have to worry about poop accidents. (GrandMollie is keeping the boys for me Wed-Sat while I am at girls' camp next week.)

12 months of Samson Jay Blake

This is a little belated since Sam's birthday was actually May 22...Happy Birthday, Sam! You are sure a blessed addition to our eternal family. You are so happy, and funny, smart and loving! I don't know how we ever lived without you in our lives!