SADIE JOINS SAM

The Halloween Trip to San Jose

Mom and Sam took a quick flight down to San Jose for Halloween weekend to see Papa, Nana, and Aunt TT (and friends) for lots of fun. Sam finally dressed up in his full construction worker garb! Woo! Thanks to Papa for all the great photography. Dad is sure glad to have them back home now.

Posing in his cute socks.

Finally, the vest is on! How did they pull that off?

There must be a mess, because Sam's got a broom.

No, you da man!

Dad has trouble figuring out who's cuter in this one.

Yeah, he's pretty cool.

Trick or treating at the neighbors.

Mirror mirror on the wall...(you know the answer)

Mom, Sam, and Aunt TT are all smiles on Halloween night.

Hey hey hey!

Three generations on the choo choo train ride.

Rocking chair redux.

While visiting Matt's house, Sam provides a hug.

The boys pose with their moms.

Sam's first pickle.

Something about this photo is way too cool.

Sam points out an airplane to Nana.

Labels: choo choo, Halloween, San Jose

The Pumpkin Patch

It seems like Sundays are the big day for us to hit the town and do fun things lately. Maybe it's because each Saturday is filled up with activities until about 1pm and then it's nap time. So this Sunday we hit the pumpkin patch at Remlinger Farms in Carnation; joining us was Sam's friend Jackson and his family and friends. It was a beautiful day to explore, enjoy the hayride, and eat a caramel apple. Yum!

Sam stands tall.

Is it me, or did this gourd look at him funny?

"Yeah Mom, this is a nice pumpkin, but that other one is better."

There's Jackson, hamming it up.

By popular (and repetitious) demand, Sam and Mom took the tractor-pulled hayride twice in a row!

The li'l man underestimated this pumpkin's heft.

He really enjoyed his first caramel apple, requesting many, many bites.

Before we headed home, we got one quick family photo.

Labels: Caramel Apple, Go Rays, Halloween, Pumpkin patch, Remlinger Farms

Thanks for the motivation

Another astounding week for us, with the Sam-Man continually surprising us with his skillz and his humor. His right-leg-out crawling speed has improved tremendously, and he can stand himself up on pretty much any fixed object. Which, if you saw the last batch of photos, greatly aids him when he doesn't want to go to sleep at night. He loves to make noise, whether with his maracas or a wooden spoon and the floor. He's got that musical vibe running through him, which is really neat to hear. Of course, all he wants to do is walk, which is exciting yet a tad frightening at the same time. On Sunday night, we all got a good half-hour of fun out of Sam repeatedly dropping a toy and laughing hysterically. It's too bad the camera wasn't on hand to capture the silliness. He switched up his delivery quite a bit...mixing the straight drop in with a lob or an over-the-shoulder toss. It'll be a night that we tell him about when he's older...and hopefully he'll do it again soon.

Here they are, at last, the long-awaited Halloweenie photos. Enjoy.

The Turtle and the Rabbit, a variation on a theme.

Samuel N channeling Samuel L

A Strong Man, Superman, a Monkey, and our Turtle

A pale pumpkin is no match for Mom and her Turtle!

Trick-or-treating at the Westwood Village, basket in hand

He was impressed by all the other kids' costumes.

Yeaaaaaaah

First time with eggs...what a fantastic mess!

The hat came off and the hair went up.

At Pajama Time, the kid was not really tired.

Oh look, another new skill, only useful when on his own.

Labels: Halloween, Samuel Nelson, Turtle

Something we've figured out

First the wisdom: when you have someone take photos of your kid, and he's a good photographer with a good camera, you're going to have a LOT of photos to choose from, and it's going to take a while to go through them. Now the update: Sam ran his first 5k this weekend and did pretty well. He finished in 42 minutes which is pretty good for an 8-month old. Add to that his roll-over and sit up combo, and you're looking at a triple threat!

First pic at the pumpkin patch.