Samuel Justin Schmidt

Samuel Justin Schmidt 20 months old next week!

I have not been recording on here well enough the adventures of our toddler Sam. Since he could get his legs to run he hasn't stopped. His mouth started running shortly thereafter and it doesn't stop either. It's so much fun to see his personality really come out and observe him learning how to talk. It's not easy. Gives me motivation to learn a second language. Sam surprises me with a new word every couple of days. It's sure fun to watch and exhausting. :)

Here are some activities Sam enjoys:

• Splashing in puddles - ALWAYS - even when it's cold - I  almost regret teaching him to do so :)
• Running outside - up and down hills, or anywhere - "gowaak" is his favorite phrase (meaning go on a walk/go outside)
• Jumping - and recently we have joined a gymnastics  playgroup on Fridays --he loves it - mostly jumping on the trampolines! He puts up a fight to leave both times we have gone
• Riding his horse - especially on our driveway down the hill backwards.
• Cars, buses, semis, lawnmowers and mostly MOTORCYCLES - The fact that his dad has one and lets Sam help him start it and honk the horn probably had a big influence on this. Whenever he sees one he grunts. I think it will be a long time before he says motorcycle, the grunt is motorcycle to him right now. He'll watch the lawnmowers out our window and he calls tractors lawnmowers because the first ones he saw were in Oklahoma and they had lawnmower trailers on mowing the grass. It's confusing but I'm sure he'll straighten it out in time.
• Tickling and tackling - he his a boy through and through. He loves any reaction. Justin taught him to tickle around 12 months and he brings it out quite often. Justin has also taught him how to play football - the stance, the tackling and running with the ball. This is one of our favorite family games to play. He calls it"butball" (football)
• Riding bikes - he would go on a bike ride every day if he could - we do try to go often. He also cries and fights getting off the bike EVERY time. Last time Justin started preparing him for getting off the bike before we left saying "Sam, we're going to go on a bike ride and we're going to have to get off the bike when we get back for dinner" - he then started reminding him 5 or 10 minutes before we headed home. You would think we never take him on a bike ride the way he acts.
• Anything with dogs - we watched a dog for Justin's classmate for the first week and 1/2 we were here. Sam loved to take him for a walk. He held his leash and as they got to know each other better he would try and pet him often. His favorite stuffed animal/lovey is his puppy. I know he would love one. He's got his parents thinking about it.
• Stoplights - I taught him about these on our many walks, every time he sees one he'll say "Go" and/or "yeyyo" (yellow). That's the only color he can say right now and he says it a lot. Maybe it'll be his favorite color, although his orange shirt is bringing competition.
• Doing dishes. We plug in the ipod and jam out to everything from classical music, to country, to efy songs, to punk or Michael Jackson . He grooves with them all. He especially likes playing in the sink full of water and bubbles.
• Picking up leaves - we've talked about the leaves changing colors and falling off the trees, he's watched other kids jump in the pile of leaves and has done it himself, but he does not let a day go by without picking up a leaf and bringing it to someone to show or share it with them. We found a really big one today.
• Throwing rocks in water - we have a lake about a block away from us. If he knew this we would be there more. :) We've ridden our bikes there often and fed the ducks too. Just the other day I filled a container full of water and he played with rocks in that water for quite some time and still put up a big fuss when we came inside.

Here's a list of words we hear frequently:
(I'll spell them as close to how they sound as I can)

"baowl" (ball)
"mow" (more)
"gowaak" (go for a walk)
"owie"
"mama up" - especially when I'm trying to make dinner :)
"uh oh I" - we respond with "uh oh I what Sam? - no response or a point to what he shouldn't have done
"yeyyo" (yellow)
"buessss" (bus)
"momower" (lawnmower)
"mamo" (elmo)
"O" (the letter O)
"puppeee" (puppy)
"up" (help)
"nanna" (Anna - his playmate down the street)
"go"