Jumping Leaves and Frog

The other day was so nice we went out into the yard and raked up leaves to jump in. Sam quickly got the hang of it and was diving in almost as fast as he came out. He also caught his first pet frog. Inside the new home were placed a rock, a stick and some water; all the essentials for making a glass jar homey for a frog. We took a lot of pictures and then I downloaded them to the computer and erased them off the camera to find out they weren't on the computer in the first place. These are what were salvaged...


P.S. Amy the frog is now relaxing at her vacation home in the yard.

Sunny Day!

I have always been spoiled with a kid who doesn’t wake up extremely early in the morning. Our day usually starts around 8:00 am. And usually Brandon takes him in the morning and I get to sleep for another half hour or so. I can’t complain, but sometimes it comes too fast. Since we have moved into the house Sam has gotten to sleep in his “big boy bed,” Brandon’s bunk beds when he was growing up. I think he is still used to the crib and having someone get him, so he also doesn’t get out of the bed on his own. Silly kid, sometimes he just quietly lies in bed and waits for someone to get him. Well, he is lying so quietly we don’t even know he is awake. We have also been working on times of the day, wake up time, breakfast time, morning time, lunchtime, naptime, daytime, dinnertime, bed time. We know the essentials, sleep and food. But since Sam hates taking his nap he insists that all day is morning time.

Ok, I think that is enough background info, so on with my story… you couldn’t ask for a kid to wake up any happier than this…

Sam: Mom, Dad it is wake up time!
Dad: Sam, climb out of bed and come see us.
Sam: [pitter patter coming down the hall, in our room and to the window] It’s wake up time! It’s wake up time! See it is morning time! It’s a sunny day! [As he proceeds to try and lift up the blinds as high as his arms can lift them, which is just high enough to blind us by the sun.]
Mom and Dad: Arg!
Sam: Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. [This is repeated in song and dance around the room.]
Mom: Sam come lay down and cuddle with me.
Sam: Ok, but it is wake up time, so we don’t have to close our eyes. [After a couple of … seconds.] Ok, Wake up! It is a sunny day! Sunny day. Sunny day. [As he continues with his song out of the room]

Brandon got up so I rolled over and went back to sleep for a little while longer. Thanks Brandon! I am so lucky that Sam is such a happy kid. He always makes me smile and laugh. I love my family!

Pumpkin Patch

We made our trip to the pumpkin patch this week for family night. There is a place nearby call the Pumpkin Place. I wish we had arrived a little earlier; we got there about 15 minutes before it closed. This made deciding on the perfect pumpkin a little easier because time to examine every pumpkin was on an option. We had told Sam he could get his own pumpkin and we would get another pumpkin for mom and dad. Sam decided he wanted a small “Sam size” pumpkin. As we walked through the field he would see a small pumpkin and then as we got closer it would become bigger. This happened several times and then he got distracted and forgot about the pumpkins all together. Go figure, the attention span of a two year old.

There were a lot of fun activities for kids including farm animals to see, a corn maze, pumpkin putt-putt golf, bowling and toys, a tractor to sit on and lots of places to take pictures. From the pictures you will see that we tried to take advantage of as much as we could in the twenty minutes or so that we were there. We were the last ones to leave.

We have yet to carve the pumpkin, so we will post pictures of that fun later.

Repeat

This is becoming an all too common occurrence at our house. But also so cute.

National Alpaca Day

How many people knew September 29th is National Alpaca Day? Well, now you do.

To celebrate the holiday we visited a local alpaca farm just down the road from my parent's house. We learned a lot about alpacas, which Sam still insists on calling "llama alpacas." After a little coaxing Sam decided it was safe to pet the alpaca named Tuko. This little baby alpaca was so busy eating some grass he didn't notice the farmer coming up and all his other fellow alpacas taking off. I consider it lucky the grass was so distracting.

Sam liked petting the alpaca, but was more interested in talking to the ones on the other side of the fence. He said, "It's soft, like a dog." You can tell that he isn't around a lot of animals.

I was also able to convince my mom to sign up for a drawing to win a pair of free alpacas. We think chances are good since she was the only one to sign up. If so next September there will be an alpaca farm tour at the Koontz house.

Jordan and Sam trying to get close without scaring the alpacas away.

Sam's Songs

Sam and I were singing songs this morning. He is still learning the songs, but I think his versions are sometimes more interesting:

"I looked out the window and what did I see? My eye popped out."

"Jesus wants me for a sunbeep."

" A, B, C. Now I know my A, B, C. Next time you sing with me."

Palace of Laughter and Tiger's Egg

In the middle of September, Brandon had his first elementary presentation and book signing with Jon Berkley the author for the books Palace of Laughter and Tiger's Egg.

The morning started bright and early at 5:00 am to get ready and drop Sam off at our cousins' to spend the day. After driving in the peak of the morning traffic we are so glad Brandon's commute consists of walking down the hall. We were able to meet Jon over breakfast of a delicious crescent sandwich. Then off to the school. The kids were all really interested in the drawing part of Brandon's presentation. Jon is from Spain and born in Ireland so it was fun to listen to his accent. After the school presentation it was back to the bookstore to sign books.

While we were there a lady sitting next to us told Brandon she loved his art so much she would love to have him design a tattoo for her. Talk about the ultimate compliment. To have someone permanently plaster your art on their body. We will keep you posted on that one...