Merry Christmas from the Olsens!

Our Christmas Card this year is an opportunity for YOU to be in the card and delivered to you. Just follow the 3 easy steps to Photo Bomb our family photo and receive it in the mail. Click on the link below.

Photo Bomb the Olsens

Love,
The Olsens

Happy 3rd Birthday Samuel!

My dear son, you are now a young kid and no longer a baby or a toddler. More importantly you are growing into a wonderful person who will someday become a great man.

Your excitement and joy for life reminds me constantly that life is more than a list of to-dos. You are always stoping to tell me to “look it”, whether it is a flower, bug, the sky, or the wall, everything is wonderful to you. We spend most mornings with you sitting on the trunk of the car watching the builders “make a house” and you often ask to help them. You love everything about space, rockets, planes, cars, balls, bears, water, fish, and even vacuums. You love building tall towers or long lines of groups of objects. There are so many things that you love that it is always so hard to know what is your favorite when people ask. Most of the time when we ask if you want to do anything it is an emphatic “YEAH!”. You just love life and everything in it.

You are such a water bug. If given the opportunity I think you would play in the water all day long. You are always asking for baths, even if you had one just an hour ago, and love going swimming, and washing your hands. You love being outside, especially on your bike. You are really great at riding your bike except when you get distracted and crash into bushes. What I love is that even though you get frustrated that you crashed, you always get back on and keep going.

You love communicating about your emotions and have such an empathetic heart. If you get hurt at all you tell us “hurt there” and point to it and how it happened, which is usually “fall down”. You are constantly getting hurt, but I love that you always want me to kiss and make it “all bedder”. You even love to tell everyone you meet about your latest hurt and how it happened. You are always asking if we hurt and if we say yes you want to kiss us so it can be all better for us too. You love to give hugs and kisses, especially “mama hug”s. You will give a hug and a kiss to anyone that you meet because you love people so very much.

You are such an encouragement in your love for God and your love of praying. You will ask us to pray all the time, and ask if you can pray too. Your prayer is always the same short and sweet prayer – “Jesus, Amen!” You will sometimes have your bears pray too, you just love when everyone prays. You also can’t ever have enough of Bible time. I could read the Bible to you all day long and you would want more.

You continually amaze me in how much older you are becoming and the wonderfully sweet boy that you are. Your future is open wide and I know that I can’t protect you from the pain and hurt that may come. I pray that you would trust us enough to tell us about your hurts later in life, even when a kiss won’t make it all better. I sincerely hope that you keep your excitement and joy for life and what God has made, and one day walk with Him. May you grow up one day to be a man of honor, integrity, and joyfulness just as we strive to be the same model for you.

Love you more than you could know,
Your Mama

Samuel decided he was old enough for a bed yesterday. He managed to climb out of his crib, open the door, walk downstairs and greet Joe when he was supposed to be napping. Samuel was extremely proud of himself and even more excited to get a bed that he can climb into. He sure is growing up quick!

Samuel's New Bed

5 years have passed since we started on an incredible lifelong journey together.

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Honeymoon So Far
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Wedding Photos Are Up!

Samuel is now 20 Months old. Somehow this sounds so much older to me than 18 Months which is normally the big milestone. It feels like he is growing up so fast. I can’t believe the last update was 5 months ago and I’ll try to write down all of the changes that have happened since then. This is a really long post, so skip to the end with the photo album links if you are short on time.

Samuel has many more teeth. Once the bottom two came in at the same time, the top two came in a week later, and the ones on each side of the top two came in the next week. No new teeth since then, but he has the cutest toothy grin now.

He still loves to “read” books, except now he knows when they are upside down. He also loves to bring books over and sit in people’s laps so they will read to him. He will flip the pages and point to things waiting to be told what they are.

Samuel still loves to point to things and say “auh-auh?” but he does it all the time now. He loves seeing himself in pictures and especially on video chat. When he sees Joe or himself in the picture (and occasionally other men such as his grandpa and nonno) he will say “da-da”. When Joe comes home from work and I let Samuel know that Daddy has come home he runs over to the door and says “da-da” over and over. We’re still working on “ma-ma” but he will say it occasionally when he wants to go downstairs.

He has picked up on some other words as well. He can point out a ball and he will say “ball”. He loves to play with my bear from childhood called Barf Bear and calls it “baf bah”. If we ask him “Where is Barf Bear?” he will go find it in the room and bring it to us. He frequently will try to get in his car with Barf Bear.

Samuel loves to eat and is really great about communicating with us. When he is hungry he will put his hand to his mouth and say “foo”. When he is done he will say “aaaaaaahh duh” for all done, but sometimes he says this because he wants our food instead. Samuel graduated to a regular chair for eating. He’s actually sitting in the Father chair of our dining set since it has arms. We also boosted the height of the chair so that he can be at a good height with the table. He is eating off of plates now and we are working on bowls and utensils.

Samuel still loves other kids his age. Here are the photos from our Mommies’ Group Christmas time last year and this year.
This Year (2010):

Last Year (2009):

Samuel especially enjoys his friend Emily. Here they are playing together at the zoo:

Samuel also has some special people that he loves to see, and one of them is Laurie. He will frequently let go of my hand and run over to her to be picked up. Here is a picture where Laurie was already holding Emily and Samuel still wanted to be held:

Samuel continues to love sleep. He sleeps for at least 12 hours at night and 4 hours during the day spread across two naps normally. We think he has probably gotten rid of his third nap. Here is a picture of him asleep during our Gingerbread House Making Party where there were 40 people at our house. I miss being able to sleep like Samuel does.

Samuel also had his first haircut a few weeks ago at the same time as Joe. Samuel loved to watch Joe getting his haircut and stayed still the entire 15 minutes while they cut his hair because he was so fascinated with everything. Another benefit of having an inquisitive son. The before and after shots are below, but most of the hair was cut from the sides and back. There was maybe about 2 inches cut from the back.
Before:

After:

Samuel continues to run around and get into everything. We had a bit of a scare a few weeks ago when he got into some Asprin when Joe was going to the bathroom. Samuel turned out just fine, he was just a bit hyper that night. Samuel must have the genetics from my side that are resistant to pain medication. This is probably just the beginning with him and possible trips to the ER. He loves climbing onto things and especially into things.

He will frequently climb into something and then get stuck and cry. We keep telling him not to do it in the first place, but he loves it too much.

Joe is teaching Samuel all kinds of fun things. First he taught Samuel how to roll a car on the ground and then taught him how to place Legos on his Lego board. Samuel is really good at placing Legos on the board and can put them on there pretty quickly.

Samuel also loves playing hide and seek. He will often run down the hall and wait for you to find him. When he pokes his head out and you look at him he will squeal with delight and run back down the hall. He thinks that when he can’t see you that he is hidden. He will lay down on the floor or couch with his head down, hide in a blanket, or the tent.

Samuel will help out around the house. There are times when he will put away his toys and we are working on this happening all the time. His favorite thing is to put clean laundry into the hamper and “help” carry it to the bedroom. Next we will teach him to hang and fold clothing, but that will probably be for a while.

Samuel is a really tall kid and breaking the charts. He is now at the greater than 97th percentile for height which placed him at 35 inches when he was 18 Months and 20 days. His weight and head size is back to normal for him which is the 47th and 33rd percentiles respectively. It just means that he will be able to go on the rides at Disneyland sooner and outgrow clothing quicker.

We really love Samuel and enjoy all of the laughter that he brings to our life. Here are all of the photo albums that have been posted lately:

• Samuel 16 Months
• Samuel 17 Months
• Samuel 18 Months
• Samuel 19 Months
• Samuel 20 Months
• Mommy Group Christmas 2010
• Mommy Group Zoo Trip 2011