Activities this week

1) Houston Children's Museum: We got a membership from my parents for Christmas. We went for the big ball drop on New Year's Eve at high noon. Too bad there's not a larger-than-life dancing turtle there all the time. Samuel loves mascot-style costumes. His other favorite hang-out is the VW Van in Little Mexico section.

2) Eating salt or having a major breakdown when prevented from eating salt.

3) Monster Trucks! Samuel's cousins are into Blue Thunder, so we made a night of it as a family. What's so appealing about trucks smashing cars? Shockingly, a man in our row collapsed during the show. His legs were under our feet as CPR was performed. He appeared totally lifeless and was turning blue after several minutes or so. It looked like they knew what they were doing, but I heard someone say he had regained the pulse which I thought was impossible without a defibrillator, so he either didn't lose it, or they were mistaken and didn't find it the second time either. When the police arrived he was moved him to the concourse so I'm not sure what happened after that. Stopping the CPR would have endangered him further. The few who went with him returned shaking heads and looking grim, so I'm sure he was dead, though the police couldn't say. My CPR certification expires in a few months and I need to review it. Joseph and I could have been the ones doing the deed-we just didn't notice the initial commotion because it was next to us, not in front of us. At least he was on the aisle so they could lay him on the stairstep, but otherwise it was a very bad place to accommodate life rescue with the crowd and the noise.

December in Houston

The Museum of Natural Science brought in some man-made snow, but by the time we got there it was already melted into icy slush - it was over 70 degrees. But Samuel did catch on. He likes to throw everything, so why not snow?

There aren't a lot of trees that lose leaves in the fall here, but we were lucky enough to have one right outside our apartment. We played in them two days before the groundskeepers and the wind took them all away. I didn't have a rake to gather them into a pile, but it reminded me of the "houses" I would outline that were the size of the backyard ar 1910 South in Orem, the same type of "home design" I did with legos. That was a deeply buried memory that came back very vividly. I had 6 videos of Samuel playing in them and it was hard to narrow it down. The one where he disappears at the end is because he sat in my lap. He wanted to see replays of each video after I filmed. He also says cheese alot whenever I get out the camera.

Peeling an Orange

December - hanging out at home. Kathryn Richards inspired me to buy some clementines in hopes that Samuel would branch out with his fruit inclinations. Sure enough, he likes them, especially peeling them. Sometimes he won't eat it and just wants to peel one after another. Enjoy his interchange with Joseph here.

Pictures of Samuel in 2007

I thought I would try this baby out and post some pictures of Samuel from 2007. Its been a good year.

Joseph

Samuel's 2nd Birthday

We had a yellow school bus cake to celebrate not the first day of school, but Samuel's birthday. He just happens to love school buses and it wasn't too ambitious of a cake to make after a busy day of apartment hunting. We had a small celebration with cousins Nate, Ethan and family. He got puzzles from Mumsie and Grandpa, and a New Testament book and some pictures for his self-loading picture album from Grandma and Gramps. We will be getting him a zoo membership once we move down into the new apartment which is near the zoo. We were proud of our little Simonsen boy who very properly displayed his new book for everyone to admire. Grandma Mumsie would be proud. We didn't even have to coach him opening his present.