Feb 9th, Sam is Two and a half!!!

[I've been holding out on you :) I took these pictures a couple weeks back (when we had a good stretch of cloudy days) and have been so excited to post them!]

Sam is still quite studious. He insists that he is a post-doc, that he works at the university and, since his proposal ranges from 'muddy' to 'very very good,' I'd say he's on the right track to becoming Dr. Dyker, Jr. But don't let the picture fool you! He's inquistive spirit lives strong, and I only snapped this picture of him in front of the university clock tower while he was paused for a moment after climbing to the top of the rock.


Sam quickly processes everything his little eyes see and his ears hear. We were at the park on Monday, from which we could see traffic badly conjested on the freeway below. One mom described the horrific accident she'd seen: a school bus had driven on top of a car and its front tires were rested on the driver and passenger seats of the car. Sam, who'd been playing near by, ran up to the story telling mom and gave his version of the accident: a school bus had an accident and was on top of a car and the firetrucks had to come to help (or something to that effect). All the moms just kind of looked at one another, like, oh boy! We found out later that the car had pulled out in front of the empty bus, causing the accident (since the bus had no where else to go) and driver of the bus was fine but the driver of the car was killed. Sam's spoken of it since, retelling it with the firefighters coming to move the bus tires and fix the car and everything is okay. ...we've stopped watching the news in front of him.


Sam loves his friends more than ever! I snapped this one as Rachon and Max walked into view this particular morning. Sam went thru a bit of a rebelous phase, that lasted a few weeks, but THANKFULLY he seems over it. We were at a friend's house (Jennifer and Shannon) with Mom's Club for almost 5 hours on Wed and he only needed one time out (he gets time out for hitting, kicking, pushing, etc., being rude, not sharing, yelling...). Which reminds me: we were at the park one day after a walk and Sam was having trouble 'being a good friend' to Max, who BTW is Sam's best friend and favorite playmate at the moment. He was pushing, so he got time out for pushing. He was hitting, so he got time out for hitting. He kicked, so he got time out of kicking. Each time, I'd remind him that its rude and dangerous to use our bodies in a bad way with our friends. So, he says that he understands, hops down after his 2 minutes, runs over to Max and belly bumps him out of the way (Max had been standing at the tunnel opening). At that point, his punishment was that we left the park...


'Spirited' since day one, Sam never fails to entertain Adam and me. He loves to sing songs, to play intense imagination games, to tell stories (from books we've read, or movies we've watched, or just based on things he knows), to colour, to make tents and forts, to run and dance and exercise, and to help (with laundry, washing dishes, cooking and baking, cleaning and vacuuming...all his is own way). His favorite treats are definately Totsie pop suckers (with the chocolate 'gum' in the middle), seconded by anything chocolate. His favorite toys this week are fire trucks and trains and tractors. His favorite movies are a Monster Truck one and a Farm Tractor one (both from Nannie), followed by Clifford's Big Movie and Jay-Jay the Jet Plane (also Christmas presents from Nannie). He craves outdoor play, so we hit a playground for about an hour each day. This week his favorite activity there is to drive his trucks in the dirt or wood chips, although sliding is still well loved. His favorite stuffie is still his polar bear, who is predominately named Shooter doggy, but is sometimes Ben Cat. His second favorite would be his little cat (the second stuffie we gave him, well, the Flight's gave him) always named Max cat. His favorite foods are definately cheesy noodles, a mix of whole wheat noodles, cheddar cheese and milk, and yogert. He rarely pretends to be a different family now, where Adam, I and he are all different people, but he often cares for his little brother, Zach or Ryan, or his little sister, Claire, by bringing the stuffed the singing bear (who he HATES to hear singing) with him in his stroller. A few of our friends have double strollers, so Sam sits in the front, like Xander or Ashton, and 'baby' sits in the back :) Sam's asked almost everyday this week to go on the airplane back to Canada for various reasons, like to see Uncle Glen's pigs and cows, to ask Nana and Papa for a chocolate sucker, to have Grampy Dyker's tea bag, to give Nannie a hug, to blow in Grampy Gill's coffee, etc...)...he's a precious little love :)


Here's a 6.5 minute peak of Sam when left to his own devices...
Part 1: Old McFarmy had a Farm...played by Sam, all by himself, on his 'piano'...


Part 2: Who lives in NB? Where does Robbie live? Who lives in Halifax? Where does Jan live? Where does Nannie and Grampy live? Where do I live???


Part 3: Bum-a-dum-a-ding-dong! and Rock-a-bye baby...they will be cozy all thru the night!



Sam knows his ABC's, can count to 14, recognizes lots of letters, knows lots of songs, but you think he'd 'perform' them for the camera???


We picked up a Clifford book at the library last weekend. Adam now reads it to Sam about 7 times a day!!! Like mother, like son :)


Here's some more pics of Sam at 2.5 years (thanks to Michelle and Brendan for the Thomas overalls!):











I forgot bear! I'll get some good ones this week with the special bear, to show how small bear is getting, but for now...