Sam is eager to try out his drinking skills. He seems to think that every time someone else drinks something, he should also get a taste. Yesterday, he just leaned over and "drank" out of Opa's mug. Fortunately, the mug was empty so Sam didn't actually get any coffee, but he sure seemed to enjoy it nonetheless!

Sam singing with Great-Grandma Ewert

Sam's Great-Grandma Ewert is 102 years and 9 months old! Sam really enjoyed singing with Great-Grandma and Great-Grandma enjoyed talking with Sam. Here's a small duet the two of them did.

Sam in the laundry basket

Oma was doing some laundry and needed to carry Sam and the laundry. Solution: Put Sam in the laundry basket too! Sam loved the laundry basket and proceeded to play in it for almost half an hour. He sang, he played peek-a-boo, he chewed on the basket, and generally had a great time. Photo evidence is below:

This just in!!!

Sam is demonstrating his newest talent. Opa taught it to him this morning and Sam has been practicing all day :)

More of Sam and peek-a-boo

Sam was having a grand ole time with his scarf, as you can tell.

Sam playing peek-a-boo

Sam has really discovered peek-a-boo. He likes when someone plays with him by hiding, or when he can play with you with his scarf. Here he is playing with his scarf and Oma.

Sam and the wrapping paper tube

Sam may be saying "Happy Anniversary" to Grandpa Chodos and Grandma Leis here. Or he might be showing you his impersonation of an elephant. Either way, it's pretty entertaining :) Or at least, that's what we thought!

Sam in front of the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve

I thought that Sam sitting in front of the Christmas tree might make a neat backdrop. Sam demonstrated how well he can sit by sitting for ten minutes. And he showed much patience with Mommy's impromptu photo session as evidenced below.




And one that Opa took of Sam in his highchair, which I also thought was pretty cute!

Sam's form of crawling

You'll need to be patient to see the results since Sam decides to converse with Daddy first, but eventually he does "crawl." He still needs to figure out his forward motion :)

Sam sings The Beatles

Sam really liked hanging out in the laundry basket a few days ago. He was also saying "Ya ya ya" a lot so Oma taught him The Beatles She Loves You which incorporates those exact words. Here is Sam, sitting in the laundry basket, singing She Loves You with Oma! You will notice that after a while the main attraction was chewing on the laundry basket, rather than singing :)

Sam and the Water Tap - Part 3

Here is Part 3! We hope you have enjoyed watching these videos :)

Sam and the Water Tap -- The Next Edition

Here is part two!

Sam and the Water Tap

Sam and I (Natasha) were in Saskatchewan visiting my parents. While at Oma and Opa's house Sam gets to do anything he wants! One night when he was getting his diaper changed Sam pulled the water tap towards him and was trying to drink out of it. It was still off, by the way!

So Oma turned the water on to see what would Sam would do. This is the first in a series of three videos which show what transpired. Enjoy! We sure did :)

Sam is self-entertaining

This is a short video of how Sam entertained himself on the loooooong car trip from Saskatoon to Calgary yesterday! Sorry for the bumpiness of the video. It's hard to film in a moving car.

Which is more exciting???

It's true what they say -- at (almost) 1 give them the wrapping paper, at (almost) 2 give them the present!

Sam opening his present - Part 3

Finally, Dave steps in and helps...

Sam opening his present - Part 2

Sam continues to open his present...

Sam opening his present -- Part 1

This is a video of Sam beginning to open his first Channukah present!

First night of Channukah!

We celebrated the first night of Channukah tonight. Here are some pictures of our celebration. Over the next few days there we will post a series of videos from tonight too. Keep checking back.

We have latkes, the menorah, and since it's also
Shabbat we have challah, candles and wine!

Since it's Shabbat Sam opened his soft Shabbat set.
It has 2 candles, 2 loaves of challah, a challah cover,
a wine bottle and a cup of wine. Hopefully, he'll have
lots of fun with it.

Sam practices sitting. He's getting really good at it.

Sam seemed to think that the best part of his present
was chewing on the plastic case it came in.

Natasha reading Sam his Shabbat book and
demonstrating with his new Shabbat toys.

Sam playing with the candles.
He LOVED chewing on the candles!

Sam can feed himself!

Sam can now feed himself rice rusks! He is very excited about this new development. To be honest, so are we. It keeps Sam entertained while we eat :)

Sam getting ready to crawl

This is a video of Sam's progress towards crawling. You know the saying "You have to crawl before you can walk"? Well, I guess before you can crawl you have to... um... do this :)

More of Sam and leaves

Here are some pictures (not video!) of Sam in the leaves. He was having a great time. Enjoy!

Sam eating carrots

Dave fed Sam carrots and rice cereal mixed on Saturday night. Sam was babbling away and spitting the carrots and generally having a great time. Here he is enjoying his supper!

Fall leaves

On Saturday I raked the yard and, for fun, stuck Sam in the middle of one of the piles of leaves to see what he thought. When he wasn't trying to eat them, he really enjoyed the sounds they made as he moved his foot in them. (Sorry about the traffic noise in this one; one of the hazards of taking video outside.)

Sam driving!

Last weekend we were in Saskatoon for Thanksgiving. All of Sam's grandparents were there as well as his cousin, Lily. On Saturday we went to the Western Development Museum. Here is Sam driving with Lily. Thankfully he knows how to shoulder check before he passes :)

Sam the firefighter

We're not sure what the point of the hats were but Sam looked really cute in his! And this is the last of the swimming posts.

More of Sam's swimming - Part 2

Sam loves loves loves kicking when he is on his back in the water. This lesson he didn't get to be in the life jacket which was too bad because that may be his favorite thing in swimming. He kicks and moves his arms and talks and loves the freedom to move he gets. Anyways, here is a sample of his kicking.

More of Sam's swimming

Sam is getting very comfortable in the water. Here he's even swimming a little!

More of Sam's swimming lesson

It makes us really happy to see how comfortable Sam is in the water :)

Sam's surprise during swimming

Sam is very grown up. He can even have this done to him during his swimming lesson, without complaining.

Sam swinging

Sam has found something new to do while Mommy does the dishes! He seemed to really get the hang of it today. Unlike this weekend when he was very floppy, today he was sitting back and really getting into it.



And here's a hint as to what's coming next week:

Sam drinking from a cup

Sam drank from a cup for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Here he is at Oma and Opa's house this past weekend. Oma is holding Sam while he drinks some water. He gets pretty excited about the cup!

Sam is six months old!!!

Sam turned six months old today. He stuck his entire soother in his mouth backwards and freaked out. I think it hurt. He went to Kindermusik and sat for about 20 seconds. Then he had a nap. He was happy in the car while Mommy and Daddy ran one errand. And he got new socks and a Hallowe'en sleeper at West Edmonton Mall. Then he went to the synagogue and helped Daddy make a decoration for the sukkah. After that he was so tired he went to sleep all by himself, after Mommy fed him. This is a video we took of Sam, while we were singing "Happy Half Birthday to Sam." Daddy was changing Sam into his night diapers and pajamas as we were singing to him.

Sam talking

Sam was in a talkative mood while we were at Jan Lake. We think he was telling a story here.

Jolly jumper - Part 2

Sam really figured out his joly jumper tonight. He was doing fancy turns and everything!

Sam (briefly) sitting

Here is a short (very short!) video of Sam (almost) sitting. I decided to post two tonight since we haven't posted anything in awhile. But be warned: This one is really quite short.

Sam plays piano

We have a budding pianist on our hands, obviously! Dave said, in retrospect, that Sam was really doing a lot more random banging than actual playing. However, we are glad that Sam is experimenting with the piano since eventually we want to enroll him in lessons. Early signs suggest he may actually enjoy them :)



Coming up in the next few days... Jolly Jumper Part 2 -- Sam gets the hang of it!

Sam experimenting with his voice

This is a video Natasha's dad took of Sam yelling at his house. Sometimes Sam gets really loud :) We're surprised he doesn't seem to get a sore throat from all the yelling!

Sam loves his mobile time

Sam loves his independent mobile time. Here he is after he's had about five minutes of mobile time. He always starts with his head right underneath it and he is fairly quiet. As you can see, he is very mobile once mobile time gets going, as well as vocal!

Jolly Jumping - Part 1

Today at Natasha's new mom's group, the leader told them that you could start your child in the jolly jumper at around four months. Since Sam is five months old (!) we decided to try it out tonight. As you can see, he didn't really get what it was about. But we will keep trying!

Sam and the Fish

Here is a video of Sam and a giant fish (I mean... Natasha :) playing together on the floor. Sam really liked playing with the fish!

Sam is really flexible sometimes

Recently Sam has started to really like chewing on his feet. Except when he has toe jam and then he makes the most hysterical faces because of the taste!

This is Sam demonstrating his new love this morning during shower time. ("Shower time" is when we need to take showers and Sam hangs out in his bouncy seat in the bathroom. He loves something about the combination of the fan and running water.)

Oh, and did we mention we can't maneuver ourselves into the positions he can. Let us know if you're able to do it!

Sam singing

Dave was playing piano today and suddenly I heard Sam singing along. Hopefully you can hear him over the piano! (Our computer volume was a little quiet on this one.)

Sam plays at the park

Today we went to the park. We went a couple of weeks ago for the first time but didn't bring our camera. Here is some video of Sam playing at the park.

Sam rolls over

He actually rolled from his back to his front and then over to his back again. This is only the second time he has done that!

Four generations (times two!)

In May Natasha spent a week with her parents in Saskatoon while Dave was at a conference in Vancouver. During that week Sam met both of his great-grandmas. In July Sam will meet his Great-Grandpa Leis.

Sam with Opa, Great-Grandma Krahn and Mommy

Sam with Great-Grandma Ewert (who is 102!), Oma and Mommy

First Mother's Day

For as long as I can remember I've wanted to be a mother. Being Sam's mom has been amazing and I am so privileged to be able to raise him. Being a mom is both tougher than I imagined it would be (sleepless nights, worrying about every small noise) and more awesome than I thought it would be. Sam is such a precious little boy and I love being able to hang out with him -- even at 2 am!

For my first Mother's Day we went to brunch with our friend, Jen, at the Mill Creek Cafe and then for a walk along the river ravine. It was a gorgeous day and it was wonderful to be able to spend some time outside. I think Sam had a good day too!

Sam and Mommy on our walk in the ravine

Family picture on Mother's Day

Sam's first few days

During Sam's first few days of life Natasha's parents were here to help out while we got used to being a family of three, and while Natasha healed from giving birth. We were so glad that they were willing to come and take care of us by cooking all the meals, doing all the dishes, and even crossing some of the items of Natasha's to-do list for her second week of maternity leave! (The night before Sam was born Natasha had made a list of things to do to keep her busy while waiting for Sam's arrival. Little did she know...!) Below is a sample of the week, in pictures of course!

Second family picture

Folded hands - Day 2

With Opa on day 2

On the couch on day 3

Sam isn't much bigger than our drinking glasses!

Introducing Samuel Robert

Sam - March 30, 2009

Samuel Robert KC just missed his due date by 6 hours and 13 minutes!

Sam after being weighed.

Natasha's water broke at 2:46am on Monday, March 30. Contractions started shortly thereafter and eventually we called both of our parents. We told them we'd keep in touch. We'd also been keeping our midwife informed of our progress and she was monitoring things over the phone.

Sam with Daddy

Natasha was in the midst of contractions which had been about two to three minutes apart for about 45 minutes when all of a sudden she thought she felt the head. (At the time we didn't realize the contractions were so close together but afterwards, when we had time to think about it we recognized that fact. But they went from being 10 minutes apart, and minor, to 2-3 minutes apart, and quite intense, very quickly.) Natasha told Dave "I think I feel the head coming -- you need to check" so he did and he called our midwife and said, "I see the head!" Our midwife said, "It's probably just the membranes" and then with the next contraction the head came out and Dave said, "The head is out!" and he dropped the phone and then with the next contraction he caught the rest of the baby and laid him on Natasha's stomach and then picked up the phone and said, "The baby's born." and our midwife said she'd be right there! It was 6:13 am when Sam made his appearance

Sam with Mommy

So Dave got some towels to cover Sam with. Sam was squeaking so we knew he was okay. Dave unwrapped the cord, which was loosely around Sam's neck and leg, and Natasha asked if it was a boy or a girl and Dave said, "It's a boy."

First family picture

Anyways, once our midwife arrived she checked out Sam and pronounced him healthy. We called our parents, and realizing that Natasha was fairly weak after the birth, we asked her parents to come ASAP and they arrived at 5:30 that afternoon.

Sam with Oma and Opa (Natasha's parents)

Attila's due date!

So Attila is technically due today. Well he/she seems to be happy in the comfortable home Natasha is providing, although we are guessing that he/she might be starting to feel a little squashed in there :) We're looking forward to meeting our little one whenever he/she decides it's time to make an appearance in the outside world!

Natasha and Attila on his/her due date.

All Attila!

March nursery additions

While March has not been as busy as February in the nursery there are still a few new additions. We have decided to go with a diaper service and about a week ago we got our first delivery! Attila's bottom will be arrayed in brightly coloured cloth diapers. (Unless we're traveling -- in which case we'll use disposables.) And here is the change table all stocked!
We also have a lot of bibs, burp clothes, and washcloths ready to go. They are waiting to go in our handy IKEA hanging-thing.
And last, but not least, Dave installed a closet bar so we can hang some clothes of Attila's -- once he/she moves beyond sleepers and onesies. Dave also spent some time hanging pictures (of which we don't have pictures!) so now all we need to have a complete nursery is... Attila!