Warm Springs Picnic pics & short update

Just wanted to take a sec and post some pics. These are from our picnic up at the Little White House in Warm Springs GA. We had a blast, come to think of it I believe that this was Sammy's first picnic table picnic.

Few updates as well before I get to uploading. Sammy has begun to walk. Seriously, he is taking five and six steps at a time! I suppose this means that he is a Toddler now. Our little Sammael is not longer a baby. Such bittersweet days!

Flat Rock Park

I took Sammy to Flat Rock Park here in Columbus the other day. Sammy had his first swing ride! He also had his first slide which was fun for him and disasterouse for me. I held him on my chest and went down with him. This was one of those yellow plastic covered slides deals. Needless to say I did not check the slide for obstructions. Right at teh bottomthere was a distinct spash and suddenly my entire backside was soaking wet! My loud grumbling seems to amuse Sammy. My Firent Kevin, who came out with us, seemed to think it was pretty funny as well. So that ended our outing. We had been there for a good hour anyway.

There are trails and little playgrounds, and a lake. It really is a nice park, I cant believe I had forgotten about it.

This video was taken with my cell phone camera so the quality is not what I would like it to be, but I was just glad I had a camera on me at the time.

Lucky for Sammy

Lucky for Sammy I am a much more dedicated father than I am a dedicated blogger. Whew so long since my last update I hardly know where to begin. So I will do this as a stream of consciousness.

Thanksgiving was wonderful. We made the 3 ½ hour drive to Athens starting at 8pm, just a bit past Sammy’s bed time. This gave us an easy drive there. Sammy did eventually wake up but was very content to sleepily watch the lights outside the car window.

We arrived at, Alicia’s brother, Wes’ house somewhere between 11:30 and 12:00 with a wide-awake, raring to go, amped up Sammy. I mean AMPED. I Don’t believe I have ever seen him crawl as fast and furious as he did that night. Back and forth, around the table, to the door, back to me or Alicia then to Tammy, Wes’ wife, then to Wes and around again.

Tammy prepared an absolutely mouthwatering thanksgiving dinner that included some of the best vegetarian cooking that I have had in some time. And she definatly got Sammy approval!

On the way back Sammy got a chance to see Atlanta. He was wide eyed. The windows of our car suddenly became the viewing screens of a strange never before seen world of concrete, glass and glowing flashing signs. And I thought that McDonalds advertising on Sesame Street was bad. But whatever, Sammy thought it was cool. We stopped at our friend Jacqueline’s house in Newnan for a visit (where I have my third thanksgiving dinner) and then shot off toward Columbus. Sammy did great until about 70 miles to Columbus. He never really blew his top or anything but was a bit fussy.

All in all a wonderful trip and Sammy did great for such a long drive. I am glad. We are thinking of driving over to Statesboro so that Sammy can participate in Dr. Jan Kennedy’s Strange Situation research. For those of you that don’t know that is Bowlbey and Ainsworth’s experimental design for testing the attachment style of kids.

Today we visited the Coca Cola Space Science Theater. Sammy thought it was pretty cool but got tired of it pretty quickly. I think the Omnisphere Theater was a bit much for him. Not that he didn’t like it, he did for about 10 minutes. He seemed pretty overwhelmed though so we had to head out early. I think he thought I was going to try to put him to sleep every time the lights went out. During these times he fussed and wiggled a lot. When the lights came back on he seemed okay. I think his tooth was bothering him as well. All in all a good trip. You gottah know when to cut these things short so a good time does not turn into a disaster. I wish I had some pictures but he was in the sling and it was just us two. Next time we will defiantly photograph our adventure.

I believe Sammy’s favorite thing, and mine too (aside from the theater which is just the unsaid coolest) was a new planetary display they had. There was a black backdrop with tiny light as stars and a spherical screen in the center. A touch screen computer allowed you to choose what planet you wished to view and then a projector cast the image of the planet onto the spherical screen disco ball looking thing. There it was in miniature, the planet of your choice. Sammy pointed at this one a lot, which is how we know he thinks something is cool lately. He will point and sometimes point and say, “wudis” (translation: what’s this) or beign going on in his native touge so fast we cannot keep up.

So now for the bullet bits of info…
· Sammy has four teeth, two big ol front teeth, one bottom tooth, and another bottom tooth on the way. The past few days (nights rather) have been pretty rough. Lets put it this way; he opens his mouth willingly when he sees you have baby ambisol on your finger. This is thebest shot i have of his teeth, he's not too happy about it. This is the best pic i have of his teeth so far, he's not too happy about it.

· Sammy is taking steps to get from the couch to the ottoman. Not many, two at tops so far. He can stand pretty much as long as he wills and can play with things in his hands while keeping his balance.
· Sammy has several words. He began with “buby”, and will sometimes waves along with this one. He is now pointing at things saying “wudis” which we are figuring is his attempt to mimic us when we point and say “what’s this” So when he does that we name the thing he’s pointing at. He seems to like this game.
· Just today Sammy pointed to the light fixture on the ceiling and said “wudis”, so I responded “light”. He began trying to make L sounds, not much luck. But later when I said “Sammy where’s the light?” He looked up at it and pointed. Alicia and I were quite impressed.

I will try to update the Garcia Family Productions webpage pretty soon with all the pics from thanksgiving and some videos etc. It’s hard to find the time at home. I have been coming to the library to write at night when Alicia gets home and I don’t have the Google applications on this computer. I suppose I could get it and keep a flash dive for photos. I will look into that. But for now, this will be my primary mode of disseminating family news.