1 year portraits and laughing

Sam had his portrait session this morning.  We had the first appointment of the day, which is always nice for any appointment.  The photographer was very good.  She was entertaining to Sam, she was patient and gave me the poses I wanted.

Sam did great.  He wouldn't smile for the first couple of minutes but once I started tickling him he loosened up and started having fun.

Sam is laughing more often now at things that are funny and not just because he is being tickled.  I have started boxing him - pretending like I am boxing and touching him with my fist - and he finds it hysterically funny.  Tonight after dinner Will was playing in the floor with him.  Will was lying on his back and Sam was on the floor above his head.  Will put a coin in his mouth (something we do with Megan all the time) and when Sam turned and saw it he laughed, a strong, solid laugh.  It was very cute.

I love that his sense of humor is developing.

Copying Megan

Sam has started copying Megan's actions.  He has started playing with toys while lying on his tummy and kicking his feet.  He is also sitting up against the couch and bouncing back and forth off of it.  It is cute that he is copying her.

Open WIDE

When Sam is eating he opens his mouth for bites in a "regular" way, except when he is eating something he REALLY likes.  When he is getting something he thinks is really delicious he opens his mouth as wide as he possibly can.  It is really funny to see.  I told Will that he had started doing it and then the other day Will fed him blueberry yogurt for snack and he got to see it.

Sam can crawl ridiculously fast when he wants to.  It literally looks like he is in fast-forward sometimes.  Zoom...

1 year checkup

Sam had his checkup with Dr. Fennell this morning.  As usual, he did great.  He said that Sam has some congestion but everything else looks good.

He is now 31" tall and weighs 19 lbs 7.5 ounces.  He continues to be in the 90th percentile for height and 20-30th for weight.

He had a finger prick to test his iron level (which was fine) but man he did not like it.  He ripped the bandaid off and bled everywhere before we could get another one on him.  He didn't like the shots but handled them much better.

Happy birthday

Sam turned 1 today.  Will, Megan and I all went into his room together this morning and sang Happy Birthday to him.  He just sat there and looked at us but it was a fun thing to do and maybe the beginning of a family tradition.

We waited until after her morning nap to start opening presents.  He wasn't really into ripping the paper, but he did enjoy the presents that came out of it.  After nap we gave him a couple more gifts, this time unwrapped and he was much happier with this method.

Sam was still not feeling 100% today, he had a runny nose and was whiny but he still had a great day.

Eating like a champ

Sam is doing awesome without his bottles and from the way it is going I am sure he would have been thrilled dropping them a lot sooner than he did.

Recent meals Sam has enjoyed include a taco with tomatoes, avocado and cheese; pb&j sandwich; manwich; chicken pot pie; spaghetti and meatballs and baked tilapia.  He has had mango, pears, peaches, strawberries, bananas and pineapple.  The only food that Sam hesitates to eat is green beans - he will eat them, just not his favorite.

So far his cold isn't slowing down his eating, though Megan didn't start eating less until day 4.

Doing okay

Sam is doing okay with the cold.  He is sleeping, which is great.  He is very whiny and emotional but he still wants to run around and play some.  He is sitting in one place for long periods of time, which is extremely unusual.  He isn't running a fever, which is also nice.

Sam's first cold

I am so bummed for Sam.  He got up from his afternoon nap and his nose was running.  I was really hoping he wouldn't catch the cold since Megan has been sick for a few days already.

Since he has never been sick I don't know how he will handle it.  I hope that he will be up for his party on Saturday; we will have to make a decision on Friday based on how he is feeling.

The really sad thing is that Sam hates having his nose wiped so every time I do it he starts to cry, which of course makes it worse.

Standing, stairs, crouching and meals

Sam has been standing by himself a lot more.  He is consistently letting go or pushing back so he can stand freely.  He is even swinging his arms or clapping toys together while he is standing there.

We have a 1-step up landing area at the bottom of our stairs and Sam has been having a blast playing on it.  He keeps going up and down, up and down taking toys from the floor up or going up to get a toy and bringing it down.  He has been great about not climbing the stairs unless I am over there to watch him, until today.  This morning he decided it was time to go up.  I have to be careful not to correct him while he is in the process of doing something where he could fall because he tries to instantly rectify the situation and would jump off of the stairs.  I walked up behind him while he was going from stair 2 to stair 3 and told him he wasn't allowed to climb the stairs by himself and he climbed/gracefully rolled down.

Sam has started crouching down while he is on hands and knees.  It is really cute to watch.  This morning he crawled over to the coffee table and then crouched down to see into the toy baskets and reached into one and got a toy.

Sam has been doing great without his bottle.  At first he tried to drink his milk like it was his bottle - he didn't want to put it down to take a bite.  It took me about 1/2 of breakfast to get him with the program.  I had to stop feeding him and tell him to take a drink and then take the cup away to get him to eat more.  By dinner though he had the program down.  He was even taking drinks when he wanted one without me having to prompt him.

Clapping Déjà vu and last bottle

Last night I was reading through Megan's old blog posts and I saw one about the day we finally saw her clap her hands for the first time.  She was doing it in bed and I saw her on the monitor as Will walked into her room and he got to see her in person.

This morning when I went to get Sam up he was sitting in his bed clapping his hands.  This is the first intentional clapping he has done and he was so proud of himself.  He clapped all during getting changed/dressed as well.  So very cute.

With Megan we stopped giving her formula/bottles on the day she turned 1.  Our plan was to do the same with Sam but we ran out of formula today with his lunch bottle and since we are only 6 days away we decided to just stop the bottles now.  I am excited to be done with the bottles and I am sure Sam will be too.  He is always unhappy when he finishes one because he is still hungry so now he won't have to go through that.

"Mmmegan" and crawling

When I get Sam up in the morning I hug/kiss him and then lay him on his changing table and change his diaper and get him dressed for the day.  This morning I said say "da-da" and Sam just went back to saying "gagaggagaggaa"; and then I said say "ma-ma", same response; and for the heck of it I said say Megan and he said "Mmmm-an". He said a two syllable word that started with m and ended in "an".  It was awesome.  He got  so excited and kept saying it over and over again.  For the rest of the day he would try to say it every time we asked.

A few days ago he started getting the hang of helping me dress him.  He can now put his arms through the arm holes if I line them up for him - before he wouldn't keep pushing his arms all the way through, but now he does.  

Sam is now crawling the traditional way at least 50% of the time.  If he is on carpet he crawls the traditional way, if he is on a slicker surface (wood, tile, etc) he crawls the way he started out with the push/pull technique.  

On his own

Sam has been letting go of us/things to stand up by himself more often.  He is doing it a few times a day, though he doesn't stay standing for more than a couple of seconds once he lets go.

Tonight he let go of the table and turned toward Will - - he didn't move his feet, he twisted his torso all while not holding onto anything.

Overachiever

This afternoon we were invited to our neighbor's house to enjoy some authentic food from their homeland.  After lunch we all sat in the living room floor with the kids.  Eventually Sam followed their 8-10 year old son to the stairs.  He looked at them and then climbed onto the first step and dove back off.  He did this 3 times and then the kid ran back down the stairs and told Sam to follow him. 

Sam climbed every single stair, by himself, all the way to the top.  Once it was apparent he was going up I followed him up to make sure he was safe.  Prior to today he hadn't climbed even one step and just like that he climbed an entire staircase.  I carried him to the bottom because he was not the slightest bit interested in climbing down.  He wasn't down for more than a few seconds before he decided he was going back up and this time he went much, much faster. 

A little while before the stair achievement Sam was standing up at Will and let go.  He did it twice - he stood without holding onto anything for 2-3 seconds twice.  I told the neighbor that I would be back for them to teach him to walk in a couple of days because obviously their house is where Sam wants to perform new tricks. 

Sam also decided to be very chatty while we were there but he did something new.  He was growling/grunting and then started talking while in that voice.  It was hilarious.  He was growling/grunting all of his sounds. 

Not feeling his best

I think Sam is finally starting to cut his molars.  He has been a little warm today and he is extra tired - just wanting to sleep and lay his head on my shoulder. 

He did feel well enough to want some of Megan's egg roll.  It was spicy though I wasn't sure he could handle it.  I gave him one little piece from it and he wasn't thrilled with it, but he kept asking for more. 

Curious

Sam was playing with Megan's baby doll today.  First he drug it around with him by the foot.  He didn't do anything with it except take it with him wherever he went. 

Next he sat up, pulled the doll into his lap and proceeded to examine the baby's eye.  It has eyes that open and close when you change its position.  He poked that eye repeatedly for 5-7 minutes.  When he would poke it the lid would lift up and then when he pulled his finger out it would drop back down.  He was fascinated and just kept poking it. 

Eventually he moved on to pulling on the ears for a little bit and then he finally bit the nose and threw it to the side.  He didn't play with it for the rest of the day. 

Bites

I have been trying to teach Sam to take bites out of food, but the only thing I had been successful with was a banana.  Anything else I tried he wouldn't bite through it.  Tonight for dinner he had scrambled eggs and some toast.  He didn't do well with the first bite of toast, as usual; but man after he got the taste of the toast it was on.  He took awesome bites to eat the rest of what I was feeding him.  I am so proud of him for figuring it out. 

Wrestling

I started wrestling in the floor with Sam last night before bed.  I would knock him down sideways or backwards and wrap my hand behind his head to keep him from hitting it, which ended up not being necessary because he would catch himself every time and roll out of it.  He had a blast.  He was laughing and laughing and laughing.  He would try to crawl away and I would get him again - he thought that was great fun. 

After a few minutes instead of stopping him I was going to let him crawl away.  He was so worn out that he could barely crawl and it took everything he had to move just a little bit.  Will and I couldn't help laughing at his sad little attempt to crawl.  Needless to say he ended up in bed not long after that and he was out in less than 5 minutes. 

Mystery solved and self-feeding

Sam has been doing this "odd" thing for a couple of weeks now that is kind of difficult to explain.  He looks at me and smiles and then turns his head to the side and back quickly twice in a row, really fast.  He is playing but it is not something I could figure out where it came from.  Most of his behaviors are things that he has copied from one of us so I was perplexed, until today.  Will is doing that to him when he is in his highchair; and now Sam is doing it to me.  Too cute.  I thought he was developing some weird twitchy thing and was starting to wonder about it. 

Sam is getting better with feeding himself.  He fed himself all of his snack today.  He is still not able to manage anything that has any traction on his tray.  If it doesn't move around freely he can't pick it up - like his fruit, or mac-n-cheese.   He will try to pick it up a couple of times and then give up and put his hands in his lap and wait for me to feed it to him. 

Water, toys and clothing

When Sam is eating he won't drink from his sippy cup.  This is probably my fault because when he was first starting to eat cereal and baby food I didn't give him a drink until he was finished eating.  He knew when he saw his cup that there was no more food and sometimes he would cry because he was still hungry (it was a great way for me to tell he wanted more food).  So now he won't take a drink during the eating process and now that he is eating real food he needs some moisture.  He will fight me and even if I get it in his mouth he won't drink.  So, I found a solution.  Now I will offer him his cup and when he refuses I grab our little squirt bottle.  When Sam sees it he opens his mouth for some water and I give him two little squirts.  It is really something to watch.  I hold up the squirt bottle, he opens his mouth wide, I squirt/squirt the water and he drinks it and goes back to eating.  Will said 'I guess it is all about the presentation'.  It is not that he doesn't want a drink it is that he is still associating his sippy cup with the end of meal time.  Hopefully I can change his thinking on this one but until then, at least I can get him to drink water throughout the meal. 

Sam has figured out that most of our toys make some sort of sound when they are activated.  He doesn't know how they work yet but he does know that if you hit/whack them most of them come on.  So now he goes around the living room flailing his arms at the toys and turning them on.

I moved him up to 18 month pjs on Saturday.  His 12 month are mostly too short - there are still a couple of pair that work but the rest are too short.  Most of his onesies are too short as well but his shirts fit great and his shorts/pants are still a little big but most of them are workable.  I think by the time we have his 1 year photos done he might be in 18 month clothes, in contrast to the size 6 month dress that Megan wore for her 1 year pictures.