Catching up

Sam is not one to sit and play with anything for very long.  He normally has a very short attention span and has to get moving again.  However, the other day he was playing with the piggy bank.  He had it on its side with the door facing up and he was opening and shutting it.  He thought that by doing this he was making it play music - but in reality his knee was touching the pig's nose which makes it play music.  He was so enamored with himself that he just kept doing it and smiling.  He played for 4-5 minutes which is a really long time for him.

When my mom was visiting Sam starting making a new noise.  He was kind of yelling a big O sound when he was happy or excited about something that was happening.  He is still making this noise and it is so very funny.

A few days ago I found a used Radio Flyer tiny trike.  It is a really cute tricycle that you use your feet to move instead of pedals.  I picked it up at night after the kids were in bed and I cleaned it up for the next day.  The next morning I sat Sam on the trike and he took off across the floor and then when he was done he held onto the handlebars, stood up and walked backwards to get over the seat.  Will and I were both impressed with this maneuver.  He has ridden it several times since then and has even gotten off once by standing up and swinging one leg over to the other side.

Sam and Megan have "fought" over toys for some time now.  Anytime Megan is playing with something Sam will crawl over to her and try to take it away from her.  She generally takes it right back but Sam has gotten good about grabbing the toy and taking off away from her.  A couple of days ago Megan was reading a book and Sam crawled over and took it away.  The book passed back and forth between them several times before Sam decided to grab it and "run".  He crawled about 4 feet away from Megan, turned his back to her and put the book in his lap.  He would look down at the book and then over his shoulder to see if she was coming to get it from him.  He repeated this, look at the book/look over his shoulder for Megan, every 5-6 seconds for a good minute or so.  Megan was no longer interested in the book and had moved onto something else but it didn't keep him from making sure his stolen treasure was safe.

Last weekend after the kids had their afternoon snack I grabbed an apple for myself and sat on the couch to eat it.  The kids were playing in the floor in the living room and it took Megan about 2 minutes to realize I was eating something.  Once she realized it she came over to ask for a bite and when Sam saw that he joined her.  They were both sitting at my feet looking up for a bite so I decided to give it a try.  I offered the apple first to Megan and then to Sam.  They both took bites out of it and chowed down on them.  Together they finished the remaining 1/3 of my apple and loved every bite.

A couple of weeks ago we moved Sam up to a size 3 diaper.  He is now wearing the same size as Megan.  He is still a little too skinny for this size so you have to overlap the tabs, but he is consistently peeing through the smaller size so we had to do something.  We are having to limit his liquids at night because even in the bigger size he is waking up wet 3-4 times a week.

Waving good-bye....I have been working with Sam to wave hi and good-bye.  Last week he would mimic the motion that Will made when waving but he wouldn't do it if I waved at him (in a different way) or if you just said the words.  Today Will and I had our first date in a long time because we finally found a new sitter. When it was time for her to leave I said to Sam "say bye-bye" and I waved like I normally do and Sam did his little wave, different from mine, to her.  It was so cute.  After she left I tried to get him to wave "hi" but he wouldn't do it and when I tried "bye-bye" again he did it once and then was done.

Sign language...we have taught Megan several words/phrases in sign language and are doing the same with Sam.  He doesn't like it when you take his hand/arm and do the signs for him - he just tightens his arm; but we keep trying.  This evening when it was time for dinner I did the sign for eat and Sam got all excited (he knows this sign and has responded to it for a couple of months) and when I said say "please" we think he signed please.  He repeated the motion more than once so it looks like "please" may be Sam's first sign language - how polite of him.