Eating his sandwich by himself, nap and shoes

Sam has eaten his lunch all by himself for the past 3 days.  I am making it with 1 of the slices using the heel so that it is more firm for him and he is figuring out how to hold it without destroying it.  He loves getting to do it himself.

We are trying to drop his morning nap because if he gets it he is no longer taking his afternoon nap; but he is so very cranky without it.  He is only getting 30 minutes.  We were in the car 2 days ago during when he would normally nap and I was about 10 minutes from home.  I didn't want him to fall asleep so when he would start to drift off I would call his name.  It was so sad because after about 3 minutes of this he would cry when I would stop him from going to sleep.  This is a rough transition for him but he needs more than just a 30 minute nap, he needs the 3 hour nap he gets in the afternoon.  Ugh!  Hoping this gets easier for him soon.

Sam is now in size 4 shoes.

Clapping with song, Megan's shoes and Wha?????

A couple of weeks ago Sam starting clapping with If you're happy and you know it at the correct times instead of just randomly through the song.  He will also clap with every verse instead of doing the other actions (i.e. stomp feet, etc).

Megan has a pair of white keds that she wears when she goes horseback riding and Sam is obsessed with them.  She doesn't wear them around the house because she wears her custom shoes so on Wednesdays (the day of her therapy) the shoes are in the living room before and after her session.  When (not if) Sam sees them he will try to get them.  He grabs them and takes off with them.  I think he probably has a secret hiding place somewhere for his favorite items so I am always telling him to put her shoes down because I don't want them to be lost.  I typically end up having to put them out of his reach because he just can't seem to help himself and he will just keep going after them every few minutes.

Sam is constantly babbling "words" that sound so much like real words.  On Thursday I had him in my lap and I told him to look at me so I could talk to him about something.  We make an effort to get Sam to look into our eyes and talk to us when he is not in trouble because eye contact is definitely a love language for him and we don't want the only time he gets it to be when he is in trouble.  So a couple of times a day I get him to look at me so I can praise him about something or to tell him I love him or that he is a smart boy, etc.  So on Thursday I was trying to do this, get him to look me in the eye and he wouldn't do it - he thought he was in trouble.  I had to put my hands on his face and get him to look up at me, and I said Sam in a sing-songy voice so he would know that he wasn't getting corrected.  When I did this Sam said "wha" - like he was trying to say "what" and I busted up laughing.  I couldn't help it.  He was giving me attitude and saying what to me, at least it certainly sounded like it.  He didn't want to stop what he was doing and look at me, and he let me know it.

Try again...

Sam has been practicing his walking by sitting on Megan's therapy bench, standing up and walking across the room to me.  When he falls down before making it to me, which is about 80% of the time, I say "try again" and he will crawl over to the bench and do it again.

Walking on his knees

Sam has been walking on his knees for some time now.  It is very cute and funny to watch because he uses his knees like feet to "walk" across the floor.

Tonight Will was holding Megan's hands helping her walk across the house and he was saying "walking, walking, walking" to her (we do this to get her to walk).  Sam got so excited and wanted to join in so he started following them by walking on his knees.  He was so happy.  After enjoying the cuteness I went over to him and helped him stand up so he could walk behind them.

Please and All Done

Sam has gotten very good at saying please in sign language and he does it on command.  He will sign please when you ask him if he wants something to eat and he will sign it if you say to him "say please".

He is also starting to sign "all done" but this is more of a copy thing than a "I mean it" thing.  If it were up to him he would never be "all done".

Tough being the little brother some days

Sam loves playing with Megan and her toys and of course he wanted to play with her new kitchen too.  He was so excited about all of the things she was doing.  He stood up at the end of the kitchen and would try to push her so he could walk between her and the kitchen to get to all of the fun stuff.  He would not be allowed to do this even if it wasn't her first time at her new gift.

But the newness of it was getting the best of Sam and he had to be banned from the kitchen for 10 minutes or so until he could calm down enough to share.  Once he was calm they played side by side for 20-25 minutes, passing food back and forth, opening/shutting doors together, discovering a new drawer and the basket full of food.

He also loves her new cleaning items but he uses them like a giant stick to wave around.