Sam-A-Lam

Sammy trying to get water from the dispenser

Wielding a spoon like a pro

All done!

Zoom in to see that trouble molar ... ewww!

Sammy is showing more and more desire to do "big people" tasks and eat "big people" foods. Luckily he sprouted three molars about two weeks ago and has been struggling to get the fourth one through. I won't go into the gory details about the trauma of the last molar coming through, but suffice it to say Sammy has had more than the ordinary teething issues with a couple of his teeth.

Sammy still isn't verbalizing much, I'm guessing he chose to focus on motor skills first, as did Johnny. However, he is getting better at "signing" to get his point across. Last night Sammy was fussing and I asked him "what is it Sammy?" at he patted his mouth with his hand and ran into the kitchen, opened the cabinet door, pulled out a baby food meal and showed it to me. Then he proceeded to mow through two entire baby dinners back to back. I think this kid has a hollow leg ... he often eats more than Johnny does. Sammy really has a great attitude about eating and has a wide range of foods he likes. Luckily, on occassion he has influenced Johnny into trying something new and discovering he likes it too ... yay! Sammy definitely wants to eat what we are eating and points at my plate insistently until I let him try everything. I still give him a fair amount of baby food meals though, as he seems to get tired of chewing before he gets full. When he finally does get his fill, Sammy throws his arms up in the air and says "All done!" So cute! Sammy does very well with a spoon and fork and has a strong preference to feed himself. I encourage this enthusiastically, even if it ends up with a mess and a bath afterwards.

I took Sammy to get a new pair of sneakers the other day and found that the shoes he had been wearing were way too small! Luckily he rarely had them on, but when we took a walk down the street the other day he kept sitting down and taking his shoes off. I got the message. So, he is now the proud owner of a new pair of size 5 1/2 wide sneakers.

Sammy started waving a while back ... also totally darling. He does the Miss America kind of side to side wave with open fingers rather than the typical finger flap kids often do. He says "bye!" as he waves although it comes out like a long musical "eye!"