Halloween

Sam's daycare had a Halloween Parade yesterday. I went to the school excited to see him wearing is cute little monkey costume and he was so happy to see me....



In fact, he was so happy to see me that he no longer wanted anything to do with the food, toys, children, or teachers at daycare --much less the Halloween Parade. So, instead of our big boy walking in the Halloween Parade like I knew he would do and couldn't wait to see, this is what we saw during the parade...


... a sweet little boy who just wanted his Mama.

15 month check up...

The big news lately is that Sam is walking! Everyday he gets a little more confident as he walks. It started about a month ago with a couple of steps here and there and has progressed to the way he is crawling some and walking some depending on how fast he wants to get where he's going. He's faster in the crawl :) His walk is still unsteady, but every step is taken with great care.

He now eats pretty much anything. His favorites are zucchini, grapes, blueberries, rice cereal, oatmeal, bread, and yogurt. I think he would eat purple grapes all day long if I let him :) I love that fruit is still an acceptable "desert food" for him -- I wish I could say the same for me!

Signing has become a great form of communication for Sam; he doesn't usually say words to communicate, yet. He can say Mama, Dada, "dis" (I think it means "this" when he points to something he wants), and a few choice animal sounds. Every morning he points to the cow on the yogurt container and says "moo". I think it is so cute...and it amazes me that he can recognize the small cow image on the YoBaby container!

His stats have remained consistent with his earlier doctor visits--approximately 75th percentile in height (31.75 inches) and 25th percentile in weight (22.03 pounds).

I started this post about a week and a half ago and I've already seen changes in him that I want to include in the blog, but I realize that I'll never update the blog unless I just do it now (even though I feel like it is incomplete). Large chunks of time don't fall in my lap as often as they used to! I write a few sentences here and there until I think it's ready to post and lately it just isn't getting done! He is changing so fast that I can hardly keep up!

The video below is my first attempt at piecing clips together using iMovie. I wanted to show Sam's progression from his funny little crawl to his clumsy walk. He also enjoys throwing the ball and he has finally figured out how to throw it forward instead of backwards--which you will see in the video clip. It's about a minute and a half. Let me know if you are not able to see the video on your computer. There were so many different options for saving the video and I wasn't sure which one to choose, so I may be able to save it in a different way if you can't see it (and you want to).

The Ups and Downs of Daycare

We are back in the FULL swing of things now! I am back at work now and Sam is getting his first daycare experience. Last year, we were so lucky to have my mom around to watch Sam when I went back to work. We are so indebted and grateful for her love and the sacrifices she and Dad made in offering to care for Sam during his first year. We discussed ahead of time, however, that mom was only going to be able to do this for us for Sam's first year. Mom thought it might get a little more difficult to keep up with Sam once he started moving around--she was right :) He is a mover! Thank you so much Mom and Dad.

He has been enrolled in daycare for about 5 weeks now, and in that amount of time Sam has acquired more bugs than I could imagine! He's had pink eye, a cold, an ear infection, a nasty stomach bug, and even a bite on the arm! Every week-except for one- there has been some kind of new illness. Poor thing. I keep telling myself and hoping that he will grow stronger and have a better immune system once he gets through his first year at daycare.

On to the upside of day care...

We went from the first few weeks when Sam cried each and every morning when I dropped him off--to now when (most of the time if he's not sick) he actually seems happy to see his teacher. He actually reaches out to her in the morning when we arrive now! This makes me feel SOOOOO much better about leaving him and going on to work.

They are helping Sam transition into eating table food. When I learned that Sam would be sitting in room full of 16 one-year-olds at lunch with the expectation that he FEED HIMSELF, I was shocked. I didn't even know that this was normal. I was still feeding Sam baby food when he started daycare. Note there were actually two issues: Sam still ate pureed baby food and he didn't feed himself. It wasn't until after week four, that Sam started eating the regular table food that all the other kids ate. Even then, they sometimes have to sprinkle a little of his favorite baby rice on top to coerce him to eat it. They still have to feed him if it requires a spoon, but he does feed himself if the food pieces are big enough to pick up with his hands. We have seen so much progress in this department!

I love that he has a structured day. His teachers post their lesson plans each week and there is usually a theme, such as counting, apples, beaches, back to school, etc. There are 4 teachers and 16 children in the room when everyone is there. I think the 4th teacher rotates depending on the numbers in each classroom. His teachers say that he is now coming out of his shell and clapping and dancing during circle time and playing with all the toys (he still loves the cars and trucks). He freely explores the classroom--albeit he is still on his hands and knees! I really thought he would be walking by now, but he is still thoroughly content with crawling and has no interest in walking. They go outside everyday unless the weather is bad and he loves to play on the playground. Their playground has so many more options for children his age than the playground near our home. They also do an arts and craft everyday. I love that I can hang his beautiful paintings on the fridge already!



I like to call it school-not daycare :) I feel that it is preparing him for "big boy school" more than I could do by myself. As much as I would love to stay home with him everyday and as much as I miss him while I'm at work, I do think he is in good hands and he is getting opportunities to explore and socialize that I wouldn't be able to provide otherwise. We are adjusting well (I think) and it works for our family for the time being. :)

Big Trip to Germany!

The thought of taking an active 11 month old little boy on an 8 hour trans-Atlantic flight to Germany to visit our dear family made me nervous. I went over my list a hundred times the week before our flight. How in the world do you pack and prepare for a trip with a young child? I didn't really know what to expect. How would Sam act on the long flight? It wasn't his first flight; we flew to Wisconsin last April. However, the flight to Wisconsin wasn't exactly easy and it was small potatoes compared to a flight to Germany!

We flew from Charlotte, NC directly to Munich Germany on July 2. It was a full flight and a huge plane (the bathrooms were downstairs!). I wondered if the other passengers saw us in the airport and hoped we weren't on their plane. We made Sam walk as much as we could before boarding the plane hoping to wear him out so that he would sleep well on the flight. We were really lucky, Sam slept most of the flight in his bassinet (which I am so thankful that they had on the plane---I highly recommend Lufthansia!!) In fact we had to wake Sam up at the end of the flight because he was still sound asleep and the flight attendants needed to put the bassinet away before landing.



We were so happy to arrive in Munich,Germany and be greeted by Amy. She even had a Mickey Mouse balloon for Sam. It was a beautiful blue sky day in Bavaria. The air was free of all the heavy humidity that we left in Georgia. This is a great time of year to visit Germany. We soon arrived in Isen, where Amy and Peter live. It's a beautiful small village outside of Munich. We couldn't wait to get there to finally meet our new niece, Lilly and see Cooper.

We enjoyed spending time with Amy, Peter, Cooper, and Lilly. We hoped that we could be more help to Amy than work for Amy during this visit. With a newborn baby and an active 3 1/2 year old, Amy sure has her hands full at home---without the addition of guests with a baby, too!

We took a few excursions ...

seeing the animals at the Poing Petting Zoo...


hiking...


eventually the hiking wore our little guy out...


sightseeing in Munich...


Alan even participated in a German Triathlon...


All in all, I think our favorite moments were spent at Amy and Peter's lovely home. We ate together and played together trying not to waste a moment of time with each other. We miss getting to see them as often as we could when they lived in the US.

The boys loved playing in the back yard...

Swimming in the pool...


playing with trucks with no inhibitions! :)


and reading books.


We will always remember Sam's first birthday celebration in Germany. Amy and I made a cake and we enjoyed singing to Sam and eating birthday cake that evening in the back yard. Here are some pictures we took just before Sam dug into his birthday cake.




And here is the birthday boy examining his first piece of cake...he wasn't so sure about it!



But, he loved the clapping and singing that went along with it :)



Thank you Amy, Peter, Cooper and Lilly for having us in your home. We loved the time we spent together with you and will cherish the memories!

Summertime Fun

It always takes me some time to get adjusted to summer. I know that my friends and family who have "real jobs" that don't get summers off are probably rolling their eyes right now. Seriously, as a teacher, you go-go-go all school year night and day with work. Then summer hits and all the school work suddenly comes to a hault. That is the point when I find myself not knowing what to do with all the spare time. I take some time to be lazy... but that really does get old quick. I like to have a purpose each day. Anyway, this is how summer has always been for me. The first week or two are a little akward as I figure out what to do to keep myself busy, and then I figure it out and before I know it summer is almost over.

This year has been a little different considering I now have a busy baby boy to take care of each day. When summer arrived, I started out not knowing what to do with him all day long. I felt frazzled at the end of the day, but I really didn't do any work other than take care of Sam. I was surprised how difficult it was to do simple chores--like laundry, cleaning, and cooking--while caring for an 11 month old little boy. I wondered how my friends and family who stay home with their children do it. I craved interaction with adults and even a little time to myself to read or exercise and I wasn't getting anything done around the house. If anything, we were making a bigger mess of the house being home all day!

We are now a good month into summer break, and I finally feel like I've got a good routine that works for Sam and me. It's taken some trial and error to figure out the best time to eat, sleep, and play. It's not the perfect schedule...I call it the flexible schedule (that's the media specialist coming out in me). Give or take 30 minutes, we get up around 7:00 am and get ready to exercise. I usually jog or walk with Sam in the stroller. We get home around 9:00 and eat breakfast and Sam takes his morning nap usually between 9:30 am - 10:30 am. When he wakes up, we play for a while and then eat lunch around noon. After lunch, we head out of the house for a while. Sometimes we go to the swimming pool, the grocery store, or run errands. After our outing, Sam is usually ready for his afternoon nap around 2:30 pm - 3:00 pm. When he wakes up from his afternoon nap, Sam plays inside and we get ready for dinner. Sam usually eats dinner around 6:00 pm and we start getting him ready for bedtime at 7:30 pm. None of these events on our schedule happen at the exact time I've described here, but this is a sketch of what our routine looks like for the most part. In fact, Sam has even skipped entire naps at times. This schedule gives me something to aim for each day. It feels good to have a semi-routine so I can attempt to plan around his naps and feedings.

On Friday mornings, I take Sam to a Kindermusik class downtown. We go at 11:00 am on Fridays, so it forces me to make sure we get an early start on the day so he will have time for a good nap before Kindermusik class. The class is called "Sign and Sing". I'd like to teach Sam some basic baby signs so that he can start communicating what he wants before he is able to talk. He has made some progress, but at this point, I think the classes were more for my benefit than his. It helps me to see the baby signs and learn ways to teach them to Sam. Who knows if we'll be successful, but I figure it can't hurt to try to learn the basics--such as eat, drink, more, all done, hello, bye, sleep, etc. So far, Sam can do the sign for "more" and wave hello and bye-bye, but he doesn't seem to understand the meaning yet. He will do the sign for "more" almost any time just to get a rise out of me (I get excited when he does it). He often waves hello or bye-bye...but sometimes when I ask him to wave bye-bye to someone who is leaving he just stares at us. He may even wave after the person is out of sight. Who knows what goes through that little head of his.

Kindermusik has also been a great opportunity for Sam to interact and see other children close to his age. He likes to watch the other children at first and then he will eventually warm up enough to crawl up to them--especially if they are playing with a certain toy or instrument that he wants. I quickly observed the huge differences between girls and boys in this class. We sit in a circle and all the little girls sat nicely in thier mommy's laps, while the boys could hardly wait to dig in to the toy boxes and were crawling and running around the room almost constantly during the class.

I'll try to post some pictures soon!

10 months old!

Our little man is already over 10 months old. I haven't been keeping up with the blog lately just because life has been so busy at work and at home we are trying to savor every moment with Sam. Time has never flewn by as quickly as the past 10 months. It already seems that Sam is no longer a "baby"...but really looks like a little boy already. He is changing so much every day and I'm going to do my best to catch up since I last updated the blog.

Probably the biggest news is that Sam is crawling and cruising furniture now. He has the cutest crawl that reminds me of a hobbling tripod--he keeps his left leg straight like he wants to walk with it and keeps his right leg bent---this results in quite a funny method of getting around. He's mastering his craft more and more each day, though. I'm trying to get some video of his crawl, but he is so camera-happy that every time I get the video camera out to tape it he stops and smiles for the camera. He knows just what to do when he sees a camera pointed at him--but that makes it difficult to get those adorable candid shots.

Sam actually started cruising the furniture before he crawled. I think he prefers walking around over crawling, but he still needs to hold on to something in order to walk around. He does laps around the coffee table in the family room each day. It's great to see him enjoying his exercise time! He loves going around and around over and over again. Of course he's had a few falls, but for the most part he gets right back up on his feet as soon as he can.

It amazes me how quickly he is learning new skills and developing. Last Saturday morning, Alan went to his crib and was surprised to see Sam sitting up in his crib! This was the first time he pulled himself up from a sleeping position to sitting on his own. If that skill impressed us like it did, you can imagine how surprised we were at the very next nap time that same day when we walked in his room to be greeted by Sam STANDING in his crib! Two milestones in 4 hours! :)

Sam has found a few ways to communicate with us already. He waves bye-bye, claps, says "woof", "momma", and "dada" (even if he doesn't actually know what those words mean yet). I actually think, "woof" was his first word :) He greets Buddy and Bailey with with a soft "woof" when they walk in the room. I think he is trying to get their attention when he says it. He loves those dogs.

At his 9 month appointment, he was 18.7 pounds and 28.5 inches tall. This placed him around the 60th% percentile for height and 5th percentile for weight, if I remember correctly. I'm surprised that his weight is so low on the growth charts because he has chubby cheeks, chunky thighs, and a big belly. He doesn't look like a skinny baby...but the numbers seemed small.

Two little teeth have poked their way through his lower gums. I'm sorry I can't remember exactly when they arrived...I hope that doesn't make me a bad mom. I know it was a very busy time when they appeared in his mouth. I just woke up one morning and looked at him and when he smiled there were two little white slivers on his lower gum! It was sometime right before his 9 month appointment. He didn't really act differently when they were coming in. I think he always acts like he is teething, though---drooling contstantly and chewing on things all the time. I've been expecting teeth to come in since January!

I'll close this post with a little video of Sam crawling. There is a cute close up at the end of the clip--hope you enjoy it :)

Playing at the Pool

Here are a few pictures of Sam at the swimming pool. He loves getting in the water and splashing around. He likes to walk around the edge of the baby pool and watch all the other children play. In the big pool, he kicks his feet up and likes to float while one of us holds him and moves him through the water. It is a refreshing way to spend the warm afternoons here in Augusta!