YEAR ONE

Sammy,

What. A. RIDE! I think we are both completely different people than we were a year ago.

I'm struggling to write something here that hasn't already been said by every mother before me, like how grateful I am for you, or how much you've taught me, or how I could just cuddle you and watch you play all day, or how you amaze me with how intelligent and sweet you are...These things are all true, of course, but they just don't do it justice. Being your mom has been the biggest challenge of my life, which somehow has unimaginable rewards even when I'm failing at it.

It's such indescribable joy to be proud of my son. It doesn't even matter what you do. Of course sometimes you frustrate me, and I know when you get older you'll make mistakes. But I know no matter what you do, I will always be proud to call you my son, because that's just how much I love you.

You are sweet, inquisitive, funny, shy, persistent, strong, adorable, cheerful, patient, well-behaved...all the things I'm sure every mother says of every child. But to have a child of mine own who is all of these things, whose every moment I get to be a part of, who will continue to grow and expand upon who he is as I watch in amazement with a love that is ever exceeding its perceived limitations--that is what astonishes me every day, and what makes me feel like the luckiest woman on earth.

You really are such an easy baby. Rarely cranky, a good eater, patient at (most) diaper changes, easy-going, silly and smart. Nursing is still going great, which makes me really happy. I think when it's over, I'll miss it more than you, so for now I just soak you all in as much as I can while you still let me snuggle you close.

I love you and thank you with all my heart, and I cannot wait for the day when you have a child of your own so you can finally comprehend the love I have for you.

Year one stats:

You are 22 pounds and 28.5 inches tall!

Nicknames: anything Sam related, Mr. Baby, Baby Man.

Favorite foods: plain greek yogurt, any pasta, 7 layer bean dip, chili, pot roast, cheesy chicken broccoli, apple sauce oatmeal, cheerios. You also LOVE water (especially from cups with straws and mommy's water bottle) and loved cow's milk from the very first drop a couple days ago.

You're a great eater and a fabulous sleeper and you constantly impress us with how quickly you learn and master new things.

You took your first steps at 10 months old, with your first unassisted step the day before you turned 10 months. In just two weeks you were a walking machine.

Stood alone around 9 months.

Started actively playing with us and being silly.

Fed yourself crackers at 8 1/2 months.

Had your first baby food at 6 months, brown rice cereal then sweet potatoes. Started crawling!

Pulled yourself to standing at almost 6 months, and cut your first tooth on your half birthday.

Got to sitting on your own at 5 1/2 months not long after you had learned to sit unassisted.

At 5 months we started scheduled naps and early bedtime in your own crib with a modified cry it out technique. BEST DECISION EVER.

At 3 months--you laughed!

First rolled over at 2 1/2 months.

Had our first "conversation" at 2 months.

First smile was around 4 weeks.

Gained 3 pounds in month one and enjoyed lots of tummy time and started making sounds at about 4 weeks.

My favorite things you do: smack your lips when you see me drinking from a straw because you want me to share, clap and wave, drum on stuff, put things on/in things, nose crinkle, dork laugh/cough, play with souji's tail, shake your head "no", go nuts when we let you stand up on the couch, make "vrooooom" noises when playing with your trucks or buses, love your daddy to pieces, snuggle your croccy with all your might and a good grunt or two, pull or push a toy as you walk along, "pet" souji, race around downstairs with your scooter and put toys in it as you go as if you were grocery shopping, make yourself laugh, play with my face and hair, and smile and laugh at my ridiculous songs.

Year two, here we come!!

NINE. MONTH. POST.

oh, mother of six month old samson. little did you know the tornado of time-suck about to blow through your life.

i cannot believe i have let THREE ENTIRE MONTHS go by without updating your blog, you little minute-munching monster! now that you're crawling like a mad man and i'm working two (fantastic!) jobs (that i'm very grateful for!), i feel like every single week goes by in the blink of an eye, which makes my two days off each week only last for about, what, a nanosecond?? that's

not very reassuring math, kid!

well, since this blog is going to account for THREE months instead of the usual ONE, let's just jump back in where we left off--

on our walk samson was squinting into the sun and then he brought

the blanket up in front of his eyes. i thought it was just a coincidence,

but then he kept doing it, and would take it down and look around

again when the sun was behind him. what a freaking genius baby.

· · Share · 7 October at 09:47
you are often times doing things that i think make you a genius. and whenever i point them out to your dad, he kindly informs me that i am being "one of those parents"... but seriously, child, you are constantly amazing me.

in early october you had your first vegetable--sweet potato. the first day you ate about half of it and then politely asked to be excused from the table...in so many words. and the next day you ate it all! we have been doing a new veg every monday and so far the only the you despised was broccoli (though when it's mixed with other things you totally dig it) and the only think that ithink bothered you was banana. kind of hard to tell what causes diaper rashes, but we'll wait a bit before we let you try that again.

other than that, i can pretty much feed you anything and, as long as i smile and say yay, you'll not only eat it, you'll beg for it. of course, it always takes you a few bites to remember that you like food and that i'm not trying to poison you, but once the light bulb comes on again, you make it quite evident that the baby food express better not leave samson station until you are good and ready. (i think louis ck hit the nail on the head here--babies are like etch a sketches that you shake every day.)

the new job has been much more awesome than i thought it would be. i guess i needed a break more than i realized. but more importantly, it feels so great to be doing something i care so much about, and to know that while i'm away, you and your dad are building an amazing relationship that i'm so grateful for. as much as i love that job, my favorite part of the day is coming home to hear all about the adventures you had on your "daddy day". and i know i'm putting words in your mouth which cannot yet speak words, but i do believe you LOVE daddy days. and you have plenty of reason to.

i have loved samson more than i can even comprehend since the very

second he was born. we have had our ups and downs together, and

some of those slumps were some of the lowest points of my life.

through it all, though, there was never a moment i wasn't glad i had

him. despite this, however, last night was the first time since he's been

born that i realized i am finally where i want to be, and i can finally say,

i LOVE my life, every bit of it. it's perfect.

· · Share · 15 October at 20:07




on october 16, a shocking event occurred!

a tooth! i found a tooth this morning!! after feeding him, i thought i'd check his mouth out and i felt a little corner of his bottom tooth coming out! wouldn't even have known it if it weren't for his runny nose making a 2nd appearance. this guy is tough as nails. ♥

· · Share · 16 October at 07:08

this baby is officially

exhausting to keep up with. crawling, standing, getting into stuff, less easily entertained...i think the days of me getting anything done are over.

· · 1 November at 18:26






despite this post, i still maintain that i am excited to for you to start walking. as it stands now, it's getting hard to take you on outings where you're in a high chair or stroller for long periods of time, because you have such a strong desire to crawl around! which you, of course, can't do most places. but once you can walk, a break from sitting will be a much easier solution to provide to you. but, it does not, as of yet, even seem to have occurred to you that you could take a step on your own, let alone stand by yourself. so i don't think that will be happening any time soon. doesn't really bother me, though; they say crawling is very good for your brain, so keep it up, kiddo!

so sam and i both have some sort of cold starting, me a sore throat, and he a VERY runny nose.....like, so runny it was all over his face this morning.....even in his eyebrows. :( so when i went to use the snot sucker on him, it became apparent that he has figured out that, in addition to turning his head this way and that in angry protest, he can also GRAB MY HANDS and pull them away, which is much more effective. he learns too quickly...

· · 9 November at 07:32
like i said before: genius.

so samson now crawls toward me and into my lap and fusses when he's

hungry. so. cute. and awesome.

· · 10 November at 08:37
you do this all the time now, and not just when you're fussy. sometimes you just want to sit in my lap while you chew on a toy or i read you a book. it's wonderful.

thank you samson for taking a 2 1/2 hour nap this

morning so i could shower and then nap for 2 hours myself. that's the stuff that happy, productive mommies are made of. also, the fact that now, when i put you down in your crib, you look for your stuffed alligator, pull it toward yourself, and cuddle it, makes me all kinds of crazy for you. ♥

· · 15 November at 16:41

just went grocery shopping with samson, and for the first time he decided what was OUTSIDE the cart was way more interesting than any of the toys INSIDE the cart--and he proceeded to reach for every thing he saw. then, when his daddy came up to say hi to him, he BEAMED from ear to ear and started laughing his goofy laugh. he really loves that guy, and it makes me so happy.

· · 15 November at 16:43

samson played with one of his toys "correctly" for the first time today!! he has a toy that suction cups to his high chair and spins around, and he usually just tries to eat it (of course) but today he was spinning it like crazy! over and over again. i could see him thinking, "oh, so that's what that does...". watching him learn new stuff is one of my favorite things about being a mom.

· · 15 November at 16:46

in late november you learned the stereotypical baby trick of repeatedly knocking things on the ground in order to make me pick them up. oh the joys of motherhood.

samson has started to get really cuddly and lovey when he's tired instead of just cranking. it is unbearably cute.

· · 23 November at 20:08

so i used to sing samson a sweet little song as i got him ready for bed each night. eventually the novelty of that wore off and did nothing to soothe him anymore. so the last couple of nights, i instead gave him his stuffed whale to play with (a character from Dr. Seuss's If I Ran the Zoo) and improvised a rap about what a whale-ophile samson totally is: "samson loves whales from his head to his toes! i said, samson loves whales and he don't care who knows!" worked like a charm. ;)

· · 25 November at 18:36

samson having fun in the tub playing with a cup = craziness. i'm talking macing little kids in the face at a walmart on black friday crazy. MAN that kid loves cups.

· · 29 November at 19:58

my son is a freaking WEIRDO. the noises he makes when he wakes at night and is trying to fall back to sleep...just, what the heck. i love that little dufus.

· · 1 December at 23:28

so yesterday i put samson in his bouncer in the kitchen while i was making myself something to eat. when i passed him to get something out of the fridge, i noticed he had an ornament from the tree in his hands. HE HADN'T BEEN ANYWHERE NEAR THE TREE YET THAT DAY. that little houdini! he must have gotten a hold of it the day before and hid it in his bouncer for later!

· · Yesterday at 08:01

samson has really been exploring his vocal range lately. the variety of noises coming out of this kid you would not believe. it's like he's realized that his mom and dad don't say one syllable over and over again, but rather a combination of syllables. so he's trying to sound more like us. :)

· · Yesterday at 08:08

i recently tried to introduce chunks of food to you, and you apparently thought i was trying to kill you. you could not fathom why on earth i would put something into your mouth that was not a moosh or a liquid, and you made that quite clear. i tried foods you already loved, but you would absolutely not stand for my insubordination and demanded they be mashed to a fine puree, dang it! so i obliged, but a couple of days later i snuck some ONLY HALF-MUSHED peas into your broccoli/squash mixture (MWAHAHAHAHAHA!) and lo and behold--SUCCESS!! ...well, sort of. you ate them without complaint, but you haven't quite grasped the idea that i mean for you to chew them. oh well, one thing at a time.
on the 22nd of dec., your dad gave you a ritz cracker, and you. went. NUTS for it. it was as though something clicked in your brain, and you were suddenly ready to move on to chewing. that seems to be how you operate with most things; i'm realizing as i think back on other adventures. you have such clearly divided stages. "i'm just a blooooooooob--and now i'm suddenly aware." "i can't siiiiiiiiiiiit--and now i can." "no solid fooooooooooooods--nom nom nom." you've also had goldfish crackers with much excitement. you're pretty good at picking things up with pincer fingers, but could definitely use some work actually getting the stuff you grab into your food hole.






you got to meet santa a week or so before christmas. you were not that impressed.







at the beginning of the month we had a wonderful visit from your grandpa dave and grandma marilou. they thought you were the bees knees, for some reason.

and now, you've started climbing things, and it is scary. you made it up on the first stair, and i got distracted by souji, and you fell off the stair and luckily didn't bonk too badly. you were not pleased with my negligence, though. not 30 minutes later you managed to climb up onto a pantry shelf, which you immediately regretted and screamed about. you also love to climb into the dishwasher and try to throw your grandma jan's dishes on the ground. you are seriously a maniac.

for christmas your great grams got you a little scooter to help you learn to walk and you were surprisingly good at it from the first minute you tried it out, and you just keep getting better. i'm really pleased with your persistence and patience when trying to figure things out. you rarely get frustrated, usually reserving that emotion for when i place something you want out of reach, and even then it only lasts a moment.

well, my dear, i suppose that sums up the last three months more or less. (ok, so it took me a couple weeks to finish the post, making it three and a half months now...)
as always, you continue to impress me with how awesome and lovable you are. a couple of days ago, you were so stinking irresistible that i was this close to calling in to my second job, just so i wouldn't have to miss a moment of you. i can't believe that your first words and steps could be in the very near future. i look forward to all you have to tell us and all the places you'll go.