Broken Through

#4 is through! You know he had his bottom front teeth and how he has that cute upper fang? Well, the other one is visible now, when it gets in a bit more, he's going to have the most Adorable Smile (although it's already pretty adorable!) It's all toothy and not a capsule, rough feeling and everything. That explains his lack of sleep. Eric was up 'playing' with him for 2 hours last night, because Sam didn't want to sleep. Guess growing teeth is hard work!

9 months!

Can you believe, Sam turned 9 months old this week! The day after Christmas. I can't believe it's going so fast. I sit down to write about him and it's amazing how fast it changes...on a daily basis. He wants to grow up so fast. He wants to go when we go. He's already army crawling, but he's going to start Crawling any day now.



I haven't had him weighed in a while, but my guess would be that he's at about 16 pounds by now, he keeps growing longer, but he's probably putting on a bit of weight elsewhere, because he's eating solids. He'd eat whatever we ate, if we let him. He really loves to watch when we eat pizza. Bet he'll love it. But not yet.

He has enough hair to provide a wig (don't know where he gets that. And Daddy was able to brush it into a part this week. He'll be getting his first haircut SOON! He's teething too, his gums look really painful. I only wish he'd sleep more, he has been waking up a couple times every night. But we know it's because of his teeth. We also think he's finding his sense of humor. He makes faces at us, and when we laugh, he laughs, like he told some great joke. He loves to bobble his head at us, and laughs at our imitations of him. He's got such a great happy nature.

Baby's First Christmas

First we had Baby's First Christmas. Well, Christmases. Sam enjoyed Willman Family Christmas on Christmas Eve, then we had Christmas at our home Christmas morning, and in the afternoon we went to Oma and Opa's house.

At Willman Family Christmas. Sam learned how to open presents. Though he only barely ripped them. Mostly he'd just flop forward onto them and try to drool them open. That is if he even wanted them opened.



To be totally honest, Sam was just as happy with a box, than the toy itself.



He did enjoy a few toys, this puppy, and a set of keys were big hits. If he could chew on it, inside or out of the box didn't matter, he was happy.



Christmas Eve we all went to church together and then came home, and put the boys to bed, before 10, quite unheard of. Sam even slept pretty well! Probably because we'd exhausted him so well. Then in the morning, Sam woke up before Chris did. Sam was fed, and waiting for Chris. Once Big Brother joined us, Daddy showed us the trains that Santa had left. Santa leaves a train car for Chris each year, but as this was Sam's First Christmas, his train was entirely new from Santa. And since they both wouldn't fit around the tree on the same track, Sam got his own loop raised up on Trestle Track. He was Very Interested!



Then we commenced with the present opening. As you can see, Sam was more interested in the paper than things like the groovy vibrating teething rattle he received.



Eventually he started enjoying the presents within. Santa put oranges in the bottom of the stocking. Even though Santa surely knew Sam couldn't yet eat an orange, Sam had a great time just touching it, and rolling it around on the floor.



It was a pretty Piratey Christmas. While Chris was given Pirate Mickey from Mommy and Daddy, Sam got "That's Not My Pirate" an usborne book. He loves it! He likes to just pet it, or try to chew on the spine of the book. Daddy had to read it right away as soon as it was open, and All my Boys loved it.



Chris picked out a telephone just for Sam. It's one of those old school ones with the rotary dial and string to pull. Chris had so much fun picking it out, and helping to wrap (and Unwrap it) for Sam. He even sat down and tried to show Sam how to play with it. Sam just wants to eat the phone.



Santa brought Sam a box of Cheerios. Guess he decided it was time. We've been going very slowly adding new foods. So at breakfast, we introduced Sam to Cheerios. Sam loves eating with his hands, but these teeny tiny things kind of confuse him. Half of them end up in the chair. But he LOVES them. He would have gone on eating them all day if we'd let him. We also suspect that Sam has invented his own Sign for 'More' instead of the the traditional sign language sign of both hands tapping fingers together, Sam flaps his right hand like he's milking a cow (formerly the sign for milk). We're pretty sure he means More. Specifically More Cheerios. Because if we give him something else, he gets Mad.



We took a brief nap at noon, then went down to Oma and Opa's for Christmas Dinner and Present opening. Sam had found his groove by late afternoon. Sam was enchanting to everyone, his cousin Annie, loved to 'show' him how to play with the toys. They were all pretty cute together.



He still loved paper more, but he found that he could play with some of his new toys while they were still in the box. Note that he was so excited he was standing. I just had to spot him so he didn't fall down. Luckily the microphone will Grow with him.



Sam really loves Rocking Out! He'll bob his head at us. He'll look at us, smile, and rock his little head back and forth like one of those bobble head dolls. He does it when there's music, and when there isn't, tonight I did it right back at him and he just laughed at me.



Eric says he saw Sam crawl a step and a half on the 23rd, and each day Sam gets closer and closer to outright crawling. The last couple days, he's made it a step or two (here on Christmas day), the arms get crawling out from his seated position, but his legs don't always get moving when he wants them to. Then he gets tangled up over that crazy left leg, so we've only seen him go a step or two. But he wants to go!



Our favorite gift this Christmas was a healthy boy. He's certainly all we could wish for.

Big Doin's

Amidst all this holiday Madness, Sam has decided he wants to grow up a bit more. Mommy doesn't think she can handle it.
Yesterday the boys were playing and Sam got very upset because he crawled backwards, right into Chris's dresser. He's been scooterbugging for a while, and he'll army crawl, but by far he's fastest at rolling.
I have learned in the last week that if I set him on the floor, I better either give him something to chew on (play with) or only turn around for 30 seconds, because that's how long it takes for him to flop forward and get rolled over to the tree. Yesterday he pulled a jingle bell off the tree and began to chew on it.
Turns out he's a Big Fan of the Jingle bells. We went to see the Polar Express on Friday and while Sam had a great time. Sam also received a bell of his own. He loved it.



After he'd been playing with it for a while, it was decided that in order to protect his teeth, he'd only be able to play with Jingle Bells while wearing a pacifier. Because protects stuff as well as his teeth. He's got 3 good big ones now, but there are some others threatening to break through.

As I was saying, I have to be very careful when I step away from him, because he is a Boy on the go! Even if it's only rolling. The crawling is due to come soon. He found the piano this week.



Daddy sat him up to play like big brother, and he LOVED it, we've got another little musician!



Speaking of other labels for Sam. He's now joined the ranks of Carvivore. I learned my lesson with Chris not to feed him the simple stage 1 ground meats like the teensy jars of chicken. Though the jars look cute the smell is overpowering and the texture just is Not Right. So I went straight to Chicken and Apples combination for Sam. At first he knew this was not our normal applesauce and he objected. But he kept asking for more. Yeah, he liked it. Meat lover...just like Pa.



His new food of the week This Week is Barley Biter Biscuits. We were playing with a friend who is a week younger than Sam and doesn't have as many teeth and she was going to town eating everything in sight, so we decided to kick up our foods a notch. And we got the Earth's Best Barley Biscuits. Chris used to just Love these long sticks. Sam Loved it. Loved the snot out of it actually.

I don't remember them being this messy with Chris.



Sam has been loving the holidays. He likes all the attention, but he's like a switch. Sometimes he doesn't handle being far from Mommy and he'll scream if I put him down, then other times he'll hang out with some family for ages. Like with Santa the other day. One minute he was fine, and the next....



But then he loved sitting with cousin Erin this weekend. And playing with all his cousins and extended cousins.



Sometimes Sam just loves being tossed from family member to family member. Cousin Katie took that literally and was tossing him into the air last night. That stuff scares Mommy who can't physically do it, so although my voice wants to scream NO! when someone tosses him up, I just turn away. He loves it, and giggles like a madman.



I can't wait to see what the next few days bring with regard to Joy for our Sam. It's getting very exciting!

Wordless Wednesday

Meets a Penguin at the Children's Museum.

Little Big Boy

We ran Sam in to see Dr. Cooper today for a weight check. As it turns out he is 15 pounds, 9 1/2 ounces and is 28 inches long. He hasn't gained much at all, in fact, his percentage has decreased. But he's still gaining. I had my doubts on that one. I fully intended to feed him again before weigh in, but we had to wake him to get him over to the office, and he was Not awake enough to eat prior. So, he probably would've weighed more if he'd eaten. He's been eating well. Dr. C was fine with us going slowly on new foods since there's family history of food allergies. He has 3 teeth that are pretty well in. I refer to his lateral incisor as his Goofy Tooth, since they are off center much like Goofy's are, and he's got one in and the other one is just a pinpoke that threatens to come in, but hasn't yet. I kept thinking he was getting all these teeth, but he hasn't yet. He has good days and bad Teething days. For example Sunday night, he was up every 1/2 hour until I pulled him into bed with me at 3 a.m. and then he kicked and rolled on me the rest of the night, but he wasn't awake. At least until 6:30 when he peed in our bed. But last night he only called out twice.
I told him how he's rolling under the Christmas tree and pulling on the lights. And that was With us removing the lowest row of branches this year. Dr. C was happy that he's grabbing things. And he doesn't want to see us back until Sam is 1. Sam is just a maniac, a tiny, speedy little maniac.
The doctor asked me if I wanted to DO anything, like draw blood or test for anything. I told him NO. Truly I'm not worried. I think Sam is doing just great, just fine, he's just Tiny. Can't imagine where he'd get it. ;)
My friend Amy said, how often do we get to say, he set the curve All his life. And so he shall.

His Favorites of the Trip

We got a few insane looks and comments when folks realized we were taking Sam with us to Disney World, at a ripe age of 8 months. But I'm SO Glad we did! He Loved it, and we loved watching him Love it.
So here's a list of Sam's favorite things we did on the trip.

1. Sleep. He LOVED flying, it induced one heck of a good nap, as well as cleared his colon upon Take off and Landing. Both ways.



2. Get Cuddles from Family. Sam got to meet his Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Chambers for the first time on our first day in Florida. He hadn't seen Aunt Teri since he was born.



He thought they were great, they made him laugh. A lot. And Grandpa kept wanting to hold him and cuddle and bounce, but he learned pretty quick how exhausting this little wiggle worm can be.



3. Being in Line. Sam LOVED being in line. He got to People Watch, which he loved, he got to be held and snuggled. And for some reason, he didn't really get super fussy when we were waiting in long lines, that was Big Brother. Sam just loved flirting with all the strangers. Here's our first long line, it was for the boat back to Port Orleans resort from Downtown Disney after lunch with the Fam, there was a gentle breeze off the lake, and it was lovely.



It was even more exciting waiting in line at the safari later that week. They had Ceiling Fans! Doesn't get much better than that!



4. Varying modes of Transportation. Sam got to sample flying, and monorails, and buses, and boats. And that was just on his first day! But he really loved the boat. Just like Daddy, he loved the gentle breeze. Just too bad it was diesel so it was a bit loud. Sam started drifting off to sleep, we didn't want him to nap until we got back to the hotel, but he didn't wait. The call of the boat on the water was Way Too Strong!



5. Minnie. Sam really enjoyed meeting the characters. But from the beginning it was Minnie that stole his heart. Mickey was interesting and all, but he was entranced with all that polka dot sweetness. And Vice Versa. He wanted to touch her, and she let him, and she'd wave her little hands, getting just as excited about everything Sam did as we did. Can't have too many people Loving your baby, especially when it's Minnie! Mommy has a whole new found respect and Love for Minnie Mouse, that didn't exist before this trip, and it's because of the way she loved this boy....and blotted my tears of joy with an imaginary hankie.



See?! He can't take his eyes off her.



Most of the character meet and greets we went on, Sam could've cared less. Sometimes he liked the photographer better. Here, the Photopass guy taking pictures of Cinderella was really working on getting Sam to smile. It worked!


The next night we went to Chef Mickeys and put his hat on him. He could've gone without the hat, he tolerated it though.



And when his heart throb Minnie appeared, once again, he couldn't take his eyes off of her.



By the time Donald made it around to us, Sam had eaten, and was quite content. I think he was working on trying to Speak DonaldDuck by sticking his tongue out and raspberrying him.



6. Baby's First Ride in Disney World was Dumbo. Not his first ever, because he sat on the Ferris Wheel at the State Fair, but this one was a bit more active than that. He Loved rides that Spun. He closed his eyes in bliss. And watched, and smiled. And Just LOVED it!



7. We were at Magic Kingdom when baby saw the beginnings of his First Fireworks Show. He was very interested in the parade prior, but he was just silently watching when the fireworks started popping. It was beautiful to see the light reflected in his eyes. Chris watched for 2 minutes, then started going All Done All Done ALLDONE! So we ran into It's a Small World. For the Fireworks Sam was fine, when we went to get in line, THEN he flipped out!



However, turns out that It's a Small World REALLY appeals to the 8 month old. He Loved it once we got moving, he was looking around, smiling at the people, drooling like a madman. See how wet his shirt is!



8. Sometimes it's the little things that bring a boy great joy. We got into the Playhouse Disney show, and we all had to sit on the floor for like 10-15 minutes before it started. Sam was thrilled when we gave him a Lens cap to keep him occupied. Emily and Sam played with that thing, and had a great time. He didn't even want to put it down once the show started.



9. Spending time with the boys. Daddy and Chris and Sam really just loved being geeky together. Even Sam had some fun sitting on the Speeder bike with Daddy.



10. Going on Safari. Sam has been to the Zoo here, but in Animal Kingdom, the Safari was a Ride...in a car. Sam got to go and he was very interested. Guess it's much easier to see the animals and the goings on from the front seat of the car, than from the Bucket in the stroller. He really enjoyed the safari.



He was even more tickled (pardon the pun) when we had to go hunting through all the greenery (and there's a lot!) to find our stroller afterwards.



11. On our last day, our last ride was Pirates of the Caribbean, at Daddy's request. Sam could ride this one too! And he did, and he just silently watched, intrigued, as we floated by everything. Then he saw the dog with the keys, and he laughed. Imagine our surprise when we saw a stuffy in the gift shop, that was the doggie with the keys. He ate it up. Literally. So we had to buy it.