Changes

I know I just posted on Thursday, but Sam has changed so much this weekend! He seems to have gotten over his fear of falling. So much so, that he's now a little daredevil. He's pulling up on everything, and crawling to, over, on everything. (We took the picture above last weekend in our home office. Nanner got this cute outfit for Sam for Christmas. You can see all four bottom teeth in this shot.)



Here is Sam climbing on his VTech Smart Wheels. I started him out sitting on the rocker. Then, he climbed onto the seat. I had to hold him at the ankles to keep him from trying to climb up on the steering wheel. I can't believe that this is the same little boy that was fussing every time he stood up last week!

Now as much as he looks like this little daredevil, he's actually started to be scared of strangers. The ladies at day care told me about it on Friday morning, and I kinda shrugged it off. But, Sam had a meltdown at Pottbelly's when one of the ladies that worked there tried to talk to him. I hope that doesn't last long. He's always been so friendly, and everyone wants to come talk to him when we're out when they see his red hair.



We had a great relaxing weekend. Sam started it off by sleeping thirteen straight hours Friday night. I woke up in a panic at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. You gotta understand, we haven't had to set an alarm clock for the last nine months (unless we were traveling) because Sam has always woken us up before 8:00 a.m. I almost ran into his room, but I calmed myself down and did my normal morning stuff before going in to check on him. When I went in, he was just sitting in his crib playing with a stuffed animal. He's been sleeping through the night for a while now, but he's always up before 8:00 a.m. Sometimes he'll wake up once, but that's usually before we go to bed, so it's not so bad.

Once we were all up, we cleared a space in the living room and put some of Sam's toys in there. He played by himself while we ate breakfast. Here he is watching Saturday morning cartoons.



Here is Daddy playing with Sam and his monster puppet. Sam loves it, but Cleo is not crazy about it. Look at all those monster teeth! Speaking of teeth ... guess what! ... Sam finally got one of his top front teeth!!! I swear the other one is going to break through any day, too.



Since Sam has gotten so mobile, he's been literally crawling his socks off. One of the other moms told me that shoes actually help keep the socks on. I've been resisting buying him shoes, but the other moms recommended Robeez which are these super cute leather shoes with a soft suede sole. They are really nice and easy to get on. They also don't slip on the wood floors. Here's Sam playing on the outside of his exersaucer with a pair of Robeez on.



Sam started cruising today. He was playing with his Leap Frog table and just started going in circles around it to play with the different toys. I'd put out my finger to him and he'd grab it and practically run over to me. We think he'll be walking in no time, but maybe he'll cruise for a while. It takes a lot of courage to let go, and he seems to be really happy holding on for now.



Sam is getting his baths in a real bathtub now. He loves it! Lots of water to splash around. He wants to crawl around in it, so we can't fill it up very much. He also likes to pull up on the side, so we put a non-slip mat in the bottom and a beach towel on the side.

I went through Sam's closet and drawers on Friday and pulled out all his clothes and other stuff that he'd outgrown and filled two HUGE plastic storage containers to go in the attic. I reminisced over all the little baby things that he'll never use again. I even went back and watched videos from his first week. Oh yeah, did I mention that he's about to outgrow his 9 month old clothes? He's out of about half of them, and most of the rest aren't far behind. I decided to skip the 12 month clothes and go straight for the 18 month old clothes, so they'll last a little longer (hopefully). They are a little baggy, but I'm sure that won't last long.

I also finally put all my maternity clothes up. Chris took the opportunity to clean the garage and attic and put the Christmas decoration boxes up. We also retired Sam's infant car seat and installed new convertible car seats, Britax Roundabouts, in both vehicles. With so many changes in one weekend, it feels like he's growing up way too fast.

We went by Paul and Patty's house to return some baby stuff (including the swing) that they'd let us borrow. Elizabeth is almost two now and is cute as ever. Paul and Patty are expecting a boy in May right around Sam's birthday. I'll be loaning them Sam's clothes which works out perfect since they'll be almost exactly a year apart. It was fun to see how Elizabeth was reacting to having a baby in the house playing with her toys. She didn't seem to mind sharing. Sam thought it was great fun and was following her around.

I thought you guys might enjoy taking a stroll down memory lane with me. Here are some videos from when Sam was just a few days old. It's hard to believe that that was just 9 months ago!

• 3 days old
• 4 days old

-- Emily