10 Months Old

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AUNT ANDREA!



Sam turned ten months old last week. He's turning into quite the ham. He tries to make us laugh all the time. Here he is blowing raspberries while I'm trying to feed him. He got his food every where! Of course he thought it was hilarious.

He's getting into the cabinets now (and, no, we haven't installed the baby-proofing, safety latches yet). We're only letting him get into cabinets that are "safe," and we need to install the safety latches soon. He really throws a fit if we don't let him do it. He's really throwing back-arching, screaming, red-faced fits any time we don't let him do exactly what he wants. I hope this is just a phase! If you look really close in these pictures, you can see that his hair is getting long enough to curl out a little behind his ears.







Here's Daddy and Sam playing on the computer one weekend morning. Sam loves to bang on the keyboard. He's done it since he could sit in our laps. We have extras laying around so he doesn't do any damage.



Here's a video of Sam making his bah bah bah sound with his hand on his mouth. He's doing better at the bah sound now, but he mostly says dah-dah or nah-nah.



This is one of the cute new things that Sam is doing. He goes stiff as a board when we are changing his diaper and waits for everybody to laugh.



Here's a video of Aunt Melanie playing with Sam. She was really making him laugh!



This is a video the Melanie took with her camera when she was here during Spring Break. He's doing all of his tricks here: dah-dah, clapping, fishy face, waving, making his B sound, making his goofy cheesey face, and shaking his head.



We went to the doctor last week and she said that Sam still has fluid on his eardrums, but that the fluid is clear, so there's no need for antibiotics now. We are going back next week to check again. She wants to keep watching for the fluid to go away and to make sure that he doesn't get another infection. He still has a runny nose and a cough. Chris and I actually have the same thing. We wonder if it is just allergies because pollen is every where.

Sam has been feeling a lot better. He's got a great appetite again. He was at home with me for a week and a half, so he's having a hard time adjusting to going to day care again. He's been crying every day when I drop him off, but he stops once he can't see me any more. He's such a sweety.

Spring Break

We had some visitors for Spring Break. Grandma Mary Lou and Aunt Andrea came out the first part of the week. Then Grandpa Stanley and Aunt Melanie came out the second half.



Sam was helping Daddy put together a rack for the garage when Grandma and Andrea got here. Sam really liked the big hammer. He also liked pulling up on the rack.



Sam was pretty sick through Sunday. We thought he was recovering on Saturday because he had a great day. He was keeping down his food and playing like crazy. He vomited again Sunday morning, but that was the last time, so we were able to start his antibiotics on Monday. I'm thinking that I was just trying to give him too much formula too early in the morning and it was upsetting his stomach. His nose isn't running any more, so I'm hoping that his ear infection will clear up. Of course I started feeling sick mid week, and so did Chris. Melanie even managed to pickup something and got sick the following Saturday. We'll be taking Sam to the doctor on Thursday, so I'm hoping for good news.



When Sam was feeling better on Sunday, we went to IKEA. It was HUGE. After we'd been looking around for about an hour and a half, I realized that we'd only made it through about half of the showroom, so we headed downstairs for some real shopping. Here's a photo of Sam rolling around on a pile of rugs.



Back at home Sam was playing with my magazine when he realized that there was a pretty lady on the back page. We got a bunch of laughs when he decided to start kissing the magazine.



Sam really loves to listen to music and have us sing songs to him now. Here Aunt Andrea was playing some Raffi and singing along.



We went outside one morning and saw these mallards in my neighbor's yard. It appears that there was a female duck in the bushes (we saw her there the next day). We are thinking that maybe she laid some eggs in their bushes because they kept coming back every morning to stand guard.



Here's a picture of Grandma playing with Sam. He loves pat-a-cake!



By the time Grandpa and Aunt Melly arrived on Wednesday, Sam had been out of day care for a week and was very used to getting lots of attention. Here's Aunt Melanie playing with Sam and his shape sorter. He loves it when you stack the blocks into towers so he can knock them over.



Sam was having a little bit of trouble going to bed last week because of Daylight Savings Time. It was a struggle to get him in bed between 7:30 and 8:00. We were pretty tired because Sam was also waking up a couple of times a night. Grandpa took care of us and cooked lots of yummy food so we could relax in the evening.



Sam was in a great mood on Saturday. He laughed more than he's ever laughed before, which of course means that he got the hiccups a lot. That is so strange. Maybe I should ask his doctor if she's ever heard of that before. I keep thinking he'll grow out of that. Here's Aunt Melly tickling Sam's neck.



Sam has learned some cute new tricks. He can wave hello/good-bye now. He can make a bah-bah-bah sound. He started out only being able to do it when he put his hand in his mouth, but he's made it a few times now on his own. He can say da-da and he seems to know what it means. He does this funny thing when we change his diaper where he puts his arms and legs out straight and stiff as a board and kinda holds his breath. He waits for us to laugh at him, then he stops and laughs too. I think it is cute and very funny, and it makes diaper changes easier because he hasn't been crying as much. He's also sticking out his tongue a lot and making a fishy face. He started shaking his head no. He laughs when we shake our heads back at him. He's also started "singing" along quietly when we sing and sometimes just "sings" to himself. It's not really a hum because his mouth is open. It's just the sweetest little sound.

Sam has also started throwing some little fits when we don't let him do what he wants --- I mean real fits. He used to do the normal whining or crying, but now he puts his arms down by his side and pretty much goes board straight and starts screaming. We try to distract him and calm him down when we are at home, but if we happen to be out, especially at a restaurant, he is probably going to get what he wants.



We took this picture of Sam in a onsie that one of Chris's coworkers got him. We love the geek humor!

Maraca Baby

Uncle Fabio and Aunt Sharon filmed Sam playing his maraca while they were here. Click here to watch the video! (Get ready to rock your socks off.)

Aunt Sharon and Uncle Fabio Visit

My Aunt Sharon and Uncle Fabio came to visit last weekend. It was the first time that they got to see Sam.



Sam loved to play pat-a-cake and sing songs with them. We got to pick him up early from day care on Friday, so that was a special treat.



We went to the Dallas Children's Museum at the Museum of Nature & Science Dallas, TX on Saturday. The traffic was really bad because there was a lot going on in Fair Park (Body Worlds, Cirque du Soleil, North Texas Irish Festival) in additionl to the normal weekend museum traffic. Sam did great until we had to wait for over 30 minutes just to park. He let us know without a doubt that he was ready to get out of the truck. He was fine once we got out so he could move around and watch all the people. The shot above was a cool display on lightening. Sam got a big kick out of having the blue light respond to his banging on the tube. I had on a necklace which he kept grabbing and shocking me, so I had to hold his hand away from it.



We decided to visit the Dental Gallery since Sam has become so interested in teeth lately. He likes to try to poke his finger in our mouths and even our noses. He also likes Daddy and Uncle Fabio's beards.



I was holding Sam's hands and walking him down the hall when he decided to turn around and grab my legs. We got a good laugh out of it.



Here are Sam and Fabio hanging out outside the Children's Museum.



Fabio snapped this shot of us in front of this little barn. Sam was having a blast rocking on the horse.



They had a really neat water area with lots of toys and little waterfalls. Sam loves watching other kids. It's neat to watch his face light up.



Here are Sam and Aunt Sharon playing on Sunday. Sam liked playing with Aunt Sharon and Fabio. All his toys were new again -- new people make new sounds and movements -- and of course they were very funny.

We even got a baby sitter and went out to eat dinner Saturday night! We went to our favorite French Restaurant, Lavendou.

Sam started doing something really funny last week. He loves to stand in the window sill in the bay window in our office. So we were sitting there one day and he just sort of dove onto Cleo's dog bed and proceeded to wallow around with a big grin on his face. He's done this pretty much every day since.









Cleo is not thrilled about sharing her bed with Sam since it's the only spot in the house that is really hers. She just sighs and licks his head.



These are just a few shots of Sam getting ready and coming home from day care.

Well, the week started out well, but we aren't having so much fun now. Sam had what looked like pink eye again when I picked him up from day care on Tuesday. I feared that that meant his ear infections had returned and a trip to the doctor on Wednesday confirmed that. So, he's on a new round of antibiotics and eye drops. Only he vomitted when we got home from the doctor's office, so we can't start the medicine until he can keep his food down. You know this really sucks. I feal so bad for him. He's always so happy, so you hate to see him hurting. I'm so ready for warmer weather! I actually went to the doctor Wednesday morning because it looks like I have the same "infection" that Sam has.

He ended up vomiting off and on all day Thursday, so I took him to the doctor again Friday morning. They had to give him antibiotics via shot (one in each leg). Then we had to wait around to make sure that he didn't have any reaction. He started feeling better almost immediately, but it's taken us a while to ramp back up on his food. He's been drinking mostly Pedialyte, but he's had a little soy formula, bananas, and applesauce. We still have to do the oral antibiotics starting tomorrow or Monday.

Sam also had his 9 month checkup on Wednesday. He was down in his weight because he hasn't been feeling well. He was at 19 lbs 10 oz which is 26%. He'd lost another 4 oz when we went in on Friday. He's been up as high as 20.5 lbs before he got sick. He was also at 27.75 inches tall (22%) and 17.9 inches head circumference (47%). (I think Aunt Melly's head was bigger than that when she was born!)