16 Months Old

Sam turned 16 months old this week. He's been a joy to be around lately. Maybe it's because that bottom right molar FINALLY came in! He's started eating again, and we don't have to watch Baby Einstein 24x7 to keep him happy. We got Sam some crayons and Color Explosion paper and markers a few weeks ago. He loves to color. He goes to the office and lets us know that he wants us to get them out for him. He mostly likes to take the crayons out and put them back in the box. When he colors, he mostly stipples. He uses his left hand most of the time.



Sam was sick with a stomach virus weekend before last. Thankfully it didn't last that long, but he didn't have a lot of energy, so we staid inside and colored.



We got a Kangaroo Climber for Sam. It's really cute. Sometimes he loves the slide, but sometimes he's not so sure. His favorite part is the little door that he can open and close. He can't quite climb up on the little green platform by himself yet, so he goes up backward on the slide instead.



Sam loves to be pushed/pulled around the house in whatever container he can find. Here he is with Melanie pushing him around in a box from our trip to Costco. Then again, with me pulling him around in his Mega Bloks wagon.



I took the week off from work last week. It was great! It gave me the chance to have fun making a cake for Chris's birthday. Melanie took this picture of Chris blowing out his candles.



Here's the gang sampling the cake. Chris and I went out for dinner that night. I think I caught Sam's stomach virus because I ended up getting sick too. Chris took vacation Thursday and Friday which was really nice. We hung around the house on Thursday, but we got out on Friday and even went to see a Dr. Seuss art exhibit.



I hate to take pictures of Sam when he isn't happy, but here's one for posterity. I think this may have been one of those fits where I wouldn't let him eat cookies for dinner last week.




You know it's fall when we get balloons every weekend. We love it. We're hoping to actually go to the balloon festival this year. Too bad Cleo can't go with us!



Poor Cleo!

We've been working with Sam to try to get him to talk more. Melanie was singing the ABC's to him last week and we both swear that he sang along to some of the letters. We were staring at each other in disbelief. Of course, we couldn't get him to do it again. Last night, I gave him some cheese with his dinner. He repeated "cheese" a few times after I said it, but got bored with that trick pretty quickly. We are also working with him to know his body parts. He can point to Sam's nose and Mommy's nose. He thinks that is pretty funny. He also appears to be over his Mommy obsession. He wants to go to Chris and Melanie now, especially if they will sing along to his Children's Songs book. Sam is starting to dance when he hears music. Melanie is really encouraging that too.