8 Months Old

Sam is 8 months old now, and he has two new teeth to celebrate the milestone. Not the top two front teeth, but the next two bottom teeth. He got them both yesterday. I still think the top two will be here any day now. His gums are really swollen and he's still chewing on everything and drooling like crazy. His favorite teethers are his little fish bath toy and his sippy cup. We tried the cold wet washcloth and traditional teethers, but he doesn't really go for those. He doesn't drink out of his sippy cup yet. I tried that and he just let the juice run down his chin.

Sam's appetite is back to where it was before he got sick. He's actually finishing a 6 oz bottle at each feeding and finishing a stage 2 jar of food at each meal. He even ate half a jar of vegetables for dinner tonight. Oh, in case I didn't mention it before, he started boycotting vegetables a few weeks ago. It took me a while to realize that he was only finishing the fruit dinners. Since he's always been small, I'd rather that he eat something than fight him to eat vegetables. So, I did a little research and found some other jar foods that had fruit and vegetables mixed together. They have the added bonus of being organic. Earth's Best is sold at Kroger and Central Market, but Healthy Times is only sold at Central Market, so I ordered some online.



We bought a new highchair this weekend. We had been using the highchair that my sisters and I used, but it doesn't meet the new safety standards and Sam is getting quite active. It made me too nervous when he leaned over the edge to try to pet Cleo. The new highchair has a five-point harness which has the added benefit of locking him in place to eat. I think it went from taking about 20 minutes to feed him to about 10 minutes. Doesn't seem like much, but you'd be surprised how exponential the stress can be when he's fighting you not to eat.



Ian and Roya stopped by to exchange Christmas presents this weekend. We hadn't been able to do it earlier since Sam has been sick. They got Sam a VTech 3-in-1 Smart Wheels. He's not quite old enough for the rocker or the bike functions, but we couldn't resist pushing him around the house.




Here's a great shot of Cleo curling up on our bed. She really doesn't appreciate the hard flooring in our house. She has a favorite soft spot in each room of the house.



You gotta see Sam crawling now. He scoots across the floor like crazy. He doesn't want to sit still any more. He goes from toy to toy and then wants to go exploring. It never fails though .... he'll be doing something cute and I'll go get the video camera, so he starts crawling away or doing something that he shouldn't or stops doing anything at all. Here are some quick clips ...

Laughing with Daddy after bath
Crawling and blowing raspberries
Crawling away


--Emily

Rotavirus Update

Sam is feeling better now and was back at day care today. He was really sick last week. I took him to the doctor again last Wednesday to make sure he wasn't dehydrated since he was fighting me so much on drinking anything. He had so much diarrhea that day that I had to change his clothes five or six times. The doctor said that Sam was mildly dehydrated, but that he wasn't concerned about it as long as he was getting some fluids and not throwing up. The doctor also recommended that we try Similac Isomil DF (diarrhea formula). It worked almost immediately and he seemed to like it better. He was feeling a lot better by Friday, but he was still no where near a normal eating schedule, so I didn't feel comfortable sending him to day care.



Sam started pulling himself up during his baths while we were on the MS coast at Christmas. Of course, he's still doing it now that we are home. Look at those cute little fat legs!!! (And, yes we clean and disinfect the sink after we give him a bath.)



Here's Sam in his red flannel pajamas. Yikes! He's growing up too fast.



Playing peek-a-boo with Cleo is so much fun!



Our friend Patty had two of these old Fisher-Price walker toys, so she gave us one. Look at the rotary dial on the front. It's funny when you think that Sam will never know what that is.



Sam is looking pretty cool in these photos, but don't let him fool you. He started freaking out after this shot. He's not quite ready for this yet. Neither are we actually, but when you haven't left the house in a week, you start running out of things to do!



So after Sam started feeling better, we still couldn't get out of the house this weekend, because as luck would have it, we got our annual ice storm in Dallas this weekend. It was actually a nice excuse not to have to get out and run errands. We had a nice fire going in the fireplace, played with Sam, watched a movie, read some books and magazines, and put up the Christmas decorations.

After spending so much time with Sam lately, he actually cried when we dropped him off at day care today. It broke my heart. Hopefully he'll remember how much he likes playing with his friends tomorrow. Chris and I were off today for MLK, but we took Sam to day care for a few hours so we could have a lunch date and clean the house.

Here are some videos of Sam crawling around and playing with Cleo. They are a little dark and I didn't edit them, but thought you might enjoy them any way ....

• video 1
• video 2
• video 3
  

-- Emily

Happy New Year

Well it's a new year ... where do we start? I guess we should pick up where we left off last year with Sam's Christmas presents still coming.

My mom came to the coast while we were there and brought more presents for Sam (and us). Aunt Melly got Sam a Babo Ugly Doll. He's super soft, so ugly he's cute, and the perfect size for Sam. Sam has been sleeping with Babo since he got him.



Aunt Andrea got Sam a Flash Beat Drum. It's awesome! It has three different buttons on the side. One for drum beats, one for crazy sounds, and one for songs (Caribbean steel drum type songs). When you beat on the drum, it lights up and makes the selected sounds. If you turn the drum on its side, it lights up and makes sounds as it rolls. Since Sam beats on all of his toys, it's fun to have a toy that responds.



Grandpa Stanley got Sam the Fisher-Price Little People Animal Sounds Farm and The Wide-Mouthed Frog Pop-up Book. Sam LOVES pop-up books. He's finally starting to try to reach for the pop-outs, so it's getting harder to read them to him. I usually hold him while Chris reads (and acts) the books.



I had the Fisher-Price Little People Farm from the 70s (still have it actually). The new version is lot different. Sam opens and closes the barn doors to make the horse and cow sounds. The little pig is great for teething.



Sam was quite a handful while we were in Mississippi. He was crawling so much! No more putting him in one spot to play for a minute. He especially loved the phone cord. Yiayia and Papou loved giving Sam kisses.



Here's a picture of Chris and Sam at Yiayia and Papou's house. Aren't they cute in matching hats?



We went to the Biloxi Bay bridge to see how much progress they've made rebuilding since Katrina. They are supposed to be done with three lanes (i.e. half) later this year.



Here's a shot of Deer Island in the distance. You can see that the trees were stripped by Katrina.



Later that night we went to Country Gentlemen, the restaurant where Nicoletta works. Sam flirted with Frieda until she came over to play with him. He loved playing with her hair!



We planned to go home the next day, but a huge storm in Dallas had DFW shutdown. We rebooked for the following day. Sam didn't think the airport was a very fun place to hang out.



When we got home, we decided that this would be a good transition to finally move Sam into the crib in his bedroom. I think it was a bigger change for us than for him. He's actually sleeping better in his room. He's still waking up once a night, but we are getting a lot more sleep. He can roll around all he wants! We even put the bumper back in the crib. You are not supposed to have a bumper until they are 6 months old to reduce the risk of SIDS. It's actually kinda amusing that we thought he's sleep in there before 6 months old.



We decided to take Sam to the park for New Years Day. He's too small for the swings at the park down the street from our house. We're going to have to find another park with baby swings. He was more interested in what Cleo was doing than swinging.



Since we were out, we went for a walk around the neighborhood. There were lots of baby cows in the field.



Back at home, Sam is "petting" his best friend Cleo.



Back in day care, and back at work, but not for long. I took Sam to the doctor for his flu shot. It wasn't that bad. He only cried until we stood him back up after the shot. Interestingly, he weighed 18 lbs 9 oz which puts him in the 38th percentile. Looks like solid food is helping him grow ... or is it all that time at home with family for the holidays that made the difference?



So, here's the bad news ... Sam got sick on Sunday. He threw up a couple of times that day and then woke up with diarrhea. I took him to the doctor on Monday and she said that he has rotavirus. The biggest concern is dehydration. He really doesn't want to eat or drink. If he refuses, I have to give it to him in a dropper. He has to have 1.5 oz every hour -- that's 15 dropperfuls. I bought every flavor of Pedialyte that they make. He's also on soy formula with lactobacillus (good bacteria) added. He's drinking better today, but the diarrhea hasn't gotten any better. That's expected to last 3 to 8 days. Of course, this will be a set back for his weight. At least he doesn't have the fever and isn't throwing up. He's actually in great spirits most of the time. We are so lucky to have a happy baby. I'll probably be off work all week because I don't want him back in day care until the risk of dehydration is gone.

-- Emily

Merry Christmas!

Well, Sam's first Christmas certainly was a big one! He had a great time watching everyone open his presents, but once again he was mostly interested in the paper and bows. It was a wonderful day for all of us. We had so much time to sit back and relax, to eat a wonderful Christmas dinner, to play with Sam, to give him lots of hugs and kisses, and to soak up and enjoy every detail of Sam's first Christmas.



He got some circus-themed Peek-a-Blocks, Touch and Tickle Roll-a-Rounds, Laugh & Learn Nursery Rhymes CD Player, and a teddy bear that plays Lullaby from Yiayia and Papou. Some friends of the family, got Sam the Learning Friends Phonics Bus, some clothes, a play flip phone, and a baby chick with a Santa hat that lights up, walks around and plays "Chicken Dance."



He loved all of the activity and sat in the middle of his toys playing for hours (not consecutively). He loves for us to stack the blocks so he can knock them over. He likes to chase the balls around the floor (he's crawling a bit better now - still the combat crawl though). He also likes the lights and spinning "CD" on the "CD player." His favorite toy while we've been here has been Taki, a teddy bear that says the alphabet and numbers in Greek. Yiayia bought that about two or three years ago. We actually have one at home too, but he hasn't been interested in it until now.



Here is Yiayia holding Sam on Christmas day. I was actually standing behind Daddy holding Taki so Sam would give us a big smile.



Now that the presents are all opened, Sam has easy access to the tree. We can't turn our backs for a minute or he'll be under the tree trying to get the ornaments.



We went to go see Chris's grandmother at the nursing home on Christmas Eve. It was the first time that she had seen Sam. Sam was very sweet. He patted her on the face and laid his head down on her pillow. Chris's grandmother is about 94. Everyone at the nursing home calls her Yiayia.



Here is Sam "playing baseball" with Papou. It's really a squeaky toy, and Sam smiles when we squeak it. He's gotten a lot of play time in this week. We've had a lot of fun getting down on the floor with him. His fine motor skills are improving -- he can really grab things, but he's not at the point where he can pickup something with his index finger and thumb.



Since we are on vacation and have plenty of time to relax, Sam has gotten to take a long bath every night. He is actually starting to grab the faucets to try to stand up! Boy are we in trouble! He'll be up and running any day now.

Here is a video of Sam playing on the bed after taking a bath and getting ready for bed. We took this video with Papou's new digital camera that he got for Christmas.

-- Emily

Early Christmas

We decided to open presents early at home since we won't be home for Christmas. Sam had a blast! Of course Sam was more interested in the paper, boxes, and bows.



We got Sam the Fisher Price Roll-a-Rounds Drop & Roar Dinosaur (which you can see in the background). He doesn't understand the part about putting the balls in the holes yet, but he likes to play with the dinosaur and the balls separately. We also got him the Rock-a-Stack and a xylophone. He loves the xylophone, but he keeps gagging himself on the "strikers."



We wanted to get him another pop-up book because his favorite book is "The Big Old Bear Who Swallowed a Fly," but we ended up getting this Pull the Ribbon Book: I'm Buildin' Me a Robot.



Nanner & Dorsey got him some really cute red flannel pajamas and a beautiful blue overall set.



Lulu got him a Nike warm-up suit and a shape sorter. He can't sort the shapes yet. His favorite thing was watching Daddy fill it up so he could dump out the blocks.



He got some other really cute outfits too, including this sweater vest. I think he's the best dressed baby around.



After all his presents were opened and Sam had his fill of paper, he decided to go after the tree and the ornaments. We kept him up pretty late and opened our presents after we put him in bed.



One thing I noticed that was different about this holiday season was the number of pictures of babies on our refrigerator. We got Christmas cards from a lot of the babies in the Mom's group along with pictures of friends and family. We got excited every time there was a new card to put up. It brought a smile to our faces every time we looked at them!

-- Emily