Snow!

Samuel went out to play in the snow for the first time this season.  He wasn't quite sure what to think of it.  We only lasted a few minutes - apparently Samuel isn't so fond of the cold snow yet.

For fun, here is Samuel's first ever playtime in the snow.

Followed by his second ever playtime in the snow, just this week...

Santa Claus!

We visited Santa today at the Santa House!  Samuel loved Santa!  See for yourself.

11 Months!

At 11 months of age, Mr. Samuel is one busy little boy!  In constant motion, he is crawling all over the house and taking a few steps at a time.  His favorite activity is pulling items off the furniture and dropping them on the ground.  He also very much enjoys pushing chairs around the kitchen.  He likes everything about books, from reading to pulling them all off the bookshelf into a big mess on the floor.  He LOVES to turn the pages of the books!  He has learned to wave hello and goodbye and he has learned how to give hugs.  Baby hugs just warm Mike's and my hearts!  We took him out today to take some 11 month/holiday pictures and I love how some of them turned out!

Clearly this little man knows how to have fun in life!

The Miracles of Baby Pain Killers

Samuel was pretty sick last week, with a high fever and an ear infection.  We rarely resort to medications unless he is feeling really rotten, but about once a day while he was sick, we broke down and gave him baby acetaminophen.  One night, we did so right before bed thinking it would make him sleep better.  It backfired...he woke up 45 minutes later ready to PLAY!  Here's our sick little stinker playing at 9:45pm.  Funny kid...

Awaiting Christmas

As we prepare for this Christmas, we celebrate Advent and all the sights and smells of the season.  Although it is quite cold outside, I think it's all warm and cozy inside.  Samuel is enjoying his first ever Christmas season and is busy exploring all the things that go along with the season.  He likes to check out the tree and it's lights and ornaments.  He likes to touch and pull on wrapping paper on gifts under the tree.  He listens to lots of Christmas music (whether he likes it or not), and he even occasionally plays with his Little People Nativity.  He has seen big snowfalls and has really enjoyed watching Daddy snow-blow the driveway.

Here's a glimpse into our Christmas season.

Waiting for Santa to arrive and light up our Courthouse

Visit to see Santa coming soon...

1st Thanksgiving!

We celebrated Samuel's First Thanksgiving with Grandma and Grandpa M, Uncle Dan, and cousins James and Kyla.  Samuel liked his big boy turkey dinner a lot and had lots of fun playing with Kyla.  The adults had fun, too.

10 Months and Couting

We reached the 10 month mark two weeks ago and once again, I played around with the fancy camera and took some pictures to mark his development.  At 10 months, Samuel is beginning to stand without assistance and take tiny steps between the couch and ottoman.  He has been trying to say "All Done" when he makes the baby sign for "all done."  It sounds like "ah duh."  He now has 7 teeth and seems to be working very hard on another (possibly a molar) for the last several days.  Lately, he's been less interested in his toys and more interested in everything on top of tables and inside baskets.  He's been doing a sufficient job of making a mess of everything in the house!  He's eating more and more table food by the day and self-feeds about 70% of the time.  Mostly, he's just exploring the world and having fun!  What a great kid!

This month, I took pictures of him playing with a high chair tray that had about 1/2 inch of water, playing in the kitchen, and in the bathtub. 

 

Look Ma! No hands!

...aren't we the coolest???

Bacon Thief (and other stories)

Well folks, we knew his perfection had to come to an end sometime.  Our son has proven himself to be a little thief.  Last weekend at our friends' annual family tailgate, our wonderful little Samuel, reached out and stole a piece of Mama's bacon!  Sneaky little thief.  And he should know better than to take his mother's favorite meat from her.  But, he did thoroughly enjoy it.  Chomped on it for a good twenty minutes.  (It was really cute!)

Mmm...bacon...

Turns out the kid also thinks he'd like to try a beer.  Lesson learned...keep him away from beer bottles!

That looks good, Mom (no alcohol was consumed by the baby in the making of this photo)

Daddy and Samuel sporting their Purdue pride!

On a much less troublesome note, after the tailgate, we got to see my college roommate and her fiance and enjoyed a really nice lunch with them.  Probably the last time we'll see Jess single, as she'll be running off to an island to get married soon!


A super special part of the weekend, however, was when Samuel got to meet his Godparents, Tom and Natalie.  Tom and Natalie have been very close friends to Mike and me, especially in our faith life, so it's a special gift to us that they have accepted the role of Godparents for our son.  This was the first chance we've been able to make our lives align for a visit.  We had such a wonderful time with them, staying up way past our bedtimes playing games and talking, and Samuel loved meeting them and their kiddos.

 

I like these folks (and my hand is yummy, too!)

I like their kids, too...

  and I really like their chairs...

Mmmmess

Samuel's started self-feeding and only one thing can be said of it.  Mess!  But he loves it!  His first meal that was the same as ours was pasta with marinara sauce.  Double mess!  Check out our messy little man.

Little Buddies

Saturday evening, Emmett and his parents came over to our house so he could play with Samuel.  They last saw each other when they were about 7 months old and neither had taken good naps, so they didn't play together and they both ended up just crashing for evening naps while we adults had dinner together.

This time was completely different.  They were two peas in a pod.  They were best buddies.  If Samuel was doing something, Emmett came to join.  If Emmett was doing something, Samuel had to check it out.  They shared pacifiers and teething rings, blocks, and balls.  It was too cute!  Here are a couple of shots of the little men exploring the world together.

 Dude, she has a camera!  Let's get it!

I'll race ya!

Emmett's distracted!  Samuel wins!

Basketball Buds

You chew my toy; I'll chew yours

No trouble here...

9 Months

This month's theme is: Samuel at Home

We failed to put together anything unique this month, but since he's 9 months, I wanted to make sure we captured some photos.  It's so hard to get him to sit still anymore, that we decided to follow him with a camera around the house tonight.  These pictures were taken after dinner, so he's a little messy, and he has a nice scratch across his nose from falling against the corner of the end table the other day.  But really, if we showed our son perfectly clean and without scratches or bruises, it wouldn't be truly honest.  He's a tough kid who proudly wears his battle scars and at this point, with his efforts to stand and walk along furniture, there are a lot of tumbles.

The first pictures are in Samuel's playroom with some of his current favorite toys.  The rest of the pics are in the kitchen, where Samuel spends easily 20 minutes a day trying to figure out the child safety locks and trying to pull pots out of the one cabinet he can get into.  He was successful at pulling his first pot out tonight :)