Sam 12 months

Sam

12 Months

Sam got his first two teeth at about 10 months. There is still no sign of any other teeth growing in.

Sam is a good sleeper most nights. He still takes two naps a day. He is a light sleeper and he’ll often wake up when we go into check on him or put Ainsley to bed. He’s not the greatest at putting himself back to sleep. He is a cuddler and wants to be held and given a bottle first. Since he’s in the same room as Ainsley we’ve not really done the “cry it out” thing with him because it wakes her up and she starts crying too. It is just faster for me to make him a bottle and let him fall back to sleep with it. Maybe not teaching him the greatest habit, but you have to do what works for you, right?

For Christmas, Grandma Reese gave Sam a push walker. He started pushing it around on his knees. He scoots it all around the house. The night before his first birthday, he finally stood up on his feet and started walking with it. He continues to push it around the house on his knees most of the time, but occasionally he’ll stand up and walk with it too. He has also begun to cruise the furniture. He stands up to everything.

He loves all of Ainsley’s toys. He wants to play with everything she plays with and vice versa. The second Sam picks up one of her toys, she immediately decides she wants to play with it. When I inform her that she needs to share with her brother, she acts exasperated and says something like, “But then I’ll never have anything to play with.”

Sam still loves the bath. For his birthday we let him take two baths that day. But surprisingly he doesn’t like to take baths by himself. When I put him in the bath alone, he’ll cry and wants to get out. He loves to have his sister in the bath to play with. Now that he has learned to stand up, I can barely keep him sitting down. He loves to stand up and turn on and off the faucet and play with the shower cord.

I’ve noticed he loves toys that he can manipulate. He loves to use the play spoons and cups to pretend to eat. I usually give him an empty bowl and spoon at the dinner table to distract him while I feed him baby food. He also loves to put toys inside of toys, stack things, and take things in and out. This may be why he likes to pull the plugs in and out so much. He is fascinated with trying to put them back in the wall.

Sam is into everything. He loves to open all cupboards, drawers, boxes, etc. and empty them. He is so quick too. I can barely contain him. We can't baby-proof anything in this apartment so we just have to keep doors closed. If we don't keep the bathroom door closed, he immediately goes in and empties the cupboard, or his new favorite activity.....putting the toilet brush into the toilet and sloshing it around. I hear the sound of water splashing and I know he's in the bathroom. I just ca't keep up with this kid some days! He is so much more active and energetic than Ainsley ever was...guess I just need to accept...we have a boy! He is such a fast crawler and as excited as I am for him to start walking in the next few months...I'm sure I'll regret it because it will be that much harder for me to control him. Can't wait to see what the future brings:)

He is just beginning to talk. His favorite word is “Uh, oh.” He says it in the cutest way. It sounds like, “Uhhh, Eowwww” and makes the biggest “O” shape with his mouth. He also says “Dada” and “Mama” and something that sounds like, “Oh, yeah.” He shakes his head “No” or “Yes.” He can sign “milk, more, and all done.”

Sam’s absolute favorite food is definitely apples. He loves them. If we place an apple on the table, he gets really excited and starts flapping his arms, screams to beg for it until we slice it up and give him a piece. But letting him eat apples nearly give me a heart attack every time. I’m always a nervous wreck while he eats one because I’m afraid that he is going to choke because he breaks off such big pieces. He only has two bottom teeth, but he seems to be able to handle it just fine.

We tease that Sam is our “little carnivore.” He loves meat. He loves chicken, hamburger, salami deli meat, and hot dogs. When we put some on his tray, it is the first thing he eats and then he begs for more. We’ve noticed this because this is a huge contrast from Ainsley. She wouldn’t eat any meat until she was almost two years old and even now we often have to negotiate with her to eat it. His other favorite food besides apples and meat, is french fries. In Germany, every dish comes with "pommes" and so he gets fed them a lot from our plates. He loves it and usually we can't hand them to him fast enough!

Sam loves to throw things…especially food. When he is done eating, he will start chucking his food on the ground. But he’ll throw toys and other things too when he is bored with them. Maybe he’ll be a baseball player one dayJ

Sadly he has learned that the way to get our attention and get what he wants is to give a blood curdling scream. Usually they occur at the dinner table as his way of informing us what he wants…more apples, more meat, more milk. (I really need to teach him more signs). While we were in London, he embarrassed us at nearly every tourist site and restaurant with his screams. They are short loud outbursts but they always attract looks from bystanders. The loudest and most embarrassing one for me was when I had him in the backpack in the Parthenon room of the British museum. He wanted to get out of the backpack and was pushing his arms against my neck. He screamed loudly and since it was such a big room, it seemed to echo forever. Everyone in the room turned to look at us. I wanted to die. So embarrassing.

I can't believe my baby is one! He has such a fun personality. He thinks he is so funny. After he does something, he'll often throw his head back and laugh at himself. It's pretty cute. We love him!

Berliner Dom

First icecream

First chocolate

While watching Planet Earth for "Family Movie Night," Sam had his first taste of popcorn. He loved it and wanted more so decided to get some himself. He emptied our entire bowl on the ground.

He liked having his own seat on the train to Berlin

These are some old photos I found on Tom's phone: