Still a Good Eater

Well, last night we discovered that Sam likes both spicy guacamole and garlicky spinach-artichoke dip. The diaper bag was packed with cinnamon applesauce and crunchy organic graham crackers and tasty whole milk, but Sam was more interested in Mommy's food. I used a kashi cracker to give him a taste of my guacamole and the cracker became a spoon as Sammy sucked the guacamole down faster than I could refill the cracker. When he tasted the spinach artichoke dip and started pulling big cheesy strings of it off my plate, we finally strapped him into the high chair and let him eat. He definitely has his grandpa's eating gene.

Thanks Jamie and Dave for another great night (and Tonya and Josh for showing me that goat cheese CAN be delicious). For pictures of the latest party at Lucy's house, check out this page.

Turkey Day Photos

The viruses seem to have (knock on wood) finally left the house, so I found a little time to upload some Turkey Day photos. The boy was on the move all weekend, and he sure adores his TT. See the pictures here.

Yay!!!

Despite all the nasty, messy germs going around in our household and the lack of any good, interesting football, we had a fantastic Thanksgiving and a lot to be thankful for. Sammy definitely adores his grandma. In between episodes of the Heroes marathon we watched on Netflix, TT taught Sam to make baskets in his new basketball hoop, how to say TT and how to throw his hands up in the air and yell Yay!!!

11 Months Old Today

Can you believe it's been 11 months? Where has the time gone?

Jimmy Joe Junior

If this isn't evidence that Sam is Jimmy Joe's grandson, I don't know what is. (Big smile at 40 seconds.)

Xylophones and Pumpkin Cheesecake

If you asked Sammy and I about the best parts, you'd probably get a difference of opinion. I inhaled the homemade pumpkin cheesecake with gingersnap crust and nutmeg and cinnamon whipped cream (even volunteering to finish Jamie's when she couldn't). Sam loved the shaved roast beef and assortment of cheeses. I enjoyed sitting in the living room talking about Sarah Palin and Joe Lieberman and What's-Obama-Gonna-Do-Next with all the grown ups. Sam seemed more interested in tearing up magazines, spinning little plastic toys and playing with the green battery-powered feather duster. I stared at the dancing bright lines of the screen saver on the high def TV as I listened to Bright Eyes and Wilco and great singer songwriters I'd never heard before. Sam stared at Lucy's giant black cat balloon and listened to Lucy bang on her Sesame Street xylophone. I fell in love with adorable little Arie who turned into a cuddly pajama-clad, barefoot angel after a little Motrin to help the teething pain. Sammy fell in love with Lucy's toys. We all fell in love with 7-week-old Lily.

As Sammy's bedtime arrived he snuggled up in the crook of my arm and Jamie suggested we try laying him down in a playpen upstairs. After a few minutes of snuggling with mommy, my little man drifted off to sleep upstairs and let me sneak downstairs to spend the night listening to entertaining stories about nurses who whisper during childbirth, small town school board members who write letters to the editor and old boyfriends who unexpectedly discuss their compromised anatomy.

The evening was a wonderful success and I'm once again grateful to have friends who are such gracious hosts. Dave and Jamie took such good care of us, that I actually felt rejuvenated the next day. Here are pictures, and you can see more on Lucy's blog.

The Evidence

How much is Sammy moving around? I offer these photos as evidence.

We don't know where we got these,
but they were brand new when they arrived
in a bag of hand-me-downs from someone

And these monkeys were shiny and new
when Lisa gave them to Sam in May

It's a good thing they don't fit for long because he's wearing them out faster than you can imagine. It won't be long before he fits into THESE.
.

On the Move

Hey - is there stuff up here I can get into trouble with?

Yesterday afternoon, Sam was not to be contained. I played with him on the floor of the nursery where he constantly pulled himself up using the handles on the hope chest that my Uncle Rich built me over 15 years ago. He raced around the house in his Tot Rider, following me to the laundry room and to the bedroom and to the bathroom before getting bored and going to watch birds out the dining room window and then spinning around in the middle of the kitchen looking for trouble. He played with every single toy in his little playyard in the living room, stopping only to pull himself up and then cry when he couldn't figure out how to sit back down. He giggled and laughed and sang along with his new singing frog that his cousins brought him last weekend. He sat at the top of the stairs and pulled at the base of the baby gate, knowing that was the way downstairs to the basement fun and the new Disney "bike" that Auntie Annie bought him last weekend. He couldn't move his hands fast enough as he shoved noodles and chicken and apples and pieces of bagel into his mouth at dinner time. The only time he slowed down was when I sat his exhausted little body into a warm bath and tried to entertain him with bubbles just before bedtime.

When I fell into bed last night, I actually turned the baby monitor down. The little white box that sits on my bedside had been broadcasting his rapid little breaths at maximum volume for three nights. I would hear trucks and sportcars speed along the road in the middle of the night, and the receiver amplified the sound of the heat kicking in or the pipes knocking after I flushed the toilet, but I could hear every single breath he took, even the quiet ones that puffed through his little mouth when he faced away from the monitor. Yesterday afternoon his breaths started to slow to a more normal pace and the hacking cough that I could almost feel scraping my own lungs had calmed, so when I crawled under the comforter, I turned the volume down just little and actually slept. Hard. And so did Sam.

Sam is definitely on the mend AND on the move. (God help me!) Here are some great pictures from last weekend.