This is how I say "truck" and "kitty"

So, at this point, "truck" is a nasally "crnk" and "kitty" is "kee." Hey, we know what he's saying!

Samson's other vocabulary is really starting to pick-up now, and he understands even more words that he hasn't yet attempted to say. Along with his new verbal skills, he has also begun using his sign language much more. For example, he loves to say "mo" for "more" and at the same time (or whenever someone else says the word) do the hand motion for "more." Another communication game he loves is to point at Mama and say, "Mama!" and then point at himself and wait for Mama to say, "Samson!"

Here are some of his other favorite words of the past couple of weeks:

• Mmm! = yum
• Ahhh! = refreshing (after taking a swig of beverage)
  
• num-num = yum-yum
• brrr = cold
• haah = hot
• opp = up
• puh-zaa = pizza
• teess = teeth
  
• caa = car
• ba = ball
• haa = hat
• gah = goat (maybe this is a cross between "goat" and "baa")
• shish = fish (for fish and any cheese-flavored cracker regardless of shape)
  
• Hi! (to be said whenever passing anyone in public or upon seeing Mama after being out of sight for any length of time)
  

New Pics

Samson is getting more and more capable with his eating utensils. Of course, not everything makes it into the pie hole just yet.

PawPaw and Grandma came to town this weekend to visit. As usual, Samson was delighted to revel in hours of undivided attention from his two biggest fans.

And you may have noticed that Samson's hair is becoming especially fluffy. Soon we'll be heading for our first trip to the barber, but for now, we're enjoying these luscious curls.

The Croup

The recently experienced parents in our readership probably knew that the next post to follow the "Samson has started school" post would of course be the "We're all sick as dogs" post. And here it is.

Samson came home from school on Wednesday feeling pretty grumpy. Thursday he was obviously miserable and the runny nose had begun. About 2 hours after his bedtime that night, Mama heard a strange dog barking outside, only it sounded like it was almost in the house. Then she realized that the sound was coming from the baby monitor and Samson's room. Uh oh.

Luckily, several friends had recently been through "the croup" (That's what my country-folk parents called it, so that's what I'm calling it, too. Don't hold it against my boy, okay? --Mama), so we knew to bundle up Samson and take him into the cool night air to stop the attack.

As our doctor predicted, we had 3 rough (and sleepless) nights of barking coughs and high fevers, but Samson began to rally on Sunday. Now he's down to goopy eyes and nose, plus painful swollen tonsils and sore throat, but he's sleeping better and back in his crib again. If he continues on this textbook course, he should be ready to come out of quarantine in a couple of days.

Also of no surprise to our fellow parents, Daddy and Mama quickly picked up the bug, too, so between the three of us, we've pretty much covered the house with mountains of wadded up tissue. Based on our high rate of consumption, we advise our readers to buy some stock in Puffs, Mucinex, Advil, and Thera-flu.

On a bright note, all the misery of this illness pushed Samson to finally utter his first understandable spoken word, which he now repeats endlessly whenever he wants to be cuddled, "Mamamamamamamamama-mama-mama.... Mama-mama-mama-ma.... Mama. Mama. Mama."

Eleven Months Already?

Aghhhh!, originally uploaded by LeftyMama.

Slobber Talk

Samson says....