Busy Bee

Given that his birthday is just three weeks away and his genes include a double shot of procrastinator, Samson has decided that now would be a great time to start doing lots of behaviors and skills that we've been waiting a few months to see. In the past week, he's begun to

• crawl and pull up,
  
• use a sippy cup to drink a substantial amount of fluid,
  
• insist on feeding himself at all meals,
  
• babble all sorts of new syllables, and
• snuggle when being held or holding a furry object (alive or stuffed).

While we're elated to see so much progress, there is a down side. Samson's knees are raw with rug burn from the new wool area rug in the den and his newfound fearlessness at diving to reach for something has resulted in several near collisions between his head and the concrete floor. He has also become much more whiny than ever before, with severe separation anxiety and more difficulty with going to sleep. He pretty much shrieks whenever Mama leaves his field of view, although he usually recovers quickly once his attention is diverted to something awesome, like Rice Chex or kitties. We know that this is all normal, but we'll be glad when the drama subsides a bit.

Mealtimes are a whole new level of procedure with the additional work of cleaning up a sticky boy and everything in the general highchair vicinity at least 3-5 times a day, plus the buying and preparing of something fresh, nutritious, safe, soft, and cut into tiny cubes for ease of pincer grasp. The jars were so much more convenient! On the fun side, we've been able to try a lot of new "real" foods lately, even having Samson's first Luby's meal entirely from items off the steam table (cornbread - the winner by far, green beans, mashed potatoes, peaches, and bananas; he vetoed the halibut). Current faves at home include sweet potato cubes and bits of watermelon.

Last weekend, Samson attended two birthday parties and got to hang out with lots of new friends. Here he is showing off his army crawl to Julia and company:





















We've also continued to enjoy our twice-weekly "Mamas & Boys" strolls with the Zavalas. Here's a great shot of Hayden and Samson plotting their escape:





















This coming weekend we'll be heading to Austin Kiddie Limits (and ACL Fest for the grown-ups), and thank goodness, the forecast is for cooler, possibly wet weather. Mama is so excited to take Samson to his first concert! We may have given him the procrastination genes, but we've also passed on our love of music, too, and we're gonna make sure he's exposed to every genre.

Eleven Months Already?

Aghhhh!, originally uploaded by LeftyMama.

Lashes

IMG_2004-1, originally uploaded by LeftyMama.

He's got Daddy's eyes.

Slobber Talk

A New Friend

Today Samson met a new friend for the first time, one of the babies who were in utero at the post-c-section baby shower. Rowan was born on January 1st (almost 9 months ago) and he is already a pudgy little dynamo! Mama was fascinated see him zoom around the room, crawling and cruising -- we're not yet accustomed to speedy babes at our house. Both boys played with the basket of whiffle balls and then we all moved over to Rowan's toy chest for more fun with exciting new objects.



Though the boys seemed to have fun, their interactions were few and brief; that makes sense, as babies this age don't really know yet how to play with other babies. They enjoyed each other's company for almost two hours before it was time to head home for the afternoon nap.

Good to see you, Haney Family!