10 months old

At 10 months old, Samuel:

--Eats solid foods better and better every day, but still doesn't love it. Yogurt and bananas are the foods he actually enjoys sometimes.

--Is doing much better with his stranger anxiety. He has done great in the church nursery for a few Sundays now, and does much better with babysitters.

--Does not sleep through the night. We have given up on that. In order to help him sleep better, we have him sleep in bed with us. Our next purchase: king size bed.

--Babbles all of the time. As for babbles representing specific things, we THINK he specifically labels me 'mama,' Rudi 'dada,' and 'baa' for ball

--LOVES balls. He throws them, crawls after them, and then throws them again.

--Can stand alone for at least one minute. Despite how good he is at standing, he has yet to take his first steps. This morning I was trying to coax him to take a step, and he just started crying.

Here are some pictures of Samuel standing and playing outside as a 10-month-old.

This pic was not taken the same day, but I had to throw in a picture of Samuel supporting the Tarheels during the final four game

Birthday party

Samuel attended a birthday party yesterday and outside they had an Easter egg hunt. Samuel didn't hunt for any eggs (obviously), but I got a few cute pictures of him 'playing' with an 8 month old little girl. Samuel looks so huge compared to her!

Also, I posted a couple of pictures of Samuel playing with a train. He just loves cars, trains, anything with wheels--very masculine already! 

9-1/2 months

Samuel and friends (Mia- in red- is the birthday girl). Surprisingly enough, Samuel was gentle with Cailin's (in pink) hair and face...a courtesy he does not extend to his parents!

I could not get him to look at the camera!

Growin' like a weed

I am sorry that there are no new pictures to post. I guess we haven't taken any pictures of Samuel since the last post....makes me feel kind of sad! We'll get some in the next few days--Rudi and I have them off together, so hopefully we get some fun family time in.

Samuel is just growing like a weed. He weighs about 20 pounds now and is pretty tall for his age as well! He's been in the 75th percentile for height for a while, which seems huge to me considering how short I've always been. Well, I am remarking about his growth because one morning this week he seemed to have grown significantly overnight!  One day he woke up and I couldn't snap the crotch of a bunch of his outfits that were fitting him previously (or if I could get the crotch snapped, it was embarrassingly tight--even for a baby).

So tonight I went through all of his clothes (again) and stored away all of the too-small outfits. I guess this will be a never-ending process over the next 15 or more years, Lord willing!