Crunchy Thoughts

Hi, and welcome to the expectedly delayed nine month post of Sam! I doubt I’ll ever get one of these out on time. Near the 2nd, back when Sam actually reached nine months, he was under the weather and miserable; this past weekend, Steven and Lydia were under the weather in turn. My time came on Monday and Tuesday. Sam will be ten months old in two weeks.

Despite my strong prediction, Sam is not yet crawling, in the official sense of the term. He certainly isn’t immobile, however. Between rolling and wiggling he can determinedly get to whatever he sets his sights on. He can be quite quick about this as well and I have to be cautious as to where I put him because BAM! he will be twenty feet away from me before you can say stitches.

One thing that Sam did spring on me that I wasn’t expecting was the appearance of his first upper front tooth. We visited my sister and her brood down in Auburn the last week of February. Sam was downright ornery at times that weekend, but since Lydia didn’t cut her upper teeth until she was 11 months old, I did not expect teething troubles to be getting the better of him. On Sunday morning, Sam was sporting a little nubbin of a tooth in his upper gums. If he could speak, he would scream, “I AM NOT LYDIA!”

Sam visited the zoo for the first time this past month, though it was more for his sister’s benefit. Not that Sam didn’t enjoy it — he was very content to sit back and be strolled around and watch Lydia jump about. Pretty soon he’ll be shouting out all the animal names as well.

Sam has a body fitness thing going on: he’s real keen on doing push ups. I’m not talking about girlie push ups, mind you — these are real deal, the manly-push-on-your-toes-and-hands push ups. He’s really good at them, too. Hey, it’s something neither I nor Lydia can do. He seems to think it will get him toward that goal of crawling.

I’ll just let him think that for a while. I bet when he really does learn to crawl, he’ll crawl FAST, and then I really will be in trouble.

And here we are; we have reached the fine age of eight months old! Oh, so happy are we. At least, as long as we’re not hungry.

Sam’s second tooth sprouted forth soon into his eighth month, not that it will help him much in the food department. Food introduction is going SLOWLY. So far he will only eat applesauce, sweet potatoes, and pears. We tried peas, one of Lydia’s all-time loves, but they are on Sam’s Hate List.

As Sam ate more and more solids we kept waiting for that magical day when he would be full enough to sleep through the night, but there seemed to be no amount of food that could satiate the boy any longer than four hours or so. Sam, the couch and I have become very good friends over this past year.

One late night around two weeks ago after nothing seemed to please him, I finally just let Sam scream it out. He slowly fussed into a slumber. The next morning I awoke with a start — Sam hadn’t woken me up at all! I ran into his room in panicked Mommy-mode to find him sawing logs on his tummy. He had flipped himself over during his tantrum.

Hmm.

The next night I laid him down on his tummy, and after a few minutes of fussing, he had another full night’s rest — and so did Mommy and Daddy. He’s a tummy sleeper! And so the house sleeps a little sounder.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh . . .

Sam is having a very auspicious first year. First there was the White Christmas and this past month he dozed in his Daddy’s arms as we watched our Auburn Tigers win the National Championship. Lydia had long gone to bed but Sam was up ’till near the very end. Once we knew it was over and we had it, we had to celebrate softly and just soak in the moment, lest we rouse the Troubled Sleeper. It was a fantastic night.

It’s been a very cold month — after all it was January — so we have mainly stayed indoors, especially with all the ice events we keep having. The weekend before Sam’s eight month birthday, however, was quite pleasant, so we visited the Botanical Gardens.

Sam was content to be strolled around and watch Lydia climb rocks and describe the world. Ahh, immobility: we shall enjoy it while it lasts. I bet Sam starts crawling within the month. Then Lydia just might get a different opinion about her Sam.

First off, my apologies for getting this done a bit late. Sam turned seven months old a full week ago, but he was a miserable soul and we were all waiting for Monday so we could get him to the doctor. It turns out he had bronchiolitis and an ear infection. It also turns out that unlike his sister, when Sam is sick, he doesn’t sleep well, therefore no one sleeps well.

So wow, yeah, seven months. Soon after he turned six months, we did try the rice cereal again, and he reacted the same as before, just like clockwork. No rice for Sam, I think we get it now. A week later, we oh so slowly started to introduce applesauce. On day one, he had one bite. On day two, he had two bites, and so on. The first few days were miserable — Sam wanted nothing to do with it. You’d put a bite in his mouth and he’d just hang his jaw open and cry, letting the saliva-covered bite slowly slide back out onto the spoon. It wasn’t until a week in when he finally decided to taste the stuff and realized it was pretty good. Now he’s downing whole jars of it, and we even have had three or four nights where he has slept all through the night, though the ear infection/bronchiolitis experience has stopped that flat.

We have also introduced sweet potatoes, which he also seems to like. The whole foods thing is just a very slow process.

Last month was filled with Christmas doings and general shin-digs. Sam got to meet the Jolly Ol’ Man for the first time. He was rather thrilled.

And he prepared to tear into Christmas with Daddy:

Sam worked hard on the fine art of sitting up over Christmas and he can pretty much stay seated by himself now, as long as he doesn’t get too excited by something Lydia does. Sometimes this can be hard, since to Sam, anything Lydia does is pretty exciting.

As far as first Christmases go, I think Sam has a pretty good one. Though he won’t remember it, we all got to experience the first White Christmas Bimingham has ever had (and probably will ever have). For me, it was a childhood dream come true. I have never been so giddy. What an experience to sit around with my family opening gifts while watching huge white flakes fall outside the window.

Also, Sam got his first tooth a few days after Christmas. It’s a nice sharp nubbin, and it’s growing taller every day. It’s mate hasn’t broken through yet but I imagine it’s not far behind. Unfortunately, Sam hasn’t been willing to let me get a good pic yet.

At the doctor’s appointment last week, Sam weighed in at a hefty 18 pounds 8 ounces. Wowee! I looked back at Lydia’s baby book and that was her weight when she was a year old. Look out, Lydia! Sam’s catching up.