Happy seven month birthday, Sam! You continue to amaze us with your accomplishments every day. We love you!

Sam’s stats:

• Sam is increasingly fascinated with Henry. If Sam is ever fussy, all we have to do is call Henry over and that immediately lifts his mood. He loves when Henry gets within grabbing distance. It makes us a little bit nervous because when Sam grabs hold of your hair, it hurts! But we are trying to teach Sam to be “gentle” and until then, Henry is pretty good about walking away.

• Sam is a great eater. So far he has had rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, apples, pears, zucchini, avocados, bananas, and rice crackers. Now that he is seven months old we are going to try tofu! That should be interesting. I have heard it is a good finger food and it will also be a good source of protein mashed into his cereal.

• One of Sam’s favorite games is “bibbling” (I don’t think that is a real word, but that is what Ben’s mom said they always used to call it and I don’t have a better word!). Ben puts his hand in front of Sam’s mouth while he is making noise and then moves it back and forth really quickly so that the resulting noise goes: awbawbawbawba. Sam loves it and has even learned how to do it himself. If we imitate him, that really cracks him up!
• Sam has been practicing his standing up skills. He loves to stand up but definitely still relies heavily on us to give him balance. We have tried showing him how to hold on to other things to help himself balance but he hasn’t quite gotten the idea. And as you can see, he is very proud of himself!

• Sam is starting to develop a little bit more independence and assertiveness. If we are giving him a bottle and aren’t getting it to his mouth fast enough he grabs the bottle by both hands and shoves it into his mouth. He doesn’t understand that he has to tip the bottle up, though. And we have definitely reached the milestone of “objecting when you take a toy away” (to quote “What to Expect the First Year“). He also likes to help us hold the spoon when he is eating.

• Screaming is Sam’s favorite sound to make.  He often likes to scream first thing when he wakes up. It is not mad or sad; it is a happy scream. But it is definitely a loud scream!
• Things that make Sam laugh: sneezing, burping, falling over, being imitated, seeing Henry. He is really developing a sense of humor.