Sam is about thirteen and a half months old now so I guess it is time I updated y’all on his stats!

*Sam now has four teeth: two on the top, two on the bottom. He seems to be getting two more on the top.

*Sam keeps improving his walking skills. He practically runs around the house all day and has had more than a few spills, including one outside which resulted in a scraped up nose and cheek. With all his battle scars, I have started hearing a lot of “well, he sure is a boy!” from people we meet. It is so nice to be able to hold hands and walk to the car, or walk around the store instead of carrying him everywhere. It is definitely a little slower but it is much easier on my back! He is also still completely happy to ride in his stroller, which is nice.

*With all of his walking, Sam has also practiced taking steps on and off curbs. He has to hold my hand but he is getting much better! I have also been trying to teach him to crawl down the stairs backwards on his belly but he does not get the concept. Still some work to do there!

*It is funny to see Sam move through very distinct stages. All of a sudden, he is very interested in taking things out of containers and putting things into containers. If you leave a purse, bag, or box on the living room floor there is a 95% chance that when you pick it up 5 minutes later it will contain some little treasures from Sam. The other day when Ben took out a couple of cardboard boxes to recycle, he noticed that they were full of Sam’s toys. Luckily he spotted them before leaving the boxes on the curb! Sam is also into pulling everything out of its right place and scattering it about the house. I can’t wait until I can teach Sam to clean up after himself!

*Sam’s language has really taken off. Ok, that is probably a slight exaggeration but he did go from babbling nonsense syllables to speaking little utterances that actually mean something… and slightly resemble words! Here’s what he’s got so far:

• bah – bird (This was the first but he hasn’t been pointing these guys out much lately.)

• nah nah – banana (This is Sam’s new obsession.)

• nene – Henry (Ok. Pretty similar to banana but we are pretty sure this means Henry. When he sees Henry he gets very excited and starts shouting “nene!!”)

• mah – light (Clearly Sam does not know how to make the L sound, but he is fascinated by lights and points them out everywhere. Whenever you ask him where the light is, he points at it and says “mah,” so I am counting this as a word he knows!)

*Sam has also finally figured out signing! I kind of stopped signing to him because he wasn’t signing back, but around his first birthday I decided to start signing to him again — and now he is way more into it. Here are the signs he knows (and also, pretty much the only ones I know–time to study up!): milk, more, please (has to be prompted/shown this one)

Here are some pics from the past few weeks: