Woohoo! I am almost completely done with my Etsy orders for the year. Just a few stockings for my family and Nikki’s family and then I am in for some R&R. Finally, back to the blog!

Sam turned 14 months over a week ago. What an exciting year this is turning out to be. We had fun watching Sam hit so many physical milestones his first year, and now in his second year, it is great to see him expand his verbal and mental skills.

• Language: Sam is babbling constantly (complete with intonation) and knows a few real words. You know that expression: “a face only a mother could love?” Well obviously Sam has a face anyone could love but he definitely has a vocabulary only a mother (and father) could understand! He started saying “all done” while I was out of town, so Ben texted me to let me know. When I actually heard him, it sounded more like “nah dah!” but with the intonation, it is clear (to us at least) what he is trying to say.

• Signing: Sam is learning new signs all the time. He seems to be very motivated by food so all of the signs he knows revolve around food and eating. The other day he signed “milk, please, milk.” It was very exciting that he could really tell me what he wanted. Of course, he had just finished a bottle so I asked him if he wanted water instead. And he signed water! I’m sure those of you with toddlers don’t find this all that exciting but I was thrilled!

• Garbage Boy: Sam is fascinated by garbage trucks lately. He can hear them coming a mile away and runs up to the front window to look out. If the blinds are closed he will even pull the shades up to take a peek. The other day he pushed a toy over so he could stand on top of it for a better view. If we are outside and a garbage truck pulls up, I can just forget about getting him to walk anywhere — we have to stop and watch until it leaves.

• Dog’s Best Friend: Sam is more and more obsessed with Henry. He chases him around all day to pat him, tug on his ears, and sometimes pull his feet out from under him. Henry is not pleased with all this attention and spends most of his time escaping from Sam’s grasp. I’m sure someday they’ll be friends…

• Reading Machine: Sam is really into books lately. His favorites are Little Bee, Where’s Spot?, and Me Hungry. He likes to grab books from the shelf and bring them over to us to read. We usually only get a couple of words in before Sam snatches the book back and runs off with it. But sometimes, especially before bed, he will let us read the whole book to him. He also likes to read books to himself. He sits down, turns the pages, and makes little noises as he “reads” along. One of his books has a picture of a dog and a banana and he likes to find those pictures and name the objects: “wooh wooh” for dog (that’s barking) and “nah nah” for banana.

• Social Butterfly: Sam is getting more and more outgoing. His recent trick is to pat people on the back or shoulder. When we are at our JW Tumbles class each week, he walks around the gym patting all the other moms on the back. It cracks me up that he is so willing to interact with other adults. He also loves giving high fives to Dad. And he waves all the time!

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: