Sammy turned 1 a few weeks ago. He is so sweet - very patient and happy, though he tends to pick up every single cold possible. Since Christmas it's literally been 2-3 weeks with a cold, one week without and then 2-3 more weeks with one. He is now walking and gaining confidence every day and trying to talk. He cracks me up when he's frustrated. He crawls about two "steps", then goes spread eagle on the floor for a few seconds. Then he gets up and does it again. He isn't sleeping through the night yet (well, I guess he slept all night the last two nights, but I need more of a pattern before claiming he's given up his night wakings.)
He loves Max and dogs and his two new fish he got for his birthday. Actually, there's only one left as of this writing, but he loves it! He eats more than Max and is having a love affair with Eggo waffles this week. He likes to climb the steps as well as the couch in the toy room. His favorite toy is the Fisher Price piggy bank we've had since Max was one. He isn't as into reading as Max was at this age, but he will sit for about 1/2 a book and prefers to just listen and play while I read to Max or grab the book and chew on it. Max still prefers to sit on my lap and read forever if given the chance.
I love having two boys and they are so cute together. A week or so ago, Sammy made his way across the room with his arms outstretched making kissing noises and headed right over to Max. The great thing about this age is that Max thinks that's adorable too. : ) Max is such a big help with Sammy. I often say, "Max, can you entertain Sammy while I (fill in the blank - use the restroom, empty the dishwasher, etc.)?" He happily obliges. He does get a little annoyed when Sammy knocks down his towers or destroys his train tracks, but he does a good job controlling his frustrations.
One lesson I learned about first birthdays after having Max was to not allow the birthday boy to have an unlimited supply of cake and frosting. For Max's birthday, we set a full size cake in front of him for the traditional "Cake Massacre" pics. He didn't eat any of the cake, but ate ALL the frosting. That was his very first taste of junk food and I allowed him to eat almost 1/2 can of frosting in one sitting! That poor child was awake with a tummy ache all night long after that. So Sammy only got one or two cupcakes to devour on his big day. We had a low-key celebration with my family and Matt's family and opened presents as the guests arrives (i.e. Nana & Pappy arrive on Friday afternoon so he opened his gifts then, Aunt Sarah & Uncle Adam were here Saturday morning hours before the actual party so we opened their gifts then.) It was nice spreading them out so he could play with something new every few hours.
We are all blessed to have Sammy! Happy birthday, Big Guy!!
