7 Months Old.....Wow!

Playing with Daddy and Yankee.

Sitting in his new chair from Nana & Pop....playing the piano while Daddy watches the game.

This piano is my new favorite toy! (A hand-me-down from one of Mommy's teacher friends.)

Saying bye-bye to Mommy....she went to school to sub today.

Having a laugh with Daddy....Hahaha!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am SOOOOO sorry I have not posted lately. Things have been crazy busy this past month. I still do not have a job, but I have started to substitute at my old school. Last week I had a 2nd interview for a promising position. Should know something about that later this week. Have thought about keeping kids in my home. So far, I only have one person who has committed. I need 4 kids to make enough to pay the bills. We'll see what God has in store for us. :) He definitely has a plan for us and we are doing our best to remain patient and trust in Him.

-------------------------------------

Our little Sam is not so little anymore. I meant to put him on the scale this morning and check his weight, but I forgot. The last time we weighed Sam, he was 20 pounds! That was about a week ago. He is at least 27 inches...maybe taller now. We haven't measured his height in about a month. I know, I know...we're starting to slack a bit. :) I am so glad we got the car seat that goes up to 30 lbs. Most infant seats only go up to 22 lbs. I swear we are not over feeding our little guy....we're doing exactly what the doctor advised. Sam drinks about 25 ounces of formula a day. He eats 2 TBP of cereal and 2.5 oz(the small jar) of fruit for breakfast and 4oz of veggies for dinner. We just started him on stage 2 foods this week. They do not seem to be any different than stage 1 as far as consistency goes. Sam is just as sweet as can be. We are looking forward to Halloween....already have his outfit. I took some pictures but you'll have to wait until Halloween to see him in his costume. :)

Uh-oh I'm Not Tired

Last night, I woke up around 1am and heard Sam making noise. I looked at the video monitor and saw that he had flipped over. I watched him for a while as he would slip back to sleep. He kept waking up though. He started gooing and gawing like he does in the morning when he is ready to wake up. It was so cute, but he kept getting louder and louder. I thought for sure he would settle down on his own and go back to sleep. He was so loud that I turned the monitor off and I could still hear him. So I decided to go get him before he woke Nick up. When he saw me, he gave me a great big grin. Silly boy! Well, I ended up having to feed him a 3oz bottle before he would even think about going back to sleep. He probably would have gulped down more, but I refused to give him any more. He did finally go back to sleep. I hope he is not going to make a habit of this. I've heard that once teething starts, that sleeping through the night is a thing of the past. Maybe Sam will be different. :)

Sam Is 6 Months Old!

Do you like my jacket? :)

Sam and his pals. :)

Happy Half Birthday Sam!

Holding his cup all by himself.

Sweet sleeping angel. Too big for the bassinet now.

Diaper change at Grandmother's house.....shoooo-weeee!

Watching the doggies eat their dinner.

Getting a bath from Nana and Pop.

-----------------------------------------

Sam is 6 months old! SO crazy that he is half a year old. It does not seem like that much time has gone by. It sure went by fast. We woke up on Sunday and sang "Happy 1/2 Birthday to Sam." Nick made a carrot cake to celebrate the occasion and we pulled some hand me down toys out as gifts. :) This past week, Sam has discovered how to work his jumper-roo. He went from just sitting in it looking at the toys to jumping like crazy. He loves it! Lately, Sam has been a little fussier than normal. We feel like we will see a little tooth any day now. His buddy Blain already has two teeth! Also new this week---Sam has been making loud noises and he looks shocked when he does it. It's like he can't believe all that noise came from him.

What a Brave Boy!

Folding his hands....little angel. (Is that a Nick Jr. or what!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam was such a trooper at the doctor this morning. The doc was so impressed with Sam's growth and development. Sam weighs 18 lbs and 12 oz....he measures 26 1/2 inches. That puts him in the 90th percentile for weight and the 75th percentile for height. That is not on the preemie scale....the preemie chart has him above the 97th for weight and at the 97th for height. The doc said Sam shows absolutely no signs of being born 10 weeks premature. Praise the Lord! He had his shots today and was such a brave little guy. I didn't have to hold his arms this time. I just stood up by his face and whispered in his ear. He did cry, but he stopped when I played his glow worm music. That's his favorite toy this week. We discovered last night that he likes to play with his baby spoon. Sam was very focused on me eating dinner last night. He would watch me take food from my plate to my mouth, so we let him play with one of his baby spoons. That entertained him for 5-10 minutes. Sam has also discovered that he can fit his fist in his mouth. He will gag himself over and over and look at me like, "What are you doing to me Mommy?" Another new thing this past week---We pray before Sam eats. First I tell him to fold his hands, and then I help him put his hands together and we pray. This past week, when I asked Sam to fold his hands, and he did all by himself. So sweet! Twice this week, Sam has melted my heart by grabbing my face with both of his hands and pulling me in for a kiss. How precious is that! He hasn't done this to Daddy yet...I think he senses Daddy's secret fear of baby drool. :) We've had tons of that lately. Still no teeth though. Sam made my heart skip a beat over the weekend. Nick and I had him upstairs on his belly. He was playing and all of the sudden his pushed off my leg. I thought he was starting to crawl...false alarm. He is close, but not quite there yet. He will scoot all around his bed....so much that he's beginning to wear fuzzy onto the knees of all his jammies. He's not too interested in the rolling over thing. He can do it but he has only done it a handful of times. I anticipate this will increase within the next month or so. Sam will turn 6 months old next Sunday. That's all I can think of for now. Until next time....xoxox

My fist tastes SO good!

Playing after breakfast.

We've started using the high chair tray.... a great place to spread Sam's toys out.

What is that!

Does this go in my eye? :)

Sam isn't eating the Cheerios on the tray yet, he just pushes them around.

We are working on fine motor skills. :)

Monkey Lover!

Ready for football season....thanks Uncle Stan! :)

-------------------------------------

Sam turned 5 1/2 months old this past week. He is totally saying ma-ma now! :) He has said it in front of enough people enough times for it to count. He says lots of things. The other day he was saying ah-ba-ma...it sounded like he was saying Obama! :) He is just a little noise maker these days. When we sing to him, it sounds as if he is trying to sing along with us. Super cute! Sam graduated to size 3 diapers last week. I weighed him this morning and he is 18 1/2 pounds and 26 inches long. We go to the doctor this Friday for his 6 month check-up. We are going a week early because my insurance runs out at the end of this month. Don't worry, we are picking up a temporary policy. Most of you know by know that I did not get a job with SCS. I was offered a interim position, but I needed a full time position. Anyway, please continue to pray that a job comes along for me. Sam has really been playing with a lot of his toys recently. It was all about his monkey last week. Yesterday, Nick pulled a ducky puppet out and Sam was loving that. His little personality comes out more and more each day.

Big boy!

Do you like my big boy diapers? :)

Whatever you say Daddy.


Asleep with his monkey.

Holding that head up.

Monkey...check

Paci....check
I'm ready to go now.

Listening to a story.

Posing with Mr. Monkey.

I love you monkey. :)

All tuckered out.

Where's my food?

Saying Good-Bye to Summer

Wow, summer has come to an end and kids are heading back to school. That is so hard to believe. It feels like last week that we were just getting out. As the old saying goes, "Time flies when you're having fun." We sure have had some fun this summer. This weekend Nick, Sam, and I....along with the rest of my family went to see my brother's band play. It was their CD release party. This was Sam's 1st bar experience. :) Don't worry, it was smoke free. He actually slept until we woke him up to eat. He was a trooper. One of my friends had a baby this weekend. I went and saw her in the hospital on Sunday. Her sweet baby was so little....well, a little over 7 lbs, not much bigger than Sam was when we brought him home from the hospital. It was surreal holding such a little baby. When I got home and saw Sam, he really seemed big to me. It's crazy how fast they grow. Speaking of growing, Sam is right under 18 lbs now and 25 inches long. I was just telling several people 2 weeks ago that Sam had enough clothes. I can't tell you how many outfits we retired last week. Not to fear....I caught lots of sales around town and Sam is set on clothes....at least for the next few months. He is now wearing 6 month clothing and 6-9 months in some things. Sam's eyes look as though they are starting to turn brown. We're still not sure what the final color will be. Over the past few weeks Sam has been making lots of new sounds. A lot of the time when he starts to get upset, he says ah-ma ah-ma ah-ma. It sounds a lot like ma ma. :) Also, the other day he said ah-da-dee. I haven't heard him say that again. We're not officially saying Sam can say ma-ma and da-dee, but it sure does sound like he's getting close to the real thing. :) Playing the drums with Uncle Stephen.

Future musician? :)

Taking a break from the drums for a bottle.

Miss Vivian Grace....can't wait for Sam to meet this little cutie. :)

Finishing up bath time with Daddy.

Mommy and Sam in front of some beautiful sunflowers.

Grandmother and Sam

Boy that sun is bright!

100th Blog!

Today I am posting for the 100th time! Sam is 5 months old. We have had a good morning so far. He woke up around 7:30 and we played for a little bit before heading downstairs for breakfast. Sam is so cute and playful when he first wakes up. I sing the good morning song to him and just smiles and laughs at me. He had rice cereal and applesauce for breakfast. We are going to try oatmeal cereal when this box runs out. After reading a few books and singing a few songs, we headed to Old Navy. I wanted to see if I could catch some deals on clothes for Sam. I headed straight for the sale rack and practically the whole thing was girl clothes. Then we went to this used children's shop to look at clothes. I found a few cute outfits, but I couldn't see paying as much as they were asking for used stuff. So no new clothes for Sam today. We'll try again another day. He is quickly out growing everything! I never believed people when they said kids grow up fast.....I completely understand now.

Fun Day

This morning, Sam and I headed to the NICU at St. Francis Hospital in Bartlett. We saw lots of familiar faces. They could not believe how much Samuel had grown. They told me to mark my calendar for the NICU reunion in the spring. They are planning a carnival with clowns and such. Fun, huh! Sam will be about a year old by then. After catching up with everyone at the hospital, we headed to St. Francis School. I saw lots of friends there and they too gooed and gawed over Sam. It was so nice to see them. Just as we were fixing to leave, Sam had a major poopie diaper. Seriously, it was the biggest I've seen him do. It took 8 wipes to clean him up! Well, I didn't want to leave that in a trash can at school, so I took it with me. I put it in the back of the Pilot and headed home. Well when I got in the car to come to the library this afternoon.....some 7 hours later....my car smelled horrible. I had totally forgotten about that diaper in the back. It had been baking in there all afternoon. Yuck! I don't think I'll ever do that again. :)

I put Sam on the scale with me and he now weighs 17 pounds and 6 ounces. He eats solids twice a day.....usually 3-4 tablespoons of cereal, veggies, and fruit. He drinks 4-5 bottles a day...usually 5 ounces with his solids and 6-8 ounces the other times. Today he drank 3 ounces of milk from his sippie cup. The doc said it was fine to replace one bottle per day with a sippie cup drink of milk. I have noticed that Sam's gums are swollen on the bottom left. No signs of a pearly white yet. The past couple of nights, Sam has been moving around a lot in his bed. We will put him down on one side and he will soon scoot or roll to the other side. Last night, he belly scooted and did a complete 180 degree turn! I don't think I'm quite ready for Sam to be mobile yet. Our little guy will be 5 months old in 2 days. Nick and I are really enjoying parenthood.