July 23rd, Sam

It's been a while since I talked about Sam, so here's a little update.

Sam's a hoot! We're spending more time inside by ourselves and I've really enjoyed our time together. He's such a cool little dude to hang out with! Sam's got three sets of cars: baby Tonkas with soft plastic bodies, toddler Tonkas, and his Cars. He'll sit and play with one set (never mixing them) for up to 30 mins. His current fav set are the baby Tonkas and he's named them Sam, Mom and Dad and Grampy. They drive on his car mat and have adventures and play 'leap car.' They are also his 'sleep toys.'

Speaking of sleep, Sam is back in his crib. One night the first week we were back, he couldn't fall asleep and eventually asked if he could go in his crib...he's been there ever since! I think he likes that his sleep toys and cozy blankets and pillow(s) and sleep animals stay in one spot instead of spreading all over his room. The bedtime routine has evolved a little...Sam gets lifted into his crib, Adam and I pray with him (especially for God to heal Krista's insides), then Sam gives me a sleep hug then Adam a sleep hug, then he gives me a sleep kiss and I give him 3 or 4 then he gives Adam a sleep kiss and Adam kissed him. THen Sam lays down and I cozy him up with a blanket and Adam turns on his humidifier.

He's sleeping okay but not great every night. He's still napping most days for 2 or 3 hours (I've tried catching him awake while he's transitioning between sleep cycles and bringing him out of his room at that point and turning on a movie and feeding him cookies and juice...but he just freaks out), going to bed at 8 or 9 most days but every 4 days he falls asleep around 10pm...the kicker is that he calls for me up to 4 times a night to come cozy him up or get a sleep toy that fell on the ground or to take him to the bathroom or to refill his juice.

Sam is really into stickers these days. I'd bought a airplane sticker activity book for the flight home in May...he loved it! Finding where the stickers go, talking about what the planes are doing, giving them names, etc...and he's used it over and over again! He's now completed the tractor sticker activity book at Nana gave him for Christmas (up to this month, he's just looked at the pictures and stickers). So I got a Cars book yesterday, since we're stuck in the house for a while (I've got a headcold turned sinus infection). I was really impressed how quickly he could identify a character basically by their shadow then match the sticker to it...here's a video!



PS-Happy Anniversary Love!!! Thanks for a great four years and I'm looking forward to many, many, many more :)