New experiences!

I have not posted since the first day I went back to work, 4 months ago. Wow, time gets away from you... I am happy to report that Sam now has his own life. He spends two afternoons a week with friends, one with Suzanne Lilygren and one with Deborah Ellis. We feel very lucky to have such great care for him. It also gives Steve and I time to focus without interruption on whatever we want. It is great!
Sam is changing every day. It is so amazing to watch him learn and discover the world around him. His most recent experience is food. He started eating rice cereal this past weekend. It was fun and messy. We are not sure how much he actually swallowed. He is also making more sounds and mimicking our sounds. Sam and I are going to the local child development center on Friday for his 6 month screening. Of course we know already that he is above average but hearing it never gets old. I will report back with the results.
I am looking forward to Thanksgiving and eating turkey with family. Uncle Matt will be celebrating his first Thanksgiving in the United States in three years with us. We are all looking forward to his dish!!!
Enjoy the new pictures and Sam's BIG, blue eyes.

Who is that baby?

Sam is growing and learning so much. El and I are so busy, that it seems like we can't even keep up with remembering the landmarks, let alone document them. So far, we have only taken about 5 minutes of video, and all the pictures are waiting to be sorted. One of the wonderful things we see as Sam passes the 5 month mark is his engaging nature and his interest in just about everything.

He giggles when he sees the baby in the mirror. He pets the dogs and pulls mom's hair and when I karate-chop him in the guts (hey...it's never too early to get tough...) he laughs like crazy. We've just started using his new baby backpack and he loves being able to see where we're going.



He is adept at rolling to the left, but prefers to avoid going right. He talks and talks, though I think it's mostly to hear his own voice...just like the rest of us. He has also found the volume controls...and I think he's never going back to coos and sighs. I can't even come up with the words to describe how much we love this little man. He is the best and brightest thing in the world to me.