13, 14, 15 AND 16 months with Sammy!!

Happy 16 month birthday Sammy!  16 months!!  Wow, Mr. Man, you are a cute busy little man and I'm always loving you more than yesterday.  Crossing into toddlerhood has made you much more a little boy now than a baby.  It is amazing to watch your personality and imagination take form.  Month 15 into 16 marked the start of your defiance...fun, fun fun!!  Gotta love the offspring of two strong willed parents.

There is really one word that best describes you and that is cute.  Cute in your kindness, cute in your silliness, cute in your defiance, cute in the way you love certain foods, drink out of cups with those sweet little lips.  You are just CUTE!

 Over the last four months there have been lots of changes but they aren't as dramatic as wow, you can hold your head up, roll over, sit, feed yourself, crawl, walk.  You still have one big milestone to hit which is climbing but I'm not in a rush by any means for that!  I think in part the lack of really physical changes may have been why I wasn't sure whether or not I was going to continue with these monthly posts, but then around 13.5 months I started realizing how many funny, absolutely hilarious things you were doing and wanted to be able to remember them later down the road.  I'm caught off guard daily by the things you know and can pick up easily.

Here are a few of my favorite Sammy things from the last few months:

• You've learned how to blow kisses and use that as your key to say goodbye, even to strangers.  You even say the sound Mauh when kissing.  Melts my heart.

• You pick up the phone and start talking.  You even pick up things that resemble phones and start talking.  And boy do you talk.  You are very serious and engaged and have some really animated facial expressions when you're on the phone. 

I let you answer the phone for a telemarketer and the convo went like this: "Hi can I talk to Paul" "YEAH" silence.  Telemarketer asks again, Sammy louder which more toy clanging "YEAH"  This went on four or five times before the poor guy hung up.  Maybe because he knew he was talking to a toddler or maybe because he heard me cracking up in the background.

• You give and want the BEST hugs.  It is so endearing and wonderful.  I truly think your love language is touch.  You love to be close.

• I think you may have started to understand the concept of being gentle with Bailey, which means you are now better friends once again.  Unfortunately, the love of your life Romie the cat, you haven't quite mastered the pat gently technique.  That is still a love hate relationship.  You chase him around saying meow, meow, meow meow.  I word you learned from your favorite thing on tv, the meow mix commercial.  Seriously, your face lights up when you hear it and you sing it back in tune!!

• You are very clean, it is pretty awesome.  You like everything in it's place.  Even the toilet paper you attack as if you were a rabid cat.  Gets torn to shreds and then the pieces placed one by one into the trashcan. You even walk things over to the kitchen, open the cabinet where the trash is and throw them away.

• Keeping up with your cleaning trend, if I open the dishwasher you are there faster than Bailey comes to sound of his cookie jar opening.  You love to put all of your sippy cups back together and stack the plates for me.  The other day I was putting dishes away and found a paper plate you'd been playing with had ended up put away in the dishwasher.  It was even placed the way it should be. 

You also started celebrating the first of many seconds.  It is amazing to see the transformation year after year. 
Your second halloween

Second thanksgiving and Christmas: You absolutely LOVED Christmas this year.  Your favorite gift was your wagon from grandma and grandpa.  I can see a lot of memories being made with you in that wagon.

Second New Years

We did a bunch of fun local stuff during the Christmas Season.  The first was a trip to Frying Pan Park and the second was the Cox's Farm Christmas tree farm.  A great time was had and you got to visit Santa for the first time (for free!!).  I was happy to report you weren't at all phased by the big guy and Bailey even got to get in on the action too.

Sammy you are so loved!  Thank you for being the light in my life.  I will try to get your 17 month post up before you turn 18!