16 months.

This was a happy month. The easiest, breeziest month we've had thus far I think. How thankful I am for that!

Sammy:
You had a break from your teething woes--finally!
Diaper changes ceased to be an all out war--thank the Lord.
You learned the signs for eat, bird, and milk and use them consistantly.
You say duck all the time, cat, dada, truck (sounds like duck), and meow.
You zoom all over the place crawling and climbing and pulling up.
You love to play and dig in the dirt.
You still adore hide and seek and chase.
You give kisses, especially to Amelia and smile really big afterwards.
You go to sleep with a bottle of whole milk now instead of nursing. This has been really bittersweet for your mama. After you finish your bottle you usually stand up and throw it out of your crib and then try to keep Amelia awake by jabbering, screeching, laughing, etc. It doesn't work (amazingly) and you resign yourself to sleeping as well:)
You sleep all night now. You did it on your own sweet Sam...no "Sleep training" needed...a pretty seamless transition from co-sleeping, to nursing a couple of times a night, to sleeping through the night. Do you know what a gift that was to me? Granted, I did wait 15 months for this gift--but I would much rather do that then go through the horrors of hearing you cry, cry,cry.
You are a pretty sensitive fellow.
You love all of your wooden cars now and zoom them all over the house with you--I love to see that!
You can point to your belly, nose, eyes, and hair.
I love you my sweet Sam, more than words can say, and am so thankful that God gave me another month to be your mama.


Amelia:
You became a walking machine this month! What a joy it was to watch you learn to walk.
You learned the signs for eat, milk, bird,more, and banana.
You say duck, dada (and dadu), truck, water, ruff, ruff, and meow.
You love flowers. You love to hold them, pick them, sniff them, put your mouth on them. Today you stood in front of our neighbors flower bed and held on to two of her sunfowers for over ten minutes. What can I say? You get very attached to things. See next item on the list.
You fell in love with clothes hangers this month. Well, clothes hangers with clothes on them. You carry them around with you every where. You have to have one when we are in any clothing store or you lose it. Hmmm.
You give kisses, especially to brother.
You become more expressive every day it seems, and crack us up with all of your wide eyed expressions:)
You love to sit in my lap and in the "fire place" play area.
You do not enjoy sharing.
You can point to your belly, nose, eyes, and hair.
You also are sleeping through the night most nights. Unlike brother, this was not an easy transition for you. I jumped through hoops for months and months and finally let you cry. It was not fun for any us and I pray that it is over. That's all I'll say about that.
You go to sleep with a bottle of whole milk now. Surprisingly you have weaned yourself from breast feeding! I thought you would want to nurse until you were at least 2! Alas, you are just too busy of a bee. Today was your second full day of not asking to nurse. Sniff, sniff.
You are pure joy Amelia and I love you with all of my heart.


Here's to lots more smiles in our days, Jen