Double the Fun

Samuel has been having a lot of fun lately with his two new friends. Our neighbors down the block have twin girls just a month older than Sam and he can't get enough of them. Its funny, she dresses them the same and so the first time he would go to one and then turn around and see the other one and smile. We have been trying to have weekly play dates so I can watch Samuel and see if he tries to bite anyone (which he hasn't, YEAH!) and for her girls to start spending time with more kids since they stay home and its hard for her to get out with twins, can you imagine its tough enough with one that wants to get out and go everywhere I can't imagine two 14 month olds. Sophia and Lauren have a basement of toys just for them, its like an activity center, and Sam gets so excited to see all of their toys, and when we come home he looks at his toys like old shoes, its so sad - one reason we are so excited to have our basement done and space for Samuel to run around and put up his big toys we have kept in boxes since his birthday.

With Valentines Day being this week Samuel had to make some tough decisions, he decided it wouldn't be nice to pick just one of them to be his valentine, so he asked them both (what a ladies man.) Samuel had a good Valentines day, he still doesn't get it, but that didn't stop him from opening all of his packages on his own and even got his cards out and gave them to us to read to him it was really cute.

Also, this past weekend his Papster (Ben's dad) came to visit. This is a great age for them to interact. They really bonded on this trip. Samuel sat next to him and let Papster read him stories, which he never does for us. Samuel even went to the window when he left, to tell him not to go (or so it seemed) we really wish they lived closer, and look forward to their next visit.

Some of Samuel's favorite things these days are moving the chairs around the house, pulling toilet paper off and carrying it around the house, turning the lights on and off, saying uh-oh, being outside and taking Sunday morning trips to WalMart and running around the store.

Bitting cause we love??

Over the past few weeks Samuel has turned himself into a world class bitter. Samuel never bites while he is at home so we were surprised when daycare started calling. It is now rare for Ben or I to not get a call during the day from them telling us Samuel has bit another child. Samuel hit his climax last Friday when the school sent him home because he wouldn't stop biting the other children.

This has really been stressing me out, so I have contacted our pediatrician and a daycare specialist about things we can do, as well as visit every google identified search on the web. We are now realizing that Samuel may be biting because he thinks he is giving kisses/love to the other kids. We started observing him at home and realized if we asked for a kiss and let him sit there for a while he would open his mouth like he was going to bite. So is Sam bitting because he loves? We aren't sure, but we feel horrible if we are perpetuating it.

Looks like this kiss could have turned to a bite really quick!

Needless to say we are not asking for kisses at this point to try and avoid any issues. In addition, Sam is getting his molars and we think this may be causing some of the pain, and so are trying to offer him teething rings during the day to sooth his teeth if they are hurting him. We have shared this and other ideas our pediatrician gave us with our daycare and we are so lucky that they are wiling to work with us on them and try to help Sam. Daycare never shares who Sam bit and they don't tell the parents of the bitee which child they were bitten by. Even though I know this, I still find myself dropping him off a little later or getting him a little earlier in the chance that a parent may find out that we are the biting family. What they are doing seems to be working and the last two days at daycare we have been bite free, which has caused for much celebration at our house. Please keep your fingers crossed that we are through the worst of it.

When he's not biting he has become a little helper around the house. Every day when we get home from daycare I tell him to go let his dogs out and he walks right up to their cage and opens it so they can get it. The dogs almost tip him over but he thinks it is really funny. After they get out sometimes he crawls in. He loves his dogs and wants to do whatever they do, its cute.

Smiling and so proud of himself each time he opens their cage.

Sam has also found the plunger in our house and now carries it around and walks into the bathroom shower with it and tries to use it on the walls.

Then he has also started trying to use the vacuum and the broom around the house. Its amazing to us on how quick kids pick up on things like that and want to try it on there own. Finally he loves to put Ben or my shoes (no high heals) on and our jackets, hats etc. and walk around the house, until he stumbles or gets bored which usually isn't longer than 30 seconds these days.

Happy Valentines day to everyone!!