Sam 会说中文 (speaks Chinese)

Well this is just to show off the cupcakes I made for my friend, MaryAnne's, baby shower. P.S. She's in labor right now. She's having a little girl. We brought home some extra cupcakes and pacifiers. Sam, of course, doesn't realize that it's girly to suck on a pink pacifier, so he's been enjoying the plethora of pacifiers at his disposal.


Last week Sam started to repeat "baba" after I said it. He very deliberately moves his whole jaw when he says it. This may not seem very exciting to some of you, but in Chinese "baba" means "father" so we're just going to go ahead and count it as a word...sort of.


Sam's new favorite thing to do right now is pull plugs out of the outlet. I've already plugged the computer in 3 times since I've started this post. I don't know what is so fun about it, but it's irresistible to him. He can't help but scurry over to the cord and pull it out. The good news is, his tooth that has been working its way in has finally come through! Hooray! That makes two teeth on bottom and two on top. And Sam turned nine months old yesterday. I can't believe how fast he's growing!

Never a dull moment

Sam has one tooth on top that has come in, but he's still working on another one so he's really into chewing and sucking on things-especially his socks. He crawls around the house with a sock in his mouth like it's a doggy bone. It's pretty funny looking.
He's already practicing to become better than his mom and dad at playing the piano. I think he's already surpassed his mom.
Happy to have food all over his face.
Fun in the kitchen.


We haven't had a lot of Kodak moments lately for whatever reason, but I thought you might get a laugh out of our all-too-exciting diaper changing experiences in the last week.

Sam hasn't peed with his diaper off since he was a couple of months old, so lately I've been letting him crawl around a bit while I clean up the old diaper mess before I put his new diaper on because it is absolutely difficult to get him to sit still for an entire diaper changing routine.

This seemed to be working out well and the diaper changing experience was easier over all--until about a week ago when he surprised me. The first time was before a bath. I changed his diaper and then left him naked and told him to follow me to the bathroom for his bath. He pretty much always follows me, especially into the bathroom because he doesn't usually get to go in there. I went into the bathroom and turned on the bath water and waited for him to catch up. He took a little bit longer than usual, but I didn't think much of it. It wasn't until after his bath that I discovered the lovely wet spot on the carpet next to his crib. That was incident number one.

Then a couple of days later, naively thinking the previous experience was a unique one, I left the diaper off while I cleaned up his old diaper mess, only to hear splattering on the carpet a second later. That was incident number two.

This morning we had incident number three (apparently I'm a slow learner). After changing a diaper filled to capacity and then some (out the sides and back), I decided to quickly clean that mess up, toss that diaper, and then put Sam's new diaper on. I started to do this and then remembered that Sam has peed on the carpet twice in the last week, so I should probably put the new diaper on first. I grabbed the new diaper and was about to grab Sam, but I wasn't fast enough. He managed to urinate on himself, his sock, the carpet, and the baby gate all in one try. He's so innocent and cheerful about it all that I really can't be upset with him. And I do scrub and sanitize quite thoroughly, for those of you who were worried. I'm just grateful it's only been urine. Anyway, if you wonder why I've been neglecting the blog, it's because I'm busy scrubbing the carpet.

Tiger Sounds and Peekaboo

This first video is of Sam learning what sound a tiger makes. He's getting pretty good at it. He was also crawling on top of me trying to get the camera.

This one is just of Sam laughing, and I'm not sure why. I think he was just really tired.


This last one is me playing peekaboo with Sam. This was also when he was tired so his reactions were better than normal. It turns out I don't even have to hide to play peekaboo with Sam. Oh, just a side note, Sam is getting 2 teeth (that we know of) on top.

Splish Splash Sam's takin a bath

Sam loves the bathtub. When I start the water running he tries to climb over the side of the tub (with clothes on) and dive in. He gets so excited that the whole time I'm trying to get him undressed he keeps crawling away towards the bathtub. I have to pull him back a dozen times to get him undressed. Then as soon as I let him go free he crawls into the bathroom and right to the tub. This is him on his way. And he also does the same thing after his bath is over when I'm trying to get him dressed.


This is Sam just hanging out and splish-splashin. He was splashing a lot more before I brought the camera out. The other day when I put him in the tub he just stretched out, relaxed, and said, "Ahh" a bunch of times. This went on for about 5 minutes. It was pretty cute.

He's a quick one...

This morning Sam discovered that the scriptures really can be fun! I did a decent job of taping the page back together so the damage isn't too bad. I've got to keep my eye on this kid a lot more than I used to (hence the next picture too).

One of Sam's favorite things to do is eat paper. Apparently toilet paper will do too. This morning he discovered that the toilet makes a great drum (with the lid down), and more importantly, there seems to be a never-ending supply of this yummy white stuff. As soon as I got done taking the picture (first things first) I dug the tp out that he was storing in his cheeks.

Dave thought it would be funny to see what Sam thought of the laundry hamper. He liked it for about 30 seconds.

And now what you've all been waiting for: the pillows I made. Actually I just recovered some old pillows I already had because they didn't go. Next project-sew a shirt for Dave (he even bought the fabric and pattern for me).

Sam, Sam, and more Sam

Sam jammin to the music of his great Christmas present.

So he looks really girly, but also really cute. This is a little bathrobe outfit we got from my friend, Elisabeth at my baby shower. Sam decided to walk the runway in it and strut his stuff.

I'm so handsome I stun myself!

This is his mischievous grin. I've been seeing more and more of it. It's also his "I'm coming for you Mommy!" grin. Sometimes he gets this look and starts crawling really fast towards me. :)

I think this is Sam's favorite thing to do now. At least once a day he pulls all the dvds out of our tv stand. If I put them back before the day is over he makes sure they don't stay that way. Sometimes he does his super fast crawl over there too-it's as if he suddenly realizes there is order in the house and feels the need to correct that. He's lots of fun and seems excited about life overall, despite the ear infection and diarrhea...poor kid.


These are a couple of videos of Sam that I took this week. The first one is of Sam eating some fruit. I think he likes it, but he makes a face like he is absolutely disgusted after he takes a bite, but he always opens his mouth for more. The second one is a result of Sam discovering that he can reach the bag of cereal on the second shelf. He pulls it down and plays with it like it's a giant miracca. He did get a little distracted by the camera though, as usual. :)

Christmas Pics-and lots of them

Sam and Grandma Hinman


Miss Allys- (Alyssa)

The beauty of a big family is you can play Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan at the same time!

This is the mark the bird left earlier this year when it hit the window. Be sure to notice the wing marks too.

Dad and Mom look through the family memory book we gave them for Christmas. They seemed to like it. Mom said she wanted to get a copy for everyone, even after Pete told her they cost $500 each (which they didn't).


Sam taking in all the wonder of Christmas.

The Christmas pageant in reverse order. Mary, Joseph, and a shepherd with baby Jesus. To Adrienne's disappointment, Sam wasn't up to the task of playing Jesus this year.

Mary, Joseph, shepher (Callie) and sheep (Anna).

Anna is supposed to be a sheep, but I think she looks more like a movie star who doesn't have time for the paparazzi.

Tanya stood in for Alyssa who lost patience and took off her halo and angel robe.


This is Alyssa before she quit the angel role.

Adrienne makes a beautiful Mary.

Jackson played one of the wise men I think.

Callie with her shepherds staff.