Friday Sam had his 15 month check-up. The doctor says that Sam is looking good. Sam is in the 20th percentile for weight and height and in the 96th percentile for head size. In other words, he's short, skinny, and has a big noggin'! The doctor says his head is so big to hold all the brains! =) But everything is looking good--Sam is a normal, healthy, strong 15 month old. Sam was funny because I think he's starting to build a fairly good memory of the doctor's office. He wasn't too excited about the stethoscope and kept swatting it away, and he's learning his lesson to watch out for those cute nurses. He had to get three shots this time, but he was brave and only cried a little bit.
Sam is such a character. He is such a social butterfly (like his daddy). He will talk the ear off of anyone who will pause to listen. When we were in Reno a few weeks ago, I swear everyone at breakfast each morning at the hotel knew Sam by name. "Good morning, Sam! How are you today?" And Sam would jabber away with other hotel guests, the front desk receptionist, the buffet hostess, and pretty much everyone. He loves to tell stories--funny ones, scary ones, adventurous ones--he has all sorts of stories and sound effects for them. He will jabber and then pause for a response and then jabber away again like he's having a real conversation. You can't understand what he's saying (he has his own complex language), but you get the gist. So far he can say, "mama," "dada" (his favorite word!), "pup-pup," "gus-gus," "papa," "nanna," and something that sounds like "out gus". But he won't say any of these things on demand! He likes to mimic the sounds I make. For example, when I first get him dressed, I usually say, "woo-woo! You look good!" So Sam has taken up saying, "woo-woo!" He can clap his hands by himself and loves to play peek-a-boo. He can also follow simple commands, like if I ask him to hand a toy to me.
As far as walking goes, he is so close. He walks along furniture, walls, etc. We have a couple of push toys that he will play with occassionally. He likes to push garbage cans and chairs around though. He can stand all by himself as long as he doesn't know that he is standing all by himself. The minute he realizes he's standing alone, he goes down. He can walk holding onto to someone with just one hand. He can do it; pretty much, he just needs to decide that he wants to do it. He can go up and down the stairs by himself, and he's a climber. He climbs everything! He'll pull drawers out and attempt to scale a cabinet by climbing up the drawers. He climbs up onto furniture--the other day I discovered him sitting in the rocking chair in his room playing. Unfortunately, he also has no problem with doing nose dives off of whatever he has climbed!
Lately, Sam has decided that he is a goat. He head butts everything and everyone. He and daddy have a tradition that they do knuckles, noggin', and kiss before going to bed, but now Sam noggin's everything! He's taken up head butting things when he's frustrated. So if he can't figure a toy out, he head butts it. If the door won't move out of his way, he head butts it. If mom does something that makes him angry, he head butts her. Last Sunday at church, Nic did something that upset Sam and so Sam head butted him. That was the day that Sam learned an important lesson: Daddy's head is far harder than his head. I don't think he'll try that again! Unfortunately, mom is hard headed but not as bad as daddy, so I'm still in the line of fire!
I am amazed at how smart Sam is and how good of a memory he has. If I take something away from him, he will remember exactly where I put it and go for it a few minutes later, probably when he figures I forgot about the object! The other day Sam found a shape block under one of his toy drawers, went straight to the drawer where the shape sorter was, and pulled out the sorter to put the shape away. I was impressed that he could remember what the block was associated with and where we keep the toy. Sam also loves to read, though he doesn't have a long attention span. We go to reading time each week at the library, and I'm proud to say that Sam is usually one of the well-behaved children in the group. He pays close attention to Miss Allison and tries to do what she says. He looks forward to going to story time each week.
He loves observing other children and trying to mimic them too. Unfortunately, Sam had his first lesson in mean kids the other day. After story time, he was playing at this play station while I check out a book. A little girl wanted to play with what Sam was playing with and pushed him down. Sam was devastated and couldn't understand why someone would do that to him. All the other children he's ever really played with before have been his cousins, and they adore him and treat him really well. He cried more from the idea that someone was mean to him than from being physically hurt. Now he's a little more apprehensive of kids he doesn't know and I've noticed him swatting the hands away of other kids from the toys he's playing with when he used to just parallel play with no problem. I know it's all part of growing up, but it's so hard not to want to shelter him from every bad and mean thing out there. Shame on that mean little girl!
All in all, Sam is just one amazing kid in my book. It's hard watching him change from my little baby to a little boy. He's growing so quickly and learning so much. Love that little guy!
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