The Kids

I haven't done an update on the kids in a while so I thought it was time. First is little Sam... he's quickly becoming not quite so little anymore. He's already 8.5 months old. Where has the time gone? He's crawling and pulling up and trying to let go once he's standing to stand alone. He can for a few seconds... but then he gets excited and drops right to the floor. (or sometimes he falls forward onto whatever he pulled up on and gets a nice little head bump) He's such a talker! He crawls around the house saying "dada" and "mama" and "bye bye" all of the time. I LOVE baby talk! He's already slowly losing some of that precious baby squish. Now.. don't worry.. he's still plenty squishy! But he's getting so long that he's just stretching it all out. His favorite past time is eating. He loves to eat! That includes nursing and solids... anything I'll allow him to have, he's excited about. He's borderline obsessed with food. Eating out with him is quite a chore. He already has figured out that what we're eating is not what i'm feeding him, and that makes him a little cranky! He's still an easy going, social, sweet, cute as can be baby! Oh, he finally got two bottom teeth just in the past two weeks. I'm sad that his gummy smile is fading away, but it's neat to see him have a 'bigger baby' look to him all at the same time. My days now are spent asking the two most asked questions for anyone with a mobile baby/toddler in the house. "Where's Samuel?" and "What's in his mouth?"

Carter and Madison.. those two are quite something lately! Carter has become even more silly... if you can imagine! He's still always out for a laugh, he takes NOTHING seriously, and he's still a big time lovey kid. He makes Madison insane a lot of the time because she's the exact opposite. She is more calm and sometimes moody, likes quiet, takes everything seriously, and isn't too touchy feely. The good news is, they're really becoming great friends. Now that Carter's getting older and he's "more fun" to play with, I can see a different relationsip forming. They choose to play together now because it's a good time, not because it's the only option when we're home. It's so neat to see siblings together! (unless they're fighting....) Madison is still doing great in school. She's a great reader, and she loves music and art. She says she can't wait until second grade because she thinks she'll have science then. (no science in first grade?) She's so much like me. She LOVES animals... to a fault almost. She says she wants to be a zookeeper or work at a pet store when she grows up. That's exactly what I wanted to be when I was young. (I guess being a stay at home mom is sort of like being a zoo keeper...) Carter's doing great at his school work here at home. He knows his entire alphabet by sight now and can write the letter 'A' on his own. Also the letter 'C'. We're working on 'B' but that's a tough one! He loves doing letters... I'm shocked at his thirst for knowledge! I'm taking advantage of it while it's here. So, the kids are all doing great. We have bumps in the road here and there but we work through each of them one day at a time! I'm still amazed at how relatively simple having three kids has been. I really thought it would be more of a big deal. I guess once that first child paves the way.. you're just doing more of the same!