What's New with Baby Sam

With all the craziness of the holidays, I haven't really updated the site much in terms of what's going on with Samantha from a developmental perspective.  In short, she's doing GREAT.  She's definitely rolling, as I mentioned previously.  She will roll considerable distances to get to a desirable toy, although with all the grandparents in town over the holidays, that was rarely necessary - everything was brought to her!

She is babbling more and more, and loves to "sing" back and forth with us.  She has always loved to pat on things, and now she seems to be patting to a beat when there is music.  That may be coincidence, but it has been interesting to watch. 

Samantha continues to be a very happy child, and I often smile to hear her giggling in the living room while I work in my office.  Of course, there are exceptions, as with any child.  For example, Samantha has developed a habit of waking up at about 5:30 am and quickly getting bored, then crying to be retrieved from the crib.  We're still working on the strategy for dealing with this.  Two nights ago, we left her favorite toy in the crib so she could play with it.  This seemed brilliant until we were awakened at 5:40 by a high-pitched squeal of "Hi, I'm Baby Tad!" through the monitor.  Hmm.  She blew her cover; we didn't think she was strong enough to push the buttons and make him speak by herself.  I think she actually did it with her toes.  Regardless. we'll have to pick a quieter toy.

She has also gone on some sort of strike against standing.  Sam stood with support very early, but over Christmas she suddenly stopped.  On Christmas Day, she plopped down to sit while I was holding her, and she's declined to stand ever since.  She'll hold her feet straight out in front of her if you try to put her on the ground.  She can hold them there a remarkably long time, and when she gets tired she cries in frustration rather than simply putting her feet on the floor.  Sigh.  Her therapist has recommended some tough love; lower the seat in her exersaucer so she has to stand up to enjoy playing.  We'll try that over the weekend.