Sam is... AWESOME!

I love the complete lack of self-consciousness you find only in small children.  I am apparently rather redundant in my praise and feedback.  I have discovered that if I say, "Sam is..." and pause, she fills in the blank with "AWESOME!"  And she is 100% right!

We are going to conquer the eating issue.  She wants to, we want to...  A major, major hurdle has been that she does not naturally know how to chew.  Anything she manages to eat has to be mashed up with her tongue and/or dissolved sufficiently to swallow.  Thanks to the therapists at Aspire, she is finally getting this figured out and developing the dexterity to shift food from her tongue over to her teeth.  I am now hearing the occasional "crunch" as she works on her Cheerios or Gerber crunchies.  This should catapult us to the next level when she gets that sorted out.  I am absolutely thrilled.  With competence is coming confidence, as well, and when we went to our usual TexMex dive last weekend, she tried guacamole (liked it), refried beans (not so much), and sopapilla (not at all).  Not to be outdone, Alexa also advanced to the next level by sitting in a high chair, rather than her baby carrier.  It was quite an event!

Sam's gross motor skills are also coming along.  She can now climb up onto a low sofa or table (it's possible she was goaded into learning this in order to escape Ally), and is gaining confidence in her cruising.  With a low surface to lean on, she can also pull to stand.  I find her kneeling at the base of our stairs contemplating the steps regularly, but so far she hasn't given them a real try without my help.  Anyway, all of this is big news in our part of the world - we are very, very happy!