On May 5 we blessed little Baby S. Not that he's so little anymore. I feel bad that I haven't posted more about Sammy. So I was going to try and post a little here.
Sammy is using a straw now. He stopped using his infant feeders-- bottle type things you put baby food in-- around 6 months, and we have been kind of scraping by with feeding him. I don't know that we have ever really sat down to feed him ever except for maybe a brief moments when we fed him home made baby food that wouldn't fit through the infant feeders. Anyway. . .when he stopped with the feeders completely we tried to get creative and feed him finger foods. He actually did really well with them. And sometimes we would give in and sit down and feed him with a spoon. Then a friend told us about feeding babies baby food with a straw. So we started trying to teach him to use a straw. It took a couple weeks but he caught on. The first time I tried baby food through a straw I just held it for him. Then Craig just started poking holes in the lids of the jar and sticking the straw in. Baby S holds it and sips it all up all by himself. And he thinks it's pretty cool when he does it. He enjoys it so much he yelled at his Dad for taking it away from him. He has also been holding his own bottle since he was 6 months old.
He is starting to try and crawl. While he sits up he bends over and almost takes the crawling stance. One night I tried to put him in the proper stance to see if I could teach him. I put a toy just out of reach and put him on his stomach and tried to prop his arms and legs under him. But the kid was being stubborn, and I think he found it hard to lift his big head, so he just sat there slumped on the floor, wagging his hand at the toy just in front of him. I tried a couple more times, but he refused. So I laid down in front of him and put my hands under his chest and helped him hold up his head. That seemed to help a little, but he still really struggled with that head.
Baby S started sitting up at 6 months. He's a very mellow, easy going and sometimes stoic baby. He'll sit there and play by himself for hours. But if he catches sight of you, or you pick him up for whatever reason, you're done for. He will stiffen up as straight as a board and will not let you set him back down again. If you do set him down he'll cry and throw himself backwards, hitting his head and then crying some more.. I get kind of upset with him when he does this. So he's very easy going, but he can also be very stubborn.
Baby S has two bottom teeth. At times we thought more were coming, but not yet. He sure finds weird way's to jut those two teeth around though.
Baby S loves when his brothers play with him. He's a big fan of Little M, and I have to say Little M does pretty darn good with him.
Instead of crawling he likes to bounce everywhere. Yesterday he bounced his bum right of the front porch. I felt so terrible.
Baby S is very smart. He has excellent motor skills, and I'm just amazed with how well he catches on and figures things out.
Baby S also has a lot of hair. More hair than any of my other kids had at this age. This was the first time one of our baby's wore the trademark curl on a blessing day. One because of age. Two because he has a lot of hair :).
Baby S's Blessing Day
In a way I'm glad we waited until May to bless Sammy. It was nice to not have to worry about it in the mix of everything that was going on after he was born. By waiting till May I was planning on hosting it at my house, but I chickened out at the last minute and asked my mom if we could have it at her home.
We wanted to bless Sammy in an Oriental outfit, but we couldn't find one. I then started looking at Indian outfits for babies. I found a ton of cute things. I thought it still looked Oriental enough, plus after Baby S was born I read the book Secret Daughter which primarily takes place in India. Something about the book really struck me down deep. Even though I had just heard of it, and just read it I loved it so much, and it made Baby S's surprise arrival a little easier to cope with. Now it has a sentimental link to Baby S that I can't really explain.
Baby S was blessed by his Grandpa Andreason. It was a small circle, but full of close family and people who love him.
We never managed to get pictures that day, so about a month later, on a Sunday, we dressed him up in his outfit again and got some pictures.
Thanks for everyone who came and showed their support!
