It’s been a big month for Sam. He set foot on snow (Lake Tahoe) for the first time, and he started going to daycare a few days a week toting his very own lunchbox.
But first, SNOW! We start by gearing up in the back of the car with his friend Kai…
The first sledding run didn’t go so well… both Sam and mom got splashed in the face by snow at pretty high speed which led to a temporarily unhappy Sammy.
Mom doing some consoling while Sam recovers…
Almost back to normal…
Here’s Sam, flanked on either side by his sledding companions
Sam and mom, happy again after their traumatic ride
A rare shot of the three of us
Also rare, a shot of Sam and dad.
A brief respite, enjoying the whitewashed view.
Hanging out with his good buddy Kai (don’t be alarmed – we didn’t send them down the hill alone, this is purely a photo-op)
The last of the snow shots.
It didn’t take long for Sam to realize that he loves french fries.
Back at home, I managed to grab a shot of him smiling into the camera (he now points and screams “ca-meh-ra” when he sees me aiming my camera at him.)
He loves his trains…
…almost as much as he loves his books.
But let’s not forget Elmo.
Last but not least: Sam’s first day at daycare, carrying his lunch box!
One of the problems with being the primary photo-taker of the family is that we inevitably end up with thousands of photos of Sam & mom together, but not many with dad. So we thought we’d try an experiment and trade photo sessions with another family. We ended up being first, and the photos you see below were taken by our friend Alex Benn, with some added post-processing done by me. We’re extremely happy to have some pictures of all three of us to celebrate and remember this time in Sam’s life.
P.S. You’ll notice a recurring theme throughout these photos: Sam’s snack-trap filled with Cheerios that he never leaves home without, and always has in hand. Only a crazy person would attempt to pry it from his hands.
It’s been a long time since the last update, and the biggest news since then is that Sam has turned one year old. He’s walking everywhere now, and even has a handful of words he likes to say. His vocabulary consists of “ball” (when he sees a ball or anything circular really), “lamomo” when he sees his lawnmower toy, and “bye”, “dog”, “mama”, “da” (for dada), and “car”.
As anyone with small children knows, this is what happens when you let them go wild in the bathroom:
…and of course the inevitable paper stuck on foot
I love this series of mom & Sam:
A few more miscellaneous shots…
And as a little bonus, here are some photos that I’ve been taking lately with the camera on my iPhone, which I’ve been enjoying using:
Sam is nearing 9 months now, and he’s crawling like a madman. He also has two bottom teeth coming in (which, if you look closely, you can see them in the first photo below).
Sam’s toybox seemed like a great place to hang out for a while.
“Aerial” view of Sam’s play area. I stood on a stool and held the tripod as high as I could and used the remote trigger to take the shot.
Sam is a voracious “reater” these days. :)
Sam and dad sharing a quiet moment. The reason it’s quiet is because Sam is busy chewing on the zipper of my jacket.
These are some family shots we took with the tripod and remote trigger, since it’s rare that all 3 of us appear in photos.
We haven’t posted any videos of Sam on the blog yet, so this seems like a great one to start with. We’re both hopelessly addicted to the sound of Sam laughing, so we spend a lot of time trying to find the somewhat elusive motions/sounds/words that crack him up. In this case, saying “da-dee” over and over again did the trick.
Sam is eating solid food these days, and we’ve had a lot of fun watching all of the many faces he makes when we give him something new to try. He’s also completely comfortable sitting up, and it seems like he’s on the verge of fully crawling. He manages to make his way around, but in more of an army-crawl style. While we look forward to his newfound freedom once he begins to really crawl, we’re also a little afraid of the path of destruction he’ll be leaving in his wake. :)
He’s really digging his giraffe chew toy “Sophie”.
Mirrors are an endless source of entertainment.
Sam on the swing at the park. Texture added for stylistic effect.
In case there is any doubt about whose eyes Sam has inherited, the photos make it quite clear. :)
