Up and about

Samuel is growing and growing and GROWING! He is 8 months old already! He has been sitting up and playing for about 7 weeks, but I find it really fun how his preferred way to "sit" is actually kneeling. He almost always goes for that, and has now become very adept at being in any position and moving to any other he chooses.






Half way through January, just before Michael's birthday I took him upstairs to play on the rug in Peter's room while he had his bedtime story and I read to the girls downstairs. We were already a bit late with bedtime, but as I put him down on the rug I could see on his face he just wanted to crawl! He had been going to do it for a week or two, and I didn't want to miss it, so I stayed (so long that the girls came up to find out what was keeping me and stayed to watch too). :o)



(I wanted to put a videos on here but it is not proving easy as is from our video camera, so I'll post this without, hopefully with them following shortly!)

He really concentrated so hard and was so obviously focusing on moving first a hands, then a knee, a hand, a knee. He managed to do it, and crawled half the length of the rug a couple of times before flopping down on his tummy to play. Then he made no more real attempts for a few days, and then just did it. He had been finding our laminate floors very tricky to crawl on to begin with - his knees would always slip out from under him once he got himself up there, but soon after managing it on the rug, he was quite happily plodding around any floor we'd let him on hands and knees, and again, happily resting back (or up) on his knees to play.






He does topple over backwards sometimes when he is up on his knees, which is always a shock to him (and often to me too), but still loves to do that. It's so easy to get anywhere from that position! The most fun thing is when he gets excited (often from hearing music or singing, or watching his family doing fun things around him), and then he bounces up and down on his knees like he's dancing or wants to join in.

Well within a week of crawling, or maybe only half a week, he started to reach up to things like the handles on our piano stool and try to pull himself up. He has now, at 8 months got really good at pulling himself up to standing from off his knees. He is always SO pleased with himself. (He just did it again as I'm typing this with the laptop on top of the piano stool, and has come up to "talk" with me and to press buttons - namely the backspace button!) Getting down is the interesting thing now - sometimes with a wobble or a bump, but occasionally a more controlled lowering down, or a transferring to a nearby hand-hold.

Samuel also gained his first two teeth at 7 and a half months and then a few days later (the two bottom middle ones) and they have been growing nice and big and sharp for a few weeks now. He loves to eat, whatever we are eating mostly - he just gets a portion in his little wooden bowl. He started eating, feeding himself, at 6 months old, and within a couple of weeks was doing more eating than playing and had mastered picking up his food in a pincer grip as well as with his whole hand. It's often quite a messy but joyful experience.




He gets so eager to eat when he sees anyone with any food, and demolishes his bowl-full pretty well. Sometimes someone else's food does look tastier though, and he will gladly sample yours too if you let him. When we had some pineapple yesterday afternoon, he got so excited when he saw me put a slice in his bowl, and almost breathed it in the moment we sat down. :o) He is well and truly transitioned to solid foods, but still loves his milk and will lie down on my lap, say "nya nya" or sometimes especially if he's with someone else just whine (just like a puppy does - same kind of sound) when he wants to feed.

Samuel is normally very calm when he's being carried by me or Michael in his sling, and will snuggle for cuddles on your shoulder many times too, but so often his legs just don't stop moving, his arms too often, and he is such hard work to keep hold of. He loves to communicate, to join in with anything and everything, and definately to be on the move. Oh, and he LOVES Rachel's slippers too! :o)

Here he is at bedtime tonight. He was up in a flash, and then was playing a bit with moving his hands and feet around while standing. My phone would only record 11 seconds at a time, so that's why there are three tiny videos!