Milestones

I do a lot of worrying about Sam's development. Admittedly, he seems to be a bright kid who can be happy interacting with us or amusing himself. He babbles constantly, and has a few (about 15) words/phrases he uses. It seems that every other mother I know has an infant who knows the alphabet and the color wheel. Sam seems to know I'm concerned, because he has been showing his understanding of the world in other ways.

About a week ago, I found Sam looking at his ankle with great interest. He had a long scratch that had a small amount of blood on it. I washed it and put on a band-aid, all the time telling him how I was taking care of his "owie."

Yesterday I was watching Sam and another little boy play when the boy fell over and hurt himself. I cuddled him, asking him where his owie was, and then I noticed Sam hanging on my leg. There he was, balanced on one leg, stretching his faded scratch up for me to see.

One of Sam's favorite pasttimes is feeding our dog, Dee Dee. He especially likes finding the pantry door open. Then he can take the top off of the treat jar, take out a treat, put the top back on, shut the door, and give the treat to Dee Dee. Yesterday I heard him rustling around in the treats and then he walked out holding a small scrap of an old wrapper. He walked across the kitchen, opened the garbage cupboard, threw away the scrap, shut the cupboard, and walked back to the pantry to get a treat.

The look of pride on his face when he "helps" like this is priceless! Every night after his bath, he is responsible for picking up his towel, washcloth, and dirty clothes and bringing them into the hallway. I open the laundry chute and he stuffs everything down and then shuts the chute. Our next few minutes are occupied by clapping and dancing in celebration.

Okay, so he's not very verbal, but I have to admit he's quite a kid.