Samuel = genius (or are we just proud parents?)

Tonight I was setting the table and I noticed that Julia's placemat and napkin were missing.  Obviously Samuel had taken them and hidden them somewhere on the first floor.  I did not say anything to Samuel but when I walked back to the kitchen to stir the soup that I was making for dinner Samuel appeared with the placemat and napkin in his hands.

With Samuel being our first we do not have the experience to know if this type of behavior is normal  but Samuel does seem to be ahead of his peers in understanding what is said to him. Now, he is behind in responding and talking as he does not yet speak a single word clearly and often but he is obviously very intelligent, curious and happy which is all that we can ask.

Samuel has learned to turn on the lights in most of our rooms.  He is not quite tall enough to turn the lights off yet but that will come soon.  We do ask him to turn the lights off and he tries but he just cannot reach the top of the switch just yet.

Took a trip to Carrefour today(similar to Wal-mart, but the store is actually bigger than any Wal-mart that I have been in).  Primarily went to look for supplies for a Halloween party that we are throwing on the 31st and was pleasantly surprised that they have a full aisle dedicated to halloween.  Granted one side of the aisle was exclusively candy but the other side has costumes, decorations, hair coloring(they dedicated too much shelf space to this but maybe it is popular in France) and various gadgets.  for Halloween we have invited some of our English speaking friends and we have also invited all of our neighbors and asked them to open their homes to trick-or-treaters so we should have some good pictures and video of Samuel trick-or-treating for his first halloween that he can walk.

When we got home today I was busy bringing the groceries into the house and Samuel walked into the back yard unsupervised.  When I noticed this I immediately went after him but I was too late to prevent him from attempting to chase Molson down the little hill(about a 3 foot drop) in the yard.  Samuel made it about half way down the hill before gravity took over.  He rolled twice.  Stopped, then rolled and a half times and ended up on his back looking at me.  He did not know quite what to do.  He looked as if he was going to cry but I laughed at him and told him to get up and chase the cat and he laughed and got up and looked around for Molson, who was long gone into the shrubs, not to be seen for awhile.

Was disappointed in that we had received a mailer from Carrefour which advertised a stand alone work bench(This is Samuel's favorite thing to play with at the HG) for little boys.  Was looking forward to getting this for Samuel for Christmas but they did not have any displayed at the store.  May have to buy it online.  No, Samuel is not spoiled!!!  If I type it enough it may be true.