Samuel photos....

Samuel with possibly his favorite toy. A taggie soccer ball.  He is preparing himself for his future as a centre back or central forward with Chelsea.
  Somehow Samuel has managed to take apart the letter O from his floor tiles.  He has removed the O from the middle  of the tile and crawled through the space where the O should be.
  Samuel playing with his new French/English alphabet toy.  The photo does not do justice to the noise that such a small toy can produce.  But will be educational for Samuel very soon.
 Samuel playing with his other noisy toy.  This one is English/Spanish and helps with numbers and the alphabet.
 Samuel enjoying a few relaxing moments on his mummy.

I have been properly  chastised and we will post photos of Samuel more often.

The good and bad of Samuel standing up.......

Last night we were sitting on the couch.  I was watching Chelsea v Juventus in the champions league while Julia was on her laptop comparing prices on baby items.  Samuel was on the floor pulling the DVD and CD's out of their storage racks, playing with his blocks and being exceptionally cute.

At one point he crawled over to the foot stool for the rocking chair and proceeded to pull himself up to a standing position.  This was the first time that he had done this without assistance.  What made this even more amazing is that he was dressed in a sleep sack which is a sack that envelops his feet .  Once we saw him standing we proceeded to tell him good job and clapped to encourage him.  Unfortunately we think we startled him as he loosened his grip on the foot stool and immediately fell backwards onto the hardwood floor.  He almost did a complete flip but his legs did not go completely over his head. 

Fondue is good.....

We had our date night this week on Sunday. We went to a fondue restaurant called Le Chalet. Naturally, we had the fondue.   It was very a very good three cheese fondue with fresh baguette for dipping.  Much to Julia's horror I had the chocolate fondue with an assortment of fruit for dessert.  But once Julia tasted the hot, melted dark chocolate coating a banana she saw the light. We will definitely return for seconds.

-Dave

Samuel is 10 months old today....

It seems as if it was just yesterday when we walked into our apartment in Cincinnati with Samuel for the first time, looked at Samuel, looked at each other and said "What the hell do we do now? or "Where is the instruction manual?"  We are absolutely amazed that Samuel is as perfect as he is considering who is parents are.   We would tend to believe that he was switched at birth if he did not look so much like me and have Julia's skin tone.

One negative aspect of Samuel growing up is that he now cries real tears.  It was always difficult to deal with him crying but seeing tears rolling down his chubby cheeks and knowing that all we can do is hold him and tell him that everything will be okay is heart wrenching..

Some of the positive aspects are that Samuel has started saying Dada, which is sweet but we are trying to get him to say Papa instead. Julia insists that he is also saying Mummy but I have yet to hear it.

When we hold Samuel so he can see himself in a mirror and ask him "Where's Samuel?" he will point to himself in the mirror.  If we ask him "Where's Mummy or Papa?" he will point at us.

We are trying to teach him to respond by throwing his arms out when we ask him "How big is Samuel?"  It will take time but he is responding.

On Sunday Samuel portended to end of Preacher's peaceful life in Paris.  Preacher was laying on the couch when Samuel made his way over and tried to pull himself up onto the couch. Preacher woke up, sat up, and stared at Samuel with a look that could kill.  It is only a matter of time until the cats have no place left to hide.

I am preparing myself to spend my first days without Samuel.  I will be in Denver for 5 days starting this Saturday and Julia will have Samuel all to herself.  Moya has graciously agreed to change her schedule and will be here during the days next week so that Julia can work.  Julia, Samuel and I will skype often.