Samuel: One Year Old

A year!  And what a year it’s been. 

Being the second born (and in under two years) has meant his first year of life has been a bit different than Beckett’s.  Better in some ways—he has a brother who he ADORES and who entertains him far better than we can, and we are even more relaxed with him and allow ourselves to just enjoy him more and not fret about pretty much anything.  But being the second kid also has some drawbacks too—he’s often just along for the ride as our activities are often catered more toward keeping Beckett active (gymnastics class, museums, playgrounds, etc.), and he gets more 1-on-2 attention than 1-on-1.  All in all, I think he’s as happy as a kid can be and has brought and continues to bring us so much joy!

So what’s he up to these days?  He’s crawling around fast a furiously.  He loves the dishwasher, trash can, refrigerator, power cords and the toilet.  He loves eating meat, eggs, oranges, and any of those baby food pouches.  He hates getting his diaper changed and getting into his car seat (but he’s a happy rider once we get going).  He loves to stand up in his high chair and stand up in the bath tub.  He throws his head back when he laughs.  He can say “Dada” and sometimes “Mama” too.  He doesn’t have any teeth yet.  He can clap, and we’re working on waving.  He loves to play with the toy kitchen stuff, chase Beckett in and out of the teepee, and roll cars on the ground while making the vrmmmm sound.  I tried to wean him (because he scratches me like a velociraptor when he nurses… which he apparently finds comforting but I find it terribly painful and annoying) but when I got him down to one feeding a day he suddenly decided nursing is the best thing since sliced bread, so, on we go.  He loves being rocked and still makes this drawn out “uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” sleepy sound and that’s how we know he’s tired ready to be laid down and go to sleep (he makes the same sound in the car when he’s about to fall asleep).  He takes two naps a day—usually about 1-1.5 hours each—and he typically sleeps from 7:45pm-5am and sometimes will go back to sleep after he nurses until close to 6am.  Once or twice a week he wakes up in the 4 o’clock hour.  On average I’d say we start our day at 4:45am (not necessarily up and at ‘em, but with at least one of the boys awake and in our bed).  It’s definitely not my favorite thing about this stage of life, but it’ll pass. 

There are a lot of ways that Samuel is a lot like Beckett was at this age—a very sweet and happy demeanor, easygoing, a great eater, social, doesn’t get upset by much, fine with going to or being held by other people, and super handsome.  We really feel like we hit the jackpot twice having such easy babies.  Although neither are snugglers (except when we’re rocking them to sleep)—they always want to be on the move.  There are some differences between them though.  Samuel’s hair is more blonde (Beckett’s was a bit darker and had more red in it), and his eyes are dark (not sure what color yet!) instead of bright blue.  Samuel is MUCH EASIER to get to sleep.  It’s so easy, and it makes me laugh thinking back to what we used to go through to get Beckett to fall asleep (remember the exercise ball?!?).  When Samuel’s tired he gets cranky and will lay on the ground and fuss until we put him down for a nap.  Beckett never showed any signs of being tired, which is why I think we always had such a hard time getting him down.  But once we got Beckett to sleep he slept better than Samuel does, so everything’s a trade off for sure.  Beckett was in to books and pointing, whereas Samuel is in to cars and kitchen toys.  Samuel is also more of a climber than Beckett was.  Their learning styles seem different at this age—Beckett was inquisitive whereas Samuel is more of an observer.  It’s been so fun to have two boys and see the ways they are similar and different from one another!

When we were pregnant with Samuel I had this slight fear that having two kids so close together would mean this first year would be so crazy that it would just be a haze and not something I would be able to really enjoy or remember.  Now that I’m on the other side, I’m so thankful to report that that wasn’t the case at all.  There were only a few difficult times—when we tried moving Beckett to his big boy bed and potty training him at about the same time, and Samuel was just two months old—when Beckett went through the terrible twos for two weeks (just two weeks, though!)—and when Samuel went through a phase at 7-8 months old when he woke up 4+ times a night for weeks on end.  Other than that it was just a usual amount of crazy here, and Kolby and I have had the best time with these boys.  I wouldn’t change a thing about our year and am still in awe that we have this family of four!

And now for some pictures of these last few months…