Cutie Pie

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Originally uploaded by stacy's plate.

The one on the left, that is.

Little Drummer Boy

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Originally uploaded by stacy's plate.

Matt already has a couple of snare drums on the porch just waiting to be banged on. Sam hasn't figured it out yet. Pots and pans are good enough for him right now.

Someone's trash*...

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Originally uploaded by stacy's plate.

...is someone else's treasure.

I don't normally take things off the side of the road, but our next door neighbor, who has three kids, left a bunch of stuff at the bottom of their driveway this weekend. It just so happens that one of the items they were giving away for free was just the item we have been looking for -- a used baby backpack carrier!

It was in fine shape, except for a bit of dust and Sam fits in it perfectly. Most of all, it's comfortable for Matt to wear and it looks slightly more "masculine" than the Baby Bjorn (Matt's words, not mine). Sam is getting a bit large for the Bjorn anyhow.

These types of carriers are sold new for over $100. I do love a bargain and boy do I love free!

We gave the carrier a test drive and went to one of our local conservation lands for a 2 mile walk in the woods. We stopped to say hello to some horses along the way and also saw some crazy-looking mushrooms. It was a beautiful day.

*Disclaimer: I wouldn't have picked this out of the trash. It's common for my neighbors to leave their unneeded items out for free give-aways.

9 months old

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Originally uploaded by stacy's plate.

Sam is 9 months old today.

I would be lying if I said we celebrated by taking sam out for breakfast, but we did take him out to a diner for the first time this weekend. He loved it -- from the bits of blueberry pancakes I fed him, to the ceiling fans overhead, and all of the new people to watch.

Sam has four teeth now - two on top and two on the bottom. His food repetoir has increased to include cottage cheese and soon, yogurt. I've also started feeding him small bits of table food, but this hasn't replaced his usual meals of pureed baby food.

Sam can tolerate sitting on the floor playing with toys for longer periods of time, but he still prefers to be "walking" all over the house. We think this boy will walk on his own before he crawls!

After a brief set back in his sleeping patterns (brief meaning two plus weeks of multiple overnight awakenings), Sam seems to be back on track and sleeping almost through the night on most nights. All I can say is thank you Huggies Overnight diapers!

Some other cute things Sam has started doing is reaching out to me if he wants me to hold him, biting my shoulder or collar bone (ouch!) if he wants to nurse, pointing to things in his books (e.g., the red balloon and the fireplace in Goodnight Moon), and the best thing is he lays his head on your shoulder if he is sleepy. He's definitely more of a little person now than a baby.

I've gone pink

From pinkforoctober.org:

Web sites will Go Pink during the month of October to bring attention to Breast Cancer Awareness Month, get people talking about breast cancer, and raise money for research.

Learn more. And put a button on your site.

Clam Boil

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And baby... Mmmmmmmmm!