Don't worry, I'm not recapping all 21 months, just the last one. So it's still long, but not as long as you'd think.

I realize that I haven't updated on Sam in a while. Not wanting to make him feel left out or like a second child, where the only pictures taken of you are taken with an iPhone, I will do a 21 month baby book post.

Sam,
You are something else, mister. You have your days where you can push me to my absolute limits (ahaha, like, say, for instance, YESTERDAY) and other days where you are such a sweet pleasure to be around (today! yay!).

You weighed yourself at Petsmart the other day and clocked in at 22.1 pounds.

You have recently started accepting more foods so long as you can use your fork and have ketchup readily available. You usually take a few swipes of ketchup on your fork, I'm assuming to make sure it's not rancid, and then you go for your actual food. Still resisting the vegetables pretty hard. You go bananas for, well, bananas, but you also thoroughly enjoy watermelon, strawberries, and grapes. You have most recently deemed my BBQ baked chicken edible, as well as turkey dogs. You hated the OMG chicken, and to be honest, I wasn't feeling it either last night. You win. You are still enjoying yogurt, but ONLY fruit yogurt. You can't be tricked into apple/sweet potato yogurt. You're no gullible baby anymore.

You recently received a lawn mower from your Aunt Amy. You push that thing around the house like it's your JOB. Sometimes you even bend over like an old man and creep around with it. That is especially entertaining to watch.

You are loving to play with whatever Molly is playing with. If she's under the fish mat, you wanna be right next to her, pushing the buttons and watching the lights. If she's in the jumperoo, you need to be there, flipping the animals and showing her how it all works. You are very sweet with your sister, rubbing her hair and belly (kinda like you do with Odie). I think it might be sinking in (finally) that this extra kid is here for good.

You also love to dance. You still do the high-step and twirl in circles. Sometimes the twirling is followed by falling down, which you play off like it was totally intentional, by lying down and doing a couple ab exercises (current faves: bicycling and some sort of weird reverse hump- let's cut that one out before preschool, yes?).

You will hold just about anything up to your ear and say, "ah, AH?" We think this means, "Hello?" and that you believe you're talking into a phone. Except you aren't usually holding a phone. Usually you're holding a pretzel. Or a bottle cap. Sometimes just your hand smooshed to your face. Regardless, if you answer the "phone," your daddy and I stop what we're doing and talk back with you. "Hello? Pretzel? Are you there? Hello?" This easily amuses you. You usually hang up shortly after. I have no clue what to say to a pretzel, I'm sorry.

When you throw the ball to Odie to fetch, you tend to throw it directly at her. I know that smushy face is cute, but it doesn't need to get any smushier, thanks.

You still don't say anything. Well, except, "BeDOWeeDOWeeDOW." That usually means, "Let's go outside/I want some strawberries/Where's my lawn mower?" Your daddy and I respond accordingly and you answer us like we said the right response. I just can't wait til we can have actual MEANINGFUL conversations. You know, something deep, like, "Mom, I just pooped."

Speaking of poop, we have switched you over to Lactaid milk per the allergist's request. We will see if this helps your bowels any. We go in next month to have you tested for a few other allergies. I'm anxious to see what we find out. We also will receive an epipen! Yay! You enjoy giving yourself "shots" with your doctor's kit needle (it's fake! for the record!), so maybe the epipen won't be so scary. (And hopefully we will NEVER have to use it. EVER.)

You can throw quite the tantrum, boy. Some of them make me laugh at you because you get so frustrated over nothing. Other times..... well, they are not so funny. The whining. Ohmygah the whining. When will it stop? You make this sound like an irritating buzzer that just. won't. quit. Whining that doesn't cease after my asking three times gets you a quick trip to timeout. And that happens A LOT. You have recently begun having these little meltdowns in stores. Out in PUBLIC. Which is not only humiliating, but troubling as well, since I have no clue how to properly punish you in public. (Not that we hit you at home or anything, oh no we do not (yet), but I typically ignore you at home, and that somehow gets your attention. Ignoring your screams and flailing about in the middle of Target seems a little bit... how shall we say this... frowned upon? So yeah. Just quit acting out in public. Thanks.)

Ok enough about your incessant, drives-me-to-drinking whining. Let's end this 21 month recap on a high note, shall we?
You love to read books and your current favorites are: Roadwork, Little Blue Truck Leads The Way, Baby's First Catholic Prayers, Jesus and the Children, and Penguins.
So from your book selections this month, one could deduce that you might grow up to be a mechanic, a priest, or a zoologist. Whatever makes you happy, baby. ;)

Oh wait! I can't forget the haircut! Ok, so we tried taking you to a new barbershop to get a haircut before we went on vacation to PA. But we get to the barbershop and the guy sees you flipping out and refuses to cut your hair. Just says he can't do it. Afraid he'll lop off an ear or something. So. Awesome. We go back home and I manage to cut it myself. Your father was quite afraid, oh yes he was, but this had to be done. And I gotta say, you didn't turn out too shabby. I mean, there are LOTS of stray hairs around your ears that are very noticeable during storytime when we're right up on each other, but from a distance, you look fabulous.

I love you to the moon and back, sweet boy, and canNOT believe that your second birthday is only three short months away. (My BABY! <sob>)