The cuteness.

Samuel does a lot of cute things these days. So many, in fact, that I often chuckle and then forget about them. By the time his little birthday rolls around and I decide to blog about him, he's doing something new. So here are a few things he's been up to lately.

- Saying mama. It took him a good month and a half after learning to say dada and dee dee and bye bye. But he finally has mama down, and it's definitely his favorite word! He likes to wrap his lips really tight around his teeth and focus really hard when saying it. It's one of his silliest faces so far, but he LOVES it.

- Fish facing. We have no clue where he got this from, but one morning last week he woke up and made a fish face at me and then kept doing it for the next two days. He hasn't done it much since, and I guess he didn't really realize he was doing it, because he would look at me like I was crazy when I would make the face back at him. Such a goof!

- Clapping. He hasn't quite figured out clapping with music yet, but he knows to clap when I throw him a ball or when he puts a cheerio in is own mouth. He's also great at clapping whenever I say the word, "Yay!" He's so proud of himself!

- Indian noises. He loves it when we put our hands over his mouth while he makes noise. He also loves to flick his bottom lip while humming just to hear the noise it makes.

- Waving. He still hasn't 100% gotten this one down, but one of my friends told him "bye" the other day and he put his hand up in the air. We assume that was a wave goodbye. He does actually make the waving motion, but usually only to himself.

- The smile. I love love love love love how he makes this scrunched up smile with his whole face. This isn't the full-blown version, but it gives you an idea. Such a happy kid.

- Self-feeding. Or attempting to self-feed. He really has gotten a lot better at it, but he likes to get whatever he is eating balled up in his fist and then hit his mouth with his fist until he gets it in there. As previously mentioned, he gets super excited when he is successful.

- Playing Peek-a-Boo. He's learned how to pull the covers up over himself and "hide" for a minute, then come out while we say "There he is!" His timing isn't great, but he gets pretty excited anyway. :-)

- "Petting" animals. He usually just ends up pulling out chunks of their hair. Our poor Conner cat is probably going bald thanks to Samuel, but he's taken it like a champ.  He gets SUPER excited when he sees a dog or cat and makes this crazy squeal while chasing after them.

- Switching out pacifiers. It doesn't matter if he already has a pacifier in his mouth. If Samuel sees a new pacifier, he will switch it with the one he already has. Fortunately, this has been known to entertain him for 5-10 minutes at a time.

I'm sure there are a lot of other cute/milestone things that I'm missing. It's just crazy how much he's been learning the last few weeks! I'm so grateful for my funny, happy baby boy!