I will not slack on my blog... I will not slack on my blog... I will not...

Phew! I'm very sorry, dear readers, I have been neglecting the blog! We have been very busy and wild Vees in the last few weeks... and things are not about to slow down! The weekend after Mother's Day, Nana Jo and Aunt Laura visited us and we had a wonderful time. Last weekend was Dann and Danielle's wedding so we spent the last two weeks preparing for that. We found that events are more difficult to capture now that we have Sampson because one of us has to be with him, and the other is getting the food or running an errand. We must rely on others to take pictures of us. I am still gathering photos from various events to blog about. For now, here are some fun photos of Sam's antics... Samtics if you will.

Aunt Janice always picks out the best toys for Sampson. She loves animals, and apparently, he does too. This little set was a Christmas gift and Sampson is really into it right now. It has a polar bear that roars when you hit its head, an icicle, and a small puffin that squeaks as he bounces (PS icicle is a strange word to spell). He especially loves the little puffin and hardly lets it go these days. Tonight, he fell asleep with it in his hand. I am really impressed by how coordinated Sampson is becoming. He fiddled with this little ice cave until he opened both doors and emptied its contents. We call it reverse engineering.







I can't believe how tall he's getting! Here he is taking a nap on a hot Delaware afternoon.



Pound of dirt before you die? Sampson has a head start on his. This weekend, Jimmy was cleaning the porch and Sampson was exploring. He likes the pull himself up on the planter and play with the lettuce. I heard Jimmy exclaim, "Oh Sampson, no!" and ran out to find a dirty-mouthed little baby. He was actually chewing on something.


The scene of the crime.

And here is Sampson with a diaper on his head.

Mother's Day

Sampson's chompers are coming in in full force! His two bottom teeth are in almost all the way, and two top teeth are coming in now too. He has bit his lip once and didn't really like the taste of blood! He also sometimes grinds them together which really creeps me out. So far, I've been lucky and he understands not to bite me when he's nursing. Despite the pain of teething, Sampson has been very jovial lately. He's happy now that he can follow us around the house and peek around corners. We've been going to for walks and playing in the grass now that the weather is warm. He uses everything he can find to pull himself up. He even goes from a crawling position to a push-up position with his butt way up in the air. I'm certain that one of these times, he's just going to stand right up. But my favorite thing he does is scrunch up his nose, just like I do. Here are some close-ups of the cheeks with teeth.




It was my very first Mother's Day! Thank you to all who sent me warm wishes. Jimmy and Sampson surprised me with some beautiful white roses.


Some of my students gave me Mother's Day cards. I thought I would share their charm and good grammar. In the middle of the photo shoot, Sampson decided he wanted to be the center of attention. And then he saw his spatula and took off.






SEEKING: LONGER BATH ROBE
Sampson was in the shower and I asked him to bring me one of Sampson's towels. He could not find one, so he grabbed a bathrobe that was hanging in the closet. Unfortunately, one size does not fit all! I put it on him and could not stop laughing! Look at those cheeks! (Sorry Sammy... I know you will see this many years from now and be embarrassed that all of cyberland saw your deriere!)

Ballet

This is a good example of why I love ballet. This is the lovely Polina Semionova and she is an artist. I could watch this over and over again. I found this on my cousin Meg's studio in Framingham, MA called The Ballet Space.

Pulling Up

Here he is in all his standing up glory.

The Couch
Testing its stability
Reach first...
Are you getting this?
I can see the top...
the hardest part...
Roar! Almost there!

Yes.. victory!
See? It was nothing.
Just this morning he took a few steps to the side. He's cruising along very nicely. It won't be long before he's running cross country with his Dad (while his Oma reads in the shade!).

May Days

It's soccer season here in Delaware and Jimmy is joining his work league. Sampson and I picked out some sweet socks for him. Sampson tried them on, grabbed the skin guards, and kicked the ball around a bit. All those other soccer-playing babies better watch out for his slide tackle.

Sampson is fully mobile! If he sees something desirable from across the room, he makes a bee line for it. He also knows enough to follow me around the house as I dart into the kitchen to check on dinner. He is very proud of himself when he crawls around the corner to find me. Here he is crawling around in his favorite Guns N' Roses onesie.


While he is very good at getting around, he is not quite coordinated enough to get himself out of the little predicaments he gets himself into. He's getting quite good at pulling himself up on things... the couch, Jimmy's leg, the wipes box, pretty much anything higher than the floor. He thinks he can let go and shake his rump, and it's a good thing there's so much padding back there. He also likes to play with doors by opening and closing them over and over again. The problem is when he crawls into the bathroom and closes himself in, and then sits right in front of the door. He likes to crawl under things and look up at them. This is Sampson under the bench.


This is Sampson stuck under the bench.

In other exciting news, I got a new job! It starts this summer and goes at least through the next school year. It is with the ArtsBridge America program and I'll be teaching dance in the public school system. I'll research and theme this summer and compose a piece to perform at the nation conference in August. Then, I will work with middle school students and teach them about basic modern dance, researching a topic, creating a movement vocabulary, and composing a piece. It's the job of my dreams! And don't worry, I'll continue teaching at Stage Lights in the evenings. I interviewed last week and Grandma and Gramps came up to watch Sampson while I was gone. Turns out, though no surprise, that Grandma knew the woman I was about to interview with! It was a great way to break the ice! It was really fun to get dressed up in "work" clothes and carry important papers again. And when I returned, I found Sampson sound asleep in Gramps' arms.