12 months of Samuel

Samuel was born 12 months ago, 1 year ago, today. It's definitely hard to believe. It doesn't seem like the year should have gone so fast but that's just how time is, especially with babies. I remember times in the last year where I felt frustrated with something Samuel was doing and I would tell myself, he'll grow out of it in time. Too true. He's hardly a baby anymore.

It was also fun to read over Samuel's birth story. Before I refreshed my memory, I had thought I could recall everything so well. Reading that again really brought all the details into clarity. What a blessing his birth was. What a blessing this last year has been. I love that little guy. We all do.

Here are photos from the last 12 months to tell the story of Samuel's first year.

Here is Samuel's very first photograph. I love it. It was February 1, 2011 at 4:58am. Samuel was born after only three hours of quick, intense labor and he was handed to me right away. It makes me want to tear up about every time I really look at this photo.

Swollen little face. He still looks like himself though.

Here's a typical Samuel expression: Serious. It's amazing to me that babies are who they are right from the womb.

Here we are getting to know one another better.

This was two weeks later.

My kids always have pretty bad jaundice so they need to have some time in the sun and on the bili-blanket. Samuel stayed in the hospital for four days to beat out the orange skin. Hanging in our front room, I have a photo of each of my newborn kids sunbathing like this one.

Noah loved Samuel right away. He seems to particularly enjoy him. Must be a brother thing. Evie seems to enjoy her cousin Grace the same way that Noah likes Samuel. Here they are when Samuel is about one month old.

This is at one and a half months. Fuzzy little head.

At two and a half months Samuel started getting more fun. He became expressive. Though he was and is mostly serious.

Wrestling with daddy is pretty popular around here. This might have been one of the first times Samuel was "involved" with a wrestling match at three and a half months old.

Here is another three and a half months photo to show how long and skinny he was (and continues to be).

At four months the kids and I were in SD while Terry was on his two week mission trip. The only way Samuel and his cousin Grace could play together was to lay under the same toy. They were both starting to grab for stuff.

Tongue face! This photo was also in SD.

Five months and able to sit up with support. He looks so funny with all his hair falling out except for that comb over thing!

At six and a half months Samuel had pretty much mastered sitting up. He was pretty good at drooling too. And his hair is starting to come in under and around the brown comb over.

Terry's grandfather passed away at the beginning of September so we went back to SD for the funeral. This photo was at the grave site when Samuel was seven months old.

Eight months and so very cute. He was in need of a haircut though. It was about this time that Samuel finally started eating solid foods. Little stinker didn't want to for what seemed like the longest time. That too passed.

Just about nine months on Halloween. He was so cute this day. He'd started scooting on his bottom around seven to eight months and by this time he'd even started pulling himself up on stuff and cruising around.

Nine months again. His scooting got him in trouble here when he crawled in a basket and couldn't get out.

Ten months and looking for a Christmas tree.

Eleven months and walking! He looks too small to be walking!

Today. One year old. He's all over the place now. He loves cars. If you look closely you can see how he's trying to run his deflated balloon on the car track. He knows what he's doing.

Noah took this photo a few days ago. I love it. That's my baby Samuel. Happy birthday to you little guy. We love you SO much!