Our baby is becoming a little boy

I have sat 2 mornings in a row now and just smile in amazement watching our little boy playing. Samuel and Elijah have been pushing their dump trucks around the entire house, filling them up with every hot wheel they can find. They even had their first brotherly argument yesterday when they both wanted the same hot wheel. Elijah was yelling at Samuel that it was his first, and Samuel retaliated by sassing back at Elijah and pinching him. All I could do was smile and then I had to explain to Elijah that his brother was only 2 and maybe we should let him play with the car first and we would take turns. Oh, the little things. 

Samuel is blossoming with appropriate play these days. It's so much fun. He's doing amazing with coloring now and will imitate just about any toy play you show him. He had a blast the other day playing with race car tracks. 

Samuel started speech therapy this week. We worked just a little bit on one step directions. Within minutes he learned how to "put trash in" the trashcan. He thought this was so much fun and wanted us to cheer and clap for him every time he threw a piece of trash away. But you know where this headed after the therapist was gone... Yep. If we can't find anything, we now will be looking in the trashcan. 

In the past few weeks Samuel has really let us into his world. Instead of playing by himself most of the time he now comes to us to engage in his play or if Matt and I are sitting on the couch he climbs up to snuggle in with us. Oh. My heart melts every time!!! I can officially say all 3 of our boys are now snuggle bugs. 

It has been 7 weeks now since lip and nose surgery. Samuel has healed amazingly!!! He is really starting to use his lip and his little muscles are beginning to work. He can say mama and has started licking his lips when eating. He also does this cute little pucker, however I have not gotten him to do it for a kiss yet. I'm working on it. 

In about 7 more weeks we will be heading back to the hospital for palate surgery. We are nervous but anxious to get past this hurdle. We will also have another hearing test then to find out if we will be proceeding with hearing aids or not. We are very anxious for Samuel to be able to finally have the opportunity to make great strides in speech and communication. Hearing and his cleft have kept him from that for almost 3 years, but not much longer!!! 

Once again, I can't express what an amazing miracle this little boy is. I thank God that he made him for our family. I can't imagine life without him. 

Here are some pictures from the last 7 weeks. You can see quite the transformation!!