Sam is Four Months Old

The boy learned to flip back-to-front on Friday, and since then he always does it when he's trying to fall asleep, so he ends up sleeping, if not entirely on his tummy, MOSTLY there except for his right arm that sticks out so he can suck his thumb, so his upper half is on his side and his bottom half is on his tummy. He seems to nap better this way. Strangely he still sleeps at night contently on his back, but during the day he has to twist over like this. It's like his way of saying "Take that, Back-To-Sleep Campaigners! I refuse to obey all mandates!" Which pretty much fits with his personality, which he has apparently inherited solely from his dad. That COULD be a good thing in the long run... but makes for a rather scary childhood for mom!

Yeah, we went to Baby Ellie's Due Date Party on Saturday night, and unfortunately Sammy seems to have outgrown his ability to Fall Asleep Anywhere In the Middle Of Anything, so he was really fussy and tired when bedtime hit but he would NOT fall asleep, so giving up we almost went home, except we went to sit by the bonfire and there Sammy calmed right down, you guessed it, mesmerized by the flames.

He's also apparently teething. This resulted in some Bad moments-- he had a really bad evening/night last friday, screaming and rubbing his head/tugging at his ear (actually, this was when he first flipped over, in the middle of a screaming and thrashing session, but he's done it many times since then without the screaming and thrashing so I guess it counts), which made me call the doctor to see if his ear infection hadn't gone away yet. But we went to the doctors' Saturday morning and both ears were perfectly healed, so it was all pronounced as Probably Teething, especially since his thrashing also included attempting to shove both hands into his mouth as deep as they could go. He's definitely reached the oral phase of development. He has a thing for shoving fabric in his mouth. Probably because it gives more than toys and such-- whenever he tries to put toys in his mouth he usually misses, or hits at a weird angle, so he gets frustrated and gives up. Another funny pathetic frustration of his is the spinny toy on the tray of his swing. He gets really furious at it because it's firmly attached and won't come to his mouth when he pulls on it. Sammy is I guess what they call a "spirited" child-- everything he does is full of energy and intensity. Most of the time he is exuberantly thrilled with life, except when he gets frustrated with something, at which point he becomes Very Put Out. (This is also pretty much directly inherited from his father, if you don't know his father). Actually, I could tell that about him from Day One, but I thought I'd use the description to sum up. It makes me happy, because not that I wouldn't love my son anyway, but I get along well with energetic, spirited kids, as long as they're nice kids (you know, the kind that get in trouble CONSTANTLY, but it's not out of malice, just the inability to behave). Actually I get along well with grownups like that too. Possibly part of why I married my husband. Their energy gives me energy and I like that! But, like I said at the end of the first paragraph... it does make motherhood, uh, interesting.

But showing you how much my life is running around already, I must point out that when I started typing this, Sammy was down for a nap, and NOW he is down for the night. Just to be even more ornery, I will now paste in a long survey I filled out YESTERDAY... which means all the answers apply to yesterday instead of today, but that's their problem:
( cut because it's a long survey, so why wouldn't I cut it? )