Dear William,
Although you are completely unaware, this month has been an emotional one for our family. On Tuesday, April 5th your great grandpa Sampson passed away. Although he had been having a handful of health problems over the past year, he passed pretty quickly, which was great that he wasn’t in a lot of pain suffering but still hard to believe he is actually gone. I’m sure you won’t ever remember him, but he loved you so much. He was so proud to have you carry on the family name, not only from a William standpoint but from a Sampson standpoint. None of great-grandpa’s nephews had any children so the only men to carry on the ‘Sampson’ name is Grandpa Sampson, Daddy and now you. He really was a great man who loved Jesus, his family, flying airplanes, fixing things, staying up to date on technology, growing veggies (he basically was a mini farmer) and sharing his veggies with anyone that would take them. Your Daddy was very close with him and learned so many amazing things from him like how to play tennis, how to take things apart and put them back together, using tools and building things and so much more. So far, it looks like you share similar interests as you are fascinated by tools and Daddy will be able to teach you the many things he learned from Great Grandpa.
On a little more upbeat note, April was pretty raining and a little colder than normal, but on the handful of days that the sun shone, you loved being outside. You were a little unsure of it at first, but when you could run around and play and explore things like dirt and rocks and grass and hear the birds and airplanes, you’ve decided there is no place you would rather be. You cry when we come inside and will go bring your shoes to use on a regular basis and stand by the door and beg to be outside. You love going for walks and will climb up in the stroller and just wait to be pushed. You love bubbles and chalk and the crazy coup. We haven’t made it into the bike trailer yet for a ride, but I have a feeling you’re going to love that too.
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Sleep is pretty status quo. You sleep for about an hour at each nap at day care and drink about an oz of whole milk in a sippy for the first nap and 3-4oz for the second. For bedtime, you have a bottle around 7:30ish and then go to bed around 8. You may cry on the way up to bed, but usually stop within 1-2 min of us walking out the door. In the morning, you’ll usually wake around 6:30 (the 5:30 mornings are dreadful!). About halfway through the month, you stopped taking a bottle in the morning so are really just down to one bottle before bedtime. Giving you a bottle is one of my favorite times of the day as you just snuggle in and sit contently with mom or dad for 20 minutes. However, I am counting down the days until I can put all the bottle parts away. So much extra clutter on the counter.
You love to eat still and insist on feeding yourself. You’ve started to hold forks and spoons while you eat and attempt to use them, but are almost never successful. You love love love Cinnamon Toast Crunch (without milk) all berries, ice cream, avacado, and bread/crackers.
You’re still not talking a whole lot but are starting to make more sounds. Your ‘B’s are very defined for ball and bottle. You’ve also gotten good with your ‘Ds’ for down(stairs), all done, dadda, and Due (for shoe). You’ll also say, mmamama which means you’re hungry. However, your comprehension is pretty good. You follow directions like ‘it’s time to go bye-bye, can you go get me your shoes’ or ‘let’s wash hands’ or ‘go get a book’. Baby sign language has also improved. You consistently sign ‘All done’ ‘dog’ ‘cate’ ‘bird’ ‘duck’ and are getting better about signing ‘please’. You love to roar like a lion and woof like a dog.
You and your sister have a love hate relationship, already. You love to play chase and hide and seek and make each other laugh. However, we need to do a lot of work on sharing with both of you. If you’re playing with a toy and she gets near you, you’ll start crying and whining and you push her. She also likes to randomly hit you and steal things out of your hands and push you too. For me, this constant tension and arguing is the most challenging thing about parenting right now, it runs my patience pretty thin.
With that said, I can never be mad at you. Your little smile just lights my whole world up and think you are the cutest thing ever. You melt my heart with your sweet and random snuggles and kisses. Mrs. Heidy and Mrs. Alba are smitten with you and said you love to give all the teachers snuggles and hugs throughout the day.
We love you little Bood!
Love,
Mama
We love you to pieces William, Love, Mama 
Peanut Smiles 