Water Water Everywhere

Sammie did a great job this morning helping put the dishes away. Her job is to put up the plastics, carry over her stack of plates carefully and she remembered to drag her chair over to the island to be able to put away the silverware. She has a little more work to perfect her sorting skills.

 

Marti invited us to her neighborhood pool and we had a blast! I was a bit concerned about how Samantha would react to the water and her ear (today was our last day on antibiotics), but she loved it. She really enjoyed jumping and kicking her legs ("swimming"), but she especially loved splashing Marti! She really wore herself out.

 

 

 Sammie also got to play with her new water table tonight. She wanted to make a big mess, but I wasn't having it. She also wanted to climb inside.

First greasy cheeseburger (bite).

Daddy and I were watching videos of Sam from earlier in the month and it's amazing how much more clear her words are now and how much more she is putting phrases and ideas together.
We are close to being able to have a conversation with her. We are asking her things that she did throughout her day, with who, etc. We are hoping that she can start to tell us about her day with a few questions.
She is also doing an awesome job with her colors. She knows what color each color is, now whether she wants to tell you the correct one, is up to her.
She also can count 1, 2, 3 (Thanks to Ali- We count when we toss her a treat). She has also learned how many there are of something: 1, 2, 3

Her hair is so silky-beautiful after Daddy blow dries it.

USA

Friday, June 29, 2012

Grandma got Samantha and Nate new t-shirts for the 4th of July. They sure were silly while getting their picture taken!

TGIF

Heading over to Ms. Mary's

Dinner time

Musical Chairs

We started our day with Gymboree. Sammie loves it! She loves playing, singing and listening to the instructor's sing-song voice. When Sammie was doing free-play and she heard her instructor start to sing, she ran to the mat to sit Indian style in a circle waiting to be told what to do next.

Samantha is such a big girl now. She wants to sit in any one of the big kitchen chairs, which she has been playing musical chairs with. To keep her safe, I borrowed Nate's old booster seat from Lori when we went to visit Baby Stella this afternoon. She is getting so big!

 

 

Oh yeah, Sammie has been randomly calling me "Mom" for a while, and just started saying "Mommy" (which sounds more like Mommeee). I think she picked that up from one of her books (Olivia). She sure is picking up a lot of information from her books.

She also knows 'eyeball' now.

The Name Game

It's Wednesday so we went to visit PaPa at the Children's Day. Although Samantha wasn't very excited about seeing Joe McDermott, I was. We saw him last year and were given his cd; I think he's/it's just too funny and not as kid-cheesy as some other kid bands. I enjoyed listening while Sammie, Dada, and PaPa hung out and sipped on lemonade. Afterwards, of course we saw our favorite clown, Silly, and Sammie got her face- painted of a kitty cat. When we got home she ran right to Ali and tried to share kitty pets and kisses with her.

 

 

 

 

 

 Sams is doing a great job with saying her own name (Sammie and Samantha) as well as our friends. Of course she knows Mike, Lori, Nate, Grandma, PaPa, etc., but since she pulled out her picture book, she also repeated Grandma Re, Becca, Jeff, Noah ("NoNo" or "Ahno"), Elle, Teresa, and Andrew. She is also remembering words to her books; when you ask what it says she'll tell you. The cutest one so far is Ten in the Bed, when the Little One is all alone he says "I'm cold. I miss you." Sammie says "Cold. Miss."

Mama, I Just Can't Sleep

Samantha woke up about midnight and couldn't stay asleep for longer than 15-20 minutes. I don't know what could have been wrong with her, but maybe the antibiotic I gave right before bed. She would just sit up and start crying her little eyes out, some times calling for Daddy Rawr. We tried sleeping in the rocking chair (too uncomfortable), sleeping with Daddy (she moves too much), and finally we fell asleep on the couch at 2:30. Poor thing. I hope she sleeps well tonight! She sure was in a great mood today, although Grandma said she could tell Sammie just wasn't feeling well. She does have this barking cough.

Truck! Vroom!

Helping GaMaw dust the table.

Just Being Sam

When I went in to get Samantha this morning, she greeted me with "Hi Sunshine!" She is also saying "Sammie" and trying to say "Samantha", but I love that she still refers to herself as "Say-Say".

...and once again she climbs in and out. She is so proud of herself for being able to do this and although it's awesome, I tried "explaining" to her that it's dangerous and she's not allowed to do it without us there. Doubt she understands, but at least she doesn't do it during the night or in the morning.

Finally learned how to fasten the tab on baby's diaper.

Outside Fun/Big Help!

Samantha was in a better mood today. We got to enjoy some water fun in her little pool and then she was a big help after the grocery, trying to put things away. She said that her tummy hurt and wanted to take off all her clothes... then she pooped. ha ha ha

 

 I imagine photo-shopping in waves and a surf board. Do you see it?

Finally! She smiled with me!

Yea, a bubble! A big one!

Say-Say dressed herself :)

Helping put groceries away. (She wanted all her clothes off when we got home.)

Helping with laundry, too!

Ape Wild

Samantha was wild this morning before we decided to go on a long walk and do more cleaning in the yard. Then she crashed for 3+ hours after lunch. I thought she would be in a happy mood, which she was until we went shopping, then she was a complete monster. It was the most frustrating and embarrassing trip I have ever experienced. I was "that" mom with a kid climbing all over the cart then crying her eyes out. Oh man. When we got home, she ran straight into her room and when I finally went in she had climbed into her crib with paci in mouth. She must had been scheming this on the car ride home. She jumped and laughed and went ape wild again, climbing out from one corner, then running over to her baby bed and climbing back in to her bed. I'm just happy she's asleep now. Tomorrow's a new day. We'll just have to start over.

Jumping out

 

Climbing in

Hot Pink and Purple

Ms. Mary brought Nate and I new nylon aprons to make a mess in. I love that I can put my hands in the pockets! Thank you Ms. Mary!

  After dinner, Mama gave me a special treat. Daddy made some yummy choco chip cookies and cut 3 of them into heart shapes for me (although, she only lets me have one). I love chocos! Mama also gave me a purple water bath. It was pretty cool seeing the water that color! I love purple. 

 Sittin' in my purple bath lookin' cute.

xoxo, Sammie

Steppin' Up

Luckily Samantha seemed to be feeling 100% better, because we had a date for our free class at Gymboree and she LOVED it. She loved being able to climb and bounce on everything. She especially loved hanging from the monkey bars (Grandma Re was impressed when I told her). She found a little boy to gravitate towards and quite by accident knocked him over. As he wailed and cried, Sammie gave him sorry hugs and I could hear all the moms in the class "awe". Even after class, a couple moms mentioned to me that that she is the sweetest thing. Yep, that's my sweet angel! Needless to say, we signed up.
The instructor came to welcome us (at the end, yep, we were late getting there. I swear they started early) and I guess she had been paying attention to Sam during class. She started with "Well, I don't have to give you the 'Shy Kid' speech," and yadda yadda. I asked what age Level 4 went to because, well honestly, some of the kids seemed a little younger or slower than Sam. Some looked as if they just learned how to walk and they couldn't talk. The instructor noticed Samantha's development and suggested we move up to/try Level 5 when Sam turned 21 months. (Level 5 starts at 22 months). She said she can notice when parents are more hands on with their child by the child's development. I felt very proud of myself (and Daddy, too) but mostly of Samantha for being an amazing gift to us! 

 

During Say-Say's nap, Dada Rawr worked hard on tilling up the side yard and coincidentally he was finishing up just as Sammie was waking up. We hung outside and enjoyed some cold delicious watermelon and Daddy cleaned up the dirt on the deck.

She was too cute sharing watermelon with us.

I -love- this pic of Sammie's 4 steps to Daddy's 1.

Sam found a fake flower buried in one pot and stuck it in this one.

 Samantha put her blue shoes on all by herself! On the correct feet, also! She just needed help with pulling the straps through.