The Tooth is Out There…

| April 28, 2010

Sam’s tooth is finally coming!  Today was the first day you can actually feel the little sucker (or biter – ha ha) coming through her gums.  Everyone always asks me if I can feel it and said I’d feel it hard under her gums. Well, truthfully, I think her gums always feel hard, so I had no idea what an incoming tooth would feel like.  Coincidentally, today Nerine said that you can feel it like a little sharp thing (thanks Nerine for the better info) and that is totally what it feels like!  I can definitely feel a sharp, sort of roughness in the middle now.  Today is the first day I have been able to feel something like that.  I think one morning soon I am going to get her from her crib and there it will be.  Yikes!

Lessons in importance

| April 28, 2010

Last night I had the strangest dream.  I won’t get into the details, because it wasn’t a nice dream, in fact, it was about something that makes me sad.  Anyway, not only is the subject of the dream sad to me while awake, but *in* my dream, I was sad.  And I couldn’t shake the feeling.  Then toward the end of the dream, right before I woke up, although she had made no appearance before, Sam was suddenly in it.  And strangely she walked across the floor about 5 steps before tumbling over (strange because she can’t even crawl, much less walk).  She then, from her tummy down position on the floor, looked up at me and smiled like, “Hey, Mommy, did you see what I just did?”   And she made me smile and I needed to go to her in the dream and I had to ignore the sad, confusing thing that was happening off in the distance.   I think this was my subconsious trying to remind me not to dwell on the sad things, but to rejoice in the amazing, wonderful thing I have — my beautiful daughter.  So thanks, Sam, for being with me even in sleep.  I love you. 🙂

Mmmmm…french fries….

| April 26, 2010

Today we were eating dinner and Sam was sitting in her high chair.  She looked so bored since she was done eating, that I felt bad for her. She is always so interested in what we are eating.  I didn’t really have anything I thought she would want, but I gave her a small french fry just to see what she would do.  She looked at it so oddly then, of course, like everything else, put it in her mouth.  She sort of gummed it for a while and we watched her carefully to make sure she didn’t accidentally get a big piece in her mouth, but she seemed to be enjoying it.  I took it away from her and sort of smushed it so the soft potato parts came out and just fed it to her with my finger.  She liked it!  So that was really her first actual, non-baby food. French fries.  Not the most nutritious first choice maybe, but hey, at least it wasn’t candy.  And potatoes are a vegetable!  : )

Latest milestones

| April 25, 2010

This weekend Sam did quite a few new and cute things.  On Saturday, we noticed that she was trying really hard to push up onto her hands and knees.  She does so well with tummy time now, hanging out for a really long time just playing with her toys, and pushing straight up on her arms more often than not.  But this is the first time I have really noticed her making a real effort to get onto her knees at the same time.  She really can’t accomplish it yet, but she is trying so hard.  She is ready to crawl!  I saw her on the baby monitor in her crib sort of rocking back and forth once too, with her legs sort of tucked up under her.  I think she’ll be up before you know it.  She was doing tummy time on her quilt today and Zephyr was laying about a foot away from her and Samantha was reaching so hard and so far with her arm to try to get to Zephyr.  Eventually, she will see something just out of reach that she wants badly enough that she will get moving! 

Also this weekend she drank from a straw for the first time!  She loves to watch us drink from glasses in general, but she loves straws.  We were at a restaurant on Friday and she was enraptured watching me drink my soda.  So when we got home after I fed her in her highchair I filled a small cup with water and gave her a straw.  It took her a really long time to get enough suction going that the water went all the way up, but eventually it did, and she got some.  She had a hard time, and didn’t get a lot of water, but I think if I keep letting her practice, she will be good at it in no time.

As a side note, something else happened at the restaurant — she got a handful of my salad!  We really have to watch the table now.  She likes to sit on my lap when we are eating, which is fine with me, because I like her to see what mealtime is like, but she grabs everything in sight now.  I was just talking to Mark, and I guess not paying close enough attention while I was eating, and her hand lunged out and before I knew it she had a handful of lettuce, bacon, egg, and salad dressing.  What a mess, but she was thrilled!

Today she finally saw one of the bunnies in our back yard.  It was a huge bunny, actually, one of the biggest wild bunnies I have seen in our yard.  I propped Sam up in the bay window hoping she would see it and she did.  She just smiled and smiled the whole time.  Every once in a while she’d glance back at me like she was saying, “Mommy, did you see it?!”  So adorable.  There was a chipmunk running around at the time too but they are so small I don’t think she could see it.

The cutest and most special thing that happened was on Saturday.  Mark was holding her in the recliner and I came into the room.  He wanted to get up to do something or other and he said to Sam, “do you want to go to Mommy?” and she reached both arms straight out to me in a very definite “Pick me up” pose.  I completely melted.  It was the cutest thing ever.  It was so obvious that she wanted to come to me.   There is nothing better in the world that feeling like you are tops in your kid’s book.

She is feeling a lot better with the teething. I haven’t had to give her any medicine for the last 2 days. I honestly think Mark being home from his trip helped. I think she was generally miserable with teething, and his absence just made it worse for her.  Now that he is home, she is so much happier, you can just see it all over her face.  Here’s some proof.  We took these photos on Friday before we went out to dinner.  If this isn’t a cute couple, I don’t know what is.  Mark is so glad to be back, and I don’t blame him one bit when this little one is home waiting!

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More teething troubles

| April 21, 2010

Poor Sam has had such a week!  She is teething really badly.  Since this weekend, she has seemed so uncomfortable.  She hasn’t been napping, she doesn’t want to eat, and she is waking up at night again. The worst part is that when she wakes up at night, she wakes up crying, which just breaks my heart.  She has never been a crier, but she has been crying a lot lately and it is so sad. 

Mark is away this week (home tomorrow, thank God!) and after taking him to the airport on Sunday, Sam finally fell asleep in the car.  It was the first she had slept all day and it was late in the afternoon, and she was exhausted.  She had only been asleep for about 20 minutes when I was approaching home.  I decided I couldn’t go home and wake her up, because as much as she needed to sleep, I needed her to sleep for my sanity!  So I drove around and around and around my neighborhood for over 20 minutes so she could keep sleeping.  I felt like a lunatic.  There were people outside doing yard work and I swear I passed some of them so many times that I think they probably thought I was casing their house!  My mom says anyone with kids would totally understand.  I am sure she is right.

I started giving her a lot of Tylenol, letting her chew non-stop on the frozen teething rings, and my mom got some baby Orajel, and all those things seem to be helping.  She only woke up once last night, and I honestly don’t think she was hurting, or even hungry, I think she just had to burp! She went back to sleep really fast, and then was a happy, smiley baby this morning when I went in to get her. She is so sweet.  Despite all her woes, she still tries so hard to be happy. She was giggling up a storm a few times in the last couple of days.

Speaking of giggling, I think it’s really funny that lately she has just started cracking herself up.  She starts laughing really loud at what seems to be nothing. I mean, there must be something she finds funny, but who knows what it is. She can just be sitting on your lap and then all the sudden she starts hysterically laughing and won’t stop. It is the cutest thing ever.  I love her giggles, especially when they are unprompted.  She laughs so freely, and so often and unexpectedly.  We are so lucky to have such a happy baby.  I just hope her teeth pop soon so she can go back to being happy all the time!