Samantha's first blog

pamelamyers | July 25, 2010

This year we took Sam on her first vacation with us to Sea Isle City, NJ.  Every year since before Mark and I were married, we have been taking a beach vacation to either Sea Isle or Ocean City, MD with his parents, his sister Krista and now, her husband Adam. We were so excited this year because every other year at the beach we would sit there watching all the families with their children and wish it was us. We couldn’t wait to see what Sam would do! 

Here is Sam at the beach for the first time trying to figure out what the heck sand is.  She was sooooo sandy.  She kept looking at us like she was saying, “this doesn’t look like something you’d let me touch Mom and Dad.”  She only ate about one mouthful,thank God!  I think one was enough to convince her that sand is not good eats.

We brought a tent for her so that she could get out of the sun, but she didn’t stay in it much.  She preferred being under the umbrella with us.  Here she is on a rare moment inside, with Maddox.

Sam did a LOT of sleeping this trip.  She was all conked out here on the beach with her daddy.  Mark was loving it.  She hasn’t really taken any naps on us since she was really little so this was a treat.

After we all went back to the house for lunch, we were going to head back to the beach.  But it was supposed to rain, so we didn’t know what to do.  The skies eventually opened up, and what a storm!  It was thundering and lightening and pouring rain.  After it was over, we were rewarded by an amazing rainbow over the ocean.  We took Sam out on the deck to see it since it was her first one.  Isn’t this beautiful?

You can really see here how stormy the sky was.  The rainbow didn’t last long, but I am glad we were paying attention and saw it.

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pamelamyers | July 23, 2010

Today we wish a happy 10 month birthday to our little bunny, Samantha!  I can’t believe in such a short time she will be a year old.  And tomorrow we leave for our first vacation as a family, to Sea Isle City, NJ.  We can’t wait to see what she thinks of the beach and the ocean.  This is the vacation that Mark and I have been dreaming about for such a long time — one with a child in tow.  For so many years we have wanted to share a real family vacation with a little one.  I know it will be much less relaxing than normal, but I honestly don’t care.  All I know is that I don’t have to be jealous of all the other families on the beach playing with their kids this year.  I know Mark feels the same way.  We have spent all this week packing. It takes forever!  We have so much stuff to bring that we bought a rooftop carrier for Mark’s Honda Pilot.  When we were putting in on yesterday, Mark commented how he always wanted a rooftop carrier because to him it is sort of symbolic of having kids.  If it’s just you and your wife, why would you need so much storage space?  So to him, throwing it up on the car yesterday was sort of a big deal because it just meant that he finally had a real family.  I know exactly what he means.

On another positive note, Sam is sleeping so much better!  We decided enough was enough with the crying and the no napping so Mark and I put our foot down, so to speak, and gave Sam no choice but to sleep.  We have been letting her cry in her crib a bit, and really playing hardball with her when she keeps trying to sit up.  After a few days, she stopped the incessant screaming when we put her down and started lying down quietly again, like she used to.  She also is doing better with her naps.  The best part though is that it’s been four days in a row of no waking up in the middle of the night to eat!  It has been so long since that one week or so when she slept through the night that I never thought she would again.  Let’s hope the being on vacation doesn’t send her right back to screaming again!

Lots and lots of beach pictures to come!

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pamelamyers | July 20, 2010

It seems a lot of little things have been going on lately, so I thought I’d do a quick post.  Sam has been doing really well.  She is crawling around like crazy (we still don’t have gates…what a mistake that has been) and she is standing more and more all the time.  She used to only pull herself up on her crib, but now she pulls up on our legs when she is on the floor and she stands on the couch. It is so cute.  She stands on the couch and then tries to climb up the back of the couch cushion so she can get to whatever is behind the couch (usually some of her books or the cords for the blinds).  Her little legs move and move but she doesn’t get very far climbing a vertical pillow.  I feel bad for her and usually give her a boost.  One day last week Mark had her on the couch and she actually threw a leg over the arm to try to climb onto the end table!

She has been eating pretty well.  For a while, she was eating almost a whole jar for me at least some of the time, but lately she has been backing off a bit. I think she has more teeth coming, but it’s hard to say.  She isn’t really happy when you try to look in her mouth.  This weekend we celebrated both of our mom’s birthdays and we had strawberry cake for Sandi.  Sam LOVED the strawberry cake!  I gave her a bunch of bites and she was chowing down.  She also ate a piece of a black olive and a piece of turkey.  She wouldn’t take more than one bite of either, but at least she ate it and didn’t spit it out. She is really good at feeding herself her Cheerios and her Nature’s Promise veggie sticks now.  I actually have to watch her because she shovels them in faster than she can eat them!  I have been trying to force her to hold her bottle too, since she is more than capable, she just chooses not to.  She rests her hands on her bottle a lot, but doesn’t really hold on, so I started letting go of the bottle when her hands come up so that she realizes that if she doesn’t hold on, the bottle falls.  She is really good now and holds it on her own most of the time, except when she is very sleepy.

The only hard thing going on right now is that I think she has some separation anxiety.  Every time I try to put her down for a nap she cries and cries no matter how tired she is.  And in the middle of the night, after her bottle, she used to just go right back to sleep, now she has been crying a bit when I put her back to bed.  She has been really clingy too, wanting to be held all the time.  I have to figure out what to do about that, but in the meantime, I am enjoying all the hugs she has been giving me.  As a side note, she actually knows how to hug now!  She wraps her little arms around your neck and it is so sweet.

Sam will be 10 months on Friday, the day before our shore vacation. I can’t believe it!

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pamelamyers | July 14, 2010

Yup.  It happened. I knew it would.  Sam was crawling around last night and I took my eyes off of her for just a second.  It doesn’t take long for her to get into mischief because she’s moving so fast now.  Well, she kept going over to Zephyr’s food and water bowls.  She is always dipping her fingers into the water and sometimes spilling the whole bowl.  Yesterday I grabbed her for the umteenth time and moved her away.  As I picked her up, I noticed she was making funny mouth moves. What ever could be wrong, I thought?  Hmmm….Yup.  Cat food.  In her mouth.  And she was not so happy about it.  Whether it was the canned food or the dry, I don’t know, but she was trying really hard to get it out.  Mark scooped out a little, but I think she did eat some.  I think that’s the last time she’ll make that mistake!

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pamelamyers | July 13, 2010

This past weekend, we all trekked off to Ohio for Mark’s Uncle Joe’s wedding reception.  Joe got married for the first time recently, and we are all so happy for him.  Since the wedding was very small, a wedding reception was held this weekend in Boardman, Ohio, which is not far from the Pittsburgh area where he lives. 

We left on Friday and were a little worried about the trip out there, since it’s a 6 hour drive, and Sam has never been stuck in the car for that long before.  I am happy to say that she did really well!  We stopped every 2 hours or so to let her eat, change her diaper, and so that she could stretch from being strapped into her car seat for so long.  She seemed perfectly content each time, and she didn’t really fuss in the car.  I did sit in the backseat with her for part of the ride so that I could attempt to amuse her while Mark drove.  It seemed to work pretty well.  She slept a little too, which also helped. 

Our room was nice, but Sam did not like her crib at all!  Poor baby.  I think she wasn’t used to it, and without bumpers it didn’t seem very snug.  The worst part, in my opinion, was that the crib had a waffle weave sheet in it, and she kept waking up with waffle print on her face each morning!  She didn’t sleep all that well at night, waking up a lot, and having a hard time going down (we also were keeping her up later than normal, which messed her up).  Overall though, she was still a happy baby. 

At any rate, despite the tiring trip, and the crib issues, it was so nice seeing family.  On Saturday night, we had a family dinner with Uncle Joe and Doris, his wife, Doris’s children and their families, and Mark’s Uncle Flavion and his family.  Here are some pics.

This is Mark’s cousin (and godchild), Tia.  Sam and Tia were getting along famously!  Tia said Sam is giving her a kiss : )

I think this one is so cute. I am not sure what the expression on Sam’s face is, or why she is holding Tia’s chin, but it’s adorable.

Before dinner, we went to an amazing park right down the street from the hotel.  It was so incredible!  Not only were there regular park things like places to play sports, but there were trails through the trees, pavilions to have picnics, places for outdoor concerts and playgrounds for kids.  There was a Tot Lot for kids under 5, and a Kids Lot for older kids.  We took Sam to the Tot Lot a few times.  It was so much fun.  The whole playground was covered in mulch so the kids don’t get hurt, and it had bucket swings and small amusements for the tiniest of children.  The best part was this one section they had that was full of about 10 riding toys for them to cruise around on. 

Here is Sam on the giraffe, which she loved.  We had to push her around since she’s not quite ready to move it herself yet (she did go backwards a few steps) but she didn’t mind.

Here she is on the swing. I really want to get her one for home to hang in one of our trees since she seems to enjoy it so much. I take her to the park by our house and she swings there but it would be nice to let her do it at home any time.

On a Big Wheel just like her Daddy had….

Krista and Adam also had Maddox at the playground.  Here’s the big boy riding his John Deere!

And riding what I think is a fire truck….

The wedding reception was Sunday.  We didn’t take a lot of pictures, but I did take one of Sam and her Daddy all dressed up.  There was a violin, flute, cello group playing the music, and Sam was fascinated by them and the music.  She took time out from watching to give me a grin.

We did have a nice time being with family, going to the park, and celebrating but we were glad to get home.  It was so good to see everyone — we miss you all and hope we can see you again soon!

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