Samantha's first blog

pamelamyers | September 28, 2010

Yesterday Sam had her 12 month doctor’s visit (I refuse to call it a one year visit — months make her sound so much younger!)  Everything went really well.  She is growing like a weed — 19 lbs 9 oz and 30 inches long.  She is in the 25th percentile for weight, but the 75th for height.  The doctor said she is very tall which we always kind of thought.  She checked out just fine in all aspects as expected.  Poor little Sam got four shots!  She was kind of ok for the first two, but by the third she was crying and by the fourth, she had had enough of that.  Within a few minutes and with some daddy hugs, she calmed down though.

We spent a lot of time talking to her doctor about weaning her off of formula and off of the bottle.  At one year old now she really doesn’t need formula anymore and can eat pretty much anything she wants.  The doctor said there is no reason for her to be eating anything but table food, not even baby food at this point!  She has been getting so much better at eating table food, but I still don’t think she eats enough.  The doc reminded me though that her stomach is 1/4 the size of mine, so she doesn’t need a lot of food to be full and that, rest assured, she will eat what she needs to grow.  This weekend we are going to try to get her onto milk instead of formula in the hopes that with no formula filling her tummy, she will eat a lot more table food.  I don’t think we can quite ditch the bottle yet though.  She really loves it, and in my mind, that is a lot of transition all at once.  The doctor said we can go cold turkey and just be done with formula and bottles all at once, but I don’t think we are ready for that!  One thing at a time.  The bonding experience of giving her a bottle is going to be hard to give up, more so for us than for her, I think!

Her next appointment will be in a month for a booster flu shot, then not again until she is 15 months old.  I’ll keep you posted on how the feeding goes…

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pamelamyers | September 26, 2010

Today we had such a blast with Sam.  It was a really cool day.  For the first time that we can remember, we played a game with Sam that she created, not one we asked her to play.  The whole day started out really nice.  Mark and I were both a little tired from yesterday, so we decided to just hang out at home and do basically nothing.  We did no chores, no cleaning, nothing except hanging out with Sam.  She was so giggly all day.  We played with her toys with her (she is really getting the hang of her xylophone) and she walked with her walker toy!  We took her for a walk down the block in her wagon, and we just had so much fun with her.

Most of the things that really amuse her are things that Mark and I do for her amusement.  Typical baby amusement things like funny faces, funny voices, and putting toys on our heads, etc.  She also loves to roughhouse.  She is always on the sofa or the chair trying to climb somewhere she should not be, and we sort of bounce her back away from where she is climbing onto the sofa and she just laughs and laughs.  We say she is like the Terminator because she will keep on going and going and going.  One other thing she finds funny for some reason is coughing.  If you cough, she laughs.  Then she fake coughs back so that you laugh.  It is bizarre, but she loves it.  Just recently she started to actually play peek-a-boo by hiding herself under a blanket or her clothes.  We love those things, but they really are games either we start, or we certainly created and she mimics.

Today, I was laying on the couch resting while Sam played with her toys.  I closed my eyes for a second and I sort of heard/sensed her coming up to me. She stood up holding onto the couch, and she smacked me gently on the head.  When I opened my eyes, she just burst into laughter.  So I kept doing it.  Every time I would fake sleep, she would smack my head to “wake me up” and laugh like crazy when I open my eyes and make a sound of surprise.  It was incredibly adorable.  When Mark came in from taking out the recycling, I tried to see get her to do it to him.  Sure enough, when he layed on the couch feigning sleep, and I hid so she couldn’t see me, she tried to wake him up by smacking him gently on the head. 

The whole thing was so incredible to us.  Sam is growing up so fast.  You can really see how much by things like this. She completely created this game on her own. It is not something that we ever showed her how to do.  To think that she has reached an age where she can come up with things like this on her own is amazing.  Every day we are in such awe of her.  We can’t believe we created such a phenomenal little girl and can’t wait for the next day to see what she does next.

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pamelamyers | September 26, 2010

Yesterday, we had Sam’s 1st birthday party and it was such a wonderful day!  Sam really had a great time.  We weren’t too sure how happy a baby she would be since she just refused to take her morning nap.  I think she was just too excited to sleep.  Sam was watching us get everything ready in the morning, and when Mark helium-inflated her 50+ balloons (thanks honey!), she was thrilled!  I had no idea she would find balloons so much fun.  She definitely knew that something interesting was going on.

Before everyone arrived, we took some pics with the grandparents —

Everyone arrived excited to see Sam and she was just as excited to see everyone.  I was really pleased that she was just fine with a lot of people holding her.  Just a few months ago she went through a phase where she was very clingy and very scared of most people holding her, but yesterday she was being carried around by almost everyone and she liked it just fine.  There were quite  few times during the day when I didn’t even see her for 20 or so minutes and she was just off playing.

As I mentioned, Sam really liked the balloons.  Maddox was having something to eat, and Sam investigated the balloons tied to her highchair.  I love the look on her face.  Maddox seems equally as perplexed — Mark said Sam looks at helium balloons like she thought she had gravity all figured out, but now these crazy things come along!

On to the good part — food!  Here is her cake.  We had it made to match the theme of her party, which was owls…(Guess Whooooo’s Turning One!)

I made these cookies to go with her theme. I must say, I am pretty proud of them. I never decorated cookies this way before (my previous attempts at decorating just basically involved using sugar or sprinkles) and I think they look super cute.

Time for the cake cutting — Sam was all decked out in her party hat and ready to go.  She was so funny while we were singing Happy Birthday to her — she just kept looking at everyone like, “why are you all singing and staring at me?”

Mommy and Daddy assisting with the candle blowing out.  I know I made a special wish for her, and I am sure Mark did too.

Sigh…again with the balloons!  Focus, Sam, focus! It’s picture taking time!

Everyone kept saying they were shocked at how neat she was with her cake.  She was pretty neat.  Only a smudge on her face.  She is such a dainty little girl. 🙂

Sam got a lot of wonderful gifts.  A snowsuit, a Twilight Ladybug (that projects stars on her ceiling), some clothes, and a doll from Mark’s parents, a drum, a xylophone, a photo book and some clothes from my parents, a ride- on giraffe from Krista, Adam and Maddox, a walking toy from my Aunt Barbara, a savings bond from her Poppy’s brother and his wife, and a whole bunch of adorable clothes from everyone else.  Also, Mark and I got her a wagon.  We can’t wait to take her for a ride!  Thank you everyone for your wonderful gifts!

After the party, Sam just totally crashed.  I put her up for a nap after everyone left and she slept for 3 hours!  She woke up to eat, play for a little bit, then right back to bed and she slept through the whole night.  Partying is exhausting for a little girl!

Just one final note about her balloons.  This morning, the helium had pretty much given out and her balloons were all half inflated and laying on the ground in the dining room.  She was still excited about them.  Sam sat in the middle of all the balloons and played with them.  She even dragged three upstairs.  I think Mark and I will have to buy her balloons as a treat sometimes.

Happy, Happy Birthday, Samantha!  We hope that your next year is as much fun for you as your first was and that you are as happy as you can be.  We love you, Sam!

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pamelamyers | September 24, 2010

Yesterday for Sam’s birthday I stayed home from work.  We had a pretty good day (except for the racing around in the morning dealing with the Similac recall!) and late that afternoon we helped Sam open some presents.  Here we are opening her gift.  I think she was  a bit confused by the whole thing, but I helped her out.

As you can see, she eventually got the hang of it.  She got a Taggie elephant from us (Taggies are stuffed animals with a bunch of ribbon “tags” all over them for babies to chew or suck on, which is what she does with every tag on every toy she has).  Zephyr got her a turtle car that she can play with either in or out of the tub.  Her big gift from us will have to wait until her party!

After dinner, we got Sam all ready for her cake.  Although her party isn’t until Saturday, we thought her actual birthday needed a cake too.  The “1” candle on the top is the same one we used on Zephyr’s 1st Birthday angel food cake (yes, as you all know, Zephyr gets a cake every year).  We thought it was cute that both Myers girls used the same candle. 🙂

We sang to Sam and she was just staring at her cake the whole time. A few times she reached her hand out for it like she was trying to grab the candle.  She definitely knew something was going on.

I blew out her candle for her, which she got a kick out of.  I didn’t realize she had such a cute expression until I saw these pictures later.

Mark helped her with her first bite of cake.  She wasn’t too sure about it at first, but then she dove in.

Yum yum yum yum yum!

So…the cake was a hit as you can see!  She certainly looks happy, doesn’t she?

 

Our messy little angel!  She had frosting all over her face and cake all over her hands.  It was quite a clean up job, but we were just so glad she liked it.  I hope she gets as big a kick out of her party cake on Saturday so everyone else can enjoy watching her eat it.  Happy Birthday, Sam!

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markmyers | September 24, 2010

I wanted to do some special portraits of Samantha on her first birthday. These were all lit with just natural light aided by a reflector. We took them in our guest room which we haven’t used for photos so far but I think it worked out really well. Sam of course did fantastic and gave us some really sweet poses.

This one is Pam’s favorite:

This one is my favorite:

Here you can see how tall she is now!

Zephyr wanted to give Sam a special gift so she agreed to sit for a portrait as well. She has been our faithful little pal for over 12 years now and we still marvel at how beautiful she is. Sam does as well and chases her relentlessly 🙂 .

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