Samantha's first blog

markmyers | October 20, 2010

Our normal babysitter, Grandmom, is off for a few weeks visiting Pam’s brother so we had to make alternate arrangements to watch Sam for the days Pam works. I decided to take off this week to watch her. I’m having a lot of fun with her. She is very smiley and happy this week which is great, although she is getting into everything now! Today I had three completely different outfits on her because she kept spilling every glass of water I tried to drink and every cat bowl we had out for Zephyr!

She’s been napping ok in the mornings but forget about the afternoon, she just goes and goes. Today we went to the park for awhile and then had a nice long walk through the neighborhood. She is a lot of fun to be with now and I am really enjoying my time with her. I wish I could spend more days at home with her like this.

Here she is giving me a thumbs up as if to say, “Good job Dad!”

BTW, that heading is an obscure Mr. Mom reference in case you were wondering 🙂

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pamelamyers | October 18, 2010

Today I realized that I am never getting a moment’s rest again.  When Mark and I installed the baby gates we thought we would be able to get a few moments to get some things done when we knew Sam was safe and out of trouble.  Well, that lasted for a little while but it’s pretty much over.  Today Sam figured out how to climb up onto our couch and recliner all by herself.  So, basically, there is no way I can leave her safely in our family room, even gated in.  She climbs her way up (completely unassisted by toys or props to climb on) and then laughs and laughs at her accomplishment.  She must have done it 10 times in a row today. I can’t leave her alone anymore because she could so easily fall off of the furniture.  I know she will probably fall at some point — it is inevitable — but I would like to avoid it if at all possible, for obvious reasons.   Once she gets up on the couch or chair, her next step is she tries to get onto the end table or into our bay window.  Not a good thing.  Oh, Sam.  What will you get into next?  Aren’t babies supposed to walk before they figure out things like this?  My little adventurer.  She is fearless, which I guess is a good thing, but one day she is going to give me a heart attack!

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pamelamyers | October 17, 2010

Today was such a gorgeous day that we thought it would be the perfect day to take Sam to Linvilla Orchards to see Pumpkinland.  Linvilla has had Pumpkinland for what seems like forever, but it is truly a family event, so Mark and I never really went before.  This year was what we were waiting for, a chance to take our little one, and it could not have been more fun.  Sam wanted to dress appropriately for the occasion so she wore her cute little overalls. 

First stop was the pumpkins, of course!  Although Sam did not see the Great Pumpkin, she did think every pumpkin was pretty great.

Everyone was trying to get their kids to pose and smile nicely in this little photo area Linvilla had set up.  So many kids were squirmy, miserable, or otherwise non-cooperative.  Not our Sam!  Look how much fun she was having!

In this one we are not exactly sure what she is pointing at, but she saw something she liked.  She points at everything all the time now, and always with that sort of sideways point.  Mark and I think it’s so cute.

I love the look on her face here, like, “Um…Mommy, I don’t think is a good idea….”

It’s obvious here it didn’t take long for her to get into it.   She thought the pumpkins were very special, especially since they match her little punkinhead. 🙂

We thought she was a little small this year for the pony rides (next year!) but we did take her to see the animals. We visited the pond to look the ducks and geese, and she saw the ponies, chickens, goats, a cow, and a horse!  The horse was nice enough to come close so she could see him (or her).  The deer were snoozing and were hard to see, but maybe next time.

We bought a whole mess of pumpkins for Sam to enjoy at home.  I picked them out while Mark pushed her in the stroller so I don’t even think she realized we brought any home until that night.  We set up her very own pumpkin patch in our front yard and she was so excited!  Look at that smile!

Sadly, pumpkins eaten this way do not in any way taste like pumpkin pie, but she thought she’d experiment.

We had such a wonderful day with Sam.  Mark has just gotten back from Germany, so we wanted to have some special family time.  We certainly got it.   It was a great day and we all had so much fun.  I can’t imagine what it wil be like next year when she is running all over the place and we can let her ride the ponies and take a hayride.  It is hard to imagine it will be more amazing than this year, but I think our little girl will continue to amaze us each and every day.

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pamelamyers | October 13, 2010

I can’t believe that Sam is already almost 13 months old. Her birthday was just yesterday it seems.  The time is just zipping by.  I look at Sam and am just amazed at how she has changed in the last year. I remember so clearly how she was just this sweet little bundle of baby who would do nothing more than stare at us and smile. Now, Sam has such a personality!  She is such a… well…little person.  A little person who has her own quirks, and traits, and who has her own needs and desires that she is trying so hard to communicate to us.

I had posted before about how Sam has started creating her own games with us.  She still does that which is just so much fun.  But she plays our games differently too. She is much more interactive than she used to be.  For example, she has these little stacking cups.  I always take them and put them on her stuffed animals’ heads so they look like hats because it makes her laugh. She always pulls them off.  Well, now after she pulls the cup off, she tries to put one on the stuffed animal herself.  Inevitably, it is crooked, or wrong side up, but she is trying to do it herself and that’s really fun to watch.

Sam is so funny and she finds amusement in so many things.  She often just cracks herself up.  In the carseat she just starts laughing for no reason. I wish I knew what she was thinking about!  Some other funny things she does are that she fake coughs to get a reaction, and laughs when you fake cough back.  I just discoved that she thinks air kicks are hysterical, I have no idea why.  Maybe I just look like a dork doing them, I don’t know.

She definitely knows what she wants now too. If she wants to do something and you don’t let her, boy does she have a fit!  She is getting quite a little temper.  I know it is important for them to assert some independence, but we are trying to nip the tantrums in the bud.  The look on her face is precious though — she looks so mad!

One more positive aspect of her knowing what she wants is that she points all the time now to try to tell us what she wants.  She points to her cup, her food, her toys, pretty much anything she wants if she can’t reach it.  I don’t know why, but I really just find it fascinating to see how she clearly tries to communicate with us.  It is easy to forget how smart little ones are when they can’t talk.  But the wheels are spinning in their heads that is for sure.  When I read to her I try to point to things that I am reading about.  She sometimes points to those things now on her own when I get to that part of the story.  I love when she does that.  I keep thinking that all of this is just a step towards learning to talk.  I can’t wait to hear her little voice!

Every single day I feel like I learn something new about my amazing daughter.  I am so lucky to have her, I just wish the time wasn’t flying by so incredibly fast.

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pamelamyers | October 13, 2010

Yikes!  I was reminded today by my friend Debbi that it has been ages since our last post.  I didn’t realize it had actually been that long until I just logged on tonight.  I can’t believe it’s been 2 weeks!  So, let me update you on what’s been going on with our little girl.

Let’s start with eating.  Sam has been doing GREAT with the whole no formula/only milk and table food switch. She is really surprising us.  She has been eating way more than we ever have seen her eat before.  For example, a few nights ago, we went to Bertucci’s and she ate 8 whole rigatoni, some bread and a little bit of fruit!  That’s a lot for a little tummy!  At home she has been doing so well.  Sometimes she really surprises us with her appetite.  Our next challenge is getting her to eat a bigger variety of food.  She is still a little reluctant to try new things, but as they say, it can take 10-12 times showing them new food before they will accept it, so what can you do but keep trying.

I guess the next “food” obstacle is getting her off of her bottles.  She is only on 3 per day now with milk in them, not formula, and only for naps and bedtime. The rest of the day, we only offer her a sippy cup or her straw cup with water.  She is really good with the straw cup, but sippy cups are still a challenge. She doesn’t quite get, or doesn’t want to get, the concept of tipping it up so the liquid fills the spout.  Personally, I think she is a little lazy about it, but she will learn.  Mark and I have both stopped holding her bottle so that she has to do it herself.  I am hoping we can move her to just sippy cups at naptime and bedtime.

Sleep has also improved so much.  Initially after switching off of formula, she was not sleeping well at all.  She had a few nights where she was waking up constantly.  One night, Mark and I swear she was up about every hour or two. It was horrible. We didn’t know what to do.  We had been giving her a bedtime snack, but I guess maybe it wasn’t enough.  We got the suggestion to start giving her oatmeal before bed because that, combined with the milk, would really fill her stomach. It definitely seems to work!  Once we started that routine, Sam started sleeping through the night, not a peep out of her.  Ah…blissful sleep!  Her naps have been getting shorter, only about an hour instead of 1.5 hours, and sometimes I can’t even get her to take her afternoon nap, but honestly, I am happy with what I get.  I think she is too young to switch to one nap a day, but as Mom likes to remind me, by the time I was 1 year old, I wouldn’t nap at all.  I hope that Sam doesn’t take after me!

Sam has been practicing walking with her walking toy she got for her birthday from my Aunt Barbara and she does so well with it!  She just walks all over the house. It is so adorable.  Sam hasn’t quite mastered standing on her own without holding on to something, but she is definitely trying.  As soon as she does, I think walking won’t be far behind.

Hmmm…what else?  Healthwise, she has been doing perfectly, as usual.  We are so lucky she has not really been sick.  She did run a fever of 102.2 about 9 days after her MMR vaccine, which is normal, but still we were glad it only lasted one day because we could tell she felt kind of grumpy.

I guess that’s about it for updates on Sammy girl.  I hope this post wasn’t too long, but as I said, it’s been a while and I had a lot to say! We will try to post some new pictures soon.

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