Our little dancing queen

| December 7, 2010

This weekend we were really busy — we made the traditional raviolis on Saturday — so on Sunday we decided to have a quiet day at home.  I started decorating the house for Christmas and we played some Christmas CDs to get us in the mood. Sam really likes music, she has been dancing a lot these days, so we picked her up and started spinning her around the floor.  She is quite the dancer, very light on her feet, and she never steps on anyone’s toes!

I was first on her dance card.  I love dancing with her.  We do it a lot, actually, and she really likes it.  She always smiles and looks so happy to be held bouncing around to the music.  Of course, it was a threesome this time since she insisted on holding her little snowman the entire time.

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Mark cut in and I think Sam was pretty excited to be dancing with her handsome daddy!

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I just love these pictures.  Mark is such an amazing dad, you can see how much he loves her all over his face.

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Some snuggle time for a slow dance….

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After the dancing was done, Sam wanted to play in the recliner.  She loves climbing up there and hanging out although we have no idea why.  I think she just likes the fact that she can get up there now on her own.  She also is somewhat obsessed with Mark’s camera strap.  Any time she sees it, she immediately grabs for it and most of the time Mark lets her hold it for a while (camera not attached, of course).  We had a playful little tug of war which Sam won!

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Visiting Santa

| December 3, 2010

Today we took Sam to the Springfield Mall so that she could visit with Santa.  It went pretty well for a while.  Sam was really happy looking at all the decorations and even enjoyed watching the other kids visit Santa Claus.  Going up to actually talk to Santa — well, that didn’t go so well.  When we got right in front of him, she got really shy, buried her head in my shoulder, and wrapped her arms around me in a death grip.  Mark and I both tried getting her to relax and it wasn’t going so well, so we let a few kids go ahead of us, thinking that maybe if she just stood and watched some more, she would relax.  No go.  She was so scared of Santa!  He is such a nice man too, he really tried everything to get her to relax and smile, talking softly, showing her some stuffed animals.  Eventually, we just gave up and decided to do the classic crying photo, even though it sort of breaks my heart. 🙁

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Later that day, Santa felt really bad that such an adorable little girl cried when she came to see him, so he was nice enough to stop by our house.  Santa thought maybe she would be more comfortable in her own home, and he was right.   Now that is the happy face we were looking for!  Unfortunately, Mark had disappeared so he missed Santa’s visit.  That’s too bad. I know he would liked to have been there.

(Thanks Aunt Barbara for the assistance!)

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When Mark and were talking about taking Sam to see Santa this year, we both wanted her to look happy, or even just a little in awe, but we really had a sinking feeling that she was going to cry.  It’s so common at her age, and she is a little stranger shy.  So I guess today was not really a shocker.  My mom and I were talking about it earlier this week and she reminded me how I wasn’t too thrilled with the whole Santa experience either when I was Sam’s age.  My birthday is only a week ahead of Sam’s so we were basically the same age at Christmastime.  So, just to show, like mother like daughter, here is my photo when I was Sam’s age.  Everyone always tells me that Sam looks just like Mark, but I think here you can see a true resemblance.  She makes the same cry face!  Waaaahhhhh!!!!!!

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