Fynn

| February 13, 2011

Mark took this picture of Samantha this morning.  We had a lazy day today and she stayed in her pajamas all day, which seemed to suit her perfectly fine. Every time I look at her I think she looks like she grew a foot overnight. It is probably just because she is walking all the time now and she seems so much bigger than when she was down on the ground.  I can’t get over how big she looks here, carrying around her Steiff teddy bear Fynn (who resides in a suitcase) that our friend Teresa brought her when she was last here from the UK.  Sam loves Fynn and is always carrying him to and fro, and asking us to free him from his suitcase for her.  We will have to try to get a picture of Sam with Fynn when he is suitcase-free. He is a very cute bear!

Our big girl at the table

| February 13, 2011

As I mentioned in my last post, Sam is sitting at the table with us like a big girl.  She looks so grown up now.  A few months ago, I would never be able to picture her like this.  Here she is enjoying some of her favorite things — ham, broccoli, and watermelon.  Doesn’t she look pleased with herself?

She is generally pretty good with a plate, but there was just too much food in there and I didn’t quite trust her, so she is using her suction cup bowl (which she can sometimes pull off anyway…).  We are so proud of you Samantha!  You are growing up so fast, and so beautifully, and we can’t wait to see what wonderful thing you do next.

Busy, busy, busy!

| February 13, 2011

I always knew having a toddler running around would be crazy busy, but I don’t think I knew just how insane life would become.  When Sam was a baby, she kept us busy, but at least she stayed in one place, did what we told her to do (frankly, she had little interest in anything other than eating, sleeping and gazing at her toys).  Now, Sam is always on the move.  Ever since she started really walking it is impossible to keep her in one place.  It is like she is so excited about her ability to go from one place to the next so easily and so quickly that she can’t stop.  I am really glad she is walking now, it looks so darn cute, but wow is she getting fast!  You can’t leave her alone for a minute or she’s halfway through the house.

Anyway, I know a lot of stuff has been going on that I keep putting in the back of my brain to blog about, and I haven’t found the time.  So, here’s what I can remember.

1.  I have no idea what is going on with her naps.  I really thought Sam was ready for one nap a day.  She is at the right age, and she had been pretty regularly taking one, 1.5-2 hour nap a day, right after lunch.  This was going on for a few weeks. But, true to form with Sam, her sleep schedule never sticks for long.  For the last 2 days, she took her nap starting at about 11:00 a.m.  That is very early.  She had been getting sort of wound up, so I put her in her crib to calm down, which I do often since, well, it works.  I was shocked that each time she wound up falling asleep.  Then, today, she took one nap at about 9:00 a.m. then a second at around 2:30 p.m.  So back to 2 naps, at least for today.  The only thing I can figure is that she is wearing herself out with the walking, and when the novelty wears off, and she calms down again, she won’t need to sleep so much.

2.  On the same note with the never-ending walking, Sam has been really hard to read to for a while now.  When she was a baby, she loved when we read her books. She would sit in our laps just glued to the pages.  As soon as she started really crawling, she wouldn’t sit still for more than a page or two.  Mark and I were really disappointed in that.  Aside from the fact that we both want her to love books, we loved that bonding time, sitting with her reading stories.  Well, maybe she is getting back to it again.  She sits with Mark every night and starts her bedtime bottle, and lately, while she is drinking, Mark has been able to read her a book and she has really been liking it.  I keep hoping that this will help her to remember how much fun it is having storytime.  Also, for the last few days, when I sit on the floor, she has been climbing into my lap bringing me her word books to look at.  It is so adorable.  She drags her book bag over to me, climbs into my lap facing me and leaning her back against my bent knees while she pulls book after book out of the bag.  We page through most of them and after about 20 minutes she climbs down.

3.  Sam did the cutest thing the other day with Zephyr.  Mark had taken Zephyr outside for a little while and when he came in her leash and harness were kind of wet from the residual snow.  He put it on the porch to dry. We forgot about it for a few days and I eventually found it outside.  I brought it in and started winding up the leash and Sam came over, grabbed the harness, and started trekking across the living room.  She went all through the house while I trailed behind her carrying the leash I was trying to wind up.  Sam found Zephyr in the kitchen where she promptly deposited the harness on top of Zephyr’s back.  She looked so adorable trying so hard to help her kitty cat.  Last summer Sam loved holding the end of Zephyr’s leash when we took them outside together.  This year, now that Sam is walking, should be interesting.

4.  We graduated Sam out of her high chair into a booster seat!  It’s sort of a transitional booster, since it does have a waist strap to keep her in safely, but it is a booster.  She sits and eats at the table with us now like a big girl instead of from her tray.  Today she was trying hard to figure out how to use the fork I gave her.  She did manage to spear some fruit, but never got it in her mouth.  She’s getting there though!  She looks so grown up sitting at the table with her food on a plate.  She acts so grown up too.  She says, “ow” when her food is too hot, and she (tries) to blow on it just like Mommy does.  Sometimes she holds a bite out to me so I can blow on it for her. 🙂

5.  Sam seems to be teething again really badly.  She is a little whiney, she keeps biting my shoulder when I hold her, and she is drooling.  All sure signs.  Let’s hope whatever is hurting her breaks through quickly because teething is hard on all of us, not just Sam!