More accomplishments

| March 31, 2011

Today when I went to pick up Samantha after work, my mom and I were just chatting about this and that and Sam was over by the front door.  She had been toddling around playing with her toys and doing whatever it is she wanted to do and ignoring us.  I peeked over at her to make sure she was not getting into any mischief and I got there just in time to see the cutest sight — Sam was putting on her own shoes!  She wore her little sneakers today, and she was standing up, holding onto the door frame, and sliding her feet in one by one.  After she put them on — on the wrong feet, but hey, it’s progress — she pushed down the velcro straps.  My mom and I made a big fuss over her, cheering and clapping so she knew that she did a very good thing.

Sam is starting to repeat everything you say too.  She says so many words now.  She will generally say them only a few times, then you never hear them again.  It’s almost like she tries it out, decides, “Ok, I know that word now”, and she’s done with it.  She just files it away in her brain for later.  Today she was dancing with my mom and my mom told her that they were dancing and Sam said very clearly “dancing”.  She is also starting to pretty regularly say “Night Night” at bedtime which is just adorable.  She also understands a LOT now. I really have to watch what I say.  Lately, she has been giving me a hard time about leaving her for work in the mornings. She hugs me so tight and gets upset when I leave.  Today she was doing pretty well.  Allowing me to let go and put her down, hugging but not too tight.  We were hugging and I thought it would be ok for me to leave so I said, ok, Sam, mommy is going to go, and she starting hugging my neck so tightly I couldn’t breathe!  She really understood exactly what that meant, and she was not having it.  Eventually she gave in, but it amazed me how smart she is.  She really follows directions now in ways that make you realize that she understands a lot more than she can say.

Sam and Maddox

| March 27, 2011

Last night we celebrated Adam’s birthday since he will be working like a dog when his actual birthday comes along.  Everyone came back to our house for cake and presents and the kids had such a good time playing.  Actually, they were both so incredibly good the whole night. Sam didn’t nap yesterday for some unknown reason and Mark and I were really afraid she would be miserable at the restaurant and that she would crash really early and be grumpy.  She surprised us and was so great!  I had Sam on one side of me and Maddox on the other at dinner and the two of them were so funny amusing each other all through dinner.

When Maddox came into our house and saw all of Sam’s toys (and there are a lot) he looked like a kid on Christmas morning.  I think he was excited just to see new things.  Sam was a really good girl and was perfectly ok with Maddox touching all of her things.  She actually seemed excited to show him all of her stuff.  It was 8:00 by the time she got to bed — an hour past her bedtime – but she had such a great day that it was worth keeping her up.

Here are a few pictures of them playing.  In the first one, Sam is chewing on one of her Lego fish.  Now if I could only get her to eat fish for real…

Sam is showing Maddox how to play music on her Meowsic.  As you can see, she made off with Adam’s new football.  She had her little hands wrapped around that thing all night. Uh oh….

Thanks Sam!

| March 27, 2011

We had such a great time playing with Sam this weekend. After being sick for what seemed like an eternity, she is finally completely over her cold and back to her happy, smiley self. It was really cold this weekend so we didn’t get out much but we did have a nice relaxing day at home just playing and hugging. Pam got a great photo of us playing today:

This is Sam’s “I’m-about-to-touch-your-lens-with-my-sticky-hands” face

You can tell she was in such a good mood today:

Sam’s first scribbles

| March 27, 2011

Mark and I have been trying to get Sam to color for quite some time now. Unfortunately, she always has more fun trying to eat the crayons than coloring with them.  This weekend, Sam finally decided to try it out.  Here is Sam’s first masterpiece! 

I colored the bottom of the page, of course.  I mean, I know my daughter is a prodigy, but at 18 months old, she can’t yet stay quite so well within the lines!  The red scribbles are Sam’s, and I am very, very proud.

Sam’s 18 month appointment

| March 25, 2011

Sam saw the doctor today for her 18 month check-up.  She did wonderfully!  The doctor said she was perfect and could not seem healthier.  The doctor said she was so sweet and so good — he commented that most of his 18 month olds cry the whole time or are screaming, and she was just smiling at him the whole time!  He did all the standard checks and asked a bunch of developmental questions.  Sam, as we already knew, is a perfectly normal little girl.  She is 33″ tall now and weighs 22lbs 5 oz.  At her last visit we discussed how her weight gain had sort of dropped off, but now she is right back on track.  She is in the 21st percentile for weight and the 86th percentile for height (she is always so tall).  She was supposed to get one more vaccine today, but it was technically 2 days early (it had to be 6 months from the last one) so the doctor wouldn’t give it to her.  He said it was no big deal and could wait until her next visit at 2 years of age.  That will be her last vaccine, not counting annual flu shots if we choose to give them to her, until she is about 4 or 5 years old.  I know Sam is happy about that!

Here are some new pictures of our beautiful little girl.  Mark took these tonight after we got home from dinner. Sam needed some fresh air.

It was getting so cold out but Samantha didn’t seem to mind.  Look at that happy face!

She loves to collect her acorns, although tonight some spruce tree branches and some rocks seemed equally as appealing.

Here is Sam gazing up at her daddy.  Boy, she was really all about her daddy today.  As soon as he was done working, she couldn’t get enough of him. When he went to take a shower, she called “Dad!” and then the bottom lip came out and she almost started to cry.  He had to come back to cuddle her until she was happy again.

I think she is always so pretty, even with her little nose turning red from the cold.  She is so cute. 🙂

On a stroll with mommy.  We were in the shed, which she loves, and she made it very obvious that she wanted to be in her wagon.  So off we went!