We discovered a new species of zebra….

| October 24, 2011

Have we mentioned Sam’s liking for crazy patterns on her clothes? No?  Well, she likes them.  Stripes, dots, whatever you can find.  It is a battle every day to get her dressed, between her obsession with the color orange and wanting to wear it every single day, to wanting to wear stripes or dots or whatever.  Usually she actually manages to leave the house looking good, but some days, whew boy, what an outfit.  On this particular occasion, she didn’t start out this way, the shirt and socks were on, but she was wearing solid pants.  The pajamas Mark picked that night coincidentally had striped pants and, well, this is what happened.

Sam was in heaven!  Look at that happy face.

Is she striking a pose here or what?

Sam loves to be flipped upside down.  She laughs so hard.  Here, she was trying to show Mark her socks.  Her feet had been straight up in the air.

I love this picture.  She does this to me a lot now — just comes up behind me and hugs.  Sam’s hugs are better than any in the whole world.

Just silly and cute

| October 24, 2011

There are so many days now where Sam is just plain silly.  We call her a silly goose all the time and now when she knows she is being funny and I say, “What are you doing?” she yells out “Goose!”  It is so cute.  Here are some random cute moments.

In this one, Mark was goofing around with her while putting her pajamas on and he put his fleece pullover on her.  She seemed to like it.  I wondered if he’d get it back!

Sam loves to play Peekaboo (which she calls Peekoo).  She is always hiding (although, it’s not much of a hide because she tells us “Hiding!” before she does it).  Her latest spot was in the pantry.  She also likes behind pillows, in my lap (she hides her face from Mark) and behind our chairs.

It has been getting really cold lately, and Sam has moved on from wearing her baseball hat to wearing an actual knit, winter hat.  She has a few, but has been really obsessed with the Pooh one.  Here she is, our little bear, swinging on her swing, and hiding behind a tree.

We’re back (again)

| October 24, 2011

Well, after the latest computer mishaps, I think we are finally good to go.  Mark and I gave in and bought a new computer.  We thought the idea of losing all of our photos, and my not being able to blog about our amazing little girl, were too horrible to contemplate, so we just bought a new machine.  It took us a few days to get it up and running, but we are back, hopefully for a long, long time.

We have been so busy lately!  The next couple of posts are going to seem to have a lot jumbled together all at one time, but I have to catch up the best I can. So, here goes.

Here are the promised “big girl” swing photos.  I can’t believe how Sam has grown up.  We have been trying out all the playgrounds in the area to see if we find one she especially likes, and there are so many she loves.  It is fun watching her explore each one and what it has to offer.  The swing photos are at the playground at the end of our street, but we have been all over lately.  Sam finally got brave enough to go through some of the tunnels built into the equipment.  Just this summer she was too afraid to go, now she loves it.  Sam climbs everything like a little monkey now.  We really have to watch her like a hawk!

Mine!

| October 18, 2011

Sam has definitely entered that phase of toddler-hood where she has learned the word Mine!  She is very good at assigning ownership to all kinds of objects, sometimes correctly and sometimes very randomly.  For instance, she will peruse the refrigerator and decide the brown mustard is mommy’s and the yellow mustard is daddy’s (even though daddy hates mustard of any kind).  But most of  the time she is correct.  She knows who things belong to, she just doesn’t always agree with the ownership status!  She yells mine! when you try to take things away from her that she can’t have and also when you take something of hers away that she can’t have at just that moment (like her bracelets at naptime, for example).  It is so funny watching her learn things like ownership.  Such a simple concept, one we never think about that much, but it is an accomplishment that she has reasoned it out. 

What else has Sam been up to lately?  Well, she has been talking more and more every day.  She repeats everything you say to her and she is starting to try to compose sentences.  Her word order is making a lot of sense, and she is using so many new variations of words, like sitting, not just sit, all the time now.   She is trying very hard to get her point across.  She gets frustrated when she talks to you and you can’t figure out what she says (which is not that often).  I have read that is a good sign, the frustration, because it is important that toddlers want to convey their thoughts.  Usually I figure out exactly what she means but sometimes it is really hard.  When I finally do “get it” and I ask her “is that what you are trying to say to Mommy?” I get such a long, drawn-out, “yeeessss!” like she is saying, duh, Mommy, of course that is what I was saying, I don’t know what your problem is!

Sam is getting to be such a big girl.  I still tell her she is my baby, but she is really not anymore, not by a long shot.  But it’s so hard letting go.  She is my first, and my last, and my best little girl.  Letting go of her babyhood has been really difficult.  I know this is the only time in my life I will get to enjoy the miracle that watching my child grow up is, and I try to remember to savor every single second.  To not let myself be one of those moms who are scanning their email at the playground, who ignore the excited calls for Mommy because their little one found a leaf that just has to be seen.  I want to enjoy, and remember, every second of her growing up.  I don’t want to miss anything because these memories have to last a lifetime.  And I want Sam’s memories, the ones that will last HER lifetime, to be joyful, and full of love, and full of moments that she will never forget.

Swingin’ Like a Big Girl

| October 6, 2011

Today Sam went to the playground with Mark and she went on the big girl swing! She usually sits in the baby bucket swing, but today she used the regular one.  She held on to the chains and just swung away.  Mark called me so I could come and watch.  We took some pictures but alas, we are having some computer issues again so I can’t upload them just yet.  As soon as we get things fixed, I will post again!