Sisters at 8 weeks

I missed 7 weeks for you Genevieve...

Genevieve 8 weeks.

...loves her fists...

Charlotte 8 weeks

Samantha 8 weeks

1 year old

My baby is a year! This year has been crazy. We became parents, moved twice, started a new job, and learned the ins and outs of colic, the importance of tummy time and MSPI.

I could really go on and on giving lots of reminiscing stuff, but I'll just stick to the current stats and pics. If any of you are like me, you tend to skim when there is too much to read anyway!

At 12 months Samantha:

weighs in at 16 lbs



wears 9-12 month clothing



has gotten pretty good at her side army crawl



sleeps 11-13 hrs at night



naps twice a day for anywhere from 20-90 minutes



loves grahm crakers (calls them cookies)



knows roughly 20 signs (her favorite now being "dog" "movie" and "nurse")



walks while holding our hands





is obsessed with my parents' dog





has 8 teeth







has gone from eating a single cheerio in 3 bites to doing this:

is not afraid to try new foods, but is petrified of new textures on her feet and hands (can't find the picture to go with this one...)

Anyway, since she still isn't transitioning to sitting or walking on/pulling up on furniture, I've been very fortunate not to have to baby proof anything above 6 inches above the ground!

So...yea for me?

Happy Birthday my dear baby girl!!

Moving to China

Well, we may as well be. Between interviewing, job training, a child with herpangina (read the "prevention" part), moving, college hunting, fasfa-ing, fun tests for Sam to figure out what's going on, physical therapy, birthday planning, my best friend since 5th grade moving away and having a ball with two gov't programs- I may as well be on a different continent. I can't help my friends, can't go on play dates, can't even go out for groceries with my husband. I don't know when it's going to stop or how everything is going to end. This is what happens when I try to plan too much and be too in control. Too much happens at once and I want to crawl into my corner and never wake up. This is why I have my husband and my mom who remind me to stop trying to be in control!

So whenever everything starts surfacing to my worry radar I literally have to close my eyes and remind myself that it's not mine anymore.
It's His.

And I can't wait to see how everything turns out!

Rockin' the 80's

Rat tail

+

Mohawk =

Coolest hairdo ever!

(that I'm itching to trim...)

Would you stop touching my hair, already?

Easter

I'm really no good at posting about holidays. Which is crazy, considering my family celebrates them all at least twice each.

Anyway, here's a quick Easter recap (Samantha's first!)

Sam was thrilled to get dressed up.
Daddy didn't know to put a onesie on underneath so she ended up naked half way through church due to the itchiness.

Jer napped, I ate some chocolate.

Lucy buzzed around on a bike my mom probably played on.

Sam played with some equally old toys
(the label on the box said "Playskool"- Days before spell check, I guess.)

She also put said old and filthy toys in her mouth.

And baby Kahlan watched.

Then we ate a delicious supper.
I couldn't resist and went wild on the dairy dishes.
(which was still a no-go)

Sam had her first trip to the park.

She l.o.v.e.d. the slide!


Trip # 47

Kahlan wasn't so much a fan.

Joel discovered he's outgrown the...things...(no clue what they're called)


Kahlan gave the things a shot.


Tried the horse swings,

the things,


and just went back to the slide.


The End.

Nom Nom

Sam likes to put everything that she can fit in her pincer grasp into her mouth.
This includes, but is not limited to:

carpet she yanks out
onion peels
hair
paper
crumbs

But recently I found her spitting something out.

I walked over and found a dead ladybug.

But that's not the gross part.

The next day I see a dead lady bug near her and contemplate picking it up, but think, "Nah, she won't see it. And if she does, she'll just spit it out again."

I come back later and notice two things.

1) The lady bug is gone
2) Sam is happily munching away on something

That's still not the gross part.

I manage to fish the dead insect pieces out of her mouth
(much to her dismay- apparently this one was tasty).

I thought that was the gross part, but it still wasn't.

Later I nursed her and when she pulled off,
there was a lady bug residue on my n i p p l e.

A wing, to be exact.

THAT was the gross part.

11 months

*phew!*
I almost missed it!

Short and sweet this time!

This month FLEW by.

Samantha is just under 15.5 lbs
She eats pretty much whatever we're eating, but has increased her nursing big-time
She prefers eating off our silverware
She can pretty much get anywhere now using a combination of rolling and a side army-crawl (trying to catch it on video)
She's wearing 6-9mo and 12 mo clothing, depending on the brand
She is very into pulling things apart and emptying out containers/bags/purses/buckets
She's added a few more signs, two of which are in this month's video!
She sits quietly at mass, reading her books, eating cheerios and playing with a wet-wipe
And she "talks" on the phone--priceless!

Presenting- Samantha sitting up unassisted:

Rare Footage II

We had an appointment. So, naturally she slept extra long. I did my best to get her to wake up. I turned off the noise-maker. I turned on the hall light. Stroked her head. Even took a picture with flash:

Nothin'.

Maybe I should try sneezing in the other room next time. That usually wakes her up.

*eye roll*

At least I got a sleeping baby picture! I haven't gotten one of those in months!

Baby PT Continued...

Continuing from the last therapy session, this week was SO much better!

First, a tangent.

Since Sam has been born, it never ceases to amaze me how she develops. It's never gradual, like a hill. Everything is a stair step. One day she doesn't sign, the next she's learned 5. One day she won't sit, the next she'll play for hours sitting. This week wasn't any different.

On Saturday, I was a little disappointed, as Sam hadn't made as much progress from all the work we'd been doing since Tuesday's session. Then Sunday came and she blew me away. She sat up in the bathtub, leaning to play with the water. She stood at a glass door by herself, shifting her weight from hand to hand to play with my sisters on the other side of the door. She sat happily in the pew at church, playing by herself and never once tried to lay down.

I was beaming with pride!

And at the therapy session she amazed us again. The therapist said several times how quickly she was catching on and how much she had learned in just 2 weeks.

Sam loved all the musical instruments Diana pulled out and happily played on them.

She still likes to "fall over" but Diana always makes her work to get back up to sitting


The triangle was great motivation (notice the hand on the ground for support!)


Tug-of-war with Daddy (great for ab work)


Trying to get her to reach for the triangle, she decided the mirror was better because it was within reach.

She's gotten so good at sitting that we're suppose to play with her balance, gently pushing her to make her catch herself.

She practiced pulling up.

Coming to her knees first

then putting one foot down

Then to standing!

Having to do it over and over, however, got a little old.


Our homework this week is to play while kneeling as much as possible, and help her come to sitting from laying down. She started putting weight on her elbows while laying on her side this past week (how she "scoots")- so she's already part of the way there!

Physical Therapy Part II

Since Jeremy was gone last week, I didn't have the brain power to post. I don't know how you single mom's do it! 5 days and I was at my wits end.

Anyway, today we had our third session. It went SO much better than last week. This is pretty much what last week was like:



She caught on to the give-me-my-favorite-toy-and-then-take-it-away game and did NOT want to play. She was happy the instant she had her toys, but threw a fit the moment it was out of her reach.

And all we wanted her to do was this:

Doesn't look like much- but getting her to put one hand on the ground to support herself was the goal.

We didn't get much done because of the tantrums so we got a lot of homework. We had to find toys that she had to pull apart to build her stomach muscles. The therapist had these toys, but had no idea what they were called. There wasn't a label on them (what toy company doesn't put a name on their toy?) Does anyone recognize them? Know what they are called?


My mom has these Melissa and Doug foods with velcro that have been perfect! It took her a day or so to get the idea, but now Sam is a pull-apart machine. She tries to pull everything apart. Which means her markers are no longer in her toy pile.

We've also been working on reaching for toys while sitting, trying hard to get her to put weight on one hand while reaching with the other. I've really had to be creative here, as Sam is not stupid. Here's what I've come up with:

1) Getting a food she REALLY likes (like banana bread) and having her tip to the side to get a bite from my fingers.

2) Any toys she has to reach into (which has become a favorite game of hers now) like a bucket, her diaper bag or a toy with a door.

3) Sitting in the bathtub (which she did for the first time yesterday!!!) and having the water running. She immediately put one hand down to steady herself to play with the water using the other hand- it took everything in me not to squeal with joy and scare her!

4) Rolling a ball back and forth with Lucy. Or any activity with Lucy, really, as Sam is always reaching for her.

Hm...this is getting kind of long and I still have so much to say, so I think I leave this post as a cliff hanger.


TO BE CONTINUED!!!...