Sink Baths

Charlotte and washcloth April 2014

Sam and washcloth Dec 2009

Sam giving me the Pirate eye

Charlotte giving me "the grin"

...because the pirate eye wasn't working for her...

First Harvest

It will most likely be our biggest too, considering the birds get to most of them now before we do...

Fly on the Wall

Going back through my old Facebook posts, I realized that I need to put some of these in the blog...

From August:
So I'm 99% used to the belly at this point. How I walk, my reflection, even how I squeeze past things. However my shadow gets me every time.
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From October:
Although she's ELATED that I have my lap back, Samantha did inform me that it would be ok to have another baby because my lap would come back again.
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From November:
Last night in the car "Samantha, I just want quiet right now. Please tell your story in your head."
"But MOM I can't hear it then! MOM I there isn't anything there- I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING IN MY HEAD!"
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Samantha's current life plans are: Marrying Hyunseok, having 10 kids and living on another planet...like Arkansas.
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From Dec:
Me: "What is she cooing at?"
Jeremy: "The fan...Just like Sam did. They love fans. They're fan fans."
WHY can I not stop giggling??
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From Jan:
"Why don't you have your shirt on?"
"Because I had to go potty."
-Proof that my child is not awake when she gets up in the middle of the night
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From Feb:
Conversation heard this morning:
"Daddy! WAtch this!"
"No, Sam, no, I don't want to-why are you unbuttoning your pants?"
"I wanna show you something!!"
"No, I don't want you to take off your pants."
"No, I wanna show you this."
"Oh, you can button your pants by yourself? Oh, good girl."

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"Mommy, your throat hurts, doesnt it?...Mommy, you have a sore throat, don't you?...MOMMY WHY ARE YOU NOT TALKING TO ME?!?"

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april:
An exhausted Jeremy and I are "texting" via pen and paper between the basement and main floor. The delivery method? An energy filled 4-year-old.

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May:
Last week Samantha was in tears when she found out that she didn't get to go to Mass last Sunday with us. She usually fidgets the WHOLE time and wants to practice gymnastics on the kneelers and gets in trouble so I was totally floored. She sobbed that she didn't care that she was at mimi's, she had wanted to go to church.
Ok then!

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"Do you know what tomorrow is, Sam?!"
"SUNDAY!!!!"
"Um...yes...but what ELSE is it?"
"Um.........OH! my BIRTHDAY!!"
*facepalm*

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Sam got some awesome boots from The Fort for her birthday. She bumped herself a few times but instead of throwing a fit and screaming bloody murder she'd pause, wince and then say, "It's ok. I'm tough now cause I'm a cowgirl."

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"Mommy, the basement is all picked up!"
"It is? Great!"
"Yep! Um...don't go down and check, ok?"
Nice try, kiddo....nice...try...

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June:
yesterday I got Lucy and Samantha to play with sticks, pinecones, clover, grass and leaves. They had a blast. Laura Ingalls would be proud.
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"Leave her alone. LEAVE her alone! LEAVE HER- go to time-out for not listening."
"But MOMmy, you said, BEAVER alone...*chuckle chuckle*"

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Samantha is supposed to be sleeping...she's trying to convince me she's asleep by "snoring" and exhaling "mememememememe..."

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"Mommy...I love love love having a baby sister. I love her more than a light can shine."
-Samantha at least once a day

Moblie.

Things "clicked" on the 11th.

and within 24 hours

she was a "pro"

and got soooooo excited

when she saw something she wanted

and could get it herself

and claim her victory.

And praise herself. 

The Tongue of Contentment



Hm...

Can I just...

Thank YOU.

Cousins

Let It Go!!

Selfies

Every once in a while she still gets ahold of the camera. 

There's always a few shots of the floor, ceiling, her leg and some feet.  Then there's a series of something like these gems:

I seriously can't pick a favorite.

Baby Gate #2

With 3 floors and two flights of stairs, I was very worried about what we were going to do as far as baby gates.  We needed four but
1) Samantha needs to be able to open them easily
2) we don't want them to close off the flow of the house
3) they need to be sturdy and
4) we can't spend much.

 Luckily Jeremy is very handy and once I can get my idea across to him, he's usually able to make them a reality.  So here is the second baby gate, this time for the main entryway.  Still with the same crib from before.  This gate only cost .25 for some screws.

Goodness it was a pain getting him to get in the picture. 

We even repurposed the metal bar from the crib to use as the "pin" that locks it. 

Where did the gate go?!?
See, he's so handsome, why would he be so camera shy?!

Ta-dah! It slides back behind the wall, out of sight (mostly) when we want to live like grown-ups.

That's two down and only two more to go!