Discipline

These kind of speak for themselves. 


First Day of the summer, 9:30 am, took about 20 minutes to complete.  It should say "wiping my feet" but I was too angry to be so exact.

Same day, took about 3.5 hours to complete, including a tantrum, screaming, time-outs, slamming of doors, a nap (for both of us) and finally a finished product.  Her defense? "I didn't put them on her face, just her belly!" Note the original with scribbles and post-crumbled into a ball crinkles.  It was quite the stand-off.
 

 We've been incident free for three days now, and she's been unusually kind to Charlotte.  Hopefully the lesson has been learned...

FIVE

Welp, keeping with the yearly tradition, I'm posting Sam's yearly update a bit late.  BUT I did make it before June this year, so I guess that's progress, right?

Samantha was ALL psyched to turn five from December until April.  Then May hit and I guess she just lost her steam and decided she was "close enough" to five.  It probably didn't help that I told her it was ok to say "I'm almost 5" when May came around.  Even her teachers asked, "Wait, did we miss her birthday?  She's stopped talking about it everyday so we thought maybe we'd forgotten it!"

Speaking of school and teachers, we just got back from her 5-year check-up.  She'd been talking about her 5-year-old shots (aka Kindergarten shots) since her 4-year check-up, so she was quite ready.  And considering she thinks an IV "tickles" it wasn't surprising that she only made a small yelp for "Mommy!" between the two shots and that was it.  Getting to have TWO Band-Aids at once just sweetened the deal.  And a sucker.  Can't forget about the sucker.

Samantha taught herself to sight-read this past year and was reading books out-loud to her class (teacher-style) when the year ended.  She has no idea what "sounding out" is, she just uses the first letter and the last, context and pictures where applicable to guess what new words are.  She's reading this as I type it, actually.  Pretty soon Jeremy and I won't be able to spell things out to each other anymore.

She's finally a rock-star sleeper.  She made the last transition when my mom mentioned having sleep-overs once she slept through the night.  We really haven't had any issues since, even though she's only had two sleep-overs!

She only gets two migraines a year, but we're still trying to figure out what to do during them to avoid going to the ER.  Nothing (Zofran, Gatorade, suppositories, Ibuprofen, wrist creams, etc) stops the vomiting/dehydration cycle so we just take her to the ER for an IV and wait out the migraine.  So any tips or thoughts on this area would be much appreciated.  Those ER trips are not cheap!

Lists of Favorites:
Food: suckers
Color: Elsa Blue and White
Movie: Frozen
Song: Let It Go
Book: Frozen books (although she loves reading the Little House books with me right now, she's just a little obsessed with Elsa)...now she's upset with me for adding that.  Oh well.
Healthy Food: Carrots and Apples
Store: Trader Joe's
Drink: Water
Best Friend: Estella (Myra and Lydia)
Toy: The Elsa Doll (that she made by putting a Cinderella dress on a ballerina Barbie)
Skirts/Dresses/Shorts/Pants?: Dresses with shorts underneath
When she grows up she wants to be a: Rock Star

Stats:
40.5" (25%)
35.5 lbs (25%)

Elsa Blue Chairs for lounging outside

Second gift...

...were shoes that she hated

Birthday Cake that papa made

Sam was in love

Sam's wonderful teacher for two years.  She will be missed! (Until Charlotte joins the club)

Favorite gift- Elsa Blue Cowgirl boots.
Thanks Mimi!

  Happy Birthday Samantha!

You are every inch of a five-year-old Rock-Star.

May the precious blood of Christ wash over you and protect you as you begin your journey onto your second hand...

Mellow

That one word is what describes this child. And this picture captures it perfectly.  The coffee table leg was in her way as she tried to turn around. She just hung onto it while I snapped pictures and cracked up. She started grinning back at me while her face was plastered against the leg. Eventually she made it but the whole scene was very anticlimactic. This is the day after a horrible fever and she still has a gunky cough.

Mother's Day

Today I...
washed diapers
made cheese (failed yogurt attempt)
made yogurt (second attempt)
made homemade babyfood (I swore I wasn't going to but just couldn't help myself)
scrubbed the floors

I seriously need to stop reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books to Sam. 

The Grin

Believe it or not, it was quite easy to get this on camera.  She breaks out into a grin whenever we pull it out and holds the pose.  Best part is that she doesn't ask to see it immediately after.  I'm sure that day will come soon enough, though!

SEVEN

Seven months.  I am head over heels in love with this girl.  I just can't get enough.  She's so happy.  Even when she's grumpy, it's just whining.  She can get royally ticked off in her pack-n-play, but we've discovered that when she wakes up crying, we have to leave her alone.  When she's fussing or talking to herself for 5+ minutes then she wants out.   Why 5 minutes?  Because she'll fall back asleep sometimes!!!!  She'll fall asleep in the car, my arms, pretty much anywhere.  The past two nights she gave me 6-7 hour stretches.  So this just compounds my love for her. 
As much as I hate to admit it, I. love. sleep.

Click to see the two extra chompers that have come in nicely.

When she's sitting she's still immobilized.  So she's got some awesome yoga stretches that allow her to reach really far.

She loves the wipe containers.  Not sure why. 

Put her clothes on and she just picked up where she left off.

At 17 lbs and 98% for height, she's officially in 12 month clothes.  This is the one 6-month outfit that I still put on her because it is SO DARN CUTE.  Every time I put it on her I sigh, thinking it will be the last time I'll be able to squeeze her chunky arms into it.

Leaning in for a closer look at the flashes

*melt*

She's not mobile, but she's a compass.

She orientates towards the wipe container

And spoons.  Spoons are always on her radar too.

Seriously, she'll sit and play for 30+ minutes.  She's just so content!