Samantha at 4 Months Old

This past week was pretty busy for us.  We had a lot going on with school for both of us, as well as a pretty full weekend.  Here are some pictures I took of Samantha when I was giving her a bath.  I gave her some links to play with while she was in the bath tub.  She has always really enjoyed bath time, and of course, will enjoy looking back on these pictures when she is older.  :)  Naked baby pictures are always fun!

Last Friday, September 16th, Samantha turned four months old, and as usual, we tried to get a picture of her holding her sign.  However, it is getting progressively harder to get good pictures as she is moving around a lot more now!  I tried to get a picture showing her new favorite activity, rolling over whenever she is laid down on the floor.

Samantha is such a happy little girl.  We love to play with her, tickle her, and make her laugh.  Her smile is just intoxicating and will make any bad day just disappear.


Our busy weekend started with a Political Science get together.  We had a barbecue and just hung out and talked.  Like normal, Samantha did really well because she loves to be around people.  She gets really slap happy at night though when it is past her bedtime and she is tired.  While we were sitting around talking, she was just laughing and making faces at Ben who was sitting across the room!  On Saturday we took Samantha to another IU football game, and this time, we brought our camera.  She did very well again, and even fell asleep in my arms again for awhile until the crowd yelled loud once and startled her.  Don't they know that they need to keep doing poorly while our little baby is sleeping?

Then, on Sunday, we drove up to Indianapolis to meet Grandma and Grandpa Toll for lunch.  We went to the Cheesecake Factory and had another eventful experience!  The first thing that happened was funny, the second one was not so funny.  I was holding Samantha so that she was sitting on the table facing towards me, and she reached out and grabbed a fry from the container that was sitting next to her on the table.  If we hadn't stopped her, she probably would have taken the fries and stuck them right into her mouth.  I wonder what she would have thought of that taste!  A little while later, Samantha was getting hungry, so I was getting ready to nurse her and asked Ben to make sure she didn't hit her head on the table as I was getting myself situated.  However, as he reached to protect her head, he accidentally knocked over my glass of Coke with ice and it poured all over Samantha, on her face and body!  Needless to say, she was not a happy camper, and started crying right away.  Two waitresses hurried over to help us clean up the mess as soon as they heard Samantha cry, and I rushed off to the bathroom to clean her up and change her clothes.  This was not what she wanted, as she knew she was getting ready to nurse, so changing her clothes and wiping her clean was quite traumatizing to her and probably to the other ladies in the bathroom who probably wondered what I was doing to my baby in there!  After that mishap, we all went over the the Art Museum gardens and walked around for awhile since it was a nice day outside.  Here are some pictures of Samantha with Grandma Toll.

In the meantime, Samantha has been continuing to be watched by our friend Melanie during the day when Ben is working or in class and I am at school.  It is still going really great, and she seems to be doing really well there, which makes it a little easier for me to leave her.  Here are some great pictures that Melanie took of her over the last few weeks:

There were times over this past week when life with a baby and working full time was really hard.  It was especially hard for me to want to leave in the morning.  I just wanted to stay home and be with my little girl, to sleep in and cuddle, and play with her all day.  I know that this is just a season of our life right now, and I give God my desires to stay home with Samantha on a daily basis and ask that he would help me to be content with whatever situation I am in at the time.  Life is busy and sometimes hectic, but I wouldn't trade it for the joy of having the blessing of Samantha as a part of our life now.