Samantha at 26 Weeks Old

It's amazing how good Samantha is at sitting up by herself now.  She can sit on the floor and play with her toys for a half hour or so now, staying engaged and amused in her independent play time.

Also, this past Wednesday, something interesting happened.  We went to Chipotle for dinner and on the way back Samantha fell asleep in the car around 6:45.  We left her in her car seat and took it upstairs once we got home.  She must have been really tired because she slept all through the night in her car seat until around 4 a.m.

On Saturday we went grocery shopping and decided to let Samantha sit in the cart all by herself while we went around the store.  She did pretty well, but still has trouble holding herself up in seats like this.  This is also the first day she wore real jeans.  It was pretty adorable-she looked like a little mini-adult!

Here are some cute pictures of Samantha in our bed on Sunday morning.  It almost looks like she is sick in bed for the day!

Here is Samantha after her bath.  It looks like she wants to follow in Daddy's footsteps by reading some political science articles.  (To be honest, she more concerned with eating the paper!)

We had a pretty busy weekend overall.  On Friday night we went up to Avon for a birthday party for our friend Tim.  While we were there, he offered us free tickets to the Colts game on Sunday from his boss at work that has season tickets.  We couldn't turn that down!  Even though they lost, it was still a great time.  Samantha and I had our first NFL experience, the seats were incredible, and it was so fun experiencing that together as a family.  Samantha did really well, she got a little fussy during the game because she was getting tired and was overloaded by all the noise and lights, however, in the third quarter she finally gave up and fell asleep in Daddy's arms.  We just love our little girl.  She is so happy and sweet.  Here are some pictures from the Colts game.

I know I have written about this before, but the highlight of most of my days is when I get to nurse and cuddle with Samantha.  Nursing is such a wonderful gift, and I understand that it doesn't always work for every woman, so I am blessed that Samantha and I have been able to share that experience together. I love looking down at her little face with the chubby cheeks.  I love how she holds onto my finger or my shirt.  I love how content and happy she is, and how she just rolls over and falls asleep when she is full, and I am nursing her before bedtime.  I love how I then can just pick her up, with her body completely limp and relaxed, and lay her down in her crib.  At which point, she immediately rolls over and gets herself snuggled up on her tummy for the night.  She is such a blessing.  I love our little family of three!