Samantha at 34 Weeks Old

This past week was my first week back to school after a wonderful Christmas break off with my family.  It's amazing how much I missed Samantha when I went back.  I knew it would be hard, especially after having two straight weeks with her every day, but I found myself just longing to go home and be with her, resulting in not too much motivation on my part in the classroom.  However, for everything there is a season, and I know this season will only last a short time longer.  The first day back to school it snowed, not too much, but enough to cover the ground. This was only our second real snow all winter and it is already almost the middle of January!  I had Ben take some pictures of Samantha in front of our patio door in the living room, to capture her with the snow in the background.

Since Ben's classes hadn't started yet, he got to spend some quality time with Samantha this past week.  It's amazing how much she seems to have changed just in the last week.  Over Christmas she began to roll around a lot more to get places, but now she is rolling EVERYWHERE!  There is no containing her anymore.  If she wants to get somewhere, she will normally try to crawl, but then will get frustrated when she can't do it, and will just lay down on the ground and roll there.  She has even rolled all the way down our hallway!  Now we have to be a lot more careful with watching her at all times because she can get into things.  She will try to eat Roscoe's toys, pull books and papers off our coffee table, pretty much anything she can get her little hands and mouth on.  She loves to feel the textures of things like our metal utility closet door and the vertical blinds for our patio door.  We have actually gone around the house and started baby-proofing by putting outlet covers on and moving decorations or things we really wouldn't want her to get into.  As she gets more and more mobile, we will have to continue to watch out for things that she can get into and things that may be dangerous for her.

The other new thing Samantha is doing now we are crediting to Alaina because over Christmas break Samantha has switched to eating only four times a day, in the morning, at lunchtime, early evening, and then bedtime.  And, she is loving her baby food!  In fact, many times this last week she has devoured a whole jar of baby food at lunchtime along with her five ounce bottle.  We have introduced all the vegetables and are now introducing her to some fruits.  It's amazing how much more interested in food she has become which I have to admit is a relief for me.  Again, my silly mommy brain had irrational fears of Samantha never taking to eating food.  We have been giving her either vegetables or fruit at lunchtime and some type of cereal in the evening.  She is turning into a little birdie, opening her mouth wide, and sometimes we can't get the spoon into her mouth fast enough!  Thank you for rubbing off on our daughter Alaina!


On Thursday night there was a Target Free Family Night at the Children's Museum in Indianapolis so I figured that would be a fun thing to go to with Samantha, especially because it was free.  They still had their Christmas area up, and it was great just walking around with Samantha, showing her the different exhibits and letting her look around and take it all in.  Unfortunately, we forgot our camera so we didn't get any pictures of her there.  I would have to say that her favorite part was probably the hallway of mirrors and the Barbie exhibit (who knows, maybe she will like Barbies like her mommy).


This past weekend we had no plans at all which was so wonderful and a welcome change to the busyness of the holiday season.  On Saturday Samantha and I both slept in until 10:15!  We were very well rested after that!  Here are some cute pictures of Samantha on Saturday morning in her pajamas.

Our weekend consisted of lots of good playtime with mommy and daddy, along with relaxation before Ben had to start up with another semester at school.  On Saturday night, Ben was holding Samantha on his shoulders and Roscoe was being needy and crawled on Ben's lap.  I thought it was a hilarious sight with Ben and both children so I had to take a picture of it.

Here are some pictures of Samantha playing on the floor.  She particularly likes these balls with different textures on them.  She likes to bang them together and put them in her mouth.

Doesn't she look mischievous in this picture?  If it could be captioned it might say, "Hey, you got a problem with me, kid?"


I think I talked in my last post about this funny face she makes where she squinches up her face and nose and breathes in and out of her nose really fast.  Well, I fell captured it on camera!

On Sunday, we finally got to go to our home church, ECC, and it was great to be back!  We dressed up Samantha in her cute little dress that Ben picked out for her for Christmas.  I got some great pictures of her.  I might be a little biased, but I think our little girl is completely adorable!

Here is Samantha with her stuffed cat from our friend Ian.

It is amazing how fast Samantha is growing up.  I can't believe she is already almost eight months old.  I enjoy all these precious moments that we have together.