Samantha at 41 Weeks

Samantha's biggest accomplishment this week has been pulling herself up to standing.  Probably for a couple weeks prior, she was pulling herself up on her knees, but this week  on Wednesday, Ben went into her room to get her when she woke up in the morning, and she was standing up holding onto the bars of her crib.  He couldn't believe it!  After that, all day she was pulling herself up on everything she could get her hands on: the ottoman, the coffee table, the pack n' play, the game shelf, and even her toys.  It was crazy to see her standing like that.  It was hard to get a picture of her in action, but here are our best attempts.

Now that Samantha is pulling up on things, she is getting into everything!  We call her our little monster.  Nothing on any surface is safe anymore.  She has pulled the trashcan over next to her.  She is always pulling our games off our game shelf, and it seems she especially likes our electronic Catch Phrase, probably because it makes a loud beeping sound and she can easily press the buttons.  Once she sees us do something, she is interested in doing the same.  For example, Ben flushed the toilet, and then Samantha reached for the handle to try and flush it as well.  She is also much more interested in exploring the stairs so now we have to use the gate not just for Roscoe, but for Samantha too!

We love our little girl so much and enjoy playing with her in the evenings together.  Ben is so good with Samantha.  He loves being a daddy and is great at it too.  Samantha adores him.

Samantha is such an easygoing baby, so much so that people will often ask us if she is always this happy.  We have to answer, "Yes!"  She is sleeping well, eating well, and is happy most all the time.  One thing I have been toying with lately is helping her focus better when nursing.  Since she is so curious and observant, she would often get distracted while nursing and not get enough.  The past couple weeks I have started giving her a little blanket that my mom got for her.  It has a little animal rattle head and arms attached to it and one side is fuzzy and one side is silky.  She loves to play with it in her hands when she nurses, feeling the texture.  I found that this has greatly improved her focus and allows her to eat better.  Keeping her hands busy also helps to keep them from pulling my hair or sticking her fingers in my mouth!

We had a pretty busy weekend hanging out with friends, which is always a good thing.  On Friday night we went on a triple date with Samantha in tow, and on Saturday we got together with some college friends in Indy for some pizza and hanging out.  Again, Samantha is such an easygoing baby.  She did great both nights even though we kept her out past her bedtime.  She is so social and loves to be around people.

On Monday Samantha was very tired and had kind of a rough day.  In the evening she was the fussiest she has been since probably when was six weeks old.  The littlest thing would make her cry, and she seemed extra sensitive.  She even developed a bit of a fever in the late evening.  Ben and I didn't quite know what was going on, but it was so unlike her, not our normal Samantha that's for sure.  We thought maybe it was because we had such a busy weekend and maybe keeping her out past her bedtime two nights in a row was coming back to bite us.  Nevertheless, she was back to normal the next day after a good night's sleep and two good naps during the day.


And to end my post, I will conclude with ADORABLE pictures of Samantha dressed up in her church clothes.  I just can't resist!

Samantha at 9 Months

This past week was Valentine's Day, and Samantha got to give Daddy the present she made for him.  Here is a picture of it:

I sponge painted the background a light blue color and used a darker blue of the same hue for the handprints.  We did the left hand first, and it turned out a little better than the right hand.  Samantha didn't like having her hands full of paint or us making her press her hand down on the tile.  I then used purple puffy paint to write "Samantha 9 Months."  I think it turned out really well, and it will be a great memento to keep in the future.


Samantha wore a cute new outfit for Valentine's Day today so I took some pictures of her in it.  As you can see, she is definitely pulling herself up onto her knees now, especially on the musical toy you can see in these pictures.  I will even see her up on her knees in her crib when I go get her after she wakes up from a nap or sometimes in the morning.

One of Samantha's favorite things to do is go to her toy corner and pull out as many toys as she can from her toy basket.  We have entered into the role of parents around that world that have to go around the house after their children go to bed and clean up all the toys and books strewn about on the floor.

On Thursday, February 16th, Samantha turned 9 months old!  I can't believe it!  She is growing up so fast.  We had her 9 month checkup on Thursday also, and her height measured at 28 1/2 inches in the 75-90th percentile, her weight was 21 pounds in the 75-90th percentile, and her head circumference was 45 centimeters in the 75-90th percentile.  Her physical growth has definitely leveled off over the last couple months and she has dropped a couple percentile rankings.  I think now that she is moving around a lot more, she is burning off a lot more energy.  The doctor said Samantha is doing great and looks really healthy.  We talked with him a little about what we should be doing now with feeding her, and he encouraged us to start giving her three meals a day (previously we weren't giving her any baby food for breakfast, just for lunch and dinner).  He also said we could start giving her baby food meat so that evening we tried giving her some chicken along with her vegetable, alternating bites.  We thought it looked gross, smelled gross, and tasted gross!  Samantha wasn't a fan of it too much either!

After dinner that evening, we took the traditional monthly picture with a sign.  Now that she's crawling, it's really hard to get a clear picture of her and now she is able to crawl toward and grab the sign, as well as eat it!

On Saturday, Grandma and Grandpa Toll came to visit for the afternoon and evening.  We took them to a local barbecue restaurant, and they got to see Samantha's interactive personality.  She is such a little busy-body!

And to end, here is our cute little girl in a new dress we bought for her.

How can you resist that adorable little face? :)

Samantha at 39 Weeks

This past week was an interesting one, definitely different than normal.  When I picked Samantha up from Melanie's on Tuesday, one of her boys was complaining about his stomach not feeling well.  Tuesdays are our days to chat for awhile, so after that, I nursed Samantha before I left because we were going to go to Latest Glaze and make a Valentine's Day present for Daddy.  I sponge painted a small tile and then we covered Samantha's hands with paint to make handprints on the tile.  She was not really a fan of having the paint slathered all over her hands, maybe she is her mommy's daughter!  We got fairly good handprints out of the little wiggly girl.  I then wrote "Samantha 9 Month" in puffy paint and wrote a message on the back for Daddy, marking that it was for Valentines Day 2012.  I thought it turned out really nice, and I couldn't wait to see what the finished product would look like once they fired it.  Hopefully Daddy will like this sentimental gift from his little girl.  I will include a picture next week of how it turned out.


Well, the next morning, Melanie texted me saying her boys were sick, so I ended up just calling in sick that day since it was too late to call our backup babysitter, and I really don't mind taking a day off to spend with my little girl anyways.  :)  Luckily, Samantha didn't seem to catch the stomach bug from them at all.  We have been so lucky with her.  She is a really healthy baby.  The sickness she has had has been minor fevers or runny noses every once in a while.  Maybe she has her daddy's genes in that regard, as he rarely gets sick.  


On Thursday, Melanie's boys were still sick so we had our backup babysitter, Heather, watch Samantha for us.  She has two kids, a girl and a boy that are a bit older, school-age I think.  The oldest, the girl, commented to Ben when he picked Samantha up that she puts EVERYTHING in her mouth.  Yep, that about sums up Samantha (and any other almost 9 month old you will meet).  Thursday night we also made the trip down to Louisville to go to our favorite restaurant Chuy's.  Samantha had two jars of baby food for dinner and fell right asleep in the car for our drive back home.  Again, what an awesome baby!


On Friday, Samantha stayed home with Daddy, and it was evident that she was starting to not feel very well.  She was very clingy and needy, and didn't want to be put down.  That is very unlike her, especially since she has learned to crawl and explore.  She took a pretty good nap that day even though she wasn't feeling well.  In the afternoon she developed a fever, but really had no other symptoms of not feeling well.  She doesn't really let on when she's not feeling well because she is so easygoing.  I feel like she's one of those kids that could have an ear infection, and we wouldn't even know it.


On Friday I also developed a pretty bad cold myself, and we tended to just take it easy over the weekend.  Unfortunately, Samantha seemed to catch the cold as well.  I feel so bad for our little girl when her nose just won't stop running and we have to suction it with the bulb syringe (that being her least favorite part of the whole process).  The good thing is that Samantha tends to just sleep more and be more lethargic when she is not feeling well.  She isn't overly grumpy or doesn't cry a lot, which is good.


Here are some pictures from the weekend with Samantha.  It was a colder weekend, and we hung out around the house for most of it.  Consequently, we left Samantha in her pajamas for a good majority of our Saturday.  As you can see in these pictures, Samantha discovered the stairs.  She isn't trying to get up them at all yet, but she is definitely more interested in them now, and we have to keep a closer eye on her, especially at the top of the stairs.

Here is Samantha wearing Ben's Cubs hat.

On Saturday night, we decided Samantha's fever was gone for long enough so we could make it to Melanie and Ryan's house for a game night.  Since they have a pack n' play, I  just put Samantha down for sleep in that and once we were ready to go home around 11:15, we just went and got her up to take her home.  She was so cute when I woke her up, with a very confused look on her face.  Sometimes when we wake her up from a really good sleep, she gives us this look like, "Why are you waking up a sleeping baby?  I was really warm and comfortable!"  She had a little bit of trouble falling back asleep once we got back home, but once she fell asleep she was out like a light until 10:00 Sunday morning.


Sunday morning for church we dressed Samantha in the cutest little outfit.  We got a shirt that has a hood that looks like a panda head.  She hadn't ever worn it until today because it was too big for her, but now it fits her pretty good.  We couldn't get over how adorable she looked in her outfit!

The last two Sundays at church, people in the nursery at church have complimented us on Samantha, asking if she has siblings because of how well she gets along with other children.  There was a new little baby in the nursery that day and Samantha was being very gentle and nice with it (maybe that's a sign that she is ready for a little brother or sister?).  We always love getting compliments about how easygoing and happy Samantha is.


Samantha continues to work on her development, crawling fast for objects that catch her attention and making this loud, throat sounding, "Ahh!" monster noise.  I will have to get that on video some day, too.  I can't remember if I've mentioned this or not, but one of my favorite things about her now is that she reaches out for people.  Sometimes she will even crawl towards you and reach out for you to pick her up.  She is so much more interactive, day by day, as she grows up.


Now that she is almost 9 months, we are making the official transition to 9 month clothes.  Because of that, she is wearing all new outfits, so it's fun to dress her up in different things.  Here are some pictures of her new outfit that my friend, Janell, got her at the baby shower last March.

Samantha at 38 Weeks

There are many things that leave Ben and me full of joy when it comes to Samantha, one thing in particular is bathtime.  She loves it!  We still have her in her little baby tub, but we do it in our bathtub rather than on the kitchen sink because she splashes so much!  (We find that she still slips around too much if we just set her in the bathtub, plus all of her toys float away from her!)  She loves to play with her bath toys and splash her hands and feet in the water.  Sometimes she splashes so much that she gets us soaking wet!

The week felt very busy for us since we were out of town the weekend before, we hadn't gone grocery shopping and I had to clean the house before my parents came into town the next weekend.  Sometimes it just feel like survival at our house--just getting through the week, sometimes just getting through each day.  Life is busy when both of us are working, we have a very active little crawler, and Ben is taking four classes this semester which are keeping him very busy.  There is always something we need to/should be doing.  Sometimes we sit and wonder to ourselves, what did we used to do with all our time before Samantha was born?  It seems so strange to think of life before her.


We had a good time with my parents here to visit.  We did a lot of hanging out, talking, and playing with Samantha.  We shared in some good food, and they even offered to watch Samantha for us on Saturday night so that we could go out for an early Valentines dinner.  We hadn't been out to dinner just the two of us since the last time they offered to watch Samantha for our anniversary last July.  Needless to say, it was very appreciated, and we decided to go to a French restaurant called Le Petit Cafe.  It was a little pricey, which is why we hadn't ever gone there before, but we have a member card for our local NPR station, and part of the membership is getting two for one meals at certain restaurants around Bloomington.  Ben and I had a great time eating out and talking about what has been going on in our lives lately, without having to keep giving Samantha Cheerios or pick up toys off the ground.


On Sunday we went out to eat with my parents after lunch and came back to the house for awhile until they had to head back to Chicago.  During this time, we tried to get Samantha to take a nap, (Sundays are always hard for baby's schedules), but she fought it so much!  She would fall asleep, then wake up crying, off and on for a long, long time.  We ended up just going and getting her, calling it quits on trying to get her to nap, even though we knew she was tired.  This was so unlike her we thought that maybe she was teething again, but since then, we haven't seen any new teeth poking through.  Who knows, some things will always remain a mystery.  Here are some pictures from when my parents were here.

On Sunday night we went to a friend's house for a Super Bowl party.  We had your typical football snacks, and had good conversation with friends.  Since it was past Samantha's bedtime, we only stayed until halftime and then figured it would be best to go home and put her to bed.  Samantha wore her Colts onesie and socks in support of the Giants beating the Patriots in Lucas Oil Stadium.


Developmentally, Samantha is growing up so fast.  It has probably been at least three weeks in a row now that she always sleeps through the night.  I feed her before bedtime, and she doesn't wake up until between 6:30 and 6:45 in the morning when I feed her again before I head off to work.  She then usually goes back to sleep until around 8:00.  It's funny because her body is on such a schedule, a lot of the time she wakes up in the morning on her own, whereas before I would have to wake her up to feed her.  Now, her body wakes her up, and she starts stirring around, almost like she's thinking, "C'mon mom, isn't time for you to come feed me?"  In the past week, she has grown to not be such a fan of cereal, especially barley.  We tried barley in different ways, mixed with other food, but she still did not seem to like it at all, so we just stopped trying to force that.  Now, however, we just mix the other cereal in with her baby food and she seems to take to that a lot better, even though sometimes she still isn't a fan of the consistency.


Samantha's personality is coming out a lot more.  Sometimes when we are playing with her or tickling her, it seems like she gets embarrassed and will turn her head away from us and burrow her face into the shoulder of the one who is holding her.  She will do this sometimes when I am nursing her as well.  When I burp her afterwards, she will suddenly turn and grab onto me, burying her head into my shoulder, and then pop her head back out slightly, looking at me with those adorable, loving eyes.  I love it, it seems like a precursor to a real hug, and I can't wait until the day she will give me a real hug!


I know I've mentioned this before, but one of my favorite times of the day is when I get to nurse her before bed at night.  Her little body calms down almost immediately, her little eyes close, and we rock back and forth, cuddling together to end our day.  I love how she holds her hands at night while nursing.  She will often hold her hands together, grasping one with the other, like she is holding her own hand, sometimes it almost looks like she is folding her hands in prayer. She will often hold my hand too, or wrap her tiny fingers around my thumb, or rest her hand gently on mine.  It is so precious.  She is so precious to me.