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.