Samantha at 52 Weeks

We are trying to encourage Samantha to build up her strength and confidence with walking by using her "walker" toys.  I got a cute video of her doing it this week.  She will take several steps and get going really fast, lose her balance and fall down to her knees, knee walking the rest of the way.  However, a couple of times she has been able to pull herself back up again and continue on.  Here is a cute video of her pushing her walker around.

I know several weeks ago I posted about how Samantha will lay down on things when she is tired.  She'll lie on pillows, rugs, and even Roscoe's bed.

Another of Samantha's favorite activities is to go into the bathroom and unroll the toilet paper.  Normally, we don't let her do this; however, we decided to let her have fun with it this night.  You can see her hands flapping up and down with excitement as the paper rolls down to the floor.

On Thursday we cooked out for dinner, and we let Samantha come outside with us.  I tried to get her to sit in her little chair with her pink sunhat on, but she wasn't too much a fan of that.

Then, after dinner we strapped Samantha into her bike chair and took our first family bike ride together.  She loved it!  We rode around our neighborhood a couple times.  She loved being in front of me on the bike and being able to look around and feel the wind on her face.

After our bike ride, Samantha played for a little while longer before bedtime.  She was pushing her little car toy around that we checked out from the library.  

On Friday night we went over to our friends' house for dinner and a game night.  Samantha had a great time playing with the boys, and we put her to bed there in a pack n' play so the adults could play games and talk.  We were there until around 11:30, and when I went to wake Samantha up to go home, she was very comfortable and was not wanting to wake up.  I picked her up, she laid her head down on my shoulder, and instantly fell back asleep.  Even all the way downstairs and out to the car, she stayed asleep.  (Don't tell anyone, but I didn't put her in her car seat on the way home.  I just couldn't wake her up by strapping her in the car seat when all we were doing is making the quick trip home.  So, I just sat in the back seat and held her close to me, covering her little body up with the white knit blanket.)  She stayed asleep almost the whole way home, waking up only once we got to the house.  This has never happened before, usually she will wake right up if we ever have to stir her from sleeping like this.  It was so precious to me, I could have stayed in that moment forever.

Saturday morning we decided to give Samantha some eggs for breakfast because I read somewhere that it is good for babies to get a taste of eggs before they have them cooked in their first birthday cake, just in case they have an allergic reaction.  She really seemed to like them, and you can hear her making a sucking/slurping noise in the video as she enjoys her breakfast.

Sunday was my first Mother's Day, and we had a great day together as a family.  The highlight of the day was going on a family bike ride on the B-line Trail.  We got a helmet for Samantha so that we could take a longer, more serious ride.  When we first put the helmet on, however, she was not a big fan and started to cry (I think mostly because it was a little too tight and pinched her chin a little).  But when we took off and started to ride, she calmed down quickly and really enjoyed the ride.  Everyone that passed by us on the trail looked and smiled at Samantha sitting in her little bike seat with her ladybug helmet on, enjoying the smooth ride, warm sun, and cool breeze.  

I'm so lucky to be Samantha's Mommy, what a great Mother's Day present.