Samantha: 12 Months, Week 3

Samantha's third week started with my last day of school with children.  It was great to finally reach the end of the year.  I have been looking forward to this day for awhile because now I get to spend the whole summer home with Samantha.  That night we decided to go to one of our favorite restaurants in Bloomington, Sweet Grass, since I received a gift card from one of my students.  Samantha did a pretty good job, but toward the end she was getting tired of being cooped up in the high chair and started becoming more vocal.  Samantha has definitely discovered her voice lately.  Particularly when she is tired or when she is tired of being confined, she can get pretty noisy.  Ben and I have now decided that if we want to go out for a nice, relaxing dinner where we can actually have a conversation with each other, we are going to have to leave Samantha at home with a babysitter.  Hopefully it's just a phase, but we don't want to be "those people" in a restaurant that have the noisy baby that is disrupting everyone else's dinner.  Any volunteers on babysitting Samantha?


On Friday, we decided to go to an Indianapolis Indians baseball game with Grandpa and Grandma Toll.  We were going to go on Memorial Day, but it was just too hot.  We debated whether or not to go this day as well because it was actually going to be rather cool (around 60 degrees).  However, we didn't know when the next best time would be, and we figured Samantha would rather be on the cool side, rather than too hot.  Everyone really enjoyed themselves at the game, especially Samantha.  She crawled around on the blanket, made the college girls behind us laugh, and went on several walks around the stadium once she started to get a bit antsy.

Then, after the game there were fireworks, and Samantha was mesmerized.  Normally Ben and I can't take our eyes off the fireworks, but this time, we couldn't take our eyes off Samantha.  Her expression was so precious.  She seemed to think it was the coolest thing she'd ever seen, and she kept glancing at us and smiling, almost like she was thinking, "Are you guys seeing this?  This is so cool!"  Even though we were out pretty late, Samantha did really well, fell asleep in the car on the way home, and then fell right asleep once we got home.  We love that we have such a flexible little girl.  She seems to be up for all the adventures we take her on, and she seems to love being out and about experiencing new things.

On Saturday, since the weather was so wonderful, we took another family bike ride.  Samantha really enjoys it and people love watching her smile, laugh, and talk as they walk or bike by us.  We look forward to going on many more bike rides this summer with her.


On Sunday evening, we watched Thomas and Elijah so that their parents could go out for a nice dinner together.  It was fun to have the boys over.  They are very well-behaved, and Samantha loves having her friends come over to the house.  We gave them a dinner of spaghetti, garden peas, and garden strawberries.  We even gave Samantha some spaghetti.  We preemptively took off her shirt and good thing too, because boy was she a mess!  We thought Grandma Toll would enjoy these pictures of Samantha enjoying her spaghetti sauce.  She seems to be quite a fan of tomatoes, just like you!

After dinner, we went to the little playground area in our apartment complex.  Elijah and Samantha went on the swings, and Thomas climbed on the jungle gym.  The kids had a great time playing together.

Samantha is really enjoying more "big people" food.  She especially likes anything that has noodles.  We made a skillet lasagna recipe this past week, and gave her some of that, as well as some fresh strawberries and cottage cheese.  Once again, she got pretty messy, but this time we stripped her down to her diaper.  She loves feeding herself and getting to taste all these new flavors, although with her face, body, and hair getting covered by food, she needs baths a lot more often now.

On Monday several interesting things took place.  First, it was my first official day staying at home with Samantha for the summer.  It's amazing how much more relaxed I feel, how much more I can get accomplished around the house, and how much precious Samantha time I get now that summer is here.  In the evening we went to a church member dinner, and Samantha got the opportunity to play with some older children.  She had herself a good ole time and was completely exhausted by the time we got home, especially because it was past her bedtime.


We also noticed today that Samantha's lower first molars on both sides are officially through the gums.  So now Samantha has ten teeth!  These teeth have been a long time coming so we are glad to have that problem over with.


Also, over the weekend, we bought some whole milk and attempted to make a transition from breast milk at lunch time.  Needless to say, she was not too big of a fan of the milk.  She would spit some of it out of her mouth and then just refuse to drink the rest of it.  We'll see if she warms up to it a little more as we continue trying it in the future.

I will end my post with a cute little tidbit about Samantha.  At night, when I am nursing her before bed, she will always lay with her legs crossed, either at the ankle or one leg completely crossed over the other, or her leg crossed over my arm.  It's pretty cute.