Samantha: 13 Months, Week 3

The Wednesday before we left on our big road trip, we had Ainsley and her mom, Jaime, over to our house to play in the morning, in hopes that it would tire Samantha out and so she would take a nice long nap in the car on the way to Chicago.  The girls had fun together, even though they don't really know how to play together yet.  Ainsley said she was at "Manna's house."  It was nice to be able to get together and see how Samantha will do with Ainsley and Jaime in the fall when I have to go back to work.  I really think Samantha will enjoy having another girl around to play with that is pretty close to her own age.

After lunch and few last minute items to pack, we headed out to Chicago for the night on our way up to Madison, Wisconsin to see my friend Melissa.  Samantha did exceptionally well in the car, easing all my anxiety about the trip.  She was very tired, so just played quietly in the back for the first hour or so, then slept for the next couple of hours, and then played quietly and looked at books for the last hour.  She did not get fussy at all, what a blessing!  I was very nervous about traveling with a baby and a dog all by myself for that long a distance.

I saw some family briefly while we stayed in the Chicago area with my sister and her fiance.  My grandma had surgery that day, so things were a little busy.  We did get to see my grandma briefly on Thursday before heading up the rest of the way to Madison.  She again did pretty well in the car, sleeping most of the way, and only getting fussy near the end of the trip simply because she was getting hungry and had spent a lot of time in the car over the last two days.

Brad and Melissa are our dear friends from Taylor, and we love this tradition we have started of driving up to see them during the summer.  This time, bringing Samantha made it a little different, but she had a great time.  When we first walked into the house, the dogs barked pretty loudly and frightened Samantha.  She started crying, but warmed up to the big dogs rather quickly after the initial shock.  She isn't used to being around dogs any bigger than Roscoe.  The next day, another little dog named Briggs came to stay for the weekend.  He is a very tiny Maltese, just Samantha's size, and she loved him!  She would try to follow him around and pet him, she wanted to hold him, and even one time when Briggs was sitting in my lap, Samantha came up to hug him and nuzzle him just like she does to her dolly.  It was pretty adorable.

We didn't do anything too much while we were in Madison, just a lot of hanging out, playing games, and talking.  On Saturday, Alison and Janell came up for the day.  We had a great time together, and I think they enjoyed seeing Samantha walking around, talking, and being so social with everyone.  We went out to a popular local restaurant for dinner, and, after putting Samantha to bed, the girls went to a local park to watch the Madison fireworks.

Samantha was so interested in the dogs.  Bleu would always want to come up and lick Samantha's face, which she didn't particularly care for, so she would hold her arm up and back away, but then she would go straight towards him again, wanting to pet him and play with him.  She didn't want to be in a room where the dogs weren't.  She loved having them around and is really gentle when she pets them.  I am pretty impressed.

The best part of the weekend, however, was that Ben decided to make the trip from Ann Arbor to Madison.  I was so glad to have him come, and Samantha was so happy to see her daddy.  It was great to be able to spend more time together, hanging out with each other, and with friends, before he had to drive back and start his work week again.

Here is a picture from the weekend and a video of this funny noise she makes when she looks at books, especially pop-up books:

We stayed in Madison through Monday morning and then headed back down to Chicago.  After Samantha took a nap, we met Grandma and Grandpa Kappel at the mall (since it was SO hot outside), and let Samantha show off her walking skills for her grandparents.  They were impressed with how fast she could get around, and that she found the candy store!  The night ended with ordering some Chicago pizza, and Samantha got her first taste of it.  Of course she liked it, who wouldn't like cheese, tomato sauce, and deep dish crust!  Mmm, my favorite food.

Samantha did really well with all the transitions, from Chicago to Madison back to Chicago again.  It didn't seem to bother her as long as she could sleep with her pink blankie.  She has become majorly attached to that thing lately.  She wants to take it everywhere with her.  She slept really well, even in the same room with me.  That doesn't seem to bother her at all anymore.  The only negative thing that happened with sleeping is that, especially in Madison, Samantha was waking up early, like around 6 or 6:30, which is way too early for her Mama to get up!  Who knows, maybe she just has a very strong internal alarm clock and was still set on Indiana time, which is an hour later.

On Tuesday, July 3rd, we normally have a tradiditon of going to the Park Ridge fireworks with my grandma and the rest of my family.  I was excited to have Samantha participate in this Kappel family tradition for the first time, but the forecast was for 98 degrees that day, and with my grandma still recovering from surgery, it just wasn't in the cards for us this year.  Instead, we all just went over to my grandma's house, had sandwiches, played games, walked to the park for a short excursion, and listened to patriotic music (as if we were at the fireworks).  Samantha had a good time exploring every corner of grandma's place and was very interested in her cat, Callie, even thought she wasn't allowed to touch her.  It's nice to have my family around Samantha.  She loves all the attention, and they love to see how much she's constantly growing and learning new things.