Samantha: 14 Months, Week 4

This week was my first week back at school for teacher inservice.  I was sad to see summer gone and the school year starting again.  I wasn't really ready for it.  I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Samantha this summer.  I feel like she has changed, grown, and learned so much, and it was exciting being a part of that.

On Tuesday this week, Ben and Samantha met Grandpa and Grandma Toll at the Indiana State Fair. We took advantage of the fact that tickets only cost $2 on Tuesdays, so it was a cheap experience even if Samantha were to not enjoy herself. Who were we kidding, Samantha loves being outside and around people, so she had a great time. 

On the way to the fair, Samantha slept for about 45 minutes in the car which made it easier for her to handle all the excitement to come. She was somewhat surprised to see Grandpa and Grandma Toll at this exciting place, but really enjoyed spending the day with them. Samantha got to get up close and personal with several types of animals. She liked petting the baby calves, but I think her two most exciting places were the horse barn and the barn holding chickens, ducks, swans, etc. Samantha really likes ducks and chickens, especially being able to see little ones was very interesting to her. She kept making her noise for ducks (which sounds more like bock bock than quack quack, but q is a hard sound).

The best part of the fair for Samantha was going on two rides. One ride was more of a mini roller coaster. It was a little jerky and during the ride Samantha had a look on her face that made me think she was not too excited by it. However, as soon as the ride ended she started doing sign language for more. Apparently she liked it. The ride that made her the happiest, as you can see in the video, was the ferris wheel. She could not stop smiling/laughing through the whole ride. It was very cute. On the way back from the fair Samantha passed out the entire way back. You know she is worn out when she doesn't wake up at stop lights!

It's always fun to come home after school and play with Samantha.  Here are some cute pictures of Samantha around the house.

Samantha is learning how to get in and out of chairs.  I think she just likes the feeling of accomplishment that she gets when she sits down successfully.  She also LOVES to be outside.  Oftentimes, she will point to or go by the door and say "bye bye" meaning that she wants to go outside.  We find ourselves going out many evenings with Samantha, especially when the weather is nice, and letting her walk around or taking her on the swings.  Since she loves being outside, she also loves going to the park.  When Ben took her to the park a couple times this week, as soon as she saw it she squealed with delight and sometimes it's hard to pull her away and back to the car.  She usually chooses to go to the swings first, then will play on the playground and slide down the slides.

We have also been teaching Samantha animal noises lately.  As we mentioned above, her favorite animal is a duck, so that's the noise she makes the most often, but she can also make the noise of a dog, cat, pig, monkey, cow, and an "Uncle Timmy."

Over the weekend, we took a family trip to McCormick's Creek State Park for a hike, picnic lunch, and time in the park.  Samantha had a great time, and we really tired her out.  It was all I could do to keep her awake and relatively happy in the car on the way back home.  On our hike we actually let her walk part of the way, but when we do this we don't get very far because she likes to stop and look at the leaves on plants, pick up dead leaves and rocks off the ground, and just observe nature and the world around her.  We like that she is so curious about everything.  She particularly likes flowers which she calls "ower."  We always tell her to be gentle, and she does a pretty good job of not pulling the petals off.