Samantha: 20 Months, Week 3

I will start off this post with some cute pictures of Samantha playing with some of her favorite things in our home.  First, we have the kitchen.

Lately, Samantha has enjoyed making tunnels with the blanket.  We will drape it over the dining room table and she will sit under it, or we will drape it over the coffee table and couch to make a tunnel underneath.  She calls it a "tunnel blanket."

Here is another video of Samantha having fun jumping on the bed as we were trying to put new sheets on it.

Here are some cute pictures of Samantha playing around in her crib.

After the weekend and having told my parents through the pictures that we were expecting another baby, we had to come up with a way to tell Ben's parents.  Last time, we met them at the Cheesecake Factory in Indianapolis and broke the news to them over dinner.  Then, a while later we met his parents as well as Jeni and Andrew at the Cheesecake Factory again, and they broke the news to us that they were expecting too!  Well, now it is a running joke that we meet at the Cheesecake Factory whenever we have baby news to announce, so we couldn't do that again without giving it away.  So, instead we scheduled some Face Time with Ema and Papa on the iPhone (which Samantha LOVES to do, especially when they show her the cat).  We made another sign that said "You owe us Cheesecake Factory sometime before late September," and had Samantha hold up the sign for Ema and Papa to read.  They picked up on it pretty quickly and were very excited for us.

That weekend we made a trip up to Upland so that we could see Alaina and Jeni.  Andrew had to work on Saturday, so Alaina and Jeni just came down for the day.  We went over to the gym to walk around and play on the big mat.  We also went into the dance room with the wooden floor and bar along the mirrors.  Samantha really enjoyed that room.  She liked hanging off the bar and watching herself make funny faces in the mirror.  She's definitely a ham.

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Later on that evening, the neighbor girls from down the lane came up to the house for a few hours while their parents went to an event at Taylor.  Samantha loved being around the girls, particularly the youngest.  They played a little game before dinner of hiding these little puppies and following clues to find them again.  Samantha really loved playing the game.  I didn't think she would care too much about trying to follow the rules and go through the clues, but she really got into it.  She talked about the puppy game for the next week after that.  Samantha also had a partner while she took her bath that night.  The youngest little girl actually wanted to get in the bathtub with her, but we didn't think that would be the best idea.  So instead she sat on the edge of the tub and played with her, splashed her, and helped me dump water on Samantha's head to get the shampoo out.  I think Samantha enjoyed being doted on.

Over Spring Break this year, Ben and I decided to go on a trip for just the two of us.  We got a really good deal on plane tickets and are using hotel points that we have saved up from our credit card.  Since we are staying right downtown by the Mall, we won't need a car and all the museums are free, so we pretty much only have to pay for food once we're there.  Ben and I figured that once baby number two comes along, we won't have an opportunity to go off by ourselves and travel like this as easily.  Plus, we figured it'd be good practice for Samantha to try staying with someone else overnight for a few nights so that when Mommy and Daddy are at the hospital, and someone else is taking care of her at our house, it won't feel so strange to her.

Knowing all of this, while we were in Upland this weekend, Ema watched how we put Samantha to bed and what her routine is, so that way she knows how to do it herself in the most comfortable way for Samantha.  Then, on Saturday night, Ema put her to bed for us as practice and it went very smoothly.  I'm sure Samantha will do great here for a few days.  I'm not worried at all because two of her favorite people in the world are Ema and Papa.  :)