Samantha: 23 Months, Week 2

In my last blog post, I forgot to mention about our friends, Kirk and Mary Beth, coming over Saturday night for a games night.  We used to do this with another family that we cherish so much and have really missed these times of connection with others our own age, after the kids are in bed and all distractions are taken away.  We made homemade lasagna, a great recipe I got from my cousin, and they brought a salad and some excellent bread.  We had a wonderful dinner together, sat and talked, ate some "Tollhouse" cookies, put Samantha to bed, and then played Ticket to Ride together.  We had a great game, with the two girls coming in the lead, and great conversation.  It's always good getting together with friends and having adult conversation.  However, the funny thing with Samantha being so social and so excited about having people over, is that if they are here when she goes to bed, she assumes they will be here when she wakes up as well.  So on Sunday morning, Samantha woke up very early, around six o'clock, asking for Kirk and Mary Beth.  We were glad that she enjoyed herself with our friends, but we weren't quite ready to face the day yet.  Ah, our little extrovert.  I'm not sure how she was born from Ben and me, but at least it's endearing.

Lately Ben's mom has been rethinking her decision to be a Cubs fan, so we decided to get Samantha to try and convince Ema otherwise.  Samantha says, "Go Cubs Go.  Boo Reds."

Here is Daddy's daily breakfast date.  :)

On Wednesday, we had something very scary happen with Samantha.  I had already come downstairs into the living room, and Ben was coming down after me with a load of laundry we were going to start so Ben could pack for his trip to the conference in Michigan.  Samantha was going down the stairs in front of Ben.  Well, Samantha has gone up and down the stairs by herself numerous times and hasn't ever had trouble.  She has been doing it independently for a couple months now, where we aren't even concerned about watching her go up and down the stairs at all.  She will either slide on her tummy or slide down on her bottom one step at a time.  

I don't know if it was just a culmination of events, or everything happening too fast, but she must have leaned forward too far on the steps and lost her balance.  She was probably on the second or third step from the top.  Ben said she more rolled down the stairs sideways, rather than end over end, which I guess is a good thing, if there can be a good thing about falling down the stairs.  Ben shouted out, "Jenny, Jenny, Jenny!"  But I couldn't get there fast enough from the living room.  I got the the bottom of the stairs just in time to see her hit the tile floor face down.  Of course she burst into tears, and I was shaking, my mind jumping to the worst possible conclusion of missing teeth, a bleeding mouth, a broken arm, a trip to the hospital.

However, at that moment, without even looking at Samantha or examining where she might be hurt, I scooped her up in my arms and quickly brought her over to the couch, holding her close to my chest, rocking her back and forth.  Eventually, after she calmed down a little bit, I inspected her little face and body for any sign of injury.  I didn't see any blood or missing teeth. The only sign of injury was a bruise on her left check and eye area.  Everything else looked good, and I was so thankful.  She really only cried for several minutes and then was back to her normal, silly self.  I think the thing that made her feel better was when I told her that everyone falls down the stairs at some point in their life.  Samantha then asked, "Even Mommy?"  "Even Daddy?"  I said yes, and that even Roscoe has fallen down the stairs.  That seemed to make her feel better, knowing she's not alone, and that everyone else turned out okay afterwards so she was going to be okay, too.  It was probably more scary for Mommy than it was for Samantha.

When Ben was putting Samantha to bed that night, she wanted to read one of her favorite books "The Secret Birthday Message" by Eric Carle.  Well, if you have ever read that book, for the boy to get to his secret birthday gift he has to follow all these clues, one of them being going down the stairs.  When they got to that part of the book, Samantha said "Boom, boom, boom, fall down the stairs," along with a hand motion of someone falling down the stairs.  Then, she giggled.  Apparently she is okay now if she can make light of it.  It's nice that kids are so resilient.

Later that night, around ten o'clock, my parents came into town.  Since Ben was going to be leaving early Thursday morning for his conference, they came to stay with us for the rest of the week and weekend to help watch Samantha while I was at work.  It was a hectic few days of taking care of everything around the house and dealing with a sleepy girl who was waking up too early in the morning (again with my comment of earlier where she wakes up earlier when we have visitors in the house).  I was very glad to have Daddy back home on Saturday night.  I know 'Cago Ema Papa had a good time with Samantha, playing with her, taking her to the Banneker Center, and putting her down for her naps.  Ben and I even got to go on a little date to Starbucks on Saturday night when he returned, since my parents were holding down the fort.  It was nice to be able to sit and talk, catch up, and hear about Ben's time presenting at the conference.

Here are pictures my dad took of Samantha dressed up for church on Sunday morning.  If you look closely, you can see the remnants of her bruise from falling down the stairs.

Samantha took a really great nap on Sunday afternoon after a long weekend of playing and waking up early.  After my parents left, we decided to make a family trip to our favorite restaurant these days, Chipotle.  (Samantha loves their quesadilla kids' meal with rice and beans and chocolate milk.)  On our way back home we were singing together in the car and finally managed to capture her singing on camera.  She knows almost all the words to "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "Jesus Loves Me."  It makes my heart happy to hear Samantha singing about Jesus loving her, and I always pray that someday those words will come to be true and that she will believe them to the very depths of her soul.