Samantha: 24 Months, Week 2

This week marked my very last week teaching full time, and I think I may have been more excited about it then my students.  Daddy has been talking to Samantha a lot about Mommy staying home with her after this year, so Samantha now says, "Stay home with you!" with a huge smile on her face and a high, squeaky, excited voice.  It makes me so happy that I get to finally stay home with my little girl, that I don't have to feel like I am missing out on teaching her and playing with her and being there for her.  And I'm so glad that she's excited too.

Samantha likes to get in our bed and pretend she's asleep, cuddling underneath our blankets.

Daddy lets Samantha pick out his ties in the morning and on Thursday morning, she pulled them all down off the hanger and wanted to put on all of his ties!

Thursday after school, Samantha had her two year check up at the doctor.  The last couple of times we've gone to the doctor, things haven't gone too well, sometimes just walking into the office will upset her.  I guess she's at the age where she remembers the shots that she got last time and wants to avoid that place at all lengths.  Well, this day was no different.  Daddy picked Samantha up from the babysitter to bring her to the doctor, and I met them there after they had already gone back to the exam room.  When I got there, Samantha was walking out into the hallway to get weighed and measured and was already crying. With Samantha, I think it's the apprehension of what's to come that is the worst. Nothing was even happening to her yet, but the act of having to take her clothes off and walk into the hallway made her very anxious and upset.  

She didn't need any shots at this visit, but they did have to prick her finger and squeeze out some blood.  They did this as one of the first things (which also probably wasn't the best idea on the part of the nurses).  Samantha was sitting on my lap, and I was trying to distract her with her new book, but she couldn't be calmed.  She cried extremely hard, very loudly, and it escalated up to her little hyperventilating cry that she does when she's really upset.  She will shake and her head will twitch to one side as she seemingly gasps for air and tears stream down her face.  It is really hard to get her to calm down, especially in a doctor's office with nowhere to go.  

Another problem is the fact that Samantha doesn't like band-aids.  Her finger was bleeding quite a bit, so they had to put pressure on it for longer than normal and then wrapped the band-aid around pretty tight to keep the bleeding down.  Well, immediately, Samantha wanted us to take the band-aid off, not understanding that it was there for a reason.  We eventually got her to calm down while waiting for the doctor to come in the room.  She was a little apprehensive of the doctor checking her out too, but at least there were no shots and no more upset Samantha.  Her checkup went well, everything is looking healthy and normal.  Her height was 36 and 3/4 inches in the 97th percentile (Wow!  We have a pretty tall little girl, already 3 feet tall!).  Her weight was 29 pounds and 11 ounces in the 75-90th percentile.  Her head circumference was 48 1/2 cm in the 75th percentile.

One of the cutest things that followed her doctor's appointment was Samantha calling her band-aid, a "band and," with quite the southern twang to her voice.  For days afterwards, she would point to the exact finger that she got pricked, saying "I need a band-and."

Fridays are Daddy-Daughter days around here, and this Friday Daddy was helping to get all packed up for a weekend in Upland with Ema and Papa.  Apparently, as Daddy was packing the suitcase in the morning, Samantha spent a good 20-25 minutes playing in the suitcase and buckling and unbuckling the straps inside.  She certainly likes playing with buckles lately!

Daddy likes to take silly pictures with his little girl.  There was a whole progression of pictures with them making silly faces together, I chose just a few that I thought were the best.  Daddy loves is daughter and is such a great Daddy to her.

We had a busy weekend planned.  We decided to go up to Upland to celebrate Samantha and Alaina's birthday, a joint party, kind of like what we did for their birthday last year.  However, Aunt Jeni went into the hospital last Monday night for emergency surgery, so our plans had to change a little bit.  Ema and Papa came down with Alaina on Friday which was so great because the girls got to spend so much more time together that weekend.  They had lots of quality time together playing with the new kitchen, shopping cart, dollhouse, and ponies that were given to them from their neighbors.  They also played outside with balls and rode up and down the lane in the wagon more times than we can count.

Ema and Papa have neighbors with young girls that live right down the lane from them.  Samantha saw the girls climbing the tree and wanted to give it a try as well.  We put her up in the tree, and she stayed up there for quite some time.  I think she will enjoy climbing trees when she gets older.  I would always climb the tree in my backyard when I was little.  There was a perfect place in the tree where I would sit and read.  I would tie my book to a rope, climb the tree, and pull the book up by the rope, having my own refuge to read in the quiet of nature with no one to interrupt me.

Saturday morning Uncle Timmy also arrived in Upland to visit for the weekend.  Samantha was VERY excited to see her Uncle Timmy.  We talk about him a lot and talk to him on Skype or Face Time every once in a while.  Alaina wasn't quite so sure about this big man with the hairy face at first, Samantha seemed to warm up to him really quickly, like she does with most people.

The girls also got the opportunity to ride in Uncle Timmy's car.  They were both very interested in sitting in it and hearing the horn honk.  They were extremely excited when Timmy came out to give them a ride, and loved that they didn't have to sit in their car seats, but just got to sit on Papa's and Daddy's laps instead.

Ema and Papa really love spending time with their granddaughters, as you can tell in the following video.  They are great with the girls and the girls have a blast with them.  Samantha gets so excited when we tell her we are going to visit Ema and Papa, she squeals with delight.

Saturday morning at breakfast time, the girls were being really silly, saying "Za," back and forth, making silly faces, and laughing.  They are so cute together and love interacting and being silly with one another.  I know we have a video of this somewhere, but it may be on Papa's phone.  I'll have to see if I can get it from him to post on a blog some day.

Saturday night we slept in the same room as Samantha, and it's always interesting being in the same room with her when she wakes up.  She talks a lot during the day, and even starts her day off talking to herself, making noises, and playing.  Ben decided to get his iPhone out at record her waking up on Sunday morning.  We know it is these cute habits that we enjoy now that we will miss some day in the future, and it will be fun to go back and listen to what Samantha sounded like at two years old.

Sunday after church we ate lunch and drove up to visit Jeni in the hospital, open presents, and have cake.  Since we were going to be driving right during nap time, we decided to tell Samantha what our schedule is going to be.  She seems to do better in new situations if we prepare her ahead of time and let her know what we expect of her.  So, on this day, we told Samantha that we were going to eat lunch and then get in the car to drive, and we wanted her to close her eyes and take a nap so she could have a good day of playing with Alaina and not be cranky.  When we got back in the car after lunch, I drove and Daddy read her stories, she had her blankets, and we sang her songs, just like we do at nap time.  It took her awhile to fall asleep though, she's just much too sociable.  There was one time where she had her eyes closed, but she kept saying "I'm sleeping!"  (Daddy and I had to try really hard not to laugh out loud.  Or, as we drove, she would narrate what we were passing, "going down the hill," "going up the hill," "through the mud," whatever would come to her mind.  Eventually, Daddy turned around and told her, you need to stop talking and take a nap now.  After that, she finally listened and let her eyes close and drift off to sleep, and we just had to take a picture of our sleepy little girl.

Our first stop was the hospital to see Jeni, to let Alaina see her Mommy, and to let the girls open their presents so that Jeni could be a part of it.  Alaina was very excited to see her Mommy and Daddy.

After we were done at the hospital, we went back to Alaina's house to play and have birthday cake.  The girls were so excited to have "Happy Birthday" sung to them and to blow out their candles.  They then ate their cake and ice cream at a little table together, and it was so precious.  I love that we kept up the tradition of celebrating their birthday together, despite the busyness of everyone's lives.

I want to end this post by sharing a few sweet things from the weekend.  Lately, when she plays with her ponies, she will have one be the Mommy and one be the baby.  The ponies will talk to each other, saying "I love you Mommy" and "I love you baby."  Then they will hug each other and she'll make a sound like they are squeezing each other really hard in their hug.

Also, in the Little People dollhouse that Ema and Papa have at their house, there is a little baby bed that you push and a "Mama" sound plays.  Samantha really has enjoyed playing Mommy/baby games lately, so after hearing that button, she kept saying "Mama, Mama!" when playing with her toys and even in her bed at night.

Samantha is a sponge lately, soaking up everything around her, repeating things, remembering things, learning new things every day.  One night when I was putting her to bed, I was reading the Bible to her, showing her the stories and pictures about Jesus.  When I asked her what Jesus did for us, she told me that Jesus died on the cross.  It is amazing to me what she knows sometimes, and I love that she is learning about Jesus at such a young age.  Other than when she is sleeping, the time when she is most calm is when we pray.  I cuddle her on my my lap, hold her little hand in mine, and pray for our family and friends, for anything or anyone that she mentions, and we always end with thanking Jesus and saying I love you Jesus.  The whole time we pray, she doesn't move a muscle.  It's like the presence of God calms her little body down, and she is quiet and reverent.