Samantha: 30 Months, Week 1 {Napping Solution and Christmas Pictures}

This past Monday, Samantha was scheduled for a dentist appointment in the morning.  We were getting ready to go, and I received a phone call from the office saying that when they ran her insurance, it came back saying she was ineligible.  I then proceeded to call her insurance company, which is Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program.  They said that it showed her plan was terminated on September 30th.  Well, never have we cancelled her plan, nor had we received any information regarding her plan being cancelled, so we were pretty irritated with the situation.  What if we would have had an emergency and had to take Samantha to the hospital, only to find out we had no health coverage?  Ben handles these types of phone calls much better than me, so we called the billing number to confirm that our payments had indeed gone through over the last few months.  They had, so he then called back the Medicaid number, trying to figure out what the problem was, and why our daughter was dropped from her health plan.  The man he spoke to on the phone looked up Samantha's account in their system, finding that there was never any notice sent to us about stopping her coverage and really had no explanation for us whatsoever.  The man said he would have to call back after talking to a supervisor for some more clarification.  A little while later that morning, Ben received a call back where the man said it was a mistake on their part and that she would be put back on immediately.  However, it would take a week or so for it to show back up in the system.  We were glad that there was an easy resolution to the problem and that we didn't have to go through the trouble of reapplying again, but it was still very aggravating.  You know how dentists and doctors fill up really fast?  Well, now I had to reschedule both of her appointments that were scheduled for this week and had been scheduled for the last six months.  It's interesting to me how people can make claims about people taking advantage of the system, yet all of our experiences with it over the last few years since Ben has been in graduate school and we are making very little money, have been troublesome and difficult to deal with.  It is not easy to apply and just be accepted.  Every time I have applied for pregnancy coverage, even though we meet all the requirements easily, I have been denied coverage for false reasons, causing us to resubmit information and have multiple lengthy conversations.  How could anyone that is "not educated" or without the resources we have, really manipulate this system?  It's crazy, complicated, and not very easy to navigate.

Nevertheless, I did reschedule Samantha's appointments, giving us a free morning at home together.  We did preschool activities, continuing on with the letter C with the theme of cats.

Day 2: Cats

Books: Have You Seen My Cat? by Eric Carle and The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss

Song: “I’m a Little Kitty-Cat” to the tune “I’m a Little Teapot:”  I’m a little kitty-cat, soft and small.  I like to climb or chase my ball.  If you pick me up and rub my fur.  You can hear me purr and purr!  And “Come Out My Kitty” to the tune “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean:” My kitty ran under the chair.  My kitty ran under the couch.  My kitty ran under the bed.  Oh, come out my kitty, come out.  Come out, come out, Come out my kitty, come out.  Come out, come out, Come out my kitty, come out.

Craft: Cat Headbands.  Measure her head, and cut a piece of construction paper long enough to create a headband.  Glue paper together so the headband fits snugly on her head but is loose enough to take off easily.  Cut from brown paper two ears.  Then, either staple or glue the ears to the headband.  Have her decorate it with crayons and/or stickers.

Letter Activity: (Review the sounds that make A and B.)  Practice the sounds that C make.  Have her color the C pages from her alphabet book, and write any words we can think of on the back that begin with the letter C.

Samantha really enjoyed coloring her C pages with markers.  As she was coloring, I slipped upstairs to grab some clothes to put in the laundry, and when I came back down, this is what I saw: all the markers lined up with their lids off.  She then proceeded to put all the caps back on the markers, matching the colors up correctly without any help, and even pushing the caps down all the way so that they snapped closed.  I was pretty proud of her.  I had never really given her markers before simply because they are a little messier and more difficult to control, in comparison to crayons.  However, she did not draw on the wall, table, or anything.  It's almost like the thought doesn't even occur to her to do something destructive and disrespectful like that.

Snack: Have cheese and crackers for snack since they both start with the letter C.

Gross Motor: Play “Kitten, Kitten, Cat” for Duck, Duck, Goose.  Also, play Yarn Ball Toss.  Place a piece of masking tape on line the floor in a line.  Set a laundry basket on the floor.  Have her stand on the line, then throw a ball of yarn into the basket.  Try different distances.

Number/Shape Activity: Draw five cat faces with lines instead of whiskers.  Write a number onto each cat from 6 through 10.  Give her pipe cleaners and have her place the appropriate number of whiskers onto each cat.

Fine Motor: Card Games:  Set out some card games for her to play.  Have her count, sort, and play with the cards in different, creative ways.

I'm also going to include my day three lesson plans for the C week.  I was going to do them with Samantha later that week, but never had the chance.  However, just in case you're interested, here's what I planned for the third day.

Day 3: Clocks

Books: Clocks and More Clocks by Pat Hutchins and Boom Chicka Rock by John Archambault

Song: Sing and watch “Tick Tock Clock Song” using the website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0eoXW9aFjw.  And sing “Hickory, Dickory, Dock:” Hickory, dickory, dock.  What time is on the clock?  The clock struck one, time for fun.  Hickory, dickory, dock.  Continue with other hours on the clock.  The clock struck two—Time to chew.  The clock struck three—Time for tea.  The clock struck four—Time for more.  The clock struck five—Time to come alive.  The clock struck six—Time to light the wick.

Craft: Make a clock face using a paper plate, gluing a paper onto the center of the paper plate, writing the clock numbers on the paper, and decorating with markers and/or paint.

Letter Activity: (Review the sounds that A, B, and C make.)  Tape 2 or 3 crayons together and have her draw rainbow C’s on a piece of paper.

Snack: Have a special chocolate snack since it starts with the letter C.

Gross Motor: Play the game “What Time Is It Mr. Fox?”  Mr. Fox stands with his back to the other player.  The players ask, “What time is it, Mr. Fox?”  Mr. Fox answers with a time.  If he says 2:00, the other players must take two steps toward Mr. Fox.  Once one player gets close enough to touch Mr. Fox, the fox turns around and tries to catch one of the players.  The players attempt to run back to the starting line.

Number/Shape Activity: Play with her clock shape sorting toy, practicing putting the numbers in the correct location or even matching the numbers on the shapes to the numbers on the paper plate clock made at craft time.

Fine Motor: Play with chalk.  Let her do rubbings of cracks on trees or the sidewalk.  Do coin rubbings.  Practice making C’s on the sidewalk with colored chalk.  

Tuesday was our day with Sadie and story time at the library.  Samantha and Sadie both have a great time listening to the stories, and Samantha is turning into a really good listener.  When the librarian asks questions along with the book, Samantha will answer the questions out loud, which I think it a good sign that not only is she paying attention to the librarian, but she is also comprehending what is happening in the story.  Our little girl still loves to read.  We read books to her multiple times a day, and it seems like all I have to do is tell her something once and she remembers it.  For example, she had a little picture book called The Tale of Two Mice by Ruth Brown, and in that book the author uses the word corridors.  Well, the first time I read that book to Samantha, I asked her if she knew what a corridor was, and of course, she didn't.  So I told her that it is like a long hallway, and to this day, if you ask her what the word corridor means, she will be able to tell you without even having to think about it.  I know I've said this many times before, but I love that she loves to read.  I LOVED books growing up, sometimes I literally lived in the them, and sometimes to a fault.  I still love to read but just don't have as much free time in which to enjoy it anymore.  I know Daddy loved books growing up, too, and continues to have reading be a big part of his daily work.  Reading is SO important to your development and such a huge sign of the success you will have in school.  I am more than happy to foster this love of reading in my child.

After story time at the library, we always have time to play in the play room there that is designed for preschoolers.  Samantha's favorite area is the kitchen with play food and the doll crib with babies.  On this day, as she does on many days with her dollies at home, Samantha was putting them to sleep.  She puts them to sleep just as we put her to sleep, by singing a couple songs.  So as I was giving Sadie her bottle, Samantha was rocking her babies in bed, singing at the top of her lungs (because that's the only way she knows how to sing. :) )  She sang the songs Jesus Loves Me and Jesus Loves the Little Children.  Everyone in the play area looked over at Samantha and smiled.  However, strangely enough, I felt a little embarrassed because she was singing songs about Jesus.  Why was I embarrassed?  Was I afraid we would offend someone?  Shouldn't I be ecstatic that these are the first songs that come to my daughter's mind when she is singing her dolls to sleep?  Shouldn't I be encouraged by her childlike faith and her testimony to the other people in that room, even by that small gesture?  I felt truly convicted this day about my confidence in speaking about Jesus in a public place, about letting people know that I believe in Jesus and not feeling ashamed of that.  I desire to have the childlike faith of my daughter, belting out songs about Jesus, and not feeling the least bit ashamed, but rather proud that she knows and can share about Jesus.

Moving onto a new topic, one that I have been thinking and writing a lot about lately, napping.  On Monday, Samantha did a great job taking a nap and was asleep by 1:15, probably tired for her long weekend away at Grandpa and Grandma's house with family.  On Tuesday, however, she did not take a nap at all.  It was a pretty crazy afternoon all around, for both Samantha and Sadie.  Needless to say, I was getting pretty fed up with this daily struggle with napping.  How we were doing it was no longer working and I felt like we were just spinning our wheels in trying the same thing every day, hoping that this time it might work.  I was willing to try new things, but I was hesitant to do anything that would allow Samantha to manipulate the situation or require certain steps in order to fall asleep.

So anyways, on Wednesday I put Samantha down like normal, but quickly realized with how she was playing and talking, that napping was not going to happen.  Since she didn't take a nap on Tuesday, I knew that she really needed one.  So, I decided to try something different.  I went into her room and gave her some books to look at, told her I would set the timer for five minutes, and that she could quietly look at books in her bed.  I went back downstairs and actually gave her ten minutes because she was doing such a good job looking at books quietly in her bed.  After the time was up, she of course wanted to keep reading, but I took her books and told her if she went to sleep now, that we could let her read in bed again tomorrow.  I know there are a lot of moms that let their kids read quietly in bed and oftentimes they will just fall asleep among their books, or it is a good transition from nap time to at least still having a quiet, rest time.

Well, giving Samantha time to look at books in bed did not work because a few minutes later I heard a loud bang meaning Samantha had tried to climb out of her crib and fallen out again.  After consoling her and making sure she was okay, I laid her back down in her crib and decided to try another new thing.  I laid down on the floor next to her crib, telling her that she had to lay down quietly and not play and I would stay there until she fell asleep.  After a few reminders and going to leave once (which resulted in her reacting with crying and begging me to stay), all was quiet and still in her crib.  I peeked in and wow, she was asleep!  I couldn't believe it.  I then waited a few more minutes before sneaking out of her room.

Samantha had not fallen asleep with us in the same room with her since the times when she would fall asleep nursing.  I never imagined she would be able to do this because she is just so social, but when I was in there with her she did not even try to talk to me, and she didn't try to play around like she usually does when we lay her down for a nap.  Did she finally just get tired enough?  Did my presence help to calm her down?  Is she starting to feel some more separation anxiety at this age, like I've read about on websites about child development?  Whatever the reason, I was just so grateful to have a house of napping children, quite unlike my afternoon on Tuesday.  Two and half year olds can be so mysterious sometimes.  However, I did enjoy watching my little girl fall asleep.  I haven't gotten that pleasure in quite a long time.

After finally falling asleep on Tuesday, she took a nice nap, sleeping until 4:45 that afternoon, which clearly showed me that she was needing to sleep.  It's just that when she starts playing in her bed, she gets so ramped up and re-energized, that it's really hard for her to calm herself down enough to let herself fall asleep.  However, the doubts immediately began to creep in to my mind, making me wonder if I made a mistake in laying next to her bed.  We don't want her to expect that every time she goes to sleep and not be able to fall asleep unless we are laying right by her.  I've heard several stories of kids that are in elementary school and still can't fall asleep unless their mom or dad lays with them.  We definitely don't want that, but it was wonderful finding something that seemed to work to get Samantha to fall asleep without all the kicking, jumping, and going up to her room multiple times telling her to stop playing and go to sleep.

It's amazing how much more fun it is to have a preschooler who has had enough sleep.  Wednesday night was so much better than Tuesday night because Samantha actually got the amount of sleep that she needed.  She got to play "ball down the stairs" with Daddy, one of her favorite games.  She listened.  She was respectful.  It was great.

In fact, I have to share a couple other things about our day on Wednesday.  We had BSF and when talking about her day, Samantha said, "Miss Pratt (who is one of her teachers) is my best friend I play with."  Samantha loves her BSF teachers.  They are such a blessing to her and to me.  

Also, here's an interesting fact about Samantha turning into a really good big sister.  Whenever we are in the car with Sadie and Sadie makes a noise, even if it is a happy noise and not a cry, Samantha will start singing to her, usually a song like Jesus Loves the Little Children.  Sadie also loves to hear music and will instantly stop making noise to listen to Samantha.  It is really sweet.  I love how Samantha sees a way that she could be helpful and make Sadie happy, and that she takes the opportunity to think about her over herself.  I'm really looking forward to how Samantha will interact with her little brother or sister.

Speaking of Samantha's little brother or sister, Wednesday this week marked being 18 weeks pregnant.  We are moving right along, and I'm pretty sure that I feel the little baby moving around inside me.  Sometimes it's hard to tell, but I feel it more at night when I am sitting on the couch or laying in bed.  I think during the day I am just too active chasing a 2 1/2 year old around that I don't feel the baby moving.  We can't wait until December 6th when we have an ultrasound and hopefully will find out if our little one is a boy or girl.  I have been feeling pretty good the past week.  My biggest symptom has been experiencing some pretty bad heartburn, particularly in the evening after dinner or when I lay down in bed.  I think the old wive's tale is that if you are experiencing heartburn, it means that your baby has a lot of hair.  Maybe this baby will be born with hair down to his/her shoulders (ha ha!).  I also have feel like I have popped out more in the last week.  My stomach is starting to be a bit more uncomfortable, and I can't bend over or get up off the floor quite as easily anymore.

Wednesday nights I go to our church for an exercise class called WholyFit.  Daddy gets to hang out with Samantha on those nights and puts her to bed.  Apparently this is what they decided to play while I was gone:

Thursday morning was pretty busy because we had to drop Roscoe off to get groomed, met someone off Craigslist selling a baby swing, and then had gymnastics class at 9:15.  Samantha was just acting really tired all morning long and that made gymnastics a little rough.  She was having a hard time focusing and paying attention to what she was supposed to do.  While doing the obstacle course, she would get sidetracked by watching all the other kids around her, causing quite the back up.  I had to sit her down twice during class to tell her she needed to listen and follow directions, or she would have to have a time out.  Talking to her helped a bit, but she still was so very tired.

However, like the rest of the week, even though Samantha was dead tired, she still fought nap time.  I was sure that out of all days, on a day like Thursday, with such a busy morning, she would fall right asleep, but to no avail.  I finally went up to her room a little before two o'clock, covered her back up, and ended up sitting in the glider in her room until she fell asleep.  Just like on Wednesday, it didn't take very long for her to finally calm down and go to sleep.  I was so glad that she was finally taking a nap, and this seems like such a simple solution.  If all it takes is us to sit in her room with her for five minutes while she settles down into sleep, that is worth it to me.  Hearing her play, kick, jump, and talk for two hours rather than sleeping was getting really old, really fast.  And it wasn't just occasionally anymore, it was every day.  I think Ben and I are going to continue sitting in her room for five minutes at nap time, but next time we decided that instead of letting her try going to sleep on her own first, we would just sit in her room right off the bat so we can cut off her chance of even starting to talk and play.

Friday was an interesting day for me because I went to LCA to sub for a high school teacher.  After staying home all this year, it was very strange to wake up earlier in the morning, pack a lunch, and get ready to leave for work.  With Samantha waking up earlier lately, I did get to see her before I left, which was nice.  Back when I was teaching full time, I left without seeing my little girl on most days.  Anyways, being back at school was an interesting experience.  I felt kind of like a famous person because all the kids were so excited to see me, especially my class from last year.  I taught a hodge podge of classes from high school English, to drama, to first and fourth grade P.E.  It was actually kind of a boring day because most of the classes were taking tests or working on independent work, so I just sat at the teacher's desk and read my Kindle most of the time.  I guess it was easy money, so that's always good.  However, it did remind me that I am so happy with my decision to stay home.  People often ask me if there is anything I miss about not teaching anymore, and I can honestly say that there really isn't much.  Even though being at home with Samantha and being an expectant mother is equally, if not more, challenging, it is well worth the reward of being with my little girl and taking care of things around the house so that Ben can go to campus full time.

While I was working Friday, Daddy had a Daddy-Daughter day with Samantha.  They went grocery shopping, played at the library, and went out for lunch at Chipotle.  They had a great, fun day together, and our decision to stay in Samantha's room for five minutes right after laying her down for her nap worked really well for Daddy on Friday.  She went right to sleep and had a good, solid nap, waking up just as I was getting home from school.  I am so thankful for such a supportive husband, seeing my desire to be home with my children, and doing what it takes to make it happen.

Our Saturday morning was nice and relaxed.  The only thing we had going on was getting some family pictures taken at church for our Christmas cards this year.  We like to get a more professionally done picture at least once a year, and Christmas is the perfect time to do it.  Our church was all decorated for Christmas, so we figured it was the perfect place to get some nice pictures taken.  Samantha did a wonderful job posing and smiling for the pictures.  We got some beautiful pictures as well.  We were so happy with how they turned out.

 After another good nap Saturday afternoon, Samantha had a wonderful time playing at home by herself.  She has become a lot more independent in her play and is more than happy to go off by herself in her room and play without us around.  Especially when being well-rested, she is better able to entertain herself.  Samantha was up in her room playing, and we could hear her little feet pitter-patter back and forth across the floor.  After awhile, I decided that I should go go upstairs and check on what she's doing.  This is what I found in her room:

Samantha's explanation for emptying almost all of the books off shelves and into her bed was that she was picking out books to read in bed.  So, I asked her if she wanted to go in her bed, and she said yes.  She had this huge smile on her face and enjoyed some reading time in bed before Sadie arrived at our house for the evening.

Saturday night we babysat for Sadie so that Jacob and Michelle could go out for a date night.  Sadie had had a rough day with napping and was fairly congested, so we could tell she was just really tired.  I ended up giving her a bottle around 6:45, laying her down in the pack and play, and she was asleep by 7:15.  We asked Michelle if she wanted us to wake her up, if that was too early to fall asleep for the night, but she said to just leave her sleeping.  Ben and I are always under the impression to let sleeping babies lie.  Especially when they're not feeling well, there's probably a reason that their little bodies are having them sleep longer than usual.  We started getting Samantha ready for bed around 7:30, which is something new we've been doing lately.  Since she has been waking up around 6:30 or 6:45 every morning, we have started putting her to bed earlier in order to maximize the amount of nighttime sleep that she gets.  It never matters how early or how late we put her to bed, she always wakes up at the same time in the morning.  So, Ben and I felt pretty good when it was 7:55 and both girls were sound asleep, leaving us a peaceful, quiet evening together.  Maybe we can do this two kid thing? :)

Well, Sunday marked the beginning of a busy week of traveling for us.  We had tickets to a Derek Webb concert up in Carmel.  Ben and I were debating whether or not to get a babysitter at home or to have Ben's parents watch Samantha for us, and we ended up deciding on bringing her up to Upland for the night since it would be kind of a long day for someone else to watch Samantha.  We went to church at ECC for the first service and then left right from church to drive to Upland, stopping on the way for some lunch to eat in the car.  We made it in time for Samantha to play with Grandpa and Grandma for a little while, and then we put her down for a nap.  We are continuing to stay with her for five minutes after we lay her down, and I actually fell asleep this time and ended up staying in the room with Samantha for much longer than five minutes.  Apparently, I needed a bit of a cat nap as well.

Ben and I then left to go out for dinner before the concert.  We got tickets that has a question and answer session before the concert started, and I think we were both a little nervous about that because there were so few people there.  However, there were some good questions asked, and it was interesting to hear Derek's response and to hear a little bit more from him than you get just during the actual show.  The concert was really very good.  It was just Derek Webb playing his acoustic guitars and singing, which is always my favorite.  I wish that he would put out an album of purely acoustic versions of some of his most popular songs.  We love the lyrics to his music and agree so much with the positions he takes on issues with the church.  If only we could all be this honest.  I commented to Ben after the show was over that he and Derek are so similar in how they think and react to various things, particularly politics, that I bet if they were neighbors or something like that, they would be good friends.  It was a great date night together, and it was the first concert we've been to since leaving Texas, moving to Indiana, and having a child.  We just don't have the time or resources to do this much anymore, but we figured we couldn't pass up Derek Webb when he was in Indiana.

We had a great full week, with more to come with Thanksgiving traveling ahead.

Samantha: 29 Months, Week 5 {First Snow, Throwing Herself out of Her Crib, and Weekend in Upland}

After our busy weekend of visitors, Monday was a stay and home and recover day.  We started our week with preschool.  We finished the letter B last week, so now we moved on to the letter C and the numbers 6 through 10.  I decided our theme for today would be cars and Samantha really enjoyed our day together.  Here are the lesson plans I followed for the day, and this time I am going to intersperse pictures of us doing the activities within the lesson plans.  I think it'll make more sense that way.

Day 1: Cars

Books: Read the Cars book with the toy cars, Sheep in a Jeep, and any other transportation related books that she wants to read.

Song:  Sing the song “Five Fast Race Cars" to the tune "Five Little Pumpkins."  Five fast race cars speeding round the track.  The first car said, “I can’t look back!”  The second car said, “Oh no!  I’m out of gas!”  The third car said, “Beep!  Beep!  I’m fast!”  The fourth car said, “Honk!  Honk!  I’m passing you!”  The fifth car said, “Vroom, vroom.  I win!”  Then beep went a horn and flash went the lights.  And five fast race cars sped out of sight.

We used these cars when singing the song, leading to some free play time afterwards.

Craft: Paint with cars.  Lie down a large piece of newspaper, some paint in trays, and allow her to paint using the wheels on the cars.  Also, you can tape 2-3 crayons to the front or back of a toy car.  Tape so that the points of the crayons are slightly lower than the bottom of the car.  Encourage her to “drive” the cars on paper.

Letter Activity: Discuss how the letter C has 2 sounds, the sound for K and S, practice that sound, and review the sounds that A and B makes as well.  Give her some play dough and show her how to roll snakes and then turn them into the letter C.

Snack:  Make apple and grape car snacks.  Slice an apple into wedges and trim the core.  For each apple wedge, slice 2 grapes in half, widthwise.  Push the pick through the sliced side of one grape half, then through one end of the apple, then finish with the other grape half, sliced side out.  Repeat with the other end of the apple wedge and 2 more grape slices.

Gross Motor: Play “Red Light, Green Light,” pretending to be cars.  Play a tossing game.  Set out some cups and take turns tossing caps (or cars) into the cups.

Number/Shape Activity: Write numbers 6-10 as a number symbol, number word, and circles to show each amount represented by each number.  Have her fill in circles (use Cheerios or cars, whichever she would prefer) on each plate with item to show how many each number represented.

Fine Motor:  Make pretend roads on the carpet and couches with scotch tape, and let her drive her cars along the roads on the carpet.  

Mondays always go pretty well with being around the house and doing preschool.  It seems like days we stay home, Samantha will take a better nap.  You'd think it's be the opposite since she isn't getting out as much energy as say going and playing at Bible Study.  Nevertheless, on this day she took a three hour nap and fell asleep right away.  Monday afternoons are when I give piano lessons, so Daddy was planning on taking her to the library to play while I gave lessons.  However, she stayed in bed sleeping until 4:30, making it so that it was too late for him to take her to do that.  We were all okay with that though because apparently her body was needing a long rest that day.

But then on Monday night, Samantha did not go to sleep very well.  She was playing quite a bit and must have taken her pajamas off and thrown them on the floor.  We didn't notice because we assumed she just played and then fell asleep.  Well, it was really cold on Monday night.  In fact, snow was in the forecast for early Tuesday morning.  At about 5:00 Tuesday morning, Samantha woke up crying, which she never does.  I hurried into her room to see what was the matter, and I saw her curled up in the corner of her bed, only in her pull up, her skin ice cold.  I quickly put her back in her pajamas and laid her back down, covering her up with her warm blanket, and praying that she would go back to sleep.  Luckily, she did go right back to sleep, which Daddy and I were both grateful for.  We weren't ready to be up at 5:00 am.

On Tuesday, after Samantha woke up, we talked with her about taking her pajamas off at night, about how it's getting too cold to sleep without warm pajamas on, and about how it'll be hard to have a good night's sleep if she takes her pajamas off.  We have had a "fairy" coming over the last month or so to encourage Samantha to go poo-poo in the potty rather than her pull-up.  She has pretty much mastered that now, so we decided to transition the "fairy" to come now only if she leaves her pajamas on and sleeps well.  We'll see if that works.  Doesn't hurt to try, right?

As I mentioned earlier, snow was in the forecast for Tuesday morning, so as soon as Samantha saw the snow, she wanted to go out and play in it, even though it did not even cover the grass.  So, we got her in her snowsuit, snow boots, hat, and gloves, and she was out playing in the snow by 8:00 am.  Sadie had already arrived at our house, so I stayed inside with her while Daddy took Samantha out to play.  She has such a good time playing and noticing all the things that were covered with snow.  Ahh, to be a child again and have the joy of playing in the snow!  Imagine what she'll think when we have a lot of snow!  Hopefully she'll be able to experience that at some point this winter, and maybe even get to go sledding at Grandpa and Grandma Toll's house!

 Man, isn't she so cute in her little snowsuit and snow boots?

After enjoying her time in the snow for awhile, it was time to come back in for breakfast and our normal routine of going to the library for story time.  And just like has been the norm lately, we had a good nap Monday and no nap Tuesday.  Samantha resisted her nap for the whole two hours she was upstairs, talking, playing, and kicking, instead of sleeping.  I had to go up several times to tell her to stop kicking so she wouldn't wake up Sadie, hoping that she might succumb to sleep, but no such luck.

Then, as I was finishing getting dinner in the crock pot and was about to go and get her up from her bed, I heard a loud thud on the floor from Samantha's room, and then crying.  I ran upstairs, as the chicken was still cooking on the stove, to see what happened, petrified that she had hit her head on something and split it open.  Luckily, she was in the middle of the floor, far away from any furniture she could have knocked into, but she did have a pretty good sized bump on her forehead.  Once I held her and comforted her as she cried, making sure she was okay, I asked her what happened and why she tried climbing out of bed.  She just said, "I don't know."  I was just grateful that she was okay.  It was the first time she has ever attempted to do that, which I guess is good that we made it until almost 2 1/2 before she attempted to climb out of bed.  I texted Ben about what happened, and he replied, "Okay.  So it starts."  I was thinking, "Well, we may not be able to wait until after Christmas to move her to the big girl bed."  We certainly don't want her trying to climb out and hurting herself, but at the same time we don't want to switch her just because of falling out just this once.  Maybe the trauma of falling out of her bed and onto her head will prevent her from trying it again.  Let's hope anyways.

That night, we ended up giving Samantha a bath and putting her to bed early since she hadn't napped.  She was asleep by 7:30.  Since the night before was the night she undressed and woke up freezing cold, I went in and checked on her before going to bed for the night.  We don't normally check on her, we never have, I guess partly because we still use the baby monitor so we can hear what's going on in her room, but also because we are always so afraid of waking her up by opening her door and walking around her room.  Her room gets pretty dark in the back of the house, so it was hard to see her in her crib.  I inched my way up to her crib and reached my hand out to see if she still had her pajamas on.  She was still fully clothed, which I was very grateful for.

Wednesday morning Samantha slept in until around 7:30.  Daddy and I were amazed!  She hasn't slept in that late in a long time.  For the first time in a while she didn't have bags under her eyes.  We had a good morning at BSF, and I volunteered in the 4s/5s room.  It was wonderful to see the program they follow there for the kids.  It is very organized and structured, the kids are constantly being loved on and told about Jesus.  I'm so excited that Samantha is involved in the 2s/3s room.  I love to talk to her about the Bible story she learned that week, hearing it from the perspective of a 2 1/2 year old and how she remembers it.

On the way home from Bible Study, Sadie fell asleep in the car and ended up sleeping until 3:45.  Samantha on the other hand, again fought going to sleep, but eventually fell asleep around 2:25 after I went up to her room a couple times to tell her to stop kicking and ignoring her whining cries for me (which has always been hard for me to ignore).  That night, I was really craving some Five Guys, so we decided to take Sadie to her Mommy at work on our way to that side of town.  Samantha was in a wonderful mood after sleeping 12 hours the night before and taking a good nap.  It made us wonder if we should move her bedtime to 7:30 instead of 8:00, wondering if that would help her fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.  I've been reading some things online about napping and sleeping at this age range, and someone mentioned the fact that for some kids they get to a point where they reach their second wind, making it hard to for them to then fall asleep.  And, if you would put them to bed before they got their second wind, they would fall asleep much faster.  It's an interesting theory, and one that I think we will have to test out.

Thursday morning was pretty busy with gymnastics class and Mom's REST Stop at church.  Even though Samantha's gymnastics time overlaps REST Stop, I figured it still was important that I try to go to be with other moms (and get a little bit of a break).  However, even though we had a super busy morning being out, and Samantha was acting super tired, she still did not nap in the afternoon.  I had two piano lessons in the afternoon, so Daddy took her out of the house and went grocery shopping with her.  Luckily, she was pretty well-behaved despite the lack of sleep that afternoon.  She said thank you to the grocery bagger and even asked, "Can I have some stickers, please?"  (She always wants stickers from Kroger, but we tell her that if she wants some she has to be polite and ask for them herself.)  After getting her stickers, she started sticking them all over her face.  Daddy called her stickerface, and then Samantha said, "I want to be stickerface for Halloween!"  She says some of the funniest things sometimes.

Friday morning, Samantha knew that we were heading to Upland for the weekend to see Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Jeni, and Alaina, so she woke up at like six a.m. ready to go.  I went in to her room to tell her that it was too early and to go back to bed.  A little while later, Ben had to go tell her to go to bed as well.  She did end up going back to sleep until about 7:00.  Once she started making noise again, I went in her room and she said, "Can I get up now?"  To which I responded, "Yes, it's okay to get up now, thank you for going back to sleep for a little while."  Her very next question was, "We go to Grandpa and Grandma's house now?"  Our little girl was talking about and looking forward to this weekend all week long, so as soon as we got everything together for the weekend, we headed out for Upland.  

When we got there, Grandpa and Grandma were still at work, so we just played, had lunch, and put Samantha down for a nap.  She was tired enough from not napping yesterday and waking up early that day, that luckily she took a good afternoon nap.  Samantha was so excited to see Grandpa and Grandma when they got home from work, playing catch with the football with Grandpa and asking Grandma to read her a book the minute she walked in the door.  Samantha just adores going to to Grandpa and Grandma's house.  To her, there's nothing better.

Since Samantha took a good nap, we decided we could all go out to eat at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants and then went to Meijer with Grandpa and Grandma while they did their shopping.  Grandma gave Samantha a special treat at the end of the shopping trip, allowing her to take a ride on the horse.  It was the best one cent ever spent. :)

The next day was a busy day with the Toll family reunion.  Aunt Jeni and Alaina arrived later that morning, and the other relatives started arriving around 11:00.  Samantha had woken up early again that day, so she was extremely tired by the time the guests even started arriving.  We wondered if we would even make it to lunch time.  However, Samantha thrives on being around people.  She had some great times with her cousin, playing games, playing with toys, playing hide and seek, and just generally making a lot of noise like little girls like to do.  It was a great day, and they had such fun together.

However, right around two o'clock in the afternoon, Samantha hit a wall.  She was not really playing anymore, she wasn't listening well, and she was just so, so tired.  We decided that we would try to get her down for a nap, even though all the relatives were still there.  Samantha got a little upset about it because she didn't want to miss out on anything, and she didn't want to go to bed if Alaina wasn't going to bed.  However, once she realized that Alaina was going to sleep as well, and as soon as she got in her bed, she fell asleep right away.  She was so tired from all the action of the day, and we were so glad that she let herself take a nap.

After the girls woke up from their naps and the relatives were all gone, we took the girls outside to play.  They went on the swing, ran down the hill, played with sticks, and followed Grandpa and Grandma out on a deer trail in the woods.  We then decided to go over to the science building to walk around and see the Christmas decorations.  The girls always like to go there, see the finches, and ride the elevator.  It's a nice place to get some energy out when the weather is too cold outside.

The rest of the evening and weekend went quickly with dinner, bath, bedtime, and church the next morning.  Originally, we were planning on going back home after nap time on Sunday, but the forecast called for some pretty strong, severe storms, and we didn't want to be on the road when the front would come through.  So we decided to get our stuff packed up and headed out right after lunch.  We had Samantha take a nap in the car, and she slept for about an hour which is better than nothing.  We got home just in time, just as the tornado sirens were sounding.  Ben got all our stuff in the house, and we turned on the TV to watch the radar.  We were going to have a strong line of storms coming through that could produce tornadoes, and there was one time we did go into our downstairs bathroom because the wind was blowing so hard outside.  We figured it's always better to be safe than sorry.  After that line passed through our area, we were in the clear.  There were many other areas of Indiana that got it worse than us with a few cities experiencing destruction from a tornado.  We were glad that we left when we did and got home safely.

That night after dinner, we decided to go to a concert at our church dedicating the new piano in the sanctuary.  We weren't sure how Samantha would do with sitting quietly, but we figured we could always leave if need be.  However, like normal, she always impresses us with her behavior in new situations.  She was a great listener, even though the concert went into and past her bedtime.  There was a good variety of music with the choir singing, solos in singing, violin, cello, and oboe, but Samantha's favorite was when a little girl played a piano solo.  I think Samantha was amazed that a little girl could play like that.  In fact, the rest of the concert, Samantha kept looking over at the little girl and smiling.  And after the concert, Samantha wanted to go over to the little girl and tell her how good of a job she did.  The concert lasted almost an hour and half, and Samantha did such a wonderful job listening and paying attention to what was going on.  It's nice to know that we can bring her to things like this and all have an enjoyable time.

Samantha: 29 Months, Week 4 {Napping Problems, Meeting Curious George, and Grandparents Visiting}

We had a fairly restful week at home this past week so I continued with my preschool plans.  We moved on to the letter B and learning more about shapes.  Here are my plans in case you may be interested:

Week 2: The Letter B and Shapes

Day 1: Bears

Books: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? By Bill Martin, Jr. and Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? By Bill Martin, Jr.

Song:  Sing this rhyme: “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, turn around.  Brown Bear, Brown Bear, touch the ground.  Brown Bear, Brown Bear, reach up high.  Brown Bear, Brown Bear, touch the sky.  Brown Bear, Brown Bear, bend down low.  Brown Bear, Brown Bear, touch your toes.  Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Go Upstairs.  Brown Bear, Brown Bear, say your prayers.  Brown Bear, Brown Bear, turn out the light.  Brown Bear, Brown Bear, say good night.”

Craft: Make bear using paper plates, brown paper to cover, and cotton balls to make him furry.

Letter Activity: Discuss how the letter B has 1 sound, practice that sound, and review the sounds that A makes as well.  Familiarity with name: 1) Tape a piece of paper to the table. 2) Say the letters of her name and hold her hand as we write them together on the paper. 3) Let her practice writing and coloring on her name.  Do the same thing with the letter B, writing “B” and “b” on the paper in a few places and having her color on the paper.  Do a large “B” dot-to-dot picture and help her connect the dots.

Snack:  Have Bear Toast.  Use cookie cutters to cut out bear shapes from bread.  Toast and spread with peanut butter.  Use food items for facial features (i.e. chocolate chips, raisins, Kix cereal, pretzels for ears).

Gross Motor: Practice walking like a bear over an obstacle course of pillows.  Also, read the book, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury, and then watch the video of the book online at http://www.schooltube.com/video/cf2fb859b65bb6660cdf/.  After watching the video, hide "bears” around the house and have her go on a bear hunt to find the bears and put them back in their cave.

Number/Shape Activity: Practice naming the shaped blocks and placing them in the right hole of the block container.

Fine Motor:  Have her make giant B’s using blocks.  Set out alphabet blocks and let take turns finding the B blocks.  Use the blocks to build bridges and boats using blocks.

  

Day 2: Butterflies

Books: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, Ten Little Caterpillars by Bill Martin, Jr.

Song: Caterpillar/Butterfly Play:  Provide each child with a scarf. The children lay down on their scarves and then wriggle around like caterpillars trying to keep the scarf under them.  I sing: (Wheels on the Bus melody).  The caterpillars are wriggling around, wriggling around, wriggling around. The caterpillars are wriggling around, all around the yard.  (Children roll into a ball and cover their heads with scarf) The caterpillars are building a cocoon, building a cocoon, building a cocoon. The caterpillars are building a cocoon all around the yard.  (Children pick up their scarf and fly with it) The butterflies are flying around, flying around. The butterflies are flying around, all around the yard.

Craft: Coffee filter butterfly.  Put food coloring in water and place them out.  Have her dip her fingers in the colored water and let it drip onto their coffee filter.  Let the filter dry, then take it and bunch the sides together, twist the pipe cleaner around the middle.  Take the ends of the pipe cleaner and curl them to make antennas.

Letter Activity: (Review the sounds that make A.)  Practice the sounds that B make.  Have her color the B pages from her alphabet book, and write any words we can think of on the back that begin with the letter B.  Maybe decorate the page like a butterfly!

Snack: Make butterfly by using a banana cut in half for the body, apple slices for the wings, and pretzels for the antennae.

Gross Motor: Play “Fly Butterfly, Fly!”  Have her use her purple butterfly blanket and give instruction to learn directional words such as: “Fly and land on the red _____.”  “Fly and rest under the blue _____.”  Make up as many as I can.  She can “fly” from one place to the next.

Number/Shape Activity: Cut 4 sheets of construction paper in half width-wise.  Use the shapes: circle, square, triangle, rectangle, pentagon, hexagon, and trapezoid.  Write one shape on each piece and write the name of the shape as well.  Attach the paper to the floor with tape.  While holding her hand, step together onto the shapes, saying their names as you go.  Also, practice calling out the name of a shape and have her run to stand on it.  Play bean bag toss to throw bean bag on the paper with the shape.

Fine Motor: Create a sensory table in the black dishpan.  Put uncooked rice, uncooked beans, dry noodles, etc. in the bin.  She can play in it; sharpen her fine motor skills by picking pieces up.  She can measure, scoop, and pour.  Include measuring cups and spoons for her to play with.  Have her pick out the beans and sort them.

Day 3: Body Parts

Books: From Head to Toe by Eric Carle and discuss which body parts we use when we crawl, hop, sing, hug, etc. Here Are My Hands by Bill Martin, Clap Your Hands by Lorinda Bryan Cauley, and Look at You!: A Baby Body Book by Kathy Henderson.

Song: Sing “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.” Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, Knees, and Toes.  Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, Knees, and Toes.  Eyes and Ears and Mouth and Nose.  Oh, Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, Knees, and Toes.  Also, sing the “Hokey Pokey” to practice body parts and left and right.

Craft: Let her paint with different parts of her body, like her nose or her toes.  Trace different parts of the body on paper, make handprints and footprints with paint.

Letter Activity: (Review the sounds that A make.)  Draw B and b on different body parts with lotion.  Have her practice writing and tracing the letter B on herself and on me.

Snack: Make cookies using gingerbread man cookie cutters, talk about the different body parts on the cookie.

Gross Motor: Make a defined space on the floor with a rug.  The game starts with her standing on her space.  I start music and she begins to move.  I might say, “crawl,” so she will crawl around the room until the music stops.  When it stops, she has to return to her space.  As she reaches her space, I will yell out a body part, for example, “elbow,” and she will have to touch her elbow to her space.  Then, begin the music again with a new movement and a new body part to stop with.  Also, just dance, using our bodies to move to the music.

Number/Shape Activity: Use cookie cutters to practice making the play dough into the various shapes learned about this week, match them up with the shapes from the shape sorter toy.

Fine Motor: Find a large cube (like a square tissue box) and paste pictures of different body parts on it.  Tear masking tape strips and partially attach them to the edge of a table.  Let her roll the dice and then find that part on their bodies, placing a piece of tape on the body part that she rolled.  Also, have her add the body part to Mr. Potato Head.

On Monday we did day one of my preschool plans and once again, Samantha had a good time learning and exploring through my chosen activities.

Here she is making her bear out of a paper plate, construction paper, and cotton balls.  Samantha loves to use glue sticks but for some reason always likes to rub the glue on her fingers rather than the the paper.

We made our teddy bear toast.  Samantha thought that was pretty neat and enjoyed decorating hers with chocolate chips.  I think you can guess which one was hers. :)

We also did some physical activity with doing a bear crawl over our living room pillows.  It was good practice for the bear crawl she has to do at gymnastics class.

And probably her favorite activity of the morning was going on a bear hunt.  I love how in this video she says, "Tiptoe, tiptoe, tiptoe," just like in the book we read.  We played this game for quite a while, taking turns with who was hiding the bears and who was finding the bears.  (Pardon the giant mess of stuffed animals on the floor.  Samantha has been in a big stuffed animal phase lately and will often drag her whole bin of animals downstairs in the morning.)

Our last activity, playing with blocks and Legos, was also a really fun activity for Samantha.  I feel like she enjoys things a little more and gets more involved in them for a longer period of time when I give her some direction with playing.  Sometimes she will get out a certain toy or activity and play with it in a creative way for awhile, but other times she just wanders from one thing to the next, more like dumping out all the toys rather than playing with any of them.  We had a good time building tall towers together and experimenting with problem solving when certain towers kept falling down.

Again this week we had trouble with naps.  Monday afternoon, Samantha played, kicked, and talked throughout her whole nap.  Then, on Tuesday, both Sadie and Samantha were asleep by 1:45, which made me one relieved and happy Mommy.  On Wednesday, Samantha fought sleep for almost an hour and a half, finally falling asleep at 3:00.  Lately, it's been like flipping a coin whether Samantha will take an afternoon nap or not.  It's just been so hard for me because I don't know what to do.  She's almost 2 1/2, but I think that's too young to stop napping.  However, as you can tell, she will go two to three days a week without napping, and it seems like it's been happening more and more frequently lately.  So I have just been torn, do I keep putting her to bed even if she just lays there, plays, kicks, and talks the whole time?  She's still in a crib, so she can't get out and play with anything, but she has a pretty great imagination and doesn't need any toys to be able to sit there and sing and talk for two hours.  She can entertain herself pretty well.  Ben and I are planning on moving her to a toddler bed after Christmas, sometime in January, so that way she is adjusted  (hopefully) to her new bed, before the new baby arrives in April.  You can read all kinds of advice and opinions online, but how do we know what to do with our daughter?  Should I be laying her down for her nap earlier or later, would that help?  Should I give her books to look at?  Should I ignore her when she kicks her bed or go to her door and tell her to go to bed?  Each stage of raising a child has it's challenges and it's benefits, but this stage is certainly trying on me right now.  I know she needs her sleep, and I know that she can't make it all day without a nap, but I can't force her to sleep.  That's a choice that she can make now, and sometimes it's frustrating knowing that a no nap day is going to lead to a night of testing Mommy and Daddy's patience.

However, the wonderful thing about an almost two and a half year old, is that they move on much more easily than adults.  While I am still frustrated by her lack of nap and am beginning to make dinner, Samantha acts likes her adorable self and lightens my mood.  She is playing with her necklaces and asks me, "What necklace do you want?"  I replied, "Green because that's my favorite color."  Samantha then said, "Well, that's not an option.  Purple is an option."  Hmm...I wonder where she's heard that before, surely not from Daddy and me. :)

Thursday morning, Samantha and I were playing with Legos.  She was building a house and decided it needed a "back around porch."  We are thinking that she meant a wrap around porch, but neither of us know where she got that from.  Who knows where she gets some of the strange and interesting things that pop into her mind and then come out of her mouth.  All we know is that there is always something going on up there in her little mind, that's for sure.

Samantha had gymnastics again on Thursday morning and was so excited about it.  She did a great job listening to her teacher, going through the obstacle course, trying to walk on the balance beam by herself, and jumping off the tall mats without always holding onto my hands.  I'm always so proud to watch her be brave in new situations.  The smile of accomplishment on her face is priceless.

After we got back from gymnastics, we did day two of my preschool plans.  Our theme was butterflies, but the only butterfly books I could find in our house were more about caterpillars changing into butterflies, which went very well with this little song.  (Pardon my not so great voice.  I had a pretty bad cold that day and was feeling rather crummy.)

We made a butterfly using a coffee filter and instead of using water dyed with food coloring, I decided to let Samantha use her watercolors.  This was the first time she had ever used watercolors and for some reason it was kind of confusing to her.  In the past we have always just used paint and several paintbrushes so that we could dunk them in water, clean them off, and reuse them for another color.  Well, the concept of dunking the paintbrush in water and then rubbing it on the paint color just seemed backwards to her.  I kept having to explain to her what she was supposed to do so that the colors would work, and I think it was just frustrating to her because she didn't want to paint for very long, whereas normally she'll pain for quite awhile.  We'll have to give it another try another day and see if she gets the hang of it the second time around.

And here is our awesome butterfly snack.  When I was making it, Samantha was complaining about not wanting bananas and apples, but once she saw what it looked like, she was pretty excited about it.

Our last activity was the sensory bin that I created with dried beans, barley, and dried noodles.  I wasn't sure what Samantha would think of this because she's never experienced something like this before.  However, she always enjoys the sand table at the Children's Museum.  I set the bin on the floor in the kitchen to make spills easier to clean up, and Samantha played with this for probably a good twenty-five minutes, dumping from the bin to the bowl, scooping and pouring from the big spoon to the little spoon or vice versa.  She really had a good time exploring this activity.  Sometimes I look at her and think, man, she's growing up way too fast.  I can't believe how big she is.  I am so lucky to be able to spend every day with my little girl rather than going to work away from her.  I love the time that we get to spend together.  It will always be precious to me.

On Friday, my parents were arriving from Chicago in the afternoon, so Samantha and I spent the morning doing preschool activities again.  Today, we had B activities on the theme of body parts.  I had to do a little clarification on what the word body meant, though, because Samantha thought I was talking about her private parts.  I think she gets the words body and bottom mixed up in her head because they sound awfully similar.  Her favorite activity of the day was the one where we picked parts to put on Mr. Potato Head, and she had to put corresponding pieces of tape on herself.  She liked having tape all over her face, that was pretty fun. :)

We decided to surprise Daddy on Friday afternoon and bring lunch to him at his office.  We stopped at Jimmy John's for sandwiches and then went to find parking on campus near his building.  Samantha was so excited to see her Daddy that she ran down the sidewalk towards him as she saw him approaching.  We had a good time eating our lunch in the big chairs, and Samantha did a great job eating her Plain Jim sandwich all by herself like a big girl.

Our lunch outing was a bit too exciting for Samantha because we didn't get home until late, meaning she didn't get down for her nap until around 2:00.  She always has a hard time falling asleep right after she gets home from something, and then my parents arrived like twenty minutes later.  I kept hoping she would fall asleep for at least a little while, but it didn't happen.  She was just too excited about Cago Ema and Papa coming, and also about what would happen after her nap--seeing Curious George at the library.

Once I finally got Samantha up and started getting her ready to go to the library, she could just not contain herself.  She was so excited that she kept smiling and squealing.  Daddy met us at the library auditorium, and we sat down, waiting to see and meet Curious George.  After some introductory songs, stories, and a video, George finally came out.  Samantha even got to go meet him and have her picture taken with him!  She was not afraid to approach him at all.  In fact, she ran right up to him and gave him a huge hug.  It was an exciting day for her.

Samantha always enjoys having grandparents come to stay at our house.  The main activity of the weekend was reading.  She would just bring book after book to Grandpa and Grandma to read to her.  They were even kind enough to watch Samantha for us so Ben and I could go to an IU football game and get a nice, relaxing dinner out at one of our favorite restaurants that is not too Samantha friendly.  Ben and I had a really enjoyable time watching the game, eating dinner, and talking freely to each other rather than to our little girl.  (Which, don't get me wrong, we love, but sometimes it's nice to have an uninterrupted, adult conversation.) It was good for everyone because then Cago Ema Papa and Samantha had some good bonding time together, playing and enjoying some good quality time, one of Samantha's love languages.

It was a great weekend together, much better than the last time my parents visited and I had to take Ben to the ER.  It's funny though because when grandparents are around, Samantha really could care less about Mommy and Daddy.  Every time she went down for a nap or went to sleep for the night, she wanted to know whether Cago Ema Papa would still be there when she woke up.  She loves her grandparents.