Samantha: 34 Months, Week 1 {Fun with Sadie, Children's Museum, and Childbirth Class}

With this past week being Spring Break, our schedule wasn't too affected, but I decided to try to organize some special activities.  Ben continued to work on campus and had some high school visits in Indianapolis to do, so really life and our schedule continued on much like normal.  We have just been SO busy lately.  As I'm looking back on our calendar from March, I am just amazed at how much we have crammed into this last month.  I know part of it was intentional because I am trying to get everything possible done before April comes, I get closer to my due date, and then Aedan will be born, putting a lot of things in life on hold while we get adjusted to a newborn and life with two kids.

Since we had just gotten back from our family trip to Cincinnati on Sunday, March 16, Samantha and I just took it easy on Monday, St. Patrick's Day.  We took Roscoe in to be groomed, but other than that we just stayed home, I wore sweatpants all day, we played, and I cleaned the house (which is more work than it seems now that I am almost 8 months pregnant).  Samantha enjoyed some down time to play, to rest, to read, and to get some alone time in her own home after a bustling weekend of activity.

Tuesday we had our normal day of watching Sadie and going to story time at the library.  Wednesday we usually go to BSF, but since it was Spring Break, there was no Bible study.  Instead, we made plans with a few moms from BSF for a play date at the Banneker Center.  Samantha was really excited to go there and play, and she was really excited that Sadie got to come with us too.  Sadie took a really good nap that morning, so we arrived there a little before ten and then stayed until almost noon.  It was funny to see how all the different girls interacted with each other.  One little girl, Abby, who is almost two, stayed around her mommy quite a bit and was a bit more quiet and reserved in her playing.  Another little girl, Trinity, was almost four, and she was also fairly quiet, wanting to spend most of her time in a little play house or sitting in a chair playing in the play kitchen.  Sadie was just taking it all in, watching the older girls play, and crawling around to explore the huge play room.  I tried to feed her a bottle about halfway through our time there, and she was just not interested.  There was just too much to look at and too much to do to take time to eat.  Samantha also kind of went off by herself.  She found a tiny plastic Ariel doll to play with and carried that around with her most of the rest of the morning.  She played with a little castle, rode in the cars, and of course, played dress up.  But again, she didn't really interact with the other little girls either.  I think the four girls were just at a wide enough variety of ages that they didn't know quite how to play with each other.  They just split off and played in their own way by themselves, which really was just fine with us moms because it gave us the opportunity to sit and talk while our girls played in a safe, kid friendly environment.  The Banneker Center is just a wonderful place for preschool age children.

After we got back from the Banneker Center on Wednesday and I was getting lunch ready, I took this hilarious video of Samantha and Sadie.  The girls have really been cute together lately.  Samantha has really enjoyed interacting with Sadie more, playing with her, crawling around with her and letting Sadie "chase" her, and especially in finding ways to make Sadie laugh as you can see in this video.  Sadie just loves Samantha as well.  When she sees her, she'll crawl toward her and want to touch her and climb on her.  When I take Sadie up to Samantha's room after she wakes up from her nap, Sadie will just squeal with delight and kick her feet up and down.  As soon as I put her on the floor, she will crawl right over to Samantha's bed, pull herself up on her bed, and give Samantha the biggest smile.  Our house is just not exciting enough when it's just Sadie and me; it's much more exciting when Samantha is awake and able to play.  These two girls have become good friends over the last seven or so months, and I think Samantha will really miss when Sadie no longer comes over to our house after April 9.

For awhile now with Samantha, we have been unable to tell her about our plans too far in advance because it will greatly impact her sleeping.  If she knows of something exciting that is going to happen the next morning, then she will have trouble going to sleep at night or will wake up much earlier than she should in the morning.  If she knows of something exciting happening in the evening after her nap, then oftentimes she will just be too excited to nap.  So, because of those things and because of how important sleep is both to her and to us, we don't tell her plans until right before they happen.  In fact, when she wakes up in the morning her first question is usually, "Where are we going today?" or "What are we doing today?"

Thursday this past week was one of those exciting days.  I had made plans with a friend from church, Mindy, and her girls Cora and Millie, to go to the Children's Museum for the day.  Again, I wanted to fit in one more trip up to Indianapolis for the day before I hit the 36 week mark and really before I get too uncomfortable to want to do something like that by myself.  Our family pass has been a wonderful investment, and it was great because Mindy only had to pay for an additional children's ticket since both her and one of her children could get in free on our family pass.  If we are still in Bloomington for another year, we will have to consider whether it would be worth it to get another family pass because we have definitely more than got our money's worth this past year.  Samantha was SO excited when we told her what we were going to be doing that day, but for some reason she was just acting so tired that morning.  (As I look back on this while writing, I see that this is a trend lately.  Even though she has been getting good sleep at night and good naps during the day, it seems like it's never enough and she's always tired.)

Mindy came to pick us up around 9:00 so that we could all ride together in her minivan.  Ben helped install Samantha's car seat, and then we hit the road.  Samantha did a pretty good job on the way up to Indianapolis and amused herself fairly well, even though it was hard for her to talk to Cora and Millie in the back seat.  She talked to Mindy and me quite a bit too, but it still worked out for Mindy and I to catch up quite a bit on the drive.

While at the museum, we had a great time, but I had a little bit of trouble with Samantha's behavior.  Again, she was just acting SO tired, and she was not being a good listener which is not like her, especially when she's doing something fun like playing at the Children's Museum.  I had to give her three time outs while we were there.  Once by the trains because she kept going on without me and without telling me, even though we had already had a conversation about how she needed to stay with me, Mindy, and the girls.  Then, we had a little conversation by the little plastic art building area because she was trying to crawl into the bins that hold the plastic pieces.  However, the worst time out was after lunch when we decided to go ride on the carousel.  There was a bit of a line, which is not unusual and something Samantha should expect to have happen.  We all got in line, but Samantha just zoomed ahead in front of other people in line.  That wouldn't have even been that big of a deal if she would have come right back in line with me, but when I went up the line to get her and bring her back, she yanked her hand away from me and screamed.  So, I gave Mindy our member pass so that they could still go on the carousel, and I took Samantha out into the hallway outside of the carousel area.  I sat her in a corner against a post and gave her a time out.  Yes, I was that parent who had a little girl throwing a temper tantrum in the corner.  She was screaming and crying and begging to go on the carousel.  Once she finally started to calm down a little bit, I got down on her level to talk to her as tears streamed down her face.  We talked about how we have to be patient and wait in line, about how we can't pull away from Mommy and scream, and about how she was not being a good listener and was being disrespectful.  Even though she begged and cried to be able to go on the carousel with Cora and Millie, I decided to give her a consequence to her behavior and made her sit out on a bench with me and watch them ride it without us.  I told Samantha that if she was a better listener the rest of the afternoon at the museum, that we would all ride the carousel again before we left.  This behavior is just so unlike her.  Usually it takes only one time out to get through to her, so she was really having an off day.  Luckily, her behavior was much better after having to sit out at the carousel so she was able to ride it with her friends before we left for the day.

Even though parenting was a bit of a challenge with Samantha at the museum, we really did have a good time.  The girls had fun exploring their own interests in each room.  They shared their fruit snacks with Samantha at lunch.  Samantha enjoyed climbing through the tunnel and going down the slide in the Science Works section.  Mindy and I had a good time talking and catching up with each other.  It was a great day, and we succeeded in tiring the girls out.  Millie fell asleep in the car on the way home.  Cora read quietly in the back.  Samantha talked to Mindy and I pretty much the whole way back to Bloomington, probably because she knew if she stopped talking that she would fall asleep.  Oh our little girl, sometimes she's exhausting, but it is so rewarding all at the same time.  I am pretty lucky to be Samantha's Mommy.

When we got back to Bloomington, it was time for my piano lessons to start so Ben took over care of Samantha.  Since she didn't nap at all in the car, we were going to try to get her to nap when she got home, even though it was 3:45.  We had our small group that evening and knew it would be pretty impossible for us to go if Samantha didn't take some sort of a nap that afternoon.  Luckily, she was really tried, and she fell asleep right away for Daddy.  In fact, she took a nice good nap and we had to wake her up for dinner.  Samantha is not a big fan of being woken up from sleeping.  She's always been like that, even when she was little it was better if we just let her wake up on her own.  When Daddy went in to wake her up for dinner, she cried and got upset, almost like she was surprised and taken aback, so Daddy just left the door open to her room, telling her to come down to dinner when she was ready.

She finally woke up enough to join us for dinner and then acted more like herself.  She was pretty excited about going to our small group tonight, especially because we told her she was going to get to watch a movie there since Delilah, the babysitter, wouldn't be there since it was Spring Break.  We picked out Monsters, Inc. to watch there, and as we got it set up on the TV in the basement, Samantha made herself comfortable on the couch.  I told her that if she needed something or needed to go to the bathroom, she could tell one of the older kids or she could come upstairs and get us, but we didn't hear a peep from her, except for hearing her laugh at the movie a couple of times.  In fact, when our small group was over and I went back down to the basement to get her, she was sitting in the exact same place on the couch.  Did she really sit on the couch and watch a movie for an hour and a half?  It's very possible.  She was very tired from her busy day, and she thought it was pretty special that she got to watch a WHOLE movie at someone else's house.  Now, she's going to want to do this every week during our small group.

On Friday morning, Cora and Millie came over to our house to play while their parents went to training.  Samantha was still pretty tired from our busy day at the Children's Museum and small group the day before, so as you can see in this picture, she spent a lot of time sitting off by herself.  It's always interesting when we have kids over to play because Samantha isn't the greatest at sharing when it comes to her own toys.  She does really well in public places like the Banneker Center or the library with sharing toys, I think because she knows they aren't hers.  But when Cora and Millie came over, they wanted to play with her dolls and Samantha had a hard time being okay with that.  She got pretty upset at one point so I took her over on the stairs and had a conversation with her about how she gets to play with her dolls every day, and even immediately after the girls leave, so the polite thing to do is to let your friends have a turn while they are at your house.  That seemed to make sense to her, but it was still difficult for her.

On Friday afternoon Samantha took a nice, good nap, which was nice and well needed after our busy day yesterday and Upland Grandpa and Grandma arriving that night.  Daddy got home a bit early from campus and offered to go grocery shopping so that when Samantha woke up we could go out and play at a park in the nice weather.  We had a high of 70 degrees, and it was warm and sunny, just a beautiful day.  Samantha had a great time playing at the park, going down slides, and riding on the swings.  Even after we got home from the park, while Daddy and I made homemade pizza, we let Samantha play outside by herself on our patio.  It was so nice to have the windows open again and to hear Samantha outside playing and drawing with her chalk.  Springtime, we are ready for you!

After dinner we gave Samantha an early bath so that she had time to play with Grandpa and Grandma when they arrived.  Samantha was pretty sleepy after her bath and enjoyed some snuggles with her Daddy while waiting for them to arrive.  They were watching college basketball together, and she found it pretty interesting to see if they made the basket or not, especially enjoying when she caught a glimpse of the cheerleaders or a mascot.

Samantha was pretty excited when Grandpa and Grandma finally arrived.  She immediately wanted to show Grandma her dollhouse that we moved upstairs into her room to make room for Aedan's swing downstairs.  It's funny how just moving a toy to a different location can renew your child's interest in it.  We let her stay up past her bedtime so she could play a little longer, and she had a bit of a hard time calming down to fall asleep that night.  It was for a good reason though.  We are glad Samantha loves her grandparents so much.  It was particularly special to have Upland Grandpa and Grandma staying overnight because they usually just come visit for the day and then leave.  Samantha was thrilled that they would still be there in the morning to play with her and take care of her while we went to our childbirth prep class at the hospital.

Saturday from 9-6 Ben and I went to our childbirth prep class, and Grandpa and Grandma stayed and took care of Samantha for us.  It was so nice to have them there, and it gave me a little glimpse of what it will be like when Aedan is born and they come down to stay with us and help us out.  We have no worries when Samantha is with them.  We know that they will give her a good lunch, they will keep her busy, interact well with her, discipline her if need be, try to get her to take a nap, as well as take care of keeping things clean and picked up around the house.  Samantha is going to feel like a special, spoiled young lady when Aedan is born and Grandma (and maybe Grandpa, too) come stay at our house for awhile.

Grandma told us a funny story about Samantha while they stayed at our place.  Apparently back a few weeks ago, when she was taking Samantha to the restroom, they were talking about the story of David and Goliath.  Samantha said that David was able to beat Goliath because he loved God, but Goliath didn't love God.  Then, after a brief pause Samantha said, "Sometimes I don't love God."  Grandma was intrigued by this comment, wondering what she meant by that.  Then Samantha went on to say that sometimes she doesn't love God when she's disrespectful to Mommy and Daddy.  Where does our little girl get these things?  I know Grandma was pretty impressed that she was connecting loving God with being respectful to her parents.  It's amazing how much Biblical truth little kids can pick up without you even intending it.  We are so grateful for her faithful teachers at BSF and at church.  Samantha is such a little sponge, and we are glad that she's soaking up this truth at such an early age.

Our day at the childbirth prep class was good, but long and full of lots of information.  Ben and I were the only returning, non-first time parents, but I especially thought it was helpful to go through the breathing and labor techniques again.  Especially since we are trying to have a natural birth this time, rather than using an epidural like I did with Samantha, I had my ears more in tune with breathing and relaxation techniques to help me through the various stages of labor.  I also paid a lot more attention to the stations we went through in the labor and delivery room, with Ben making notes of which ones I thought would be particularly helpful or comforting to me while laboring.  Before the class I felt a lot of anxiety and nervousness about labor and delivery, even though I've done it before, your mind kind of blocks out a lot of things about the birthing process, I think.  But after the class I felt like I had more tools in my belt to help me cope and I felt more of a sense of empowerment, that my body is made and created to deliver my baby, and that if everything progresses normally, there is no reason I cannot experience natural childbirth.

We also learned a few new things about the hospital experience that have changed since Samantha's birth.  One thing, which is a definite plus, is that they now have actual beds for the dads to sleep in in the Mother/Baby rooms.  Before they just had these terrible pull-out sofas that were extremely uncomfortable.  I know Ben had a terrible time sleeping on it while we were in the hospital.  In fact, I think his feet actually hung off the end of the bed.  It will be nice to know that Ben has a comfortable place to sleep while we are in the hospital after Aedan's birth.  They also have a new room called a Lullaby Lounge which is intended for dads or other approved family members to take the baby for some time in order to give the mom a chance to rest in peace for awhile.  I thought this was a really neat, considerate idea.  The hospital is pushing more for moms to be continuously with their babies from the moment they are born to the moment you are discharged, unless there is a medical emergency.  Even back a few years ago when Samantha was born, this wasn't totally the case because a nurse took Samantha for a few hours each night we were at the hospital to allow us to get some sleep (which I still feel guilty about).  I am really glad that the hospital is emphasizing that time of bonding between mom and baby, and even dad and baby.  They want you to get experience with dealing with your baby waking up at night, how to recognize their feeding cues, how to calm them when they're fussy, and what better of a place to figure that out than in a place surrounded by nurses that are there to help you figure it out.  The other thing that they pointed out, which I found interesting, are the visiting hours.  It seemed like last time they just left it open ended for whenever you wanted to have people visiting, but at our class the nurse emphasized following the hospital visiting hours of 11 am to 8 pm with a Snooze and Snuggle time from 3-5 to give the new parents and baby a built in time to nap.  I am definitely going to use my nap time more this time since I will not only be dealing with a newborn but also an almost three year old.

Anyways, it was a long, good day, helping me to feel more prepared for labor and more excited for that fast approaching day.  I am actually looking forward to the day my contractions begin, knowing that it means I will finally be able to see and hold my son.  I am excited about our time in the hospital to rest and get to know his personality, with the added benefit of having Samantha cared for in our home by her grandparents.  I am over the top excited to have Aedan join our family.

Our busy weekend ended with a more relaxed day of going to church, Daddy getting Samantha to take a good nap, and a lazy afternoon/evening at home watching Frozen and relaxing together as a family.  It was a much needed day of rest after a very busy week.

Samantha: 33 Months, Week 4 {Zoo Trip, Playing Outside, Cincinnati Family Vacation}

On Mondays Samantha and I usually hang out at home more, only leaving the house for Samantha's gymnastics lesson; however, Monday's forecast was for the low 60s, and I just had to take advantage of that nice weather for our first trip this year to the Indianapolis Zoo.  As I quickly approach 36 weeks and the technical time you are not recommended to be more than an hour away from home, I also have wanted to take Samantha on some last outings before Aedan arrives.  So, we packed ourselves a lunch, loaded up the car with library books to read on the way there, and headed out to meet another mom from church and her little boy at the zoo.  After having a long weekend of staying the night in Brown County and not napping much on Saturday, along with Samantha's little stuffy nose, she was pretty tired on Monday and enjoyed riding around in her stroller a lot more than normal.  In fact, on our drive up to Indianapolis, Samantha hardly said a word, which is very unlike her.  She just looked out the window and then looked at the big bag of library books we brought along with us.  It was kind of nice having a quiet car trip with Samantha, but when she usually talks so much, her not talking is strange sometimes.

We have been to the zoo so much with our membership pass that Samantha knows where everything is and what her favorite places are to visit.  We always watch the seals and sea lions swim around in the water and make their barking noise, before heading into the Oceans building.

The zoo was not as crowded as it has been in the past when we've visited, making it a lot easier to get around and not be stuck in a crowd of people.  It seemed like the dog sharks were a lot more active than usual, some even sticking their heads up out of the water.  Samantha goes back and forth on whether she likes to pet the sharks or not.  Today, she was very excited about petting them and probably pet various sharks six or seven times.  She was pretty proud of herself.

Then, when we got the penguin area, we stood and watched one of the zookeepers feeding the penguins and another zookeeper walking around petting the penguins inside the exhibit.  The penguins are always a big hit for Samantha.

After seeing the forest animals, of which the bald eagle and tiger were not out, we decided it was time for lunch.  Samantha did a pretty good job eating her lunch, although like usual, she was more interested in eating her blueberries than her sandwich.  She went through a phase where she really liked sandwiches, but now she has been kind of anti-bread and will just pick out the meat and cheese from the inside.

After lunch we went back to see the Plains animals and then decided it was time to ride the carousel and the train before heading back home.  Samantha had the cutest smile in this picture while we were waiting for the ride to start.  It was strange for her though because she is used to going to the zoo with more than just one person, so she commented, "There's no one for me to wave to!"  She solved that problem by just waving at everyone else standing around watching the carousel.  Some of them waved back, but not very many.  Our little friendly daughter, she makes me smile.

After having a fun day at the zoo, it was time to head back home because I had to get back for my afternoon piano lessons.  Samantha was a pretty tired little girl and fell asleep pretty quickly in the car, cuddled up under her blanket, and sleeping for about fifty minutes on the way home.  We had a wonderful time together, and I'm just so glad that I can have these experiences with my little girl.  I have been having a lot of apprehensive feelings lately with Aedan arriving in the next six weeks or so.  I want to maximize the time I have with just Samantha, making this time special for her as the last weeks as just a family of three, the last weeks where all of our attention can be solely focused on Samantha.  My, how I love staying at home with my precious little girl.

After the quick nap in the car, we arrived home just in time for my piano lessons to start, so Daddy took Samantha out to a park to play during my lessons, since it was such a beautiful day.  Can you tell we are anxious for the arrival of spring?  Samantha was pretty tired from already having a long day at the zoo, but she had a good time playing at the park, getting her hands dirty...

...and rolling down the hill.  When the weather finally stays nice like this, we won't be able to keep Samantha inside.  The winter has been so brutal and cold, and this day's weather was so refreshing.  We were even able to open up our windows and patio door during the day, feeling the fresh air breeze blowing in through the window.  Ahh, it was glorious!

After dinner that night, we once again took advantage of the warmer weather, going on a family walk, which is a nightly tradition when the weather is warm.  Samantha decided she wanted to push Dolly in the stroller, which always works out well for the first half of the walk, but then Samantha gets tired of pushing her, taking some coaxing to get her all the way back home again.  Nevertheless, it was a wonderful evening to saunter around our apartment complex.

Tuesday was another beautiful day outside, with a high of 72 degrees!  After being at the zoo yesterday, not napping much, and playing outside in the afternoon, Samantha was tired girl and slept in until almost 8:30 in the morning, much later than usual, and for a total of like 12 1/2 hours overnight.  We had our normal Tuesday morning of taking care of Sadie and attending story time at the library.  There weren't as many people there, probably because of the nice weather outside, which meant that Samantha was able to play with the train table all by herself.  It's always difficult for her when there are a lot of boys playing at the table already, because they generally don't do a good job of sharing train cars with her.

The afternoon went pretty well with Sadie taking a good nap.  Samantha did not nap, and I ended up just leaving the room and letting her read in bed because she wasn't acting too sleepy.  Especially since she slept 12 1/2 hours the night before, I wasn't too surprised that she was resisting nap time.  Plus, I didn't mind because the weather was so beautiful, I had the windows and patio door open, and I had plans to take the girls to a park to play and have Michelle just pick Sadie up from the park.  I even sent Daddy a message to let him know what we were doing and suggested that he pick up some Jimmy John's for us to eat outside at the park.  The weather forecast for Wednesday had an over forty degree temperature drop, along with snow in the forecast, so I just couldn't bear the thought of going back home and eating inside.  It was a wonderful evening, and Daddy and I were so impressed with how much Samantha has developed physically since the last time we played at a park last fall.  In the past, she would always want to try to climb up ladders and other steps like that on playgrounds, but she wasn't sure enough on her feet, so we would always want to be there to spot her and help her.  However, these last two days on the playground, she has shown us we no longer have to worry about that.  She can climb anything with ease.  She doesn't need our help anymore.  It's exciting, yet again another step towards independence.

Wednesday was a normal day of watching Sadie and going to BSF.  It was so different from the last two days as the temperature dropped and big, puffy snowflakes fell from the sky as we were driving to BSF.  Samantha took a good nap, and we had a good evening together as a family.

Thursday was a busy day, with many activities scheduled for our family.  Daddy agreed to take Samantha to a make up gymnastics class so that I could get to Mom's REST Stop on time, since the times of the two overlapped.  When I went to pick Samantha up after REST Stop was over, she was wearing a long, silver dress-up dress.  They have a huge bin of dress up clothes in the three year old room at church, so Samantha always takes advantage of that when she gets to play in that room.  I have a feeling when she moves to the three year old room on Sunday mornings, she will be dressed up in a princess dress every Sunday.  Samantha fell asleep a little after 2:00 (it seems to work better if I try to put her down for her nap a little later), which I was glad for because we had our first small group meeting that night which would put us out past Samantha's normal bed time.  She did really well playing in the basement with the other kids and the older girl, Delilah, that we have hired to watch the kids for us while we do our Bible Study.  It was good for us to finally get involved in a small group again.  We have been wanting to get one off the ground for so long, but it's been difficult to get one formulated and get people committed.

Then, the weekend we had all been waiting for finally arrived.  Spring Break started, which doesn't really mean too much to us, but we had a fun weekend planned.  We booked two nights at a Staybridge Suites hotel in Cincinnati, using a free night and hotel points from our credit card.  I had another doctor's appointment on Friday morning for a weight, heartbeat check, and tummy measurement.  Everything was looking good again.  I come back in two weeks again and then will go every week after that until Aedan is born.  It's so strange that we are already that close, sometimes it seems so surreal, like I couldn't possibly be that far along already.  Time is going by so quickly and at times I wish I could slow down time a little bit.  My doctor asked a little bit about what our birth plan was as far as getting an epidural or not, and we told him again that we are planning on using a doula and trying to have a natural birth this time.  At my next appointment, I will have an exam and my Group B Strep test, so Ben and Samantha will not be joining me for that.

After my appointment, we headed out on our family trip to Cincinnati.  We stopped for a quick potty break and coffee stop at Starbucks along the way, stopped for lunch at a Skyline Chili, and then stopped again because Samantha had to go to the bathroom again.  It took us a little longer than we would have liked to get there with all this stopping, but we weren't in a hurry, so it worked out well.  We got to our hotel and had to wait a little while for our hotel room to be ready, since we were doing early check in.  Once we got everything settled in our room, we tried to get Samantha to take a nap because we had a big evening planned of attending an indoor water park.  It took a little while for her to settle down for a nap, but she did eventually fall asleep in her pack and play for a couple hours, giving us much more opportunity to stay out and have fun that night.

After waking up from her nap, we told her what our plan was for the night, and she was so excited.  Our plan was to go to the water park, spend as much time there as we wanted, and either eat dinner there or eat after we left.  We got discounted tickets online for going on a Friday night, arriving at the water park around 5:00.  However, when we got there, everyone was standing around waiting outside the water park, and we discovered that a wire got hit in some local construction down the street, knocking the power out of their water park.  They were fairly certain they could get it fixed and that they would open shortly, but we figured we would maximize our time and went out to eat first.  So, we went out to Five Guys just a couple minutes away, ate some yummy hamburgers and fries (grilled cheese for Samantha).  Samantha was in such a good mood that she couldn't even sit still to eat her dinner.  She was dancing around to the classic rock music played in the restaurant, alternating between taking a bite and dancing around.

After having our fill of dinner, we headed back to the Coco Key Water Resort to check on their power situation.  They had gotten the power turned back on and were working on getting everything ready to open the doors.  We only had to wait a few minutes before being let in to change into our swimsuits and start swimming and playing.  I took Samantha in with me to change, and she was SO excited that she could hardly stand to wait for me to get my bathing suit on too.  There was one section that stayed closed throughout the remainder of the night because of a problem with the water filters, but we had a great time at the rest of the water park, floating around on tubes on the lazy river, but mostly spending our time in this play area that you can see in the picture below.  The water was pretty warm, making it a really fun place to run around and play.  Most our time was spent on the yellow slides you can see on the bottom left.  That's where most of the kids Samantha's age played.  They would go down the slide, zoom right back around up the stairs, and go right down the slide again.  The other fun thing was the big blue bucket you can see at the top of the picture.  There were pipes funneling in water and as the bucket got full, a bell would ring louder and faster.  Once the bucket got full, it would tip over, drenching everyone standing underneath or around it.  Samantha really enjoyed this part too, even though she would act frightened of it and try to run away, I think she secretly liked getting dumped on.

We had a wonderful time at the water park, and we were so glad that we decided to take Samantha here.  She is such a little fish and LOVES being the water, she just couldn't get enough.  I think it was after 8:30 when we finally got out of the water to get in dry clothes and head out.  She wondered why other kids were able to stay, and we explained that most of the other kids were older and had later bedtimes than Samantha, so they could stay longer.  That seemed to suffice as an answer to her.  Even though it was late, we made a quick stop at Kroger to get lunch food for the next couple days before heading back to the hotel.  We decided that we would try to let Samantha sleep on the pull out sofa in the living room area of our hotel room.  We brought a hook on bed railing with us that Daddy got set up on one side of the bed, and we put the couch cushions up against the bed on the other side so that she wouldn't roll out of bed.  We told Samantha that we would try to have her sleep on this pull out sofa, but that if she didn't go to sleep like a big girl, we would have her sleep in the pack and play instead.  Luckily, I think because it was already 10:00, and she thought it was so cool to be sleeping on a big bed, we didn't have any trouble getting her to fall asleep.

On Saturday morning Samantha woke up around 8:00, her normal wake up time, laughing and squealing, probably because she woke up and realized she was still sleeping in the cool pull out sofa in a hotel.  Life was pretty good. :)  Daddy and I decided to just wake up when she woke up, so after we got her up and dressed, he and I took turns taking showers while we let Samantha watch cartoons on TV.  She was amazed that we were allowing her to watch TV for no reason, not because she had taken a nap, like is normal in our house.  Daddy and I were joking around about how Samantha is going to think Cincinnati is the greatest vacation destination after being able to stay up two hours pasther bedtime, sleeping on the pull out sofa, and watching cartoons for no reason before breakfast.  It's vacation, you can break all the rules when you're on vacation, right?"

After we were all ready, we headed downstairs to the lobby for breakfast.  Samantha was pretty ecstatic about her breakfast of Froot Loops, peaches, and a muffin for breakfast.  She didn't even want milk on her Froot Loops, just wanted to eat them dry.  If only we had non-healthy cereal like that at our house, she would be in heaven!  We then drove to a preschool play place about a half an hour away called Totter's Otterville.  We had thought about going to a children's museum in Cincinnati, but it was very expensive, and I had read reviews about it being not worth the amount they charged for it.  In fact, one of the reviewers mentioned this play place as being much more fun and cheaper.  It only cost $7.95 for Samantha to get in and adults were free.  It was a very good price and well worth it as we spent out whole day there, leaving there after 2:30 in the afternoon.  Samantha could have stayed there playing much longer than that, but we wanted to get her back to the hotel for a nap.

The first place we visited at the play place was an indoor climbing structure with a few different slides, a ball pit, and a gigantic elephant.  Samantha had a pretty good time climbing around; however, she was pretty tired from staying up late the night before and was having a hard time remembering how to climb up to the tall, green slide you can see in the background of the picture.  She kept climbing back down instead of up, would get frustrated, and then would call for Daddy to come and help her find the way.  After that happening a few times, we decided maybe it was time to move on to a different place.

They had a round room with various "centers" around the outside of the room, each with a different theme.  The first place we visited was a pretend veterinarian office.  Samantha enjoyed checking out the stuffed animals with the doctor's kits, but then we moved onto her favorite room, the ballet room.  Once Samantha discovered this room, we could not get her to leave it.  They had a basket of ballet slippers for kids to wear and many different colored tutus.  Samantha helped herself to it, went out on the wooden dance floor with the ballet bars and mirrors, dancing around, and watching the little girl ballerinas dancing on the TV screen showing how to do different ballet moves and stretches.  She certainly is a little dancer, and she LOVED this room.  I think we are going to have to get Samantha into some ballet lessons soon.

After much convincing, we got Samantha to move on to the next area, which was the mail room.  She enjoyed collecting the envelopes, putting them in her mailbag, and then placing them in the mailbox.

After that, Samantha spent quite a bit of time in this construction area where you could gather foam blocks that looked like bricks, stick them in a little slot where they would land on a conveyor belt, and then push a button that would move the conveyor belt and the bricks along the belt, dropping them down a ramp so that you could put them all back in again.  This was a pretty fun area for Samantha as well; I think she enjoys the repetitive motion of putting things away and taking them out.

It was then time to go out to our car for our picnic lunch before coming back in to go to some other centers.  We started at the water table station, but Samantha wasn't too interested in this today.  She just wanted to move on to a different room.

The next area we visited was a big play room with many different toys.  Samantha was particularly drawn to the big dollhouse in the corner.  Then, this little boy came up and started playing with her, which was really cute.  I feel like it's not very often that little boys will play nicely and gently with girls, especially with a dollhouse.  Seeing Samantha enjoy this dollhouse so much also made be think of the dollhouse my dad made for my sister and I when we were little.  We used it mainly as a Barbie house, but we loved that three story dollhouse, and it's still in my parents' basement.  Hmm, maybe we could work on digging that out and cleaning it up as a fun Christmas present this year, or something like that?  

Since it was getting later in that afternoon, and we knew we would have to leave the play place soon, we convinced Samantha to move on by telling her that there was a train room.  She played in here for quite awhile as well, especially since she could play with a whole table all by herself with all of the trains with faces that she wanted.

After that we were off to the pretend grocery store.  Samantha had fun pushing the little shopping cart around, putting groceries in the cart along with her little baby.

She then found a dress-up room where she found a yellow Belle princess dress that she had to put on before she went back shopping again.

Before leaving, we gave Samantha a last chance to dress up and play in the ballet room.  She was so cute watching the ballet dancers on the screen and trying to mimic what the ballerinas were doing.  I think we spent over an hour in the ballet room that day; it was definitely her favorite place.

We highly recommend this play place, if you have a preschooler and are ever near Covington, Kentucky, going to Totter's Otterville will be well worth your time and money.

We got back to the hotel after 3:00 that afternoon, but still got Samantha down for a late nap.  She slept on the pull out sofa for a couple hours, which we were so glad for.  Mommy and Daddy needed that time to relax and rest as well.  She ended up sleeping until 5:30 and then we went out for dinner at our favorite tex-mex restaurant, Chuy's.  We had to wait quite awhile to be seated but decided to still go swimming in the hotel pool even though it was already past her bedtime.

After we got Samantha all ready to go, she got on her pull out sofa, laid down, and covered herself up, saying, "It's hard to lay down with my floaties on!"

Here are two cute pictures of Daddy with his little girl before going down to swim in the pool.  Samantha loved swimming around in the pool with Daddy, using her floaties to float around the deep end of the pool, and squealing with delight as she jumped off the ladder into her Daddy's arms.

After swimming for over an hour, it was definitely time to get our little girl in bed.  She didn't fall asleep until around 10:00 that night, again two hours past her normal bedtime.  Vacation is just too fun to go to bed early.  However, she slept on the pull out sofa like a champ again.

On Sunday morning we woke up before Samantha so we could get ready before she woke up.  After swimming two nights in a row with no bath, we decided it would be a good idea to let Samantha take a shower at the hotel before going down to breakfast and heading out to the Newport Aquarium.  Samantha chose the exact same breakfast, but was extremely tired after having two late nights and long days away from home.  In fact, she wasn't the greatest listener at times, but we still had a good time at the aquarium.  We got there pretty much right when it opened at 10:00 and got to see the penguin parade.

They had a pretty cool shark tank area with a huge window you could look through to watch the sharks and fish swimming around.  This fascinated Samantha for quite awhile.

They had some pretty interesting fish there...

along with a huge alligator...

and an area of frogs.

Normally, it's me that is in charge of taking pictures when we are out places, or even at home, because I tend to think about it more often.  Because of that, we tend to have more pictures of Daddy and Samantha than Samantha and me.  However, I actually thought to ask Daddy to take a picture of Samantha and me at the aquarium.  I think it's a pretty good picture, too. :)

The aquarium wasn't a huge place to get around, so we had seen the whole thing by lunch time.  It was in the 30s that day, so we ate our packed lunches in the car.  We stopped by a local Graeter's ice cream shop since it's well-known for this area, and then hit the road to head back home.  Samantha slept for about an hour on the way home, which was good, even though she could have used more sleep after our fun-filled weekend vacation in Cincinnati.  It was such a good family trip with so many fun memories with Samantha and as a family of three before Aedan is born in April.  I love solid family time like this, such precious memories that will last a lifetime!