Samantha: 19 Months, Week 4

This week was a sad one for Mommy because I had to go back to work.  It was WONDERFUL having two weeks off to be with Samantha.  I miss her even more after spending long amounts of time with her.  It really makes me look forward to the summer and next year when I don't have to work and get to stay home with my little girl, and be a stay at home mom and wife.  Ben was really kind to me though, knowing that it would be a difficult day for me.  He took this adorable video of Samantha eating breakfast, attempting to say, "I love you Mommy."  He then sent it to me at school so that I could see that my little girl was thinking about me and missed me too.  What a sweet, thoughtful husband I have!

This week progressed like normal, getting back into the swing of things, getting used to getting up early again, and no longer having much or any free time.  Samantha had a good week playing with her friends and the two week break didn't seem to make any difference to her.  We are so glad that we have such an easygoing, flexible little girl.

On Friday, which is Ben's day to take care of Samantha, he took her to the Banneker Center again.  Samantha LOVES this place, especially the little cars you can ride around in.  However, one time, there was another boy in the car and Samantha went up to him and said, "out."  Daddy stepped in at that point and told her no, that she couldn't do that, and Samantha got upset at him for telling her no.  Daddy put her in a time out, having her sit down in a chair, even in the midst of all the kids playing.  Samantha is such a compliant girl that she sat there quietly until Daddy told her it was okay to get up and play, just as long as she didn't try to take toys away from any kids.  The time out system seems to work pretty well with Samantha.  We don't use it very often because we can also redirect her pretty easily to ward off any tantrums or negative behavior, but when we do use it, she seems to get the point.  For example, with hitting, we started giving her time outs when she would hit or kick someone and she hardly ever does that anymore.  Hopefully discipline is always this easy with her.  :)

Later that evening, we took a trip up to Indianapolis to having dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Toll.  We ate at Jason's Deli and then walked around the mall for a little while.  Samantha loved going into the Disney Store, seeing all the dolls, stuffed animals, and dress up clothes.  On the way to Indy in the car I was drawing and writing things on her Magna Doodle.  I was drawing shapes and had her identify them for me, and then I wrote, Samantha Loves Mommy and handed it to her.  Well, this is what she did to the board.  Is that what she thinks about loving Mommy? :)

On Sunday, Ben and I decided we needed a chocolate fix, and we let Samantha in on it.  She helped Daddy mix up the cake, as she is still very fascinated with the mixer. 

 It was very hard for Samantha to wait for them to bake and then to cool enough to frost them.  We let Samantha have her cupcake before she went to bed, even though it wasn't quite cool enough yet.  She loves chocolate!  I don't even need to describe how much she loves it, you can just watch the video below.

Here is Samantha all dressed up for church on Sunday.  This was a cute little hand me down dress that looked adorable on her.  She loves wearing dresses for church.

Samantha: 19 Months, Week 3

We left Chicago on December 31st to come back home to Bloomington.  Samantha was still pretty sick with a runny nose and pretty bad cough.  She was very tired from being away from home for so long and not sleeping as well because of her cough.  We actually ended up just sleeping out in the living room on our air mattress at my grandma's house so that we wouldn't disturb Samantha's sleep.  The first night we tried sleeping with her, but when we laid down on the air mattress we woke her up because of the squeaking rubber sound.  Especially with her not feeling very well, we wanted her to get the best sleep possible.  Here are some pictures of Samantha on the morning we left, sitting next to a giant Winnie the Pooh animal.

That night, once we finally got back home, we decided to just pick up dinner from Chipotle, Samantha's favorite dinner.  You can see her tiredness in her eyes, such big bags.  However, she did really enjoy her cheese quesadilla, rice, beans, and chocolate milk.  What a great kids' meal!

We were so glad to be back home again in our own beds.  When I laid Samantha down that night, she looked around her crib and sighed a huge contented sigh of relief.  It was adorable.

Samantha had a great night sleep and actually took an earlier nap the next morning because we had plans to go to the Indianapolis Auto Show, as a Christmas present to Ben's dad.  Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Timmy all met us at the car show.  Samantha really enjoyed herself (way more than her mommy who isn't too fond of looking at cars).  She wanting to get in every car, sit in the driver's seat, and have me close the door.  I think she enjoyed pretending like she was an adult.  When she's sixteen, she will enjoy these pictures. :)

After having our fill of the Auto Show, we went out to eat at The Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant.  Samantha was still not feeling up to par and was definitely not acting like herself.  She wouldn't eat hardly anything and was pretty fussy, which is very unlike her, especially when we are surrounded by people she can talk to.  We hoped that she would go to sleep on the ride home, but that was not the case. Ben ended up crawling in the back to sit with her and entertain her as we drove the hour home.  We felt bad dragging her out after we had just gotten back from our week and half long trip.  Looking back, Samantha and I probably should have just stayed home and rested.

The next day, we spent the day putting together and taking apart pieces of furniture.  We bought a new crib/changing table that changes into a toddler bed from our dear friends, so we had to take apart Samantha's changing table and crib to allow space for her new bed.  We also had to put together the little wooden table that was given to Samantha for Christmas from Uncle Timmy.  It took awhile to get her room all situated, but it looked great when we were finished.  Her room was transformed from a little baby's nursery to a toddler's room.  Samantha really enjoyed it, had no problem sleeping in her new crib (even though it was still the same mattress), and really enjoyed her new Dora hopscotch play mat.

Here is Samantha sporting her "new" hand me down clothes that she picked out of the bag herself.  Don't you like her fashion sense?  Her sweater has Minnie Mouse on it, which is pretty awesome in Samantha's world.  The picture below is Samantha listening to Ema and Papa read her the book "Good Night Moon."  It is one of the record-able books, and they took turns reading pages out loud.  At the end, they say, "Good night, Samantha.  We love you very much."  Samantha LOVES it.  She wanted to listen to it every time she took a nap or went to bed for almost the entire next week.

Also, just to round out this crazy day of house cleaning, rearranging, and reorganizing, Ben's college friend, Andy came to stay with us for the night.  Samantha was already in bed when he arrived, but we waited and ate dinner with him, playing a game afterwards, and having a good time talking about the past and looking forward to the future.  Samantha was very excited the next morning when she awoke to find a new friend to play with.  She instantly attached herself to him and even learned how to say his name.  We went out to Scholar's Inn Bakehouse for lunch, to which he treated us, which was greatly appreciated.  Samantha did a wonderful job in the restaurant eating her mac and cheese and stealing all of my pickles and pretzels.  Andy hit the road after lunch, but Samantha still talks about him to this day.  She'll ask, "Andy?" and we'll say, "He's in Iowa."

Here's our little girl bundled up to go outside in the cold weather and over a foot of snow that still remained on the ground from the storm the day after Christmas.  Do you see Dora on her shoulder?  That was my attempt to try and get her to smile for the camera.  My attempts were unsuccessful, as you can see.

On Thursday we went out to run a couple of errands in the evening, stopped by my school to see the Narnia decorations, and something very strange happened on the way home.  Samantha just started crying in the car, not just a tired, whiny cry.  She also began holding her ear.  She hadn't shown any signs all day of not feeling well and hadn't been indicating any ear pain, so we at first didn't think anything of it.  However, once we got home and tried to distract her with playing, she continued to just stop, hold her ear, and cry.  This is very unlike her and even though the symptoms seem to have just started, I decided to call the doctor to see if it sounded like she had an ear infection (since she had never experienced one of these before) and see if she could get into the doctor any time soon.  They suggested that we give her some ibuprofen for the pain, which seemed to help a lot, and luckily they had an opening at 7:45 that same night.  We took her to the doctor, and  they confirmed that she had an ear infection in both ears.  Samantha got her first prescription, amoxicillin, that she had to take twice a day for ten days.

While we were waiting at Kroger for her prescription to be filled, she got to ride around the store in the little car, which she has never done before.  Needless to say, for a girl who had a double ear infection, she was having a pretty good time riding in the car.

Even that night when we got back home and it was after nine o'clock, Samantha seemed to instantaneously feel better.  She loved the flavor of the pink medicine and especially liked the fact that she was allowed to eat pretzels afterwards since she shouldn't have the medicine on an empty stomach.  We were so glad that an antibiotic could make her feel better so quickly.  We continued giving her some ibuprofen at bedtime for a couple nights just to help her sleep better and take away any lingering pain, but she seemed to be on the mend very quickly.

Every once in awhile Samantha will pick her own clothes out of a basket of clean laundry.  On this day, she had just woken up and was still wearing her pajamas when she found some pink kitty pajamas that she wanted me to put on over her pajamas, and then a little pink summer shirt that she wanted me to put on top of that.  She was pretty proud of her style.

With all the new toys she got for Christmas, I decided we needed a new storage area to keep everything.  The three baskets on this shelf were previously used underneath Samantha's changing table, but since we took that down, I had to find a new use for these handy baskets.  While Samantha was taking a nap, I took a trip to Good Will looking for a shelf and found the perfect one.  The baskets fit just right on the shelf, leaving space for other containers that hold her other little toys like her cars, little people, and blocks.  The shelf only cost us $6 so I think it was worth the investment to get all the toys off the floor in an organized, easy to reach place.

It was nice to finally be back home, all settled in, and back in our old routine.  Samantha enjoyed going to church and looked pretty cute in her new dress that I got at Once Upon a Child.  That monkey that Samantha is sitting next to was Ben's when he was little.  Samantha loves it and gives it great big hugs.

Samantha: 19 Months, Week 2

Well, this week started with our Toll Family Christmas celebration.  We had to do it a little differently than normal because of the two little ones.  Instead of picking numbers and having each person pick a present for the next person, opening up one at at time, the girls helped pass out the presents so that everyone had one, and we all opened them up at the same time.  It was a little chaotic, and I couldn't tell what anyone else really got, but the girls had a great time tearing off the wrapping paper.  The hardest part for Samantha was the fact that everything was in a box and wrapped up.  She wanted to play with everything right away, and you know how hard it is to remove kid's toys from the packaging.  There was also one time where Samantha was about to open a big present that had the play pots and pans in it.  She leaned onto the paper where there was just empty space underneath and her arm fell through the paper.  She really surprised herself and started crying so hard.  I eventually had to pick her up and take her in the other room to quiet her down.  Then, the rest of our present opening time she was a lot more reserved and hesitant.  It was sad, but also kind of funny.

Samantha got some wonderful presents, an ABC puzzle, large wooden table with primary colored benches on each end and a storage basket underneath, a four foot long stuffed dog, a couple of wooden puzzles, play fruit and vegetables, play pots and pans, a little doll with pretend bottles and pacifier, some socks, some little divided plates, and a Dora hopscotch play mat.  There are probably other things that I missed, but we certainly felt blessed by the generosity of our family members.

Here is a video of the girls opening their goody bags from grandma with hair clips, crayons, and a coloring book.  They sat at the little table (the present from Tim) for quite awhile coloring and playing.

Later, after all the presents were opened and we were getting ready for our Christmas lunch, the girls wanted to climb inside the big box that the large stuffed dogs came in.  You know, they got lots of nice presents and wanted to play with the box.  :)  Isn't that how it always works with kids?

Here are a couple of pictures of Samantha and Alaina out for a walk with Grandma on Christmas Eve.

Later on that day, after nap time, we went outside and went sledding down the big hill in their backyard.  There was not too much snow, but enough to slide down.  Saying that Samantha loved it wouldn't be a strong enough expression of the delight on her face and in her voice as we rode down the hill.  She loved it so much that she cried when it was time to get off a the bottom, and the walk up the hill was agonizing, followed by relief when we finally sat back on the sled with her.  She probably would have spent the rest of the afternoon out there sledding, well past when every once else went inside.

On Christmas Day we ended up not doing anything too exciting since we already celebrated and opened presents yesterday.  We just played and enjoyed all the new presents.

One thing Samantha did enjoy at Grandma and Grandpa's house was riding around in the jogging stroller in the house.  She would climb in and say "Ready!"  I guess when you can't go outside due to cold weather, this is a good option!  You can also see in this picture below Samantha's two dollies.  The one on the left she received for her first birthday from Melanie, the one on the right she got for Christmas.  The rubix cube in the middle met its end when Samantha chucked it on the hardwood floor in the entryway.  It's amazing how many little pieces it broke into!  I love this picture of Samantha below.  She has such a beautiful smile! 

Originally, we were planning on leaving the day after Christmas (Wednesday) to drive up to Chicago to see my family.  However, there was a huge snowstorm coming and we decided to wait a day before traveling up.  We were supposed to get over a foot of snow, with high winds.  So, we spent the day after Christmas hanging out in the house.  It was very relaxing, staying in our pajamas most of the day, cuddling on the couch, and snuggling up under blankets.  We even turned Sesame Street on TV at one point in the morning, and Samantha laid with her head on my lap watching the show for quite awhile.  It's so nice to be comfortable and relax as a family.  Later on that day, after Samantha's nap, we went over to the Taylor gym to run around and get some energy out.  Samantha never does very well being cooped up inside all day.  She had a great time playing around in the gym.  She found a big, soft cushion used for track and field that she really enjoyed walking around on and jumping on.  She also got to watch a boy play basketball, and ever since then she will move her hand up and down and say, "bounce, bounce," just like the boy in the gym.

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On Thursday we left for Chicago in the morning so that we could get to Chicago in time for Samantha to take a good nap at my grandma's house.  Ben drove the first half of the drive in case the roads were a bit icier.  We decided to go up 69 and take the Indiana Toll-road across the Illinois rather than taking smaller country roads, to maximize well-plowed roads.  We then stopped for lunch and got some chicken nuggets for Samantha, and I drove the rest of the way.  Ben did a good job keeping her awake in the car, even though it was very difficult at times.  We wanted her to have a good, long nap at my Grandma's, rather than a short one in the car.  You can see our VERY full back of the car.  This is what happens at Christmas time with presents and all the stuff you have to bring to be gone with a toddler for a week and a half.

Well, that night, my family came over to my grandma's house for dinner.  We got deep dish pizza from Lou Malnati's pizza, but it was very difficult for Samantha.  She is kind of an early eater anyways, starting to get hungry for dinner around five o'clock and with the hour time change, that means Samantha was a hungry little girl when all of my family finally arrived after they were done with work for the day.  Samantha hardly ate much at all because she was so tired and ready for bed, but she still had a good time seeing more family.  She loves being around people.

The next day we went with my grandma and Don to one of my favorite restaurants as a kid.  It is a pancake house with really good, large portions, and a train that circles around a Christmas tree in the middle of the restaurant.  I figured Samantha would really enjoy watching the train.  We had to wait for a few minutes, but Samantha did a great job.  She got to have some of Mommy and Daddy's ham and cheese omelette and chocolate chip pancakes.  Towards the end of the meal, when Samantha started to get a little antsy, I took her over to the train, stood her on a chair, and she watched the little train go around and around for a good ten to fifteen minutes.  After that, we made a quick trip to Target and the mall to allow Samantha to burn off some energy before returning to my grandma's apartment.  Samantha loves walking around malls.  This particular mall had a Christmas setup in the center with mice statues and Samantha kept calling them "Minnie Mouse."  She was very sad that she couldn't go in and touch "Minnie Mouse" that was behind the fence and talked about her all the way back in the car.

Saturday, my whole family came over again to celebrate our family Christmas.  Ben and I volunteered to make our traditional Christmas dinner of turkey and all the trimmings.  We had a good dinner together and then opened presents.  My family already opened their presents on Christmas Day, so the presents exchanged were just for our family and our presents to my family.  Samantha was pretty excited about getting to open up presents again.  And again, Samantha got some great gifts.  She got a Minnie Mouse potty, a suction cup holder for her bathtub toys, a lacing toy, an Elmo chair, and many other wonderful gifts, including a little Christmas dog that jingles and sings, which Samantha thought was very great (as you can see in the video below).

Sunday we went to church, and we had a really tired girl on out hand.  Over the last several days, Samantha had developed quite the bad cold and cough.  The poor girl woke up many times a night and cough.  She's so cute because after she coughs she says, "drink," because we have trained her to take a drink when she coughs or begins to choke on something while she eats, and now she has carried it over to other things.  I think with all the traveling and commotion of the holidays, she was just exhausted.  On the way to church in the morning she was already talking about wanting to take a nap.  She did well in the nursery during church even though she really wasn't feeling well, but on the way to the restaurant for lunch, she fell peacefully asleep in her car seat.  We didn't have the heart to wake the poor girl up, just to take her into a restaurant, so Ben lovingly offered to sit out in the car with her while she napped and came in later after she awoke.  Here's a cute picture of her sleeping in the car.

Unfortunately, she did not nap anymore that day, which she could have used.  However, we had decided to stay in Chicago one more night and head out on Monday morning, that way Samantha would not have to be in the car for a long time in one day, my family could see her a little more, and I got the chance to see my siblings longer and play games with them.  We had a good night together, and Samantha enjoyed her time with her aunt, uncles, grandma, grandpa, great-grandma, and great-grandpa.

Samantha: 19 Months, Week 1

This week was my last week of school before Christmas Break, and we had several exciting things going on in the Toll family amid all the hustle and bustle of getting ready for Christmas.

On Wednesday I took my 3rd grade class on a field trip to the Children's Museum in Indianapolis.  We left first thing in the morning and stayed as late as we could so that we got back just in time for pick up at the end of the day.  Since Ben was hanging out with Samantha for the week, he decided to come along as a "chaperone" and bring Samantha, too.  (Samantha LOVES the Children's Museum.)  Ben's mom also met us at the museum for the day since she was also done teaching for Christmas and couldn't pass up an opportunity to hang out with her granddaughter for the day.  I didn't spend too much time with them during the day, as I had a group of girls that I was chaperoning, but I did get a chance to go on the Yule Slide and the carousel with my little girl.  Here are some cute pictures from our time at the museum and videos of the slide.

I was surprised with a snow day on Friday which allowed for us to get packed up in the morning and head out for our Christmas traveling early.  We left for Upland, got lunch on the road, and arrived in time for Samantha to take a nap there.   We had a good time hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma that night.  Samantha was excited to see them, especially Grandma, since we saw her three days in a row this week.

On Saturday morning we had our Christmas for Samantha so she could open her presents separately before the Toll Family Christmas on Monday once Ben's brother and sister and her family arrived.  She wasn't quite sure what to do with the presents, but once I started ripping the paper for her, showed her what to do, and reassured her that it was okay to rip the paper, she got the swing of things.

We gave her a doll stroller, play plastic dinosaurs and horses, a play purse, a Playschool bus, and I made a jewelry box for her with a picture of her on the front and lots of necklaces and bracelets on the inside from the dollar store.  The jewelry box seemed to be her favorite present.  She would spend many, many minutes taking the necklaces on and off, as you can see in the video below.

Later that day, after a wonderful dinner of vegetable soup, the Riley crew arrived and Samantha was so excited to see Alaina.  She loves her cousin.

The next day was church in the morning.  We were up and ready fairly early, so the girls had some play time before we had to leave.  Here is Grandma, also known as Ema, reading her two granddaughters a story.

After church, we went back to the house to let the dogs out, grab our sandwich lunches, and hit the road.  We drove out to see Ben's Grandma and extended family in Ohio.  We hadn't seen any of them since Christmas last year.  Luckily, after we ate a quick lunch in the car, Samantha fell asleep in the car.  We were a little worried because this past week we switched her around in her car seat to forward facing.  She LOVED the new perspective on the world, interacting with us more, and looking out the front window at the world passing us by.  However, we were afraid that this would make it difficult for her to fall asleep in the car since she is such a social baby.  Samantha slept for almost the whole rest of the way to Ohio, letting Ben get some work done as well.  

Once we got to the house, Samantha was so excited to see all the people, especially Ben's cousin Sheri and her two little dogs.  Samantha spent the first twenty minutes following the dogs around, trying the pet them and hug them.  She is definitely an animal lover.  We had a good lunch, even though Samantha wasn't too interested in eating.  Samantha got to play down in their basement with many new toys, and I got a chance to talk to Ben's cousin Crystal about education, children, and homeschooling.  It was a great afternoon.  We left around dinnertime, picked up some nuggets on the way, and it was my job to entertain a tired Samantha on the way home.  Samantha and Alaina had some more time to play once we returned home, then it was off to bed.  After all, our Christmas was tomorrow morning!