Samantha: 21 Months, Week 2

This week started with some terrible trouble of Samantha being constipated.  It had been a few days since her last bowel movement, and she was trying and trying all night to no avail.  She had a terrible night of sleep on Monday night.  She had trouble falling asleep, which is very unlike her.  Then at about 1:30 in the morning she woke up crying.  I tried going in there to comfort her and got her to fall back asleep after awhile of rocking her and cuddling with her.  However, that didn't last very long and she was up again twenty minutes later.  This time, Ben went in with her.  He was with her for probably close to an hour with Samantha crying on and off, definitely not a happy toddler.  After that hour passed, I went in her room to see if I could do anything to help, or to see if I could relieve Ben for a while so he could sleep and I could stay up with Samantha.  So we both stayed in with her for several minutes before Ben went back to bed.  We were trying to get her to stand up in hopes that gravity might help her go to the bathroom.  You could tell her stomach was very upset and very tight.  She didn't even want us to touch it.

After awhile, probably around 3:30 or so, I decided to just pick her up and rock her in the glider again.  I leaned the back of the chair back and tried to get Samantha to lay down and relax on my shoulder.  Her tummy hurt her so much that she wouldn't even lay on it on my chest.  She turned herself around sideways, almost like she was curled up in the fetal position, snuggled into my chest, took a deep breath and a sigh of relief, and fell instantly asleep.  It was so precious, and I felt so bad for my little girl.  I feel like I would have done anything to help her and give her some relief.  We stayed like that for about a half an hour or so, but with how she was laying, I was supporting her whole body weight with my arms and knew I wouldn't be able to keep holding her like that for the rest of the night.  So, I decided to try laying her down in her crib again, in hopes that we could all get a little sleep before I had to get up and get ready for work.  Well, as soon as I laid her down in her crib, she woke up because she was on her back and that was not comfortable for her.  Remembering how she curled up sideways on my chest in the glider, I decided to roll her over on her side, cover her up with her blanket, and wrap my arms around her little body until she calmed back down and fell asleep.  It seemed like the sideways position was much more comfortable for her, as she started snoring almost immediately.  I was so glad that she was sleeping comfortably and hoped it would last longer than my prior attempts.

I rolled back into bed in hopes that I could get some sleep in the next couple of hours now that Samantha was sleeping quietly and comfortably in her bed, but an hour later, around 5:00, she woke up crying again.  I decided that we tried enough and just brought her into our bed to sleep with us.  I was a little worried about whether she would actually fall asleep in our bed because she is so social and might just want to talk to Mommy and Daddy instead of sleep, but she seemed satisfied to be near us.  She curled up on the pillow in between us as I laid my hand on her and listened as her breathing turned quiet, deep, and still.  It was not restful sleep for Ben or me as Samantha is quite the little roly-poly in bed.  She moves quite a lot and was kicking us and turning sideways in bed, so much so that I was laying on the very edge of the bed with hardly any covers to cover me.  Right before my alarm was going to go off, I crept out of bed to turn it off and set one on my cell phone instead, putting it on vibrate so as not to wake up Samantha.  Then, right before I was supposed to get up and start getting ready, Samantha jolted up suddenly in bed, and laid down quickly, snuggling into me and laying her head on my arm that was bent under my pillow.  It was so adorable and I so enjoyed cuddling with her in bed, something that I haven't experienced since she was just a few months old and still nursing during the night.  I loved watching her sleep, watching her little motions and movements, and most importantly, knowing that she was finally getting good, peaceful rest.  I could have stayed there all morning, watching my little girl sleep, if it weren't for having to get up and go to work.

I was able to sneak out of bed to take a shower and get ready to go as Samantha continued to sleep and snuggle with Daddy and my pillow.  She slept until about 7:30, and even though she was extremely tired from her difficult night, we were glad that we found a solution that provided her with enough comfort to sleep.

The next day, Daddy called the doctor to see if they had any advice about what we could do to relieve her constipation.  They said to try giving her lots of apple juice and to steer away from starches; however, she was still straining all day and evening to try and go.  I had a really hard day at school probably because I was mostly tired, but also because it killed me to have to pull myself out of bed that morning and leave my little girl when she wasn't feeling well.  I shared about Samantha as a prayer request at school and started crying right there in the middle of the meeting, much to my embarrassment.  On the way back to my classroom, another teacher stopped me who is a mother of six, and reassured me that she knew exactly what I was going through, and that she was so happy for me that I would get to stay home with Samantha next year and not feel like I am pulled in two directions when my heart really wants to be at home.  Even the principal came in and checked on me a couple of times that day to make sure I was doing okay and to see if there was anything he could do.

Later that evening, Samantha still hadn't gone to the bathroom, so Daddy suggested that she sit on the potty before we got her ready for bed.  She sat on her big girl Minnie and Mickey Mouse potty, and we read books to her while she sat.  Finally, her little stomach started tensing up and she pushed with all her might (sorry for the gruesome details...those of you that are parents will know how exciting little things like this can be).  She finally went poo poo, and better yet, in her big girl potty!  It was the first time she had ever gone in her potty, and we were so proud of her.  After she went, she started crying, probably because it hurt her so much, but she looked automatically better.  Her stomach was smoother and flatter and she had a much better disposition.  She was so proud of herself for going poo poo in her potty, and we made a very big deal out of it.  Best of all, Samantha had a long, peaceful night sleep, and so did her Mommy and Daddy.  :)

Here is a video of Samantha sitting on her potty two days later, when she again went poo poo in her potty (after the video was taken).

I found the following pictures on my camera that actually belonged on last week's blog post, but they were too cute to pass up.  Samantha LOVES her blankie, and on this day she chose to push it around in the stroller and wanted me to take pictures of it and of her and it together.

Here is a cute Mommy Daughter picture, what an adorable little girl I have.  I just love her.

Some other cute things Samantha has done this week is say, "No like it" when she eats something she doesn't like or puts something on her head (like a hat) and doesn't really want it there.  She is starting to express her opinion to us, and we think her phrase "No like it" said in her pathetic little voice, is pretty irresistible.  She has been like a vacuum of information lately.  She watches everything we say and do and likes to repeat things that she enjoys.  One of her favorite books right now is called Never Ever Shout in a Zoo, and in this book the author shows all the terrible things that will happen if you shout in a zoo and all the animals break lose. One of the phrases in the book is "Uh-oh, don't say I didn't warn you."  This phrase is repeated quite a bit in the book, so now Samantha has taken to saying the phrase randomly throughout the day, except hers comes out more like "Uh-oh arn you" with a great big grin spreading across her face.

The other exciting event of this week was moving to our new apartment.  It is just three doors down from our old one, but it is a three bedroom apartment (more room for baby number two) and the floor plan and layout is much better.  We can be working in the kitchen and see Samantha playing in the living room, whereas before, the kitchen was like a little closet cut off from the rest of the house.  I finished getting everything packed up this week, taking everything off the walls and off of shelves.  Both of our parents were planning on coming down to help us move.  My parents came around dinnertime on Friday and Ben's parents came later in the night right before we put Samantha to bed.  I won't go into all the details of moving, but it was a pretty successful weekend.  We got almost the whole downstairs moved on Friday night.  Both sets of parents stayed in our new apartment, while Ben, Samantha and I stayed in our old apartment.  Saturday morning some of Ben's friends came over to help and that was a huge help.  They carried many of the heavy things (to spare our dads from having to carry them), plus they just did multiple trips back and forth.  Being pregnant, I couldn't carry too much and definitely got tired out much faster.  By the end of Sunday we had everything moved over (though not quite organized), and were working on hanging up pictures.  We were very tired and were ready for another weekend to actually rest and relax, but we were encouraged that we finished it all so fast and that we only had one more week of school before spring break.  Samantha really seemed to enjoy our new apartment.  The downstairs is all connected, which allows her to run around in circles, one of her favorite activities.  I'll have to post some pictures another time when our house is clean and everything is put away and together.

Saturday night, Ben and I got a real treat.  Some friends of ours from our small group gave us their tickets to an IU basketball game since they have season tickets and were going to be out of town.  My parents stayed with Samantha and put her to bed, so we could go to the game together.  We were in the fifth row behind the basket, and it was great fun.  Ben's parents recorded it on their DVR, so we were able to watch it later and see all the times that we were in the shot of the cameras.  It was a very interesting experience, here are some pictures from the evening.

Samantha: 21 Months, Week 1

Monday, I had the day off of school for a flex day, so I took Samantha to play at the Banneker Center.  Matt and Christy had fun interacting with her there, and Samantha loved Matt pushing her around the room in the toy car popped up on the back wheels.

Here is Samantha having more fun with Daddy's hat and practicing her running skills.

We had a scary accident with Samantha this week.  She is a really good helper and always wants to be a part of what we are doing, especially in the kitchen.  Well, there was one evening that Ben and I were making dinner together.  Samantha wanted to watch what we were doing, so we pulled one of our dining room chairs into the kitchen so she could stand on it and watch us cook.  She has done this numerous times and been fine.  Well, this evening, she wasn't so lucky.  She somehow lost her balance and slipped backwards off the chair, falling between the chair the the cabinets under the sink.  She landed on Roscoe's water bowl, spilling the water all over herself, and of course, started crying right away.  While Ben finished taking care of dinner, I took Samantha out of the room to examine her and make sure she was okay.  She had a small bump on her head and a small cut on her ear that made her ear swell up a bit, as well as a large bruise on the back of her ear.  I cleaned off her ear with a wet washcloth, dried off her wet clothes, and gave her some nice hugs and cuddles.  She turned out to be just fine, but it was definitely scary at the time because I wasn't sure exactly what had happened when she fell off the chair.  Needless to say, I don't think we'll be letting her stand on a chair in the kitchen again anytime soon.

On Friday after school, we drove up to Indianapolis to have dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Toll, as well as Ben's Uncle and Aunt.  Samantha did great in the restaurant, even though the adults sat and talked for quite a while.  After dinner, Grandma and Grandpa took her to walk around Buy Buy Baby.  We brought along Samantha's pajamas, expecting/hoping that Samantha would fall asleep in the car, as we were leaving Indy after her bedtime.  However much we tried to ignore her, there wasn't any sleeping going on in the backseat.  It was so funny listening to her talk and sing to herself, that I had to record it.  There is no video to see because the car was dark, I just wanted to get the cute sounds of our sweet Samantha.

Getting Samantha out of bed either in the morning or after her nap is one of my favorite things to do.  Listening to her wake up and talk to herself over the monitor is a wonderful way of being awoken, much better than an alarm clock.  Here is the adorable face we get to wake up to every morning, and her funny antics in her crib.

 And last, our cute girl dressed up for church.

Samantha: 20 Months, Week 5

Samantha had some fun dressing up in Daddy's coat and hat this week.

Later this week was Valentine's Day, and I actually ended up taking the day off because our babysitter had a sick child and our back up already had plans.  It was a lovely mother-daughter day.  We went to our church for Mom's Rest Stop in the morning, had lunch at my school (it was teacher appreciation week so I couldn't pass up free lunch).  Then, Samantha and I both took naps that afternoon.  I have been really tired during this pregnancy.  It was nice to be able to just relax with my little girl for the day.  That was a nice Valentine's Day present.  :)

That evening, Ben and I decided to make our three course fondue.  We started off with the cheese fondue for dinner, and Samantha enjoyed it pretty well, even though she was mostly excited about the bread and the green apples.  Of course she didn't want to sit in her high chair long enough for us to finish our cheese fondue, so we let her go out in the living room and watch a kid's show on TV while we finished our cheese fondue together in the dining room.  It was very relaxing.  After we put Samantha to bed, we had our other two courses of meat fondue and chocolate fondue while watching episodes of Downton Abbey (yes, we are now officially hooked).  It was a very nice evening with my sweet husband, a perfect way to celebrate our love for each other in the comfort of our home, spending time together, and doing things we love.

The next day our busy weekend started.  My sister, Christy, and her husband, Matt came down for the weekend to visit, but also because I agreed to host a Thirty-One party for her.  We had a pretty good turnout, and it was a good weekend of visiting, but it sure tired me out.  Again, baby number two sure seems to be wiping me out a lot this first trimester. I think having company over tires Samantha out as well.  She's a lot like me, she likes to be around people, but then needs time to recover and regroup her introverted self.  We love watching Samantha's personality develop and also to notice certain personality traits that are very similar to either Ben or me.  (Sometimes very similar in a frightening way...she's always watching us!)

Samantha: 20 Months, Week 4

This week Samantha got to spend time with another babysitter for a couple days while the normal babysitter had some doctor's appointments to attend.  She enjoys playing with the girls there and always seems to do a good job.

Here are some pictures of my attempt to put Samantha's hair in a ponytail.  She didn't cooperate very well, and it didn't stay in for very long, but it's cute nevertheless.  It's always pretty difficult to do this girl's hair.  It's just curly enough that it's hard to deal with, but also can be pretty crazy if just left down.  We are working on getting her to leave her hair up.  We will have her promise to leave it in and most of the time she will keep her promise, at least for a little while.

Here are some cute pictures from a couple days later.  This ponytail turned out a little better.

As soon as we get the camera out, Samantha likes to come over and make faces in the camera, watching the way her body moves in the camera and what it looks like to watch herself, especially her mouth and tongue.  Here are some funny close up shots.  It's kind of like she's in one of those pictures booths at the mall that takes your picture several different times in a row, catching you in different poses.

Another exciting event of this week was starting a new small group through our church.  Our old group fell apart because of people moving away and doing various other things, and we have been looking into starting a group for awhile now, but weren't able to get one off the ground last semester.  Well, we finally got enough people together and committed to meeting, that we had our first meeting this week at our house.  We made lasagna and just had an opportunity to talk and get to know each other, talking a bit about what we want in a group and in what direction we want our new group to go.  It was really great to meet everyone, and Samantha really enjoyed having people over at our house again, especially babies. There were two little baby girls there, and Samantha took to them right away.  She said their names over and over again for the next week after that.  We think Samantha is going to like meeting with them every week from now on.  It was great to see all the kids playing on the floor while the grown ups had adult conversation.

Ben and I have noticed a significant development with Samantha over the last week.  Her vocabulary has just exploded!  Sometimes she even speaks in sentences.  Most of the time we can understand exactly what she's saying and know the little words she uses to talk about different things.  I was showing her this picture book one night, and it has quite a few pages in it.  She was able to switch back and forth between pointing to a picture that I named, to naming something that I pointed to.  She correctly identified almost everything in the book.  I feel like for an almost 21 month old, her language capabilities are very sophisticated.  She talks almost constantly when she's awake (whether that's good or bad, sometime Ben and I don't know).  She knows so many words and learns so many new words every day that it amazes me.  She has many songs and books memorized.  It'll be interesting to see how this gift develops as she gets older, maybe she will be a very vocabulary driven person and love to read like her Mommy and Daddy.  We think that she is very smart, but then again, we are a little biased as her parents.  :)

I can't resist posting these ADORABLE pictures of Samantha all dressed up for church, wearing a "new" hand me down dress.

This next story actually needs a little background.  Back a week or so ago, we made a quick trip to Walmart to pick up something.  We walked past the electronics section, and they had several big screen TVs playing Finding Nemo.  Needless to say, Samantha was enthralled.  We stood there and let her watch for a few minutes.  With how much she liked that few minutes of watching Nemo, we decided to request it from the library.  She was SO excited when we got it from the library and wanted to watch it right away.  Toddlers are so cute when they watch TV because, generally, they don't like to sit down, they like to stand up in front of the TV, usually way too close for the parents' taste.  Well, all that background information is to explain these next couple pictures because later that Sunday afternoon, after her nap, it was a rainy day and Samantha was still acting quite sleepy.  We decided Samantha could sit in her special Sesame Street chair and watch Finding Nemo.  I snuck some pictures of the cutie from the other room.

Samantha: 20 Months, Week 3

I will start off this post with some cute pictures of Samantha playing with some of her favorite things in our home.  First, we have the kitchen.

Lately, Samantha has enjoyed making tunnels with the blanket.  We will drape it over the dining room table and she will sit under it, or we will drape it over the coffee table and couch to make a tunnel underneath.  She calls it a "tunnel blanket."

Here is another video of Samantha having fun jumping on the bed as we were trying to put new sheets on it.

Here are some cute pictures of Samantha playing around in her crib.

After the weekend and having told my parents through the pictures that we were expecting another baby, we had to come up with a way to tell Ben's parents.  Last time, we met them at the Cheesecake Factory in Indianapolis and broke the news to them over dinner.  Then, a while later we met his parents as well as Jeni and Andrew at the Cheesecake Factory again, and they broke the news to us that they were expecting too!  Well, now it is a running joke that we meet at the Cheesecake Factory whenever we have baby news to announce, so we couldn't do that again without giving it away.  So, instead we scheduled some Face Time with Ema and Papa on the iPhone (which Samantha LOVES to do, especially when they show her the cat).  We made another sign that said "You owe us Cheesecake Factory sometime before late September," and had Samantha hold up the sign for Ema and Papa to read.  They picked up on it pretty quickly and were very excited for us.

That weekend we made a trip up to Upland so that we could see Alaina and Jeni.  Andrew had to work on Saturday, so Alaina and Jeni just came down for the day.  We went over to the gym to walk around and play on the big mat.  We also went into the dance room with the wooden floor and bar along the mirrors.  Samantha really enjoyed that room.  She liked hanging off the bar and watching herself make funny faces in the mirror.  She's definitely a ham.

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Later on that evening, the neighbor girls from down the lane came up to the house for a few hours while their parents went to an event at Taylor.  Samantha loved being around the girls, particularly the youngest.  They played a little game before dinner of hiding these little puppies and following clues to find them again.  Samantha really loved playing the game.  I didn't think she would care too much about trying to follow the rules and go through the clues, but she really got into it.  She talked about the puppy game for the next week after that.  Samantha also had a partner while she took her bath that night.  The youngest little girl actually wanted to get in the bathtub with her, but we didn't think that would be the best idea.  So instead she sat on the edge of the tub and played with her, splashed her, and helped me dump water on Samantha's head to get the shampoo out.  I think Samantha enjoyed being doted on.

Over Spring Break this year, Ben and I decided to go on a trip for just the two of us.  We got a really good deal on plane tickets and are using hotel points that we have saved up from our credit card.  Since we are staying right downtown by the Mall, we won't need a car and all the museums are free, so we pretty much only have to pay for food once we're there.  Ben and I figured that once baby number two comes along, we won't have an opportunity to go off by ourselves and travel like this as easily.  Plus, we figured it'd be good practice for Samantha to try staying with someone else overnight for a few nights so that when Mommy and Daddy are at the hospital, and someone else is taking care of her at our house, it won't feel so strange to her.

Knowing all of this, while we were in Upland this weekend, Ema watched how we put Samantha to bed and what her routine is, so that way she knows how to do it herself in the most comfortable way for Samantha.  Then, on Saturday night, Ema put her to bed for us as practice and it went very smoothly.  I'm sure Samantha will do great here for a few days.  I'm not worried at all because two of her favorite people in the world are Ema and Papa.  :)