Birthday shout outs

So today is Nick's birthday. He is so amazing and such a great husband and father. I am so lucky. Although he is not having a great day, issues at work and our GPS unit was stolen out of our car (actually my parents, but that is a long story), evidently in broad daylight, while the car was in our carport and we were home. But hopefully a nice dinner tonight and some presents will make for a better day.

Today is also his Aunt Betsy's birthday, his brother Chris's and it was his grandmothers. Happy Birthday to all of them. We miss you Bam!

And tomorrow is Angela's Aunt Eunice's birthday!  Happy birthday to you!

Also, upcoming is an important birthday of Sister Cordele. In celebration of 75 years of being a nun. Samantha wanted to send her wishes to Sister Cordele. Here is out attempt. Sam's favorite thing right now is paper, so she did not want to just hold the sign, but grab it and rip it.

Happy Birthday Nick from your family. We love you!

Carrots rule!

So the only thing Sam has really liked so far is carrots. She actually leans over and opens her mouth for carrots. Everything else is a bit of a battle. So as long as it tastes mostly like carrots, she tends to eat it. So we feed her a lot of orange mixes. Some days it mostly goes in, but other days look like the second picture.

Carrots up the nose! We start green veggies soon and then fruit!

Got to go to work...

So Sam occasionally heads into Tech with us. One day I was hanging out in Nick's lab and after sam finished eating she was interested in his steering wheel that he uses for driving studies. She grabbed it and knew exactly what to do. Here is a picture of me and Samantha on my first day teaching at KSU. Also, Nick and Sam came with me last Wednesday to drop of a min fridge and see the place I am spending a lot of time. Sam enjoyed having her picture taken in my chair.

Catch up pictures

Since I have not posted in a while, here are a lot of pictures. Sam has been having fun splashing in a big pool and our little play pool. She has also started drinking out of a sippy cup, although tasting and dribbling out is probably a more apt name based on her current skill level. If you are wondering what the item is in the picture where Sam is sitting on the couch, that is an insert from a car seat cooler that Nick's mom sent. That is Sam's current favorite toy. Grammy sure knows how to pick them, even if she does not know. Paper is such a big hit. In that picture Sam is wearing an outfit of mine, the best the 70's had to offer :) Also, Sam now has her own remote. She kept grabbing ours and we got tired of having the tv switched to channel 777. So Nick got an old one, we cleaned it and took the batteries out. And she loves it. Although we have to keep her pacifier in to keep her from chewing on it.

Sam has also been visiting more. We stopped by the house of some friends of my parents, Jo and Bob. And we got to have dinner with our good friends Deanna and Jon and their cute kids Kate and Gabe. They lived close to us in our old apartment and have since moved to South Ga, so we miss them and it was so fun to get together.

KSU

So I am in the middle of my first week at Kennesaw State University. It has been a little crazy, a lot of work, and a lot of fun. I love teaching Physiology and the kids here seem so different fromGT students. That is such a welcome thing. I was so over the whiney engineers who do not want to be in psychology classes. But I am a little overwhelmed right now and have not had a chance to download any photos. I promise I will soon. Hugs to all.

Our crazy life! All that and a tree!

So things continue to be hectic. I am trying to edit my dissertation and prep for the 3 classes I will be teaching and take care of Sam. She is not a huge fan of solid food. So that takes a lot of effort. Plus a tree fell through my parents house when they were out of town. And my computer has had issues and got reformatted. So I have not been able to post lately. But here is a photo of the tree and some of whem my aunt and grandmother visited and other cute ones of Sam.

I just realized I never posted her 6 month check up stats. She is doing really well, sitting up well and standing if supported. She was (on July 31st) 15 lbs, 14 oz (50%) and 27 inches (90%). So she has not kept up with the percentile for weight, but she gained more than a half ounce a day, which is great. Now she will be down to a quarter ounce a day. But she was so long that it was suggested we move her up to the convertabile car seat, so she is now in the Britax, or as we call it the Barka lounger for the car. She adjusted well.

Sam sits pretty!

Samantha has been getting better and better at sitting up. Here is how she was doing on July 12th. She is doing even better now.