Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day! Sam and I ran up to Gwinnett on Friday to pick up her one year photos, which I will post soon. I thought she would make it, but as soon as I got her in the car, she hung her head and proceeded to doze off. But she fell back asleep when I moved her, which was I think the first time ever!

Here we are on Valentine's Day.

In other news, Sam is getting her 3rd tooth and number 4 is close behind, it appears. Poor thing has not been feeling too well lately. She has had a fever and a bit of a runny nose with her teething. She has been a bit clingy, sleepy, and hard to keep happy. But through it all she will still smile a lot. What an amazing little girl. We are so lucky!

Mom, Nick, Samantha and I went to Mars Hill, NC last weekend. My cousin's two sons met us and Blake, Kevin, Nick and I went snowboarding. Sam and Mom hung out at the cabin. Samantha was not a fan of snow, as you can see in the picture.

She did have a great time playing in the cabin though. She has been really into pretending she is talking on the phone lately. She walks around babbling and stays so busy, we joke about how hard it is to be such an important toddler. Maybe we have a future stock brocker on our hands.

We also met of friends Jon and Deanna and their kids Kate and Gabe at Ikea for dinner. They were up from south Ga. Although they used to live down the hall from our last apartment before we both had kids, or I guess I should say when our dogs were our only kids. Everyone was so busy, it was hard to snap pictures, but here is one when they were all in the play area. Thanks for meeting us!

Nick or me?

So everyone says Sam looks a lot like me. Here is a photo of me at about 13 months. I admit I look a lot like her on the day after her birthday. Same expression. But I still think she looks a lot like Nick. Here he is at 9 months.

Here is Nick is at about one month surrounded by Sam at around one month. What cuties!

ONE YEAR OLD!

So Samantha turned the big 0-1 yesterday. She had a full day. She got up at 6, a little earlier than I would have hoped, but I was glad to get to spend some time with her before I had to head to work. She had a short morning nap. But then after a huge lunch that included an outfit change due to all the water she got on her dress, she took a long afternoon nap. She was still asleep when I got home! When she got up, we let her open presents. She loved them all, but top on her list was the balloon from Nick, a yellow rabbit from the Smoots, and a cool book from Linda. Here she is with her balloon. They are one of her favorite things!


Then I changed Sam into her birthday girl outfit. Check out the fancy tutu. She loved it, even if everyone else thought it was silly. And she can play dress up in the future.

Then we went to Chili's. Sam had not eaten much dinner at home, but she loved snacking off our plates. I had picked Chili's because they had answered my email about singing for birthdays. We had a wonderful waiter who was a great sport and Sam loved the singing.

Here she is after her first bite of ice cream. She was not so sure about it, but kept coming back for more. Not sure if it was just too cold.

Then home for the cake I had made. It was a baby's first cake, mainly carrots and apples. It was a lot of work, but it tasted like bread. But she enjoyed the candles and singing again and had a ball smashing it up.

And she even ate some for breakfast this morning.

Today was also full with a trip to the pediatrician. She was 29 7/8 inches, 75%. Her head was 17 7/8 (50th). And although her weight dropped to 12.5% at 18 pounds, 10 ounces, she did gain 1/4 ounce per day, so she got a big thumbs up. Unfortunately, she had to have 4 shots and have her blood drawn. I have never heard her scream so loudly. It was so sad.

General info...

Likes: Balloons, our dogs, books, constant movement, crunchies/puffs/most carbs, stroller walks, attention

She has been walking since Thanksgiving and is always on the move now. She also can say about 15 words, ranging from the standard mama/dada/nana/papa to more specific ones, wolf/dog(although she says gog)/puff.

It has been such a wonderful year. Our sweet girl is such a blessing. Happy Birthday, Samantha. We love you!

Last Samantha baby post...

So one more post before I post the one year old stuff for my toddler! Here is Sam with her nana reading a book. She loves books and will bring them to you, drop it, and want top be picked up. Then you have to retrieve the book and see how far you can get before she is ready to wiggle her way down.
So my mom found this great Farmer Tad Leap Frog toy that Sam loves. She dances to it. It is pretty funny.

Movin' on up!

So after we got back from Phoenix, Sam has not been napping too well. She did have a stuffy nose for the better part of this month, but it also seemed to be related to the dogs barking. In addition to making them wear their bark collars, we moved Sam to the back bedroom and made her old room the office. The back bedroom is more isolated and the first vent off the heater, so it is also warmer. Plus it is bigger, so although it was an ordeal, I think it was for the better. Here are pictures of her in her new room. The flower bow on her head came with the outfit I ordered for her birthday. I stuck it on and she loved it. She takes it off, looks at it and then tries to put it back on.
Here she is playing with her first birthday gift. It is a neat ball pop up toy. She loves to grab the balls and walk around with them, but she loved sticking her head over the fan and letting it blow her hair around. Thanks Sarah, Martin, Seb and Luciana!

Sam also loves playing tug of war with Phoenix. She solicits play and tries to keep it going, even though she gets knocked down. It is pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

Catching up

It has been so long since I have posted, so I have a lot to catch up on. So I will spread it over a couple of posts. Here are some cute pictures. Nick was playing with Sam, tossing a blanket over her and made some crazy static.

Then here is Sam with the giant panda a few days after 11 months. She looks like a little girl now, much bigger than even compared to the 9 month ones. Check out her stylish kicks!

My big girl, ok my toddler, compared to my baby. I cannot believe how big she is getting. Time flies!

I am also introducing more foods. So when I cooked the pineapple I gave her some of the juice from the cooking, very diluted. She was not a big fan, but she kept trying it as if it would get better. Pretty funny!