Bye-bye Nick, hello nana and papa

We went to a costume story time at a local bookstore. They read Where the Wild Things Are. And then the kids got to parade in their costumes. Sam was by far the cutest and she loves her panda costume.

Nick went to a conference this week, so my parents came up to watch Sam while I cover Nick's classes. We are so lucky to have that as an option. Sam was very excited to see them and play with the toys they brought up. it has been a toy explosion because we also finally unpacked some stuff and dug out batteries recently.

Here she is with Nana and Papa.

She loves having her picture taken lately. She insisted I take a picture of her and this pretend chip.

Nick finally put the truck back together. She was so excited and wanted a picture.

We got my parents to bring her snail up this trip and she loves it. Before she never wanted to sit on it, so we knew we needed to wait and so it stayed behind with a lot of our stuff. But now it is perfect. Thanks Dr. Engle!

Moo, baa, la-la-la

Last Friday Sam and I went to Heritage Farms with our mother's group. She had a lot of fun and the rain was timed perfectly for us to be able to ride the people mover and wooden train. We also got to pet quite a few animals, which was a highlight for my animal loving toddler.

Here she is on their playground before the tour.

Pat the bunny!

Milking a fake cow.

Here is Sam playing on of her current favorite games. One of us pretends to go to sleep while she pats our back like we do to her, then she says ssshhh. Then she shakes us to wake us up and we have to say good morning.

Sometimes she wants to be the one sleeping. A silly game guaranteed to get giggles.

Here is a picture of the house we are renting. It is officially 3 stories since the attic is finished.

Here she is with the pumpkin she chose. Yep, it is green and yellow.

Here is the budding artist in high concentration mode.

4 times in one day!

Ok, the best news of the week is that Sam tinkled in the potty 4 times today. Just wanted to share.

Build a bear

Sam continues to amaze and astound us. She has gotten pretty good at tinkling in the potty. it takes awhile, but she is heading in the right direction. we are not pushing it, just hoping for some positive experiences under our belt. And she continues to gain verbal skills. She has actually started applying grammar rules, things like plurals and past tenses. She remains very entergetic and on some days a big challenge, but we are working on behavior. Church and such remain interesting.

Here is Sam being silly. She loves having her picture taken.

The Pumpkin fest and the corn maize were lame. So we decided we would drive to Charleston, which is about 50 minutes away, to go to build a bear and a few other stores. Sam had fun picking out a panda to stuff and she was super excited about the happy birthday sound, so we added that sound even though her birthday is so far off (although it is pretty soon if you ask me). Here is a video of her dancing to the song. So cute if I do say so myself.

Fall is here!

Fall is here in WV and we are keeping busy. There is one festival after another and of course our usual weekly activities, like music class, art class, playgroups, and now tot swimming. I am behind posting pictures from Terence's visit, so they are below with some random ones.

Sam wanted a stroller ride the other day and I was planning on walking to the Greek Fest for lunch, so I was checking email for a second and she decided to remedy the situation by getting in the stroller herself. Not sure if I should be more worried that she can climb in herself or that she expected me to acquiesce and take her for a ride after she did.

When Terence got here Sam was still napping, but she was so excited when she woke up and cuddled up with him.

We went to St. Joe's Catholic Church Carnival and Sam got her first face painting. She was so excited, but she touched it too quickly.

She had a great time at the Marshall game, so we let he stay up and she did great, but we paid the price later :)

She loves when I put her hair up in rubber bands. Cute pigtails, huh?

I drew this Elmo on the small magna doodle. She loved it.

St. Joe's had inflatables and Uncle Terence took Sam on the slide a couple of times. What fun!

Dance, baby Dance!

Here is a video of Sam dancing at the wedding. Uncle Terence came to visit this weekend and we had a jam packed weekend of Carnival at St. Joe's, Chilifest, and Marshall game (Go Herd!). Pictures coming soon.

Where's Mickey and rubber bands

Sam has been doing some really cute things lately. When my mom was here she was wearing a rubber band as a bracelet and one time my mom asked about her bracelet and she said no, rubber band. And then tonight in the car she took a small Mickey Mouse out of a cereal box. She hid it under her leg and said "Where Mickey" and then shouted Mickey. She laughed a lot when we joined int he hunt for mickey. She likes to search and then will say "Here Mickey" when she finds it.

Nick's birthday was last week and although I gave him a lot of grief for being gone for mine, I took off the day after his to head to Atlanta for a wedding of a friend from high school. Sam and I did the 500 mile drive alone. She was great, so much better than expected. we also squeezed a lot into the trip.

We went to the zoo. It was not very crowded, so the birds that are usually hard to convince to eat the seeds were even landing on Sam and scared her a little. But she still had a great time.


She was excited to see the pandas.


And was really excited about the carousel, but just picked the bench. She had a great time lookign for Nana on each spin around.

She loves birds of all kinds, and has been saying flamingo for a while, although sometimes its just 'mingo.

We also rode the train.

She loves corn. Not sure why she did not want to pick it up, though.

We had a playdate with Izzy. Sam really wanted to help with her cup.

And give her a hug.

At the wedding there was a beautiful fountain and when I told Sam to look up so I could take a picture, this is what she did.

Sam had a great time with Izzy again.

She wants to do everything we do, so Nick rigged it up with tape to hold down the button and we let her try her hand at wii mario cart.

And just being cute!