And July Flies By!

I cannot believe July is more than half over and not a post has been made.  We are in Lakeland, but chaos still rules our house.  We got a lot done while my parents were here, but there is so much to do.  I am posting the pictures from when we were in Atlanta and will post the Lakeland stuff a little later.  Lots to catch up on!

Zoey can now easily roll both directions after so long of having issues rolling tummy to back, but here is an earlier attempt (July 3rd) in which she had to figure out what to do with that extra arm :)

We took down our fathers day gifts.  Here is Sam with Papa.  The bowl has both girls handprints and says, "Hand off Papa's ice cream."  Nick also fixed up a broken ipod a friend gave him and we got a charger/stereo for when he works out and a car tape adapter for the trips to Lakeland.

We squeezed in a lot of fun in Atlanta.  We went to the zoo.  Thanks for meeting us Patty!

Sam loves to feed the birds.

There was lots of dress up.  Presenting Princess Sam and Prince Papa.

Uncle Terence came up to visit and play.

We met cousins for ice cream.  We also met friends another night.  And had playdates.

We were talking about how sleeping well and eating well gives you good muscles.  Sam was showing hers off.

We ran in the sprinkler.

We celebrated the 4th of July!

Zoey's favorite pastime right now.

More to come soon.  Love the really southern kellings.

4 months and moving on

We are in the home stretch.  Still sorting, packing and all.  But also trying to squeeze in some fun.  We made a run out to the Clay Center, a kids museum in Charleston, with one of our colleagues and her sons.  The kids had a great time.

I think this push pegboard type thing was the biggest hit.

I remember Sam wearing these pajamas.  So cute!

 Sam wanted in on the picture taking and this was a clear case of only one kid cooperating at a time.   Zoey smiled.

And Sam smiled.

Here is Zoey's 4 month shot with the panda.

And a close up.

Zoey went in to the doctor this week.  She is about 25 or 25.5 inches long (basically between 50th and 75th percentile) and 14 pounds 5 ounces (exactly the same as Sam at her age, again 50th-75th).  Everything checked out great.  Zoey is very alert, rolls back to tummy but not yet tummy to back (her arm just gets in the way and she tries so hard to crawl), she makes little sounds (mostly "Ahhhhhhh", sometimes singing), so basically she is great developmentally.  Hopefully she will put together rolling the other way soon.  But for now she likes sleeping on her tummy so we gave up rolling her over.  She is napping better and tends to sleep pretty well for her age.  She is a generally happy baby and has been such a wonderful addition to our family.  Samantha still loves being a big sister.  She is a big help and loves to entertain Zoey who loves to watch her.

Hopefully both will adjust well to the big changes of the next few weeks.  This is most likely my last WV post as we will be crazy busy, lose internet, and then head to Atlanta.  Nick will head on to FL to paint and meet our stuff and my parents will drive me and the girls down a few days later.  So my last post from Wild and Wonderful WV.  We leave here having gained a lot.  We made wonderful and I believe lifelong friends.  We have learned a lot here about being professors and how we want the classroom to be managed.  And of course we have a WV native that may not have been born if life had gone differently.  So odd to think she will not even have a chance of remembering her time here and Sam will probably not remember much if at all.  Sam will be moving to her third state in her short life.  Time to put down some roots!

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.  ~Anatole France

Happy Fathers Day!

We are in the main part of getting ready to move.  It is a bit insane, but with them moving us, we are doing pretty well.  We are still trying to squeeze in a lot of fun.

We had our Mother's Club picnic recently.  Sam had a great time and ran like crazy.

 Zoey has been in the exersaucer more.  Sam loves to play with her.

Zoey loves her big sister.  She loves to track her.

Nick and Sam went to a daddy daughter date night at chick-fil-A.  She was most excited about the Princess cow.

She also loved her kids meal toy.  It was nice, they even had table service.

We went bowling with friends and Sam "bowled" a strike.

And we had a nice fathers day.  Here is Nick with the girls and the mug we made for him.  It says, "Best Daddy Hands Down" and has their hand prints on it.  That was a challenge with Zoey.

Sam had fun today with regular and glitter glue.

She has been playing really well lately.  I thought this was cute.

Here she is dancing at cosmic bowling.

Tooty-ta

Here is another shortened video clip from Sam's end of the year celebration.  They are singing a song called Tooty-ta.  She is always up for singing and dancing.  She even makes up her own songs now.

Wild and Wonderful Ohio!

So the state motto for WV is Wild and Wonderful.  We always joke that we see the wild and are searching for the wonderful.  One sad thing about WV though is that it has no zoo.  But there is a preserve type place in Ohio.  It was supposed to be only 3 hours away.  It took 4 to get there, even packing sandwiches.  Unfortunately, Zoey cannot nurse while we travel along.  And it took a full 3 hours to tour The Wilds.  But I am glad we squeezed it in before the move.  We had wanted to go in the fall and just missed going because I had a cold and then they shut down for the season.  It was nice, but nothing compared to San Diego's Wild Animal Park or Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Here are assorted pictures.  Props to Nick for taking them from the bus while I wore Zoey.

A baby tonkin.

 Camel.

 There were a bunch of cute baby cheetahs.

A dhole, or a wild dog.

Some giraffe.

A rhino that walked right by the bus.

Baby rhino cuteness.

Tonkin.

Zebra, the male was named Elvis :)

We pretty much had the bus to ourselves the whole time.  It was the perfect day to go, not too hot and not at all crowded.

The drive home was  very long, Zoey was fussy and Sam did not nap.  But we made it and can now say we have been to The Wilds.

Zoey is doing well.  She really likes to roll from back to tummy now, she gets almost no back time and even sleeps on her tummy.  If we roll her to her back, she flips right back over.  She is napping better, so life is a little more normal.  Although she was up a lot last night.

Sam is enjoying all the fun we are packing in.  Riding her mini big wheel in ritter park, mom's club picnic, and Nick took her to a free movie today.

Huntington fun!

Life is a bit crazy with packing and we keep losing power, first from a storm and then a scheduled outage to fix the problem.  Ugh.

We took Sam jumping again recently.  She had a blast.

We tried Zoey in the exersaucer.  She liked it for about 7 minutes.  She can reach the bottom but not really stay upright.  She did love the mirror :)  She really smiles at her reflection now.

I planted lilies after we moved in and I was not sure if they would come back, but they did and are beautiful.

A close up.

Sam tracking Zoey.

Zoey has found her feet.  She loves to grab them.  Her onesie says "My Auntie is Awesome."  It is from my aunt Eunice, her great aunt.  Good thing she was a girl :)

Sam wanted in on the picture action.

A few cute Sam stories...

The other day she was drawing.  She drew a U shape and said, look A U.  She then connected the top.  I expected her to say, look a rectangle, but instead she said, look a pillow.

I was explaining how Zoey has to learn her name is Zoey, she does not know it yet.  And I said, just like you had to learn your name is Samantha.  And she replied, "Just like you had to learn your name is Mama."  Clever girl.  I tried to explain she made me a Mama and she does know my other name, but not sure that sank in.

And the other day in the car she said "[shoo]" and I asked shoe like on your foot or shoo like shoo fly.  And she said "Pshew, like its hot in here."

Zoey is doing well.  She maxed out the bassinet and seemed to really want more space, so we put her in the pack and play to avoid setting up the crib for 3 weeks.  She adjusted pretty well.  She now sleeps on her side a lot.  Lats night when I went to bed she was completely perpendicular to how I had placed her.  She also rolled back to tummy 3 times, which I would not mind except she cannot roll back and gets mad about her predicament  so I have to roll her back.  Hopefully she will complete the learning to roll process soon.  That arm just gets in the way.  She even tries so hard sometimes she ends up with her bottom in the air turned, but she just cannot get past that arm.

3 months and 40 months!

We have been having lots of fun lately.  We have been trying to enjoy ourselves around all the rain.  On Monday, we went to a minor league baseball game in Charleston, WV with friends.  They are the Charleston Power.  It was fun, but VERY hot.  I had to take Zoey inside to keep her from overheating.  Then Nick and Sam joined us and I took Sam back out for more fun.

She wanted to meet the mascot.

Pregame sunscreen with her cubs hat.  She insisted on wearing a long sleeve dress but later changed into the t-shirt and shorts I brought.

My attempt at a self-portrait while wearing Zoey.

Sam drinking watered down tea to cool off.

Zoey likes the swing a bit better now.

Sam made this onesie in her sibling class by my doula.  A very decorated Zoey :)

The Son of a friend I went to Jr High with that lives in Michigan is doing a project on Flat Stanley.  He came to visit us and we took pictures.  Here he is in the shopping cart.

  

And just hanging out.

Zoey is now 3 months.  Here is her panda picture in the same outfit as her 2 month one, not planned though.

Sam wanted a 40 month shot by herself and jumped up and down.

The girls together.