The firsts roll in...

So many big things to report in the lives of our girls.  Sam is doing well at school.  She seems to like the activities.  They had to make a star about themselves to share.  Due to printer issues and my not being willing to keep her up way past bedtime, I had to make the star (I know, already doing her homework for her :)  But she did decorate it with stickers the next morning.  

Here is a picture from Zoey's official half birthday.  I cannot believe 6 months have already passed since she entered our lives.  What a blessing!  Sam's school has color theme days right now and the day was blue day, so she chose this shirt and wanted Zoey to match.  Zoey seemed okay with her "you are my sunshine" onesie. She also seems to have read a book on what babies tend to do around 6 months, because she had started changing so quickly.  The first big one is that she erupted her bottom 2 incisors, which tend to come in between 4-7 months.  Sam was a late teether (not getting teeth until after 8 months, http://southernkellings.blogspot.com/2008/10/incisor-emerges.html) and Zoey already drooled so much that I would check periodically, but I was a bit surprised to feel 2 when there seemed to be a bit more drool.  She also seems to have some others just below the surface.  But she continues to be a pretty happy baby.

Her official 6 month panda pictures.  We will also have some done by a professional photographer if the weather ever cooperates.

Sam and Zoey in front of the panda.

And Zoey must have read that 6 months old is when babies sit up because within a couple of days she went from able to sit for a few seconds before toppling to being able to sit up by herself and stay that way unless bumped or reaching too far while distracted.  It was an amazingly fast change.

With Samantha, if people said "What a cute baby, what's his name" I would sometimes just say Sam to avoid embarrassing them if she was wearing pink or a long explanation if she had a gender neutral outfit.  With Zoey, I do not want to say Joey (which she actually was listed as for our neighborhood newsletter for a bit), so I bought her a hairbow.

And with 6 months came her introduction to "solids".  We started with oatmeal.  She loves it, leaning towards it and trying to eat it.  A lot still runs out, but she gets a fair amount.  Sam wanted to help feed her as well.

A video of her first reactions.

She really loves water.  Of course, most of that does roll right our of her mouth.  But she got mad when I took it away to try and feed her.

A video of water "drinking".

And since she sits so well, I thought she deserved a bath in the actual tub.  She had a great time.  She does love to splash and reach for toys.

After church today, we told Sam to change out of her dress.  This is what she selected.  Nick says she is trying to complete the mini me look by bringing back the 80's.  :)  It is probably something I would have worn.

A video of my 6 month old sitting.  She has changed so much, it is amazing.  What an amazing girl.  I sense that she may be a bit competitive, she already is flying by some of Sam's early milestones and really loves to watch Sam.  I imagine she will walk early and be right behind her big sister.  Watch out world, Zoey will be mobile soon.  She can already get all around a room by rolling and inchworming, basically getting up on all fours and flopping forward.  She can also crawl backwards.  And she has figured out one or two forward strides here and there.  I bet she will crawl really soon.

New skills

Sam did great at swimming this week.  We are so proud.  She went from hating to even putting her face into the water to being able to jump in and get to the wall.  It is still a bicycle kick and little use of the arms, but with some work, she will become less mechanical and more natural about it.

Zoey has also been learning.  She is getting better at sitting up, able to do so for a little bit before falling over. She also played the little piano recently.  She really enjoyed it.

She is also precrawling, getting up on all fours and rocking.  She can go backwards a bit and travel all over a room by rolling or getting on all fours and flopping down.  I cannot believe she is this close to mobile at not even 6 months!

A distance shot so you can see her room, too.

And a closer shot.

Speaking of new, I finally got my car!  Not a great picture yet, but her she is.  She will be called Ellie since she is an Elantra.  I am enjoying having a car and this one is wonderful.  Navigation, back up camera, proximity key; all the bells and whistles.

We ended up buying the car in Tampa, so we went to the zoo after signing the papers.

Here is Zoey at the Zoo.

Sam with the new Ariel doll she got for learning to swim.  But our pool ran out of chlorine and got a little bit of algae, so Ariel has not been swimming yet.

We paid to feed the giraffe and on the menu today was lettuce.

 Sam also rode her first kiddie ride.  She liked it despite the look she has here.

And her first kiddie coaster.  She loved it!

My preschooler

First, the totally random.  We have decorative glass front doors and they make rainbows.  Here are attempts at showcasing them.  First I did my foot.

Nick tried a closer one of Zoey's, but the flash kind of washed it out.

And here is Sam's hand.  The light was fading fast!

Nick made it back with the truck.  Sam, of course, had to pretend to drive it.  Nick had some very long days; flying and loading, driving and unloading our stuff, and then being fingerprinted, going to swimming class for Sam, meetings and unloading the rest into storage on the third day.  I met him at storage and helped some, but I had to stay near the car.  So I just helped him tip things onto the furniture dolly and opened the door.  He had to do a lot himself.  Poor Zoey cried almost the whole time I helped.  Sam enjoyed pretending to drive the car.

Sam has been like a different kid lately.  I think she has moved past some of the issues from moving/Zoey/being 3, etc.  She is much more pleasant with a lot less annoyance.  She has been doing amazing and wonderful things.  She cried some about swimming, but really challenged herself and has made huge strides each day.  Today was her third day and she is already working on form and such.  She could doggie paddle with her head under to the bar/step by the first day and really well by the second day.  She still does not use her arms too much.  But I am so impressed and proud.

One of the things that my mom sent with Nick was an old tape from my teaching practicum class.  I did not want it, so I decided to let Sam practice cutting with it.  It made a HUGE mess, but she had a great time and worked on coordination.  Here she is with a portion of the mess.  She was great about helping to clean it up, too.

Our family portrait.

And besides being her third day of swimming, today was her first day at Resurrection Preschool.  I actually had to pick her up a bit early for swimming.  Yesterday was a quick 10 minute see the room, meet the lead teacher and drop off supplies.  Today we had to get up super early.  Nick had to be at USF Poly at 6:45 for a new faculty retreat.  I even had to wake up Sam as she has been sleeping in until 7/7:30 lately.  She was so funny saying, "But I'm still tired."  I felt like saying tell me about it kid since she often wakes us up super early given that 7 is sleeping in :)  After we dropped Nick off we came back home for breakfast and pictures before heading to school.

Her first one was a jumping one, silly girl.

Then a real picture.

For Resurrection, we drive up for drop off and pick up (after today), so Sam has to carry her own tote bag.  We have to send in a snack for her everyday, so I got her a mini spiderman snack box.  We also have to send or buy lunch.  And the days have themes often, so we have to dress special or take something along with the theme.  So much work!  I am glad she only goes 2 days a week.

I parked and walked her over today.  Here she is on the playground.  She has 20 kids in her class, including a Zoe and Sammy.

Sam did so well at school.  She cried briefly when I left, but was done by the time I got to the door and was much better than a lot of the kids.  She was even upset that I had to take her early since she did not get to paint.  She told me some of what she did; play outside two times, eat snack, dance, and draw.  She seems to have had a great day.  I am so proud and so relieved!  She also did well at swimming despite a little protest.  Here she is with her first day of school present.

What a big girl!  I heard a really good quote the other day by Gretchen Rubin; "The days are long, but the years are short."  I am definitely feeling that one.  Here are a couple more:


While we try to teach our children all about life,
Our children teach us what life is all about.
~Angela Schwindt



I brought children into this dark world because it needed the light that only a child can bring.  ~Liz Armbruster

Mother of the year, I am not

We have stayed really busy lately, which will include the stories of why I will not be up for mother of the year.  For starters, patience is not one of my strengths, but I try.  I was, after all, born a Swilley :) The stress of moving and such does not help.  But that is not the main reason for the title of the blog.  But first, some other pictures.

We (the girls) all got hats recently and wore them on a walk.  I put Zoey's on after putting her in the carrier and Nick neglected to notice her face was covered.  It does not help that she likes to chew on the hat straps (along with anything else she can get in her mouth).

 Look, there is a baby in there :)

Zoey is a perpetual motion machine.  She does not like to sit still, she really wiggles when you hold her and can move like an inchworm or via rolling when on the floor.  And she grabs everything.  But she also does not like to be left in the jumparoo or exersaucer long, so that makes meal times rough.  Either I have to listen to her cry or try and eat with one hand while trying to prevent disasters.  The other day we went to Baskin Robbins with our new moms club and I was trying to clean Sam's hands.  In the 2 seconds I was leaning, Zoey grabbed my Sundae and threw it to the floor.  I had only has 3 bites :(  But, she is a sweetie and a constant flirt, even if she is a challenge to keep happy at times.  She just loves attention and we, ok I, may have spoiled her a bit.

I could not pick which of these was cuter, so I posted both.

She does jumparoo some, but much more limited than Sam did.  And often will end up crying and jumping unless you sit right with her.

Sam wrote foot all on her own with the example in the corner.

Now on to the sad stories.  We went to a club even that involved cooking pancakes.  Another mom took Zoey so I could help Sam.  She added her toppings to the cup of batter and I was putting the container down and she was pouring batter on a skillet in the back, she dipped her hand down too far and got a nasty burn on her wrist.  I felt awful.  She of course cried, and when I got her calmed down, tearfully proclaimed, "I will never cook again!"  You can see the evidence in the picture below, taken at one of our favorite restaurants, the red elephant.

That day was followed by a trip to the local splash park to make pizza box smores.  She proceeded to fall and cut her knee and later bumped her head.  I do not have pictures of that day, but we went back the next day and I snapped a few.

She did really enjoy the splash park, even with the injuries the first day.

Nick flew to Atlanta yesterday and is driving down a truck of some furniture my parents are giving us and some of their stuff to store.  So I have been on my own since we dropped him off in Orlando yesterday.  Last night I took Sam to McDonalds since she had been good.  After eating, I let her play.  I sat to see the big structure and did not move when she went to the toddler area.  She was playing and all of a sudden started sobbing, some bigger kid had punched her in the arm.  What a week she has had!  Hopefully we can go injury free for a bit.

More evidence below, look what we let her play with :)  This is the water gun we spray the dogs with when they bark.

Zoey jumping.

Sam spraying.

This week will be eventful as well.  Sam has swimming lessons this week.  We found a lady who says she can work with even difficult kids, and I think Sam will give her a run for her money since she hates getting her face wet and can be very dramatic.  Sam also starts school on Wednesday and is already talking about crying for a few days.  Wish us luck!

Another funny story from Sam.  The other day we were talking about what she would be when she grew up.  She said she wants to be a mommy.  I said you can be a mommy and something else and she said, just a mommy.  I said what are you going to go to college for, then.  She said, I am going to learn how to be a mommy.  I think the duh was implied in her tone :)  It used to be that she said she wanted to be a veterinarian.  Only the future will tell, but I do hope she goes to college.

Visitors and New neighbors!

We have stayed really busy lately.  So busy I have taken embarrassingly few pictures, even with grandparents visiting.

Nick parents were here last week.  His mom had a class in Orlando.  She came in early to stay with us a few days and stayed a little after as well.  His dad came for a few days at the end as well.  Poor Nick had a lot of driving to do, especially since we could not all fit in one car and we still only have one, so he had to shuttle us.  We are trying to buy a Hyundai Elantra for me and should get one in mid to late August, but it has been hard to come by what I want.  But we had a great time with his parents, even if the logistics were rough.


Sam got a lot of Grammy love!

So did Zoey!

On the day Nick took his mom back to Orlando, we had a mothers club tea party event on the north east side of town.  Nick dropped Sam and me off, got gas, drove back to our house and picked up his mom and Zoey, picked up Sam and me and drove us all to Orlando.  We dropped off his mom, ran by Ikea and Carters and then went home.  Poor Nick.  He deserves a treat! Sam had a lot of fun at the tea party.

Sam after a chocolate ice cream cone.

I bought Zoey some of the sunglasses with straps.  She was not sure at first, but I think she will adjust.  In a few weeks she will be old enough for sunscreen and some more outside time!

Another interesting thing that happened recently is that my phone fell out of my pocket and the screen broke.  We tried to see about changing and getting Nick a new phone, but I will spare you the long story and just say it would have cost an extra 10 per month.  So Nick was nice enough to replace the screen.  Quite an undertaking.  Not many days go by that I am not thankful I found him.  He treats me so well!

And in other news, my parents sold their house!  So they were down to house hunt.  They had actually made an offer on one in our neighborhood, but the owner was firm in a ridiculous price, so they came down to look at other options.  Their realtor, the same one we used, called on the way down and said the owner had come down some, but still far off reasonable based on comps.  My parents did find some good back ups, but in the end they worked out buying the one in our neighborhood.  They will be walking distance from us, which will be great.  We already have plans of how to schedule riding mower use!  And we really have built in babysitters.  I know it will make my life a lot easier since Nick will be so busy and hopefully I will one day have a full time job.  Could not imagine better neighbors.  We are so blessed in so many ways.  I am delighted my children have some amazing grandparents.

Papa is the best playmate!

Zoey has been laughing out load lately.  Of course, she toned it down when I got the camera, but here is a small sample.

And some quotes about grandparents:

Grandma always made you feel she had been waiting to see just you all day and now the day was complete.  ~Marcy DeMaree


Grandfathers are for loving and fixing things.  ~Author Unknown


A grandfather is someone with silver in his hair and gold in his heart.  ~Author Unknown


Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do.  Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children.  ~Alex Haley


A grandmother is a little bit parent, a little bit teacher, and a little bit best friend.  ~Author Unknown


Grandparents are similar to a piece of string - handy to have around and easily wrapped around the fingers of their grandchildren.  ~Author Unknown