Thanksgiving

We went out to California for Thanksgiving with some of Nick's family. It was a whirl wind, including yesterday's 11 hours of traveling during which Sam slept only 20 minutes, beginning 5 minutes before we landed in Cincinnati. Here are some photo highlights of our trip, although I was too busy chasing Sam around to take many pictures.

Robyn's parents were there to watch Luke and Isabelle while she worked. They stayed through Thanksgiving. Their dog, pictured here, is named Sammy. Got a little confusing when someone yelled "Sammy, no", Samantha would be like what did I do.

Samantha had a great time playing with Isabelle's toys which Isabelle was great about sharing. Although the concept of not hers was not fully formed.


Luke is quite strong. Here is a little tummy time.

Hugs for Uncle Terence.

On the way out from Huntington to Cincinnati the pilot let her go up front for a picture, but she was not having it.

Happy Almost Thanksgiving!

A lot has been going on, so here are a few highlights.

Here is Sam waiting for her first concert, The Imagination Movers! She had a blast for the first bit and then wanted a snack.

Here she is eating a gogurt, gotta love blue yougurt mustache.

Here she is pushing her tricycle.

Here she is actually riding it.

This is from the top of her new box house (see video clip below).

Sam keeps entertaining us. She loves to sing. Here she is playing the guitar and singing.

Nick got an early Christmas present of a large tool storage drawer thing. So Nick made it into a new cardboard house out of it. We told Sam she had a surprise and here she is seeing it. Nice that even in this economy some people are upsizing :) She loves it.

More leaves

Here is a picture of Sam in a shirt given to her by the Klers who were neighbors on much loved Mount Royal. The blue really makes her eyes pop!

We had a cake for my dad when he was here as an early birthday. Sam was eating a bit that was leftover. we let her feed herself and this is what happened.

Nick raked up our leaves into a pile and we went out to play in them. Sam loves jumping in the piles. Notice the ND jacket.

Happy Fall everyone!

Finally caught it!

So Sam had a little fever and some congestion this past weekend and we had to skip some of our planned activities. It never went too high and may have been related to her two new canine teeth. But she does have a slight lingering cough, so we have played it safe given swine flu and such. I hated to miss Jr. Spook :( But she did get to wear her costume a lot, I think it came out to like $2.50 a wear.

Heere are the Halloween related shots. Here she is in cute pumpkin jammies from Grammy.

Here we are right before trick or treating. She had a great time. We went by a friends house to hang out a bit, but she did not want to skip any houses that might give her candy. We got home and she got to have a tiny herseys bar and a small pack of m&m's. A first for both of these, although pumpkin candies and tootsie rolls have been a regular as rewards for using the potty.

This is a shot from Nick's phone when we were in toys r us.

And another.

This is a shot from my phone when we were in a mall for a kids sale. She loves sitting on these things, but is not a big fan when they move, which I do not mind since it is better in the budget :)

I also remebered the other funny word she said. For a long time whenever she saw an elevator she would say, "'Gator!" But now she can say elevator.

And the grand finale. Sam has been counting to 10 and can almost say her ABC's. Of course she will never do it for the camera, but I finally caught some ABC saying. Of course she said it perfectly right before I grabbed the camera and then not as well, but she still gets close.

Autumn leaves are falling down...

We had a fun filled week with Nana and Papa here. Nick came back on Thursday as well. Nana and Papa had to leave yesterday, so we will miss them. But this week is packed with Halloween events. I think we will set a record for wear your costume events. We did one a couple of weeks ago at the book store. This week she is to wear her costume at music class, story time at the library, to an event at Marshall, Thursday night for a "safer" beggars night, snd then on Saturday to a special Jr. Spook at the art museum. I think that covers all of them.

Samantha still continues to amaze and delight us. She now can count to 10+ and gets really close at saying the ABC's. She also likes to sing a lot, which is pretty darn funny!

She is funny about how she says a few words. When I was a kid, I could not say smoke, I would say fonk, even if I was helped to say sss, I would say sss-fonk. Sam has a few of those. One is pool, she always says we are going to the cool. I cannot remeber the other common word she says funny. One she used to do was say 'tar for guitar but she says guitar now. And she still has her Boston accent, saying park, car, and such like she is from Boston.

And a really funny story. My dad was helping with bath time and the bottle of soap fell in. He said, "Oops, sorry." And she said, "That's okay papa. Knock yourself out." I know she got that from Nick, but it was too cute.

Here she is being Miss Hollywood.

We took her to the park yesterday and when we were leaving she walked right over and grabbed this and started hanging there with her feet off the ground. We thought my dad might have taught her on their park outings, but he said he did not. Guess she saw big kids doing it and decided it looked fun.

Being silly.

It is not all fun and games. Here she is in a time out, crying crocodile tears. Being a toddler sure is hard.

She loved my dad's watch so much that they bought her one at dollar tree. Here she is showing it off while watching football next to papa.

Another new toy from nana and papa is this awesome grocery cart made by Melissa and Doug. Sam loves it. She pushes it around full of stuff. It even has a seat for her dolls. She has wanted one ever since we went over to a friends and she had one. It is so cute.

Here she is with the pottery piece (actually a soap dish but we thought it could be a spoon rest) she painted. Nick taped a stencil on it and she went wild. Then we peeled it off and it stayed like a cupcake. So much fun. Sam is an expert. She made a mug for Nick for Father's day and has been a few times.

Here she is waiting on the cart to be assembled.

Miss Hollywood cooking pretend chips.

Miss Hollywood with the Halloween bears after swimming class.

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.