I call it like I see it
Samantha crawls. She moves her hands and her knees together to move in one direction. 95% of the time it's backwards. On a rare occasion she'll go forward. She's not zooming around me in circles yet. I don't think I have too much more time until then however. Over the past few days she'll get much further from her starting point in shorter spans of time. From the time I got up to walk to the fridge and back to the floor to play she had gone from the coffee table to Brody's toys (o joy of joys). This week I'm going to analyze the situation here so we can move some things, ground some things - namely the shelf in the corner, remove and/or bundle all electric cords, and come up with a decent looking way to block the way to the back of the TV. Oh, and the main thing, find a magical way to help Samantha not be afraid of the vacuum. With her scooting off her blanket it's really important to begone of all the Brody hairs. I guess I or Adam can just do it every night before/after dinner so one of us is around to hold her. We'll see.
We made a family trip to the library this weekend. I'm not overly impressed with the kids section. I keep comparing it to the Riverside Library and while if I remember correctly it's not like it was perfect it was nicer than this. But she's still to young to care anyways and they're voting this week to expand the library anyhoo. Adam got a number of books and I checked out two total chick books. This was late morning Saturday. Sunday evening at 12:15 am I finished the first book. Apparently I have more me time than I thought.
The weather is crazy...why is it snowing in April!?!? But we made it out before it all started and went to lunch today with BT and Brie to finally have that celebratory. We put Samantha in the high chair at Texas Roadhouse. She did good for about 20 minutes then wanted to be held. I'll take it, you have to start somewhere!!
play time
Samantha is turning into one of those silly babies. You're all excited to break out some of her favorite toys and then all she's interested in is the box. One of my favorites to play with is the stacking toy Beth gave her for Christmas. Meet Kyle (it's a Kushie and I name most of her toys)
Up until about three weeks ago Samantha loved to play with all the parts, suck on Kyle's eyes, and have me squeeze the rings to make the different animal noises go off. However NOW Samantha is obsessed with the plastic cylinder that Kyle lives in. She gets mad at me if I move the lid or take the case away.
Today before one of her naps we were quieting down in her rocking chair and I dropped the picture book we were looking at. I bent over to get it and saw a pink bear that had fallen off the wall ledge. I propped the bear up on the arm of the chair to get book. I heard Samantha start laughing so I looked back at her and she was staring at the bear. I picked it up and wiggled it around and she laughed even harder. Actual laughs. Not just giggles. Later this afternoon we were playing on the floor. I was flying her and having her sit on my stomach. Brody was by the couch but started walking towards us. Samantha started laughing again. It was loud and long lived. I could have cried. She was just so happy at the smallest thing. It's simply amazing to watch how much she grows every single day. I am so lucky to be here with her.
Sleep Baby Sleep
One of Adam's coworkers loaned us Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. It's the book our pedi recommends for sleep training. I didn't want to buy it, but get it from the library. I just haven't gotten there yet, and Adam was talking with some people about Samantha's waking problems, and that's how we got the book! I'm going to try to brush up on it all by Friday so that we can try it Friday night. It's not getting any better and I just want to try it to see if it helps. It involves some crying, on Samantha's part and no doubt mine as well, so we'll see if it's something worth sticking with.
I think we have a pretty solid routine now, she just won't stay asleep. About 30-45 minutes after her last nap, Samantha and I go to her room for one more diaper change. Then we sit in her rocker and I read her a book, sometimes two depending on the length and her mood. After the book, prayers. Then I wrap her up, turn down all the lights, and start pacing, usually about 10 minutes. Most times she'll go down ok, but wake shortly after. One of us runs in and puts her paci in, and sometimes that works, sometimes not. But the beginning of it all...diaper change, book, prayers, I'm keeping no matter what.
Ha, Brody is part of this too. Most nights Adam will take Brody out one last time while I'm getting Sam ready. Normally I'm pacing when they come back in. Brody sprints up the stairs to our bedroom, if I'm not there, he'll fly down the hallway and butt his nose into the door and stop dead in his tracks when he sees me. He just wants to know where we are. It's cute.